7 HACKS For Buying A Home In Myrtle Beach [2022!]
These are seven hacks that’ll save you time, money and hassles if you’re looking to buy a home in Myrtle beach
Hi, thanks for stopping into the mango homes channel. My name is Lance MacMillan. I’m a licensed realtor with Keller Williams, Myrtle beach and I wanna have a quick word about how I’ve got these hacks organized for you. I’ve got these hacks organized chronologically from when you start shopping for the home online. And when you close and move into the home, when you’re done, that means the biggest hack is going to be at the end of this video. So stay tuned to the end of the video because there’s something at the end. That’ll save you one third on your property tax bill. Can’t miss that one. So let’s jump in first hack how to save time and effort shopping for homes online. So you’re looking at moving the Myrtle beach because home just, isn’t what it used to be. And you’re ready for some low taxes, sunshine and friendly people.
You go online to one of the popular real estate websites, to scope out homes: like Zillow, Trulia, maybe even realtor.com. You’re gonna save time and anxiety if you skip those. Why? Two reasons. One, those sites make a ton of money selling your information as a sales lead to as many rando real estate agents as they can sell it to. That’s bad, here’s worse. Sometimes those websites have a reputation for having old outdated listings and information online, hoping you’ll just click on anything so they can get your information. Add those two things together, and you could fall in love with a home you see online, end up getting all kinds of random calls from total strangers trying to sell you all kinds of different things. And then in the end, you find out that the house hasn’t even been for sale for two weeks, cuz somebody else has already bought it.
There is a better way. Go to mangohomes.kw.com. Everything is up to date straight outta my own MLS. So there are no false positives and no strangers are gonna be calling you five times a day, trying to sell you something. It’s up to date, super easy to use and hassle free. It’s hassle free because you don’t even have to register to use it. If you do choose to register, you get your own private space where you can keep track of your favorite homes and neighborhoods and organize your entire home search right there on your computer. No paper notes required. So first hack say no to Zillow, use mangohomes.kw.com instead.
Second hack: How to know if that home you found that you like is in a flood zone. Now you’re looking at homes online and you’re building your list of favorites. You note that there are 50 miles of beach and two major inland waterways, as well as Lord knows how many streams and creeks and ponds all over Myrtle beach. Knowing if the home that you wanna buy is in a flood zone lets you anticipate if you’re gonna need flood insurance or not.
In the video description below, I have included direct links to the Horry and Georgetown county websites where you can find the flood maps at. You’ll also find a link to a playlist that I built on how to use those tools to find out whether a home is in a flood zone or not. They’re some of the first videos that I ever did, and while the production quality is…well, not like this, they are chockful of information and incredibly informative. So your second hack know your flood zone. Avoid any ugly surprises.
Third hack: get a pre-approval letter, not a pre-qualification letter from the bank. Note: If you’re buying a home with cash, this hack is no good to you.
You’re in a serious stage. Now you’re gonna take a week off and fly here and look at some of these homes that you found online. Knowing you need financing in order to put an offer on a house, you contact your local mortgage lender. Your mortgage lender can issue you one of two letters that proves that you have the ability to buy a given home a preapproval letter and a prequalification letter. A prequalification letter means in English that your lender took your application. They ran your credit. They looked at it and then they said, this buyer should be able to buy a house of up to $500,000. Once I all the paperwork and know what home they’re buying, I’ll get the loan processed and we can close. A preapproval letter means that your mortgage lender took your application, ran your credit, took your personal documents up front and processed them and then said, this buyer will be able to buy a house of up to $500,000. I already verified all the paperwork. I just need to know what kind of home they’re buying so I can fill in the blanks and we can close. A pre-qualification says that you should be able to buy a given home. A preapproval says you will be able to buy a given home. When a seller is reviewing offers. Do you see how that might make them pick one offer over another? Hack three, get a preapproval letter and not pre-qualification letter. It could mean the difference between a winning and losing offer.
Hack four: save money on new construction. If you are looking at new construction, some builders have in-house lenders and closing attorneys that you can use to help you in the buying process, using them can potentially save you thousands of dollars and help you come up with less money up front at the closing table. Now in South Carolina, nobody can force you to use a given lender or closing attorney or anything like that. But in some cases, home developers will sometimes offer to pay some of your closing costs, sometimes a lot of your closing costs, if you use their in-house attorney and or lender, why do they do that? They trust their own people. They know that if there’s a snag in the mortgage process, or if something comes up on title on the home and an attorney has to fix something that they will know before anybody else and they’ll get right on it.
That means no game of phone tag with any external company and that’s worth a lot to them. Sometimes thousands of dollars. So hack four, ask about rebates on new construction for using the lender and the closing attorney for the builder.
Hack five: be aware of expansion plans in your neighborhood. This might sound odd to say, but it’s not as common sense as you would think that it is. It pays to be aware of what’s going on around your home before you buy it. Let me explain. There is a huge amount of growth happening in Myrtle beach. Right now, infrastructure is being upgraded. New developments are being added. Homes are being built everywhere. But those exact things, might impact your decision to buy a given home if you know about it beforehand. What if that big forest behind you that you love so much in the pictures…what if that’s slated to become new town homes? Wouldn’t you like to know that the main drag in front of your home is gonna be expanded and construction’s gonna take over a year. What if your neighborhood was gonna end up with over 400 homes in it? And you didn’t know that when you picked the corner lot near the entrance, and now you have 10 billion people driving past your home every morning to get to work. You laugh, but I didn’t make any of that up. Those are actual complaints from real intelligent and responsible homeowners who didn’t know any better before they bought. Of those three stories, one of them is staying put one, of ’em is in the process of moving, one of them already moved again. So it can matter. Hack five, look for expansion plans near your home before you buy, it could impact your buying decision.
Hack Six: seniors can save money on their property tax bill through the state of South Carolina. So you’ve bought a home now and you’re getting ready to move in. Congratulations! If you’re 65 years or older and you own a home that you call home in the state of South Carolina, you can apply for a $50,000 homestead exemption. That’ll help you save on your property tax bill. Here’s how it works. South Carolina will consider the first $50,000 of fair market value on your home to be tax free if you’re 65 or older. So for example, if you have a nice little condo you bought and it’s valued at $200,000, the tax credit will ensure you’re only taxed on $150,000 of it. In this case, lowering your taxes by 25%.
Now you have to apply with the South Carolina department of revenue to get that tax credit. It’s not automatic that you get it. You can apply by mail online or in person at the South Carolina department of revenue office right here in Myrtle beach. If you have questions about the process you can call ’em at (844) 898-8542. And yes, this is also gonna be in the description of the video. So sixth to hack seniors can save on their taxes, but remember you have to apply to get it.
Hack seven: And here’s the big one. Permanent residents of any age can apply to lower their property taxes by one third. Because this applies to anyone of any age who owns a home here and is a permanent resident, that’s a big hack. And honestly, people forget this one. There are people out there right now in the real world who have forgotten to do this and they’re losing money on their taxes. And honestly, it’s tragic. So you’ve bought your home now and you’re a permanent resident in Myrtle beach and you’re a citizen of the state of South Carolina. Permanent residents pay lower property taxes than people who just own a vacation home or an investment property here. If you own a home here and it’s your primary residence, your base tax rate is 4%. If that same home is an investment property or a vacation home, your base tax rate is 6%. That’s a third less on taxes. That’s a big difference. Now in order to get that 4% rate, you have to fill out a special form with the county tax assessor and prove that it’s your primary residence. They’re gonna ask you for like a utility bill. They’re gonna wanna look at your driver’s license. Those kinds of things. If you don’t fill out that form, the county is gonna assume that it’s either your vacation home or an investment property. Then you get hit with a 6% tax rate. Retroactively, your escrow account gets all messed up and your mortgage payment changes. And that ain’t funny.
Now the good news is when you close on your home, your closing attorney, they are very likely to hand you a copy of that form. Along with a post-it note, reminding you of when and how to fill it out. If you lose that form, you can find a new one online, or you can just go to the county tax assessor and they’ll have it there for you. The Horry county assessor can be reached at (843) 915-5040. And if you live on the south end of the grand strand, the Georgetown county assessor can be reached at (843) 545-3098. So hack seven, the big one, don’t forget to fill out your tax form after you close on your home. Those are seven hacks that’ll save you time, money and hassles if you’re buying a home in Myrtle beach. If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to contact me! Again, my contact information is in the description of the video below. I hope you enjoyed the video and remember if you’re buying or selling in Myrtle beach, relax. Don’t stress. Go mango!
REVERSE Your Myrtle Beach Insurance Hike [2022!]
Myrtle Beach homeowners’ insurance is rising across the board, and odds are yours will too. Ours went from $1500 a year to $2200 a year, but we got it back down…here’s how.
Living in Myrtle Beach is getting more expensive, and for once I’m not talking about the real estate prices, I’m talking about homeowners’ insurance. Let’s talk about why that is and most importantly what we did to get it back down so you can do it too.
My name is Lance MacMillan, and I’m a licensed Realtor with Mango Homes powered by Keller Williams Myrtle Beach and this video is meant for people looking to buy real estate here as well as for folks who already own a home here.
The information in here could save you big money and that’s really important for a lot of people right now, so if you give this video a thumbs up and watch till the end, it’s not long, it’ll guarantee that YouTube will show it to more people then they’ll be able to save money too…and that makes you an awesome person for helping them.
First off, why rates have gone up so much?
While everyone loves to beat up on insurance companies, they have a lot lower profit margins than most people think. Your average insurance company, per investopedia.com, clears around 2 to 3% profit after taxes and expenses. That puts the industry squarely in WalMart territory, a company famous for pinching pennies to keep prices low for consumers.
And yeah, that insurance company profit margin still ends up in the billions of dollars in a lot of cases, but it can get wiped out if a big something happens, forcing them to raise rates or go bankrupt.
Well, the past couple years have seen not one but two big somethings.
The first big something is inflation. Inflation has worn down not just your bank account, but the bank accounts of home insurance carriers across the country. Simply put, it’s more expensive to repair a home now. Lumber, shingles, transportation, labor…it’s all more expensive than it was just two years ago.
You’re not allowed on here.
The second big something, specific to home insurance carriers underwriting coastal real estate, was the 2021 hurricane season. Even though Myrtle Beach itself was spared any trouble last year, the 2021 hurricane season was the third costliest one on record per Wikipedia. The lions share of the carnage was done by Hurricane Ida. Ida tore up Louisiana, destroyed crops in the midwest, flooded New England, and dropped a $44 billion dollar bill on US insurance carriers.
So that’s why home insurance rates are going up across Myrtle Beach and everywhere else in the country. Those added costs aren’t going away. But what can YOU do about it?
First off, understand that in South Carolina you have the right to shop around and choose whichever insurance carrier you want at any time. It doesn’t matter if your escrow account just paid out insurance for the entire year yesterday. You can always buy a cheaper policy and get a prorated refund on the insurance you’ve already paid for…assuming you find one. So how do you find one?
You don’t just settle for the guys who insure your SUV.
You don’t just settle for what the online shopping tool says.
You don’t just settle for the big-name insurance company on the corner.
We tried all that. In our case, none of that helped us.
What DID work was calling a local home insurance broker.
Insurance policies on coastal South Carolina real estate MUST have hurricane riders either added on top of or built in to the policy, and some of the biggest insurance carriers out there just don’t issue those. Local home insurance brokers know exactly who writes insurance with hurricane protection and under which conditions they do it. So, who’d WE personally use?
I’ll tell you but first, big disclaimer:
I have no personal or business relationship with the insurance broker we chose, and I stand to gain or lose nothing if you choose or don’t choose them.
We PERSONALLY got our insurance back to sane levels with the Field Insurance Company in Surfside Beach. But again, your mileage can and will vary.
There are all kinds of conditions that differentiate who gets approved on what insurance and with which rates. You can have 10 different people buying the exact same home in the exact same subdivision, and it’d be entirely normal for 9 of them to all get approved at different rates and one to not get approved at all.
So shop around! We have a healthy number of insurance brokers here that deal with dozens of wholesale insurance carriers and with all those choices they could potentially find you a way better deal than you could find yourself. Lower insurance means a lower escrow and lower mortgage payment every month, and more money in your pocket means less stress. And this is Myrtle Beach…you didn’t come here to stress about things, you came here to relax right?
Hey, if you remember to come back after watching this, how about let other viewers know who you ended up using for insurance in the comments below! You could really help your neighbors out and again, a thumbs up spreads this video, helps other people save money, and makes you an awesome person.
(Clip)
Thank you for watching, and remember if you’re buying or selling…go mango!
Is Living In Myrtle Beach DANGEROUS-ER?! {Part 2!}
Is living in myrtle beach dangerous? Part 2
Dangerouser?
Today we’re going to be talking about some local wildlife you need to watch for, some weather-related issues you should know about, and issues with driving in Myrtle Beach
Hi, my name is Lance MacMillan, and I help people learn about living in Myrtle Beach so when it comes time to buy a home here, they are informed, relaxed, and can enjoy the process. Today we’re going to talk about things that might concern some people about living in myrtle beach, this is a sequel to another really popular video, stay tuned to the end of this video and I’ll put a link up for you to the first one.
First up: Wildlife
The wildlife around here can get kind of intense. There is a massive tract of blackwater swamp that stretches from Georgia to Virginia and it sits right behind Myrtle Beach. Because most of the residential real estate in Myrtle Beach is only a short drive away from these protected wetlands, it’s not unheard of to see crazy wildlife in your back yard.
We already talked about alligators and sharks in the first video of this series, you can find that link in the description below.
(Alligator clip!)
But today I want to cover the rest of the menagerie. First up: snakes
(Indiana Jones Clip)
Well, there’s a lot of them, that’s why. Per the south carolina department of natural resources, there are 38 species of snakes that live in SC. Six of those are poisonous. Eastern coral snake, copperhead, cottonmouth/water moccasin, Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, timber/canebrake rattlesnake, and the pygmy rattlesnake.
Now there are all kinds of rules and sayings about how to tell if a snake is poisonous or not. Does it have pupils like a cat? Does it have a triangular shaped head? Does the pattern on it look a certain way or are certain colors next to other colors? I have a better rule. It’s a snake. Don’t mess with it.
SIf you see one just understand that he’s NOT out to get you. In a way he’s actually protecting your home. They keep rats and mice away. Now if you feel threatened by a snake, or if it turns out there’s a nest somewhere on your property, there are a number of wildlife removal services in the area that can safely and humanely find a new home far away from yours for any kind of critter you’ve got. The most famous one that you can find locally is the Snake Chaser. He can be found at thesnakechaser.com.
That’s what you need to know about snakes, now let’s talk spiders.
Again, per the department of natural resources, statewide there are around 600 species of spiders. Surprisingly, there are only two poisonous varieties: the brown recluse, and the black widow. Now I didn’t even know this, but the brown recluse has never been found in the wild here at the beach, they only live in the mountains. That just leaves the black widow.
To protect yourself against snake and spider bites, check shoes and gloves you’ve left outside before putting them on, avoid sticking your hands in small spaces where an animal could hide, and stay out of tall grass unless you’re dressed appropriately. They’re out there, you can depend on it.
Also out there, in large numbers are both the gray and red fox.
They’re everywhere and they are incredibly slick. If you ever think you see one, he’s already seen and heard you coming from a mile away…
(and like that he’s gone)
More rare, but also on the list of things that do a great job at ONLY appearing on your security camera at 3am:
Coyote
Black Bear
Bobcat
Carolina Dingo
Yes, as if there weren’t enough critters around here, we have our own dingo.
Verdict: if you encounter anything that can bite you, give it space and don’t corner it. It’s more scared of you than you are of it. And given a chance it’ll run away.
Next up: Weather
We already talked about hurricanes in the companion video to this one, again link below the video.
There’s a LOT to love about the weather here. But there are some things that’ll get you if you aren’t forewarned.
Springtime starts a little early here, right around the beginning of March it’s already trying to warm up. That’s when the first issue pops up. Pollen.
(pollen horror clip)
There’s a lot of funny stuff on the internet about this. If you’re moving here from another part of the country that isn’t as green as here, pollen season can be a problem for you. All of the pretty flowers and trees kick out massive clouds of pollen from March to mid-May.
(B roll pollen in tree)
It will cover your house, your car, if you like getting fresh air in your house by opening the windows it gets all up in your blinds and on your countertops. And most importantly it can wreak havoc with your sinuses if you’re sensitive to it.
Thankfully, a few well timed spring showers can go a long way in knocking the pollen count down, but if you don’t get that things can get rough. If you’re on allergy meds and you’re moving here, even if it’s not peak pollen season, make sure you have a full supply of whatever it is that you take so you don’t have to scramble to get your prescription filled.
Summer will seemingly last forever and just kind of merge into fall. And then comes the next item on the agenda. Winter. Winter?? Did I get that right?
(titanic sense)
Our winter is nothing like your winter if you’re from the north. In comparison, it’s barely a season. And that’s the problem ironically enough.
Winters not a problem like it is up north, so we don’t prepare for it like they do up north. Now that makes sense in a way. Until we get freezing rain or godforbid an ice storm. See, the issue isn’t the storm itself. It’s the roads.
(Road footage)
There aren’t enough trucks and salt to go around in the event of the roads icing. They cant spend a ton of money on the supplies and have it sit there for nothing. Now if it DOES ice up, they’ll do a valiant job with what they have to keep the bridges and main roads safe, but it takes them time, and sometimes they cant even get to the side roads until the freeze has already passed.
Now half the people here are from up north, meaning half of Myrtle Beach has a decent shot at navigating an icy road. But the other half of the drivers on the road have almost zero experience driving in ice, and regardless of that it’s hit or miss as to whether the road you’re on is going to be clear or if it’s going to be an ice rink for an f-150
(f-150 footage)
YOU might be an amazing driver, but you won’t know if the road you’re about to get on is safe or not, and you won’t know if the guy next to you can handle it like you or not. Just like clockwork, there are accidents everywhere if there’s ice on the roads. It sounds like it’s being too careful but trust me it’s not: if it ices up, don’t go driving unless you HAVE to.
Verdict on weather issues: prepare for it. And whether it’s pollen or ice, you can always spend the day inside if it’s bad enough.
Last thing we’re going to go over: driving around MB
Icy roads give us a perfect segue into the last part of the video. There are a number of other issues with driving around that are kind of surprising if you’re not from around here. First up, The roads themselves.
Now it’s not oversimplifying things THAT much to say that Myrtle Beach really only has 2 MAIN roads. There’s 501 that comes to and leaves the beach, and there’s 17 that takes you up and down the beach. Every other road kind of compliments those roads and relieves traffic from them. Simple, right? The problem if you’re new here is that 17 isn’t “Just” called 17. Myrtle Beach is stretched out over 50 miles and over a dozen municipalities, and the name of the road you’re driving on can change like six times by the time you get to where you’re going. Is it the Ocean Highway? The Kings Highway? Kings Road? And which 17 are we talking about? 17 Bypass? 17 Business?
(no memory/we are lost)
And that doesn’t even get into the fact that there are a number of places where there is a NORTH 17 and a SOUTH 17 that is different than 17 heading North and 17 heading South and you could be heading north OR south on either of them.
(no memory/we are lost)
Don’t get hung up on the road names or you’ll get confused, once you use your GPS for a little bit you’ll see it’s WAY easier than it looks and the road names can be misleading.
Now that we’ve talked about the roads themselves, the last thing I want to cover is what is ON those roads. And this is something that you see in a lot of southern resort towns that you might not see where you’re from: golf carts and mopeds. What’s dangerous there? You might ask. Surely you can’t drive those things on roads meant for heavy traffic right? RIGHT?
Let me elaborate:
Golf carts around here are in a lot of cases really nice, customized, tricked out vehicles that aren’t THAT far removed from being on par with a Smart Car. In Myrtle Beach, they’re restricted to secondary streets of 35mph or less, used in daylight only, and they’re limited to a radius of 4 miles from where they live. You WILL see them driving around on side roads and while they’re not a necessarily a problem for other drivers, you just have to remember to treat them like you’d treat a motorcycle in traffic. Give them some room, don’t crowd them, and understand that they can’t take a hit.
Golf carts are more of an oddity than a problem. Mopeds are more of a problem than an oddity.
(DandD Hog)
Downtown with all the oceanfront hotels, you can find a number of places that rent mopeds. Down there, it makes sense. It’s fun, you get fresh air, there’s so much traffic you aren’t gonna get above 15mph if you’re lucky before the next stoplight anyway. But here’s the thing. Per cityofmyrtlebeach.com, mopeds are restricted to 35mph speed limit, yet they can travel on any road 55mph or less. Which literally means there are only a handful of roads where they’re illegal to drive.
Downtown, that’s fine. Makes sense. But what about rush hour traffic on 501? Or at night in the rain on 17?
You might think “No one would drive one of those things in dangerous conditions like that” but you’d be mistaken. For those of you living in Myrtle Beach watching this video, feel free to share your “I can’t believe I saw that” story about moped drivers in the comments below. I’ll put mine down there for posterity. Make sure to read it, you won’t believe it.
Mopeds in high speed heavy traffic can cause unexpected and sudden slowdowns, bottlenecks, and potentially dangerous driving conditions. It’s relatively rare, but it’s still legal, and it still can happen.
Verdict: especially when driving in tourist areas, keep your head on a swivel
If you liked this, here’s the first part linked right here on the screen. I am a Navy vet and licensed realtor with Mango Homes powered by KWMB, I thank you for watching. And remember: whether you’re buying or selling? Go Mango!
Is Living In Myrtle Beach DANGEROUS?? [NEW 2022!]
Is living in myrtle beach dangerous?
Hi, my name is Lance MacMillan, and I am here to let you know everything you need to know about Myrtle Beach real estate…and hopefully entertain you a little in the process. I am a Navy vet and licensed realtor with Mango Homes powered by KWMB, and today we’re going to talk about things that might unsettle some people about living in myrtle beach, that way you might feel a little more at ease about something that might be bothering you.
Hurricanes
Living in Myrtle beach, you can see the occasional hurricane from June to November-ish. Hurricanes are natures way of cooling off all that hot water in the northern hemisphere when its sunny out. Folks in the southern hemisphere get the same treatment, down there they get typhoon season and it runs from December to May. Which is their summer and fall. Which is so weird.
C3po clip
So how bad can hurricane season be in Myrtle beach? Not as bad as you’d think actually. Comparing state to state, since 1851 NC, TX, and LA have seen twice as many direct hits as SC, and Florida has seen 4x as many hits as SC. As far as MAJOR storms, SC has only seen 5 direct hits since 1851, the last one being Hugo in 1989.
And that’s ALL of SC. What about just Myrtle Beach? MB gets off easy as far as direct hits go. When you look at the map, MB kind of sits back in a 40 mile long cul de sac. Combine this with the way the atlantic current runs and while we can and do get sideswiped by the occasional hurricane, the storm itself is usually relatively forgiving. I’ve been through 4 hurricanes here and I only lost power for a little bit in one of them.
BUT while the hurricanes usually give us a pass, the flooding from them usually doesn’t. (VERDICT)
Flooding
One of the major draws of living in myrtle beach is the water. And there’s a lot of water to choose from! Between fishing on the waccamaw river, boating on the ICW, and going to any one of a dozen different beaches and state parks, you’ve got your pick of where to enjoy the water. But that can come with a price. Myrtle Beach is downstream of a number of major rivers, and when a hurricane hits Florida and runs north, or when it augers into NC like they sometimes do, the water runs downhill and our rivers can and do flood.
Footage
Depending on how the storm hits, sometimes the flooding can be worse further away from the ocean. A LOT of people worry about buying a home in a flood zone. It’s OK though, I have the mother of all flood map playlists on youtube specifically about Myrtle Beach letting you know every conceivable thing you need to know about flooding, flood maps, and flood insurance. The link to the playlist can be found in the description below…if you have any questions, just hit me up in the comments below and I’ll be happy to help!
Alligators
Living in Myrtle Beach means living in alligator country, though it’s not quite as alligatory as Florida. Per Google, Florida has roughly 1.5 million alligators…South Carolina tops out at around 100000 of them.
(insert chompy gator)
The State paper researched it and we’ve only had 23 alligator attacks since 1915. You’d think it’d be more than that right? Alligators will proactively attack smaller mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles, even other alligators, but not people. Why? You’re not food. Alligators don’t want to eat you, but if they think you’re a threat they will defend themselves so avoid tromping around in places where they like to hide and you’ll be fine.
Odds are, even though they’re definitely out there you’ll never see one in the wild. Turns out they’re pretty shy around people. Our home is on a pond that has direct drainage to the Waccamaw River. We’ve been here over three years and we’ve seen every kind of animal you can imagine hanging around that pond, but not a single alligator. I’m sure they’ve been there, there might be one out there right now, but we’re out there all the time and…nothing. (VERDICT)
Sharks
The big draw about being at the beach here is…well, the beach. Millions of visitors and residents alike splash around and have fun in the ocean from spring all the way up to around thanksgiving. The subtropical climate also brings in tons of fish…and where theres fish, there’s sharks.
You have to watch out for any wild animal with teeth, but as for the ones that grab headlines for being a little too bitey with people we have three: the great white, the tiger shark, and the bull shark. Bull sharks are the ones that are responsible for more bites in the southeast than any other breed, and they can and do make their way into rivers sometimes exploring and looking for food.
Insert little river footage
So you figure with millions of people in the water and three known maneaters out there in close quarters with them we’d have a fair amount of shark attacks right? Actually no, the entire state of SC has averaged 4.5 bites per year over the past 10 years, over 4x fewer than Florida. And none of those were fatalities.
Again just like with alligators, you’re not food. Invariably, shark bites happen when people are confused with food or when people are caught between food and the shark coming after it.
The best way to avoid any danger is simply don’t go where the food is, and that means avoiding going in the water where there are fishing piers. Small fish like to hide near fishing piers and that’s one draw for the sharks. The other is the bait people are casting into the water. Don’t go swimming near the fishing piers and you’re good to go. (VERDICT)
Crime
The last thing I want to cover is crime. Living in Myrtle Beach, to judge by some of the more freewheeling parts of facebook, is fraught with danger because of rampant crime and that Myrtle Beach is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Now, the NAR says that our average homeowner here is 61 years old and earns about $75k a year. So I ask you this: How could you come to the conclusion that Myrtle Beach is the crime capital of the south when the VAST majority of residents who live here drive buicks and are AARP members?
(no worries groundhog day confused willard scott)
The answer to that question can be found in a quote by Benjamin Disraeli and popularized by mark Twain: there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics
Let me explain. The population of the entire Myrtle Beach metro area right now is a little over 400000 people, who skew older and more settled than the national average. Out of that 400000 people, you’ll statistically see X number of people being brought in for reckless driving, X number of people being brought in for public intoxication, that kind of thing. But we see far more than you’d expect across the board.
Why? Because of tourism.
Myrtle Beach sees up to 17 million additional people who come to visit every year, which is like having the entire population of New York City come by to relax and have fun TWICE a year. On any given day, our population could be double or TRIPLE what it actually shows on the books…so instead of X number of people being brought in for reckless driving, or X number of people being brought in for public intoxication, we’ll see double or TRIPLE of what you’d expect to see for the number of people who quote unquote live here.
And odds are, when the police DO catch someone double parking or something
(Blazing saddles horse)
It’s probably one of those 17 million visitors, and not the nice retired couple from Rhode Island. Myrtle Beach does not have a crime problem, we have a statistics problem. (VERDICT)
Will Myrtle Beach Real Estate CRASH?! [NEW 2022!]
Is there a housing bubble in the Myrtle beach, real estate market? Hmm.
Thanks for stopping in my name is Lance MacMillan. I am here to help you learn more about the Myrtle beach real estate market, and hopefully keep you entertained in the process. I’m a licensed realtor with mango homes powered by Keller Williams, Myrtle beach. And today we’re gonna answer that question. Is there a housing bubble in the Myrtle beach real estate market? First, we’re gonna look at what a housing bubble is. Then we’re gonna compare our current situation to the last housing bubble that blew up in 2008. We’ll compare and contrast. And then we’ll be able to judge whether we are indeed in the middle of a housing bubble here in Myrtle beach. First off, what is a price bubble? The price of anything, including Myrtle beach real estate is determined by supply and demand. A price bubble is what happens. And there are outside influences that falsely tilt that supply and demand scale towards higher prices.
It could be outside influences reducing the supply of said thing. It could be an outside influence increasing the demand of said thing, or it could be both. But the whole point is that those outside influences are false influences. They have nothing really to do with the commodity itself. You end up with an artificially high price and when that artificially high price corrects itself and the price drops down, all of a sudden, that’s the term that you get. When you say price, bubble, pop price, bubbles can happen with anything. Now let’s look at collectibles. What about beanie babies? Remember those when they first came out, everybody and their mother was stampeding to the store to try to buy these things and external factor, a factor known as FOMO. That’s what marketers call it. Fear of missing out, had artificially inflated the demand of these little toys, because that demand decreased the supply because everybody was buying the things.
It turned into a big snowball. And pretty soon you couldn’t find one of these these things in a store to save your life. And because nobody wanted to miss out on the craze, it just drove prices higher and higher and higher and higher, and then made people want them more and more and more and more. I want you to think about it though. Did anything actually change about the little toy? No. It was a cute little toy. It was worth five, 10 bucks. Did anything change? Was there any functionality at it? Did it somehow become a better or more distinctive toy because everybody wanted it?
No,
It was a false demand. And because of that false demand, sometimes you had to go to eBay to get one of these things than if you was the one that you wanted. Sometimes you’d be paying 5,000 bucks, maybe more for these things, all for $5 stuffy. When people realized, Hey, these things are cute, but they ain’t $150 cute
Things came back to normal. Now the people who bought those beanie babies, the ones who had to have every single one in their little collection, when they were buying these things at their highest prices, they lost a fair amount of money. And yeah, you can go online right now. In fact, I did, you can go online right now and there are certain super rare ones that still fetch a decent price. But for the most part, the people that went all in on these things, when the prices were too high, they lost money. They lost it. Pretty good too.
That is a price bubble. Supply is artificially too low. Demand is artificially, too high prices are way outta whack. And then once everybody figures out, what’s going on and things get boom prices drop. And God forbid, if you bought when prices were too high, now, you know how that works. Imagine if instead of talking about, we need the Wiener dog, we were talking about real estate, just like fear of missing out, messed up the market prices for beanie babies. The same thing happened with real estate in the decade leading up to 2008. And that led to the biggest housing crash in modern times. So let’s compare the summer of 2008 with today, the spring of 2022. Let’s see if there are any similarities that way we can judge, if we are in the middle of a housing bubble right now. So supply and demand, determined price, right?
Let’s look at the supply side and the demand side of the equation between then and now first supply coming off of an economic downturn in the mid in 1990s, the us government wanted to grow the economy. They knew that the singular act of a person buying a home was the greatest boost that one person could have while driving the economy. So they thought it would be a good idea to get millions, more people to go buy houses. I am the federal government and I believe it would be a good idea for millions, more people to buy houses. What do you say banking world then the guys on wall street said, uh, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I, I, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Look, rates are gonna be higher. There’s gonna be more foreclosures. We lose money. People go bankrupt. There’s no good in any of this than the federal government said, we hear you.
We feel your pain. What if we guaranteed you against losses? If you just wrote a little more business to some of these people that aren’t good credit risks. So then wall street turned around and said, if you are gonna guarantee us against losses, I mean, why wouldn’t we? And that’s how the subprime mortgage crisis started out. You fast forward 10 years to 2007, right before the crash, the government loving the hot economy that they’ve created with this false housing, boom has the bank’s writing loans to virtually anybody with a pulse. This has artificially depleted the supply of homes that there was to sell builders. At this point, they literally can’t keep up the housing supply in 2007 is low, but it’s artificially low. It’s low only because there are buyers out there buying who have no business buying. I guess nobody in the federal government heard the phrase, the road de hell is paved with good intentions.
So now let’s compare this to the current Myrtle beach real estate market in spring of 2022. Are there any artificial forces that are affecting our supply? First off, our housing supply right now is low. We don’t have a lot of homes to sell. And it’s about at the same level as it was leading up to that housing crash in 2008. So what’s causing this. You might be tempted to say that the crazy low interest rates that we’ve had for the past couple years have contributed to this. I want you to think about it though. The buyers that were getting those incredibly awesome in interest rates, which they were down in the twos at one point, those were real qualified buyers. If the rates were higher, they’d still be qualified. Yeah. The rates probably enabled them to get a little bit better of a house than they would’ve otherwise.
But those same people would’ve roughly bought the same houses. Currently. There is no huge subprime market driving real estate. Like it was leading up to the housing crash in 2008, we have good buyers getting great rates. So that’s not the same as it was before. One thing we do have now that they didn’t have back then is the supply chain issue. Builders are having problems, finishing the houses that they started because maybe they don’t have enough windows or enough doors to finish the job. And that is slowing them down. Honestly, though, while it’s slowing them down, it’s not preventing them from building houses. It’s just dragging it out a little bit longer. And while this is having a small effect on the supply, it’s not killing it. The same goes for skilled labor that they use like electricians and carpenters. They’re a little bit shorthanded and it is slowing them down a little bit, but it’s not stopping them. Our housing supply is short here in Myrtle beach, but it’s legitimately short. There are real, tangible things that are limiting our supply of homes to sell here in Myrtle beach, unlike in 2007, before the real estate crash, at least on the supply side of things, there isn’t anything false. There isn’t anything artificial that’s limiting our supply that would contribute to a housing bubble, but let’s look at demand.
Looking at demand, running up to the real estate crash in 2008 demand was at a record high. Why again, it’s because the federal government enabled the banks to lend the people that they shouldn’t have been lending to in the first place. And this created callous demand for homes that ridiculous demand was driving prices so high, that it was actually creating its own supply shortage. On the other side of the scale that we talked about, I can’t overstate how crazy it was back then, but that was then, and then is not now our demand here in the spring of 2022 is far more organic. It’s far more real urban decay and crime are driving people out of the big cities who have the means to relocate young tech savvy professionals have learned because of COVID that they can work from home just fine. And home can be really anywhere they want. As long as it’s got a good internet connection, kind of like here, but, um, I’m not young.
The mortgage market, at least this time is structurally sound and free of any and all shenanigans and right along with everything else. And just as powerful, this is Myrtle beach who wouldn’t wanna live here. None of those factors are artificial. None of those factors are temporary. All of those factors are driving demand in a release sound way. And none of that is gonna change anytime soon. Our one wild card is inflation. Inflation brings higher interest rates. Those higher interest rates will suppress demand. Higher rates make a given house more expensive to buy. And if rates cross a certain threshold, if they start to hit double digits, that’s gonna price some of the first time buyers and the lower end of the market. It’s gonna price them right out. The more rates rise, the lower demand will dip the lower demand dips. The lower prices will start to go on the homes that we’re buying.
But here’s the thing. Think about this. They say that all real estate is local for a reason. Most of the buyers, the lions share of the buyers here in Myrtle beach are retirees. A lot of these retirees come with big savings accounts and vast amounts of capital from having cashed out in the city that they’re leaving because they are less reliant on a bank to get a mortgage for the house that they want higher rates. It’s not gonna hurt them as much. So at least here in the Myrtle beach, real estate market, our buyers, aren’t going to feel the pinch of higher interest rates as badly as they would in other P places, in other parts of the country. So to wrap up the demand side of things, our current demand is high and that’s not gonna change. Not in the short run. Anyway, all of our demand is real.
It is solid. It’s not artificial. It’s not transitory inflation will raise risk rates. Those higher rates will suppress demand. And that will suppress housing prizes here in the Myrtle beach real estate market. But our demand is real. There is no artificial demand. Like there was in 2008 and I don’t see the demand side contributing to a housing bubble. So let’s finish this up. Is there a housing bubble ready to pop in the Myrtle beach real estate market on the supply side of the equation, there is a shortage of homes, but it’s a legitimate shortage of homes. Local builders are having a problem catching up with demand, but that’ll iron itself out in the long run. Ironically, the higher interest rates are gonna help with that on the demand side, demand is high and it’s high for a lot of really good reasons. None of those good reasons are gonna change in the short run and rising interest rates stemming from inflation will suppress demand to an extent, but it won’t negate all of the other good reasons.
Why demand is there in the first place, our 2022 supply and demand in contrast with what happened in 2007 and 2008 is solid and structurally valid. The beanie baby market suffered under the fear of missing out the real estate market in 2008 was polluted with unqualified buyers. And here in 2022, we don’t have any of those problems. The Myrtle beach real estate market in 2022 is fundamentally solid and we don’t have a pricing bubble in my opinion. It’s just not there. There’s no reason for it. Am I right? Am I wrong? Let me know when the comment below. Thank you for watching. I hope you were informed. I hope you were entertained. And remember whether you’re buying or selling go mango.
Myrtle Beach Real Estate Forecast (NEW For 2022!)
This is your Myrtle beach real estate forecast for the first half of 2022, where we talk about what’s gonna happen with both price and demand in the Myrtle beach real estate market for the next six months.
Thanks for stopping in my name is Lance MacMillan with Mango Homes powered by Keller Williams, Myrtle beach. And today we’re gonna be doing a deep dive into the Myrtle beach real estate market. We’re gonna be looking at five major factors that are currently affecting the market. Look at how those are trending. And then we’re going to use that information to predict what’s gonna happen in the next six months. First, let’s talk about the Myrtle beach area itself and what makes it such an attractive place to own a home.
The weather in Myrtle beach is what you get if you take Florida’s weather and you dialed it back by one notch, it’s nowhere near as oppressive and hot in the summertime as it is in coastal Florida, you can kind of almost see four seasons in there if you squint really hard and look at it. There are 25% fewer hurricanes that hit Myrtle beach than hit Florida. The congestion isn’t anywhere near as bad as it is in a lot of the country. There’s a really easy going vibe here. And the whole people are nice in the south thing? It lives every day here in Myrtle beach. You know, it’s not a bad place when your state flag looks like a Jimmy buffet song
On the finance side of things. Myrtle beach has the 18th lowest sales tax in the country. We have the sixth best property taxes that you can find in the country. We have low gasoline prices and our cost living is 19% below the national average. When you add all of that up and you contrast it with what’s been happening in other cities and states in the country, what you see in Myrtle beach is higher demand and more development in the real estate market. As far as the next six months, I don’t see this changing any really. So this is gonna continue to drive development further here at Myrtle beach. Next, let’s talk about the inventory of homes for sale here at Myrtle beach. When a real estate agent is talking about inventory, they are literally referring to the supply of real estate that is for sale.
And if price is driven by supply and demand, you could see how that would be an important thing. Inventory literally is the supply side of that equation. Right now, our inventory is very low. Our supply of homes to sell is very low. Normally you have about six months worth of homes to sell before this shelf is empty and there’s nothing left to sell. Right now, we’re sitting at a little less than two months worth of homes. So that goes to tell you what’s happening with demand in the area. The average home price here in Myrtle beach because of the inventory situation has risen $50,000 in the past year. Now that may sound like a lot, but you gotta understand in a lot of places in the country, a hundred thousand dollars, $200,000 for a given house would still be an amazing deal considering where some people are coming from.
So what’s gonna happen with inventory in the next six months? I predict that it will get slightly better. There will be slightly more homes for sale. The home builders are starting to catch up a little bit. The supply chain issues across the country that are impeding them from literally getting doors and windows and building materials to actually do what they need to do. They are slowly starting to recede. So inventory should get a little better in the next six months.
Next I want to talk about migration. There is a great migration that’s been happening in this country over the past couple years. It’s no secret with COVID crime, higher taxes, a higher cost of living and worse living conditions. In a lot of the more industrialized and established parts of this country, people are flocking to the Southern states to find a new life and Myrtle beach is no stranger to this.
Myrtle beach has seen the biggest influx of people that it has ever in its existence. Mainly with retirees coming from the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast states. This migration has driven higher demand for real estate in the Myrtle beach area and has driven prices higher. So what’s gonna happen with this migration in the next six months. I don’t see it changing at all. None of the factors that are are driving it are going to change it at least in the short term. So it’s gonna continue to drive demand in the area.
Next up on the list of factors affecting the Myrtle beach real estate market, the economy. So how is the economy? So how is the economy?
(A few moments later )
Things are not hot with the economy. There’s a possible recession coming. Inflation is through the roof, and this is driving interest rates higher. Now, if you’re buying a home and you’re borrowing from a bank to do it clearly, this means that you’re gonna pay more for the same home that you were gonna buy anyway, but let’s add some perspective to this. Recently rates were as low as the high 2% range, and that’s pretty darn low. Really. If your interest rate is anywhere below 6%, that’s still a really good rate to buy a home. And again, to add some perspective to that interest rates, haven’t hit 7% since March, 2002, and rates were double digits from November, 1978 to November, 1990, peaking above 18% in October, 1981. And no one, no one is predicting that that’s gonna happen this time around. So what’s gonna happen with interest rates and the economy over the next six months?
Now nobody knows for sure, but the fed has said that they will raise interest rates. They already have taken action to do that. Rates have jumped up some, and they have indicated that they are going to raise rates further. Now, will it get past six or 7% that threshold where it starts to impede home ownership? Will it hit 18% like it did in October, 1981? I seriously doubt that that’s going to happen. So in short, rising interest rates will depress the real estate market in Myrtle beach over the next six months.
And the last factor that we’re gonna talk about a different migration: people working from home. So because of COVID companies and workers have discovered that in a lot of cases, working from home is not only far more efficient, but more cost effective than having to make the drive to the office. Thanks to modern technology being where it is.
This has enabled legions of workers to work from that spare bedroom in their house. When they have been in the office downtown this in conjunction with the living conditions in some cities and states in this country has driven high skilled workers with the ability to work from anywhere that they choose to move from said states to places like Myrtle beach, South Carolina. (We’re looking at you California!). The point is if you can work from anywhere in your bedroom, it really doesn’t matter where it is. Thanks to the wonders of the internet. Make that bedroom be in a really nice place. This has affected Myrtle beach specifically because while normally we would see a huge influx of retirees. We’re seeing that same influx of retirees and a smaller percentage of younger people that are moving to the beach and taking advantage of everything that there is here to take advantage of to an extent.
This has increased demand for homes in the area, and it has affected the price of Myrtle beach real estate. So what’s gonna change with this in the next six months. I don’t see anything changing with this in the next six months, the factors that are driving it are still gonna be there. There are still going to be mobile young professionals that can work from home and who do want to take advantage of living in a very low priced coastal town on the east coast as compared to where they’re coming from. So that’s gonna continue. So finally, in summary, what’s gonna happen with the Myrtle beach real estate market over the next six months. As far as the Myrtle beach area, it is a great place to live. It’s a great place to retire to. It’s a great place to work. That’s not gonna change over the next six months, as far as our inventory of homes to sell our actual supply of homes to sell that should get a little better over the next six months, as far as the great migration to the south, that should hold steady over the next six months.
The reasons that it is happening, those aren’t changing in the short run, as far as the economy. And as far as interest rates, higher interest rates will suppress a certain percentage of home ownership over the next six months. I don’t predict that it’s going to be huge though. As far teleworkers moving to Myrtle beach and enjoying the area, the things that are driving, that those aren’t changing. So those teleworkers, they’re still moving here considering that of the five things that we talked about driving the Myrtle beach real estate market, there’s really only one that’s changing and that’s the economy. It’s the interest rates that are going to depress the market here in Myrtle beach a little bit. I predict that demand is going to be high for real estate over the next six months, I predict that the prices are going to continue to rise, but I predict that they’re going to rise at a slower rate, mainly because of the interest rates depressing demand. If you’re looking at buying real estate here in Myrtle beach, I hope that this has helped inform you. This video is the first in a series. We’re gonna be redoing this every six months. So you’ve got fresh information to go off of. I hope you have an awesome day and remember whether you are buying or selling, go mango to learn more about Myrtle beach and the Myrtle beach real estate market. Check this out.
TERRIBLE & TRUE: Myrtle Beach Homebuyer’s Story!!
What follows is the true story of how a $5 credit card bill made. One couple lose everything while buying a home and what you can learn from it.
My name is Lance MacMillan. I am a licensed realtor serving the Myrtle beach area. And I would like to introduce you to the story of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Mr. And Mrs. Jones are clients of mine. And this story from them goes all the way back to when they were younger. The first time that they tried to buy a house, I was not a party to that transaction. They want me to tell this story because one they’re over it by now, they can actually laugh about it, but two, it could actually helps somebody who’s going through the process, not make the same mistakes that they made. Obviously I’m changing names and details of the story to protect the identity of the people involved and other parties, but beneath all of that, this story is true. This happened.
So we’re gonna start out with Mr. And Mrs. Jones as a young couple, they’ve saved money, they’ve done all the right things and they wanna get a first home for themselves. They like the country lifestyle. So they wanna get some land out off of the main drag. And they’re gonna get a modular home set up on it. For those of you familiar, a modular home is a home that’s actually built in a factory. It’s not built on site. Once it’s built it is moved onto the site and set up on a permanent foundation. So how the process works is you get together with the modular home people and you tell them what you want in it. You give them all the specs and everything. They build it. Then they haul it out to the site and they set it up on a permanent foundation. The permanent foundation consists of cement piers, steel underpinning, and steel straps, anchoring it to the ground.
They bolt the entire home together and then they break it in on the bottom and it ain’t going nowhere. So how their financing was supposed to work is they had gone out and bought land almost two years before they started looking for a home. They owned the land free and clear. The land itself was the asset that they were going to use to secure the loan. And it served as their down payment on their home. And as far as the financial city situation goes, they had great credit. Uh, they were assessed as a low risk by the mortgage company. They had money in the bank for reserves in case something crazy happened. So the loan that they were approved for basically was a really good loan. Their debt ratio turned out to not be bad at all because they were getting a decent interest rate on the home because they were, again, they were a good credit risk.
They were a low risk borrower. And again, they had some extra money in the bank just in case they needed it for anything that came outta left field. So they’re approved. Now, the bank tells them two things. Number one, and this is important. Don’t spend any money on anything. They don’t want any extra credit lines opened. They want them to keep that money in their bank, just in case something crazy happens. That way the entire process goes smoothly. And number two, and this one, you know, obviously is just as important. If not more important, keep up on your bills. Don’t let anything fall behind because at the end, they’re gonna do another credit check to make sure everything is still okay, that you didn’t go out behind somebody’s back and borrow $10 billion. That kind of thing. So with their good credit, their good loan and their rainy day fund.
They went to the modular home people and they started to pick out a house. They picked out the features that they wanted the colors, everything on the inside, and they signed contracts. So the modular home people with the paper signed, they get to work, they start building the home, they get everything straight and then they get it pulled out onto the land to get it set up. They get it set up on cement PI. They unbolt the axles. There are steel straps about this thick, and there’s probably a dozen and a half of those things underneath that home, pinning it to the ground. They taken a settling torch and they cut the tow inches off of both chunks of the house. They take brick underpinning and they underpin the entire thing with really nice masonry on the sides to make it look nice. The point is that house isn’t going anywhere unless an E five tornado drops right down out of the sky.
On top of it, it is going nowhere. So in the process of finishing, setting the home up, the hot tub, people come out, hot tub, people, nobody ever said anything about a hot tub. So yeah, there’s a hot tub involved. Mr. And Mrs. Jones had gone out on the side and they had bought a big old hot tub. They were gonna get it. Enclosed in this really nice gazebo. It was gonna be screened in, it was all gonna be built permanently right there on site. And there was gonna be like a deck and a walkway that went to it from the home. So that’s why the hot tub guy had come out, cuz he needed to see where they were gonna build it. Remember the rainy day fund, there’s their rainy day fund. They don’t have that in the bank anymore. Now did this technically affect the loan?
No, they did not borrow any money for this. They paid cash. It was their rainy day fund. So now the home is set up. The gazebo is there. The hot tub is there. Everything’s getting finished. Things built. All the little touches are being added to the home. So when you’re getting a home built, which is pretty much what these guys are doing, it’s just coming from a factory instead of a big pile of lumber sitting on the side of your land. What they do is at the very end, they’ll do another credit check just to make sure nothing changed. They wanna make sure that you can keep up on your bills. They wanna make sure that you didn’t go out and borrow a billion dollars because then your bills are all messed up and now you can’t afford your home. So they do their credit check, their final credit check we’re right at the finish line, something changed and it’s not good throughout the entire process from start to finish, they had all their ducks in a row.
Things got chaotic when they were moving, they missed one bill. It was a finger hut account and they owed $5 a month on it. And they missed the payment that missed payment, tanked their credit score by 90 points. Now all of a sudden they’re a high risk borrower when they were a low risk borrower. It doesn’t matter whether it’s innocent, doesn’t matter whether it was only five bucks, it still happened. And the credit score is the credit score. And now because they’re a high risk borrower, the bank is asking for more of a down payment and the interest rate went up, which means that their debt ratio climbed up over the allowable limit. The modular home dealer did everything they could to help considering that they had six figures worth of liability sitting on someone else’s land. And it was permanently attached to the dirt, but what could they do?
They needed more of a down payment, but they spent it. It was in their backyard already. They couldn’t go borrow the down payment because that’s not how that works. And even if it did, it would add to their debt ratio because now they have another bill that they have to pay for. And they still had the problem of the debt ratio. Their debt ratio was too high. Now, if they had money in the bank and that rainy day fund, they could have bought the interest rate down by buying points and creeped right back in on their debt ratio, underneath the allowable limit. But then they wouldn’t have the money for the down payment and they didn’t have either one. So they couldn’t solve either problem. Even if they did have the money, they could solve one, but not at the other. Could they turn back in the hot tub and all the lumber?
No, it was already delivered. Everything was already built. Carpenters, everybody, the electricians, they all needed to get paid. There’s no rewinding that one. So in the end, they’re sitting here with a paid piece of land. There’s a house sitting on the land. That’s ready to get moved into a deck, a walkway and a hot tub already built. And they don’t have a loan for it. The modular home people did everything humanly possible to try to find them another loan again, because they have six figures of liability just sitting there out on somebody else’s land and they don’t know what to do. So yeah, they want this transaction to happen. And so do the Joneses. They ask family if they have any money because the bank is willing to let family money, enter the situation, just to get this done for them. They can’t find any money.
So how does it all end? The modular home dealer? They had recoup their losses. They had no other choice. They had to put a lien on the land. So now the Joneses, they owe the modular home dealer and they have no way to pay it with no way to pay the debt. In the end, the Joneses had to sign their land over to the modular home dealer to satisfy that lean that they put on them. The modular home dealer did not wanna do it, but they had to otherwise they were gonna lose hard. There’s no taking that home back once it’s set up the modular home dealer ended up having to sell the place to a totally different person, a totally different couple ended up moving into Mr and Mrs. Jones’s place all because they made those two mistakes. The first of which, if you got a rainy day fund, keep it, don’t spend it.
Number two, pay your bills. If you’re going through a mortgage transaction, pay your bills. Don’t let your stuff go behind. They’ll check again. So the moral of the story here is communication. All of this could have been bypassed if they would have just told somebody that they were gonna go out and buy that deck and the walkway and the gazebo and the hot tub. Even with that $5 bill from finger hut going late, they probably could have sneaked through. They would had to pay through the nose, but they could have still done it if they had that money in their pocket. So for me and the Joneses, remember whether you’re buying or selling, go mango. And remember if you got any questions, just ask.
FUNKY Things About Living In Myrtle Beach [4 1/2 Oddities!]
Today, we’re gonna discuss four and a half funky things about living in Myrtle beach.
Hi, my name is Lance MacMillan with mango homes powered by Keller Williams, Myrtle beach. I am a licensed realtor serving the Myrtle beach area. And today we’re gonna be talking about four funky things that you will living in Myrtle beach. And one thing that’s kind of funky that I find the most interesting of all. I just, I don’t get it. Uh, maybe you can help me with it. We’re gonna go over that one at the very end. The first thing that we’re gonna talk about is how do you define Myrtle beach? What is Myrtle beach? If you’re researching real estate in Myrtle beach and you don’t live here, you’re gonna see all kinds of names of places that aren’t Myrtle beach yet show up in your listings. And what’s more confusing than that is. If you look at a map, Myrtle beach stretches about 40 miles yet the population is only supposed to be 30,000 people and everybody lives here doesn’t make any sense.
Here’s the deal with that? Myrtle beach proper only refers to one tiny little bit of Myrtle beach, which is basically the downtown area where all the tourists play. And there are about a dozen incorporated towns stretching from the North Carolina border all the way down to Winyah bay, which are loosely referred to as Myrtle beach yet are not named Myrtle beach. Now the towns here are not like they are up north up north. You started out with a central town about 500 years ago. And from that central town spraying all the other towns, which is why you have a place like Yorkshire, and then you’ll have east Yorkshire and then you’ll have Northeast Yorkshire and then you’ll have south. You get the idea down here, starting at the North Carolina line, you will find little river cherry Grove, north Myrtle beach, Atlantic beach, Briarcliffe acres, downtown Myrtle beach, Socastee, Surfside beach, garden, city beach, Murrell’s inlet, Litchfield beach, and Pawley’s island.
If you see real estate listings with those names, that’s pretty much Myrtle beach. There are four other outlying areas, which are pretty much associated with Myrtle beach, but they’re not exactly Myrtle beach. And those areas and these areas are further out. It’s Loris, longs, Conway, and Aynor, the outlying areas of Myrtle beach that I just named generally have more of a free, down home lifestyle if you’re into that. But by no means, is that exclusive to those areas. Every town in Myrtle beach has its own distinct flavor and its own distinct price point and lifestyle. But even inside of those neighborhoods, you’ll find a lot of variety, even in a place like polys island, where a lot of people would say, it’s crazy expensive. You can still find affordable places to live before we segue into the next point. If you like this video and you like the content and you’re enjoying it, you’re learning something from it.
Please leave a comment below and like, and subscribe to the channel. It helps the channel spread. There’s a lot of people who could see this content and benefit from it. If you do that. So for me to you, thank you for doing that. The second funky thing that you’ll see about living in Myrtle beach, especially if you’re shopping for real online is the Carolina room. The Carolina room is a four season sunroom that functionally serves as an outdoor living room for you and your family. And they’re really popular here at the beach. Now, some people will refer to a three season room as a Carolina room, but let me explain the difference between a three season room and a four season room. And then you’ll see how that’s not exactly accurate. A three season room is a room that you can live in three seasons out of the year.
The odd season being summer that’s because a three season room is called a three season room because it doesn’t have air conditioning. And in South Carolina, especially in Myrtle beach, there’s no way you’re hanging out outside in summer in a enclosed area. It’s, you’re asking for death. If you’re doing that now, a four season room and all season room that has air conditioning. It’s enclosed, it’s a kind of a sun room, but it’s also part of your home. And because it’s heated and cooled and it has square footage and it’s enclosed along with your home, it counts towards the size of your house. So having a Carolina room, a four season room versus a three season room actually adds value to the price of your home. That’s because nothing boosts the value of a home more than adding square footage to it. But it has to be heated and cooled square footage for it to count.
So pro tip, if you’re buying an older home and you’re rehabbing it and it doesn’t have a Carolina room, and you’ve got a little bit of land that comes with the home at Carolina room, you’ll pay money up front, but it will add to the value of your home. And when you turn around and sell it, you’ll get your money back. There are a number of local companies who will help you do this Carolina home exteriors in Merle’s inlets specializes in this. You can find them online. They offer online quotes. It’s a really good company. They are not a sponsor of this video. That’s a free endorsement. They’re just awesome. The second thing that I want to talk about here in Myrtle beach, that’s kind of funky about living here are living garages. Now. I honestly don’t know what name to give a living garage other than a living garage, but you’ll see what I mean.
When I explain this kind of goes hand in hand with the Carolina room and that the weather here is really nice most of the time. And you can spend a lot of time outdoors, couple that with the fact that there are almost no, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a basement here in Myrtle beach. You couldn’t dig one. You drowned by the time you got done with it because the water table is so high. Add all that together. And what do you get? You get a garage that functions basically as a basement does up north. Think about it. You wanna put in a pool table or a really nice TV and then put up all your Yankees stuff. So you can watch the Yankees games or dolphins games or whatever the case may be, but you don’t have a basement. Your garage can serve that function. There’s your man cave. There’s your she shed. And all you gotta do is go to home Depot and get a little outdoor shed to put your lawn mower in your rake and all that kind of stuff.
These are so popular down here that you’ll see some places that have removed garage door and replace it with a giant frame that has a screen and maybe even a screen door attached to it. Presto Chango! Now everybody has a place to go watch the game on Sunday. The last funky thing about living in Myrtle beach that we’re gonna talk about are raised homes that aren’t on the beach. So you’re sitting on the internet and you’re looking at nice places in Myrtle beach that you might wanna buy. And you come across one that’s raised on stilts, but it’s nowhere near the beach, huh?
I promise you. There is a very, very good reason for that raised homes are raised to mitigate a flooding rate risk. Why is there a flooding risk? If you’re not at the beach, there are two major waterways that cut Myrtle beach off from the rest of South Carolina, they merge and then dump into w bay down between polys island and Georgetown. These two waterways are called the Waccamaw river and the intercoastal waterway. Hurricanes tend to not directly hit Myrtle beach. Most of the time they’ll end up hitting North Carolina. And that’s good because it spares us from a hurricane strike, right? Well there’s side effects from that, all that water dumps into North Carolina and it runs downhill and comes right here. In some cases, depending on how the hurricane hits, the flooding can be worse on the river than it is on the beach. That’s why you see a lot of these homes that aren’t necessarily directly on the beach up on stilts.
Those guys are worried about flooding from one of the rivers. If you wanna learn more about flooding, I have the mother of all playlists about flooding here on my YouTube channel. If you look it up, there’s gonna be five videos in there. They’ll teach you everything you need to know along with whether the home that you’re looking at is in a flood zone or not, not just for obvious reasons, but because if you do live in a flood zone, you will be required to buy flood insurance. And nobody wants that ugly surprise. After for they sign a contract to buy a house. Okay. Now, to our last item that I referred to in the beginning of the video, it’s kind of funky. I just don’t understand it. I mean, well, you’ll see, we get a lot of people moving down here from up north and that’s awesome because they bring things with them. Like pizza. There are a number of New York worthy pizza places down here in Myrtle beach near me. I would say, Genos your mileage may vary. If you were to ask me about a good Italian bakery, everybody in Myrtle beach would say Toffino’s.
Incredible place. If you’re from the south and you can’t pronounce half the things on the menu at that bakery, you know, it’s authentic and we have Turkish food and we have German food and we have amazing five star steak red. You can get fondue, Polish, middle Eastern Brazilian in like four different places. But you know what? I’ll be darned if we don’t have a real honest to God Jewish deli, I could be mistaken, but I know every single neighborhood from North Carolina all the way down to Georgetown and I’ll be darn if I’ve ever seen it and darn it, that ain’t right. So here’s where you can help me. If you know of a good deli somewhere in Myrtle beach, please leave it in the comments. You’ll be helping me. And you’ll be helping every other person that watches this video. So do the world of service. Please find us a good deli here in Myrtle beach.
That was four and a half funky things about living here at Myrtle beach. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it, give a thumbs up. If you wanna see more subscribe to the channel again, the more that you subscribe and interact on the channel, the more that it spreads, the more that it spreads, the more people can enjoy the content. Thank you for your time. And remember whether you’re buying or selling go mango. If you like that, maybe you’re like these videos right here on the screen. They’re here. I just can’t see ’em they’re they’re here.
PENTHOUSE Suite in Grande Dunes Costs WHAT?? | Myrtle Beach Real Estate
Today, you’re gonna get to take a tour of one of the nicest condos in all of Myrtle beach, and we’re gonna meet some new guests!
Hi, my name is Lance MacMillan with Mango Homes, powered by Keller Williams Myrtle Beach. I am a Realtor serving the greater Myrtle beach area. And today I’d like to introduce you to a couple of actual buyers that I’m house hunting for. Hey, how you doing? We’re gonna be on TV. It’s not TV. It’s YouTube. This is Rob and Linda, Rob and Linda live up north their house, hunting down here in Myrtle beach. They’re gonna move out here and retire and I’m trying to help. ’em find a really nice place. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Really nice. Well, that’s good because I have a really nice place to show you and that is an understatement. I wanna do things a little different though. I wanna play a game to make things fun for you. So what I want you guys to do is take this tour with me.
And I want you to guess at the very end of the video, how much it’s worth after you’ve seen everything and you’ve seen the condo and you’ve seen everything that it comes with. If you guess, without going over you win. Does that sound like a deal? You got it. Oh, you are gonna lose shots fired. All right. So I guess it’s game on. Let me tell you about the grand dunes community. In general, the grand dunes community is the largest luxury community in all of Myrtle beach. It consists of a number of smaller neighborhoods that each have their own particular flavor and style and price point. It stretches from the intercoastal waterway all the way to the Atlantic, and it is the definition of exclusivity. It has private beach access and you can keep a boat. Well, let me tell you the grand dunes features the ocean club.
It’s a private beach club. It’s within walking distance of your actual unit. It has its own private pool jacuzzi. It has private beach access. Linda, you also have the marina on the intercoastal waterway, and yes, you can keep a boat there. Rob, you have two 18 hole golf courses. You have tennis bars and restaurants, all of it, exclusive, all of it, private and all of it for people who have homes and membership in the grand dunes. Oh my gosh, this is gonna be nice. Where’s it at though? This exact condo is in a place called Vista Del Mar Vista Del Mar is its own distinct neighborhood. It’s gated off from the rest of grand dunes. And it’s right on the beach Vista Del Mar consists two condo towers. The condo we’re talking about is in the penthouse of the south tower. Ah, 2 million, oh, at least hold up. You haven’t seen the unit yet. This last Tuesday, the listing agent, her name is Victoria. She was nice enough to take me on a tour place and let me do some filming. So what follows are the shots that we took that morning, as well as some of her listing photos, it was a really gray and blustery morning and it was right at sunrise, but it’s really cool because it helped a highlight and D differentiate the color and life inside of the unit. If you guys are ready, let’s take a tour.
This condo is a three bedroom, three and a half bath unit in the penthouse suite of the south tower. It is twenty nine hundred and twenty seven square feet. The kitchen features stainless appliances as well as granite countertops and a breakfast bar. Your main living area features a, a pool table as well as a fireplace.
Robbie, I need this in my life. Okay.
There are two wraparound balconies, one in the beach side, and one on the backside. And you can actually get sunrise and sunset views from the same unit. Each bedroom features its own walk-in closet, as well as its own full bath. The extra half bath is in the hallway. That’s basically the powder room. This whole unit is like new. It’s barely been lifted. So for Rob and Linda and every be out there in YouTube land, what do you think so far? Yeah, I know. It’s amazing. It’s absolutely just, wow. So let me get into the taxes and the HOA.
Oh my God! Up here. Don’t talk to me about taxes. Hold up. I know you guys get beat up on taxes a lot up there. South Carolina and Myrtle beach are not like at taxes on this unit are 1197 per month. The HOA is 18, 10 per month. And that includes everything for your unit that you can imagine as well as all of the grand dunes amenities themselves. That’s all our taxes are more than that. Our house was built when Eisenhower was president. I know y’all are used to paying a lot up north, but it’s not the same here. So with everything that we’ve talked about, the grand dunes itself, the condo, the location, all of the amenities that you have access to, what’s it worth 2 million, 2.5 million. I can’t speak for you guys out in YouTube land, but Rob and Linda, you both lose this. Condo comes just under $1.4 million. It is is listed right now for 1.399. And that’s early March, 2022.
I what for folks out there in YouTube land that don’t get it. Rob and Linda come from a really expensive part of the country where they’re from up north, this same condo. In fact, I went and I looked up on my own website. I tried to find a comparable condo up there in Northern New Jersey, right in Asbury park. You can get a, almost a brand new condo, almost the same size as this. And it’s not even a penthouse and it comes into three and a half million dollars. So you know where they’re coming from. So hope you guys were entertained out there on YouTube land. I hope you learned something about the Myrtle beach real estate market and remember whether you’re buying or selling. Go mango. Thank you guys. Have a good day. Hey, if you like that, tap this little bird here on the screen and look at this video he made. This kid’s good. He makes good videos.