Charleston SC Real Estate

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It was great to have your own place, but it's finally time to move out and look for something beyond your starter home. You've probably saved a little cash and are ready to finally be in a place you're proud to call home. The following four tips can help you move out stress-free:

Reduce Debt Before Your Move

Buying something beyond a starter home is likely going to be a bit pricier. This means you don't want to go into this with previous debts to worry about. You want to make sure that you get rid of credit card debt, and avoid additional debt like car or student loans. Taking this step early will help you free up your money, and may even help you make a ...

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Ever wonder where homeowners with the highest income levels are congregating? The experts at PropertyShark.com recently set out to find out just that. The site searched for the top 100 zip codes with high-income homeowners, and then compared these findings to the top 100 zip codes with the most expensive homes. Their findings may surprise you.

It seems that being able to afford a more expensive home does not necessarily mean living in an area with the highest-priced listings. Only 27 out of the top most expensive zip codes based on median sale prices made it into the income-based ranking. So while sunny California holds the majority of the most expensive h...

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Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

It's that time of year again. The spring market is in full swing and crowds of buyers are fighting over their dream house—or at least the closest thing to it, considering this year's nationwide inventory shortage isn't leaving many options. So, what does that mean? For the most part, higher prices, more competition and a whole lot of bids.

Listings in good condition tend to get multiple offers this time of year, and buyers are putting forth their strongest submissions—cash offers, over-asking, fast closings, no contingencies, etc. But creativity is the name of the game in this year's competitive market. Buyers are inspired to win over the seller's emotiona...

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Single women continue to outpace single men as homebuyers in the U.S. housing market. Last year, single men only made up 8 percent of homebuyers, while single women made up a whopping 18 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®' (NAR) 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

The profile also reveals that women in the U.S. continue to earn less than men in the same position, and struggle with debt more often than men.

Whether male or female, all homebuyers need as much information as possible when entering the housing market, so we decided to speak with an expert who can shine a light on this topic.

Here, Steve Williams, SVP and head ...

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While most U.S. homebuyers are looking for Craftsman-style homes or Capes as their primary residence, when it comes to purchasing a second home or vacation property, styles radically change to match the relaxing and exotic feel of highly sought-after vacation spots.

A new report by Point2Homes uses Google search data to determine where U.S. residents are looking to purchase their second homes, with Mexico coming out on top. The report analyzed keywords searched between January 2017 and 2018 for home sales abroad and in the U.S., and ranked them according to average monthly search volume.

Here are the top 10:

Mexico
Canada
Puerto Rico
Costa Rica
Belize
U.S. ...

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

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Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

Selling your home can often be stressful as you live life in limbo. Once the house is listed, you want to receive a good offer as quickly as possible. Here are tips for staging and upgrading your home for a faster sale in 2018:

Start With the Basics

Buyers are going to be turned off if they see a leaking roof or furnace on its last leg. It's not going to matter how impressive your kitchen is if your home has major issues. While new siding isn't glamorous, the improvement can return nearly 92.8 percent of your investment, according to Remodeling magazine. Window and roof replacements also return a high investment of around 80 percent.

Cleaning Your Home

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

Seasonal maintenance may be a chore, but routine inspections and proactive upkeep will keep your costs down and ensure that your rental property does not require preventable expensive repairs.

As the old adage goes, spring usually brings showers. You can prepare for this extra moisture by completing some of these simple tasks:

Roof inspection

Check out the interior walls and ceilings for signs of water stains, cracks and settling of foundation walls. During an exterior roof inspection, you should be looking for curled or missing shingles; rusted and pitted flashing; and cracked caulk around pipe collars, skylights and other roof penetrations. Last wint...

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

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Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

With housing inventory far lower than demand and mortgage rates poised to rise, it’s going to be a competitive market for homebuyers this spring.

If you’re looking to buy a home this season, here’s how to prepare yourself to enter the fray. 

Get your financial house in order.
Unless you plan on paying for the house in cash, you’ll need to apply for a mortgage. No matter how streamlined the process is, you’ll still need to gather a significant amount of documentation to give an accurate financial picture to the lender.

 
Before you even begin house shopping, look at your credit report to make sure there are no errors that could affect your score. Also, pay ...

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Most high schools don't teach students best practices in real estate. In turn, young buyers are often completely in the dark when it comes time for them to find their first home. Along with that comes far greater risks than someone who's shopping around for a second or third home. One risk that can have an impact on any potential homebuyer, however, is fraud. Here are some of the most common real estate fraud schemes:

Mortgage Fraud - This is a wide term that is used to describe any sort of misrepresentation or omission on a loan. It generally falls into two categories: fraud for profit (committed by someone in the industry) and fraud for housing (commit...

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

Assorted expenses factor into homeownership. Beyond the monthly mortgage payment, homeowners are on the hook for maintenance, insurance and property taxes—and, in some cases, fees for the HOA or other services.

For many, the major obligation is property taxes. According to recently released research by WalletHub, the expense is highest in New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and lowest in Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and South Carolina. For a home with a median price tag, the taxes* total:

 
Alabama – $550
Alaska – $3,048
Arizona – $1,367
Arkansas – $721
California – $3,237
Colorado – $1,516
Connecticut – $5,443
Delawa...

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Checking-in on Charleston’s hotel surge
At last count, there were 4,930 hotel rooms on the peninsula alone. That’s 14 rooms per 100 people.

As tourism continues to surge, the demand for more rooms shows no sign of slowing down— which creates a tricky problem for city planners trying to accommodate visitors without tanking the quality of life for those that live here year-round.

It’s a complex issue and one that will not be solved or agreed upon any time soon.

In the meantime, we’ve scoped out a handful of the peninsula’s newest planned hotels to give you a better idea of exactly what all those cranes downtown are doing.

176 Concord St. | A 225-room hotel...

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Even though a burglary occurs every 20 seconds in the U.S., you can still protect yourself without installing top-dollar security features.

Home burglary generally has a pattern; criminals are looking for an easy target they can rob fast. Learn from the pros. Here are six tips from career burglars you can use to defend your home and prevent break-ins.

1. Nighttime Burglaries Aren’t the Best Time

Burglars like to break in to homes during daytime hours—the last thing criminals want is to encounter someone at home. Weekdays are ideal for thieves, since weekend schedules are too unpredictable. Between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. are the most popular times becau...

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Today is International Women’s Day 2018 – a universal day for celebrating women + their achievements, and also calling for gender parity. The day has been observed since the early 1990s and each year adopts a theme. 

In honor of IWD, I wanted to share some notable South Carolina women from the past who made an impact on a national scale. (Thank you for paving the way, ladies.)

Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune was born to former slaves in Mayesville, S.C. (Sumter County) in 1875. She was determined to help break the circle of poverty in African American communities through education,+ she started a school for African-American girls in 1904 (later kno...

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

Selling your home can be one of the most stressful times of your life; however, there's no need to worry with the help of this guide! Here are four of the best value-raising tactics for selling your home:

Ordinary Updates
There are plenty of simple updates you can do to your home before selling it that can help raise its value. These kinds of updates include replacing rotting wood, repairing roof leaks, getting rid of mold and spreading a fresh coat of paint. Buyers tend to look over the home they're thinking about buying carefully, which is why it's so important to check every inch of your home and see what you can update without breaking the bank.

Remode...

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How many times have you opened an email that just didn't seem right? It happens all the time, and, yet, occasionally they seem real enough that you don't think twice about downloading a file or emailing back. Here's the trouble: Email scammers are getting smarter with their phishing schemes and it's becoming increasingly harder to tell an authentic email from a dangerous one. The following should signal a phishing email:

Unfamiliar Email Addresses

While the real estate industry heavily relies on email communications between agents, brokers and clients, not all emails are safe. Typically, scammers will make an email appear professional and legitimate by se...

Call Delicia Deen 843.901.0190

A seller counseling session occurs at the beginning of the agent-client relationship and is a strategic activity that helps ensure a high-quality experience for everyone involved.

The consequences of unprepared sellers cannot be overstated. In a recent article in REALTOR® Magazine, agent Ryan Zwicky outlines some lessons learned the hard way, one of which was about setting appropriate expectations from the start. Zwicky says, “I learned that trying to please the seller only harms them in the end. It is better to be completely honest and open from the start.”

 
A seller counseling session is a powerful expectation-setting tool. It can be a sit-down meeting ...