Charleston Real Estate Blog

Tips for successful showings of your Charleston home for sale

When you're selling your home in Charleston, it goes without saying that a clean uncluttered home will appeal to potential buyers.

But there are a few more things to consider to place your home in the best possible light.

Let's start with the front door and it's actually more than a little curb appeal because whether you have some fresh flowers out front and a freshly painted front door, make sure that the lock works easily. You have no idea how frustrating it is for an agent to have difficulty opening the front door while their clients are anxious to see the home. (And while we're on the subject, don't have your agent hide the lockbox!) 

If you have pets, it's always best to remove them. Sure little dogs that are crated are cute and OK and let's face it, sometimes you'll never see that cat that you're not supposed to let sneak out when you open the door but if you happen to have large dogs, the reality is that some people are a little frightened of them so even if you have a "very gentle Doberman", you really should make sure that you don't leave the dog at home during showings.

And while we're on the subject, you shouldn't hang around during showings either; give the buyers the time and space to comfortably see your home.

Now if you happen to be selling a home that is vacant, the best thing you can do is to get it staged. Recently, clients and I viewed a lender owned home and they remarked how surprised they were that it was staged. And yes it looked very nice. But the more important reason to stage a home is that rooms look larger when they are furnished. The buyer can visualize where their furniture would go and it adds dimension. When you look at an empty room, it just appears to be smaller than it really is. 

Oh, and one more thing, freshly baked cookies would be very nice (and by the way, my preference is chocolate chip).

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons by seriouslybri

Obama administration announces another mortgage refinance plan

In the administration's continuing effort to successfully help underwater borrowers be able to refinance their mortgages at today's record low interest rates, one more plan has been announced using FHA financing and costing from $5 to $10 Billion.

Here's more from the Washington Post.

But since it will require congressional approval, the odds of getting it approved are, as they say, slim and none, and slim left town.

Case and Shiller disagree on housing market outlook

In what shouldn't be much of a surprise, Bloomberg reports that, "Residential real estate prices fell more than forecast in November, showing distressed properties are hampering improvement in the US housing market. The S&P Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities declined 3.7 percent from November 2010 after decreasing 3.4 percent in the year ended in October."

Basically, the Case-Shiller index is not seasonally adjusted and prices have historically been lower from September through February than they are during the peak home buying and selling season of March through August.

But here is where it gets a little more interesting. Karl Case and Robert Shiller disagree on the housing market outlook. My personal opinion is that Charleston home prices should continue to be stable but I don't see any significant appreciation for at least another year.

In an interview with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt in Bloomberg, Case says “The housing market may be poised to begin its turnaround in the months to come, according to S&P/Case-Shiller’s Karl Case. If you look at the fundamentals, such as number of existing sales and number of new sales, and look if they are going in the right direction, they are.”

   

While in an interview with Henry Blodgett in Business Insider, Shiller says “When people phrase is that way (that housing prices are bottoming), they say 'we've reached the bottom.' That suggests that we have the expectation of a major turning point right now. But I don't see that. I don't see any reason to think that prices are going to start heading up dramatically now. We do have some good news. Permits are up…”

This report card has a BIG FAT F

A couple of big stories out there in the Financial World have my attention and it's only my opinion but I can't help but give a BIG FAT F on my report card.

Unlike almost everybody from surprisingly on both the left and the right, I don't blame Fannie and Freddie for causing the housing mess. I think it was reckless lending and mortgage securitization by Wall Street because Fannie and Freddie were basically insignificant players during the lending bubble. 

But this new report from ProPublica and NPR doesn't exactly make Freddie Mac look very good.

"Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multi-million dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates above current rates."

And the NY Times has more on the story.

Now regarding the proposed mortgage abuse settlement, it seems that the big banks are a little too anxious to hand over $25 Billion dollars to settle.

Reuters reports that "State and Federal officials are close to a settlement with the largest US banks over mortgage abuses, with states facing an end-of-the-week deadline to decide whether they will sign on, people close to the talks said."

And the Huffington Post reports that "Nevada's attorney general is pushing back with concern and questions" regarding the proposed settlement.

Choosing the best Charleston real estate agent

It seems like an appropriate time to discuss a better way of finding and choosing a real estate agent which is probably just as important as finding the perfect home in light of this weekend's brouhaha in the REnet regarding syndicated listings and the battle for LEADS being waged by real estate agents trying to get you to contact them. 

First of all, I would suggest that the BEST does not necessarily refer to the agent who has helped the most people buy or sell a home. The best Charleston real estate agent is the agent who you are most comfortable with and has the experience and local market knowledge to best help you buy or sell a home.

Now, you can do any number of things to find the best agent for you.

If you're buying, you can find homes that you like and contact the agent who is offering it for sale. You should realize that agent however has already signed a contract to represent the seller and should you want him / her to represent you, that would be dual agency (which is perfectly legal) but each party has to sign off on the fact that the agent can only offer limited representation to both parties or continue to represent the seller as the client and the buyer would then be an unrepresented customer.

If that isn't something you want to do and you want to find an agent to represent your interests in the transaction, I would suggest that you meet and interview several agents to find one that is best for you. If you're local, you can always ask friends, neighbors, family or a co-worker for recommendations and since everyone knows at least a half dozen real estate agents, you should be all set to begin the interviewing process. If you are planning to relocate to Charleston and are doing an online search, you can learn a lot from the agent websites to determine whether you'd like to contact them.

Generally, when home owners are looking to sell their home, they interview at least several agents. Some might only consider the agent that will offer to list their home for the lowest commission to be the best agent for them while others are more concerned with getting the best results at a reasonable cost. It's just my opinion but more often than not, buyers don't bother to interview several agents and spend a lot more time searching for a home and then rushing to find the first available agent they come across.

And whether you believe it or not, all agents are not created equal. So choose the best Charleston agent you can find to help you. It's worth your effort and after all, you don't want to just be a LEAD, do you. 

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons by RLHyde

ARG Realty removes listings from Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com

As I wrote in The Dirty Little Secret of Charleston Real Estate Search, you're being bought and sold as a LEAD when you search for homes on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and other syndicated websites. Late last year, Edina Realty, a large Midwestern brokerage announced they were no longer going to allow their listings to be displayed on syndicated real estate search sites and just yesterday, one more shot in the listing syndication battle was fired by Jim Abbott, CEO of San Diego's ARG Realty. Using YouTube, he explains exactly why they took this step and it's well worth your time to watch so you can understand what this is all about. 

Lowcountry Oyster Festival at Boone Hall Plantation

It's that Sunday again, time for the world's largest oyster festival, The Lowcountry Oyster Festival at Boone Hall Plantation this Sunday from 10:30 to 5.

Presented by the Charleston Restaurant Association, the Lowcountry Oyster Festival is a charity fundraiser benefiting The Ronald McDonald House, Hospitality Heroes, Hollings Cancer Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Charleston County Schools Science Materials Resource Center.

Ready, set, shuck!

[Good news] Charleston's crazy winter of 2012

I'm not complaining. 

I hear it's been pretty mild everywhere this winter, well maybe not everywhere since Seattle had a record snowfall the other day and aren't those Boeing employees who moved to Charleston probably pretty happy they chose to live here because this winter is nothing short of crazy.

In the 10+ years I've lived in Charleston, I've never seen anything like this year with high temperatures in the sixties and seventies more often than not.

Apparently winter took this year off. 

And if this is the result of global warning, then I'm all for it.

If you're searching Charleston homes for sale, prepare for some possible disappointments

I got an email last evening from someone searching one of those syndicated real estate websites (you know the kind I'm talking about that don't have the most recent and accurate information) who fell absolutely in love with a Charleston home for sale. But the only problem was that particular home sold about 3 months ago so unless the new homeowners want to sell it right away, this house hunter is likely to be disappointed when I send them an email telling them the bad news. 

On the other hand, when you're out looking at homes, at least you know that home is still available for sale. If you happen to really like it but want to continue to look to see if you can find one that's even better, that's certainly OK as long as you realize that you aren't the only person out there looking to buy a home in Charleston today.

But if you're searching for a great deal, your competition just got more intense because I've seen a number of really good deals go under contract within days (and sometimes just hours) of either being listed or having a substantial price reduction.

Sometimes you have to move really fast to avoid possible disappointment.

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons by Mauropm

There are too many paint colors in some Charleston homes

Paint is inexpensive and one of the best returns on investment when you're selling your home in Charleston.

For whatever reason, some sellers don't want to bother to paint their homes before listing them for sale and that creates a good opportunity for buyers since many other buyers might be turned off of an otherwise nice home because of the colorful rooms.

Take a look at all the different paint colors used in this Charleston home for sale. It's as if the homeowners couldn't decide on a color they liked and just used every color they could find (and not all of them go together).

But the good news is that it isn't wallpaper which is difficult to remove and I've never met anyone who liked anybody's wallpaper when they were looking at homes.

So bottom line, if you're selling, consider neutralizing your home by painting and by the way, that doesn't necessarily mean boring off white or beige, you certainly can use nice colors but just minimize the number of colors you are using.

And if you're buying and you see a home that has just about everything you're looking for but you don't like the color of the walls, paint is reasonably inexpensive and an easy fix.

   

   

Charleston homes might sometimes sell before you can make up your mind

One of my clients told me that they were a little frustrated that several of the homes they have looked at have gone under contract while they were still in the decision making process.

The fact is that despite what you may have heard, some homes in Charleston go under contract very quickly and if you happen to like a home quite a bit, it probably stands to reason that someone else out looking might feel exactly the same way.

I don't want to suggest that you don't carefully decide before buying a home, after all it's a big decision and you want to be comfortable that you made the right choice.

Unfortunately, buying a home in Charleston is not as easy as walking out the front door after viewing a home and seeing a traffic signal with a green light telling you it is OK to buy it.

Charleston monthly home sales by price range 2011

As a follow up to the Charleston real estate market report posted the other day, here is a chart of Charleston monthly home sales by price range.

For homes selling for $300,000 and under, sales were 6.5 percent higher in 2011 than 2010. For homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000, sales were 7.75 percent higher year over year and for homes selling for $600,000 and higher, sales were down 5.5 percent during 2011 compared to the previous year.

I think it's important to note that for lower priced homes, home sales overcame the strong incentive driven sales of the prior year home buyer tax credit to post a solid increase. The solid increase in sales in the move up mid priced home market is a good sign that the Charleston real estate market is fairly healthy. And unfortunately, we couldn't make it 3 for 3 as the luxury market had a slight decline compared to the very strong year it had during 2010 (after two extremely week years during 2008 and 2009).

And by the way, how about those great sales we saw across the board in December.

Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Is it really For Sale By Owner

Sometimes you just have to wonder.

The other day, one of my clients happened to want to see a home for sale in Charleston that was offered for sale by owner. So I dug up the contact info and sent an email and followed up with a phone call to make an appointment to view the home with two days advanced notice.

The result, I didn't hear back.

So does this seller really want to sell their home or are they simply going through the motions.

Now first of all, it's been my experience that most homes that are being sold by owner are generally overpriced. That isn't unusual because most sellers have a higher opinion of value for their home than actual market conditions. When you contact a Charleston real estate agent to sell your home, they are going to do a comparative market analysis to determine a price range to successfully offer and sell the home. That way, when a buyer makes an offer, the home will likely appraise for at least the value of the contract.

(Caution, sarcasm ahead) If you just put a price that you dreamed up with no basis for and somebody drops in from outer space and makes a full price offer, unless they are paying cash and waiving an appraisal, more than likely the home won't close successfully.

Surprisingly, this particular home was actually priced realistically and the seller indicated in their for sale by owner listing that they were willing to cooperate with a real estate agent that brought a buyer (meaning they are willing to pay a real estate commission). So why didn't they bother to allow their home to be shown.

Folks, it's not easy to sell a home in Charleston these days. It's even more difficult if you don't allow potential buyers to actually view the home. For a for sale by owner, it's often inconvenient to be available all the time to let buyers see your home and that is the other reason why most for sale by owners fail.

And by the way, I don't have any problem with someone who wants to save money by trying to sell their home without hiring a real estate agent. The question is whether you are willing to price it realistically and deal with the inconvenience.

Charleston real estate market report, sales, inventory and home prices, year end 2011

One word to describe the Charleston real estate market for 2011 is GOOD. Home sales were higher year over year, inventory of homes available for sale has been trending down and is at its lowest level in almost 5 years and prices, while down were only slightly lower. And December was an absolutely outstanding month with sales sharply higher by 15 percent over 2010.

For the year, sales were almost 6 percent higher in 2011 than in 2010, inventory is down by 12 percent and the absorption rate is down 17 percent to just less than a 12 month supply. But in the most important price range of homes selling for less than $300,000 which make up over 75 percent of all activity, the absorption rate currently stands at just less than 9 months which is a big improvement over previous years. For those of you looking to buy, it's still a buyers market but it's not quite as dismal for home sellers any longer. As to home prices, foreclosures and short sales continue to exert downside pressure to pricing and I would expect that to continue through this year.

Taking a look at homes by price range, homes selling for less than $300,000 and homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000 did very well but after a very strong 2010, the luxury Charleston housing market of homes selling for more than $600,000 was down a little bit this year. But maybe not for long because there have already been 2 closings for cash this year at the very high end of the market ($4.2 million and $5.975 million respectively) and Medway Plantation, a $15 million dollar listing recently went under contract.

Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Year to Year Comparison and Home Prices

You'll note that $ per square foot is no longer included in the year to year comparison. Unfortunately, there is a serious data error that completely distorts the price per square foot making it basically useless as a metric. If and when the error is discovered and corrected, I'll certainly bring it back.

Sales and Inventory

Homes Sales

Inventory

 

Inventory and Absorption Rate

Inventory is represented by the blue line and corresponds to the left axis, the absorption rate is represented by the red line and corresponds to the right axis.

Sales, Inventory and Absorption Rate for all homes and by price range

The current inventory (inv) column reflects the number of active listings on the market on the 16th day of each month. The months of inventory (mo) column is equal to the current inventory divided by the monthly sales. This reflects how many months it would take to sell out of inventory at the current month’s rate of sale. It can also be referred to as the absorption rate.

[Good news] Positive outlook for the housing market

I noticed a good news headline yesterday. Writing for USA Today. Julie Schmit reports that the housing outlook is more upbeat.

“Home sales and home building are forecast to rise this year after sliding steeply the past five years in housing's worst downturn since the Great Depression. Recovery is expected to be slow, and home prices are widely expected to fall this year. But investors are betting on the start of an upturn… “ 

The Charleston real estate market has obviously weathered the storm better than most but that isn't to say there hasn't been any pain for homeowners locally. Home values have declined in Charleston just like everywhere else although not quite as sharply as other markets.

But sales have been pretty good here for the past two years and there is no reason not to expect 2012 to be good as well. And even better news is that inventory is down to its lowest level in 5 years. And unlike many other places, builders have continued to build new homes throughout the Charleston area (although at an obviously slower pace than during the housing boom when there was generally a waiting list in order to buy new home construction).

On the other hand, home prices have been pressured by distressed sales of both foreclosures and short sales which are making up about 40 percent of all home sales currently and I would expect that to continue through this year as well. But unless there is some kind of economic shock, I would expect that we'll start to see some appreciation beginning in 2013 as demand continues to increase and the market should be able to absorb most of the remaining distressed properties that the banks were delayed in bringing to the market due to foreclosure-gate and an increased willingness to approve short sales.