Blog | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

May 29 2020

The Farm at Carolina Forest- Neighborhood Tour

In early 2019, my family and I decided to move back to The Farm At Carolina Forest and call this our home permanently again. Now you may be wondering if I made a typo when I said again, but I actually lived in this development back in 2006-2008 in the townhomes section called The Orchards.

In fact, I wrote about how we loved going to The Farm Pool at night with my then newborn oldest daughter, Isabelle and swimming in the 800,000 gallon pool back in 2008. We have always enjoyed the amenities here and you definitely cannot beat the location. Ten minutes to the beach, ten to the airport, shopping, golf, restaurants, and all the area attractions are all nearby. With highway 31 only a few minutes away, this neighborhood makes the entire Grand Strand easily accessible.

Here’s a quick neighborhood tour showing off The Farm at Carolina Forest:

Homes in The Farm range in price from the mid 200-300K range and it is probably one of the largest neighborhoods in Carolina Forest. This development was started in the early 2000’s and was completed in 2018. There is a mixture of single family homes, condos with Garages, and also townhomes that have a garage as well.

Amenities in The Farm At Carolina Forest

If you are looking for a neighborhood with great amenities, The Farm At Carolina Forest is a great option. To Start, they have an 800,000 gallon main pool. The reason I say main pool is that there is a smaller second pool in this neighborhood also. In addition to two pools, The Farm also has a full sized basketball court, large clubhouse, fitness center and plenty of sidewalks & bicycle lanes to get outside through the neighborhood.

Check out all current homes for sale in The Farm at Carolina Forest. If you would like to learn more about The Farm at Carolina Forest, feel free to call/text me at 843-222-9402 or simply fill out the form below:

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May 13 2020

Master Tips For Choosing A Lender to Buy A Home

If you’re in the market for a new home in Myrtle Beach, especially if you’re a fist-time homebuyer, there are some things you should keep in mind when choosing a lender. Friends and family who’ve gone through this process can attest to the fact that purchasing a property can be lengthy and convoluted, and choosing the right lender is one of the most effective ways to avoid headaches and hassles down the road.

Let’s go through some general tips to guide you in the right direction.

Shop Around

Lenders appraise risk differently, so odds are that while one bank will place greater emphasis on your credit score, another one will look more closely at your personal finances and income. Before making a decision based on word of mouth or popularity, shop around and compare rates from different financial institutions.

Some years back, shopping around entailed going to different bank branches and requesting a Good Faith Estimate. Now, however, you have many more options at your disposal. You can still go to a physical branch and get a Loan Estimate with expected monthly mortgage payments, closing costs, and fees, but most financial institutions now let you get Prequalified online or over the phone in as little as minutes.

Experts generally recommend you get at least three quotes from different banks or lenders, but you can request as many as you need to make a sound financial decision. The catch, however, is that applying for prequalification will entail a hard credit pull, which can lower your credit score.

The best way to go about getting multiple quotes is to do so within a 45-day period. During that window, you should only apply for the same type of debt instrument, in this case, a mortgage.

The More Options, The Better

Again, the key to getting the best possible deal is to compare all the options available to you, and that includes loan options. Doing business with a lender that offers multiple types of loans and helps you navigate through them is one of the best ways to ensure you won’t have to refinance your mortgage soon after taking it on.

There are numerous types of home loans, from fixed- and variable-rate mortgages to FHA, VA, USDA, and Jumbo loans. Your first step should be to take some time and learn the difference. There are countless online resources out there to help you get the Best Mortgage Rates, but any loan officer should be able to explain all the alternatives as well as their pros and cons.

Communication is Key

Any good bank, credit union or online lender should be able to offer you three things: options, transparency, and detailed information. If you’re lender offers little to no guidance through online tools and resources, step-by-step assistance and support, and multiple ways to reach out at any stage of the process, you may want to reconsider your options.

This tip holds true for seasoned homebuyers and new ones alike. You want to know you’ll get the help you need to navigate your home purchase, and that should come in the form of patient, expert advice. Ask as many questions as you need to and don’t be satisfied until you get a thorough, in-depth explanation that answers your question in a way you can comprehend.

Do Your Homework

This one may sound like a no-brainer, but many first-timers fail to vet their lender properly and then find themselves in a sticky situation. While determining whether a company is reputable and transparent is easier said than done, there are regulatory agencies that collect consumer complaints and actions taken against lenders.

The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are two such entities publishing information regarding consumer complaints and regulatory actions against companies on a national level. While the number of complaints or actions against a lender might not be enough for you to make a decision, these are good starting points for further research.

For example, if a lender has received numerous complaints regarding a specific aspect of the mortgage process, like issues with collection, you might want to look for online customer reviews to determine if there is in fact a trend and whether or not the company seems to be committed to resolving the problem.

While having many complaints or regulatory actions might not seem auspicious, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker for homeowners if the lender takes immediate action to solve these. You should also consider that larger lenders are statistically bound to receive a greater share of complaints that small community banks.

Talk to Your Inner Circle

Finally, the last piece of advice we can give you is to talk to your friends and family who’ve taken out a mortgage to learn about their experiences and choices. Your needs and situation are likely different, but it’s great to learn from the mistakes of others and get their feedback on different aspects of the process, particularly customer experience.

Today’s Guest Post by Joey Santaella of Money.com

photo by:

Apr 15 2020

Are Home Inspections Safe Right Now?

During the process of selling your home, one of the important steps is always the home inspection segment where the buyers are allowed to have a licensed inspector come in and check different items throughout the house. The inspection process is rather in depth and they are going to go through virtually every section of your home to test things related to the electric, plumbing, heating/cooling & more. I wrote about that before in this article 5 Things Every Home Inspector Checks In Myrtle Beach.

With all the uncertainty currently in the world, the constant talks of Social Distancing and stay at home during this current pandemic, one of the questions I’ve been asked by clients that are currently selling their Myrtle Beach home is if they should allow home inspectors to come in during this time to do home inspections.

I figured to get the best answer to the question, I should ask one of the top home inspectors in Myrtle Beach, so I reached out to Justin Ferraro at Rivertown Property Inspections to get the best answer possible. Justin & his wife Elizabeth own this company and currently employ five full time inspectors and are averaging around 125 inspections per month. I did a meeting with them to discuss home inspections during the pandemic, and here’s what they had to say:

According to Justin & Elizabeth, allowing a home inspector during this time is a low risk item because they are testing for the signs of the virus, they are using proper precautions, and they are all certified with the COVID-19 Safety Guideline certification to know the proper ways to handle safety now.

It still is your option to say no to the inspection and your right to not allow someone in your home, but understand that if you do not allow the inspector to do their job, there is a very good possibility that the buyer will want to either pause the transaction or even cancel the sale. Know, the inspectors will follow proper precautions, wear proper safety gear, and do whatever they can to keep you safe while allowing for your home to be sold on time without the inspection process slowing things down.

If you have more questions about this subject, do not hesitate to contact me with any other questions you may have.

Mar 30 2020

The Golden Mile In Myrtle Beach, SC

It’s time to visit the Golden Mile in Myrtle Beach, SC. This is the section of the beach inside city limits that is a little over a mile long stretch where there are no hotels, but simply all oceanfront homes that sit along this stretch of beach.

A few weeks back, we had one of our first days of fantastic spring weather on a Saturday and so I decided to load the family up in the car and take them down to the beach to enjoy some sunshine. Here’s a quick video showing off the Golden Mile:

As I mentioned, this segment of the beach has no hotels in it. The Golden Mile is just million dollar plus homes, so when you head to the beach here, you can find public beach access points every 2-3 homes where you can park.

Parking is fairly affordable, and the City of Myrtle Beach has now switched over to using the Parkmobile App to make it even easier. We were there for just under two hours and the total cost was $4.10.

The Golden Mile is definitely our favorite places to go and visit on the beach because you are able to spread out and have your own space on the beach. What’s nice is that it is only about a 12 minute drive from our home in The Farm. So it is a quick and convenient trip from home.

Because there are not as many people on the beach here, if you wanted to bring along some frisbees or a football to toss with friends, you have plenty of space to run and not worry about accidentally hitting someone else. On this trip, we took along our kites to fly.

Here’s a few images from our recent trip:

So, if you are looking for a good section of the beach to visit where there won’t be quite as many people there as the higher tourist areas, I would highly recommend checking out The Golden Mile in Myrtle Beach!

Mar 18 2020

How To Avoid Wire Fraud When Buying a Myrtle Beach Home

When buying a home in Myrtle Beach, there are tons of things you have to pay attention to. This is why it is so vital to have a real estate agent to help you through the transaction. The agent is going help you with the purchase price, the inspections, financing, appraisals, and so much more.

After we have finally finished all negotiations and get that final notice that we are ready for closing, the attorney will send you instructions to make send money to make the purchase. Nowadays attorneys will not take money orders, certified checks or anything of the like for the purchase but instead want the funds to be wired straight to their account.

Because of this, it has caused more and more issues with hackers trying to grab these funds. One of the worst things that could happen is to wire $100,000 for the purchase of a home and have it accidentally go to the wrong account and be lost forever. Unfortunately, we have heard stories of this happening multiple times.

How The Hackers Do It

The typical way the hackers get you to send them the money actually comes through the agents email. What they do is use a phishing scam on the agent to access their account. They normally send us an email with something that appears to be a pre-approval letter where we have to log into a system to get the information that looks like it is requiring our email credentials.

Once they have our email credentials, they access the agents email from other places and monitor it sometimes for weeks until they see emails regarding wiring money for closing. Then they will send an email to the buyers saying that banks were changed and the wiring instructions have been updated with new routing & account numbers.

The email comes from their agent and so they think it’s official and true because they have no reason not to believe their agent who has been trustworthy the entire time through the transaction, so they simply take the new instructions, take it to the bank and wire to the new account.

You then show up the next day at the closing table ready to sign papers and close on a new home to find out the attorney never received your money. Bye the time everyone figures out what has happened, the money has been moved into multiple accounts and is never to be seen again.

How To Protect Your Wire

Whenever there is information sent like wiring instructions, you need to always double check that they came from the person you think they are from and that the numbers are correct. The absolute best way to confirm this is to pick up the telephone and call the attorney directly and ask them to confirm everything. Don’t simply send them an email asking if they are right because if their email is hacked, of course you are going to get a quick response saying they are accurate. Also, I’d refrain from texting as well as hackers can clone someone’s phone number for text messaging.

Next, don’t ever accept wiring instructions from your agent. As a Myrtle Beach REALTOR® I am never going to send you wiring information or get involved with this segment of the transaction. In fact in the footer of ever one of my emails is the following:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Never trust wiring instructions sent via email. Cyber criminals are hacking email accounts and sending emails with fake wiring instructions. These emails are convincing and sophisticated. Always independently confirm wiring instructions in person or via a telephone call to a trusted and verified phone number. Never wire money without double-checking that the wiring instructions are correct.

So when you get instructions, always confirm with the person by hearing their voice and making sure they are correct.

What If

So what do you do if you wire money to the wrong place? Well, the first step would be to reach out immediately to your bank and see if they can track things. Sometimes they can if it is soon enough and they can reverse things back into your account. But too many times the hackers are watching the account closely for the minute it registers they send from there to another account and then to another and another. When this happens it becomes virtually impossible to track and get your money back.

Once you speak to the bank, next contact your attorney right away and let them know of the mishap so that they can then alert all parties involved. Unfortunately, when these things happen, it usually means that the buyers can no longer afford to purchase and the sellers need to know quickly as well so that they can get on to trying to find a buyer for their home. You also will want to then reach out to local authorities and file a report. Who knows if they will be able to recover anything, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to get police involved too.

Hopefully this never happens to you that the hackers get your money. Be careful, remember to always verify on the phone and you should be good to go. If it does happen by chance, make sure to act swiftly and recover what you can.