Posts in category 'Charleston Living'

Many homeowners believe that once they sign their closing documents, choose an insurance company and begin making payments, their monthly mortgage payment is settled. That may be true for the principal and interest portion of a fixed-rate mortgage, but it is not necessarily true for the total amount withdrawn from the homeowner's bank account each month.

Property taxes, homeowners insurance and escrow shortages can all change the total monthly payment. A homeowner who overlooks a letter from the county, insurance company or mortgage servicer may discover the problem only after the payment has increased.

South Carolina's 4% Legal Residence Assessment

South Carolina provides a 4% property-tax assessment ratio for an owner's qualifying legal residence. Other residential real estate generally receives a 6% assessment ratio. A home is not officially lab...

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Buying a home in a new town can be exciting. There are rooms to arrange, new roads to learn, and places to explore. Yet after the boxes are unpacked and the pictures are hung, many people discover something real estate photographs cannot show.

A house gives you a place to live, but it does not automatically give you a community.

People often move because of a job, family, retirement, a relationship, or the hope of building a different kind of life. They may find the right home, neighborhood, commute, and price, yet still wonder who they will call when they would simply like to meet someone for dinner.

Friendships do not arrive in the moving truck. Someone has to make the first invitation.

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There is something about a holiday weekend that can make sellers wonder if the market has gone completely quiet.

The house is clean. The beds are made. The counters are clear. The showing instructions are ready. And then… not much happens.

That can feel discouraging if you are watching every notification, especially when you are hoping for a showing, an offer, or at least some sign that buyers are paying attention. But a quiet holiday weekend does not necessarily mean buyers are gone. It often means they are human.

People travel. They host family. They go to cookouts. They take quick getaways. They sit at ball fields, beaches, pools, parks, fireworks shows, and backyard tables. Even serious buyers may pause for a day or two because life is happening.

That does not mean the market stopped.

It means the market slowed down for a moment.

A holiday weekend is a good reminder that real estate does not happen in a vacuum. Buyers ar...

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Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours with a family preparing their home for professional listing photographs. Most people probably imagine that a photo shoot is all about cameras, lighting, and making sure the house looks perfect. There is certainly some truth to that. Before the photographer ever takes the first picture, I walk through the house turning on lights, opening blinds, clearing countertops, hiding trash cans, putting toilet seat lids down, and making sure anything that doesn't belong in a photograph quietly disappears. In this home, that even included gathering up every dog toy before the photographer arrived.

Once everything is ready, the photographer begins working room by room. As she moves through the house, my job is simply to keep the homeowners one step ahead of the camera. If she is photographing the living room, we wait in the kitchen. When she moves into the kitchen, we step into a...

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We weren't house hunting.

We were just walking around Indianapolis, noticing homes the way you do when you're somewhere new. Different styles, different layouts—just taking it in.

At some point, I pulled up Homes.com out of habit.

And that's when it happened.

The pause.

Because the homes were… reasonable.
Not fixer-uppers. Not hidden problems. Just normal, livable homes at prices that feel very different when you're used to

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