The longer I’m in this business, the more I hear people who want to buy a home say, “I just like to call the listing agent and have them take care of me.” This is a shocking statement. Why? Because buying a home is a legal transaction, and when a legal transaction takes place, you […]
Real Estate
What Your Realtor Says, and What He Really Means
Being a REALTOR® is a bit surreal at times. The tight rope the law requires us to walk is next-to impossible. We’re supposed to advise our clients but not make them feel pressured to make a decision. We’re supposed to write contracts for our clients but not give legal advice (ha!). We’re supposed to recommend vendors […]
Pet Mania: Why your cat is going to pick your next house
Yes, you read that right. Your cat (or dog, chinchilla, or any other pet you have) is going to pick out your next home. How do I know that? From some crazy statistics the National Association of REALTORS® recently published. Here are some of the key points: “Sixty-one percent of U.S. households have an animal or […]
Buying a home with creative financing
On the movie The Big Short, there are some humorous scenes that depict individuals (and those around them) before the Great Recession who have found ways to obtain multiple mortgages even though they clearly should not have qualified for more than one, if that. The banks even came up with the slang term “NINJA loan,” […]
Homes in Riverside School District are selling FAST
Recently at an office meeting, my broker was talking to a colleague and asked him what homes his clients were looking for. His response? “Anything in Riverside School District.” He’s not the only one. It seems that everyone is looking to move to Riverside SD, and it’s understandable why. It’s a great school district in an area […]
How to buy a home with no money up front
I bought my first home in my early 20s when I didn’t have a ton of money in the bank, and perhaps the most difficult part of the transaction for me was coming up with what they call the “cash to close.” This is the money you have to bring out of pocket to the closing […]
Global Warming and SC – a bizarre cocktail for desirable real estate.
Earlier this evening when I got home, I found that my daughter was playing outside. I realized that I hadn’t gotten any exercise or time in the sun (let alone time with my daughter), so I did what most parents would do – I put on shorts, a short-sleeve shirt, and went out to play with her. […]
Dunean – a part of Greenville on the rise
If you’re like me and curious about up-and-coming areas of the Upstate, you’ll be curious to know what under-appreciated parts of the Upstate are poised for transformation in the near future. Enter the small area near Downtown Greenville known simply as Dunean. Dunean started as a military encampment during the Spanish-American War and ended up as […]
7 Weird but Wonderful Ways to Assess a House
When you’re looking at houses, it can be easy to look for the obvious. Does it have a big yard? Check. Master suite? Check. Upgraded kitchen? Check. But it’s the not-so-obvious things that can have the biggest impact or reveal the biggest red flags. As such, I’ve come up with seven ways of assessing a house that […]
The future of Greenville (and the Upstate)
So you may not realize this, but Greenville is in the center of a “megaregion” that experts frequently call “Char-lanta” – the corridor between and including Charlotte and Atlanta (many models also include Raleigh Durham and Birmingham). If you want to geek out on what what megaregions are, head over to Wikipedia. But I’ll save you some […]