General Real Estate Information

We are seeing more and more properties in the Beaufort and Lowcountry area that have that wow factor. A home or homesite possesses the wow factor when it is listed -- or sells for -- a price which you just wouldn't have imagined a few years ago.

For instance, earlier this week, a 3000-plus square foot tidal creek home on Lady's Island, one of Beaufort's best residential areas, went under contract for less than $525,000. Just a short while ago, this Pleasant Point home would have been likely listed in the mid-$700,000-range. And it is very easy to envision this home valued in that same price range when the market strengthens again. And, friends, bear in mind that $525,000 was merely the asking price. At that price, it already had the wow factor, but who

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Anyone who has ever spent time in Beaufort and the Lowcountry in the summer knows it gets hot and humid. A small price for living in paradise.

So, if you are thinking about relocating to the Beaufort area, why not think about a neighborhood with a pool? In recent years, more developers have been opting to add a community pool.

On our list, we just including pools which are automatically accessible to property owners and residents of a community, with no separate membership required.  

For instance, both Cat Island and Royal Pines have pools within the confines of the community, but memberships are required to both. Likewise, Fripp Island had more than a dozen pools, but membership is required.

The king of all neighborhood pools in Beaufort, in my

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Back at the height of Beaufort's real estate boom, around 2004 and 2005, people were in a genuine rush to buy homes and land in the Lowcountry.

Buyers were afraid that if they waited to long, they would be priced out of Beaufort's real estate market. I remember helping a gentleman purchase a homesite on Harbor Island, one of Beaufort's two gated beach communities, and the buyer lamenting his lost opportunity from a few years before to purchase a similar property for half of what he was about to pay. He told me he was not about to miss his opportunity again.

It was a really fun time to be a part of the Beaufort real estate market. There was lots of excitement, and eagerness to buy. People from around the country traveled to the Lowcountry in anticipation…

Now, this is how you make your money in real estate -- Buy low, sell high, and then buy back into the market again at a low price.

As I was perusing Beaufort real estate data the other night, I came across a homesite in Habersham which I helped an owner sell in 2005 for $400,000. Habersham is located at the confluence of Habersham Creek and the Broad River, and features perhaps the best amenities package in Beaufort. The developers of Habersham are creating a true, self-contained community, with a town center complete with restaurants, shops and businesses.

This particular seller I represented on this Habersham homesite had purchased the property in 2001 for $110,000. So he did very well the first time around.

This homesite is now available for $249,000,

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There seems to be a lesson in every real estate transaction these days.

We had some buyers fall in love recently with a house in the Shell Point area of Beaufort. Shell Point is located just southwest of historic downtown Beaufort, and is home to some great neighborhoods -- Wright's Point, Old Shell Point, Willow Point, and Carolina Village, just to name a few.

This home, which captured the imagination of our buyers, was already under contract, as it turned out, and was scheduled to close in the next week or so.

Our buyers were sorely disappointed. Sometimes, a home just speaks to a buyer, and this home was speaking loud and clear to these folks. The layout was ideal, the yard was spacious, and it had a pool!!

As our buyers reluctantly prepared to resume…

I had a conversation the other day with a property owner at Distant Island, one of Beaufort's premier deep-water neighborhoods. The water access at Distant Island is spectacular -- deep and protected.

Our conversation was about Distant Island property values, which, like every other neighborhood in Beaufort, have depreciated these last couple of years.

A few years ago, some deep-water homesites (no house on the property) in Distant Island were listed for more than $900,000. Currently, asking prices for these same deep-water homesites in Distant Island have dropped into the $600,000 to $700,000 range, with one homesite currently listed at $585,000.

There were two deep-water sales on Distant Island in 2010, for $449,000 and $425,000, respectively.

My friend,…

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…

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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