Blog | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Oct 21 2014

Myrtle Beach Skywheel- A Time-lapse

When the Myrtle Beach Skywheel opened in May of 2011, nobody realized how iconic of a landmark it would become to the skyline of Myrtle Beach. The skywheel which stands at 187 feet tall is the second largest wheel in the country and has quickly become one of the most popular attractions in Myrtle Beach and photo spot for visitors to the beach. At night the colorful LED lights decorate the sky.

The wheel contains 42 enclosed gondolas and rides normally last 8-10 minutes as the wheel makes three full revolutions. While you are up in the sky you can see miles of the beautiful landscape along the coast. Tickets are $9.00 for children ages 3-11 & $13 for those 12 and up. For more information, visit their website.

Oct 20 2014

Things To Do Around Myrtle Beach- Brookgreen Gardens

One of the places my wife and I absolutely love visiting is Brookgreen Gardens. Brookgreen Gardens is located at 1931 Brookgreen Drive in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

What is Brookgreen Gardens? Well I am glad you asked! Brookgreen is a National Historic Landmark that is home to outdoor sculptures that have been designed by some of the most talented artists in the world. These sculptures are beautifully set in some of the most beautiful landscapes South Carolina has to offer. Also, Brookgreen Gardens is the only Zoo that is accredited by The Association of Zoos and Aquariums on the Coast of the Carolinas.

As you travel through the gardens, courtyards, outdoor pools, & terraces you will be captivated by the beautiful masterpieces of art. After touring all the sculptures visit the Lowcountry Zoo where you can find all types of animals that are native to the lowcountry. Here you can see Alligators, Bald Eagles, Owls, Red Tail Hawks, Foxes, White Tailed Deer, Wild Turkeys and much more. My favorite part of the zoo is walking through the different aviaries where you can see up close egrets, great blue herons, red head ducks, and more.

How much does it cost? This is one of my favorite parts of Brookgreen Gardens, prices are $13 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $6 for children. Your passes are good though for 7 days!!! I would definitely consider making this at least an all day trip if not a 2 day trip to cover everything. My wife and I have been there several times and each time we go back we find something new.

If you looking for a place to hold a wedding in the area, Brookgreen Gardens also has places to hold your wedding onsite.

So, if you are looking for things to do in Myrtle Beach & surrounding areas, I highly recommend you plan a trip to Brookgreen Gardens soon!

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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