Vickery's

Even without the snow, Christmas is a magical time of year here. It’s warm so people are out and about, enjoying the weather and their time off. These are some of my favorite things about Christmas in Charleston.

James Island County Park offers one of the best light displays in the country, called the Holiday Festival of Lights. They have a 3-mile loop set up with thousands of lights in the form of everything from a candle stick to replicas of the old and new bridge over the Cooper River. Cars line up and crawl bumper-to-bumper through the park to enjoy the lights, the music, the activities, shops, and a visit with Santa.

Speaking of lights, it seems like there are more houses with lights on here than anywhere else I’ve lived. The restaurants and businesses around town hang lights as well. There’s something special about a palm tree and Christmas lights. Last night we enjoyed the lights and palm trees on the deck at Vickery’s on Shem Creek.

Maybe it’s because I’m older or maybe it’s because there’s a bigger push nationally now than in the past, but Toys for Tots seems to play a larger part of Christmas here than other places I’ve lived. Nearly every school, store, and office is a collection site, and nearly every box is full.

And finally, one of my favorite things to do in the South this time of year is go to oyster roasts. Thankfully, oyster roasts continue on until April – but they start in the fall and they make a great Christmas party. The act of eating oysters provide a unique opportunity to gather and bond with complete strangers. It’s an event that pulls folks together like none other.

In these final days of the Christmas rush, Merry Christmas to you and yours. I hope you’ll get a few minutes to stop and reflect on what made 2011 a year you’ll never forget. Thank you for reading the words I write and for supporting my business. May you have the best year of your life in 2012.

I find that when people don’t know someone they trust who can provide a product or service they need, they are willing to work with someone based on transferred trust. Transferred trust is where you trust someone because someone you trust told you you could. It’s like having a friend give you the answer to the bonus question on your final test.

In a business like real estate there are opportunities to connect consumers with other business professionals every day. We recommend home inspectors, lenders, insurance providers, moving companies, storage companies, hotels, restaurants, and so on.

My clients, family, and friends are happy when I can make their problems go away by giving them a name and number to call. Once they’ve made the decision to use the information I’ve given them, they know they can sit back while their problem goes away.

I don’t recommend people I don’t trust or haven’t had a positive personal experience with, unless someone I trust has said it’s okay to do so. In the world we live in it’s so easy to get tangled up with the wrong people. Doing so can have a small impact on us, such as paying a few extra dollars we didn’t need to pay, or a huge impact, such as losing an opportunity to achieve our dreams.

Successful business people realize products don’t attract sales. Service does. If I recommend someone who fails to increase the trust between me and the person I told to call them, I stop recommending that person. For a list of my most trusted resources, please click here.

I can’t blame anyone for what happened but me. My client was a first-time home buyer who was doing her best to go with the flow. She had followed all the advice I gave her from the day we met all the way up to closing, which was today.

Last week I went over with her what to expect this week. I told her there would be a walk-thru with the builder, that there would be a re-walk with the builder, that she needed to contact her utility companies to establish services, and that I would be calling her to set a time to go over the settlement statement as soon as I received it from the attorney.

Several times this week I contacted the builder’s agent and the attorney to let them know I wanted to see the settlement statement and asked when they thought it would be available.

This morning I was still trying to chase it down.

I’ve never worked with this builder or this attorney before – and I don’t work this way. I make sure my buyers know how much money (if any) they’re bringing to closing and I make sure they know exactly what they’re signing before they ever sit at the closing table. Showing up blind at the closing table is a no-no.

At the re-walk an hour before closing I let my buyer know we were still in the dark on the settlement statement, and she said she’d been getting calls for the last day or so from people telling her she needed this much, no that much, no this much money for closing.

I was already upset I hadn’t seen the settlement statement one hour from closing. Now I find out everyone has seen it but me.

On the way from the walk-thru to the closing attorney’s office I called the closing attorney – again – to see why I still didn’t have a copy of the settlement statement. She said there had been changes to it since my phone call one hour earlier.

No wonder people think buying a house is stressful: NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!!!

When we got to the attorney’s office I got a copy of the settlement statement and sat down with my buyer to go over it with her privately. Sure enough, there were still mistakes that had to be corrected. Closing was delayed 30 minutes. The buyer’s stress level soared higher. This is not professional.

When everything had been signed and it was time for the buyer to hand over her check, the attorney refused to take it because it was a money order. Real Estate 101 says money orders are not accepted at the closing table.

Who had been calling my buyer for the past day and messing her up? How am I supposed to keep her straight when I don’t know someone else is giving her bad information?

From now on, my buyers will know right up front to HANG UP when someone other than me calls and tries to advise them on closing… and delete the e-mails! Today would have been a pleasant, enjoyable experience had I been allowed to do my job. Instead, my buyer spent three hours waiting around the attorney’s office, then the rest of the afternoon trying to get her money back from the money order she’d been told she could use at the closing table.

She never even went to her new house.

Don’t let your closing experience get sabotaged by people who don’t have the answers – even if it’s the attorney calling, your lender, or the builder – regardless of what they’ve said, call your REALTOR® to confirm. Everyone else means well, but she’s the only one who’s been with you from the beginning, who knows what you’re thinking, who knows where you are with things, who knows what you need to know, and who knows what you don’t need to know. She’s going to troubleshoot for you, find the mistakes, and FIX THEM so you have nothing to worry about but packing boxes.

The seller had no idea that without the stove in the house, our buyer audience would shrink from every buyer out there to a select few.

It’s typical in South Carolina for the buyer and seller to negotiate who get the fridge, washer, and dryer, but the rest of the appliances are considered “fixtures” and should stay with the house.

If a house doesn’t have a cooking source – such as a stove – it can be hard to get financing for it. VA buyers and FHA buyers will be excluded immediately, according to the lenders I work with. Conventional financing may be an option, however the number of buyers who can afford the larger down payment of 5% or more is smaller than the number using government loans.

Not only does the stove have to be in the house, it has to work. Dishwashers, on the other hand, don’t have to be in the house and don’t have to work – but if it’s in the house and doesn’t work, the seller needs to let the buyer know up front. Same with built-in microwaves – they’re not required, but if the house has one, the buyer needs to know up front if it doesn’t work.

With short sales and foreclosures making up such a large part of the market, it’s not uncommon to see houses that have been completely stripped of light fixtures, fans, faucets, etc. A house might be in very good condition aside from these missing items, and the buyer may be happy to buy the house without these items, but the minimum property standards for FHA and VA as well do not allow open or exposed wiring. Here again, the pool of “able” buyers shrinks because of a detail that may seem insignificant to the buyer or seller.

One last item that has come up is the water heater. Yes, I’ve had sellers who wanted to take the water heater with them. This is another no-no. If the buyer is not using cash to buy the house, chances are good that mortgage loan guidelines will require the house to have a working water heater.

Having said all this, you should know there is a loan out there to help buyers who need financing on houses that need work. It is called an FHA 203(k) loan and requires a little more legwork but it’s a great tool for the right buyer.

If you’re selling your house, make a note to talk with your listing agent about which appliances are expected to stay and which ones are negotiable. It will help you plan your move if you know what’s expected and required to stay with the house. The rest of the items are considered personal property and can be used as incentives for your buyer.

Last Thursday I had a perfect day at work. I couldn’t have imagined a better scenario. I have to share it with you.

One of my vacant listings with an out-of-town seller needed repair. The seller asked me in our weekly phone call if I would mind driving by to see that the repairs had been done. When I pulled up to the house there was a car in the driveway. I was trying to figure out whose car it was and why it was there when I noticed the lockbox was open and realized an agent was showing the house.

I got out of the car and walked into the yard. The agent came out of the house with his clients in tow. We’d met before, so I stuck my hand out and said hello. I started telling him about the repairs that had just been done on the house and let him know the seller was looking forward to getting the house sold.

This is when I experienced the Best Day in Real Estate: The agent handed me a CASH offer to purchase the house!

Eight days later, we are closing on that house. The really crazy thing is that the seller had considered taking the house off the market just 12 days ago. This just goes to show – it only takes one buyer to sell a house, and you never know when that buyer will show up!

Over time, men started taking over the garage. If the garage was big enough, they would build a workbench inside it, turn it into a weight room, set up a pool table, and/or display their trophies and deer heads there. Women would “let” their husbands have the garage; the house was their domain.

When the boys who grew up playing video games became men, they started looking to claim a space inside the home. Many grew up playing their games in a bonus room, or Finished Room Over the Garage (called FROG in the South), naturally they started looking for FROGs in the homes they were buying. They would refer to this room as the “man cave,” with visions of comfort and solitude dancing in their heads.

Today those men have kids who also play video games, and systems like Wii and PlayStation Kinect have reunited the family. Now that families are enjoying indoor recreation together, FROGs with their sloping ceilings are not always big enough to accommodate the equipment or the number of family members and friends using the room. Solution: the Media Room.

More and more buyers are valuing this media room over other more traditional rooms, such as the formal living room and formal dining room. Some families are more interested in this room than the kitchen!

Builders responded to this demand at first by offering lofts in their floor plans. It was common to see three or four bedrooms upstairs plus an open area where families could set up a computer station and/or gaming system and television. As those families have aged and the systems have gotten more sophisticated, they have found it necessary to have a door to keep the sound from escaping the space.

The media room is fast becoming first on the list of needs for home buyers. We are starting to see more builders offer this room or an option for it in their floor plans. If you’re thinking of selling your home, consider creating a space like this in your home when you prepare it for the market. Show your buyers where they can spend time together as a family watching movies and playing electronic game systems.

Are you looking for a media room in your next home?

This chart shows my own personal sales record by month over the past four years.

Note that while the summer months have a few more sales than the winter months, sales in the winter do exist.

It’s around this time of year (August/September) that I get calls from potential sellers asking if they should bother listing the house since school has started and the holidays are just around the corner. They wonder: Who buys houses in the winter? Answer: People who need a place to live.

There are a couple definite advantages to marketing your home during the fall and winter months.

1. The buyers are more serious. The  “tire kickers” come out in the warmer months. People who are thinking about buying are out looking. In the winter, however, people look at real estate when they have decided to move. Logically, then, it makes sense that when a buyer comes to see your house in the winter months you have a better chance of getting an offer from that buyer.
2. There’s less competition. As I stated in the first sentence of this post, it seems the majority of people believe their chances of selling go down in the fall and winter, so they don’t even try. Inventory starts to decline in the fall and then drops off through December and January. Fewer listings on the market puts you in a position to capture your buyer.

In the spring we see market activity pick up again both with buyers and sellers, so the cycle starts over: you have buyers looking who aren’t serious and you have sellers selling who waited out the winter so they would have more buyers. It’s sort of silly.

The reality is that there are people with reasons for moving all year around (marriage, divorce, new baby, graduation, promotion, transfer, etc). If you’re ready to sell your house, you just need to go for it!

But I haven’t let it discourage me. Every now and then I stumble on a topic people really want to know about, such as Stimulus Package Helps Home Owners Too (3/09; 1,681 views), or FHA Nehemiah Program Offers Downpayment Assistance (5/08; 1163 views).

Early on I discovered readers are not so much interested in the houses themselves; they are looking for a way to get the house they want. There are also some who consult blog articles for advice when they aren’t sure whether or not to trust what their real estate agent is saying.

Hopefully I’ve said something over these years and with these 145 posts that has helped someone save money, hire the right agent, negotiate a deal, or avoid something bad. Thank you to everyone who’s been along for the ride, and keep those seat belts fastened, because we’re not done yet!

Stephanie, we ended up not looking at this home. Buyers don’t want to be in a neighborhood with HOA where they have to pay the fee and are so restricted.

Surprising? Not really. Lately I’m hearing the same thing from the buyers I’m working with.

Whether they’ve had a firsthand negative experience with a neighborhood HOA (Home Owner’s Association) or they’ve heard horror stories at work and from friends, HOAs are fast becoming the least desirable “feature” for today’s home buyers. What once seemed like a good idea to prevent “eye sores” from cropping up in the neighborhood has become a pestering bureaucracy that keeps people from enjoying home ownership.

HOAs have a tendency to transform would-be neighbor-friends into tattle tellers. Rules are enforced by someone the organization designates to ride through the neighborhood looking for infractions (who wants that job?), or neighbors report each other for breaking the rules. Doesn’t sound very friendly, does it?

Because of the way the system works, some home owners say there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to who gets fined. Houses full of tenants might get overlooked as the grass grows out of control and the garbage can sits for days on the side of the road, while owner-occupied properties receive letter after letter that demand they power wash their home, remove a parked car from the street, or change the color of their window coverings.

Maybe the HOAs target owner-occupants because they think they have a better chance of collecting the fines they send out? It’s possible, but if an HOA fines a home owner for an infraction and the fine is not paid, the HOA can – and often does – place a lien on the property, which means the owner can’t sell the property without paying the fine. The HOA knows they may not get their money today, but they’ll get it eventually.

The original purpose of HOAs was to preserve property values; however if what I’m hearing continues the way it’s going, I’m predicting they will start to have the opposite affect. Which do you prefer? HOA or no?

In Goose Creek, “luxury” is a relative term, but for this post we’ll define it as homes priced over $500,000. Two homes have sold in Goose Creek above $500,000 since 2007: 134 Welchman in 2009 for $519,900 at $131/s.f., and 103 Meridian in April of this year for $585,000 at $125/s.f.

Let’s take a look at the three Goose Creek luxury homes looking for new owners right now.

664 Hamlet Circle, Crowfield Plantation, $550,000
Features 6 bedrooms and 4 baths in 5160 square feet on 0.62 acres. From the MLS listing:

Exquisite, six bedroom, four bath, one of a kind, custom built, three story home. …the original owner was a trim specialist so the home reflects his fine workmanship. … The private balcony off the master is great for sun bathing or looking for wildlife just beyond the fence. There is an office on the first floor, a personal gym off the garage, a craft room, game room, sun room, and storage room.

125 Welchman Avenue, Crowfield Plantation, $789,900
Features 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms with 2 half bathrooms, in 5980 square feet on 0.48 acres. Details from MLS:

125 Welchman Avenue

…ALL BRICK Executive Home … Main foyer is 20 ft high with stepped ceiling… custom made curved stair case … Owner’s suite is on the first floor and is well over 1000 sq. ft with outside access as well as a beautiful fire place, walk in closet, and home office. … Home is smart wired. There is a second massive Master Bedroom upstairs with a walk in closet larger than most bedrooms complete with an extraordinary master bath… The kitchen has natural quartz counter tops with high end appliances and 2 ovens as well as 2 microwaves. Home also features 4 – car garage. Finished room over garage is huge with full bath and 2 entrances plus walk in closet and storage (call it a 3rd master suite). There are 3 separate HVAC units that are all top of the line energy efficient. There are 3 separate gas hot waters heaters. … beautiful screened porch with hot tub. … custom in-ground salt water swimming pool.

300 Medway Road, Medway Plantation, $15M
The ultimate in Goose Creek luxury real estate, this is a plantation located just outside Goose Creek on the opposite side of town from Crowfield. My guess is that it will eventually be purchased by a land developer and made into a subdivision called “Medway Plantation.” The MLS has this fantastic description of the one-of-a-kind property:

Medway Plantation

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Medway Plantation is rich in history and offers a unique and elegant lifestyle. Dating to 1686, the main house is the oldest masonry structure in South Carolina. It was rebuilt in 1704, had substantial additions made in 1855, and was completely renovated in 1929. Surrounded by approximately 6,728 lush acres that are protected by easements for traditional land uses, this magnificent home includes an impressive array of superior amenities. … a living room graced with 10-foot ceilings, heart-pine flooring … cypress-paneled walls … commercial-grade kitchen … master suite boasts a fireplace. Other highlights include four guest houses, three staff houses, indoor and outdoor pools, a boat landing, a lakefront lodge, a 12-stall horse stable, a greenhouse, a double avenue of oaks, and traditional formal gardens. Located on the Back River near Charleston, the property also features 13 lakes and impoundments for recreational fishing and hunting.

For more information on Goose Creek luxury real estate, please call me at 843-870-0890.