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Jan 16 2018

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Buying A Myrtle Beach Home In 2018

It’s time for another Two Minute Tuesday where today we are going to discuss 5 mistakes to avoid when buying a Myrtle Beach home in 2018. If you don’t feel like reading, you can watch this video where I give you the summary of this entire post.

Today I’m going to share with you the top 5 most common mistakes I’ve seen buyers make when purchasing a home over the last several years. We’ve written a contract on a home here in Myrtle Beach, the buyers are excited and have already moved into the new home in their minds and forget about something very important still needing to happen, the financing. Over the past 17 years in this business, I’ve run into these 5 items on more than one occasion so I figured I’d share them with people thinking of buying a home in the next year to save you some headaches and issues.

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Home in 2018

1. Don’t go change jobs. We see too many times where somebody changes jobs the week before closing or they are moving here from another state and while they may have a job lined up, they now have no employment. Almost every lender that I deal with will do a final check up on employment the week before closing to make sure the borrower still has that steady source of income.

If the source of income has disappeared, the lender isn’t going to give you a few hundred thousand dollars to purchase a home if they cannot see that you will have the ability to repay on the mortgage. Now, if you are transferring from one location to a location here within the same company doing the same job with basically the same pay, then you are fine. This won’t cause an issue. If you are changing careers or going to pursue something completely different, wait a few months after you have your home to make that change.

2. Paying Off Your Debt- The second thing that causes problems when you are trying to purchase a house is you were to go and pay off all your debt. A common misconception that buyers have when purchasing a home is that if they can reduce their debt more, it can make them more qualified to purchase. While this is partially true in the sense that it does help with your debt to income ratios, it actually can cause more harm by closing out several credit lines. When you pay off those lines of credit, your score can actually go down in a negative manner that can make your credit score too low to qualify.

Before you start paying off all your debt, talk to the lender. Sometimes they will tell you that you need to pay off something in order to qualify, but in other instances they will tell you not to because it could be a negative effect. Many times the best option is to just keep making monthly payments till after closing and then pay off those small loans.3. Keeping your down payment in cash. Unfortunately there are some people that just do not trust in banks. They do not trust in their systems so they keep their money in cash, either tucked under a mattress, in a piggy bank, or in a coffee can in the back of the toilet. Unfortunately when that happens, you do not have that money in a seasoned fund which is what the banks are looking at when they are trying to give you a loan.

I remember a client who was ready to purchase a condo in Myrtle Beach and the lender could not qualify him for the small loan because the gentleman didn’t trust in banks and kept the $100,000 he was going to use to purchase at home. He was only trying to get a loan for around $75,000 but because the part he was bringing to the table wasn’t seasoned funds, it delayed the closing and almost lost him the property.

4. Making large purchases. Listen, I get that your car may be old and it’s breaking down. But try to make it through purchasing your home and closing before running to dealership and buying a new vehicle. If you are wanting new furniture for your new house, don’t go to the furniture store and purchase it on a credit card.

If the furniture store asks you “Do you want to buy this on 6 months same as cash deal?” Just say no! What they are going to do is open a credit card for you that a payment isn’t due for an extended period of time. But, it will be a lowering on your credit score, and an increase on your overall debt. When those things happen it could knock you out of the ability to get the actual financing for your new home. So you may end up with a brand new sofas and no place to them.

5. Do not change banks. Your money is sitting right now in an institution. If you take that money and move it over to somewhere else or transfer it over to another account, it then becomes non-seasoned funds. You need to have that money sitting still for 30-60 day period so that the bank can see this is the actual money that you are using for a down payment and it is actually yours.

The banks what to see that this money isn’t money that somebody gave you and will want it back, it’s not money that you stole from somewhere, and it’s not something you got from a credit card cash advance. The reason for the 30-60 day time period is so that if you did get it as a loan from somewhere, it will have time to show up on your credit report.

Wrap Up

In closing, I want to make one final point. When you are purchasing a home, the lenders are going to do a final check on everything related to you and any other borrowers on the loan. When you apply for the loan, you answer some basic questions related to employment, your current assets, your current debt, and current credit score. These numbers is what a lender uses to determine if you qualify for a loan.

These items will then be verified by the lender of the next few weeks after application has been made to make sure you are telling them the truth. Then, a few days prior to closing after all the title work, appraisals, and inspections are done, the lender will then do a final check to make sure that all the information you gave in the beginning is still true and that nothing major has been changed since the original application.

If anything does change, that will be the difference between you purchasing your new Myrtle Beach house or not. If you have any other questions regarding mistakes to avoid when buying a home in Myrtle Beach in 2018, feel free to call me at 843-222-9402 or you can contact me through the website.

photo by: cafecredit

Jan 11 2018

Most Expensive Homes Sold On The Grand Strand In 2017

That’s right! It’s time for the annual Myrtle Beach luxury home wrap-up where I share with you the 10 most expensive homes to sell along the Grand Strand in this past year. This marks the 4 year in a row that we have shared this real estate information with you. Now while you may not be able to afford a luxury home in Myrtle Beach at this time, it is always fun to see these beautiful grand homes with the high price tag.

Since this is the fourth installment, you may want to check out previous years which you can see 2014, 2015, and 2016 here. Below you will find listed the 10 most expensive homes to sell during 2017 along The Grand Strand from least expensive to most expensive.

10. 1277 DeBordieu Blvd, Georgetown, SC 29440- $2,110,000 The first home in our top 10 this year was a fantastic opportunity in DeBordieu Colony to not only own an amazing oceanfront home, but also purchase the lot next door as well. This 5 bedroom 5.5 bath oceanfront home was sold with a second sub-dividable oceanfront lot next door. As you enter this home there was a grand double staircase that greeted you that is gorgeous.

9. 1837 S. Waccamaw Drive, Garden City Beach, SC 29576- $2,115,000 8 Bedrooms, 7.5 baths were found in this oceanfront home in Garden City. Only 3 years old and with over 5,000 square feet inside helped place this home easily on our top ten list this year. In addition to being oceanfront, this home also had it’s own private swimming pool and a breakfast bar where you could sit 10 people.

8. Lot 6 Atlantic Avenue, Pawleys Island, SC 29585- $2,200,000 The was our first new construction home to top the list in a long time. This was a 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath new home situated in the Assey section of Pawleys Island. It featured both ocean and inlet views as well as access to a shared dock with gazebo.

7. 9857 Bellasera Circle, Myrtle Beach, SC 29579- $2,250,000 At number 7 was a beautiful home in the Grande Dunes. This home featured 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths a movie theater, dynamic kitchen, and an infinity pool with amazing views of the Intracoastal Waterway.

6. 40 Seaview Loop, Pawleys Island, SC 29585- $2,250,000 This 5 bedroom 6.5 bath home was only one year old when it sold in July of 2017. With all of the porches & decks this home featured it had over 7,300 square feet under roof of space for entertaining. You could walk right out the back door of this home right down your own private deck onto the beach in North Litchfield.

5. 1145 S. Waccamaw Drive, Murrells Inlet, SC 29576- $2,350,000 While we marveled at the under roof size of our #6 home on the list, this property had more square footage in just the heated segment at over 7,500 heated square feet. This home had an amazing 10 bedrooms, 10.5 baths, a private heated pool, elevator to all three floors, and a kitchen with 2 of everything. That’s right, 2 refrigerators, 2 dishwashers, 2 microwaves, & 2 washers & dryers.

4. 1201 Norris Drive, Pawleys Island, SC 29585- $2,400,000 Built in 2002 this 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath oceanfront was found on the Peninsula at Inlet Point and had some amazing ocean views while being only steps to the beach.

3. 100 Ocean Park Loop, Georgetown, SC 29440- $2,500,000 For number 3 on our list of 10 most expensive homes sold in 2017, we head back to DeBordieu Colony. This 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath oceanfront masterpiece was built in 2001 and featured heated floors even in the bathrooms.

2. 6502 N. Ocean Boulevard, Myrtle Beach, SC 29572- $2,892,000 Our second most expensive home to sell in 2017 was the highest price sale in the city of Myrtle Beach for the entire year. This oceanfront home built in 2013 along the Golden Mile featured stainless steel commercial appliances, quartz countertops, and a dramatic infinity pool with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean.

1. 1344 Parker Drive, Pawleys Island, SC 29585- $3,298,500 As the only home to break the 3 million dollar mark for 2017, this stunning home sat in it’s own private reserve overlooking the ocean and Huntington State Park. This home featured an energy efficient system that kept heating and cooling this home to an average bill of around $37 for the year in this 4,350 heated square foot home. This home was purchased with all cash as well.

So now that I’ve share the most expensive homes sold, what does this mean for the Myrtle Beach Luxury Homes market in 2018?

Myrtle Beach Luxury Market Stronger Than Ever

In 2017, more homes over one million dollars have sold in Myrtle Beach than in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, there were 49 Million dollar homes that sold for a total of $77 million in inventory. In 2015, there were 64 million dollar properties that sold for a total inventory of over 95 million. 2016 saw 72 luxury homes in Myrtle Beach sell for 101 million in inventory. 2017 crushed those numbers with 88 homes selling with price tag above 1 million for a total inventory cost of $128,646,000.

In comparison to the market in 2016, there spread between luxury home prices is trending upward. While last year there were 2 properties to sell for 3 million, the next closest price was 2.195 million. This year the average sold price of our top 10 list came in at an astounding $2,436,500. Also, this is the first time since we began reporting this information that all of the top ten most expensive homes to sell on The Grand Strand were over 2 million.

Breaking the Sales Down

When you break down the top 10 list for 2017, I found it interesting that half of the properties were sold with financing while the other 5 were purchased with all cash. That shows me people see the value in investing into our local real estate market. Also, all of the luxury homes sold this past year had some sort of water feature attached to the home. Most had a view of the ocean, or marsh, and one even had the intracoastal waterway. Once proving that waterfront properties remain in high demand, especially when it comes to luxury home buyers.

When you break down the sections of the beach, more luxury homes were sold in Pawleys Island than any other section of the beach again this year with 34 homes. Myrtle Beach zip codes came in second with 26 properties sold, Garden City with 14, North Myrtle Beach 9, Surfside Beach 3, Murrells Inlet 2, and one outside the area, were sold this past year for over a million dollars. So, if you are looking for a luxury property, your best bet is to look either in Pawleys Island or Myrtle Beach it would seem.

What’s Available For Sale Now?

Below you will find all current luxury homes for sale in Myrtle Beach that are over one million.

Pawleys Island Luxury Homes

If you found this post interesting, would you do me a favor & share it with your friends? Also, if you are interested in purchasing a luxury home along the Grand Strand, feel free to call me at 843-222-9402 or contact me through my site.

Obviously, not everyone can afford a luxury home like the ones listed above. Did you know that the average property I sell in Myrtle Beach this past year was under $150,000? While property values continue to rise in Myrtle Beach, there still are plenty of options out there to find affordable housing in Myrtle Beach. I’d love the opportunity to help you find your perfect home that fits your needs in any price range. Do not hesitate reaching out to me today to discuss.

Dec 26 2017

Does it Cost More To Buy A Myrtle Beach Home With An Agent?

One of the questions I get asked regularly is how much more does it cost me to have you represent me when buying a Myrtle Beach home Jeremy? See, there is this common misconception that it costs more money to have an agent work on your behalf when purchasing a home for sale in the area. Buyers just remember seeing on a closing statement this large amount of money that is being paid to an agent and they immediately think that they could have saved more money by not using an agent, or just using the listing agent. Unfortunately this type of thinking is completely inaccurate in most cases.

Section 5 of the Exclusive Right To Buy Buyer Agency Contract from the SC REALTORS® it goes through in great detail how someone is compensated. To be completely transparent with you on what these options are, I’ve attached a screenshot of this segment of the contract below:

Three Ways An Agent Gets Paid

As you can see, there are only 3 ways that an agent can be paid. Some of these options include you paying out of pocket to have an agent to represent you. But in almost all cases, you do not have to pay. The first way, is via a Retainer Fee in which the buyer pays a nonrefundable retainer fee of agreed upon amount that is due at time of signing the contract. This can then sometimes be applied to the brokerage fee as well.

The second option is a Service Fee in which the buyer pays the broker a service of an agreed upon amount that is paid whether or not buyer purchases any property. There’s options as to whether that’s all an agent receives or if there is the ability to earn more as well.

The third option is for an agent to receive compensation from a brokerage fee, which is the way I’ve worked with almost all of my clients purchasing a home in Myrtle Beach. See, when someone lists their home for sale with an agency, they sign a listing agreement that not only discusses the total amount of commission the seller is willing to pay out, but it also discusses how much the seller wants to have offered to the agent bringing the buyer.

Seller Pays Agent, Not The Buyer

See screenshot from SC REALTOR® Exclusive Right To Sell Agreement:

As you can see in the above graphic, the seller has signed an agreement already to pay the agent bringing the buyer to their property long before you have ever even seen the home. They sign this listing agreement prior to an agent processing any type of paperwork. This all gets done long before any offers have been made by the buyer. So the seller pays, not the buyer.

Will I Save By Using The Same Agent?

Some think that if they use the listing agent they will save money because they are representing both sides. The thing is, when this happens, all you do is place even more money into that agents pocket. They get the selling side and the buying side. Yes, they are going to end up doing much more work, but you as a buyer are not going to get the best representation from that agent due to the fact that they already have a relationship in place with the seller of the property. They have already spent weeks working on their behalf, marketing their property and building that relationship.

When you hire the agent as a dual agent, they basically just become a messenger then working on your side and also on the seller side. All the agents can do then is let you know what the seller said and convey to the seller whatever information you want them to do. They can’t give you as much consultation and the absolute best representation because they have to remain impartial. At the end of the day, seller is going to get the same amount of money out of the deal, you don’t get as good representation, and the dual agent gets an even larger check. So this option doesn’t really help you at all.

Any Chances The Buyer Pays?

Now, there is a scenario where the buyer would have to actually pay a commission to a buyers agent which would only take place if the buyers have a signed agreement in place and then proceed to try and purchase a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) in which the seller does not agree to work with an agent. In the past 17 years in this business, I have yet to find one who will not at least agree to hire work with a real estate agent that has a ready willing able buyer present wanting to purchase their home. Most of the time, the sellers will gladly pay what the agent has placed in section C of the compensation section as long as the person buys their home. But, if the FSBO decides that they will not pay, and the buyers are set on purchasing that particular property, then the payment to the agent would become the responsibility of the buyer to pay either the specified amount or percentage that was agreed upon at the time of signing the agreement.

Other than this exception, it does not cost anything extra to have an agent represent you when buying a home in Myrtle Beach.

What About Buying New Construction In Myrtle Beach?

The other common misunderstanding is that when someone buys a new construction home in Myrtle Beach that they will end up paying more for the home when they go to a neighborhood with a buyer versus going on their own. This statement is totally incorrect. When someone has an agent represent them with the purchase a new home from the builder, they normally will end up saving them money, or help them negotiate upgrades into the sale.

I recently helped some awesome buyers from North Carolina purchase a home here in Myrtle Beach from one of the many national builders in the area. I was able to negotiate several thousands of dollars off the purchase price as well as get the buyers an $6,000 upgraded tile shower, a large concrete patio, 6 ceiling fans, appliances, and much more. If that buyer had gone into the neighborhood on their own, they probably would not have tried negotiating the price at all with the builder or ask for any of the various upgrades.

I had estimate till it was over I saved them close to $10,000 off the purchase price as well as another close to $13,000 in upgrades in the home. Having agency representation whey buying new construction definitely pays! The build also then paid me a commission for bringing the buyer for this home.

Wrap Up

So in closing, the one thing I always say to buyers when meeting with them and explaining how buyer agency works is this: Make sure to hire someone to represent you. I hope that the person hired is me, but I know that isn’t always the case. The main thing is to find an agent that you can relate to and work well with. Once you find that person, sign the agency agreement and let them work on your behalf. Just make sure you have the right fit before signing the agency contract. Once you sign up, you are contractually obligated to work with that person until your agreement expires. Hopefully though, you work well together with this person and they can help you find the best home possible for the best price possible, in the exact location you wanted and you will spend years of happiness in your new property in Myrtle Beach. The best part is that having this type of relationship with an agent will not cost you anything more!

If you are thinking of buying a home in Myrtle Beach, I’d love the opportunity to work on your behalf in finding a home, so give me a call at 843-222-9402 if I can be of any further assistance, or do not hesitate to fill out the contact form to reach out to me.

Nov 01 2017

How Medical Bills Can Cause Title Issues

I’ve been in the business now for well over 15+ years and I consider myself a rather seasoned agent these days. During that time I’ve helped well over 400 people buy or sell a home in Myrtle Beach. I’ve run into many different issues and problems and feel that I normally do a good job handling those objections as they come up and able to figure out a resolution in a quick manner. Every once in a while though, something new comes along that is a new issue. This past week I experienced one of these things.

Watch this video to learn more about it:

Normally when there are title issues during a real estate transaction it is in regards to the seller of the property. Either they forgot to pay property taxes, had someone do work on the home but never paid them for their services, or had some sort of disagreement about the final cost and the contractor placed a lien against them. When this happens, the property will not have a clear title which is needed in order for the property to transfer hands. In these types of situations, many times the liens can be handled at closing and cleared up without issue.

However what we experienced was something completely opposite. While creditors are no longer reporting your medical bills to the credit reporting agencies and they may not show up on your credit report, they can still cause major issues with title work when purchasing a Myrtle Beach home. In this recent situation the buyer had outstanding medical bills from 2008 that had not be resolved here in South Carolina. She was a single mom that had gotten divorced, moved back to Wisconsin and had filed a bankruptcy there many years ago. Everything on her credit was discharged off in the bankruptcy and the buyer was off to starting a new life and rebuilding her credit score.

Fast forward from 2008 to present day and all of a sudden this issue shows up in a title search. When the credit report was done by the lender, it came back with not issues and so everything was on track for closing until the attorney got the title work back. When they did, this medical expense showed up as a lien against the buyer. Because this lien was there, the moment the deed would have transferred hands, there would have been an issue with the new title on the home. This issue had to be resolved before the buyer could take possession of the property.

In this situation, luckily the amount owed was under $1,000 and was able to be resolved within just a few days and cleared up. If it had been a higher amount, it could have easily taken 6-8 more weeks to get handled. With the way our current Myrtle Beach real estate market is, I honestly would have advised my seller to cancel the contract with this buyer and place their home back on the market. When we originally placed the home on the market, we had an offer within the first 7 days and I was fairly confident we could do that again.

Ultimately the buyer would have lost the home over something as mundane as a ten year old medical bill that was under $1,000. Luckily for her sake, she was able to get the title issue resolved quickly and we were able to close on the home just a few days later than we hoped, but still within the contractual timeline.

In closing, while you may no longer see those medical bills on your credit report and they may not affect your score anymore, it is still extremely important to get these issues handled and resolved so that when you get to purchase a home these things do not delay the purchasing process or cause you to lose that home you fell in love with. If you would like to learn more about this issue, feel free to reach out to me. You can either send me an email through my contact page or simply call/text me at 843-222-9402.

photo by: aronbaker2

Jun 14 2017

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Market Minute- May 2017

How is the real estate market in Myrtle Beach these days? Well, I’m glad you asked. In the video below, I will give you an update of how things are doing in comparison to the month before in our local market. I tried to keep the video short and to the point so obviously that means I could not give a bunch of details in the video. Check it out.

Single Family Homes In May

Here’s the stats I shared in the video for single family homes in Myrtle Beach:

Current Active Homes June 13, 2017: 3,911
SOLD single family homes during May 2017: 823
Average SOLD price for May 2017: $251,695
Increase of 87 more homes SOLD over month prior.
Average SOLD price increased $16,125 over month prior.

Condos in May

The condo market also saw some great increases during May:

Current Active Condos June 13, 2017: 3,704
SOLD condos during May 2017: 559
Average SOLD condo price for May 2017: $147,421
Increase of 42 more condos SOLD over month prior.
Average SOLD price increased $1,003 over month prior.

Wrap Up

As you can see, the Myrtle Beach real estate market is pretty strong right now and is continuing to increase month over month. Over the past few years we have seen increases in home values of 7%-10% each per year. If you have been thinking of buying a home in the area, you might want to consider talking to a Myrtle Beach REALTOR® soon as home prices are going up as well as interest rates on mortgages. As this trend continues, your ability to purchase will continue to decrease. Contact me today for to get your search started or call me at 843-222-9402 now.