I wanted to include some information about a new listing in Manning, SC, since it can be difficult to find historic homes like this one with so much acreage. Classic Antebellum Plantation Home in the Greek Revival Style majestically set on 89 acres. Home built for Edward Bertrand Davis and is known as The Davis House on The National Register of Historic Properties. This home is constructed entirely of heart pine and cypress with two circular stairways made of mahogany. The original window panes and shutters grace the mansion. Northern soldiers occupied this home during the War Between the States, and it was one of the few spared from flames. Outstanding features include Great Entrance Hall with dual mahogany staircase, formal…
Home mortgages have gotten a lot of attention in the news during the past few weeks. As home buyers keep hearing about how lenders are tightening the loans they give out, many people are wondering if they’ll now be able to get the home they could have easily bought months ago. I’ve included in this article one of the most common questions we’ve gotten from home buyers in the past few weeks: is it harder to qualify now than it was 3 months ago before the mortgage crunch?
The short answer to this question is that it’s gotten more difficult for lenders to qualify borrowers who have limited down payments. A borrower now needs a clean credit and a few months’ of reserves in the bank in order to get qualified. Borrowers also now have to make a minimum…
Charleston, South Carolina attracts visitors from across the country, and we’ve even seen an increase in international tourism in the past several years. One of the most popular things to do is walk through the historic districts of the downtown area (also called the Charleston Peninsula). Homes dating back to the 1700s line the streets of the peninsula (especially the southern end of the peninsula), and they have a classic architectural style of their own. Although some styles (like the Greek Revival style) are popular in the downtown Charleston historic districts, you’ll see a lot of the classic “shotgun” style houses, which where developed specifically for Charleston’s downtown lot shapes that are narrow and extend deep from the street. We’ve included…
As the largest neighborhood in Charleston, the Park West community in Mt. Pleasant makes its way onto many home buyers’ short lists of neighborhoods to consider. The traffic lights at the two entrances on Hwy 17 and Hwy 41 allow easy access to and from the rest of Mt. Pleasant. Prospective buyers are generally very impressed with the reflecting pool and landscaping upon entering the community. And the subsections are more hidden compared to other communities. Overall, Park West feels quite secluded from the rest of Mount Pleasant. There are lots of trees, green spaces, and walking trails throughout. Much of this will probably be developed in the future, but for now residents can enjoy a good deal of space between many of the subsections.
Home…
Charleston home buyers can now go to many websites and create an MLS search to find their next home. Our website is one of many that provides this free service. We get a lot of questions from home buyers about how to use the MLS search feature, so I wanted to answer some of these in order to help buyers looking for homes. And, these are applicable to almost any website that allows you to search the MLS for homes in Charleston.
1) What is the MLS? MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service, and it’s what home buyers use to find homes for sale in the Charleston area. There is one MLS for the entire Charleston area. So, if you’re looking in multiple areas (like James Island and Mt. Pleasant, for example), you can search all of the current listings in one…
Looking for Charleston real estate? The best way to get started is to find an agent who can give you full access to the Multiple Listing Service (usually called the “MLS” in Charleston). The MLS contains almost all of the homes for sale in Charleston, SC. The only homes it does not include are For Sale By Owner houses (and some of these manage to find their way into the MLS).
The Charleston MLS shows listings from all the offices of all the real estate companies in Charleston, SC. So, it is not partial to any one group of real estate agents. The MLS allows your agent to set up a search for you with practically any feature you want. You can choose the number of bedrooms and baths, the size of the lot, the type of home, the area, the price range, as…
We work with a lot of home buyers relocating to the Charleston, SC area. Many of our clients are not familiar with Charleston real estate – the prices, the many areas, and the availability of homes. So, before we can find the right house for them, we often have to find which area in general meets their needs. I’ve organized Charleston real estate into 6 sections so that you can get a feel for the main areas of Charleston. Of course, these are not all of the areas – but they’re the main places that Charleston residents consider “Charleston real estate”:
1) Mt. Pleasant is usually one of the first choices for Charleston home buyers. It has some of the best schools in the Charleston area along with a great location. It’s about 20 minutes from downtown…
Historic Charleston, SC is a top tourist destination in the country. And, it’s one of the few areas in the low country with a style of houses all its own – the Charleston style single. As the oldest port city in the country, Charleston has a rich history that is reflected in its architecture. Few cities in the United States have so many homes dating back as far as Charleston has – some of Charleston’s oldest homes were built in the early 1700s.
Downtown Charleston (also called the Charleston Peninsula) is usually the first area in that people consider for historic homes in Charleston. Many of the homes are on the National Register of Historic Places. Some of the oldest (and most historic) of Charleston’s homes are located in neighborhoods like…
Looking for a real estate agent in Charleston? There are roughly 8,000 real estate agents in the Charleston area working for a number of Charleston real estate companies. With so many agents to choose from, how do you find the right agent to work with? There are several points to consider when choosing your real estate agent:
1) Experience – It’s not just how long the agent has been selling real estate, but more importantly, how much the agent has sold. Some real estate agents only make a few transactions every year. So, a good way of gauging an agent’s experience is to find out how much real estate they sell every year. Many buyers feel pressured to work with a friend or a relative who has a real estate license. If that person is an experienced…
We get a lot of questions about schools in Charleston, SC – especially from home buyers relocating to Charleston. When clients tell us they want to be in a good public school district, we give them some of the resources we’ve collected over the years. Most of these are school district websites along with various sites devoted to school rankings for the Charleston area and for the state.
The cities of Mt. Pleasant and Summerville have the highest ranked public schools in Charleston. Summerville is divided into several districts. But, if you look at the rankings, you’ll see that Dorchester District 2 receives the highest marks.
When people find out they have two options for places to live in Charleston with such good public schools, they…
