I wanted to stop by quickly today and just say merry Christmas. I want to thank everyone for your support this year and in years past.
There's one thing I wanted to share with you today.
How you been outside lately and seen the stars and the amazing landscape, sunset, and the moon? If God was able to create all of this, and you still have a beating heart, you still have a purpose in life. Not only did God create all those amazing things, He breathed His very life into creating you.
Remember the reason for the season.
This Christmas, reach out to those around you and love your neighbor. Be encouraged and cheerful, and remember the reason for the season!
I look forward to hearing from you soon! Merry Christmas!
Many times we see buyers who are ready to own a home but just don't have the money for a down payment. Did you know you can buy a home with very little or even zero money down? Today I wanted to share the top four ways you can do this in the Charleston market.
Since interest rates are low, it's still a fantastic time to buy a house. These are the ways you can take advantage with little or no money down:
VA (veterans) loan: You can buy a home if you're a veteran for 100% financing.
State Housing: This is a grant for your down payment. Depending on your income and the county you're buying in, it could be repaid or it could be completely forgivable.
State Housing is a down payment grant that can be totally forgivable.
USDA: This lets you buy a home in what's considered a rural area. Many areas around Monk's Quarter, Goose Creek, and Summerville are still considered rural because of lines that were drawn many, many years ago. This loan also lets you finance 100% of the price.
A gift fund from a relative or family member: This lets you buy a home with a conventional down payment, but you utilize it as a gift from a family member or relative that's applied directly to the home purchase.
At the end of the day, if you have about $1,200, we can get the seller of the home you want to buy to pay the majority of the closing costs. The $1,200 will allow you to get the property inspected and put down your earnest money so you can buy the home.
With a 620 or better credit score and gainful employment, we may be able to help you get into a home with little or no money down. If you have any questions about qualifying or you're interested in buying a home in the Charleston area, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to help you out!
There are five main reasons why you should own a home rather than rent one that I wanted to share.
The first reason is that you build equity with each mortgage payment. Say you take out a mortgage for $200,000. Every time you make a payment, that $200,000 balance continues to drop and your equity increases. The second reason is that you enjoy many tax benefits by being a homeowner. At the end of the year when it's time to file your taxes, the interest and other things you've paid can be deducted to release your tax burden.
The third reason is that buying a home is actually cheaper than renting in the long term. Say that $200,000 mortgage we talked about has a $1,200 a month payment, and you have a friend who rents a $1,200 a month home. The following year, your mortgage payment will still be $1,200, but your friend's rent is probably going to go up by $50 or $100 per month, and will continue to increase at that rate every single year. In 30 years, you'll still be paying $1,200 a month, and your friend could be paying up to $4,000 in rent!
Buying a home is actually cheaper than renting.
The fourth reason to own a home rather than rent one is that you will establish a solid credit history. Every single time you make a mortgage payment on time, your credit score continues to rise, which helps you in other aspects of life like getting better rates on insurance, cell phone payments, and anything else that requires credit.
Finally, homeownership is healthy for families and the community. Just think about what happens in a home – the word "homemaker" comes to mind. Family comes over for holidays, friends come over for a cookout, neighbors become closer, kids are raised in the home, and relationships get stronger. It's truly a wonderful thing.
If you have any questions about homeownership or you're interested in buying a home in the Charleston area, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you and help you out.
With all of the holiday noise and Black Friday messages flooding your inbox, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say Happy Thanksgiving from the Jeff Cook Real Estate Team.
I know that I personally am so grateful for my amazing family, my incredible wife, Sarah, my two children, Ava and Jason, and our dog, Johnny.
I’d also like to give you a challenge. It’s very easy to get caught up in everything going on during the hustle and bustle during this time of year, but I’d like you to pick one person you know and one person you don’t know and lift their spirits this Thanksgiving.
We are better together when we love and encourage one another.
Not everybody is as fortunate as we are to have a great holiday season, so it’s important to make sure everybody knows that they’re appreciated.
At Jeff Cook Real Estate, this is our mission. This means that my job as the team leader is to empower my team so that we can empower the whole community. We are truly better together when we love one another and encourage each other.
Again, I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Enjoy your time with your friends and family and don’t eat too much turkey!
We’ve got the latest numbers for the Charleston real estate market and we wanted to share them with you today. So far in 2016, 19,000 homes have been listed on the market and 14,000 of those have sold. A large percentage have sold, but there will always be homes that don’t sell for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s because they are priced too high, they're unable to accommodate showings, or they simply go too long without an offer, not every home will sell.
This year, the median price in Charleston is $239,000, a 5.7% jump from last year’s median price. Our average sale price is also up by around 4.5% to $320,000.
Last year, we had about a five-month supply of inventory at this time. Right now, our supply is at 3.6 months. What we mean by this is that if no more new homes came on the market after now, it would take 3.6 months to sell all the homes on the market at the current rate homes are selling. Anything below five to six months is considered a seller’s market, so that’s what we are in right now in Charleston.
Buyers are more reluctant to pay full price.
I do want to caution you that in this fourth quarter, we have seen a growing trend of buyers becoming a little reluctant to pay full price. However, a lot of people are taking their homes off the market right now before the holidays, so you have a window of opportunity to sell high now.
If your home is eligible to be shown during the holidays, I recommend you get it on the market right now. You can get ahead of the January rush that will come and get your home under contract while there is less competition and more serious buyers.
We are in a tremendous market for home sellers. If you have any questions for us or you’re thinking or buying or selling, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to come out to your home and give you a complimentary home valuation to show you what you could really sell for this holiday season. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
This is the Jeff Cook Team's favorite time of year because it gives us a chance to express what we're thankful for. Right now, I am thankful for my health and that of my beautiful family. I'm also thankful for all of our wonderful clients, who are the life blood of our business. This is our way of thanking our past clients for their business and referrals. To show you how much we appreciate the support, you can come by one of our four locations for a free pie! For more information, watch this short video.
How do I get my Thanksgiving pie?
1. Please RSVP by Monday, November 14th, 2016 with:
Your name
Your email address
Your choice of Pumpkin or Apple pie
A location to pick it up
2. Pick up your pie at our Jeff Cook Real Estate office on Tuesday, November 22nd, between 12 - 6:30pm at one of these locations:
Historic Summerville: 105 S Cedar St, Summerville, SC 29483
Oakbrook: 10050 Dorchester Road, Suite 120, Summerville, SC 29485
West Ashley: 821 Orleans Road, Suite 102, Charleston, SC 29407
With the presidential election just weeks away, many people are concerned about what effect this election will have on the housing market. In reality, things look good no matter who is elected.
As the 2016 election nears, we find that several aspects of business are affected. What does that mean for the housing market? One of the leading indicators of where we’re headed is consumer confidence. Consumer confidence is the willingness of an average U.S. citizen to purchase or finance a large asset. What we have found is that consumer confidence tends to remain high as we approach the election.
The National Association of Realtors says the housing market did show resilience and had its best first quarter of the year for existing home sales since 2007.
The dream of homeownership is still alive.
According to Fannie Mae, home sales should pick up heading into the future season. The main reason for this is declining mortgage rates. According to Freddie Mac, forecast housing continues to maintain its momentum through the remainder of 2016.
The outlook of the national housing market is projected to stay strong through the remainder of the year. The dream of homeownership, the American dream, continues to remain stronger than the fear of uncertainty in the next presidency. As we approach this election, the market is still strong and it is still a great time to buy and sell in Charleston.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you soon.
I just wanted to thank our Realtor community for everything that they’ve done this year to help us achieve our goals. With the help of the community, we were able to make all of our transactions a win-win for all parties involved.
With the new year approaching, I just wanted to ask you one question: based on what you’ve done this year, have you achieved all of the goals that you set for yourself? Were you able to meet or exceed the number of home sales that you set out to sell? Were you able to service the number of families that you wanted to? Did you bring in the income that you desired?
My team and I were able to service over 800 families this year, which is absolutely tremendous. We hope to push this number toward 1,000 or 1,100 this coming year.
Did you achieve all of your goals for this year?
If you have any interest in chatting a little bit more about a potential new real estate career with our team, I’d love to talk with you.
With the support of the Realtor community this year, we were also able to open our Johnnie Dodds office this year, located at 311 Johnnie Dodds Blvd. in Mount Pleasant. This is in addition to our offices on 821 Orleans Rd. in West Ashley, in the Oakbrook/North Charleston area, and in downtown Summerville. We have three or four positions available at each of these offices, and the agents in our office are rewarded with leads, a steady stream of contacts, as well as a business plan that allows them to reach the income level that they desire.
If you have any interest in joining our team, simply give me a call or send me an email and I’ll keep your response 100% confidential. I would love to chat with you to see if we can get your real estate career to take off in the coming year. I look forward to hearing from you!
Hurricane Matthew didn’t hurt real estate prices in Charleston, but there are still many out there who need help. Would you like to join us in assisting them?
Today we’re in the city of North Charleston in a neighborhood called Park Hill. Hurricane Matthew just rolled through here a couple of days ago, and the majority of the houses along the street I’m currently standing at have flooded. We decided to come down here and lend a hand to the people in this community because that’s what we do in Charleston.
A lot of people have been asking me what all this storm’s impact means for the real estate market. Overall, this won’t hurt Charleston’s real estate prices. Just because this is a hurricane-prone area doesn’t mean that the market suffers after one hits.
Get in touch with us if you’re interested in assisting those who have been affected.
If you’re interested in assisting us with rebuilding this neighborhood, you can get in touch with us on Twitter at #rebuildparkhill or visit our website we’ll soon be launching called rebuildparkhill.com. There you’ll also be able to see pictures of some of the houses that we’ve worked on to get a better idea of the devastation and how we’re rebuilding.
We’re still in business, so if you have any questions please give us a call or just reply to this email. We look forward to hearing from you!
I wanted to share one of my favorite tips for homeowners with you today. There are a couple really simple and easy ways you can shave eight full years off of the life of a 30-year mortgage at a fairly minimal cost.
There's a really simple and effective trick for paying off your 30-year mortgage in just 22 years that I wanted to share with you. In fact, there are two ways.
Say it's tax refund time or Christmas, and you've come across a little extra money. Did you know that if you make a 13th mortgage payment each year, you'll knock eight years off of the life of your 30-year mortgage?
The second strategy is especially helpful for those who get paid on a bi-weekly basis. Instead of making a monthly mortgage payment, talk to your mortgage company about setting up bi-weekly payments on your mortgage. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, making half of your mortgage payment every two weeks rather than a full payment every month equates to making 26 half payments over the course of the year. Of course, that equates to 13 full payments a year instead of 12, which you would get by making one full payment per month.
Both options will save you thousands in interest!
Just like in the first scenario, you would knock eight years off of your 30-year mortgage. Think of the savings in interest!
If you have any more questions about this topic or you're thinking about buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you!
We’ve got some great news to share about our great city. Charleston has recently been ranked the number two most popular destination for movers in 2016. The three contributing factors to this are strong job growth, low vacancy rates, and high affordability.
For us in Charleston, this means a few things. For one, more people are moving to the area. That’s obvious. We have 43 newcomers each day on average. Jobs will also continue to grow, as the Charleston region is ranked in the top-10 in the U.S. for job seekers.
Our median sale price has risen by 11.4%!
If you own a Charleston home, its value has likely risen. The median sales price is 11.4% higher right now than it was at the same time last year.
If you’re interested in finding out what your home is worth or want to see what is out there for purchase, check out the links above. You can also give me a call or send me an email with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
Are you sitting on the fence trying to figure out whether now is the time to sell your Charleston home? I have four compelling reasons why you should:
Low inventory, high demand. Not only do we have the people living in Charleston looking to purchase a home, but 70% of the people inquiring on our websites right now are folks living outside the area intending to move here soon. A lot of people want to be a part of our long-kept secret!
An influx of millennials purchasing. We refer to this as “pent-up demand.” These are people who are now old enough to purchase a home after living with their parents or renting for longer than they wanted due to the previous recession. Their collective need to buy homes has caused the market to continue to boom.
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A lot of people want to be a part of our long-kept secret!
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Home values are up. Did you know that we’re in a 9% higher price point than we were a year ago? If you couldn’t previously sell your home, you may now be able to.
Interest rates are at an all-time low. If interest rates go up 1%, that cuts a buyer’s purchasing power by 10%. This means that if you own a home that’s worth $300,000 and interest rates rise by 1%, a potential buyer for that house that could’ve gotten approved at $300,000 can now only get approved for $270,000.
If you’re interested in finding out exactly what your home will sell for for in today’s market, click on the links above or reply to this email specifically. If all else fails, just give me a call. I look forward to talking to you soon.
Did you know that our real estate market is on fire right now?
So far this year, we’ve had more than 9,000 properties go under contract and successfully sell to someone else. About this same time last year, we only had about 8,000 properties. To put that into perspective, we have about 2,000 homes listed on the market every single month. Pretty soon we’re going to be out of available inventory, so if you’re thinking about selling your home, now might be a great time.
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If you’re thinking about selling your home, now would be a great time.
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The median sales price over the past year has increased about 6%. The average sales price has increased about 4.3%. This means that if you own a $300,000 property, over the past year your home has increased in value by $12,000. If you couldn’t sell your home previously, please call our office immediately and we can tell you what your property may be worth. You can also click on the links above to search for available homes and see how much your property can sell for in this market.
If you have any other questions, call us anyway or send us an email. We’d love to reach out to you.
Should you have an open house or not? We are huge fans of open houses. The open house is an integral part of our marketing system in order to help you get top dollar for your home. Having an open house creates energy and gives buyers the opportunity to see your home.
Think about it: let’s say someone is shopping online for a three-bedroom, two-bath home with a two-car garage, but you only have a one-car garage. The online buyer wouldn’t see your home. Open houses only increase your chances for selling your home at top dollar. Three reasons:
People may miss your home if it doesn’t have every detail you think you want. Again, if they’re thinking they want a two-car garage, they may change their mind when they see your house in person.
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Give buyers a chance to see your home in person.
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Consider general foot traffic. Someone who walks into your open house is probably someone who didn’t know about your home previously.
More buyers coming in increases the overall interest in your home.
If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!
Today I'm happy to be joined by Tommy Welch of 1st Class Painting & Restoration to talk about the top three things you can do to get the most value for your home.
It's a great question, Tommy said, and provided a contractor's perspective. First and foremost, (and yes, Tommy says he's a bit biased) you've got to make sure your paint is solid and neutral. He loves a good hot pink or your daughter's bright blue bathroom, but not when you're selling your home. It's not just important to be neutral, it's important that the quality of the work is good, so hire a professional. Secondly, Tommy said, know that buyers go straight to kitchens and bathrooms when they view a house. You want the kitchen to be functional, clean, and open. If your flooring is up to date, you're probably ahead of the curve. Take a few minutes and take a non-biased look at your kitchen and bathrooms to look for what stands out as needing to be fixed or updated.
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These are game-changers when it comes to listing your house.
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Lastly, don't forget the outdoors. We live here in Charleston so we can spend 365 days a year outside, so spruce up your yard. Keep the lawn cut, get rid of overgrowth, and make sure fences and decks are properly sealed, clean, and safe. You want people viewing your home to walk outside and think "Wow! I can hang out here!" All these things aren't just cost-effective, they're game-changers when it comes to listing your house and making a move. Tommy would love to come out and give you a totally free estimate on any of these things. You can call him at 843-324-6006 or you can email him at Tommy@1stClassCharleston.com.
Today, I’m discussing the advantages and disadvantages of new construction and resale properties when buying in Charleston. Whenever we sit down with buyers for initial consultations, they often know whether they want an older or newer home.
If you’re interested in an older home, typically it’ll be in a mature neighborhood with developed trees and larger yard sizes on average. Oftentimes, you’ll notice smaller kitchens and bathrooms compared to new construction developments.
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You have the opportunity to choose your add-ons with new construction properties.
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New construction includes full warranties, but sometimes the yard sizes are smaller and the neighborhoods aren’t fully matured. The surrounding community might still be in construction mode, even though your home has already been built. You have the opportunity to personally choose your add-ons, such as flooring, colors, and other features. Additionally, you have built-in equity to a recently built home; the value increased during construction, even though you’re not making payments.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the surrounding area, reach out by phone or email. I’d be happy to help answer your questions and serve your local real estate needs!
I’ve brought in special guest Chris Gonzalez from Tabor Mortgage Group here in Charleston to help us answer the age-old question: Is it better to have no credit or bad credit when you’re purchasing a home?
“We can actually work with both clients, whether you have bad credit or you have no credit, we’re just going to tackle those in different ways,” Chris says.
For those without any credit, Chris says he can work with rental history, utility payments, and cell phone payments. So, even though you may not be paying anybody, you’re actually building a credit history on your own.
For bad credit, it is a little bit tougher, and the first step they'll take is to pull a credit report and see what’s causing the poor credit score.
The way to start is to reach Chris at 843-810-4821 or at Chris@TaborMortgage.com.
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We can work with both clients, whether you have bad credit or no credit.
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“We will get a credit report pulled, we’re going to review it with you, and then whether you need help or not on the credit side, we’re going to set you up on a plan and give you a timeline so you know when you can get your home purchase completed,” Chris says.
Once you’re ready, Chris will turn you back over to us, and we can help you with your real estate needs!
Thanks to Chris for joining us and teaching us about bad credit vs. no credit. If you’re interested in getting pre-approved reach out to Chris, and if you have real estate questions give us a call or send an email and we’ll get started on a conversation today.
Today, I want to mention a special program we offer.
Are you a teacher, firefighter, police officer, veteran, or nurse? If so, we offer a special Hero Home Buying Program. It includes thousands of dollars in down payment assistance.
If you have at least a 620 credit score, and you can afford $800 per month, we want to talk to you. This is a limited time offer throughout the state of South Carolina. When the funds are dried up, the program is over.
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Are you a teacher, firefighter, police officer, veteran, or nurse?
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The program is offering up to $10,000 of down payment assistance and an interest rate of 3%. We have several homes available. If you qualify and choose this route, it will be cheaper than renting. It’s an affordable monthly payment without a down payment.
We’d be happy to serve you and consider your application if you meet these qualifications. Reach out by phone or email with any questions you might have!
Today, I’m talking about who pays what in an average real estate transaction in the surrounding area. How much are the entire closing costs for the buyer and the seller?
When you’re buying or selling a home, people often overlook how much a transaction will actually cost them. What’s interesting about this is that you can find all kind of calculators online, but every state has different regulations. As a general rule of thumb you have fees that account for up to 1.5%, if you're selling, and 3.5% if you're buying, of your entire transaction. This also includes mortgage fees, attorney fees, deed stamps, title insurance, and homeowner’s insurance. The homeowner’s insurance brings up the percentage for buyers compared to sellers.
If you present an attractive offer to a seller, they might be willing to help you pay for these fees out of their own pocket. This reduces the amount of money you pay out. If you’re a seller, closing costs can come out of a home’s equity. Additionally, you need to consider comission fees for real estate agents, which are between 5% and 7% depending on the services you receive from the agent.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling in Charleston, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to serve your local real estate needs and answer any questions you might have!
Today, we’re here with a new market update hot off the presses. Most people want to know if it’s a good time to buy or sell right now.
So far this year, we’ve sold over 2,000 homes. That means either 2,000 people have moved to Charleston or traded up locally. If you’re thinking of selling your home, now may be a really good time.
Not only that, our median sales price is up 7.5%. That means if you have a $200,000 house, your home is worth $15,000 more. If you have a $300,000 house, your house is worth $21,000 more. The point is, if you couldn’t sell your house a year ago, now it’s a different story.
Finally, inventory levels are low. We only have 3.5 months of inventory available on the market. That means if no other properties came on the market, it’d take 3.5 months to sell all the homes currently for sale. An inventory of 5 to 6 months is considered a balanced market, and anything below that is a seller’s market.
If you’re a buyer, you are likely to run into some multiple offer situations in this competitive market. Don’t be nervous. We have a lot of properties coming online that not everyone knows about, so we can find something for you. If you’re a seller, now is the time to list your property!
As always, if you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you and answer any questions you might have.
