If you’re buying a beach home or condo in Myrtle Beach, you must know this before proceeding
After once again, having one of my buyer clients experience this today, I decided that it was time I sit down to write an article about how every potential buyer for a Myrtle Beach home or condo needs to protect themselves from this happening to them …
.
As a real estate broker in Myrtle Beach, I constantly get asked “Oh, how is the real estate market in Myrtle Beach?” or “How is beach property selling these days?” As always, my answer is “It depends.” Generally speaking the market is great in Myrtle Beach. At the time of this writing, for the third year in a row, we were deemed to be the 2nd fastest growing metro market in the U.S. As baby boomers continue to retire and as the droves of people continue the exodus of the Northeastern states because of unpleasant weather and relentless property tax increases, the demand for Myrtle Beach property will continue to rise. Our beach property is in scarce supply many people are realizing the benefits of retiring in the Carolinas versus Florida.
When I say “it depends” as my answer to how the Myrtle Beach real estate market is doing, what I really mean is that each potential buyer or seller has his unique market based on what they want to buy. Meaning if one of our clients want to purchase a property on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), then her options are limited and defined to a very limited personal market to her. If another client wants a corner unit in a particular building where he can enjoy both ocean views and an enchanting sunset daily, then those options are limited to a very thin slice of the market. If a retired couple wants to bring their 80lb Goldendoodle to retire with them in an oceanfront residential condo, well then they have now entered into a very unique market where scarcity dominates. Myrtle Beach offers many unique markets within itself. And as such, each of our buyer clients enters into their own market.
My reason for explaining this is to make one very important point when it comes to acquiring YOUR ideal Myrtle Beach second home or home to retire to:
Your favorite beach home will be someone else’s favorite beach home
Scarcity is a very real issue when it comes to the property that you want to buy. Market statistics are essentially useless when it comes to buying your favorite property. It makes no matter what the average sales price is in Barefoot Resort this month, what the days on the market for a Kingston Plantation condo is, the number of new homes building built at Market Common this quarter. And it matters even much less what the market is doing nationwide or in other pockets of the country. What matters is if the home or condo you want to buy will be available in the next 48 hours for you to purchase. There is a good chance that it will not be. More and more, buyers are realizing that being slow to move when they see something they want turns out to be a costly disappointment for them. We often have clients who lose the opportunity home or condo that they want at the price they want because they say “homes aren’t selling that fast back home,”, “CNN says the real estate market is going to go down”, “my Uncle Joe says now is the time to buy gold,” or “another beach property like it will come along next week.” As real estate advisors, we don’t like to have to tell our clients “you better put in an offer now before it gets way.” Sounds “salesy,” right? We even cringe ourselves when we have to say it. Well, regardless of how it sounds, it is reality.
Back to my story; I had a client this past week who wanted to put in an offer on a property that just came available in a condo building/subdivision where he takes his family to vacation every year. We got him quickly pre-qualified for the financing but he still needed some a few days to make sure some of his ducks were in a row to make sure he could pull the trigger. We made an offer a few days after the property came on the market. He thought he was moving very quickly. And in fairness, he was….. if he were in another market around the U.S. But he was in a very thin slice of our own market here in Myrtle Beach. As you have already probably suspected, the owners had accepted another offer that they had just received (because it was those buyer’s favorite condo too). Needless to say, he and his family are crushed because they were hoping that it would be their beach home to enjoy this summer. Instead, they will be renting just a summer week from the new owners (if the new owners decide to keep it on the rental program) A couple of hours ago, I received a text from him saying:
“We are really disappointed we couldn’t get that condo
hopefully we’ll get next one, I won’t hesitate to make a quick offer.”
There have only been two other units to come available in the last year at this particular location. The most recent one was priced $20K higher than the one before that. So now who knows when another will become available and at what price it will be selling for.
This is just one of dozens of other cautionary tales of this nature that I could share with you. So when you hear one of our agents tell you that you will want to move quickly in order to purchase your dream property, it is because they have seen too many of their other clients not get what they want, have to pay up to 20-30% more for the next one to come along or remain disappointed indefinitely.
As a buyer, you have competition. There are others out there wanting the same thing that you do. The best way to beat competition is to avoid competition. You avoid competition by getting there first. When you find what you really want it is imperative to move quickly. Don’t forget:
Your favorite beach property will be someone else’s favorite beach property
Written by: Clay Adams
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