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February 2010 - Posts

Saturday, February 27, 2010 7:17 AM

Southern Living loves Charleston [again]

... and I love Southern Living. Charleston graces the cover of another Southern Living this month. Charleston is highlighted in a majority of Southern Living issues every year and usually captures one or two covers each year. This year is no exception
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, February 26, 2010 7:26 AM

Charleston real estate blog reader buys a home

Longtime Charleston real estate blog reader Jimmy (not his real name but his screen alias) closed on the sale of a home yesterday. I've had several clients who told me that they decided to hire me as their Charleston Realtor because they enjoyed meeting
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Thursday, February 25, 2010 6:08 AM

Deceptive mortgage ads: what they say, what they leave out

We've all seen ads from mortgage companies offering below market rates or low payments. Sometimes they seem too good to be true and you know the old saying, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. I'm not suggesting any of the ads to the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 7:41 AM

Spring Charleston real estate listings jump

Conventional wisdom has it that lots of home sellers in Charleston tend to take their homes off the market during the holidays and once again offer them for sale during the busy spring selling season. This year is no exception. During December, 1134 homes
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, February 22, 2010 7:41 AM

Home buyer tax credit is due to expire April 30

... and of course there is once again talk of another extension but don't count on it. If you are a first time home buyer or an existing home buyer who has lived in their current home for 5 consecutive years of the last 8, mark your calendar for April
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 21, 2010 1:53 PM

Whoever suggested gardening might be a fun hobby to take up

... probably wasn't referring to spring cleanup. As you can see by the pile of yard waste that is almost as big as our Mini awaiting pickup by the Town of Summerville this coming Thursday, my wife and I worked hard this morning trimming shrubs and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
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Saturday, February 20, 2010 7:48 AM

[Relocating to Charleston] You'll love searching the Charleston MLS with map search

... and even if you already live in Charleston, you'll love the map search too. Recently, a first time home buyer who had recently relocated to Charleston told me that the primary reason they wanted to hire me as their buyer agent to help them buy
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, February 19, 2010 7:26 AM

Will 2010 be the year of the Short Sale

Short sales, when the proceeds of the sale are less than what is owed on the mortgage, have been difficult at best for buyers to successfully purchase but that may change as banks are starting to be more responsive and are agreeing to short sales as a
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:46 AM

Charleston home buyers, if you call the listing agent, understand dual agency

What is dual agency anyway. The first thing to understand is that there are two sides to a real estate transaction, the seller side and the buyer side. What you have with dual agency are two parties with adverse interests and dual agency is created when
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:16 PM

[Dreaming] Asking prices of Charleston homes for sale

Some sellers must be dreaming when pricing their homes for sale in Charleston or they've slept through reports in the media that homes have declined in value in the past few years. Just the other day, I was showing homes to a client and there was
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, February 15, 2010 6:22 AM

CharlestonOnlineHomes is now on Facebook

In addition to my personal page which I want to orient towards just having fun, I just created a Facebook page for CharlestonOnlineHomes . You'll find news and opinion impacting the National and Charleston real estate markets.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:11 AM

It did snow ... in Charleston

... and snowmageddon finally arrives in the South. Waking up to 5 inches of fresh snow this morning, this is the first snow we've ever seen since we moved to Charleston in 2001 and apparently this is the first time it has snowed since 2000 (a little
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 6 Comments
Friday, February 12, 2010 10:12 AM

In this crazy winter, could it actually snow today in Charleston

It's all the buzz around town. Could it actually snow today in Charleston. Anything from flurries to an inch or two are predicted. And as anyone who lives here will tell you, even that little could close the city down. Snowmageddon! Photo courtesy
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, February 12, 2010 8:21 AM

The good faith estimate and the HUD 1 settlement statement

Only the US government could simplify the mortgage loan process by increasing the number of pages of both the forms and the explanation but there is some good and some bad to the new good faith estimate and HUD 1 settlement statement that you will get
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:39 AM

January 2010 foreclosure report from RealtyTrac

Good news, bad news. According to RealtyTrac , January foreclosures were down nearly 10% from December 2009 but were over 300,000 for the 11th straight month and 15% higher than January 2009. Sadly, many more are expected. “If history repeats itself
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 8:15 AM

Are you a motivated seller

In today's Charleston real estate market, if you are thinking of selling your home, if you aren't a motivated seller, you might want to either withdraw your home for sale or get motivated in a hurry. One of the most popular phrases in Charleston
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 8:13 AM

Foreclosures at the beaches of Charleston

Foreclosures are available at all price points and in all areas of Charleston. You can find lender owned homes in Historic Downtown Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Daniel Island, Summerville and at the beaches of Charleston. I just noticed two bank owned
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, February 08, 2010 7:04 AM

10 must have features in today's new homes

I recently showed homes to a young couple who were first time home buyers. We started by looking at preowned homes and then we looked at newer homes and then new home construction and what was interesting was how they noticed how homes evolved from the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Sunday, February 07, 2010 7:28 AM

Snowmageddon and The Super Bowl

My nephew Evan lives in Maryland. Because there is the possibility of power outages due to Snowmageddon, he wanted to know if the Super Bowl would be cancelled if he couldn't watch the game. Evan, if it snowed in Miami like it snowed in the Mid Atlantic,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Saturday, February 06, 2010 7:31 AM

Southeastern Wildlife Exposition 2010

The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, SEWE , the largest wildlife art and nature event in the nation once again will be held in Charleston over Valentine's Day weekend, February 12 - 14, 2010. There are lots of great events including "Wild in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, February 05, 2010 7:45 AM

Charleston mortgage report, February 5, 2010

Mortgage rates have once again have dropped under 5% for a 30 year fixed rate loan. With the stock market down, the bond market up, mortgage rates once again are being offered at near historic lows. If you are considering the purchase of a home for sale
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Thursday, February 04, 2010 7:50 AM

Availability and responsiveness

... are two important qualities of a Charleston real estate professional (and for anyone providing quality customer service). An employee of Boeing called me yesterday wanting to know where Boeing employees were moving to in the Charleston area. I told
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 10:23 AM

Choosing a Charleston neighborhood

Today, just about everyone is happy to recommend or not recommend just about everything. That's not a bad thing because everyone is looking for feedback, reviews, etc., when considering buying anything. And Charleston real estate is no different and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, February 01, 2010 7:37 AM

Charleston real estate market report, home prices, February 1, 2010

Let's face facts. Home prices have declined over the past year. And if you bought a home in the past few years, your home is not worth more than when you purchased it no matter how nice it is, how good a deal you got or any other justification you
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments