Selling Your Home in Charleston, SC

The Charleston, SC Real Estate Market

Charleston's real estate market has experienced quite a bit of change in the past few years, especially for sellers. From 2001 to 2005 Charleston had a strong seller's market. Sellers were able to get the highest prices for their homes that Charleston had ever seen with relatively little effort. However, this type of market is not sustainable. So, the market was projected to cool down almost a year before it actually started to happen.

The good news is that there is still a high demand for Charleston real estate. If you compare our real estate statistics to other markets around the country, you'll find that Charleston still has one of the top ten real estate markets. Although Charleston's real estate market has now become a buyer's market, sellers are still able to sell their homes if they are priced aggressively and marketed effectively.

Marketing to Sell Your Home

The real estate industry is changing as technology has made it easier for buyers to shop. Most home buyers are no longer scanning the classified sections of the local newspaper to find their next home. One study by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that 77% of buyers start their home search on the internet. Given these findings, it is important to find an agent who not only provides outstanding service, but who also has experience in internet marketing. For example, we can advertise your home as a Featured Listing on our website, which averages more than 13,000 viewers every month.

Since buyers are using the internet to find homes, sellers are in turn using that same technology to reach potiential buyers. Websites like this one are professionally designed to market to this group of buyers who desire instant information with a quick response via email or phone. If you have questions about selling your home, please give us a call or use the contact form below!

Find the Value of Your Home

Are you considering selling your home? If so, then I'm sure you want to know what your home is worth on today's real estate market. We can send you a full report detailing your home's value along with a list of similar homes in your area that are currently under contract or that have recently sold. We can also give you an estimate of how long it should take to sell your home with regard to the current real estate market trends.

Please fill out the form below or give us a call to request this free information. We are here to provide you with up-to-date statistics on the Charleston real estate market and to help you get a fair price for your home. Please take advantage of our experience and knowledge of the Charleston real estate market!

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Charleston Real Estate Sales Statistics

real estate sales statistics for charleston

See more statistics for real estate listing companies in Charleston, SC.

How to Sell Your House in a Slower Real Estate Market

Contrary to what you’ve read in newspapers and heard in the news, it is possible to sell your house in a slow Charleston real estate market. We are only months into 2008, but we’ve already seen several homes get listed and sold in this short time. And, more homes are going under contract everyday. So, what makes these houses sell when there are thousands of others that just seem to sit on the real estate market? There are several factors that affect a home’s salability, but the most important is price!

1) Pricing a home well at the start is the best strategy for this Charleston real estate market. There are currently over 10,000 listings in the Charleston MLS! You can’t afford to have your house disappear into such a large inventory of home listings. Sellers often start by pricing their properties high to see if they can get the number they want. These sellers gradually reduce the listing price over the time the property is listed until it sells.

This strategy is a mistake! Often the newly listed properties get all of the attention from home buyers, while the properties that have been on the market for several months get ignored. Buyers tend to ignore these properties because they assume that they would have sold if they were good. Homes that sit on the market for a long time get a stigma – so many buyers have asked me when they find out a home’s list date, “What’s wrong with the house?”

Pricing is also important because with Charleston’s large inventory, buyers have to cut the number of homes they consider for purchase down to a reasonable and manageable number. One way to ensure your home does not fall into this rut is to price your home aggressively and fairly so that you make the most of the early traffic. You will cut down on your holding costs and more than likely get higher offers using this method.

2) Getting your home information out to buyers is the second way to get your house sold on a slower real estate market. Any real estate agent can put a home on the MLS, but most don’t go beyond the basics. Since the MLS is linked to hundreds of Charleston real estate websites, it is important to use keywords in the listing and include several pictures that show your house in the best light. More than 77% of buyers start their real estate search online, so it is important to have a web savvy agent who understands how to get the most from your MLS listing. Most Charleston real estate websites link directly to the MLS and use the remarks section in the property description. Google and Yahoo catalog web pages by relevance. This ranking gives a listing agent the ability to write the MLS report so that it has a higher chance of showing up in related searches. With buyers who are accustomed to having good information quickly at their finger tips, it is also important to have as much content in the MLS listing as possible. A great agent can bring all of this internet information together and make your listing the best it can possibly be.

3) Clout helps! When listing your property, the company you list your property with is very important. Prudential sells one out of every three homes in the Charleston area and is known for being the number one real estate company in Charleston. Prudential is a nationally recognized name and has a history of great service. When buyers come to Charleston, they quickly identify Prudential as a market leader. And, they often choose Prudential because they assume that they will have a larger group of homes to choose from. The reality is that an agent from any real estate company can show any listing on the MLS. For outsiders who are used to smaller real estate companies who do not share their listings, the largest company is the logical place to start their home search. For this reason, it is hard to compete with a company the size of Prudential. With cost being the same, I strongly recommend listing your property with the market leader in any real estate market – whether that market is in Charleston or any other city.

A good real estate agent is no longer judged by who they know or how long they have been in the business. A good listing agent in today’s market understands technology, the current real estate market, and how to work with people. When listing your home in today’s market, don’t fall for the agent with a smooth listing presentation or someone who has simply been in the business for a long time. Go with the agent who has the best grasp of the current market and who can get your house in front of the most home buyers. Without these factors, the well designed house flier, the perfect staging of your home, and the efforts you take to keep your house ready for showings are all a waste.