Blog | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Dec 18 2019

3 Mistakes To Avoid In A Real Estate Transaction

Whether you are buying or selling a home in Myrtle Beach, there are some mistakes that you want to avoid during the transaction that can make the purchase or sale of a home more difficult. Check out this video below to watch quick video of what these three mistakes are:

Vacation

Everyone needs a vacation right? Yes, we all definitely need time away where we can simply relax unwind and disconnect. One of the best ways to do this is to take a cruise. Unfortunately taking a cruise on the week before buying or selling a home is not a good idea.

When buying a home, there are several times throughout the process the lender will need more documentation for the underwriters to clear the conditions placed on the loan. If you are unable to deliver these documents in a timely manner, it could make it impossible to close on time.

Or, say you are in the process of buying a home and the week before closing you are on a boat when the lender is trying to get in touch with you to review the closing disclosure and sign off. Due to the laws established by TRID in 2017, buyers must sign a disclosure and there must then be a 3 day waiting period before the loan can be funded and the sale recorded.

If you are out of the country on vacation or on a cruise ship without access to your email when the lender sends you the disclosure, you will not be closing the day after you return from your trip because the time period will prevent it.

Or, if you are selling a home in a gated community in Myrtle Beach like Waterbridge and you out of the country without any way to communicate with your REALTOR® for the weeks leading up to the sale of your home and a repair request comes in for the buyer. As I’ve shared in the past, one of the items your agent helps you negotiate after the contract is the home inspection repairs. If this communication does not happen, it could cost you the sale of your home.

So while you think a vacation is something you have to do right then, it can be a very bad idea to take during a real estate transaction.

Get The Right Attorney

To buy or sell a home in Myrtle Beach, you need to have an attorney to represent you in the process and to get the transaction recorded at the court house. So whether you love or hate attorneys, it is a necessity in order to do any type of real estate transaction here.

Too many times I run into clients who want to use a high school friend who is an attorney now to try & save a few dollars in the transaction. The issue is that normally this can end up causing more problems then the little amount of money you will save.

When buying a home in Myrtle Beach, the attorney is responsible for reviewing the chain of title on the property you are purchasing to make sure it is clear and that you are able to be issued a clear title on the property. While with some properties that isn’t that big of a deal, on others it can be much more work as they may have to go back through 30-40 years of research and look through a chain of ownership that could be very long.

Having an attorney that does this type of work every day is crucial to make sure you have no issues during the purchase or an issue come up when trying to sell. This past year I had issues come up more than once on transactions with title issues and all of them came from when the person purchased the home and used an attorney that doesn’t specialize in real estate.

In one situation, it was for a client of mine trying to purchase a house had a title issue that was found when the property was sold 2 owners prior and required weeks of work tracking down heirs of the previous owner to have them sign documents in order for my clients to be able to purchase a property with an insurable title. So when buying, always pick an attorney that handles real estate transactions on a regular basis.

Living Life

This one is kinda obvious, but if you were to pass away during the transaction, it will make it almost impossible to buying a property or sell one. Now, selling a home can still happen if one of the sellers passes away, but you would definitely want to have all the correct types of documents in place.

This includes owning the property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship so that if one of the owners passes away their ownership rights automatically pass to other owners. This is the quickest way to keep the property transaction in place.

If you don’t own it with rights of survivorship, then it is really important to have some sort of will in place stating who inherits the property. I had a client who was trying to purchase a condo this year where the seller had passed away and it was an estate property.

The representative for the estate tried to probate the property, but there was no will in place so they had to get documents signed off by all the heirs of the deceased which are currently located all around the world and not local. So we have now been waiting over 6 months on these items to be completed so that my buyer can eventually purchase the home.

If there was a will in place that was properly executed in South Carolina, none of these issues would be present. The executor would have been able to take the notarized will to the court house, process the estate and we would have been able to do the transaction with no problems. But because this wasn’t in place, we unfortunately are now months into this with no idea when we will be able to actually purchase the condo.

Avoiding the Mistakes

So avoid these three mistakes when you are either buying or selling a property and the transaction will be able to happen much faster. In our market, the average days from contract to closing is around 30-45 days. But, if you make one of these mistakes, the transaction could take considerably longer if it is even able to be done.

Nov 20 2019

Getting The Final Amounts For Closing on a Myrtle Beach Home

Congratulations! It’s almost closing day and you are excited to purchase that fantastic home in Myrtle Beach! Your agent has helped you through the search process, connected you with a lender for the loan, helped you find the right closing attorney, negotiated repairs on the home, and we are now only a few days from closing!

But, you are stressing out because nobody has given you a final amount you will need for closing to transfer yet. Unfortunately, here in Myrtle Beach, it is fairly common for the final figures to not be ready until just a day or two prior to closing.

There are a lot of things that factor into when the final amounts are calculated and each and every thing gets figure down to the day. So things like taxes, HOA dues, interest, all are calculated to the day. This means if you close on the 31st of a month versus the first can alter those numbers greatly that are due on the day of recording. That being said, attorneys & lenders do not have the final amounts calculated until there is a clear to close notice given from the lender.

Once that is given, everyone can then plan for that day, start calculating and give you final numbers of how much will be needed for the day of closing.

So, if you are stressed about not knowing how much just yet, do not stress, it is normal, and nothing to worry about. You will get that number and then be able purchase that awesome Myrtle Beach Home.

Nov 07 2019

The Parks of Carolina Forest- [VIDEO Tour]

The Myrtle Beach market is still going strong and DR Horton recently released a new neighborhood in the Carolina Forest Section called The Parks Of Carolina Forest. This is an awesome new neighborhood that when completed will have over 800 residences in it.

I recently helped some buyers looking at homes in Carolina Forest discover The Parks of Carolina Forest and I was able to help them be one of the first buyers to purchase a home in this neighborhood. We were actually the second to closed in the neighborhood. So, the other day I went back to visit the models and sit down with an onsite agent there to discuss things in The Parks of Carolina Forest.

Here’s a quick video tour of the neighborhood:

The amenities in this neighborhood are going to be amazing and the fact that the Huger Park is nestled right in the middle of the neighborhood makes it even better.

The Parks of Carolina Forest is located just a few minutes from just about anything you could want including shopping, golf, restaurants, the intracoastal waterway, & the beach. You can jump on the easily accessible highway 31 and go north to little river or head south to Murrells Inlet in no time.

If you would like to view current homes for sale in The Parks of Carolina Forest, go here. To learn more about The Parks of Carolina Forest, please contact us.

Oct 23 2019

Things To Do In Myrtle Beach- Alligator Adventure

The beautiful fall weather has arrived here in Myrtle Beach and it is absolutely magnificent. During the fall, you can expect weather here in Myrtle Beach to range from the high 50’s during the night to mid 70’s/80’s during the daytime. To me this is my favorite weather and I love being able to get outside and take full advantage of things.

So last weekend we decided to take the kids on a trip up to Alligator Adventure at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach. We have visited here several times over the years while living here in Myrtle Beach, but this still remains one of kids favorite things to do in Myrtle Beach. One quick tip, ask for the local discount and you will save greatly on the cost of admission.

Here’s a video showing off our trip:

My kids always enjoy the live touch show, where this time they were able to touch a live Pancake Tortoise, a Snake, and also a small alligator. During the show, they share with you a bunch of information on each of the creatures.

Our other favorite parts of visiting Alligator Adventure is seeing the Albino Alligators, Utan the largest Crocodile in the United States, the BOB an alligator without a tail, & also Grandpa, a very old alligator with hardly any teeth left.

We spent the good part of the day there at Alligator Adventure visiting all the different exhibits & seeing two of the feeding shows which you definitely want to see in person.

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Alligator Adventure:

So, if you are looking for a fun thing to do in Myrtle Beach, Definitely check out Alligator Adventure!

Sep 17 2019

Carolina Forest Playground- Palmetto Adventure Land Playground

My main job each and every day is selling Myrtle Beach homes, but when I’m not busy with real estate, I am a father to my 3 three children. Right now, their ages are 11, 9, & 5. The other day after the storm, my wife needed some peace & quiet in the house for an hour or so to do some work, so I loaded the kids into the car.

Now that we live in The Farm at Carolina Forest, we have started to explore all types of new experiences of things do do around this area of Carolina Forest & Myrtle Beach. The first thing that came to mind for a fun outing was a trip over to the Carolina Forest Playground officially known as the Palmetto Adventure Land Playground.

This playground is located in the heart of Carolina Forest behind the Library & Recreation center off of Carolina Forest Blvd. This is literally right in the middle of the area with The Parks Subdivision on one side, Plantation Lakes on the other, and Indigo Bay, The Farm at Carolina Forest, Summerlyn, & Waterbridge across the street.

For fun, I decided on this trip to the playground to take along the camera and let the kids have fun capturing memories and helping me make a video of the playground. Here’s what they came up with:

My kids love running all over this playground on all the different ramps, slides, swings, and more. Some of their favorite parts these days are the tire swing, the climbing wall, and the large slide.

When our children were younger, we always loved going to the Carolina Forest Playground because we could let our children play in the toddler area that is sectioned off from the more intense and larger sections and they could play in a safe environment on things designed specifically for their size & age.

Outside the playground area is a digital game which is also a favorite of my children to play when visiting the Carolina Forest Playground. There are also some covered areas which can be reserved for private events. These areas are covered and would be perfect for a small birthday party.

Here’s a few images:

So in closing, if you are looking for something fun to do with the children, I would definitely check out the Carolina Forest playground!