Contact Pricing How To

Finally some good press about South Carolina!

Frontdoor.com reported on 5 of the best beach areas to live in and South Carolina's Myrtle Beach was one of them....

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is the cornerstone of the famed Grand Strand -- the 60-mile stretch of uninterrupted beaches in South Carolina. The area's scenic beaches and lively community attract about 15 million visitors each year, but it's the more than 31,000 residents who get the best of both worlds.

"While a lot of people have to set a vacation time to come visit, I can have a vacation much more frequently just by living here," says Kimberly Miles who has lived in Myrtle Beach for six years. "It's great to take part in all of the amenities offered here."

Getting around: A native of Washington, D.C., Miles is accustomed to navigating congested roadways, which comes in handy during the summer months when the area is hit with heavy traffic. The peak season -- the months of June, July and August -- is when traffic is worst, but Miles said it's nothing compared to other major cities.

But if you don't want the hassle of navigating traffic, there are alternatives. Miles says the Coast RTA -- Myrtle Beach's public bus system -- taxi cabs and bicycles are convenient options for those who'd prefer not to drive.

Owning a home: Compared to many other beach towns, owning a home in Myrtle Beach is very affordable, said Miles, who closed on her first home at the end of February. The average cost of a 2,400-square-foot house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms is around $237,000. read more..

Home buyers are spending more time doing this than any other time since 2001. What is it?

The process of finding a home in Mt. Pleasant, SC or Charleston, SC can be daunting and time consuming. I came across a survey done by Realtor.org and discovered that home buyers across America take a lot of time in deciding which home to buy. Here is the poll question...

The typical home buyer searched how long before purchasing a home? 

 
Correct Answer: 12 weeks
On average, a home buyer searched for 12 weeks and viewed 12 homes before purchasing, according to NAR research.
That's the longest average time that buyers have spent looking for a home since the survey started tracking it in 2001.
Buyers searched, on average, two weeks on their own before contacting an agent. 
 

Do you know what buyers and sellers really want?

In a recent survey the National Association of Realtors published some interesting facts about todays buyers and sellers. According to an article published in the Realtor.org site....

1. What service did sellers most often say they want from their real estate agent?

 
 Pricing the home competitively
Of the sellers surveyed, 22 percent said they wanted help pricing their home competitively so it would sell. Other popular responses included help finding a buyer for the home (21 percent), marketing the home to potential buyers (19 percent), and selling the home within a specific timeframe (19 percent).


 
2. What service do buyers most often say they want from a real estate agent?

 
 Finding the right home to purchase
Nearly 50 percent of buyers most frequently reported that they want an agent to help them find the right home to purchase, followed by assisting them with negotiating the terms of the sale (16 percent) and price negotiations (13 percent). The least-frequent response was help in finding or arranging financing to purchase a home (2 percent).

read more

Percieved Value vs. Market Value

A member of the ViewThisHome.com team, Ken Earnhardt, has written yet another brilliant blog with hyperlinks to some of the hottest websites in real estate.  If you have a website that you would like for him to integrate into his blog, email ken@viewthishome.com.  Enjoy!

Perceived Value vs Market Value
 
In today’s tough real estate environment the biggest challenge we have as a real estate professional is walking the thin line between a seller’s perceived value and the market value.
Here is an example:
I received a referral for a listing opportunity. So I did my usual due diligence before the appointment and looked at every SinglePropertySite in the surrounding neighborhood. This listing had promise so I set up the appointment. As I approached the FrontDoor (because we aren’t backdoor friends yet) I noticed the WellcomeMat had a strange writing on it. The writing said MakeMyHomeFamous . I knew right then that this listing appointment was going to be like none other. I couldn’t wait to ViewThisHome and see how to make her dream come true. As the seller took me on a VisualTour I began to see why she thought her home should be famous. As we explored the home I noticed that she had upgraded with hardwood floors, $10,000, upgraded the kitchen, $20,000, family time around the table, priceless !! Now I understood her perceived value, based upon the memories in her home, meant that her home should be famous!
It is difficult sometimes to tell someone their home is not “worth” what they think, but we should always respect their perceived value and then guide them to the market value.

ViewThisHome.com and Ask Kimmie in the News!

 

My home office is on the second floor and has a window that overlooks the street.  34 Rahn Road is an unsuspecting street tucked in amongst an older established community.  While working last week I glanced out of my window and was surprised to see our local news truck.  My interest was piqued as the cameraman unloaded his equipment and pointed his camera directly at my house.  I decided to see what was going on.  The cameraman told me that they were doing a story on real estate in the Low country and since my home was for sale, they simply wanted a shot of the house with the For Sale sign in the front yard.  I continued to talk to the cameraman about how many showings we had had on our property (a whopping total of 8 showings in less than 3 weeks!).  Before I knew it, ABC News Channel 4 had set up shop in my living room and the reporter was interviewing me.  Not only was my house on the news, I even got a plug in for View This Home!  Sometimes it pays to be a little nosey!

To see the video on the news, click on the link below:

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0209/594107.html

Sweat Equity

Sweat Equity or Sweet Equity – It’s All the Same to Me!

The New Year found me perched high atop a metal ladder, Windex aimed, paper towels flapping in the breeze. My beloved husband whistled behind the lawnmower in the front yard. Somewhere nearby a bird chirped and single leaf fluttered to the ground. “NUTS! If one more leaf falls on this yard I’m giving up! It’s January for goodness sake,” I heard Jesse yell over the roar of the mower. So, it was not going to be the easiest work we had ever committed ourselves to, but commit we did. With the last of the Christmas decorations packed up and organized in color coded bins in the attic, we decided it was time to tackle one of our New Year’s resolutions: get our house ready to sell. 
Being mostly do-it-ourselves type people, we did not fear the work that lay ahead. We knew that with each bead of sweat we would be getting some sweet equity for our home. The first Saturday morning of project Sweat Equity, I naturally spent time grooming and painting my fingernails as I would any other Saturday. Later that day, I learned that rubber gloves, bleach and a scrub brush do nothing for recently manicured nails. Scrubbing nearly two years of live oak mold and acid raindrops off of our painted front porch ruined my Hopelessly in Love pink nails. The work was worth the effort, by late afternoon our house was fresh as the day we built it. 
The next two weekends were filled with the same activities. New mulch, flowers, topiaries for the front porch, rocking chairs, and a sparkling clean interior conveyed the message that we wanted to do everything we could to get our house sold. The Encarta Dictionary defines sweat equity as “equity in property earned by virtue of carrying out manual work to improve the property . . . manual labor contributed in restoring a property with a view to gaining some equity in it.” Remember that with each bead of sweat the equity in your home is likely to increase. So grab a scrub brush and some bleach and give buyers a reason to sign a contract, or at least don’t give them a reason NOT to!

REAL ESTATE MARKETING AS IT PERTAINS TO FISHING

 

REAL ESTATE MARKETING AS IT PERTAINS TO FISHING

It seems hard these days to have faith in anything, let alone that you will be able to sell your home or someone else's!   We are facing difficult economic times in our country. The real estate market has taken a hit. Wall Street is affecting Main Street. For me, It took a hook, line and sinker this past weekend to bring perspective.   My husband Jesse and I went fishing on Sunday in search of a monster Redfish that had thus far eluded our hooks. The afternoon started out slow with nary a nibble on our live shrimp.  Being the unenthusiastic fisherwoman that I am, I did not even know that there was a fish on my line when I reeled it in to check the bait. Flopping on the hook was a five inch Sea Bass barely big enough to call an Anchovy! Our next bite did not come for nearly an hour, but it was worth it. We pulled the ten pound, 33 inch Redfish into the boat with much excitement. After snapping pictures, weighing and measuring the beast, we quickly threw it back before it breathed its last as it was over the keeping limit in South Carolina. Nerves on end from excitement, we baited our hooks and threw our lines, faith strengthened by our recent catch. Soon after, Jesse yelled, “FISH ON!” This was a different battle as the first monster was caught with a large rod and reel. This hit was on the smallest of the rods we had with us. The fish had fight and all I could think of was Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Jesse chased the fish as it swam around the boat. It surfaced once and I gawked at the sheer girth. What seemed like twenty minutes passed before the fish gave up the fight and succumbed to its own exhaustion. Weighing in at eighteen pounds and off the South Carolina charts in length, flopped the elusive Redfish. For me, it was as if we had just reeled in the Loch Ness Monster. My faith was small that a catch that big would result from me or my husband’s fishing ability. I learned that we need to have faith and hope in these hard times we are facing. Without that, what do we have? Keep dropping your lines, changing your bait and relentlessly chasing after the big catch. Do what you have to do! Regardless of the scare tactics of the media, people are searching for Home Sweet Home Just as the giant Redfish was searching for a meal. If you have lines out, someone will take the bait and BUY! The key is to keep marketing your properties even when it seems like everyone is swimming right past your baited hooks. Persistence is the key in this market. What are your fishing plans?