Jun 18 2025

Living in Myrtle Beach: Hurricane Prep Guide

living in myrtle beach during a hurricane

Hurricane Season in Myrtle Beach: How to Be Prepared

Living in Myrtle Beach means enjoying ocean breezes, world-class beaches, and a relaxed coastal lifestyle. But if you call this slice of paradise home, it’s important to understand what comes with it—including hurricane season. From June 1 to November 30 each year, residents must stay alert, informed, and prepared to protect their homes, families, and peace of mind.

Whether you’re new to the Grand Strand or a long-time homeowner, this guide will walk you through exactly how to prepare for hurricane season while enjoying the benefits of living in Myrtle Beach.

How to Prepare for Hurricane Season in Myrtle Beach

Step 1: Create a Hurricane Preparedness Plan

Start with the basics: determine your Horry County evacuation zone (A, B, or C). Authorities will issue zone-based evacuation orders depending on storm strength. Know your zone in advance, map out your evacuation route, and have a destination ready if you need to leave quickly. If you have pets, make arrangements for pet-friendly accommodations early, as most emergency shelters do not allow animals.

Step 2: Assemble a Complete Emergency Kit

Every home in Myrtle Beach should have a stocked emergency kit ready before a storm is even on the radar. Your kit should include:

Three days’ worth of non-perishable food and two gallons of water per person, per day
Flashlights, batteries, a battery-operated radio, and phone chargers
First-aid kit, prescription medications, and hygiene items
Cash, important documents in waterproof containers, and clothing

boarding your myrtle beach home for hurricane

Step 3: Secure Your Home and Property

Protecting your home from high winds and flooding is crucial. Trim trees, clean gutters, and secure or store outdoor furniture and decorations. Install storm shutters or board up windows with plywood if a storm is approaching. Check the roof for loose shingles and secure entry points, especially garage doors, to reduce wind intrusion.

Step 4: Review Your Insurance Coverage

If you’re living in Myrtle Beach full-time, understanding your home insurance is a must. Standard policies typically don’t include flood coverage. Look into a separate flood insurance policy and make sure your coverage limits reflect current property values. Take photos or videos of your home’s interior and exterior in advance for claims documentation.

Step 5: Know When to Evacuate

When evacuation orders are issued, don’t wait. Leave early to avoid traffic and worsening weather conditions. Fuel up your vehicle in advance, and have a go-bag ready. If you’re not required to evacuate and choose to shelter in place, stay indoors, monitor local news, and avoid driving through flooded roads.

Step 6: Stay Safe After the Storm

After the storm has passed, proceed with care. Watch for downed power lines, broken glass, and flood-contaminated water. Wear protective gloves and boots when cleaning debris. Take photos of any damage before beginning repairs, and work only with licensed contractors to avoid scams.

Living in Myrtle Beach Means Being Prepared

Part of living in Myrtle Beach is learning how to balance paradise with preparedness. While hurricanes aren’t guaranteed each season, being ready gives you confidence and peace of mind. A little planning now will protect your property, your family, and your lifestyle on the coast.

Final Thoughts

Hurricane season is simply a part of coastal living, and with the right steps in place, you can continue enjoying everything Myrtle Beach has to offer without worry. Make your preparations early, review your plan regularly, and stay connected to local alerts and weather forecasts.

If you’re relocating or considering a move, our team at Myrtle Beach Homes Blog is here to help you find a safe, beautiful home that fits your lifestyle and your long-term plans for coastal living.

Thinking of making a move to Myrtle Beach in the near future? Book a Call with Jeremy to discuss your upcoming move to Myrtle Beach!

Sep 19 2017

Professional Photography Now Added To Listing Services

When it comes to selling a Myrtle Beach Home, it’s important to hire an agent that can deliver the best chance of selling your home for the highest price in the quickest time possible. Statistics show that now more than 92% of all buyers & sellers go online to shop before ever contacting a Myrtle Beach REALTOR®. To help deliver even more value to my sellers, I have recently began hiring a professional photographer to help give my listings a huge advantage over the competition.

Now, my clients that have hired me in the past have done so because of my ability to expose their home online to over 40,000 people within the first 24 hours of listing their home for sale. They like the fact that I have all the professional equipment needed to take professional photos, and to also create awesome videos like I did for the Waterbridge community. I have to admit, I really enjoy doing these sorts of things and find it a lot of fun to get in touch with my creative side and take the photos. I really enjoy spending the time editing the images, cropping, straightening them, and all the other fun tech side of taking photos. Honestly, I can do a pretty decent job with the photos too. Here’s one I recently took for a recent listing.

So, while ability isn’t the reason for me giving up taking my photos, what is the actual reason for me hiring someone? At the end of the day, I simply am getting to the point in my business that I do not have the time to spend doing these items. On average I was spending anywhere from 3-4 hours getting my gear together, going to the listing, taking the photos, and then editing them after. Instead, I need to focus that time & energy on finding prospective buyers for my listings and getting them under contract. So about 4 months ago, I started hiring a professional photographer to take images of my listings. While it is an expense to me as the listing agent to hire someone, I have found that I would rather focus my time on doing everything possible on exposing my listings to as many people as possible.

Since hiring a professional photographer to take images of my listings, I have been able to really focus on getting my listings under contract and sold for my sellers. In just the last two months I’ve been able to sell all of my listings but one. By hiring a professional real estate photographer, I’ve been able to free up several hours each month that gives me more time to work on reaching out to prospective buyers and find clients interested in purchasing my listings.

Not to mention, the professional photographers have even better equipment than I do. While I have a lot of gear, I don’t always have the proper gear for each situation and usually would have to improvise to get the right lighting by bringing along large work lights and reflector shields and all other types of equipment, whereas a pro will come with their camera on a tripod, and some external flashes to get the job done. I used to waste hours loading gear in and out of the car and and & out of the properties.

If you are thinking of selling a home in Myrtle Beach, contact me at 843-222-9402 and we can discuss in greater detail how my marketing plan can get your home exposed to my database of over 40,000 people online within the first 24 hours of listing your property for sale. We will discuss how to price your home properly to get it sold for the most amount of money in the quickest time possible.

Listing Update

Remember the property I mentioned in the video above being listed? Well, the photos turned out great, I shared with an agent in my office and we were able to put the property under contract in less than 24 hours with a cash offer site unseen. Professional photography works!

Feb 22 2016

Selling A Home In Myrtle Beach- The Appraisal

When selling your home in Myrtle Beach, one of the common problems that can arise is over the appraisal. What happens when the home doesn’t appraise for the amount in the contract?

While this may come as a surprise, with a strong growing market again, we do have some issues that can arise where a home does not appraise for the amount agreed upon in the contract. When this happens, what do you do? Well, there are a few options of what can be done when the home doesn’t appraise for the full amount agreed upon.

In this situation, the first thing that can happen is that both the buyers and sellers agree to lower the contract price down to match the amount of the appraisal. If this happens, both parties would need to sign off on the changes and the transaction continues moving forward at the lower price.

If the sellers do not wish to sell their home for the lower price, then the buyers have two options. The first is to walk away from the deal and all moneys become refunded as long as the contract was contingent upon financing and an appraisal. The second option for the buyers is to continue forward with the purchase at the higher price, but they would need to bring whatever the difference is to the table as additional money since the bank will not lend more than what the home appraises for.

The buyers would need to acknowledge that they are purchasing a property for more than it’s appraised value and that they are willing to spend more money for the home than what it is actually worth. While this doesn’t happen often, it does however happen from time to time when the purchaser finds a home that is exactly what they want, then they will sometimes pay more knowing the value isn’t always there. Once again, an addendum would need to be done to reflect all these changes and signed off by everyone prior to closing.

If you are thinking of selling your home and would like more information on how my marketing program can help expose your home to over 37,000 people in the first 24 hours of being listed, contact me today!