Selling Greenville

"You cannot fool the real estate market" is a phrase I love to use, because many home sellers seem to think that overpricing a listing is the best strategy to use when selling a home. But homebuyers aren't stupid, and they will identify an overpriced home quickly and simply ignore it, with the end result usually ending up worse for the seller than it would've been had they simply priced it right t...

We talk a lot about how the real estate market has shifted and what that means for buyers and sellers, but how does that actually impact your strategy for buying or selling real estate? Let's discuss five points for buyers and five points for sellers for how to educate themselves, strategize, and maximize their opportunities in an ever-evolving real estate market. This episode is sponsored by Pipe...

Looking at the data we now have for Greenville through June 2024, there are increasing signs of weakening demand coupled with increasingly growing supply. In fact, we are seeing record new listings coming on the market all the while the average price of a home in Greenville has soared above $400,000 for the first time ever. What does all this mean, and how does it compare to Greenville's tradition...

A lot of headlines right now are focused on homes losing value from their 2021 peak, but the headlines are national, and we need to assess what's happening specifically in Greenville. Thankfully, we have a simple way of doing this - we can look at all homes sold twice or more since 2021, evaluate the spread between the first sold price and the second one, and then run some basic formulas to determ...

At the end of 2023 into the beginning of 2024, I did a "bold predictions" episode where I discussed what I thought would happen to the Greenville real estate market in 2024. Well, now that half the year is over, it's time to do a preliminary review of the predictions to see how well they're doing. So let's go through all 10 of my 2024 bold predictions and compare them to the most up-to-date data t...

Election years always have a weird impact on real estate, and that's never been more true than this year. Not only are the Presidential elections impacting real estate (a well-known phenomenon that happens every four years), but in Greenville, more than ever, state and local races are proving to be hugely influential in things like development, infrastructure, etc. Long story short, we are enterin...

As we look at the Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS market stats, a theme emerges: supply is increasing faster than demand, resulting in a softening market. Does that mean it's a buyers market? Not yet, but we may be closer than people realize to it *feeling* like a buyers market, even with prices as high as they remain. This episode is sponsored by Piper Insurance Group, who can help you...

Solar panels are one of the most controversial topics in real estate in SC, with some believing homeowners have a moral responsibility to use solar to help with climate change, while others on the opposite side of the spectrum believe that solar panels are nothing more than an expensive scam. Well, I finally had a chance to purchase and sell a home with solar panels, and it was a big learning expe...

Should I hold, or should I sell? That's a question investors ask themselves daily, but people who own real estate, even if they aren't "real estate investors," should also be thinking about this. There are a lot of changes coming - potential declining populations, rising insurance costs, decreasing supply for homes with acreage, etc. - that will almost certainly impact the value of real estate in...

For the first time since Selling Greenville was inaugurated, Stan has solicited listener questions for a massive mailbag episode. Tune in to learn about what headwinds are in the Greenville market, when it makes sense to rent or buy, what differentiates Greenville from the rest of the US in terms of our real estate market, and even whether a hot dog is a sandwich!   As always, if you have any ques...

We finally have the April market stats for the Greater Greenville area, and several things stand out. Most significantly, even though we are finally seeing things like active inventory normalize to pre-pandemic levels, many numbers, such as days on market, median sales price, etc. still point to Greenville being a seller's market. So why does it feel to many like a buyer's market? In this week's e...

For the first time in 5 years, we're seeing foreclosures, short sales, and cheap (potential) flips coming online in Greenville, SC. Oh and questionably low appraisals are back too! Are we in or entering a buyers' market? And how will rates coming down, realtor compensation changes, etc. impact the state of the market? Let's talk about where things stand in the Greenville RE market and why it feels...

It's election season, and real estate is top of mind for those running for office in Washington, DC, in SC, and in Greenville. I've spoken to legislators, politicians, and people running for office at all levels of government, and it's time to crack open the notebook and spill all my secrets on what is happening behind closed doors, and what it means for real estate, and our local elections.  As a...

One of the things that scares people the most when buying a home is the possibility of it having structural issues. The reality is that most issues we deem "structural" are relatively easy and inexpensive to fix, but it's still helpful to be able to identify structural issues and diagnose their severity as much as possible prior to getting a home under contract (or prior to listing a home, if you'...

Very seldom do we see a real estate market driven by retirees, but that's exactly what we see now with Boomers having a much larger portion of real estate market share than normal. Meanwhile Gen X has been almost left behind and Millennials are still trying to find their way in a historically unaffordable market. What is the cause of these seemingly upside down demographics, and what other factors...

Looking at the final data we have for Greenville in Q1 2023, the market is finally starting to see some stability. Some of the data shows potential market softening, but much of it is indicative of strong demand still pushing up prices, pendings, and closings while driving down days of market and affordability. The question now is will mortgage rates go up, down, or stay roughly the same throughou...

In this episode, we delve into the dynamic Greenville real estate market, now grappling with the impact of rising mortgage rates. We'll explore the significant price adjustments sellers are making—how often are prices being dropped, and by what average amount? What implications do these changes hold for both buyers and sellers? Join us as we unpack the latest trends and forecasts, providing you wi...

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Section 8 rental program in Greenville, but I heard one recently that I had never heard before, and that's that it was an "unpredictable" program. Not only is this not true, but the Section 8 program in Greenville is substantially *more* predictable than the private rental market as a whole. The end result of this is that when market rents sometimes come...

Doomers are constantly talking about "the real estate bubble bursting," but the reality is that the dynamic we saw in 2007-08 of the entire US housing market crashing at one time is unusual and not likely to repeat itself any time soon. What we do see, however (and particularly since COVID), is localized markets forming bubbles that inevitably burst. In fact, we are experiencing this currently in...

As we look at the most recent market stats for the greater Greenville area, some weird data trends begin to appear. Listings are up but pendings are down. Pendings are down, but closings are up. Prices are still high and increasing but not everywhere. Closings in the sub $500,000 price point are decreasing whereas above that price point are increasing. What is the cause of all these odd blips in t...

On March 15 the National Association of REALTORS® announced a proposed realtor compensation settlement for the Sitzer/Burnett case, and the national media immediately put out a ton of clickbait headlines about the sudden "end of the 6% commission." As with most things, the media got this one wrong, but there is MUCH to talk about with regard to this settlement. Buyer agents are going to have to wo...

During his State of the Union address on March 7, 2024, President Biden outlined multiple proposals for how to make housing more affordable: -A $400/mo credit for first time homebuyers or people "trading up" -Title insurance reform to reduce fees -Measures to stop anti-trust violations and price-fixing among big landlords -Cutting red tape on federal financing for developers, etc. Some of these pr...

"The Greenville real estate market is strong," is what we keep hearing, but making a statement like that is painting with broad strokes. Some parts of the Upstate of SC are getting stronger and some are softening, but which is which? Thankfully, there is a little known report called the Market Conditions Addendum Report that I can run that looks at where the market is trending. And so in this epis...

There are rumblings in the Greenville investor community about how there are more rental portfolios being sold off than usual, and these rumblings usually come with an innuendo or suggestion that maybe being a landlord in Greenville isn't what it's cracked up to be. So what is actually happening here? Are the rumblings true? Is there a problem with rental real estate in Greenville (or even in SC a...

As mortgage rates have crept up in recent weeks, buyer activity has slowed down. Seller activity, on the other hand, hasn't, with a record number of new listings in January. The result? Inventory is increasing, giving buyers more options and sellers more competition. But in spite of that, prices remain near all-time highs, with no relief to buyers. Will that change in the near future? As always, i...