Blog | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Mar 20 2018

Things To Do Outside To Prepare Your Home For A Spring Market Sale

The spring real estate market in Myrtle Beach has finally arrived! Happy first day of Spring! Since today’s the first day, I decided that I would share with you some simple things that you can do outside to your house to get your home ready for sale in this spring market. These items are fairly inexpensive to do and will not take a ton of time either. I’ll start with this video below sharing three and then elaborate more after.

Ok so the first thing you want to do with your house make sure the grass is looking great. Get your lawnmower out and cut the grass. Use the weed eater and get nicely trimmed edges along the sidewalks around flower beds, make it look pristine. You have to think, when people are pulling up to the house the first thing they are going to see is the grass in the front yard. If need be, buy a bag of fertilizer put it on and get your lawn looking great and green. Since we live in the south, plan on repeating this process every 7-10 days moving forward and all the way up until halloween.

The second thing that I want to talk about is along those same lines and it has to do with your flower beds. Go and buy yourself some mulch. Whether you go down to the Mulch Bucket and buy by the dump truck load or you go over to a place like Lowes or Home Depot and buy it by the bag. In our neighborhood, the local Boy Scouts troop is even doing a fundraiser where you can pay them and they will go purchase the mulch, deliver it and spread it out for you for a nominal fee.

Since we have three children, my wife and I do it ourselves and employ the children to assist. These bags are maybe going to run you $2-$3 a piece and you might spend $150-$200 to get the amount that you need to cover your yard but it is going to make a huge difference and it does a lot of things. It helps slow down the amount of weeds sprouting back up through mulch and gives your yard a nice vibrant pop of color on the flowerbeds. It helps to make the appeal of the outside of your house dramatic with a very minimal cost involved. Last year around this time we did this at my grandmothers house before placing it on the market in this helped to get her homes sold in under two weeks.

While you are at the store picking up the fertilizer and mulch, I’d also recommend picking up a few inexpensive flowers that you could plant as well to give an added pop of color to the outside of your home. You don’t have to go crazy spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars here, but just a few crates will make a big difference.

And the third thing that I would do, and actually I would do this one probably before putting the mulch out is get out the pressure washer. This thing right here is your best friend. Take it entire exterior of your home. If you have a side of your house that doesn’t get very good sun, you may start to have some mold/mildew growing on the side of the house. With a little bit of hard work and time, you can get that mildew removed off the side of the home in no time. Since we have such warm humid climates in Myrtle Beach, this unfortunately can cause the mildew you to grow quicker than in other parts of the country. I have to do this to my house 2 to 3 times a year.

While you have the pressure washer out, take it to your grill, take it to your smoker, take it to your patio, clean off all the pollen from the spring time coming through and it’s going to make a huge difference. This is going to take you a little bit of time, and a little bit of labor, but once again, the end result is going to be huge. I even use an attachment for the sidewalks and driveway to get them clean. Once again, you can do this project yourself, or hire somebody for a few hundred dollars to do it for you.

So here are a few simple tips to help you get your home ready for sale in Myrtle Beach for this year’s spring market. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Or, if you have a home that you want to sell this spring in Myrtle Beach, feel free to call me directly at 843-222-9402.

photos by: Kevin Doncaster & Decorative Concrete Kingdom

Mar 06 2018

3 Important Dates To Watch When Buying A Myrtle Beach Home

When you are buying a house or selling a home in Myrtle Beach, it’s really important that you pay attention to the dates that are written into the contract at three specific points. These are checkpoints throughout the contract time that you need to pay attention to and make sure you are on track for or it could cost you a lot of money or even the house.

Expiration of Offer

So the first date that is on a contract that is really important to look at is actually on the last page of the contract. Right there it talks about the offer that has been sent out how long that is good for. It is called the expiration of offer date. When someone submits an offer on a property, this is the amount of time the buyers are giving to the seller to either accept, reject, or submit a counter-offer back. The amount of time given by the buyer can be set to any amount of time. It could be 8-24 hours, 4 days, 8 days, or however long they thing is right.

If the property is a new listing that the buyers feel will not last long on the market, they will normally place a shorter time on the expiration of offer to try and get a response from the sellers before other offers come in. On the sellers side, if they feel they are getting a lot of traffic right off the bat on their new listing, and think they may receive multiple offers, they will many times counter back on the expiration asking the buyers to give them more time to make a decision, in hopes of another offer being submitted by another buyer.

It is crucial though for both parties to pay attention to the expiration of offers segment in the contract so that they do not allow an offer to expire without responding and losing the opportunity to either sell or purchase the home they are interested in. If the offer expires without it being excepted by both sides within the time period stated in the contract, you could definitely lose out on the home or selling it.

Conveyance/Closing/Possession

The second date that is really important to look at in an offer is the closing date. This is the date that is written into the contract that states on this date or within the certain period of time for the extension we are going to close and record on this property. If you are selling a property it is important because you want to know when am I going to get my money. If you are buying a property, it’s important to you as well because you want to know when can I take ownership of this new house and make it my own.

Now there is also going to be that extension put into the contract that is A number of days after a specified date in which the contract needs to close. This extension is put into offers as a failsafe in case there is a delay with the financing, an unforeseen weather occurrence, a medical emergency etc. The number of days for the extension is counted in business days in the state of South Carolina not just calendar days. If the property has not closed and recorded by the contract date and number of days in the extension, then both parties must agree to an extension on the contract to close at a later date.

Inspections

The third date that is really important to pay attention to when you are buying or selling a house is the inspection date. In the contract there is going to be date written in there that is going to say all inspections are going to be done by this time. Some contracts specify a actual day of the month, others simply say that all inspections must be completed within a certain number of days of contract acceptance.

As a buyer, it’s important to you that you get in touch with your home inspector and get that scheduled before that date goes past. Technically, if you do not complete all inspections within the specified time and the seller does not agree to it and extension period, you Have forfeited your rights to inspections.

If you are the seller, there is also a spot in that same section of the inspection part of the contract that talks about the date that once you receive the list of request of repairs that you have to figure out whether you are going to do them or not and respond back to the buyer during that time. If you do not respond during that time you are basically saying we are going to take it as is and handle all the things for you. As I have shared in the past, there are five main sections in the contract written that every home inspector is going to check in Myrtle Beach and what is covered in a contract as needing to be repaired to be placed back into good working condition.

So these are three main dates that when you are writing a contract you want to pay attention to when buying or selling a home in Myrtle Beach. If you have any questions related to this topic or anything else regarding buying or selling a home in Myrtle Beach, do not hesitate to contact me.

Mar 05 2018

Things To Do In Myrtle Beach- South Strand Recreation Center

My wife and I try to focus on with our kids are things to do in Myrtle Beach that do not just include time spent in front of a screen. We like our children being involved in activities outdoors, sports activities, or dance activities that give the experiences that they will remember for their lifetime.

One of the places where we are able to accomplish this is at the South Strand Recreation Center located at 9560 Scipio Lane in Myrtle Beach, SC 29588. We bring our children here on a regular basis to participate in league organized sporting events in Myrtle Beach that are put together by the Horry County Parks & Recreation Department. So far, our kids have done soccer a few years, my son has done one year of T-Ball, and this was their first year of Basketball.

The leagues normally run for around 8-10 weeks and include one game and one practice each week. The cost for participating in these activities normally range from around $35-$55 per child. This is an awesome opportunity for our children to learn a new sport, participate in group activities, and learn good life lessons on how to work well with others, encourage others, all while working on a skill for the game being played.

If you have a child and are looking for a great place for them to get involved in team sports, I would highly recommend checking it out. These events are put on by the Horry County Recreation Department and are held in various locations all along the Grand Strand.

In addition to the fun events for the children, they also run adult recreaction leagues in various sports too. So, you are an adult and want to get involved in a basketball league, or some other sport, I’d check it out too.

Feb 13 2018

An Inside Look At Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so if you haven’t made plans yet you better hurry to it. I’ve actually already discussed the most romantic places in Myrtle Beach that you can see that list here. Every year around this time, I have tried to take my oldest daughter out for a special daddy daughter date night to someplace special here in Myrtle Beach. This year we took an evening to go explore Ripley’s aquarium just the two of us.

For this weeks two minute Tuesday, I hope you enjoy our date as we explored around the aquarium together:

As you can see, we definitely had a fun time exploring the aquarium. We have purchased season passes the past two years for the aquarium because it is a great place to take the family for an outing on a less than stellar weather days. We usually end up visiting at least 1 to 2 times a month.

This trip however, was a special one because it was just me and my oldest daughter. Normally when we go, it’s the whole family together including her younger brother and sister. This time she was able to do everything on her own and not have to share the spotlight with any siblings.

As we drove to the aquarium, I asked her what were some of her favorite things to do in Ripley’s. She replied that she always enjoys seeing the sharks, the octopus, as well as the feeding shows and of course the mermaid show. However, her favorite part is always finding Gabby, the 60 year old sea turtle. She is normally hiding in one of the dark places in the tank. On this trip, Gabby decided to make an appearance and head up to the surface for a few moments which was definitely a highlight for us.

Of course, any trip to the aquarium would not be complete without touching the Horseshoe crabs, jellyfish, and also the stingrays and sharks. And as we do with just about every trip to the aquarium, we ended the night with a final walk down the noisy steps. My kids always enjoy running up and down them making as much noise as possible. Even though we have visited the aquarium many times over the past few years Including on Fourth of July the past two years, we still had a very enjoyable evening where we spent close to two hours walking around discovering things together again.

If you have children, and are planning a trip to the beach in the future, I would definitely try to add the aquarium on to your to do list. Especially if a rainy day creeps up and you need a fun activity to do indoors in Myrtle Beach.

Feb 07 2018

Tax Refund Season Helps With Myrtle Beach Home Ownership

Living in or around Myrtle Beach is a dream to many. Yet, a lot of renters think that owning a home on the coast is out of reach. Actually, during tax refund season, more buyers qualify over any other time of the year! There are several ways that tax refunds create more approved Horry County homebuyers. Let’s discuss these refund benefits as well as the home loans available for Myrtle Beach area buyers.

Using Tax Refund for Down Payment

Buying a home may come with hurdles for some and down payment is usually a primary roadblock. Although, tax refund season provides a solution for this potential issue. Even though the funds may not be in the bank account yet or has just been deposited, they are considered the buyer’s own funds. Plus, as soon as they are in the bank account, lenders consider the funds as usable immediately. If a buyer has not received the refund yet, just provide the filed tax return as proof!

First time buyers that are maybe just starting out on their own or have a new job, are often short on down payment. But, there are some great low down payment mortgage options where tax refunds may actually cover the full amount needed to buy. Home loan programs include FHA, VA, USDA, Conventional, and SC down payment assistance. Down payment requirement for these programs vary from 3.5% to zero down.

No Down Payment Loans Assisted by Tax Refunds Too

As mentioned above, there are no down payment loans as well. So, how do buyers using a no down payment loan benefit from tax refunds? Just because there is no down payment doesn’t mean these funds can’t be helpful. Keep in mind that there are closing costs on buying a home. Plus, buyers must pay the first year of insurance plus taxes and insurance escrow set up (if applicable). Therefore, a refund could cover part or all of these costs for a buyer.

Keep in mind that there is an additional way to cover these closing costs. The costs could be included in the price and home loan! In order to finance these costs, a purchase contract could include seller paid closing costs. Each loan type has certain limits to this assistance, although usually the limits will cover most or all costs.

Tax Refund Helps Buyers Qualify Easier

What if a buyer has a lower credit score, high debt to income ratio, or other issues which cause qualification problems? A refund could be used to pay off debts, pay down a credit card for increasing credit scores, or just used to increase the assets for a buyer’s qualification. These additional assets could take a buyer from a denial to a purchase loan approval. While determining an approval, mortgage underwriters and automated systems weigh positives and negatives of a file. Receiving a tax refund could bolster the buyer’s profile and could make a huge difference in qualification.

An important consumer message is not to withdraw a tax refund from a bank account and convert it to cash. Lenders will not allow cash funds towards buying a home. So rather than converting the refund to cash, keep the funds in the bank account.

Other Uses for Tax Refunds

Not only do refunds help in qualifying, but they also help in life. After buying a home, the buyer could use a refund to set up an emergency savings account. Things happen and having a savings cushion really helps in these areas. Plus, after buying a home, there are usually items to buy. These could include curtains, furniture, paint or buying a home warranty. You may even choose to buy a really cool beach picture for your new coastal home!

So if you are have a tax refund coming your way in the next few weeks, feel free to reach out & get the home search process started. You may be surprised what type of home you could afford in the Myrtle Beach market today! You can either call Jeremy at 843-222-9402 or contact him here.

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