Charleston, South Carolina Real Estate Blog

5 Closing Costs Sellers Pay

Here are the five closing costs sellers will pay for in the transaction. 

Many sellers wonder what they’ll pay in closing costs, which you need to know to budget for your transaction. So here are the five closing costs you’ll pay as a seller:

1. The commission. This is the largest closing cost and is usually paid for by the seller. You’ll pay a fee to your real estate agent for listing your property, and typically your agent will share that with the buyer’s agent. This is all negotiable, but generally, that’s how it works. If you’re selling a $500,000 house and the commission is 6%, you’ll pay $30,000.

2. Deed stamps. Also called a transfer fee, it’s $3.70 per $1,000 in South Carolina. So if you’re selling a $1 million house, you’ll pay…

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Rick Barry Interview: Part 2

 Here’s the second and final part of my recent discussion with Rick Barry.

Today I’m sharing part two of my interview with NBA champion and Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry. This part of the conversation focuses on competitiveness, coaching, accountability, and much more.

Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message, or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure:

0:30 — Where Rick got his competitive drive from
2:50 — Lessons Rick learned from coaching the game
5:05 — How proper coaching and mentorship brings accountability
5:49 — Why Rick always played well against the Knicks
6:45 — What’s next for Rick Barry?
8:22 — Wrapping things up

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What To Do with Your Vacation Home as Summer Ends

What To Do with Your Vacation Home as Summer Ends

As summer comes to a close, is it time to think about selling your vacation home? Based on recent data and expert opinions, it’s something you may want to consider. According to research from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), vacation home sales are up 57.2% year-over-year for January-April 2021.

If you’ve taken your last vacation this summer, here are reasons you should consider selling your vacation home this year.

1. Remote work continues to drive demand for vacation homes.

As the report from NAR says, based on continuously evolving work needs, there could be more interest in your second home than you think:

“In 2020, across all nine divisions, the fraction of the…

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What Real Estate Agents Can Learn From Sports Legends

 Hall of Famer Rick Barry speaks on how pro athletes and Realtors are alike.

Today I had the unique privilege of talking with someone who is not a real estate agent or coach but a legendary Hall of Fame basketball player Rick Barry. He and I had a conversation comparing top athletes to real estate agents. It might seem odd, but they actually have more in common than you’d think.

Feel free to follow along in the video above or else use the timestamps below to navigate the discussion at your leisure:

0:30—How does mindset factor into being a superstar?
1:35—You can’t build a tall building on a small foundation
2:30—Don’t be afraid of failure
3:40—Taking pride in what you do
4:30—You’ll never achieve your full potential if you don’t understand what…

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Can You Rely on Automated Home Values?

Are automated home values really all that reliable? Find out today.

Most people are familiar with Zillow’s Zestimate tool, which generates an estimated home value based on public data. But therein lies the problem; Zillow might factor in a home’s square footage, general location, and appearance, but they don’t know everything that factors into a home’s value.

For example, they might know where the home is located, but they don’t know where on a particular street it is and whether that spot provides an ocean view that would boost a home’s value. They also can’t factor in any upgrades you’ve made to the property.

"Automated home valuation tools don’t know everything about your home that affects its value."

Today’s market is…

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Questions to Ask a Realtor

 Three must-ask questions for the real estate agent you’re interviewing.

Today I’m talking about the three things a buyer or seller needs to ask an agent when they’re interviewing them:

1. How much experience have you had? You want to know how many homes they’ve closed because experience matters. The more situations that the agent has experienced, the more likely they are to have a solution.
2. Are you a team or an individual agent? Make sure you know who you’ll be communicating with throughout the process.
3. Will they give you timely feedback on urgent issues? For example, you want to know how a showing went right away and know about any inspection issues. A Realtor who communicates with you saying they don’t know yet is better than silence…

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How Is the Charleston Market Faring?

The crazy state of the market in Charleston, South Carolina.

Today I'm talking about how crazy the market is in Charleston, South Carolina, and on the islands.

When you hear that prices are going up and that there's low inventory, that is really happening. The supply and demand are driving the prices up right now so if you have any interest in selling your house, now is a wonderful time to do so. We have more buyers looking now than we ever have.

Charleston is a wonderful place to be, and the beaches are a great place for a second home. We're seeing more sales but we have very few homes on the market. In the Wild Dunes area, we only have six properties. As soon as something comes on the MLS, it gets multiple offers.

If you're…

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Why You Should Consider Moving Here

Four reasons you should consider moving to Wild Dunes or the Isle of Palms.

Today I’m sharing the four main reasons why I love Wild Dunes and the Isle of Palms and why you should consider moving here:

1. It’s beautiful. You come over the connector and see marshes on one side, the ocean straight ahead, and that’s the essence of Wild Dunes and the Isle of Palms; everywhere you look there’s beauty.

2. There’s a lot to do. The Isle of Palms has great restaurants, and Wild Dunes has a new hotel with a rooftop bar, and you can see all the way to Sullivan’s Island.

3. They’re close to shops. You can go back over the bridge to Mt. Pleasant or drive 10 to 15 minutes more to downtown Charleston.

"Everywhere you look there’s beauty."

4. The…

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What Sellers Need to Know

Here’s what you need to know about selling in our market right now.

If you’re a seller in our current real estate market, you may have heard that you can price your home however you like and it’ll sell in a day, and there’s nothing out there for sale so a buyer will pay whatever you ask. However, that’s simply not true. Buyers still won’t overpay for a house. 

The way to make the most money from your sale is if you price your home competitively so you start a bidding war, which means several people are trying to buy it at the same time, and that drives up the price. Have your real estate agent look at recent comparables to price your home; our market is changing so fast that you don’t want them to look at sales from three months ago. The…

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