Last night’s presentation by Steve Harney here in Goose Creek urged anyone thinking about buying or selling real estate to do so NOW.
These are the points he made to sellers:
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Lately the news media has indicated we may be at or near the bottom of the housing market crisis nationally. Since all real estate is local, why don’t we take a look at what’s happening in Crowfield Plantation, Goose Creek, SC, as we head into the fall of 2009.
OVERVIEW
Most agree that the height of the market was at the end of 2005 (I bought my first house in December 0f 2005, how’s that for timing?). We saw a leveling off in 2006, and 2007 marked the beginning of what we now know as a spike in inventory and drop off in prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Senior citizens often struggle through retirement without a steady source of income. Steady income is vital for keeping up with grocery, household, and medical bills. Many seniors are forced to choose between paying for food or medicine month after month.
One way retirees can ensure themselves a steady source of income is to Read the rest of this entry »
One way to make your listing stand out from the crowd in this market is to offer incentives to prospective buyers. It’s become standard here in the Lowcountry for sellers to give buyers a free home warranty at closing or pay their closing costs. Always the market leader, Carolina One Real Estate has unveiled a new program to help its sellers up the ante in buyer incentives and stand out even more: six months of paid mortgage payments for buyers in the event of job loss. Read the rest of this entry »
Of the four closings I had last week, I felt my buyer client was taken advantage of at the last minute in two of them. A new law may prevent some of what happened from happening again in the future.
The first one had a slew of issues from the moment we wrote the contract and took three months to close. In the end, after my buyer had done everything in her power to adhere to the contract (there were many third parties involved that slowed the process considerably), the bank (the seller) charged my buyer $100 per day Read the rest of this entry »
Once the holidays were over and the 2009 ball dropped, a funny thing happened to us at the real estate office: The phones started ringing!
When the market slows down agents continue to look busy. We spend time catching up with past clients, beefing up our marketing efforts, taking classes, etc. We may be on the phone a lot, we may even work late. But a lot of it is what I call “wishful working.” You know, staying busy today hoping to get a paycheck tomorrow. The office was quiet during the holidays, but we agents were there anyway.
Boy what a difference now. Hallway chatter has all but stopped, doors are closed, desks are messy, phones are ringing, we are busy. Everyone. Suddenly we’re doing all we can to keep up with all the people interested in buying and selling real estate. Last week alone I received phone calls from five people wanting to list their property or buy a house.
It’s overwhelming, but I’m ready. You won’t catch me off guard or too busy for your call. I’m here and I’m saying BRING IT ON. What a great year in real estate this is going to be. I’ve been looking forward to it all winter.
Click here to see a short video from ABC News that talks about the increased traffic in our market.
100 Sedburgh Dr. in The Hamlets
In more than 18 months of writing this blog you have never seen me use it as a platform to focus on my listings. This listing, however, is going to be an exception. It is a short sale in The Hamlets and needs to get shown and sold fast.
This is six-bedroom executive home near the golf course on a large (0.4 acre) corner lot. The exterior is all brick with mature landscaping, lawn irrigation system, and Read the rest of this entry »
In this buyer’s market, buyers are looking for the best deal they can find. Makes sense. Lots of folks are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the steal of the century… but would they know it if it was staring them in the face? Maybe not. So I’m here to help. Of 444 active MLS listings, these are the Top 10 Best Buys in Goose Creek for the week of January 12, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
It probably won’t surprise you when I say real estate sales in Crowfield Plantation have slowed quite a bit this year over last year. Today I ran the numbers to see exactly where we are compared with activity a year ago. Coming from an office that continues to sell 80+ houses every month, I was very surprised to see just how far off we are. Read the rest of this entry »
