Seller’s Market in Charleston, SC?
By most accounts Charleston, South Carolina has been the one glimmer of hope throughout the country in the housing sector. We have been on top of the housing recovery almost from the start. If you live here then you are not surprised by this. The area’s most populous county accounted for 502 homes sold, 57 percent of all homes that changed hands last month within the three counties, according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors’ monthly home sales report released Wednesday.
Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties combined for 876 sales in September, 13 percent more than the same month a year ago.
Seller’s Market in Charleston
The association’s monthly reports have been showing encouraging residential real estate trends since the fall of 2011. Sales have been rising, inventories have been falling and the uptick in median sales price suggests that broader real estate values are starting to rise.
The Charleston area sold 7,879 homes through September, a nearly 11 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago. The median sale price also has risen to $190,000, up from $179,850 a year ago, according to the association.
Charleston County also is leading the charge in slimming the average number of days a property sits on the market before being sold, bringing it to some of the shortest spans since before the last recession. All three counties averaged house listings before sold in 100 days or less on average. In Charleston the average was 87 days.
Charleston SC home builders even have reason to be excited as national new homes at an annual rate of 750,000, up 29.1% compared with a year earlier. They applied to build another 803,000 new homes on an annual basis, a 24.5% jump compared with August 2011.
Charleston SC Home Builder’s Happier
Home builders have become increasingly bullish — a confidence index from the National Association of Home Builders reached its highest level since June 2006.
Excerpts by the Post and Courier used:
Cheaper to Own House then Rent
Buying a house in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, or even Daniel Island is now cheaper then renting according to a new report from the real estate website Trulia. In virtually every U.S. city it’s better to buy a house then to rent.
“Despite the recent home rebound, rents continue to rise faster then do home prices, and mortgage rates are at record lows,” said J. Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, in a news release by The Daily.
On average, buying is now 45% cheaper then renting in the 100 largest U.S. cities – a savings of almost $800 a month. With more and more home owners having to leave their homes due to job loss, and a poor economy forces those same people to rent thus increasing the demand for rental properties forcing rent costs upward. Furthermore, mortgage lending is still very tight and less people are qualified to purchase.
These factors result in an almost 5% surge in rental rates in the past year and a glut of 30 yr mortgages around 3.5 percent. Trulia looked at the average age price of all homes for sale and the average rent of all homes for lease between the beginning of June and the end of Aug. It spread its search from the inner cities to the suburbs. Trulia also baked in various expenses like closing costs, maintenance, renter’s insurance, and taxes.
After the analysis was completed in the winter, it was better to buy in 98 of the top 100 markets including Charleston, South Carolina’s. Purchase mortgage rates have dropped while rents have increased. The study however, is built on some big assumptions, primarily that the hypothetical buyer puts down 20% and qualifies for a great mortgage AND doesn’t sell for 7 years.
With that said, even in a case where the homeowner got just a 4.5% mortgage and only stayed in the home for 5 years, the result was still almost the same. It was cheaper to buy in 96 markets.
Nevertheless, some 6 million properties remain close to foreclosure, and most potential buyers still find it difficult to save up the 20% for down payment. Although there are still loans that only require 3.5% down.
Pricing Home in Charleston to Sell
A first-quarter survey of home buyers and sellers done by HomeGain.com, a real estate services website, revealed that 76 percent of homeowners believe their home is worth more than the list price recommended by their real estate agent. To See Charleston SC First Quarter Sales –
Home buyers usually have a better grasp of current market value in the area where they’re looking to buy than do sellers who own and live there. Buyers look at a lot of new listings. They make offers, know what sells quickly and for how much, and what doesn’t and why. HomeGain reported that homebuyers still think sellers are overpricing their homes.
* Your home is worth what a buyer will pay for it given current market conditions.
This may not be the same as your opinion of what your home will sell for, or what you hope it’s worth. Relying on emotion rather than logic when selecting a list price can lead to disappointing results.
The prime opportunity for selling a home is when it’s new on the market. This is when it is most marketable. Buyers wait for the new listings. Usually, listings receive the most showings and have the busiest open houses during the first couple of weeks they are on the market.
By: Inman News
Housing Market Still Little Iffy…
Story By USA Today
The National Association of Realtors says sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.4% in June from May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million homes. That’s the lowest rate since October.
“It is only one month and the rest of the housing indicators have all continued to show improvement,” saidJennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. “Let’s hope this June decline is a blip.”
Where as here in CHARLESTON, SC—(July 10, 2012) Home sales in the Charleston region maintained their consistent and steady pattern in June, with continued growth in sales volume and ongoing stability in pricing. 1,033 homes sold at a median price of $200,000 in June according to preliminary data released today by the Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS® (CTAR). Last month, adjusted figures show 1,002 homes sold at the same median price.
National real estate sales are up 4.5% from a year ago, evidence that the market is recovering. But the annual sales pace is well below the 6 million that economists consider healthy.
First-time buyers, critical to a housing recovery, made up just 32% of sales. That’s down from 34% in May. In healthy markets, first-time buyers make up more than 40% of the market.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $189,400 in June, up 7.9% from a year ago, according to the NAR.
Here in Charleston SC – Inventory declined again, with 6,277 homes listed as actively for sale in the Charleston Trident Multiple Listing Service (CTMLS) as of July 10, 2012.
How you should present an offer to buy home in Charleston SC
- Don’t offend. Unless you are offering on a property which has been held purely for investment, the seller is emotionally invested in his property. Do not try to be Donald Trump; trash-talking the seller’s shelter is not a winning strategy. Statements like “This offer reflects the fact that the premises will require professional cleaning with a blow torch prior to possession” may just get you and your offer kicked to the curb.
- Do get personal. Write a cover letter summarizing why you believe this is the right home for you. On many occasions, I have seen sellers accept a lower offer because they felt a connection with the buyer. The seller has a dog? It never hurts to mention that your own Scruffy, who has been on Prozac since moving to your current top floor studio apartment, is (or soon will be) “digging” the large rear yard. The seller raised his children in the home? Why not mention that the glow cast by the cozy brick-trimmed fireplace will be the ideal backdrop for your own little Einsteins to read Tolstoy aloud as they so often do? It may not help, but it can’t hurt.
- Don’t defend your offer the wrong way. As in, by saying it is all you can afford or that you are basing it on what you believe values will be during the next lunar cycle. This approach will likely leave the seller with the notion that there is a buyer out there, one who isn’t you, who can afford his home and at the price it is worth now.
- Do know the seller’s circumstances. Does the seller want to move or does he need to move? Does he need to be out of Dodge by sundown, or is he just toying with the idea of relocating to the Catskills if he can get “his” price? Circumstances will dictate whether there is a bargain on the horizon, and knowing this in advance can save everyone the aggravation of a long trip to nowhere.
- Don’t preach. Your Charleston SC real estate agent has given you information on comparable property sales. Beating the seller over the head with your 16-column spreadsheet will not endear you to him. He has set a price, presumably after having taken this same data under consideration. You may believe his price to be high, but it is his price. Insulting his intelligence (even if you believe this intelligence, based on the price he is asking, is of the artificial variety) will not further your cause.
- Do be prepared to negotiate. No buyer wants to think they paid too much, and no seller wants to think he sold out. Expect to go a round or two. “Take it or leave it” offers are rarely met with high-fives and bear-hugs from the seller, regardless of the price and even in this market. In negotiations, everyone wants to feel like they were in control and that they prevailed.
- Don’t be unreasonable. There is value, and then there is crazy-talk. If a home is offered for X, and you are willing to pay 10% less than X, do not offer X minus $2 million and then ask the seller to throw in his bedroom furniture and a pony. You will not be taken seriously.
Lets sell your home
Today’s real estate market in Charleston South Carolina is teeming with opportunities for the buyer. Great values, values relative to prices a year or two or more ago, are plentiful. But, insanely great “deals” are still needles in the proverbial haystack, because market value will always be determined by what a buyer is willing to pay. This buyer might be you, but if you are unrealistic or even simply careless with crafting your offer, it will probably be someone else.
James Schiller Charleston’s best Real Estate Agent
Bidding on foreclosures in Charleston, County
What is a distressed sale? – The sale of a property whereby the homeowner is in financial distress and can’t afford to pay the mortgage any longer also known as a forced sale. Which is an action taken in a civil court forcing the owners of a piece of real property to sell their property and to divide the profits (usually there aren’t any). A forced sale is generally the result of a petition to partition action such as: foreclosure action or bankruptcy .
HOW TO GO ABOUT BUYING A FORECLOSURE…
Please note this is for Charleston county, SC only and that your county and state likely has its own rules and protocol so contact your local office. However I think this is the general jist of most transactions around the country as this has been going on for hundreds of years.
Thank you for your interest in foreclosure sales. This page was prepared in an effort to answer the most frequently asked questions about this process. If you have further questions, please contact me at 843.478.8061.
If you are interested in bidding on a piece of property in Charleston County, SC, which has been foreclosed upon and is scheduled to be auctioned for sale in the near future, the following are some things you may find helpful to know:
1.) When real property is ordered to be foreclosed in Charleston County, a judge called the Master-in-Equity will issue an order directing the mortgaged premises (or part thereof as required to satisfy the claims established) be sold by or under direction of the Master.
2.) The judgment (often called a Master’s Decree of Foreclosure) will contain a legal description of the property being sold, a provision for the necessary legal advertisement, the time and location of the sale, and notice of any senior liens, taxes or other rights to which the property to be sold is subject.
Sales are held the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 11 a.m. at the front entrance of the Charleston County Judicial Center located at 100 Broad Street in downtown Charleston.
The judgment also will specify the amount of good faith deposit necessary at the time of the sale, which is usually 5% five percent of the successful bid at the sale. Compliance must be made with the bid by 4 p.m. that same day. This deposit is required to be in cash or certified funds and is not refundable. The plaintiff or any other party may be a purchaser on such sale. You have 30 days to comply with the balance of the bid with cash or certified funds.
Some Plaintiffs seek a deficiency judgment against the Defendant. This means the Plaintiff is not only foreclosing its mortgage but is seeking a money judgment too. Unless the pleadings state that no personal or deficiency judgment is demanded or any right to such judgment is expressly waived in writing, the bidding will not be closed upon the day of sale but remains open until the thirtieth day after such sale exclusive of the day of the sale. When the sale is re-opened for final bidding, the highest bid is accepted. The Plaintiff can only bid at the first sale.
Short Sale– is a sale of real estate in which the sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the property’s loan.
If you want a short sale the process is very much like a traditional real estate transaction except in one way. The hassle. For you to take advantage of a short sale, you’ll definitely want a local Charleston area real estate agent on your side. Primarily because the bank is technically the seller. Even though the seller might still be the owner of record, for a short sale to occur the seller’s mortgage lender has to approve it. Unless the seller just sells the home for less than they owe and pays the difference to their lender.If the seller can’t do that then the lender with the mortgage will have to O.K the home being sold for less than is owed on it.
The largest problem with purchasing a short sale home is that the bank is not willing to work with you (the buyer) to make the purchase easy or cheap for you. Usually when putting an offer on a home that is approved for a short sale the bank will only sell the home “As Is”, and doesn’t care if there are problems with the home even if you get a home inspection. Secondly, they usually will drag their feet because if you make an offer they probably have a couple other offers on the table that they will work against you so you must make sure you have a large earnest money deposit ready, and no contingencies. Otherwise they will not consider it and/or they will contact the current offers they may already have.
When looking to buy a home that is a short sale you must keep in mind that since the home isn’t being sold for profit that there is no room for the seller to pay a buyer’s agent commission. Therefore, be prepared that you may have to pay a buyer’s commission out of your own funds. However, President Obama and HUD have instructed banks that they have to allow agents to be paid when representing a buyer in a short sale, but this isn’t always the case.
*Don’t worry. If this seems like too much of a scary proposition, there are plenty of unbelievable cheap homes on the market that are great deals for sale the traditional way.
Charleston SC Home Sales Show Improvement
Charleston Trident Association of Realtors® — (May 9, 2012) – Median existing single-family home prices are firming in many areas of the low-country, while improving sales and declining inventory are creating more balanced conditions, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors®.
Last April, preliminary figures showed 776 homes sold at a median price of $175,000, following an almost equal number of property tours.
“The number of showings our REALTORS® are completing in 2012 is almost equal to the number of showings we saw in 2009, when the market was significantly depressed, but inventory was much higher. This tells us that the prospective buyers in today’s market aren’t just looking. They are serious buyers, making offers and closing transactions” said 2012 CTAR President, Herb Koger.
The national median existing single-family home price was $158,100 in the first quarter, which is 0.4 percent below $158,700 in the first quarter of 2011. The median is where half sold for more and half sold for less. Distressed homes2 – foreclosures and short sales which sold at deep discounts – accounted for 32 percent of first quarter sales; they were 38 percent a year ago.
Heading into what is typically the busiest season of the year, year to date figures reflect a market that is in the midst of sustainable, healthy growth. Inventory is 29% lower than it was at this time last year; sales volume is almost 6% ahead and prices have increased a healthy 4% from this time last year.
Total existing-home sales,3 including single-family and condo, increased 4.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million in the first quarter from a downwardly revised 4.37 million in the fourth quarter, and were 5.3 percent above the 4.34 million level during the first quarter of 2011 when sales spiked. We are seeing more people coming back into the investment and second home market buying homes for sale in places like Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island.
Mount Pleasant SC custom home builder-owner of Sand Dollar Homes, said there are more opportunities in today’s market. “Historically favorable housing affordability conditions are making it easier for buyers to enter the market despite the unnecessarily tight credit conditions,” he said. “Housing supply and demand are roughly balanced with overall housing supply at the lowest level in six years, putting sellers on an even footing with buyers in most markets.”
CTAR REPORT –
Berkeley County
170 homes sold at a median price of $154,945 in Berkeley County in April. This represents even sales and an increase in pricing compared with April 2011, when 170 homes sold at a median price of $145,000.
Charleston County
476 homes sold at a median price of $228,125 in Charleston County in April. This represents an increase in sales and pricing from April 2011’s 451 sales at a median price of $208,000.
Dorchester County
151 homes sold at a median price of $165,000 in Dorchester County in April. This represents a significant increase in both sales volume and pricing, as 129 homes sold at a median price of $147,490 in April 2011.
Search Homes Charleston South Carolina – Mount Pleasant
As a member of the National Association of Realtor and Charleston Trident Association of Realtors I feel it is my duty to fully inform the public and prospective clients about the truth of online property search tools.
If you haven’t noticed every real estate agent and company now-a-days has a “free” home search, Search Homes Here, or “Search homes for Sale” tool built into their website.
I am a real estate agent in Charleston South Carolina and I too have one of these online 
Charleston South Carolina homes for sale search functions for my customers / prospects. We have all seen them; if you have purchased a home or are considering buying a home in the last 7 years or so you have more than likely used one of these.
But; what are they really? What’s the deal behind them and who has the best one to use? Who has the best and easiest online property / home search tool? Truth is they are all mostly the same. It is all the same information and no one company has more info then the other, and the reason is because the real estate boards insure that every agency has a level playing field.
The multiple listing service or MLS at least here in Charleston (I believe everywhere in the U.S.) provides (for a small monthly fee) website code that real estate companies and/or Realtors can embed into their websites so that you as a customer can search homes or property at your leisure- including myself. If you click HERE you will see that you can search Charleston area real estate and home for sale.
You are probably asking yourself how does the local / county / city MLS home search tools compare to Zillow or Trulia? Good question. From my understanding these companies use the MLS same information as real estate companies, but they also subscribe to a technical feed from city and county records, and compile and collect information from each local government office into their websites that include past and recent sales.
Their information is exactly the same as agents and realtors have, but they unlike most local real estate companies have more capital to invest into more web development and design to construct their tool to be able to process more information, faster.
Different Kinds of New Home Construction
There are essentially 4 types of newly built homes you could choose from if new construction is what you have to have.
1.) Fully Custom – Just as its name states, custom homes are as YOU want them. As the prospective home owner you would be expected to hire an architect whereby with regular meetings you, your architect, and home builder would design a home according to your direction, and vision. After you have signed off on the design of your home it then has to be stamped by a licensed engineer to make sure its design features are structurally sound. Beware of a fully custom home because they take much longer to build, and they require many many meetings with a plethora of different people all of which are there to make sure you get exactly what you want. Also, here in Charleston, South Carolina, downtown specifically there is an ARB (architectural review board) which over-sees the construction of every building in historic Charleston. However, there is a good reason for this. Aside from the normal responsibilities of ensuring the safety of each property, it too is responsible for preserving the look and historic significance of one of the United States most respected and historically relevant cities in the country. If you are considering building in Mount Pleasant, Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, or surrounding areas there is less chance you have to be too concerned with having each phase of your design and construction signed off on from an aesthetic point at least. However, many newer suburban communities also have restrictions and rules that have to be adhered to there to preserve a consistent feel of the neighborhood. For instance Kiawah Island home builders have to make sure their customers know that they can not use white for their exterior trim color.
1.a Next are the finishes, i.e. type of cabinets, trim, hard wood floor species, stain colors, electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, tile, exterior materials, carpet styles, paint colors, and many more options. It is common for your builder (general contractor) to have a few design partners that will help you when choosing from the hundreds or thousands of options available to you with each phase of construction. It is fairly safe to say that the more elaborate and detailed your home is with design elements the longer it will take to build.
2.) Semi-Custom – A semi-custom home usually refers to a type of new construction home whereby the builder will either provide you with a multiple different home plans to choose from if they already own the dirt. Yet the home buyer can make small changes to the plans, but usually not to the structural elements as well as they get to choose the finishes mentioned in 1.a. This kind of home is probably your most commonly used option, and many of your local & national home builders prefer to offer this as it is the most flexible to most people. Here is one example of Mount Pleasant Builder offering new homes.
Let Us Build You a New Home
You feel as if you are getting a fully custom home without having the additional time, and expense of hiring and meeting with an architect. Since the builder is familiar with the floor plans they usually are fairly confident with giving you a estimated close date and cost depending on the finishes you choose.
3.) Spec (Speculative) – Spec homes are where a builder (national or local) will pre-build a newly constructed home, choose the floor plans, and the finishes, landscaping, etc. hoping that a prospective buyer will be interested in buying it as he or she designed it. They are “speculating” that there are enough interested buyers in the market, hence the name “spec home”. These homes are usually built in established neighborhoods often times in nicer communities consisting mostly of custom homes.
4.) Tract Home – Usually your most affordable option – As defined by Wikipedia – Tract housing is a style of housing development in which multiple similar homes are built on a tract of land which is subdivided into individual small lots. Tract housing developments are typically found in North American suburbs that were modeled on the “Levittown” concept and sometimes encompass large areas of dozens of square miles.
These types of homes although new are usually of lesser quality then the first three options because the builders know exactly what it costs them to build each home as cheaply as possible because believe it or not their profit is in the land. Most of the national builders whose names you’d recognize such as: DR Horton, Beazer, Pulte, KB, and Centex, are considered tract builders. The expense and “power” is in the dirt. If you own the dirt or tract of land to build then you have the power because buyers have no other choice other than to buy your product if they want to live in certain areas. These builders will buy large pieces of land all over the country and develop the dirt, but in order to compete with local builders will many times offer a semi-custom feature into their plans. Whereby, they will have usually offer 6, sometimes 8 floor plans to choose from, and offer a hand full of different finish options. Such as: 3 types of pre-finished hardwood flooring, 4 types of ceramic tile or vinyl, 3 styles of carpet, 3 different exterior wall coverings, etc.
Precision Construction is Charleston’s SC best Affordable Home Builder
Real Estate in Charleston SC 