myrtle beach real estate | Myrtle Beach Homes | Carolina Forest Homes

Aug 25 2014

How Much Earnest Money Do I Need To Buy A Myrtle Beach Home

One of the questions that arises on a regular basis when helping someone buy a Myrtle Beach home has to do with earnest money. First, what is earnest money? Wikipedia gives a wonderful definition of the term here. Basically, it is the deposit made towards the purchase of real estate and is part of your down payment. In South Carolina, this money is held in a trust account of a real estate company or closing attorney. It cannot be used by the real estate company for any other purpose.

So, here is the big question that normally comes up in regards to earnest money is How much should I give for earnest money? People are looking for some sort of formula to calculate out how much is needed. Unfortunately, there is no exact formula to determine how much for your offer. Some use the 1% of purchase price principal, but that does not always work. For example, if you are buying an $75,000 condo, you may want to offer more than 1% or $750.00. In this scenario you may wish to offer $1,000.00. On the other hand, it could be some sort of offer where you are limited on money for down payment at the time of making the offer and only have $500.00. This amount is something that can be negotiated just like any other part of the offer.

The key concept behind earnest money is that it is the money you use as part of a down payment and is given at the time of presenting the offer to show good faith or earnest in a property. The more that you put down shows a higher level of genuine interest. You do not want to put too much money down because you do run the risk of possibly losing that money. However not enough can offend a seller. Here is an example.

A few years ago we had a gentleman in town that wanted to purchase a 22 unit motel that was for sale for $660,000. The gentleman made a fairly reasonable offer on the property and wanted to close in a rather short time of just over 30 days. He was supposed to pay cash for the deal. So, when we asked how much he wanted to put down as earnest money, he stated that he didn’t have the money at this time, but it was “coming soon.” He never would tell us where he was getting the money or could provide us with proof of funds. So we asked once again, how much would you like to use as earnest money.

The gentleman reached into his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill and slammed it down on the desk and said: “Here is my earnest money. And I am not putting another penny down!” A single dollar, that was his earnest money. Needless to say when we presented the offer to the seller, they were not amused by this offer. In fact, they were so annoyed that they flat out declined the gentleman’s offer.

This is a prime example where not enough earnest money caused a seller to not even want to negotiate with a buyer. The reason the seller was so offended is that if the gentleman changed his mind about purchasing and walked away from the deal, the seller would only receive $1.00 for incurring all types of expenses for various tests, inspections, attorney fees, etc, all while taking their property off the market during that time.

Hopefully this clears up the issue of earnest money a little bit. In closing, I leave you with this piece of advice in regards to earnest money. Each and every market all around the US is very different in regards to how much is enough/not enough. I would strongly urge you to ask a local REALTOR® for guidance when determining how much to give.

photos by: &

Jul 28 2014

Preparing To Move Into Your Myrtle Beach Home One Month In Advance

A lot of people stress when it comes time to move into your new Myrtle Beach Home. Most people only move a few times during a lifetime, so they are not always aware of all the things they need to do when moving.

To help lower the amount of stress, here is a brief checklist of items to do one month before closing on your new Myrtle Beach property. In the next few weeks there will be follow up articles with checklists of items to do at 2 weeks before moving, day before the move, day of move-out, day of move-in, & after you are settled.

Clean out closets, attic, basement, etc… Take this time to start going through things and discarding things you don’t want anymore or have no need for. For example, if you currently live in a cold weather climate, you can take that snow blower and place it for sale on Craigslist. Our warmer temperatures in Myrtle Beach leave zero need for it. Also, you can reduce down your winter clothing collection greatly. Sell those items off and start your new boat fund.
Consider having a garage sale. What to do with all that unwanted stuff? Have a garage sale and sell the things you dont need anymore. Maybe you are downsizing when you move and will not have the need for the extra furniture. Host a garage sale or two and put some extra money in your pocket.
Donate unwanted items. Some things may not sell at a yard sale. Those items that are of any worth you can donate to the local goodwill, library, or thrift shops. You can get a receipt for tax purposes.
Register children for school. If you are moving to another school district, take this time to get children registered for their new school. As moving day approaches, you won’t have time available and may forget this.Many of the Horry County Schools have information on their website.
Start opening new bank accounts. If you are moving to an area where your bank does not service, you will need to find a new bank. Most banks now have the option to apply online and can be done from your current residence. Not having a local bank can cause issues with extra fees to try and do basic banking functions.
Contact your veterinarian. Check with your vet for travel preparation for your pets. Also, see if they have a recommendation for you to transfer to here in Myrtle Beach.
Notify post office. Contact the post office along with any other publications of your change of address and the date it will become effective. This can now be done online by clicking here.
Contact lawn service, security company, & other regular services. Let these services know in advance of your vacating date so that they can discontinue service at that time and not charge you extra. Nobody likes to waste money. If you are just moving across town in Myrtle Beach, some of these services will just need to be transferred.
Use your frozen foods. It is very difficult to travel with frozen foods. They can be very heavy and there is not really any safe way of traveling with them. Also, once you arrive at your new home, if you are bringing the refrigerator with, it could take up to 24 hours until it is cold enough to freeze items again which will result in major spoilage of foods.

So these are just a few great tips to help you prepare for the big day of moving into your new Myrtle Beach home. Are there any other tips you can think of? Share in the comments below.

photos by: & ,

Jun 24 2014

The Importance Of Online Marketing To Selling a Myrtle Beach Home

It’s no secret that selling your Myrtle Beach home can be a difficult task to do on your own. With all the new regulations on financing, and laws in place. With that being said, selecting the right real estate agent to sell your home is imperative. One of the most effective parts of selling a home is how the property is being marketed on the internet. Below is a list of items that are helping to sell homes. If you are thinking of selling your home, you may want to print this out to ask the real estate agent if your home will be marketed in these places.

Real Estate Website– Does the agent have an effective website that is drawing in buyers? Recent statistics show over 85% of all buyers begin their real estate search on the internet before even contacting an agent. Also ask the agent if they have their own domain name website instead of just the website provided by the company. For my team we have MyrtleBeachHomesBlog.com plus our local company, RE/MAX Southern Shores website. In addition, we have exposure the RE/MAX national site.
Real Estate 2.0- Social Networks & other websites are rapidly gaining in popularity. Buyers are using sites like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn & Twitter to find out the information about a community, the agent, and the surrounding areas before making contact with a real estate agent. Our use of social media helps expose our listings to our connections on Social Media which is now over 37,000!
Real Estate Blog– Buyers who begin their online searches are finding blogs each and every day with the information they are interested in. On average, consumers read over 27 blog posts every week. They are going to major search engines entering the keywords for information they want. If you have shared content related to the terms the consumer is searching, you have the potential to be found and gain their business.

Remember these three areas of effective marketing in the current real estate market. Unfortunately, just like many things in life, what is effective at one time may not work anymore now. You need an agent that stays on top of the market and keeps track of what is and is not working in selling homes.

An article I read in our local paper a while back confirmed that our marketing efforts are targeted in the right direction. The article shared about how the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce is focusing over 60% of their advertising towards internet marketing. 23.2% towards tv, 7% for newspapers, 5% on magazines 3% on radio & 1.8% on billboards. Just as the chamber has come to realize, in order to be effective with marketing the focus needs to be on internet advertising!

So in closing, when you are deciding on an agent to sell your Myrtle Beach Home, make sure that they have a strong online presence to help take your Myrtle Beach Home from listed to sold by giving your home it’s greatest exposure online.

photo by: bsabarnowl

Aug 23 2011

5 Things You Should NEVER Ask Your REALTOR®!

Over the past 13 years of selling real estate in Myrtle Beach, I have experienced all types of situations and questions from clients. Unfortunately, because of the Fair Housing Act there are certain questions that as a Real Estate Agent, I am not allowed to answer.

Here are just of the few questions I have been asked in the past. These are questions you should never ask your REALTOR®:

Are there a bunch of kids in the neighborhood? I don’t want a bunch of children living around me! One of the classes covered under the Fair Housing Act is age. If the age of your neighbors is an issue to you, I always suggest driving through the neighborhood and look for clues to make your own conclusion. Look for basketball hoops, trampolines, swing sets and children on bicycles.
Are there a bunch of (enter a particular race) living here? Another protected class under the Fair Housing Act is race. As a REALTOR® we cannot discriminate against race. Surprisingly though, we are asked this question probably more than any other question.
Is this home located in a ghetto? This is the actual question that sparked me to write this post. First, I do not know what you would consider a ghetto. Secondly, even if I knew what was considered a ghetto, I would not be able to disclose that information. If someone who asked this was referring to the safety of a neighborhood, I cannot discuss that either. I would instead refer the client to the local police department who can share about the safety of the neighborhood.
Are there a bunch of (enter any religion) living here? Just like race and age, we cannot discriminate against religion either.
It seems there are some disabled people living next door, will that affect my property? Disabled people are also part of a protected class. I cannot comment, positive or negative about disabled people either.

While there are many other wild and crazy questions I receive daily, these are just 5 of the more regular questions I am asked that I cannot answer that relate to buying a home here in Myrtle Beach. So, while you may want answers to questions like these, use some of the suggestions I mentioned to find your answers instead of your real estate agent.

photo by: tj scenes

Jan 29 2009

Pictures equal Power When Selling Your Myrtle Beach Home

Over the last several months we have all heard the imortance of quality content and also how imperative it is to add pictures to our listings. We have also found many articles on how to take the perfect photo and what to use to accomplish these things. With the slow down in the real estate market this has become even more critical.

I Just finished reading an email from Point2 Technologies that talked about photographs and how they increase the interest of consumers on listings. The study concluded that listings with no photo received .02 percent of the amount of interest as listings with over 21 pictures.

They also concluded that listings with 21 or more pictures receive 55 times the number of page views, 27 times the amount of interest and 898 the number of leads as a listing marketed with no pictures. These stats were rather staggering to me.

So, how many pictures do you place in your ads?

photo by: alfieianni