Selling Greenville

Buyers and sellers of houses perceive the value of real estate in very different ways. In fact, I've found that clients who sell and buy at roughly the same time will frequently use completely different valuation models (not actual models, but the ones in their heads) for when they're selling versus when they're buying! So what are the key differences, and why do sellers and buyers so often tend t...

Trump is officially the President of the US, and we are already starting to see some small ripples in the market as a result. But, perhaps more importantly (at least to a data nerd like me), we finally have our final 2024 Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS® market stats to go over, and they point to some very interesting trends that happened in 2024. Which of these trends are likely to con...

I hear people talk about realtors all the time in "code," saying things like, "He's aggressive," or "She's not as outgoing as I'd like her to be." The reality is that many people want a realtor who thinks and acts like them, but that can be a really bad reason to hire one. So let's have some fun and analyze some of the common statements I hear, both negative and positive, towards realtors, and why...

Greenville real estate is constantly evolving and shifting, but how? Everyone knows lot sizes are getting smaller, but what about garages? What about home sizes? Home ages? Foreclosures and short sales?  There's a lot that is shifting in our market that we don't talk about often, but we will today! In this episode, Stan breaks down a TON of data from the past 3 years to show how (and discuss why)...

Happy New Year! It's time for me to make my BOLD PREDICTIONS for 2025, and so in this first episode of the New Year, I discuss: Where mortgage rates are headed. If we are going into a recession (or increased inflationary environment) in 2025. If any more massive changes are coming to the real estate industry, after a crazy year of changes in 2024. What sort of appreciation (or depreciation) Greenv...

Merry Christmas! Around this time last year I made my bold predictions for 2024, and it's time to review how I did. There were some predictable outcomes but also some pretty big surprises. So what did I get right, what did I get wrong, and why?  This episode is sponsored by Piper Insurance Group, who can help you with all your home, auto, and umbrella insurance needs. Contact them for a free quote...

Real estate is always crazy, but it seems like 2024 was particularly The Year of Crazy for Greenville real estate. We had hurricanes, volatile interest rates, recession concerns, a wild Presidential election, and A LOT more. As a realtor, my business was impacted by all of these things and some unhinged people I had to deal with, and the end result was I have some great stories to tell you from my...

A lot changed in the world of real estate (and in Greenville) in 2024, and as we round out the year, we are left with more questions than answers. Is the government going to try to stimulate real estate sales? Is realtor compensation going to decrease in future months? Will Greenville County Council do things to help or hurt housing affordability? We cover these questions and many more as we discu...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the data on what's happening in the Greater Greenville Area of SC has been messy, to say the least. A lot of listings, pendings, and closings got pushed into October and November, causing some oddities all across the data. That being said, for the second straight month, we saw a year-on-year decrease in the median home price. Does that mean anything, or is it...

If I'm going to be honest, 2024 was a very challenging year on many levels. But despite the challenges, there is still much to be thankful for, and as I've done in previous years, I want to share with my listeners ten things that I'm thankful for from the past year, with a little more of a personal spin than I've done in previous years. I hope you enjoy as you feast on turkey and delicious Thanksg...

X, formerly known as Twitter, can be a great place for information, but it can also be a terrible place for misinformation. Well, a great X/Twitter thread popped up on my feed recently discussing things that a first time homebuyer should and shouldn't when house searching. Some of the responses were spot on, and others were... not so helpful. So let's have some fun and talk about the thread and wh...

After 1.5 years of campaigning, we finally know that Donald Trump will return to Washington as the 47th President of the United States. Some people are elated, others are mortified, but wherever you stand on the election results, the question remains: will Trump help or hurt the housing market? There are many possible scenarios for Trump in play - taking over the Federal Reserve, privatizing (agai...

Recently, I decided to do a cash out refinance on two identical duplexes that I own that are located next to each other. A cash out refi is a great way to take advantage of the equity you have in a property without having to sell it, and that's exactly what I hoped to do. Get cash, keep the property, have rental income pay off the mortgage, and everyone goes home happy. Well, all seemed to be goin...

Mortgage rates have soared nearly an entire percentage point the past few weeks and as a result, September 2024 yielded the first year-on-year decline in the median sales price in Greenville since March 2023. Why is this happening now, and does it mean we're entering a buyers market? This episode is sponsored by Piper Insurance Group, who can help you with all your home, auto, and umbrella insuran...

Negotiation is one of the most important aspects for a real estate transaction, and yet many people don't know their negotiation style or that of those they are negotiating with. In the old school of thought, it didn't matter what style the person across the table from you had - you simply negotiated aggressively with them and tried to win the negotiation at their expense. However, in recent years...

"Listing agents don't do anything besides put the home on the multiple listing service," is a phrase I hear frequently from people. And while some listings require less work than others, every listing requires many hours of work, and some require literally *weeks* worth of work. So today I tell the story of my listing from this year that has had a little of everything - messed up contracts, "low"...

Homeowners insurance premiums have increased dramatically the past 4 years in the US, specifically in the Southeast region of the US, which, coincidentally, is where Greenville is located. Thankfully, SC hasn't suffered the worst of the premium increases when comparing to states like Florida, but with our state getting hit hard by Helene and the possibility of other storms hitting us this year bef...

I may be on my fourth straight day without power, but that's not going to stop me from reporting from the front lines on the unbelievable and devastating damage caused by Hurricane Helene to the Greater Greenville Area and to Western NC. In this episode, I discuss how Greenville was hit by a 1/100 year weather event, what it means for me and those I know, and what it means for our local real estat...

Even though this podcast is all about Greenville real estate, still by far the main question I get from listeners and others is, "What are you seeing happening in the market?" Are buyers still active? Are sellers still getting top dollar? Have investors given up? Some of these we can answer with data, but data is dry and can only take us so far. So let's answer the question of what's happening wit...

It's Fed week! And by the time most people watch/listen to this episode, we will already know whether the Fed decided to drop the Fed Funds Rate by 25 basis points or by 50 basis points. What impact will their decision have on the real estate market? And while we're talking about the impact of national politics on real estate, what about former President Trump or Vice President Harris? They have m...

The (10-year/2-year) yield curve has been inverted now for quite some time. Since 1955, every recession has been preceded by a similar yield curve inversion, but when the curve uninverts (as it did recently), does that mean things are getting better or worse? Headlines say better, economists say worse, but this is a Greenville real estate podcast. So let's just ask the question: are we going into...

Greenville hit an all time high for prices in July, but housing affordability still improved. Why? Because mortgage rates have moderated and are (as of this recording in late August, 2024) sitting at 6.37%, way down from their 8.03% peak in October. Long story short, sellers are getting high prices and still fairly favorable selling conditions while buyers are seeing greater affordability on month...

In 2021 we saw record high real estate demand coupled with record low supply. Those dynamics aren't the case anymore in 2024, but how much has the market flipped? Let's compare the 2021 numbers to 2024 to get a sense of where things are at. This episode is sponsored by Piper Insurance Group, who can help you with all your home, auto, and umbrella insurance needs. Contact them for a free quote at:...

Unexpectedly, many real estate firms this past week, including my own real estate brokerage, rolled out new policies for listings that fully decouple buyer agent commissions from listing agent commissions. The result? Well, beyond it being a confusing new system to navigate that now means a lot more back and forth between agents, some real estate sellers may end up paying fewer commissions than th...

Several months ago, it was announced by the National Association of Realtors that, in light of several antitrust lawsuits that were being waged against the NAR and other real estate organizations, major changes were coming to the real estate industry. And chief among those changes were changes to how realtors, specifically buyers agents, would be compensated. We discussed these changes on this pod...