All Blog Entries by Todd Covington

Last week, right here at www.lowcountryproperties.com, I blogged about a condo listing in the Beaufort, SC community of Azalea Square for $38,900. In the same blog, I very sagely predicted the listing was such a steal that it wouldn't last a week.

It lasted a day.

This condo was a no-brainer. There are currently 12 condo homes listed in Azalea Square, from $75,000 to just over $136,000. So, to be able to pick up a condo home -- in excellent condition I might add -- for under $40,000 is an opportunity which may not come available again for a while.

Folks, there is a moral to this real estate story. Mr. and Mrs. Real Estate Buyer, don't think you can waltz in and lowball these foreclosures.

Banks and their Realtors here in Beaufort have had plenty of time to…

I spoke to an agent today who is about to list a homesite in the next week or so, probably for under $3000. The property is in The Settings of Mackey Point, a development in Northern Beaufort County, about 25 minutes from historic Downtown Beaufort, SC.
 
A couple of years ago, I would not have imagined that a community homesite would be available at this price. But, the homesite is a foreclosure, and the real estate market has definitely changed in recent years.

In fact, just a few months ago, a similar lot in Mackey Point sold for $2000. Two thousand dollars for a platted, buildable homesite in Beaufort, SC!! Hard to believe.

The Settings of Mackay Point is located just off Highway 17, just minutes from Interstate 95. This area, in Northern Beaufort County,…

Beaufort, SC, and the surrounding area has a varied, bustling, and exciting real estate market, from the oceanfront mansions of Harbor Island and Fripp Island, to 200-plus year old homes in downtown Beaufort's "Old Point" neighborhood.

But, for many Beaufort Realtors and real estate observers, the backbone of Beaufort's real estate market are the five "main areas," which are comprised of Beaufort, Mossy Oaks, Port Royal, Burton, and Lady's Island.

These five areas create the geographic heart of Beaufort's real estate market, which sits between the farther flung real estate areas of Fripp Island and Harbor Island to the east, Northern Beaufort County to the west, and South of the Broad River to the south.

Beaufort's five main areas represented about half of…

We sometimes see opportunity knock twice in the Beaufort's real estate market.

Take this little condo which just came back on the market, at $38,900. It's a foreclosure, is in very good shape, and is located in a fairly new condo community just minutes from historic downtown Beaufort, SC. The name of the complex is Azalea Square. A few years ago, when the community broke ground, these little homes were selling in the low $100,000 range, to the $120,000 or so range.

This condo, with just over 1000 square feet of living space and two bedrooms, had been under contract, but that contract fell through. So an opportunity to pick up an absolute steal is available again.

The next available condo home, price-wise, is listed at $75,000. Imagine being able to purchase…

The Beaufort, SC real estate market saw a pair of notable trends in 2010 -- prices continued to decline, but the number of transactions spiked up dramatically, as investors and cash buyers began to re-emerge.

The medan asking price for homes sold via the Beaufort Multiple Listing Service (MLS) dipped to $174,000, it's lowest point in years, according to Beaufort MLS figures. However, the number of transactions jumped from 791 homes in 2009, to 971 in 2010.

The manner in which buyers are purchasing homes in Beaufort continues to change. Cash sales represented a whopping 28 percent of the home transactions in the Beaufort MLS.

This is more than double the 12.5 percent of cash buyers participating in the 2008 Beaufort MLS real estate market. In 2007, cash

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When someone says "beach" in Beaufort, some obvious places come to mind. Hunting Island, for instance, with its several miles of beach and unique maritime forest, is the most visited state park in South Carolina, and an incredibly popular destination for Beaufortonians and visitors alike.

Fripp Island and Harbor Island, just to the northwest, are Beaufort's best-known beach communities, and offer access to several miles of beach. At either Fripp or Harbor, you can find a single-bedroom condo within easy walking distance to the beach, or a lavish beachfront home.

But there are some lesser-known beaches in Beaufort as well, namely Coffin Point and Land's End, which sit on opposite sides of St. Helena Island, one of Beaufort's large barrier islands. Although…

Moving ahead with something without a plan is generally a poor idea, whether it be selling your home, buying a car, or even something as mundane as going grocery shopping. When you list your home for sale or rent, one of the primary questions you need to answer is, "Will we be ready to move when we receive an acceptable offer?"  

Before your home is placed "active" on the market, you should have a strategy in place which ensures you will be able to vacate the house by the buyer's move-in date.

Although this may sound like a basic tenant of real estate sales, many sellers are caught flat-footed when an acceptable offer is presented. I have seen many a deal fall apart through the years because the seller was not prepared to vacate the home in a reasonable

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If I have seen it once, I've seen it a hundred times. A prospective buyer falls in love with a home based on professional, glossy Internet pics, requests a viewing of the home (sometimes on VERY short notice), and then refuses to get out of the car when they arrive at the house, because he or she doesn't like the neighborhood.

For the sanity of all parties involved, please don't ever ask your Realtor to schedule a showing of a home unless you have already seen -- and approved of -- the neighborhood. If you don't like the neighborhood, you are wasting everybody's time, including your own.

It sounds like the most obvious thing in the world, but apparently it's not, because we keep running into this problem. No matter how much you think you want to see a house,…

Why should you use a Realtor when purchasing or selling property in Beaufort, SC? Because our real estate agents care about their clients, and they care about the Beaufort real estate market. And good, full-time agents have an ongoing commitment to the real estate profession.

Recently, a large number of concerned Beaufort real estate agents boarded buses and made a four-hour commute (two up and two back) to the state capital, for the Third Annual Statehouse Rally. More than 20 Beaufort Realtors made the trip in 2010.

This year's group of Beaufort Realtors will join agents from around South Carolina to lobby the state legislature for higher professional standards for the real estate industry, and also to fight against ongoing efforts by some in local and

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It is amazing what can be accomplished by injecting a little value into a neighborhood. Do not ever underestimate the importance of "value." Take Somerset Point on Lady's Island, which is one of Beaufort, SC's main residential hubs.

Somerset Point languished for several years as the very unsuccessful Coosaw River Estates, a neighborhood which attempted to exploit the $350,000 to $400,000 price point, which was riding high in the early to mid-2000s. As the real estate market slowed, one of the most severely affected areas was this critical price point, which was popular in neighborhoods like Walling Grove, Coosaw Point and Coosaw River Estates.

In 2010 the existing Somerset Point development team re-assessed the neighborhood, the existing real estate

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