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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.

expiration of offer

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.

Date for closing

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.

Inspection Dates

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.

Written by Jeremy · Categorized: Two Minute Tuesday · Tagged: buying a house, myrtle beach real estate, selling a house, two minute tuesday

Feb 06 2018

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Selling A House

In today’s 2 minute Tuesday we are going to discuss 5 mistakes to avoid when selling a home in Myrtle Beach.  As a Myrtle Beach REALTOR® for 17 years now, I have seen these 5 mistakes made by sellers on multiple occasions when trying to sell their home.  While agents try to always honor the requests of their clients when selling, there are sometimes certain requests that can cause major problems in the sale process and even prevent your home from actually getting sold.

24 Hour Showing Notice Required

Ok, so the first thing I wanted to talk about is the 24 hour showing notice. So many times I run into consumers who say “Listen, we need plenty of time to get our home perfect, so we want a 24 hour notice minimum requirement for any showings on our house.”  Now while in theory this sounds great to you as a seller, what you are doing is you are missing out on a ton of potential buyers because you have to think, here in Myrtle Beach they are on vacation for a limited amount of time they may have 2 or 3 days to look at homes and if they are required to do a 24 hour notice to see your property they may not see it.

If I am working as the buyers agent and they are only in town for a three day period, we cannot wait 24 hours always to view your home.  In our market, that type of time period simply will not work.  Whenever we have these types of restrictions on viewing the home, almost always the buyer simply says “just skip that one.” Now, I understand that there are sometimes circumstances beyond your control that you have to have that extra time.  You may have an elderly person living in the home that you need that extra time to prepare and transport, you might be running your business from your house and need that time to make arrangements with work, or maybe you have a pet that you need to remove from the property.  These are the exceptions, but should not be the rule.

Pets in the house

The main reason people want that 24 hours to prepare their home for a showing is that they want to give the home a quick cleaning, they want to make sure everything is spotless and looks as best as possible for the potential buyer entering their home.  I get that, but while you are forcing people to wait for you to clean, you are actually losing potential buyers.  So while you think that the longer period to get your home perfect is a good idea, it could really cause you to miss out on a lot of good possible showings.

No Sign In The Yard

The second mistake I see sellers make when they are selling their house is they say “Jeremy I don’t want a yard sign in the front yard. I don’t want my neighbors to find out that I’m selling my house, I don’t want people who come up to my door pestering me because they see a sign there. Once again I know that sometimes there might be circumstances like moving away and having to leave a job that might be compromised if they find out your home is on the market, so you cannot place the sign out there.  But, when you skip the sign, you give up one of the most powerful marketing tools possible to sell your home.

In Myrtle Beach, people are constantly out driving around looking for yard signs to find property for sale.  When I have a property that I can place a yard sign in front of, I can normally expect a minimum of 5-7 calls from potential buyers interested in that home.  Also, with our company we’re using a service called Voicepad that allows people to call or text a number and find out all the details on your home. With this service, it should keep the number of visitors to the door wanting to know details on your home.  When you take that sign out of the front yard and don’t allow it to be there, you are missing a huge opportunity.

Leaving The House Show Ready

unmade bed

The third thing that I’m seeing happen regularly is people saying no I don’t want a showing today because the home is not clean. My suggestion to you as a REALTOR® is to try and keep your home in show ready condition or as close to it as you can whenever you place your home on the market.  However, as a father of a 9, 7, & 3 year old, I know how difficult it is to keep your house spotless at all times when living in the home with children.

If you have somebody who calls you and says they we want to show your home today at 3 o’clock and it’s 10 in the morning and you have already left for work but you didn’t make the bed, it’s OK, still let them go through and see the home. They are not buying the house based on whether or not the bed is made.  I have however experienced a seller missing the sale of their home because they didn’t clean up the dirty clothing on the floor before leaving in the morning.  The buyers called last minute and wanted to see the home for a second time to make their final decision before boarding an airplane to head back home.

laundry basket  There was no time for the seller to get back home and clean things up and when they left for work in the morning they were running late, so they didn’t load the dishes into the dishwasher and their clothing from the night before were just left on the floor.  The buyers feedback to me was that they changed their mind about buying the home because they had to step over the panties of the seller and they were concerned that they didn’t take the best care of the home because of this.  If the sellers had simply cleaned up the dirty clothes and loaded the dishwasher, we would have sold that home that day.

The Crayon Box Effect

Number four is a huge problem I see too many times made by people trying to sell a home in Myrtle Beach. When you purchase a home you want to customize it, you want to make it your own personality inside. That may mean that you make one of bedrooms pink, another one blue, your living room might be green, your dining room might be red.  I know every home I’ve ever owned we have customized the rooms to our preference and gave the house our own personal touch inside.  While these are your own personal preferences of things you like, unfortunately others can have a hard time visualizing themself in the home when it painted with a bunch of custom colors.

crayon house

When every room in the house is painted a different color, I call it the Crayon Box Effect.  It feels like a box of crayons vomited in your home onto the walls of your property.  There is no continuity throughout the house.  While it’s OK to have color in your house when you live there, when you are getting ready to sell your home, you need to make sure your home is neutralized and in the best condition inside possible. That means if you have different colors everywhere, you have wallpaper hanging, take all that stuff down, neutralize back to colors that are not going to be offensive.  This will help your home to sell faster, and for more money too! If you want to see more on this topic, I wrote about it here a few months back here in Tips to selling your Myrtle Beach home-Staging.

Front Yard First Impressions

Myrtle Beach Home

And the final thing that I think needs to be done when you are selling a house in Myrtle Beach is that you need to make sure your front yard is in pristine condition. You have to think, the first thing people see when they pull up to your house is the front yard. If they pull up and they see weeds that are up to their knees, they see grass growing between the sidewalks, they immedtiately think that it’s not in good condition.  Their minds begin to wander to what else might be wrong in the house, or that your home hasn’t been well kept. A messy front yard sets off warning signs to them and they are already forming an opinion about your house before ever walking in the door.

first impressions

Think of it this way, when you go to a restaurant and this is what we used to say when I was in the restaurant industry, “People eat with their eyes first” make the plate look beautiful. The nice thing your front yard is that most of the time it is a very minimal cost item to make look good.  Some fresh mulch, pulled weeds, $30 of flowers and a lawnmower and you are in business.  Do the same thing with your front yard that restaurants do with a plate of food and you are going to be in much better shape.

Bonus Tip

Here’s a bonus tip when selling your home.  When you list your home on the market, allow your agent to install a lockbox on the property.  It will increase the number of showings on your home immensely.  With the new types of technology, the lockboxes are now more secure than ever.  They track every single time it is opened and shares that information with your listing agent.  They also prohibit people from opening the lockboxes at night or early in the morning.  You have very little to worry about when it comes to someone opening the lockbox and entering your home without someone knowing it.

But, if you require the agent to pick up a key from another location, most of the times they will just move on to another option. Whenever I take a listing that has a tenant in place and the rental management company will not allow us to install a lockbox, those listings take much longer to sell because agents do not want to have to drive to another location to get they key and then have to return it again after showing.  Allow the agent to install a lockbox on your property get much better results.

Ok so there you have it, 5 mistakes to avoid when selling a home in Myrtle Beach. If you would like to learn more about selling a home, feel free to call me at 843-222-9402 or simply click here to contact me.

Written by Jeremy · Categorized: Selling A Myrtle Beach Home, Two Minute Tuesday · Tagged: myrtle beach, myrtle beach real estate, selling a home, two minute tuesday

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.

Paying Off Credit Cards2. 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.

New Car4. 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

Written by Jeremy · Categorized: Buying A Myrtle Beach Home, Two Minute Tuesday · Tagged: 2 minute Tuesday, buying a home, myrtle beach real estate

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.

Beach

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?

Kitchen

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.

Written by Jeremy · Categorized: Myrtle Beach Luxury Homes · Tagged: luxury homes, luxury real estate, myrtle beach real estate

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:

Exclusive Right To Buy Buyer Agency Contract

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:

Compensation section of Listing 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.

Written by Jeremy · Categorized: Buying A Myrtle Beach Home, Two Minute Tuesday · Tagged: buying a home, myrtle beach real estate, video

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Myrtle Beach REALTOR® Finalist
Jeremy Blanton
Myrtle Beach REALTOR- Jeremy Blanton
186 Fresh Drive
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579
(843) 222-9402
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