Amenities include boating, tennis, & swimming pool plus just minutes from the Atlantic Ocean.

Hidden Lakes has a total of 243 properties.  Five of them are for sale at this writing: from $312,000 with 2264 square feet to $533,500 with 3035 square feet.

Hidden Lakes is situated in the middle between 2 outstanding shopping centers -- Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre and Sea...

Get grants to improve your home's energy efficiency.

There is a large push nationally to make homes more energy efficient instead of building additional power plants to handle the growing demand for energy. There are some interesting new programs being offered to assist home owners in retrofitting their home. In South Carolina, 

SCE&G is providing grants to home owners that improve their energy efficiency by 20% or more. These grants (or rebates as some call them) can total up to $2500. If you are in Charleston County, Charleston Wise, a government funded company, is handing out grants up to $1500. neither of these programs require the money to be repaid. You will also qualify for a $...

What are the best "secret" ways to save money when buying real estate? Here are the top three that most real estate people won't or don't tell you:

1. SC Safe Home Discounts

When you buy or own a home in South Carolina, it may be eligible for a Safe Home Discount on home owner's insurance. Put in place by a little know SC Law, the 2007 Ominibus Insurance Act, these discounts reward people that own homes that meet certain safety standards and require most insurance companies to pass those savings on to you. How do you know if your home is eligible? You need to get a Wind Mitigation inspection (available for $150 from B Sure Inspections) and then turn in the inspection form to your insura...

Is any day of the week better than another to put your home on the market?

Friday

A new study, as reported by Inman news, says that there is. If you list you home and put it in your local MLS on Friday, your home statistically should be shown more than homes put on the market on any other day. Why would that be?

It may have something to do with people preparing to look at homes over the weekend. If they get a list of available homes, they may look at the ones most currently listed and try to go to them first. There is a since of urgency trying to get to the good deals before others can get there. The same holds for people automatically alerted to new listings that meet their criteria t...

The AgentOwned Realty Company

 by Boyd Loadholt, President AgentOwned Realty

 

A Brief Description of the Business Model 04-01-09.doc

1        The Program was created by Boyd and Liz Loadholt and the first office opened in 1992 in Charleston, SC,

2        The business model is similar to that of a professional practice,

3        Other ideas for the business model came from various places including New Zealand and a west coast real estate company,

4        All of the dividend stock of the Company is owned by the Sales Associates identified as Agent-Owners,

5        Agent-Owners approve whether to admit any new Sales Associate to the Company,

6        The Company has only two compe...

Not your traditional real estate company

In fact, AgentOwned does not even fall in the same category.  Why?

From our launch in 1992,  we have always seen things differently. Company founders, Liz & Boyd Loadholt,  knew there was a better way to approach the industry after running traditional companies for years.

AgentOwned is different

100% of the real estate division is owned by the sales associates or "Agent-Owners" The Agent-Owners employ the AgentOwned Service Company to manage their firm for them The real estate division is run on a cost basis and with the Service Company being responsible for any losses No more is collected from real estate commissions than what is necessar...

SC Safe Homes Program Means Insurance Discounts and Rebates to You

Want to Save up to 25% on Your HomeOwner’s Insurance? 

Who wouldn’t? There is an Insurance law that requires insurance companies to give discounts to homes that meet its criteria. It also requires the insurance company to reimburse you for what you have overpaid from the time the act was instated until now.

Rebate Check to You! If you have had the same insurance policy from 2008 until now, your insurance company has to write you a refund check for the amount you overpaid. The SC Omnibus Act of 2008 outlines put the new law into effect. Find out more about it at AgentOwned.com/SC-Safe-Homes-Program.html. ...

The latest version of the AgentOwned Realty Information Booklet is out!

To view it online, Click Here.
To get a downloadable PDF sent to your email, go to our information page here.

Is this a good time to purchase home?  See what most Americans think by clicking here

 

You probably will not be surprised, but the surveys are interesting.

This post was originally posted on  Mama Liz Blog.

Have you heard of the SC Safe Home Act?  Well, I feel like I have been hiding in a closet somewhere, because I had not heard of it until last week.

If your home meets certain criteria, you are eligible for up to 25% reduction on your homeowners insurance. I should mention here that not all insurance companies give discounts for this.  Allstate Wally Burbage & Assoc. does .

Also, in some cases, if your home does not meet the criteria, the state of SC will give, yes that is give, you a grant to bring the home up to the standard criteria for a SC Safe Home.

Jeff Conklin is a certified SC Safe Home Inspector in the Charleston SC area.

...

This article originally posted at AutoInsuranceMtPleasant.com

No matter the time of year, renters should always ask themselves this simple question: If your apartment suffers severe damage due to a storm, burns down, or is burglarized, would you have money to replace your personal belongings?

Most renters don’t realize their landlord’s insurance covers only the building structure and not tenants’ possessions. Well, for about the price of a large pizza per month, you can protect all of your valuables. Renters insurance is available to protect personal belongings from fire, theft, vandalism, and damage from faulty plumbing.

Renters insurance also can cover more than personal belongings. ...

After extensively researching all the available options for our Agent-Owners' websites, we have added another level to the websites we offer. Our wordpress OnlineAOR.com platform and sites will remain intact, with one significant advancement, and we now are offering a premium website with a fully integrated IDX search on the Myrsol platform.

Our OnlineAOR.com sites are still available to every Agent-Owner at  No Charge, with no limits to the number of sites they build on the platform. The only difference is that we now are going to have a Myrsol framed MLS IDX property search rather than the one that we were building in house. Even though we are outsourcing this framed IDX Myrsol, the On...

South Carolina Association of Realtors 2010 Year in Review

The South Carolina Association of Realtors 2010 Year in Review synopsis of real estate in the past year has been released. Fill in the form below and have the PDF emailed to you now!

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 What is the American attitude about home ownership today?

According to a NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® survey of 3,793 adults conducted by Harris Interactive and released in January 2011, home owners and renters agree that home ownership benefits individuals and families, strengthens our communities, and is integral to our nation’s economy.

Here are some findings from the NAR's  "American Attitudes About Home Ownership" survey:

 

 

 

The vast majority of both home owners and renters say that owning a home is a smart decision over the long term. Even in today’s challenging economy, 95% of owners and 72% of renters believe that over a period of several years, it makes more se...

It seems that the housing market is finally showing signs of a recovery. We are not suggesting that it will come roaring back and we will see 2006 numbers again. However, the National Association

of Realtors released their December Existing Home Sales Report yesterday. The report showed a 12.3% increase in closed transactions over the month before. Earlier in the week, the Census Bureau  reported that:

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000. This is 16.7 percent above the revised November rate of 544,000.

Should we believe that real estate is starting to make a comeback? To some degree, we think yes...

With the slow down in the economy, many folks seem to be afraid of purchasing a home today.

Do you have friends telling you that the prices are still coming down, so you should wait?

Do you have friends telling you that real estate is no longer a good investment?

So, why should I buy now rather than waiting?

1) Interest rates are on the rise --

While the prices of homes may not have bottomed out, interest rates are on the rise. If you wait for the prices to go down, but the interest rate keeps going up, you are not making any progress.

Take a look at the charts here (obtained from the KCM blog). As you can see from the chart on the right, rates are on the rise --  and then you can...

When a homeowner decides they need or want to sell their home, they make the decision to hire a professional to market their home.  How does a seller go about making the decision about which agent is forthem.

Typically, a seller will consider 2 things --

1) which agent can get the most money for their home

2) which agent will charge the least amount

In my opinion, these are not the most important questions when selecting the right agent. While these are important, they should not be the only considerations.

 

There are several points that should be considered:

1) Do not select the agent based strictly on personality or a "connection"

2) You need an agent who will get results --- n...