Jeremy | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Oct 09 2014

Protect Yourself From Identity Theft When Selling Your Myrtle Beach Home

When selling your Myrtle Beach property it is imperative that your your home and your belongings are as safe as possible. There are professional theives that contact agents to view homes. They obviously are not wanting to see these homes to purchase, but to see what type of items they can pick up.

They may have visited during an open house, or seen a picture online of the home and think this home may be a good target. As an Myrtle Beach real estate agent, it is our duty to try and keep everyone together when showing a home, but if there is an entire family along, it is virtually impossible to keep an eye on everyone. The really good pros have partners that they visit with, or even bring along children to help cause distractions.

So, below are a few tips to help keep your house safe.

1. Put away all jewelry. If there is jewely laying around on a dresser or nightstand, it is a very big & easy target for someone to pick up. Either put the precious gems in a locked safe, or if you do not have one, place the gems in either a drawer or in a box. A safe place to place them is in a shoe box in the closet. Or, put in a flat envelope that you can hide in between stacked sweaters on a shelf.

There are plenty of ways to hide them. The key is to make sure they are out of site.

2. Hide the credit cards & bills. With the identity theft on the constant rise, it is crucial that any type of credit cards or mail that you have is secured. Place any mail or cards in either a filing cabinet that can be locked, or in a desk that can be locked. Crooks can be sneaky and will try and find a way to get alone in a house.

3. Remove the Personal Pictures. It is a good idea to put away any personal pictures. One of our clients that is a single woman was very uncomfortable having her house listed for sale because of safety.

One of our suggestions to her was to put away all the pictures that were just of her and only leave out the ones of her with her one cousin. Nobody knew if it was a husband, or relative. This gave her peace of mind.

4. Put away your money! You would think this one would be a no brainer, but I cant even begin to count the number of times I have gone to show homes that have had money sitting around on the kitchen table, or on a dresser, or nightstand. Sometimes there have been rather large amounts of money there too!

Like your jewelry, put this in a locked safe, or safe hidden place.

5. Hide anything with your name, address, phone number, social security number, etc… Just the other day I walked through a home that had prescription bags on the refrigerator with the persons name, telephone number, social security, and address. Some that you may not think of would be the kids softball schedule, or your nursery schedule for church.

These all have enough information that someone could use to steal from you. All they need is your name & phone number, they already have your address, and it can be a giant nightmare.

Here is a funny video, but I think gets the point across as to what could happen!

These are just 5 simple ways to protect yourself when selling your home. If you are currently thinking of selling your home, do not hesitate to contact me.

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Oct 02 2014

Selling as a Myrtle Beach FSBO Can Cost More Than The Commission

As a Myrtle Beach REALTOR® I hear all types of Horror Stories about deals that have gone bad, and all types of crazy things that have happened while trying to either buy or sell a home in Myrtle Beach. Here is one of those stories from a couples that I helped sell their Myrtle Beach home.

They were a nice couple, looking to sell their beautiful Myrtle Beach home on a golf course. Home had excellent view, had been meticulously taken care of, and was in “model home” condition. These people contacted us because they were in a major dilemma and after sharing it with a neighbor who were former clients of ours, urged them to call us immediately. Here is their story:

The couple had tried selling their home via For Sale By Owner. They bought the yard sign, had a little website made up and had instant gratification. Within two weeks, they were having daily showings, and multiple calls on their home. As they came to the end of their second week of trying to sell the house, they received an offer on the property. They came to an agreement with the buyer and things seemed to be moving along perfectly for them.

As closing day came closer, the sellers began packing their items in their home. Since the property sold quicker than they thought it would, they had to pack all their belongings & furniture and place it into a climate controlled storage unit. Also, they had to sign a 6 month lease to rent an apartment until the home they were building would be complete.

The day of closing came and the sellers went to the closing attorneys office expecting to meet the buyer, sign the documents and sell their lovely home. Well, when they got to the attorney’s office, the buyer was nowhere to be found. They called and found out that the seller was unable to purchase the property. They received a pre-qualification letter, but had no way of following up on whether the buyer would be able to secure the funds to purchase the home. The buyer had actually given false information to the bank and got caught. So, needless to say the home was not going to sell to this new buyer.

The sellers went back to their now vacant home disheartened and placed the sign back in the yard. After a few more weeks with not much activity, the sellers were becoming distressed because they were paying a lot of money out of pocket and the cash reserves were coming to an end. Paying the mortgage on the vacant home, plus their monthly rent for the apartment & storage unit on top of the construction loan on the property is more than enough to do that.

Finally the sellers gave in to the neighbors advice and contacted us. We met with them, listed the property for sale and were able to sell it & close in 5 weeks time.

Unfortunately for the sellers, the money spent trying to sell their house on their own was much more than my commission. While this story sounds like it might be a rare occassion, it is something becoming more and more common. Lenders are tightening their regulations on who they will lend to, and buyers are not always accurate with the information they supply. That is why having a Real Estate Professional is important.

Our job goes much further than just placing your home into the MLS. We use various types of marketing tools to give your home the most exposure possible. While many think our job finishes with marketing, there is much more. Next we coordinate with agent to schedule showings of your home. Most of this is now handled electronically.

Then comes the contract negotiation stage. This is another very important stage where a Myrtle Beach REALTOR® plays a critical role. Having an agent that can negotiate well on your behalf could save you thousands of dollars and months of time and aggravation.

Finally our last job after negotiating your home is to make sure that the home gets to the closing table and closed with as little problems as possible. To me, this is where the real work begins. During the part in the process, your agent will be negotiating home inspection repairs, ordering home warranties if needed, scheduling inspections, and communicating regularly with the closing attorney, the bank giving the mortgage, and the buyer’s agent to make sure all paperwork and any other items needed to close on the home are taken care of and that on closing day there are no “surprises” like the one that happened to this FSBO.

So before you think of selling your home on your own, remember this quote I recently heard directly from a seller on a panel at a real estate conference. The man said: “I’m not going to do open heart surgery on myself, so I’m not going to try & sell my home on my own. Some things in life end up costing more when you don’t hire the expert to handle the job!” If you are thinking of selling your Myrtle Beach home and would like to see how I can help you accomplish this, feel free to either call me at 843-222-9402 or contact me online.

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Sep 25 2014

Importance of Being Pre-Approved To Buy A Myrtle Beach Home

Congratulations on deciding to buy a Myrtle Beach home! What should you do next? This is a question I hear very often when working with new home buyers. Or, the other common version is a phone call requesting to see a property I recently listed for sale and I ask if they have already been pre-approved with a bank already. One of the first questions I ask to buyers that I meet on the phone or in person is if they have spoken to someone at a bank and if they have received some sort of pre-approval or pre-qualification letter.

“But I’ve got great credit, a mortgage won’t be an issue!” Boy, if I had a dollar for each time I’ve heard that line. The other day while I was stuck at the infamous Backgate stoplight in Myrtle Beach, I started a video explaining a conversation I had just finished with a seller on the phone regarding why I don’t normally work with buyers who are not willing to call a bank and get pre-qualified. Watch the video below, and then I’ll share more reasons after the video:

Here are a few other reasons why getting pre-approved can be so helpful: First, if you are selling your property and have it on the market, you want the agents bringing people through your home to be able to afford buying the home they are looking at. I remember when we had a few oceanfront homes for sale in Myrtle Beach on the Golden Mile a few years back that we would receive a constant stream of calls wanting to view the property. What we quickly found out was that many of the people calling to view the home could not afford to purchase, but were just nosey to see what an oceanfront home in Myrtle Beach might look like. When showing homes to unqualified buyers, it also increases the level of liability to the agents and also the seller if someone or something were to get broken, lost, or injured.

Set the correct expectations. I started to mention this briefly in the video, but it is very important to set the correct level of expectations for your buyer. If you start showing them homes for sale over $300,000 and they can only get approved for $120,000, the buyers will be disappointed with everything they see after viewing the more expensive homes to start. They have already seen the best out there and homes that are half the price will never be able to compare in features, size, age, amenities, and just about everything else. If you set those expectations accurately in the beginning, and stick to only showing properties the buyer can afford, you never run into this issue.

Save your time & stop judging the book by it’s cover. I’ll never forget about 8 years ago when I was working with a couple that had walked into our office one rainy afternoon. They drove up in a new BMW 7 Series dressed up all fancy with gold and bling everywhere. The gentleman told me when he came in the door that they had come in town to invest a million dollars in properties in the Myrtle Beach area. I immediately started pulling up dozens of properties on the MLS for them to look at and get the process started. My father on the other hand, interjected and said that we needed to call the bank first to get pre-approved to purchase this much real estate. We called in, spoke with the lender and within 10 minutes we came to find out that the gentleman was in debt up to his eyeballs, had liens against his current home, and was also currently involved in a lawsuit. Unfortunately, he couldn’t buy a ten thousand dollar unit, let alone a million dollars worth of real estate. That ten minute call saved me weeks of work, frustration, and all types of headaches.

So as you can see, while getting a pre-approval when working with an agent is more work before you get to see homes, in the long run it is a major saver on grief, time and heartaches. It also shows your agent that you are serious about buying a home in Myrtle Beach. If you want more information on how to go about getting pre-qualified for a mortgage, feel free to contact me for more assistance.

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Sep 17 2014

Waterbridge Homes In Myrtle Beach Features World Class Amenities

If you are looking to move to Myrtle Beach and want world class amenities, the Waterbridge community in Carolina Forest is definitely a neighborhood you should consider. Waterbridge homes in Myrtle Beach features the largest residential swimming pool in South Carolina, clubhouse, 24 hour fitness center, tennis, basketball, & sand volleyball courts, and a boat launch.

The gated entrance to Waterbridge welcomes you to this beautiful community while also providing an additional level of security. When using the clubhouse for your next event, you and your guests will love the refreshment center and caterer friendly kitchen to help your next gathering to run flawlessly. Your guests will leave feeling like they just visited a world class resort.

The crown jewel of amenities in Waterbridge is the one of a kind pool. Junior Olympic size swimming lanes, swim-up refreshment center, jetted spa, and more will provide hours of enjoyment each day throughout the summer.

If this sounds like heaven to you as a place in which you would like to live, then I would highly recommend looking at the Waterbridge community in Myrtle Beach. This great community features some wonderful homes at affordable pricing. You can either purchase a lot and build your own custom home, or check out some of the current homes for sale in Waterbridge:

In addition to the phenomenal amenities that Waterbridge features, the location is very convenient to get to just about anywhere in Myrtle Beach without much hassle. Centrally located in the Carolina Forest area, you can easily get to either North Myrtle Beach or south to Murrells Inlet in under 30 minutes via Carolina Bays Parkway (hwy 31). Located close to golf, shopping, area attractions, and less than 20 minutes to the beach.

If you would like more information on purchasing a home here, feel free to contact me. I would love the opportunity to help turn your dreams of living in Waterbridge into a reality.

Aug 25 2014

How Much Earnest Money Do I Need To Buy A Myrtle Beach Home

One of the questions that arises on a regular basis when helping someone buy a Myrtle Beach home has to do with earnest money. First, what is earnest money? Wikipedia gives a wonderful definition of the term here. Basically, it is the deposit made towards the purchase of real estate and is part of your down payment. In South Carolina, this money is held in a trust account of a real estate company or closing attorney. It cannot be used by the real estate company for any other purpose.

So, here is the big question that normally comes up in regards to earnest money is How much should I give for earnest money? People are looking for some sort of formula to calculate out how much is needed. Unfortunately, there is no exact formula to determine how much for your offer. Some use the 1% of purchase price principal, but that does not always work. For example, if you are buying an $75,000 condo, you may want to offer more than 1% or $750.00. In this scenario you may wish to offer $1,000.00. On the other hand, it could be some sort of offer where you are limited on money for down payment at the time of making the offer and only have $500.00. This amount is something that can be negotiated just like any other part of the offer.

The key concept behind earnest money is that it is the money you use as part of a down payment and is given at the time of presenting the offer to show good faith or earnest in a property. The more that you put down shows a higher level of genuine interest. You do not want to put too much money down because you do run the risk of possibly losing that money. However not enough can offend a seller. Here is an example.

A few years ago we had a gentleman in town that wanted to purchase a 22 unit motel that was for sale for $660,000. The gentleman made a fairly reasonable offer on the property and wanted to close in a rather short time of just over 30 days. He was supposed to pay cash for the deal. So, when we asked how much he wanted to put down as earnest money, he stated that he didn’t have the money at this time, but it was “coming soon.” He never would tell us where he was getting the money or could provide us with proof of funds. So we asked once again, how much would you like to use as earnest money.

The gentleman reached into his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill and slammed it down on the desk and said: “Here is my earnest money. And I am not putting another penny down!” A single dollar, that was his earnest money. Needless to say when we presented the offer to the seller, they were not amused by this offer. In fact, they were so annoyed that they flat out declined the gentleman’s offer.

This is a prime example where not enough earnest money caused a seller to not even want to negotiate with a buyer. The reason the seller was so offended is that if the gentleman changed his mind about purchasing and walked away from the deal, the seller would only receive $1.00 for incurring all types of expenses for various tests, inspections, attorney fees, etc, all while taking their property off the market during that time.

Hopefully this clears up the issue of earnest money a little bit. In closing, I leave you with this piece of advice in regards to earnest money. Each and every market all around the US is very different in regards to how much is enough/not enough. I would strongly urge you to ask a local REALTOR® for guidance when determining how much to give.

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