Blog | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Feb 16 2016

Selling a Myrtle Beach Home- Unexpected Showings

So you have your home for sale in Myrtle Beach and your listing agent has just stuck the sign in the front yard. You have already painted all the walls & cleaned the house to perfection for the upcoming showings. But, what happens when someone shows up at the door wanting to see your home without an appointment. As crazy as this sounds, it is something that happens fairly often.

People are out driving the neighborhood and see a new sign in the yard. They quickly look up the property on their smartphone and the awesome photos your listing agent took make them have to see the property. They become so excited that this might be “the one” that they jump out of the car and rush to your door asking to view your home. When this happens, I would suggest you direct the person to contact your listing agent and not allow them access to the home. You never know if that person is legitimately interested in your home or if it someone who is going to rob you.

When you list your property, ask your agent for a stack of cards and keep them handy. Simply hand them a business card and let your agent handle the showing. Your safety isn’t worth a showing. They can schedule something for later that day or the next with your agent. Your agent has ways to verify that the person is serious about purchasing a home and knows the questions to ask to keep you and your home safe.

By having them schedule the showing through your listing agent, you can have a level of protection for you and your family. For more on the things I provide when selling a home in Myrtle Beach, contact me today! Let my marketing system that exposes your home to over 37,000 potential buyers in less than 24 hours work to help get your home SOLD today!

Feb 15 2016

Selling a Myrtle Beach Home- Leave During Showings

When selling your Myrtle Beach house, one of the biggest tips I can give to clients and to leave prior to the showing and leave the house vacant. The potential buyers want to have the ability to view the house freely without someone listening in or looming over their shoulder.

When the sellers are home, the potential buyers will not want to spend as much time viewing the home. Also, they will not speak freely as they don’t want to take a chance of offending the sellers. The best option is to leave the property and let the new buyers view the property with freedom with their agent.

If you have pets, I suggest taking the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, or loading them into the car and going for a drive. Also, there can be major liability to the potential sale of your property if you get into discussion with the buyers and their agent. While you think you might just be helping your cause by talking about how desperate you are to get this home sold because you have an offer on another property already, it can actually backfire on you.

The buyers & their agent will see that as someone desperate to get their home sold and they know you are on a tight timeline. They might offer you much less then because they know you are in need of a quick sale to keep from losing another home. If you are not present during the showing, then you won’t have anything to be concerned about with potential buyers or making them feel uncomfortable in your home.

If you are considering selling your home, contact me today to learn how my marketing plan can get your property exposed to over 37,000 people online within the first 24 hours of being placed on the market.

Feb 01 2016

Life Changes

I made reference the other day to my recent journey to the Grand Strand Medical Center and thought that today I would take a few moments to explain what I’ve been up to the past two months, my recent diet changes, and why I’m suddenly interested in working out & eating healthier.

Around last August I found myself becoming increasingly tired all the time and not having any energy throughout the day. I also had started to develop an annoying cough that just wouldn’t go away. I’ve had my nose broken twice when I was little, so I didn’t think too much of the cough, it’s something that I’ve dealt with a lot over the past few years and the chronic post nasal drip. In the past, some good sleep and a few days of taking Zyrtec would resolve the issue.

Right before Thanksgiving I was feeling miserable, so I took a quick visit to a local Dr.’s Care here in Myrtle Beach. On that visit, the Dr said to me that my blood pressure had been a little high. He asked if I had a coughing fit before entering the office to which I answered yes and he attributed the high numbers to that. He said if it stayed high come back & he would give me something for it. He handed me a prescription for a nasal spray and an antibiotic & sent me on my way.

My wife & I packed up the kids & headed to Atlanta to spend the holiday with her family. Needless to say, I was not myself during that trip and was miserable. I spent most of it laying around and feeling like crud. I’d find myself out of breath and having no energy. At night I couldn’t get to sleep and then during the day would be so tired to go and do anything with the family.

We came back home and still I continued feeling like crud the next 2 weeks. Not getting any better, and the cough staying around I finally on Friday Dec 11, I told my wife I was going back to Doctor’s Care and wasn’t leaving till I had answers. I was tired of not being able to rest, being out of breath, and coughing constantly.

Upon arriving, they took me in the back and did the normal weight, height, temp, BP readings. However when they tried to get my blood pressure, they kept having problems. I told them that it was probably a little high and that it was on my last visit too. After 3 nurses trying to take it & all not getting good results, the Dr. finally came in to see me.

He informed me that an ambulance was on the way to take me straight to the hospital. He told me that this was not a good situation. When I got the ER, the nurse there said that I was a hypertensive crisis patient with extremely high blood pressure. It was 247/173 at that moment & was a high risk for stroke at any second. Normal blood pressure is 120/80.

I ended up being admitted directly into the progressive care unit where I spent the next several days connected to some pretty heavy medicine to work on lowering my pressure. I had IV’s of straight nitroglycerin trying to help as well as a barrage of various BP medicines. Because it had been so high for so long, they said they couldn’t risk it being lowered to quickly or I could stroke from that as well. Finally, on December 16th they had my pressure into a range they liked and sent me home.

I met with a family care physician since then as well as a Cardiologist & Kidney Specialist and they all basically told me the same thing to which we have been adhering. First, they said I needed to limit the amount of sodium intake. Some of the things that we used to make on a regular basis for dinner had to be eliminated. Some of the things that shocked me being high in sodium were things like cheese tortellini and italian breadcrumbs. I’ve also changed my breakfast routines. What used to be filled with bacon & sausage has now been replaced with protein shakes and snacks have been replaced with unsalted peanuts.

Each morning I try to wake up early and hit the treadmill for at least 25-40 minutes. While I don’t find this to be a fun thing to do, I’ve found Netflix Movies help the time to pass by quicker on the iPad. I’ve also cut back the amount of soda intake. Since I’m not a coffee drinker, I used to have at least 1-2 sodas a day for caffeine. I’ve cut back this to maybe 1-2 sodas a week. As I told my wife, the doctors all said low sodium, not no sodium. So when I have a craving for one, I’ll have a little here or there. If I tried to go cold turkey, I know myself I’d binge back and have zero self control.

I’m now a little over 6 weeks into the new me and I’m already down almost 50 pounds and feeling much better each and every day. I visited a doctor on Friday and my blood pressure was 124/76 which was almost perfect. I once again can play with the kids without being out of breath. I can pick up my 17 month old and hold her without feeling like I’m about to pass out. Life is getting healthier each and every day in our house. I’ve got a lot to live for with an amazing wife and three awesome kids and I plan to be around for a very long time to cherish it with them all.

Jan 27 2016

The Life Of A Real Estate Agent

RE/MAX just released their newest marketing campaign and I think it is fantastic. Their tagline “Doing more from FOR SALE to SOLD- That’s the sign of a RE/MAX agent.” I think sums it up perfectly. Unlike some of the discount brokerages that are out there, we do more to help our clients get their homes sold or help a buyer to purchase a home. There are many things that we as agents do that never get reimbursed for.

One of the questions I get asked the most as a Myrtle Beach real estate agent is what exactly do I do on a daily basis. Many people who buy or sell a home only see the commission that I collect when there is a successful contract that gets accepted, and gets to the closing table. For some, they feel it’s way too much money that we receive. What many do not realize, is that until you close on the property, you do not make a paycheck normally.

This means the countless hours you spend search through the MLS searching for properties for a client, time spent driving around Myrtle Beach showing properties, does not generate a paycheck. If you have a client that cannot get financing and you’ve spent the past 6 weeks showing them properties, writing up offers, doing home inspections, and everything else, you don’t collect a paycheck.

If the person decides after working with you for countless hours not to purchase a property and use you, you don’t get paid for those services. If they have not signed up with you a buyers agency agreement, you can spend months working with someone to have them go buy with someone else and you never receive any reimbursement.

We spend time working hand in hand with the lender to make sure that our buyers have their financing completed properly and on time for closing day. This is just one small item that we can end up spending countless hours on that is never even known by our buyers. Coordinating a closing between the bank and the attorney can sometimes be quite the balancing act to make sure all parties are prepared on closing day.

Of course, then there is the home inspection part. This is where things can sometimes become very tricky. While parts of the contract cover certain items pretty clearly, there are always areas of grey here that can really make a deal go awry quickly. While the contract doesn’t cover things like broken tiles, windows that don’t stay open, they are sometimes the cosmetic types of things that can make a deal fall apart when the buyers want them fixed and a seller refuses. If we can’t play the role of peacemaker, the deal can fall apart and with that so does our paycheck.

So in conclusion, while we might get a decent paycheck from time to time at closing, most people forget about all the work we have done over the past few months before getting to the closing table. As a RE/MAX agent, I’m proud to say I’m part of a team that goes above & beyond average to make sure our clients get the best service possible.

Jan 22 2016

Home Prices In South Carolina Are Highest In Over 10 Years

The South Carolina REALTORS Association just released a very comprehensive video that is a year end real estate market update for the state. Below is the video for you to watch:

The highlights:

2015 was the best year we have experienced in real estate in SC since 2009. Sales remained strong while the inventory stayed steady, along with interest rates remaining low meant we had a very strong year in the state. The number of closed sales passed over 70,000 units for the year. This is something that hasn’t happened since before 2006. This is an 11.6% increase over 2014.

The inventory of homes on the market dropped down to 33,800 homes or an 8.2% decrease in inventory. Experts believe that as interest rates start to rise, it will spur on more activity making the amount of homes on the market to go even lower. We are now down to a statewide inventory of 5.5 months. This is a 19.1% decrease over 2014 and a strong sign that we are once again on the way to becoming a sellers market.

The average home price in South Carolina also rose in 2015 to $172,000. This is a 6.2% increase in price over 2014. Also, this is the highest home values have been in South Carolina in the past 10 years. Those thinking of selling their home, shows that now is the best opportunity to get the highest price for your home in a very long time.

If you would like more information on selling your home or buying a property here in Myrtle Beach, do not hesitate to contact me.