Hard-Nosed Factors for Choosing Your Charleston Realty Company

When it comes time to put your home on the market, one key early decision is which area realty company will be your sales partner. Of course, you will choose someone you feel comfortable working with, but there are further hard-nosed criteria that can help guide your choice:

Experience in Our Market

There’s nothing wrong with giving a brand new real estate school graduate a try, but especially if it’s important to sell quickly, you’ll want to work with a professional with demonstrated local experience. For openers, those agents know more about the history and direction of home salesin Charleston, SC—they’ve been participants! That’s first-hand knowledge that will be vital in helping you arrive at a smart asking price. You’ll find that the experienced agents also have a smartphone loaded with the kind of established connections that help accelerate any sale.

But your agent isn’t a one-person show. A lot of hard work goes into selling a property—from creating the listing on MLS directories to maintaining a web experience and promoting your property through the maze of marketing channels. The Charleston, SC realty company that’s your agent’s home base will determine the efficiency with which it all gets done.

Membership in the National Association of Realtors

One thing you will notice in your search for a realty company in Charleston, SC is that not all real estate agents are NAR members. Choosing an active member means working with a pro who is bound by the strict NAR Code of Ethics, who is also a member of the local Real Estate Board—with the accompanying connections and resources that bestows. 

Proven Track Record

It’s also a good idea to aim for an agent with a history representing properties in your price range. A Realtor whose experience is confined to homes sold at the $150-200K price point may never have dealt with luxury properties. If that’s your market, you will want an agent—and a Charleston realty company—with that kind of track record.

Finding a Charleston, SC real estate agent to represent your home is just one of many steps that will lead to the successful sale of your property. I welcome the opportunity to meet to explore whether we are the right fit to get you top dollar for your home!

Interested in selling your Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com

Interested in buying a Charleston area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com

-Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook Real Estate

Charleston, SC

Preparing for Multiple Offers on Charleston Properties

Part of the recovery in Charleston, SC’s real estate scene is the increasing likelihood of multiple offers on a listed property. This is every seller’s dream— but if you are one of the bidders, it’s important that you don’t allow it to become your nightmare.

There is one way— the only sure way—to keep the specter of competing Charleston multiple offers from upsetting your home buying prospects. Summed up in one word, it’s “preparation.”

Preparation starts with assembling a strong financial package. If your target property attracts multiple offers, you want yours to stand out. By the time you learn that other offers are at hand, it’s probably already too late to begin putting together documents—they should be in hand before you even identify a property. Getting pre-approval for your loan, having a letter that says so, and being able to show you have funds available can be persuasive.

When it comes to making the offer itself, although including “Subject to” clauses will protect you from unforeseen problems with the property, when multiple offers are on the table, the fewer contingencies the better. Again, only preparation will make this reasonable. If you’ve had an advance home inspection, and also made sure that there aren’t any right-of-way or easement issues, your offer can be significantly more attractive.

Personal preparation can be another positive. Visiting the property on several occasions at different times of the day should give you added confidence for what the home is truly worth to you…and when the listing agent and owner can put a face to your offer, it tends to strengthen its validity.

When multiple offers on a Charleston property occur, it’s possible that someone is going to bid more than the home is really worth. If you’ve done thorough research and know precisely what its value is in today’s market, that won’t be you. Having your bottom line number unshakably in mind means that in any bidding war, you’ll be able to sweeten your offer without hesitation. You can be creative, perhaps by offering to reduce the seller’s costs by picking up escrow fees, transfer fees or title policies; perhaps by offering the seller a few additional days to move without seeking financial compensation in return; perhaps by increasing the down payment or earnest money. When you know your bottom line, the arithmetic is uncomplicated (and your less-prepared competitors are more likely to throw up their hands!)

And then…should the bidding go over what you know it’s worth, you’ll be ready to walk away. There will be other properties to bid for – and I’m always here to help keep all your options open!   

Interested in selling your Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com

Interested in buying a Charleston area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com

-Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook Real Estate

Charleston, SC

Charleston Property Management Solution Clears Ownership Hurdles

Property management for Charleston area landlords can be the key to circumventing what can otherwise become growth-limiting factors. If you are one of those who acquired a few rental properties as a reliable way to earn easy, hands-off income, you may have been surprised when your hands turned out to be a bit more ‘on’ than you had planned.

Or perhaps you are an experienced landlord looking for a way to expand your business—but already fully occupied with the status quo. The solution may be one you considered before, but decided against for cost reasons. But now that you have more predictable cash flow expectations, you might take a harder look (clearly, many others have done so: according to the international analysts at IBIS World, the property management industry does $55 billion worth of business in the U.S. every year!).

Here’s a back-of-the-envelope look at why property management in town makes sense to so many thrifty landlords:

·   Complete landlord/tenant law knowledge. You can imagine the cost in time, aggravation, and dollars for finding yourself on the wrong side of a legal dispute. You may think that you know the ins and outs of Charleston area’s applicable laws, but changes do happen. A property management company has the pooled resources to keep abreast of legal strictures. What your rental business doesn’t need is for the owner (you) to have to wrap your head around legal loopholes and legalese!

·   Task delegation. Tending to rental maintenance issues, tenant complaints, and the host of other property management tasks eats into time you could spend earning a living, or enjoying life. A good Charleston property management company handles collections, maintenance, and the occasional problematic tenant. 

·   Avoiding paperwork. A Charleston, SC property management company is classified as a contractor rather than an employee, helping you to escape payroll tax and other hiring fallout. It streamlines, rather than complicates your rental business.

Whether you need help in getting started or want to offload some of the busywork, property management companies may be able to provide benefits that easily outweigh the cost. Call me for a fuller picture of this winter’s Charleston income property picture!

Interested in selling your Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com

Interested in buying a Charleston area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com

-Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook Real Estate

Charleston, SC