I have a listing in the West Ashley neighborhood, Hunt Club.  It’s been for sale for a pretty good while and struggling builders trying to unload new houses have hurt our marketing efforts.

I decided to take a different tactic in my efforts and was able to find someone who owned a mountain home in TN.  She was interested in potentially “trading houses.”  The way it would actually work would be, my sellers would purchase her home, and she would immediately purchase theirs.

At first, my sellers thought, “we don’t need a home in TN”.  But after further consideration, it became more interesting because the mountain home, generates rental income.  If we will be battling dropping new home prices in Hunt Club for some time to come, it might make sense to stop some of the bleeding and “trade” for a home that generates some income to offset what would be a similar mortgage payment.

Not the idea solution (selling it and allowing them to buy another home here in CHS would be ideal) but at the same time, a creative way to weather the storm.

This is just one of many possibilites.  How else can the cat be skinned?

Photo Credit

Life is all about timing.  Life in real estate is no different.   For instance, most people know that selling a house on the beach is easier done in the warm sunny months like spring and summer.  It’s hard for people to imagine the value of life at the beach when they are all bundled up in winter clothing.  Another example is real estate downtown, near the Colleges.  There is a window of opportunity starting in about February and going through May where parents of students historically shop for homes for their students to live in.  After student leases start in May-August, it’s over unless you find an investor who is looking to own a house that does not carry itself!  Think about the house that you’re trying to sell now.  Is there a time of year that might favor it’s marketability?  Should you take it off the market so it’ll be a “new” listing at the right time? 

In these slow business times, everyone is looking to save a few bucks here and there. So as you can imagine, restaurants are hurting as people stay in and cook ramen noodles to save money.

To combat the slow times, lots of Charleston’s best restaurants are running some serious promotions. Typically on certain days. Our friends at the City Paper have rounded up the best deals in town and organized them neatly in alphabetical order.

Check it out!

Click Here to Check it Out

Here we are, 12 days into the year.

What’s happend so far?

Glad you asked..

81 Homes Sold So Far

Not Bad

But get this:

585 New Listings so far!

Seems like a ton!  BUT

Compared to last year, it’s much less..  Last year in the first 12 days of the year, 933 new listings were added to the MLS.  That’s 348 More in 12 days.

The upside down relationship between listings and sales, is a real problem for sellers.  That creates the lopsided supply/demand relationship.  Again, great news for buyers! But tough news for sellers.

Don’t fret though.  Buyers are out there.  And apparently new listings are slowing down.  Maybe we’re on the way to a balanced market?  It’s got to start somewhere…

Looks like a solid, but cautious start to the new year.

To everyone who has tried to make comments here over the last few months…

Unable to find them among the MOUNTAINS of spam, I was unable to approve any comments at all.

Now fixed, thanks to a nifty varification feature, I invite you to again feel free to comment!

Thanks for reading..

–Seth

Well I can’t say that I’m too sad to see 2008 end.  That was a pretty tough year, in real estate world.   Will 2009 be much better?  Worse?  Or different at all?  Only time will tell… My prediction is for a fairly good bounce-back in 2009.  Now, I don’t mean a return to 2004-2006 insanity, but listings selling with some sort of regularity.  I don’t think property values will climb very much, if at all, but attractive interest rates (which I think will be in the 4.5-5.1% range for most of the year) combined with sellers getting real with pricing, will equate to  more liquidity and more overall happiness for home buyers and sellers!  About 8800 Homes sold in the Charleston MLS system in 2008.  I predict 2009 will be closer to 10,000 There I said it and now it’s in print!  Lets see how it pans out! 

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads this blog a very happy holiday season.

Take some time to enjoy life, family and friends.

2009 is sure to bring some new opportunities to sell those listings while at the same time continuing offer amazing buying opportunities with these craaaazy interest rates.

From the ShopCharlestonRealEstate family, to your family.  Happy Holidays!

As listed homes for sale sit vacant many are hitting the rental market so owners can get some income to offset the mortgage payments.   So you’d think that the rental market would be flooded, right?Wrong!The rentER market is even hotter!  Since mortgages are tougher to get and required downpayments are sitting at 5% and higher, more and more people are renting for a year to see how things shake out. That means Charleston is seeing unprecidented rental volume.  Lots of owners renting to lots of renters!.I see this is a good step towards normalizing our real estate market.  It thins out some of the inventory on the market.  Once things settle down a little bit, those owners can put their homes back on the market and many of those renters will be ready to own a place of their own.    Photo Credit 

So I’ve spent the better part of a week and a half working with a buyer who was attempting to purchase a bank owned home.  This home was built just two years ago on spec and never sold.  It’s been for sale for two whole years! It was a great deal and an amazing house that my buyer has had his eye on for a long time.  Once priced at over $650K, it was down near $400K now and it still had that new house smell!  We agreed on price, by submitting a standard state contract and the bank verbally agreed to it and sent us their “addendum”.  This is standard practice with bank owned property.  This particular addendum was 10 pages long however, and was filled with some very seller sided perks.  Of course they are written in ‘legalese” so they are very hard to interpret.  My buyer made a smart decision to consult an attorney about the addendums.  The attorney found some very interesting items in there that no sane person would agree to.  The only people that agree to things like this probably don’t notice them and happily sign away, pysched about getting a great deal!  A few weeks down the line, they may find themselves with a compromised title, out of the contract without their earnest money or ready to head to closing only to find out that the bank has recieved a higher offer that morning and you no longer have the right to purchase it.  (All that stuff can be hidden in the fine print) The point is, that as a buyer you have a lot of choices out there and it’s easy to lose sight of that when faced with a great deal on a foreclosure.    Here’s my advice: ALWAYS CONSULT AN ATTORNEY WHEN DEALING WITH BANK DRAFTED CONTRACTS OR ADDENDUMS! Call the attorney you plan on using for closing.  They will sometimes even do this service for free if you end up closing there.  Sometimes…….