Sandy Myrtle Beach Blog

Fall Colors In The Myrtle Beach SC Area

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:38:18 -0600

I went for my morning walk today and realized the time was running out to take a picture of the beautiful Fall colors. If you don't visit the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area in November you may not realize that even though the weather is semi-tropical we actually have all four seasons.

A Crape Myrtle in my front yard with red, orange, and yellow Fall colors.

Now Is The Time For A Principal Residence Purchase For Retirement Near Myrtle Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:52:45 -0600

You may have heard about the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit extension but have you heard that if you lived in your principal residence for five out of the past eight years and purchase your next principal residence from December 1, 2009 - April 30, 2010 you may qualify for a $6,500.

If you are thinking about retirement or just moving to the Myrtle Beach area now is the time. If retirement is on your mind do not be concerned when you look up retirement communities and you only see a few. There are hundreds of homes available in communities that are primarily filled with those fifty years old and up.

Buying a home now for your retirement in a few years could be the answer to your savings sitting in a bank earning very low interest. Home prices are low and even if you can't afford to pay cash a mortgage can be affordable with today's low rates. IRS allows you to claim mortgage interest and property tax payments for up to three homes by simply putting the total combined amount paid on your Itemized Deduction form.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Myrtle Beach Retirement

A Real Estate Purchase Perfect For Holloween, Friday the 13th, or April Fools Day

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:17:58 -0600

I have Buyer Clients who I showed numerous homes in the Grand Strand area of South and North Carolina. After several days we found a home that was perfect. It was listed in the MLS as New Construction but had been used as a model home for about a year. We made an offer about $20,000 under Asking Price but my Client based his offer on comparable homes, today's market, they were paying cash, and they could close within a week. The offer was accepted by the Builder / Developer and my Clients returned home to begin transferring money. Several CDs required them to pay penalties but they were happy with the purchase so they gathered the money for closing into their checking account. Closing was scheduled with the Attorney for tomorrow, November 9th.

Several days ago I receive a call from the Agent who had listed the home that my Clients had purchased. He said, "There is a problem with the house your Clients have purchased, it was sold a year ago". I'm thinking what he just said was a joke but he went on to say that the house was listed by mistake when his real estate company took over promotion and sales for the development. The Builder / Developer had sold the model home a year ago but did a Lease Back Agreement so they could continue to use it as their model home. I felt sick just thinking about making the call to my Clients because I knew how happy they had been when we received the ratified contract from the Builder / Developer.

My Clients didn't blame me and they have come back into town to begin another search. They have retained an Attorney and plan to sue the real estate company and the Builder / Developer if they are unable to find another property.

The real estate transaction that I talk about above is, "one for the books", as the saying goes and is turning out, thankfully, to be an unheard of occurrence, at least in the Myrtle Beach area.

Real Estate Buyers Are Serious

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:02:16 -0500

During the first nine months of 2009 I dealt with no shortage of potential real estate buyers. Even with prices near the pre-boom level they either made offers and refused counter-offers or they woke up the morning after making an offer and heard the media say the worst is yet to come and they wanted to cancel their offers. I was happy that I was able to obtain releases from Sellers that allowed my Buyers to walkaway.

This year's Labor Day weekend was a turning point in real estate like I had never seen before. Even the buying frenzy of 2005 - 2007 did not compare to the number of Buyers who are serious about making a purchase. It has been great just taking my clients to view properties and watch them have the "wow" moment when they find the perfect place and are happy the next morning after we go under contract.

I had been at a point of burnout but the past few weeks have rejuvenated why I became a Realtor and I have met some really great people.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Retire Near Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach Real Estate, Retirement and Weather

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:41:49 -0500

Today was one of those perfect Fall days in Myrtle Beach when the afternoon temperature touched 80 degrees. It wasn't hot, it was warm with clean fresh dry air that made you just want to be outside. Early this morning I was at a meeting and someone, who knew I had just returned from a trip to Maryland, asked me if I ever regretted moving to the Myrtle Beach area and my response was, "no".

I enjoy my career as a Realtor but I know that when the time comes I'll also enjoy my retirement. After helping many people find a home and talking to them when they retire and move to the Myrtle Beach area permanently I have found a wealth of resources to keep me as active or inactive as I want to be.

During the next week I have several clients who are making the trip to the Myrtle Beach area specifically to search for their retirement home. Each have their timetable set for retirement but even the one who does not want to retire for several years plans to buy now while prices are down and interest rates are low. They plan to focus on homes in North Carolina because the property taxes are not higher for non-residents.

Retire Near Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Buying An Ocean Front Condo In Myrtle Beach SC

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:44:08 -0500

If you are interested in buying an ocean front condo in Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, or across the street in those areas you can find prices today as low or lower then the pre-boom prices in 2004.

Cash buyers with the help of their own agent can find the fantastic deals, even the months it takes for a short sale purchase may be worth the wait.

For those who need a mortgage to purchase, there were months during the past two years when no lender would give a mortgage to what is called a CONDOTEL. I would try to define the term "Condotel" but every lender has a different definition. Today is September 21, 2009 and there are a few sources now available for mortgages on condos which are known as Condotels. Since the majority of people don't have the money to pay cash for a second home or investment condo they are left out unless they can put at least 25% down and have a credit score above 680 (Sept. 2009). With mortgage money that comes and goes like the ocean waves and the definition of Condotel that varies with lenders, potential buyers have not had an easy time taking advantage of the great deals.

There is a glimmer of light as far as mortgage availability is concerned as some in the lending world whisper about the return of normal 30 year fixed loans for ocean front condos but guess what will happen when more people can buy those ocean front condos -- "supply and demand" = increasing condo prices.

Ocean Front Condos In Myrtle Beach

Aquarium in Myrtle Beach Hosts End of Summer Cruise-In with Cecil Chandler as DJ

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:22:58 -0500

Sunday, September 13, 2009 Ripley's Aquarium at the Broadway at the Beach complex in Myrtle Beach, SC hosted the End of Summer Cruise-In with Cecil Chandler from WBTW News 13 as the DJ and the Myrtle Beach Car Club providing the classic cars that surrounded the entrance to the Aquarium. Sharkey the mascot even came out of the Aquarium to dance and look at the cars.

ActiveRain Has Done It Again!

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:38:30 -0500

A month ago I wrote a blog about the activity I had seen due to ActiveRain and my website and it has happened again during the Labor Day weekend. I received one contact who had found me on ActiveRain and three through contacting me on my website Myrtle Beach Real Estate. The past week was the same fast pace of the real estate market of several years ago but with prices that have returned to the pre-boom amounts. A few of those reasonable priced properties were foreclosures but many sellers have realized that if they want to sell they have to price their property in line with the current market.

Real Estate Busy Days

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:32:38 -0500

During the past two days I have been contacted by five potential real estate buyers, one of them was through ActiveRain:) so I have been busy emailing listings and information.

I have also been working on my web site and this morning I added the ability to search for Foreclosures through the official MLS. You have to bring up the MLS Search page, click "Stipulation of Sale List" to add Foreclosures to your search criteria but my search is real-time directly from the Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors (CCAR) official MLS system and not a feed through a third party. Later today I went into my Google webmaster dashboard and created a Google Base where you can be found by search engines even if you don't have a web site.

Visit my web site Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Hamster Running But Going Nowhere

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:16:20 -0500

If you have even seen a hamster on a wheel in its cage you'll know that they run as hard as they can but they stay in the same place. I'm beginning to think some portions of our real estate market don't know how to get off the wheel and out of the cage.

Many of us that have applied for a mortgage may have heard the word "underwriters". They are the ones who actually approve or disapprove the loan, prepare the lending package, and send it to the place where the closing (settlement) takes place. Some lenders have "in-house underwriters" which may help a bit but lately we're hearing the word "underwriters" days before the scheduled closing as the entire mortgage loan is cancelled. The reason has nothing to do with the people applying for the mortgage, it has to do with the lender not accepting the appraisal done by the appraiser they hired or the lender only allowing comparables that had sold and closed within the past year in the same neighborhood. Comparables within a couple of miles radius would not be acceptable. Those examples were from national mortgage lenders.

"Appraisers" had become a bad word because appraisals can be much lower then the true value since appraisers got into trouble during the "boom" and they are using foreclosures as the comparables. "Underwriters" following the lender's requirements or their own may take over the bad word status as people remember who started the problems in the real estate market.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Video of Sandy Keller, Realtor in Myrtle Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:48:19 -0500

Saturday morning I made a video for a YouTube site for Coldwell Banker agents. Since it was 10:00 AM in the morning I didn't think many people would be on the beach. Guess what! Myrtle Beach, early morning in July, there are lots of people on the beach. Click the line below to watch my video:

Sandy Keller, Realtor in Myrtle Beach

I did not want to simply make a video in the office and I chose to leave the sound of the waves splashing on shore.

Video On The Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:22:59 -0500

This morning I had an appointment with a video photographer to shoot a promotional video to replace the one I have on YouTube.com/Coldwell Banker. Since today is a Saturday l wondered if the Life Guard who was in my first promo would even be on duty. My second thought was before 10:00 A.M. there would not be many people on the beach. I was wrong on both counts, since the Life Guard and a crowd of people had already taken their places for a day at the beach.

I think I had my "fifteen minutes of fame" after the camera was set up and I began to speak, people began to stop and look. You could almost hear what they were thinking. It was fun but only for the moment.

My Response To The Wall Street Journal's "What's With All the Moaning about Home Appraisals?"

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:26:17 -0500

I was on the Coldwell Banker site for agents and saw a link for an article from The Wall Street Journal and when I opened it I was shocked. Here's a link to the article "What's With All the Moaning about Home Appraisals?"

Here's my blog comment to that article:

9:57 pm July 12, 2009
Sandy Keller wrote:

I am very disappointed with the Wall Street Journal for allowing publication of an article written by someone who does not have a clue about the subject. I worked for the Federal Government in Washington, D.C., was President and CEO of several corporations, and now I am one of those Realtors that you want to blame for moaning about appraisals. Since lenders and the media started the problem with the housing market common sense should have you and the lenders lead the way back, not to the "boom" but to a normal market. Recently the lenders own underwriters are not accepting appraisals done by appriaers hired directly by the lender. Lenders are using appraisers from other States. Entire communities are losing value if there has been one or two foreclosures. You need to do your homework and stop blaming Realtors.

Myrtle Beach Condo Buyers Be Prepared

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:36:30 -0500

If you are planning to obtain a mortgage when you purchase a condo be prepared to put down at least 25% or your mortgage will have additional fees.

Fannie Mae has implemented two new mortgage fees: Condo Buyers .75% add on fee and an additional 1.75% fee for Investors and they are applicable to loans that exceed 75% of the condo value. If you are able to pay at least 25% of the condo value the fees are not applicable.

Note: Loan-to-value may not be based on the purchase price, it will probably be based on the mortgage companies appraisal and appraisers are coming in with some low amounts based on the market.

Vacation Time At Myrtle Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:03:42 -0500

Today is Saturday, June 13, 2009 and Myrtle Beach is booming with vacationers. They seemed a bit slow coming to town this year but during the past few days they must have decided this was the place where they wanted to come for some R & R.

Myrtle Beach is a place where we have visitors, snowbirds, golfers, and second home owners all year long but there is an increase in traffic during the summer months.

One helpful tip if you are planning to visit Myrtle Beach in the summer and do not like to wait in line at a restaurant or you have children with you when it is dinner time. Be at the door by 5:00 P.M. or 4:30 P.M. if they happen to open early.

National Builder Refuses To Negotiate On Standing Home Inventory Price

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:38:29 -0500

Less then a year ago I took some clients to a housing community being built by a large national home building company in the coastal southeastern area of North Carolina. The on-site salesperson told me that there were discounts available for standing inventory plus the builder gave additional upgrades at no cost to the Buyer when they were represented by their own Realtor because it was good PR and that Realtor would probably bring more Buyers. My clients insisted on making an offer much less then the "Asking Price". I had to hide my surprize when it was accepted.

Last week I talked to the same salesperson and told her that within a few days I would be bringing some potential buyers to her development. She said the builder probably wouldn't approve a deal as great as my former clients had received but she would put together a packet of standing inventory homes that had some potential for price negotiation because she was going to be out of the office when we were scheduled to visit.

Yesterday I took my clients to the development and there was no packet. Another very nice salesperson took us to see the standing investory homes. After looking at a few other developments my clients wanted to go back to the first one and make an offer on one of the standing inventory homes. They had decided on an offer amount based on resent sales data I had provided. The response from the builder was "NO, we're not accepting anything less than the posted Asking Price." That was it, period, no counter, no make a better offer, nothing. I was embarrassed and do not plan to include that neighborhood in what I show my clients unless they specifically ask to see their homes.

PS - We found a house in another new development tonight and our offer was accepted by the builder.

Todays buyer clients found my website Myrtle Beach Real Estate after looking on ActiveRain.

ACC May Not Come To Myrtle Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:52:42 -0500

The News today is that the NAACP is trying to block the ACC Baseball conference from coming to Myrtle Beach because they have a problem with the State of South Carolina. They say there is an ongoing boycott by the NAACP against the State based on the Confederate Flag at the capital. That boycott has evidently been in place for years but has not been mentioned since its inception. Blocking college baseball in Myrtle Beach when nothing has been said by the NAACP to participants coming to the Atlantic Beach Bike Rally that is held annually caused me to be confused. Boycotting a few days of baseball or having the games moved to another State is not going to hurt the Capital it's going to hurt the people.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) College Baseball in Myrtle Beach

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:57:09 -0500

BB&T Coastal Field in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina will host the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) five day baseball tournament annually on Wednesday through Sunday during the Memorial Day weekend each May of 2011, 2012 and 2013. The games usually draw over 70,000 fans and will be a great benefit to the local economy.

In 2009 the tournament location is Durham, North Carolina and 2010 the location is Greensboro, North Carolina then Myrtle Beach is set for the following three years.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Google Ranking - What's The Price

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:26:23 -0500

If you happen to have a website and you are in control of the content you will understand my flustration with Google ranking. I have taught myself how to enter every bit of information, how to link, and what's important while working to improve my site on a daily basis. I receive numerous compliments on the content and work hard to make it user friendly but even though I rank high with other search engines Google seems to pass me bye. I do the Google Webmaster thing, have submitted my sitemap, have hundreds of my URLs indexed, have tried to include the key search words but can't seem to make much headway with my Google ranking.

I know there are thousands of companies that promise to improve you ranking and I actually know someone who can get you to #1 of just about any search term. I've seen people I know personally shoot to the top positions on page 1 of the prime search term after they paid that someone. Is that fair?

Part of the ability for regular real estate sites to win Google top honors is they are indexing IDX feeds from the Association of Realtors' multiple listing service (MLS) which gives the site thousands of indexed URLs. That may be coming to an end as more cases like the one involving the Indianapolis Board of Realtors are supported by the National Association of Realtors. In that case MIBOR classified Google as a scraper site based on Section 15.2.2 that states that participants (web site owners) must protect IDX information from misappropriation by employing reasonable efforts to monitor and prevent "scraping" or other unauthorized accessing, reproduction, or use of the BLC database.

I have an IDX live feed directly from our local Association of Realtors and the URL is a link to their data base which does not help my site. I'm trying to decide if I should pay the money and switch to an indexable IDX or wait and see if Google stops indexing MLS listings.

Good News From Indicators and For South Carolina Foreclosure Victoms

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:50:37 -0500

According to a May 5, 2009 article on Forbes.com - Indicators point to a fast approaching end date: May 2009. It appears that several indicators are favorable for a turn around in the economy.

Also on May 5, 2009 the state Supreme Court in South Carolina temporarily stopped thousands of pending foreclosure sales. The ruling involves properties guaranteed by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or a mortgage company that has signed up for a federal assistance program. In the Myrtle Beach area the majority of foreclosures are second or vacation homes that do not normally qualify for any assistance programs and they were not addressed in the court ruling.

Do You Think The Economy Is Turning?

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:35:30 -0500

Personally I have seen an increase in potential home buyers. During the past few weeks visitors to the Myrtle Beach area have decided to take the time to come into the office for information. Although our contact by phone and email had remained consistent the walk-in traffic had decreased until the resent surge.

National News - tonight they announced that the increase in home construction and sales had caused another rally day on the stock market. I walked out of the room when someone who was interviewed by the National News Anchor said he had seen an indicator (I did not hear what indicator but I believe it was separate from the housing) that was necessary for the economy to turn.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Visiting Myrtle Beach SC

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:57:24 -0500

If you plan to visit the Myrtle Beach, SC area you will quickly notice there are no signs of the wildfire from any of the standard highways you will probably travel. Yesterday someone ask me why the fire had been on the national news because they had not seen any damage as they traveled south through North Myrtle Beach to Myrtle Beach. I did show them the burn area on a map I had with me and told them the area was now a hundred percent contained.

If you come to Myrtle Beach you will also notice it's perfect beach weather with temperatures just about 80 degrees this week. Today or months from now a day at the beach, keeps the children occupied, or provides you a "you" day of R and R and it is free. Gas prices are down and many hotels are offering discounts so I hope you get to take advantage of some quality time.

A Time To Remember

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:33:02 -0500

The wildfire is almost completely under control and if it wasn't for road closings until 9 AM due to smokey fog it might become a memory. In a few days the smoke too will fade but hopefully we will not forget the families that have lost their homes.

If you live in the area of Myrtle Beach please drop by one of the fund raising areas for the Red Cross. The parking lot at Myrtle Beach Mall near North Myrtle Beach is one place where you can donate.

Definate Signs Of Good News

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:52:28 -0500

Real Estate News:

Several of my clients who had real estate they needed to sell in Virginia and New Jersey before they bought in Myrtle Beach have had multiple offers on their homes during the past two weeks. Their properties had been on the market for over a year with little activity and now they are under contract. Neither property was a short-sale or foreclosure and the offers they accepted were just a few thousand dollars less then the asking price.

Golfer's Economy News:

Living on a golf course that has some of the highest fees I had noticed the decline of golfers during the past eighteen months. Well the golfers are back and they brought their friends. From dawn to dusk its none-stop golf carts. The course has always been active even when there was a decline but in four years I have not seen this much action and the fees are up at this time of the year.

Myrtle Beach SC Real Estate www.real-estate-blogs.com/

Myrtle Beach Photos

Sandy Keller, ABR, CNRS, e-PRO, Realtor (Coldwell Banker Chicora) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:27:14 -0500

I'm trying out the slideshow feature from Picasa and it seems to work great plus it's free. Photos seem to draw attention to my web site and blogs so I was happy when I finally figured out how to embed the slideshow. I am trying to dedicate several hours per day on the improvement of my website and blogs so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. www.sandymyrtlebeach.com