Selling Greenville

[Episode has been updated to correct initial audio issues.] One of the biggest headaches of being a homeowner is having to deal with pests. I (Stan) have personally dealt with mice, rats, bats, cockroaches, termites, ants, carpenter bees, and much more in my homes over the years. And every time I have, I've reached out to my longtime friend Andrew Dixon, owner of Dixon Pest. Andrew has a wealth of...

The last week was a wild one for treasuries and mortgage rates, with a lot of economic data released, a FOMC statement sent out, multiple statements from Federal Reserve members, and a 60 Minutes interview of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The end result was that mortgage rates briefly went over 7%, and (as of this recording) are hovering at 6.99%, despite having been 6.6% just a few days ago. How did t...

Hope Brooks is a local real estate investor who has worked behind the scenes with a lot of Greenville's major REI players. And it just so happens that she and I (Stan) were attacked on social media recently by someone who apparently believes all landlords are inherently greedy and immoral. It may surprise some that this sentiment about landlords is an increasingly common one, as people look for so...

As we take one last look at 2023 by means of the most recently released Greater Greenville Association of Realtors Market Stats, a few things jump off the page. Most significantly, we can now say definitively that Greenville saw strong price growth for the year, particularly in contrast to some other parts of the country that are getting headlines for home values depreciating. But there are plenty...

A debate rages on social media these days about whether it's better to rent where you live or buy and be a homeowner. The reality is that in most places (including Greenville, at least for now) the monthly costs are cheaper if you're renting, but this doesn't take into account other important parts of the discussion, most significantly, real estate value appreciation. Renters don't benefit from ap...

We have a winner! In this episode we announce the winner of the $200 Amazon gift card from the giveaway that was announced in episode 200! But we also need to talk about the CRAZY start to 2024 that we're experiencing. Is it possible that people have woken up from their 2023 slumber and are ready to buy real estate again? The early returns would indicate that that may very well be happening. Tune...

Happy New Year! It's that time again - we need to come up with ten bold predictions for what will happen in Greenville real estate in 2024. Will rates go up or down? What about prices? Will listings linger longer than in 2023? And what's the Fed doing these days? Lots to discuss with lots of predictions to be made! Have your own predictions? Let me know!   As always, if you have any questions or c...

Who doesn't love an end of year giveaway? Well, to celebrate 2023 and the 200th episode of this show, we're randomly giving away a $200 gift card to one lucky listener. Listen to this episode for more details. Oh, and we also have to recap 2023! So let's talk about the wild ride that was this past year in the real estate market and where things are going from here. For the link to the Fox News art...

At the end of 2022, Stan came up with 10 bold predictions for the year 2023, and as we come to the end of 2023, it's time to see how he did! So let's go over each prediction and analyze what happened that caused the predictions to be right... or wrong.  As always, if you have any questions or comments (or, of course, need a realtor), feel free to reach out to Stan McCune directly by phone/text at...

Most people from outside of SC who discover Greenville do so while researching other major cities in the Southeast, such as Atlanta and Charlotte. After all, Greenville is literally wedged right in between those two cities, while also finding itself relatively close to many other major SE cities that have been getting a lot of buzz lately. So how do those cities compare to Greenville? What do they...

Real estate is under the legal microscope as the National Association of Realtors along with several major real estate brokerages recently lost the Sitzer/Burnett case that alleged realtor commissions have been anti-competitively fixed by the NAR and major brokerages. More lawsuits are coming, and the question is: what exactly does it all mean for the future of real estate? Will buyers agents be g...

As we take a delayed look at the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors market stats that came out in November, we see a Greenville market slowing due to the holidays, and yet home prices are staying high. Why is this, and what would happen if we saw inventory pick up from around 3 months of inventory to around 4 months? Using the data, we can put together some of the missing puzzle pieces to...

Every year around Thanksgiving, Stan discusses what he's thankful for. This year, the thankfulness topic is the City of Greenville and five things in particular that Stan is thankful for in the city.  As always, if you have any questions or comments (or, of course, need a realtor), feel free to reach out to Stan McCune directly by phone/text at (864) 735-7580 or by email at smccune@cdanjoyner.com.

At the behest of environmental activists, Greenville County Council is on the doorstep of functionally zoning unzoned parts of Greenville County by making draconian lot size requirements for new developments. If this passes third reading in December (which it will unless people express their concern for the ordinance), landowners in unzoned areas will see their property values drop and new develop...

For a long time in Greenville, it was cheaper to buy a house than it was to rent. That has changed due to high mortgage rates, but for many people, the argument to be a homeowner vs. renting a home isn't a financial argument so much as it is an argument about control - the ability to control how your home is maintained, what pets you can have, what you can do with the home, etc. So let's look at t...

Most 15 year olds are thinking about video games, not real estate investing. But for Willie Coleman, the age of 15 turned out to be the perfect age to get into real estate investing, and now, seven years later, Willie is firmly established in the Greenville real estate investing scene at the ripe age of 22 years old. What was it like investing from such a young age, and what challenges were experi...

The dreaded fourth quarter of the year with its traditional seasonal real estate slowdown is upon us, and this year Q4 is setting up to be a doozy, with mortgage rates hovering around 8% and likely to remain there for the entirety of the slow season. There's a lot to discuss: what do the high rates during a slow season mean? How can sellers get creative with incentivizing a buyer to buy their home...

Normally, as we enter the fall and winter months, seasonality grips the real estate market, and prices come down a bit. It looked in August like that might be happening again this year, like it normally does, but now that we have September's market stats, courtesy of the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors, median prices are still near their record peak. And if you want to look at the avera...

Like any growing city, Greenville has a segment of the population in dire need of affordable housing, people who are overpaying to stay in motels, sleeping in shelters, or simply living on the streets. But the problems of homelessness are solvable, and so in this episode we talk with Susan McLarty of Greenville Homeless Alliance about what her organization and other organizations in the Greenville...

It's time to talk politics and real estate, and 2023 is a more important year to have this discussion than most. We have several competitive mayor and city council races happening in Greenville, Travelers Rest, Simpsonville, Easley, Pickens, Mauldin, Fountain Inn, etc., and many of these elections will have low turnout and ultimately will be decided by just a few votes. But the stakes are high, wi...

August market stats for the Greater Greenville area are in, and what we see is a stable but slowing market. Prices are staying in range with 2022 levels and the percentage of list price received is still elevated over "normal" levels, but inventory is climbing, days on market are back into the 40s, and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the market is slowing down quite a bit. Real estate i...

We hear all the time about how mortgage rates going up or down has a major impact on the real estate market, but what does that actually mean? The conventional wisdom is that when rates go up, demand goes down, and when rates go down, demand goes up. But it's not always that simple, and for the Upstate, SC market specifically (Greenville, Spartanburg, Pickens, Anderson, etc.), we have to really ta...

Conventional wisdom says that homes built around the same time in the same neighborhood should sell for a similar price per square foot. But we see variances when it comes to a) larger homes vs. smaller homes, b) 2-story vs. single-story homes, and c) homes with the master bedroom on main vs. those with the master on the 2nd level. In some neighborhoods you can even sell (or buy) an 1,800 SF ranch...

Everyone knows home inspections are important, but many don't know why or what parts of the home inspection are most important. What does high radon mean and what can be done to lower radon levels? At what point does settling indicate a structural issue? Are there certain "deal breaker" issues that an inspector will find? All these are good questions, and for this episode, we talk to Jesse McCormi...

"Real estate is seasonal" they said, and they were right until COVID happened. And then mortgage rates went way down and demand went crazy. And then last year mortgage rates went way up, and demand went way down, and everything went into turmoil all over again. Long story short, the seasonality of real estate hasn't exactly been a thing for several years now, but will that change in 2023? There ar...