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October 2007 - Posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 2:51 PM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market conditions, update

The other day , I promised an update to a mention made of a letter to the Editor by the Charleston County Master-in-Equity. As I've said on many occasions, the Charleston South Carolina real estate market is not without its difficulties but market
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:22 AM

The importance of pictures when making an insurance claim

With the news of the massive fires in San Diego this past week, I noticed some advice about the importance of pictures when making an insurance claim on television as I was flipping through the channels, most likely while I got bored watching the Carolina
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, October 29, 2007 3:22 PM

Winners at the Carnival of Real Estate October 29

Shailesh Ghimire, the Arizona Mortgage Guru, hosts the Carnival of Real Estate this week and scared up the winners just in time for Halloween. Check out some great writing by clicking here . Top honors go to Kevin Boer who wrote a most interesting post,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, October 29, 2007 2:45 PM

The Odysseus Medals for October 29 have been posted

at the BloodhoundBlog for the best writing in the real estate blogosphere. Geno Petro, an exceptional storyteller and my good friend who works the streets in my hometown of Chicago takes home top honors for this outstanding tale. Please read, Memoirs
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, October 29, 2007 12:40 PM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market conditions

I've written often about the Charleston South Carolina real estate market conditions being better here than in many other markets around the country. That isn't to say that the Charleston market is not without its difficulties due to high inventory
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Friday, October 26, 2007 9:29 AM

Charleston South Carolina property tax

Good news for Charleston South Carolina real estate homeowners as property taxes are significantly lower for 2007. The South Carolina legislature reduced property taxes by funding the schools with a complicated sales tax adjustment; increase the sales
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Thursday, October 25, 2007 2:12 PM

Will Countrywide go to the confessional tomorrow

Countrywide reports earnings (or likely a loss) tomorrow and the question is how forthcoming will they be and how will the markets react to Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo's comments. UBS prepared a report for The Wall Street Journal regarding Option
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Thursday, October 25, 2007 8:21 AM

Mortgage lawsuits a possibility?

A few lawyer jokes to get this post rolling before introducing a solution proposed by lawmakers to solve the mortgage and real estate mess. An observation by Sandra Day O'Connor: "There is no shortage of lawyers in Washington, DC. In fact, there
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:40 PM

Economists weigh in on housing data

Before I link to an article in the Wall Street Journal Online Economists Blog, a few old jokes might set the plate so to speak. Someone becoming more of an old joke each day >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Q: Why did God
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:28 PM

Mortgage update

Mortgage rates benefited from last week's big sell off in the stock market and I am now hearing of 30 year fixed rates at 6% and slightly less. The possibility of a Fed rate cut at the end of October doesn't really change long term mortgage rates
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, October 22, 2007 3:25 PM

The Odysseus Medals for Oct 22 have now been posted

at the BloodhoundBlog for the best writing in the real estate blogosphere. Jim Duncan takes home top honors for his terrific post about the existence of Buyer Agency, a concept the professors at the prestigious? Wharton School of Business fail to understand
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, October 22, 2007 1:41 PM

Have fun at this week's Carnival of Real Estate

Lani Anglin will delight you with this week's Carnival of Real Estate winners. Lani sifted through 40 articles on her birthday and presents the winners with her unique style and a nod to the movie Nacho Libre. Read the best from this week's Carnival
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, October 22, 2007 11:30 AM

Realistic expectations and market value

There have always been different perspectives on housing values. The seller views the property at a higher price, the buyer views the property at a lower price and the market value is generally somewhere in between. Negotiation between the seller and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, October 19, 2007 9:35 AM

New listing alerts

There are a lot of real estate consumers who register for new listing alerts on my website and I notice that many look at them just about every day. They are interested in purchasing property in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market sometime
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, October 19, 2007 8:34 AM

October 19, it's my anniversary too!

October 19 is certainly known for the stock market crash in 1987 and with the 20 year anniversary and the today's stock market in precarious position, lots of commentary regarding comparisons are being made between then and now. But October 19 is
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Thursday, October 18, 2007 9:11 AM

Fall Festival Food Drive

Sandlapper Real Estate Group and Blackbeard's Cove in Mount Pleasant will be having a fundraiser on Saturday November 10 from 9AM - Noon benefiting Crisis Ministries, LowCountry Food Bank and East Cooper Meals on Wheels. It will be great fun for the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 6:40 PM

Real estate agents and the housing market

I received a sad email today from a real estate agent in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market. I'll make it anonymous. "Just letting those successful real estate agents out there know that we have reduced our personal home to $XXX.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:55 PM

Commission and possibly a bonus too

As reported by 60 Minutes during their famous love fest with Glenn Kelman of Redfin, the 6% commission was declared to be sacrosanct. Of course, we all know that isn't the case but reality vs. what the media reports and what people read or hear can
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Monday, October 15, 2007 2:59 PM

This week's Odysseus Medals have been posted

at the Bloodhound Blog for the best writing in the real estate blogosphere. Joshua Marks wins this week’s Odysseus Medal with Buyer Beware: You Don’t Have to Use the Mortgage and Title Companies Affiliated with your Real Estate Broker. Make
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, October 15, 2007 9:36 AM

Buying a foreclosure isn't easy ...

... or cheap. You would think it would be and a few prospective clients of mine have shown interest in buying foreclosed properties that might be available in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market considering the media coverage trumpeting the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 6 Comments
Saturday, October 13, 2007 5:44 AM

If you price your house, you should shop the competition

I spent 25 years in the gift and home decor industry before I became a real estate agent in Charleston. It was very common for retailers to shop their competition to make sure their prices were in line. They would send "secret shoppers" out
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, October 13, 2007 5:33 AM

Pictures on my blog

I want to apologize to everyone but the pictures from my blog have been unavailable the past few days, some sort of technical problem at my website provider which they are working on fixing. Hopefully they'll be back up soon and thanks for your patience
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:13 AM

Consumer search for real estate online

It is said that over 80% of all consumers are starting their search for real estate online but where is the real estate consumer searching and what kind of results are they getting. I just got a very thankful email this morning from a visitor to my website.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
Tuesday, October 09, 2007 7:31 AM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market report, September 07

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market statistics for September are very interesting. Quick highlights, unit sales down sharply, prices still stable, a high but stable level of inventory. Once again, we'll present the statistics first and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 8 Comments
Monday, October 08, 2007 6:40 PM

The Odysseus medals have been posted

... at the BloodhoundBlog for the best writing in the real estate blogosphere. Glenn Kelman of Redfin picks up this week's Odysseus Medal for his post at Guy Kawasaki's weblog with, Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
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Monday, October 08, 2007 12:08 PM

Fear, the 8th deadly sin

My friend Geno Petro, Chicago real estate agent and writer extraordinaire crafted another masterpiece, The Eight Deadly Sin ... Fear. I just checked the Charleston South Carolina real estate market statistics for the month of September in preparation
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 10 Comments
Monday, October 08, 2007 6:46 AM

Challenges for real estate agents in today's market

Real estate agents are dealing with new challenges in today's Charleston South Carolina real estate market in different ways. The first and most obvious challenge is proper pricing and preparation of the home that real estate agents are listing for
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, October 04, 2007 6:36 PM

A little shameless self promotion

I didn't make the Inman News list of the top 25 most influential real estate bloggers: 2007 but I did make Jay Thompson's Phoenix Real Estate Guy's we post #26 - 50 list . Jay was one of the people who inspired me to start writing my blog
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, October 04, 2007 3:15 PM

We've got a reader

... and that is a good thing. I have been selling Charleston South Carolina real estate for a number of years and typically at a real estate closing, there isn't much time to read very many of the hundreds of pages of documents a buyer is typically
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, October 03, 2007 3:18 PM

An update on The Ponds in Summerville

I recently visited The Ponds, a new community in Summerville that is being developed by Greenwood Development that I introduced about 6 months ago with this post . A lot of progress has occurred and this development seems destined to be one of the truly
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 5:55 PM

The Charleston economy is booming, outstanding job growth cited in two reports

The Charleston Post and Courier had two articles recently focusing on how well the Charleston economy has been doing recently. Perhaps that is one reason that the Charleston South Carolina real estate market has been holding up rather well despite the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, October 01, 2007 3:43 PM

Yes you can get a mortgage

The media have just about convinced everyone that the housing industry is headed for disaster and that mortgage loans are unobtainable due to the subprime mortgage mess. While a credit crunch did briefly develop in August, as the pendulum swung too far
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, October 01, 2007 2:54 PM

Alan Greenspan started talking and now we can't shut him up

For 18 years at the helm of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan talked infrequently and in a language so convoluted, it became known as Greenspeak. With his new book on sale, he has been talking more in the past month than during his years at the Fed.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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