Avoid The Most Common Mistakes When Selling Your Home or Land

Here are the most common mistakes Carolina Farms & Estates see people making when selling their property.

Your Land or Home You Are Selling Is Priced Too High

This will certainly turn buyers off, have you frustrated, and you may have to make several contingencies or offer incentives in order to get buyers even interested in making an offer. While you may feel your home or land is special, asking more than the fair market value will usually get you nowhere. The property will sit on the market longer than necessary and will soon get a stigma as if "something must be wrong with it". The simple fact is that there is nothing wrong with the property or the marketing, it is simply priced too high. Starting off with a fair market price is always the best way to hit the market. Buyers do not mind paying for property that is priced fairly. 

Your Property Is In Bad Condition

While your home in its current condition may work for you and your family, if there are obvious repairs that need to be made, or it is terribly outdated, fixing these problems will not only make it easier to market your home, but will also increase its value. In most cases this increase will be considerably greater than the money you put into making the changes. If your land needs a "shave and a hair-cut", the time to do it is before you put it on the market for sale. Make sure the buyers can walk or drive the property to see the full potential it has to offer.

Your Land or Home Is Being Marketed Incorrectly and You are Possibly Using the Wrong Agent

When selling your land or home, there are no guarantees that the ultimate buyer will simply walk through the front door or happen-across your land while out for a walk. In many cases you will have to bring your land or home to the buyer. Effective marketing will help ensure that your property receives maximum exposure to attract a ready, willing, and able buyer in the shortest period of time. Tim Helline and Kyle Hoover with Carolina Farms & Estates specializes in land sales and the sale of homes with land. Stacy George and Sarah Helline specialize in typical home sales- whether new or previously owned. We have years of experience in sales, marketing and negotiating. It is extremely important when selling your home or land to find an agent that specializes in what you are selling. You would not go to a brain surgeon to have a pace-maker put in. Both are very qualified physicians, but specialize in different ares. The same goes for Real Estate agents.

By adhering to the advice in these simple tips, you can avoid the biggest mistakes property owners make when selling their properties, and the process will be smoother and more profitable in the long run.

If you are thinking of selling your land or home, give Carolina Farms and Estates a call at 803-324-0803. We will connect you with the correct agent that specializes in the property that you are trying to sell. Our agents will guide you in the pricing of your property, and will market the property to the correct buyers.

 I can live for two months on a good compliment - Mark Twain

As I sit at my desk, day in and day out, I can hear the commotion of phones ringing, clients stopping in, printers printing and people talking. Oh, and at our office, an occasional yelp from an excited dog!

Several calls this week made me sit back and reflect on why we do what we do -  and that being we go the extra mile for the industry, community and our peers.

One call came in from another agent from a different firm. He said something like this - "Tim, I have a client looking for land and I have no idea what I am doing. You guys are the experts in this area - can I refer my client to you and have you help him find what he needs." 

A buyers agent from another company had a client that put a tract of land we had listed under contract. One of the terms of the contract was that the property had to perk. (Our company always handles the perk for our buyers) The agent was unsure of how to get a property perked and had the buyer take responsibility for it. The buyer got frustrated with the process. The agent called and asked if we could help her client get the perk test done. Kyle Hoover from our office was more than willing to help.

An appraiser called today and asked Tim for his opinion on a tract of land that he needed to appraise for an estate. He calculated out the price of the land at $5000/acre. He asked a local agent that he knew what his opinion was. It differed by A LOT. He said, "I figured I just needed to call the land guru and get your opinion.

We work hard around here at Carolina Farms and Estates. Not only do we work hard for our clients to make sure they get the best price for their land or home, we also work hard for the industry to make sure that all clients are taken care of - whether they are ours or not.

Feel free to call us at any time and ask questions regarding selling or buying land - It's what we do and we love doing it! 

Sometimes pictures just don't show the whole picture! Occasionally we list a property that is a "must see" because the pictures just do not do it justice.

This beautiful log home at 980 N. Shiloh Rd on 28 acres of land is just that case. The video shows the vast amount of open ground surrounding the property, and also shows the layout of the outdoor entertainment area with the pool, pool house, open-air bar, outdoor fireplace, fire pit, patios and decks.

As the new housing market continues to recover, the timber tracts in South Carolina are of vital importance. Whether you own a family timber tract of land, are looking to invest in a timber tract or buy a timber tract of land for recreational use, it is important to know how to care for timber land.

Click on the link below to read the booklet "A Landowner's Guide to Forestry" provided by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee of the South Carolina Forestry Association.

A Landowner's Guide for Forestry

If you are looking for a timber tract of land to purchase as an investment, recreation land or to build your private home, give us a call to talk about tracts of timber that are for sale in the South Carolina and North Carolina area.

-Read this recent article by Chris Isidore regarding the housing recovery

-Builders say housing is back

Is the housing recovery for real? It looks that way, as a key measure of home builder confidence crossed a major threshold Monday.

The National Association of Home Builders' index hit 52 in June, marking the first time it has been above 50 in seven years. A reading above 50 indicates that more builders say sales conditions are good rather than poor. The index has been posting gains for the last year, but those moves only indicated that builders thought the market was less bad than it had been. 

"It's further confirmation of what we've felt for six months at least -- that the housing market is back and will continue to improve," said David Crowe, chief economist for the trade group.

June is typically a month when builders report slower activity, after the spring buying season peaks. But this year they're reporting better traffic levels and better sales conditions than they did in May.

The NAHB survey found that 41% of builders said current conditions are positive, almost double the percentage who said they were poor. A year ago, only 15% said conditions are good, while three times as many said it was a poor environment.  (Read More)

I do it every year. I make the resolution to clean out the closets, drawers, attic, garage, shed... In theory, it sounds easy. Heck, I even think I can get to unpacking some of those sealed boxes from our move -- 7 YEARS AGO. One thing stays consistant - every year I make Continue reading ...

Kyle Hoover joins Carolina Farms & Estates

We're growing! If you get a chance, please welcome Kyle Hoover to the world of real estate. We are very excited and pleased to have Kyle, and all his knowledge about dirt, to be joining Carolina Farms & Estates. Kyle was previously working for SC DHEC in York County specializing in waste water management. He is a bundle of knowledge about land, soils, and the whole York County market.

If you asked me a few months back what Pinterest was, I am not sure I would have had an answer for you. Social networking sites are one of the fastest growing online sites today, and it is easy to see why. They can be very addictive. Pinterest is an Continue reading ...

A big thanks to my “Secretary” (lol) for posting on my Blog today while I am out of the office all day digging perc test holes on a 108 acre tract of land. –Tim First, let’s get something straight! I am not Tim’s “Secretary”. I like to think of myself as his Boss – or better known as his wife. I’m not quite sure how I entered into the position of working for (whatever) Tim, but my life just kind of morphed into a full time business partner. Second, I want to thank Tim for letting me “guest post” today. For the past 3 years, Tim and I have sat directly across from each other at a large dining room table -our desk. From the large number of comments we here, we know this work environment would not be attractive to every married couple Continue reading ...

Trying to teach an old dog a new trick! Ok, I feel like I am sending my first child to school, or something very close to that. Learning the new ways that folks like to shop for things they have an interest in can, at times, be a struggle for old dirt heads like myself. I learned a long time ago that you can’t beat mother nature, and you will lose 99% of the time at “still doing things the old way” to get by in business and surviving for tomorrow. I was about a young 22 years old Continue reading ...