How Can You Handle Pests and Other Problems in Your Home?

Pest and termite control is certainly an important thing for homeowners to pay attention to. However, did you know that moisture and mold control can be just as devastating and worrisome?

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Whether you’re thinking about buying, selling, or wanting to preserve the investment you’ve already made in your home, we’re here to give you smart advice to be able to do that.

I was recently joined by Tyler Rehn from Pest Guard Solutions to talk about what his company does and how they can help you. He runs a termite, pest control, and moisture control company. He married into a family who had this type of business and recently went on his own in the last year.

The No. 1 question people have for Tyler is whether or not they have termites in their home. His team’s experience makes it easy to find an answer. Another common question Tyler hears is about mold and moisture control. Everyone thinks about termite control when it comes to getting rid of pests, but when Tyler and his team start to look at homes, the moisture and mold side is something that’s often forgotten about.

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Moisture and mold problems can be just as devastating as pest and termite problems.

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A lot of times, when you’re putting your home on the market, wood destroying mold can be just as big of an issue as termites. It could be mold, fungus, or termites that could rot wood away and even lead to health issues.

If you want to know more about what Tyler and his team do, you can visit them here or give him a call at (864) 616-6308. They’d be happy to answer any questions you have. They even have a special offer for those of are subscribers of ours.

If you have any other real estate-related questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

What Is Happening in Your Greenville Market?

Today I want to share our latest market numbers and help you decide if it is a great time to buy or sell.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

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I was recently on “Your Carolina with Jack & Megan” to talk about the market, and if you're thinking about buying or selling, you won't want to miss this episode—which you can follow along with above as we discuss the latest developments in our market.

The first statistic we should consider is inventory, also known as the supply. When the market slows down, supply typically rises. Currently, we're still seeing supply decrease with a 2.7% decrease compared to this time last year. This indicates that it is still a strong market.

The average days on market (the amount of time it takes a home to sell) is another key indicator of overall market conditions. Currently, the average number of days on market is down about 3%, which means that we are still seeing a strong market, even though some people are saying it is slowing.

The numbers don't indicate a slowing. In fact, the average price of a home is still going up. We are up 8.4% from this time last year with a price of $245,000. It is still a seller's market below $250,000. If you put a home on the market that is $175,000 to $225,000, it sells very quickly.

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The great thing about selling now is that there's actually less competition because there are fewer homes on the market.

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Since it is fall, many people think that now isn't the time to sell because homes don't sell. However, this is a misconception. It is actually a very robust market here and we see a lot of homes sold. The great thing about selling now is that there's actually less competition because there are fewer homes on the market as you go into the winter months. The buyers that are out there are also more serious about finding a home and want to buy.

The entire Greenville area is still very popular. Specifically the Five Forks area as well as inside the city is becoming increasingly popular. In fact, we put a home on the market a few weeks ago in West Greenville that received 15 offers. People want to go into the village and fix homes up and make a nice community.

Days on market still does matter greatly. We try to price a home so that it sells in 30 to 45 days. If it does stay on the market longer than this, we don't want it to reach 60 days because then when buyers look at it they make lowball offers. You want to come onto the market and price to sell it quickly, or people may think that there is something wrong with the property.

If you have any questions about our current market, or if you're interested in talking about buying and selling, please feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

What Do You Need to Consider When Buying New Construction?

Today I want to talk about what you need to consider when buying a new construction home.

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What steps should you take and what factors do you need to consider when buying new construction? To help you, I will go over some of these points today. Of course, you can also speak with one of our buyer's agents who can go further in-depth with all of these areas.

You can start by looking at the pros and cons of buying new construction. You may want to consider that new homes are typically built farther from the city center, so you may have a longer commute depending on where you work. You may also have to coax a new lot into existence because it may not have a lawn or trees. Subdivisions can also be very cookie-cutter since they go up quickly. You'll have to decide if you're okay with your home looking similar to your neighbor's as well as if it is okay that you could be in close proximity to your neighbor.

The next thing you need to do is research the neighborhoods and builders. Our buyer's agents know a lot about the neighborhoods and builders because they have worked with them before. They’ve even been invited to get behind-the-scenes looks at what some of the builders can do for our clients. Although they come fully prepared, it doesn't hurt for you to do some research yourself so you know what you're getting into.

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Builder's have a standard floor plan and many times the one you see marketed isn't the standard floor plan with the standard options.

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It also is of great benefit to you to find out what comes standard from the builder and what costs extra. Builders have a standard floor plan and many times the one you see in marketing materials isn't the standard floor plan with the standard options. There could be many extra options that could end up costing a lot of extra money.

Our buyer agents always advise getting an inspection and home warranty. Most builders actually come with some sort of home warranty on them, so you want to know what that is and what it covers. This way you will know if you need an extra warranty on top of that. This can be negotiated with the builder as well. In fact, we negotiate this for our clients because we want them to be protected when they purchase a new construction home.

The final thing to consider is how to close the deal. This is actually what we specialize in; we write the contracts and negotiate price points and add-ins for you.

We are here to help you every step of the way through your home buying process. If you have any additional questions about new construction or buying or selling in general, please feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

The Keys to Getting Your Home Sold During the Back-to-School Season

If you’re trying to sell your home during the back-to-school season, here are a few tips that will help you.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

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On my latest appearance on “Your Carolina With Jack & Megan,” I talked about the keys to getting your home sold right now during the back-to-school season. 

A lot of sellers with school-age children tend to rush to get their homes sold so they can move into their kids’ school district before the school session starts. Is it hard to sell your home right now, though? 

It’s not hard, but it is a different season. The summer market was our peak-selling season, and now things have slowed down a bit, so you have to make your home stand out. Here are a few tips to do that. 

First, make sure your home’s priced correctly. The market will tell you what your home should be priced at, so it’s important to be realistic in this regard. If you’re determined to sell your home for a certain amount because of how much time and money you put into it, you might be setting yourself up to fail. The market doesn’t care about what you put into your home. Buyers are out there looking, so you have to be competitive. 

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Make your home show-ready by decluttering and depersonalizing it.

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Next, you need to make your home show-ready, which means decluttering and depersonalizing it. Remove any personal items and make the interior as wide-open as possible. Buyers want to be able to visualize themselves living in your home when they walk through it. Think of it as merchandising your home. On our team, we have a professional stager work with our sellers to do this. 

Lastly, remember that buyers tend to make a snap decision when walking through your entryway. As soon as they walk through your front door, they’ve either eliminated your house from consideration or decided they’re interested in it. Since you only have a few seconds to make a great first impression, fix up your entryway.

As always, if you have any other questions about our market or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you. 

What Will Happen to Our Market in 2018?

Today, I’m taking a look into my crystal ball to bring you some predictions for our 2018 real estate market.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

Today, I’d like to share a few of my predictions for the 2018 real estate market. First of all, let’s take a look at home values. Here in the Greenville area, home values have gone up 7% this year.

According to my “crystal ball,” values won’t rise quite as much in 2018. This is, in part, due to low inventory.

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Home values won’t rise as much in 2018.

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Another prediction I have has to do with interest rates. Interest rates have seen historic lows lately, but the Fed recently raised the prime rate. This change will ultimately affect mortgage rates, and therefore will impact your buying power. In other words, it’s definitely time to make a move if you’re thinking of buying a new home. Homes under $200,000 are moving especially quickly, so act fast. On a final note, millennials will be a powerful force in real estate in 2018.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Greenville on Greenville: My Conversation With Matt McCulley

I recently talked to Matt McCulley from Greenville on Greenville about starting the first Keller Williams in South Carolina, the future of our market, and more.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

I recently sat down with Matt McCulley from Greenville on Greenville to discuss why I got involved in real estate and how I started the first Keller Williams in South Carolina.

Greenville has a very traditional real estate market. When we started the first Keller Williams in the state of South Carolina, we were up against some very old firms. However, I saw that Keller Williams could bring about a real paradigm shift in real estate.

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It’s been really cool to have a firsthand look at how Greenville has changed, grown, and become even better.

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Matt and I also discuss the future of the Greenville real estate market, what challenges we’ll face, and more. To hear our full conversation, check out this video.

If you have any real estate questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

5 Reasons to List Your Home This Winter

If you’ve been hesitant to list your home this winter because you think you should wait until spring, there are five things you need to know.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

A common myth in real estate is that winter is a bad time to sell. People always say you should wait until spring to list.

However, the facts don’t always match up to this mindset. Waiting isn’t always the right choice. In fact, there are five key reasons you shouldn’t wait until spring to list your home.

1. Less inventory equals more attention. When there are fewer homes in the market, more people will be drawn to your listing.

2. First quarter job relocations. A lot of corporate businesses bring people in and out of jobs in the middle of winter. These people are going to need homes.

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Waiting until spring to list isn’t always the right choice.

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3. Fewer lookers and more motivated buyers. People who are searching the market for home during winter months aren’t doing so for fun. These buyers are serious about finding the right homes.

4. Fewer days on market. We’ve actually found that homes sell faster during this time of year, given that buyers are more willing to negotiate a deal.

5. Higher average sales prices. It may sound counterintuitive, but this is actually something we often see during the winter months.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Where Can You Find References for Our Team?

I was recently a guest on “Your Carolina With Jack and Megan.”

Here’s some of what I talked about in my appearance.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

As a regular contributor for real estate on "Your Carolina," I often answer viewer questions. I joined Jack and Megan recently to answer a question from one of their viewers about our team.

The question was, “Do you give out references for recent buyers and sellers?” The answer is absolutely yes. In fact, references are a huge part of our business. There are so many different review sites out there, from Facebook to Google to Zillow. On our Zillow page, our team has more than 100 reviews.

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We’re always happy to give out personal references.

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If those don’t convince you, we are always happy to give out personal references of buyers and sellers who have recently worked with us so you can contact them and see for yourself. Although Zillow’s information isn’t always the most accurate or up to date, when it comes to our team’s reviews, you can rest assured that those are clients who have worked with us.

If you have any questions for us or are thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Why Is it Such a Good Time to Move Up in Greenville?

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Call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

We compile a monthly Greenville real estate market report every month, and we track a lot of different numbers to get a good idea of the state of the market. Some of the important factors we track include the average days on market, the average sale price, the list-to-sale ratio and the absorption rate. Today we are going to talk about some of the recent numbers that have jumped out to us, but first, we want to give you an update on mortgage rates.

Last year, we saw mortgage rates near or at historic lows. They have dropped even lower since, and are down about 0.5% from where they were last year. Now, back to the numbers that jumped out to us.

The first number I want to mention is 1.4. That is the current months of inventory available for homes on the market between $100,000 and $200,000. That’s less than a 6-week supply! There’s a huge opportunity out there for sellers in the area to get top dollar for their home if it falls into this price range.

However, the higher you move up the pricing ladder, the more inventory we do have. In the $300,000 to $400,000 price point, we have more of a balanced market (5.3 months of inventory). In the luxury home market, we are actually in a buyer’s market.

If you’re thinking about upgrading to a new home in the near future, both our gut and the numbers say this is the time to do it. You’re going to sell very quickly if you’re priced right and staged correctly. Then you can go out and purchase a nicer home in a market where homes are staying on the market a bit longer, and have lower-than-usual sale prices. This is the perfect storm for move-up buyers, and we aren’t sure how long it will last.

If you’re looking to make a move up in the near future, or if you just have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Should You Wait for Winter to Buy a Home?

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 Thinking of selling? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 
Call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Today, I'd like to address one of the questions from our clients. A lot of people have been asking, "Should I wait until winter to buy a home?" Many people think buying in the winter will save them money, but my answer may surprise you.

Of course, real estate is supply and demand. When supply is higher and demand is lower, then prices will come down. When supply is lower and demand is higher, prices will rise. Right now, we're seeing low supply and high demand.

With our current market, I don't believe that home prices are going to come down during the fall. I don't see any point in waiting until winter in order to save more money. Prices may stabilize in the fall, but it doesn't look like they are going to drop. In fact, if you wait, you may do yourself a disservice, especially if interest rates rise. Higher rates means less buying power.

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Top 10 Renovations that Are Sure to Save You Money

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 Thinking of selling? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 
Call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Today I'd like to share an interesting video I found on HGTV. It documents the ten best renovations that you can make on your home that won't cause you to go broke! Renovations can get expensive, but here are some ideas to help you get more bang for your buck.

10. Using subway tiles is an inexpensive way to redo your kitchen and add a retro feel to it.

9. Speaking of a retro feel, using vintage furniture and fixtures can look and feel great on your wallet. 

8. You can create an 'art wall' by collecting used wood. This hand-crafted, old-school look is sure to impress your guests.

7. Instead of ripping out your hardwood floors entirely, just replace the ones that cannot be used anymore. Lacing new boards in with old ones has an eye-catching look.

6. Changing the knobs on your cabinets and doors can create a whole different feel in a kitchen.

5. Instead of updating your entire bathroom, just refinish your tub. It makes everything else look new again.

4. Painting your home by yourself can be a huge money-saver.

3. Hiring a good Realtor can save you money as well. They know how to negotiate deals and get you the best price on a home that you're buying or selling. Talk to me about this!

2. Waterproofing your roof can save you tons and tons of money down the road. Being proactive about major structural issues in your home is always a good idea.

1. The last couple saved nearly $20,000 renovating their home because they knew a good mill-worker. While I can't promise that you'll save that much, I do know good contractors that can offer you discounts on their services!

So, there you have it. Ten easy ways to save money while renovating your home. While these are all great ideas, I'd prefer if you spoke with me before you went about ripping up your house.

Not all renovations are necessary if you're trying to get top dollar before a sale. Often times the most expensive renovations will not make you the most money back - if you get any money back at all.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions about this video, or if you have any Greenville real estate needs!