About Dorchester County, SC

North Charleston, SC Real Estate Market Statistics for September 2009

Summary:

The real estate market in the North Charleston, SC is definitely a Buyer's Market, for every listing sold in the month of September there were approximately 2.5 new listings added bringing the total as Oct. 14, 2009 to 926 listings.

The average listing price in the Hanahan, SC area is approximately $16,000 over the average selling price, which has resulted in homes staying on the market an average of 76 days longer. The homes that are selling in North Charleston, SC are receiving 96% of the listing price, which means a lot of homes are still overpriced.

If you are selling and a low offer is submitted, I recommend to work with all offers to see if you can make the offer a win - win opportunity for both you and the seller. As a seller you can easily save thousands by working with buyers. Remember the costs of owning a house is more than the cost of a monthly mortgage payment, it includes the monthly expenses (i.e. gas, electric, HOA, phone, and etc.) and maintenance costs to maintain the home.

Tip: Price your home where comparables have sold versus where comparables have been sitting on the market, this will greatly reduce the amount time on the market.

Tip: If you own more than your home is worth and you need to Sell. Short Sale your Home (i.e. Price it to Sell). I recommend working with an agent, who has systems in place to do short sales.

Charleston, Goose Creek, & Hanahan Real Estate For Sale

Matt Naumann - Charleston & Goose Creek, SC Real Estate Agent & Entrepreneur
"Taking Real Estate Home Buying, Investing and Selling to the Next Level" is my personal goal. I specialize in using creative strategies to help my clients buy, invest, or sell real estate in the Charleston & Goose Creek, SC Real Estate Market. My motto is "There is always a way!" Google or Call me (843) 818-9898 and let's discuss how I can help you in save $1,000s when you buy, invest, or sell real estate.

Summerville, SC Real Estate Market Statistics for September 2009

Summary:

The real estate market in the Summerville, SC is definitely a Buyer's Market, for every listing sold in the month of September there were 2 new listings added bringing the total as Oct. 13, 2009 to 1168 listings.

The average listing price in the Summerville, SC area is approximately $11,000 over the average selling price, which has resulted in homes staying on the market an average of 55 days longer.

If you are selling and a low offer is submitted, I recommend to work with all offers to see if you can make the offer a win - win opportunity for both you and the seller. As a seller you can easily save thousands by working with buyers. Remember the costs of owning a house is more than the cost of a monthly mortgage payment, it includes the monthly expenses (i.e. gas, electric, HOA, phone, and etc.) and maintenance costs to maintain the home.

Tip: Price your home where comparables have sold versus where comparables have been sitting on the market, this will greatly reduce the amount time on the market.

Tip: If you own more than your home is worth and you need to Sell. Short Sale your Home (i.e. Price it to Sell). I recommend working with an agent, who has systems in place to do short sales.

Charleston, Goose Creek, & Hanahan Real Estate For Sale

Matt Naumann - Charleston & Goose Creek, SC Real Estate Agent & Entrepreneur
"Taking Real Estate Home Buying, Investing and Selling to the Next Level" is my personal goal. I specialize in using creative strategies to help my clients buy, invest, or sell real estate in the Charleston & Goose Creek, SC Real Estate Market. My motto is "There is always a way!" Google or Call me (843) 818-9898 and let's discuss how I can help you in save $1,000s when you buy, invest, or sell real estate.

While I was out of town last week perhaps the biggest change to our house to date took place... NEW FLOORS!! While the before photos of the living room look OK, to be honest the laminate flooring was gross. It obviously had gotten wet and as laminate tends to do was buckling..... Wanting to be as environmentally concientious as possible, I went with a fantastic vertical carbonized bamboo...

buckling laminate flooring was not working out... ripping them out was the best option.

After ripping up the laminate flooring we found out that the subfloors actually had been painted (per neighbors the homeowners lived like this for some time). Woodboys, our new flooring installers, were happy about this as it apparently created a new moisure barrier in addition to the barrier they installed.

You can also see my husband installing new 6" baseboards in this space. I like the statement of 6" over 4".

I'm really pleased that these lead into the dining room as well, creating a more open feeling (i'll have photos, but we are still working on the ceilings and rooms are taped off - for now that includes the dining). New french doors have also been installed and all the trim work painted with a nice crisp white. The new color is Basketry by Behr.

The rooms in the family room/den have been a bit of a quandry too. We knew we needed to do something with them. The question was, to refinish them or to put in new bamboo floors here too.... We went with the less expensive option (about $1000 less) and then held our breath having no idea how it would turn out.

We started this space by priming and painting to get rid of the cave feeling....

Then they refinished the floors....

I think we made a great decision! The floors are really stunning in person with the variety of wood grains shown off so well. (btw, in case you are wondering about that unpainted window to the right... it's being replaced so we haven't spent time painting it yet.)

So, what was the cost of flooring in the living room, dining room and refinishing the family room? It was a little less than $6000 professionally installed. The return on investment is significantly higher however... not that I'm doing this for resale (this time).

Now are are about 2-3 weeks from moving in.... I can't wait to see what this room will look like with furniture!

Why is it that so many 1970s homes have wood panelling? Ok, so that was sylish back then but why do so many men still like it? Why is it that men cringe when you say you want to paint over wood? Well, if you are one of those guys who love the look of paneling and the 'man cave'... look away!

Our den before....

This depressing room was given a lift with A LOT of primer and some great pigmented paint...

The floors will be redone later this week and the windows are supposed to be replaced soon (why they weren't painted). The desk was left in the home and hauled out this evening. Shelves and cupboard doors still need to be added but you can already see the changes happening.

Right now this is the room that has the biggest improvement. Prior to the paint job this room was dark and depressing... today this room is bright and feels clean and fresh - even a little beachy.

The cost of this makeover? About $100. When working on value add, paint is frequently the most cost effective change you can make.

In order to close on our new home we were told a few things by our lender - the first of which was it would have to have usable flooring throughout the home. Well, somehow they let the fact that there was no carpeting slide upstairs, but the kitchen seemed to be another issue... If you remember, this was one of the scarier looking parts of our new home...

since this is where the fridge would go we were certain there was going to be damage to the subflooring and we would have to rip all of this out and have a big job on our hands. Instead we got lucky and found out that the previous owner had actually installed a layer of plywood and sticky tiles over the original subflooring and roll out vinyl floor. Per the inspection there was no real damage, which meant we had easy (and cheap) options available to us....

Now I will say that we plan on completely gutting the kitchen within the next 6 months and replacing the flooring with what we want was not on the list of fixing before closing - it would have been a waste of money since it would all be ripped out when we eventually gut the kitchen. Our goal was to get the room done inexpensively and make it last for 6 months....

This was our solution...

STICKY TILES! At 68 cents each we just couldn't go wrong. Here was the process for anyone who finds themselves in this same situation....

First we pulled up the second layer of plywood and sticky tiles in a nice neat square area. We then purchased and installed new plywood in that area. Adding two layers of sticky tiles (one to meet the height of the previous sticky tiles and then one to cover the entire flooring surface) we continued throughout the room making this the only part of the home that actually feels reasonably clean.

Now, I'm the first to admit that it is not particularly attractive but the idea was to do this as cheap as possible (entire room cost less than $90) and pass the appraisal.... Mission accomplished!

Tips & Techniques on sticky tiles.....

How to cut the tiles to fit when you can't use an entire square - turn the tile upside down and butt up against the wall you are trying to measure to. With a straight edge mark where the overhang on the tile is and using a razor knife score the tile along that mark. Bend the tile along the scoring and cut down that line. This is actually super easy. Remember that your tile will ultimately be upside down and backwards when you are scoring so pay attention to which side has the good edge.