Updates, Tips, Listings, Guides to Charleston
And a little more…
Purchasing a home is one of the most significant investments you will make in your lifetime, and getting a mortgage is the most common way people finance their homes. However, for first-time home buyers, the mortgage process can be overwhelming. From understanding the terms to navigating the various options available…
Read MoreThe last three years have been a whirlwind with the housing market going from scorching hot to icy cold quicker than Harry and Megan could cash in on a deal w/ Netflix! So what does the housing market have in store for the year to come?!?
Read MoreWhat a year. By all accounts one of the most interesting on record in terms of the overall housing market.
While much has been made in the news, here’s what the numbers have told us…
Read MoreOk so heading into the spring housing market, what areAfter almost two years of double-digit increases, many experts thought home price appreciation would decelerate or happen at a slower pace in the last quarter of 2021.
However…
Read MoreOk so heading into the spring housing market, what areAfter almost two years of double-digit increases, many experts thought home price appreciation would decelerate or happen at a slower pace in the last quarter of 2021.
However…
Read MoreOk so heading into the spring housing market, what are we going to see?!
3 Things we feel more than likely play out in amidst the backdrop of increased Interest Rates, Inflation, Ukrainian Conflict and whatever your neighbors on Nextdoor are ranting about this week…
Read MoreThe “warning signs” look all too familiar.
Escalating home prices have both buyers & sellers worried that the market is just “too good to be true,” and agents across the U.S. are getting bombarded with the ultimate question: “Are we in a housing bubble?”
Read MoreThis takes us back to 2018 to a property in Sullivans Island South Carolina we sold after it had been listed with 3 different agencies over the course of 2 years and could not achieve the desired price or make it to the closing table. I love this video because so much of what we did with this home set the foundation for other listings moving forward. We story told through video, design and a marketing package 99% simply can not produce. Even after several years in the rear view, so much of what I was preaching in 2018 has only been refined and what we deliver on today!
Read MoreIn 2022 I’m willing to bet most of you spend an absurd amount of time asking yourself ‘are tax deductions when selling a home?’
Of course you don’t. After the past 2 years, you’re just trying to figure out which way is up, how to not get canceled or hoping the kids don’t call you a Boomer for not having a Tik Tok account. Frankly most of us don’t think of this until the time comes or the tax man comes calling. Fortunately for you, and if you’re reading this, there are a few things you can (and should do) to keep your hard earned equity in your pocket after the yard sign says ‘SOLD’.
Read MoreIn 2010 at the height of the Great Recession, 2.8 million properties filed for foreclosure. The good news is several of the key provisions of the stimulus package is attempting to avoid that repeat, as millions file for unemployment due to COVID-19. You have likely heard about the $1200 checks many adults will be able to received, but included in that bill (known as the CARES Act) are several protections everyone from renters to home-owners to investors (and even soon to be homeowners).
Read MoreIt’s the day (or night) after the inspection. Anxiety levels are running high on both sides the transaction. As the buyer, you’re waiting on the report and are bout to be shocked by the sheer length of the report regardless…., and the sellers and their agent are hoping they don’t hear more than a 👍🏼
A typical inspection will last a couple hours, the inspector will take a lot of notes as well as pictures to ensure the report is thorough.
Inevitably, (good or bad) the report hits your email like a ton of bricks. After sorting through the disclosures you remember signing, disclaimers and all the print/pics of 50-plus pages of descriptions, photos, subsections and educational primers of each part of the house, you (the buyer) is left to try to make sense of this document and determine what in the hell you’re supposed to do from here. Now is the stage most people have these questions:
Read MoreOh the home inspection. You just were so excited because you found the perfect place, you made an offer, negotiated just like they do on the TV shows (HA) and ratified on the house (aka everyone agreed to price/terms). Now your friendly agent strikes fear in your heart immediately by reminding you its time to schedule the daunting home inspection…
Oh the horror….
Just like when having any doctors visit, we might…
Read MoreSpring is here and a lot of you are getting ready to sell your homes. Many of my listing appointments I end up imparting a lot of the same advice to folks looking to sell there homes. Here’s a few handy tips on how to make your home more appealing to buyers for under $100.
1.) Double Check the Curb Appeal
Whether you like it or not perspective home buyers will be flipping through 100s of properties and occasionally driving by them so the curb appeal is going to be the first thing they notice and draws them in. So make sure it’s photo ready!
Spruce up exterior, power wash, fresh pine straw, potted plants, clean/paint front door and swap any dated hardware
2.) Light Bulb Check
Whether seem like minutia, but if you want your home to tell perspective agents and their buyers you didn’t take good care of the home, give them subconscious hints like dirty lighting fixtures or burnt out bulbs. Simple fix that will go a long way in to alleviating any surface level concerns and negate the question, ‘if they didn’t tend to the small things we can see, what may be hiding under the surface?’
3.) Paint and Spot Touch Up
Want to know every Agent’s trick to fixing something that looks old and tired? Spot touch ups and neutral paint go a long way into breathing some life into a pre-owned home regardless of how hard a certain space has been used.
4.) Deep Deep Clean and Declutter
There’s no quicker way to turn off a perspective buyer entering home than a dirty space, w/ odd smells or cluttered rooms. Buyers will decide within 15 seconds of seeing a home whether they’d buy it or not. So don’t give them a reason not to in the last 5 when they open the door. Clean the baseboards, appliances, swap the air filters and deep clean the bathrooms/kitchens where. Also if you’re living in the home, that’s fine, but you’re going to be moving so it’s time to put a lot of the excess in boxes so buyers can focus on the space and not your family vacation to Wyoming 2014.
5.) Organize the Garage
You know why i love selling homes for engineers and mechanics? Most of the time their garages are the most organized space in the house. Most use it as the space where they store excess and becomes cluttered quickly. We’re going to keep playing on the buyer subconscious here, in that a clean and tidy garage says ‘I’ve kept up the space where most keep the dirtiest/disorganized, so clearly I've kept the rest of the home in tip top shape’. Think about it, at this point the other homes prospective buyers have seen will be the place of dirty lawn mowers, boxes of Christmas decorations thrown haphazardly on a shelf, and tools thrown about. If this one space stands apart from the rest, it's yet another reason to choose your home over another.
These are some of the most common I find from home to home that will help set yours apart and cost you mostly time. There are (of course), many more things you can do to prepare your home for sale (and should), but these easy tips will set you apart from most and get your home sold just a bit quicker.
843.730.4454 | gentry@843living.com
741 Meeting Street, Suite 101, Charleston SC 29403
Gentry Todd Radwanski is an Agent of Corcoran HM Properties
