The Market at Keowee Towne

Essential to the communities on Lake Keowee is their isolation.  When you’re in a community like The Reserve, one simply feels that they are a million miles away from the stress of the city.   The tradeoff of course is that there isn’t a McDonald’s available around the corner for quick meals.  While The Reserve does a great job of providing unique dining options within its community, occasionally one wants to make a great meal for oneself.

Fortunately, for the times when one needs to make a quick run to the grocery store, the Market at Keowee Towne is available.   The Market is located just a few minutes from The Reserve and the Cliffs, and supplies all the necessities.  From The Market’s website:

The Market at Keowee Towne features a full-service butcher, fresh fish, farm-fresh produce, a wide selection of cheese, boutique wine, beer and more. The Market at Keowee Towne also offers a selection of freshly prepared meals to go.

We consider fair trade, environmental sustainability and organic farming. You will find an abundance of foods from local farms as a testament to support of our neighbors.

The Market also hosts events such as all-you-can-eat barbecue nights and band concerts.  To learn more about The Market, visit their website at www.themarketatkeoweetowne.com.

So while Lake Keowee is certainly its own unique community, there are also exciting stores and shops waiting right around the corner.

Clemson in Full Swing

As I mentioned in a previous post, Clemson University is typically an integral piece in the lives of Lake Keowee residents.  Today marks the first day of fall classes for Clemson students, and the city is buzzing with activity and fresh faces.

One of the great events every fall is the First Friday Parade.  This parade is held every year on the Friday before the first home football game.  The parade typically features Clemson University students and members of the Clemson city and community.  The parade meanders along Highway 93 as Clemson students and residents gather along both sides of the road to partake in the festivities. It’s really a great scene as pre-school children and lifetime residents all enjoy the parade.

This year, the parade is September 5 at 6 p.m.  The parade begins near the President’s house at highway 93 and travels down to Rigg’s field.  Be sure to arrive early to grab a good seat!  More information can be found at the Clemson University website.

Want to see pictures from past First Friday Parades?  Check out the great photos on Flickr.

More Data – Home Values in Upstate South Carolina

Zillow has an outstanding blog post up discussing data on home values from Q2 of 2008.  (This is the type of blogging that every company should be doing – writing that has actionable value and provides incentives for responses and conversations.)

The bottom line?  Home values are falling – and they keep falling.  Zillow is reporting a year-to-year price decline of 9.9 percent.  This is not good.  The Zillow post really goes deep and discusses why this price drop is occurring, and what we can expect in the future.  Read it.

The Zillow post also links to Zillow’s Real Estate Market Reports, which I’d like to discuss, specifically for Greenville, S.C.  Is Greenville’s real estate marketing providing any different data?  Let’s first look at year-to-year changes in home value for Greenville.

Greenville home values – for the most part – are up for the last year.  Often times, values have increased more than three percent.  Here’s a different look at home-value appreciations:

Again, we see that in the Greenville MSA, on average, all homes increased in value 3 percent over the last year.  This is a 12 percent return compared to the national average!

While the average-value change of homes in the Upstate paints a rosy picture, let’s dig a little deeper and look at the percentage of homes that were sold for a loss during the last year.

Yes, as expected, some homes were sold for a loss from 2007 – 2008, and that number did increase to around 18 percent of all homes sold for a loss.  There is is a slightly increasing risk when investing in homes in Greenville that a loss may be realized.  However, when compared to the national average, this number of course is much more favorable in Greenville.

There is even more data available on the Zillow Real Estate Reports page for Greenville.  I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to play with the data.

While it’s humbling to see the national real-estate market fairing so poorly, it is also comforting to know that the Greenville area is still growing, and real-estate investors are seeing positive returns.

Want more info and analysis about the Greenville and Lake Keowee real estate markets?  Shoot us an email at admin at carolinalivingrealty.com – or just leave a comment!

Ask The Expert – Selling Lake Keowee Homes

This week, Sharon discusses the market for luxury homes on Lake Keowee, how long one can expect their home to be on the market, and the times of the year that buyers tend to purchase Lake Keowee homes.

How long does it typically take to sell a home on Lake Keowee?

In today’s real estate market, sellers should prepare to wait it out. The average days on market for properties listed under one million dollars is around five (5) months. For homes priced more than one million dollars, the average days on market is around 210 in 2008, up from an average of 154 days in 2007. Even though that may not sound like a long time, it is an eternity when a seller really needs to sell, and it is only an average. It is not unreasonable to expect that some homes may take a year or longer to sell. It definitely is a buyers market. Look at this comparison:

Waterfront Homes $500k – $999k:

# homes sold year-to-date 2008 = 22 (average of 3.1 homes per month sold since January); average days on market was 156

# homes for sale as of 08/08/08 = 89 (74 of those homes may not sell this year); average days on market is 151

Waterfront Homes more than $1 million:

# homes sold year-to-date 2008 = 9 (average of 1.3 homes per month sold since January); average days on market was 210

# homes for sale as of 08/08/08 = 73 (66 of those homes may not sell this year); average days on market is 167
There is a huge supply of waterfront homes on Lake Keowee. In my last blog entry I talked about the importance of sellers making their home stand out and look the absolute best that it’s ever looked before it goes on the market. And although it gets painfully tedious, the house has to look absolutely at its best every single time it’s shown.

Is there any specific time of year when homes tend to sell or not to sell?
The typical selling season on Lake Keowee is early spring through the end of the summer; that is the period when most closings take place. Most transactions close in about 45-60 days, so buyers actually start looking around the end of February or the first of March and continue to look throughout the summer. Fall sees some traffic, but mostly people who are passing through on their way to the fall color in the Asheville or Tennessee mountains. November through February is not a busy season, although many people do visit our area over the holidays as they gather with family and friends.

The Reserve resident publishes first book

Karl Lenker, a resident of The Reserve at Lake Keowee, is publishing his first novel “Final Trumpet.”  Lenker has spent much of his career seeing combat as a fighter pilot, and he draws upon these experiences in “Final Trumpet.”  The inspiration for “Final Trumpet,” an action-adventure novel, came to Lenker as he instructed park rangers in West Africa on how to use ultra-light aircraft to hunt poachers.  Lenker was exposed to disturbing scenes during this trip, and this book is his response to that experience.

Lenker was gracious enough to sign copies of his new book on July 11 for The Reserve residents.

This is just another example of the diverse group of community residents at The Reserve, and part of what makes The Reserve so special.  If you haven’t been to The Reserve personally, come find out what makes it so great!

Clemson Football

With its proximity to Lake Keowee, resident of communities on Lake Keowee often find themselves involved with activities at Clemson University.  Whether it’s attending a public debate or sporting event, there’s always something to draw Lake Keowee residents to the university.

With the calendar turning to August, nothing looms larger over Clemson than football season.  Seven Saturdays each fall, the city shuts down and its population swells as fans flock to cheer on the Clemson Tigers.  It’s really an environment unlike any other. (Check out this Flickr stream to get a feel for Clemson gamedays.)

This year, hope springs even higher, as Clemson is ranked #9 in the country by most preseason rankings.  Clemson is also picked to win the ACC conference this year, which would give the school its first BCS bowl game.

Whether or not Clemson can fulfill expectations remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain.  This football season promises to be one of the wildest rides in recent years, and Tiger Town will be full of buzz for kickoff on August 30.

U.S. housing starts up 9.1 percent in June

The Commerce Department recently announced that according to its data, U.S. housing starts and permits were up 9.1 percent for the month of June.  This is the biggest increase since January 2006.  Many pundits are asking if the real estate drought has ended and if buyers are ready to move back into the marketplace.

As my university professors always told me, we should always dig deeper into the data.  When we do this, we see that permits were up 19% in the NorthEast, and this was primarily fueled by a change in the New York City housing code that went into effect in July 2008.   This change prompted builders in New York to file and begin work in June before the code went into effect.  (Sources were reluctant to say exactly what that change includes.)

(Source: Forbes.com)

Knowing that, it’s still difficult to know exactly where the market will go in the second half of 2008.  However, here at Carolina Living Realty, we’ve had one of our busiest weeks of the year.  This certainly supports the idea that the market may be turning around in the area.

Ask the expert

We just posted our first question and answer in our Ask-the-Expert series on the Carolina Living Realty website.  This week, Sharon discussed how to effectively position your property for a sale in a down market.  She covers points that include: pricing properties effectively, hiring the best agent, creating the best image for your propert, and how to set proper expectations.

I’m posting the full-text of the article below, but be sure to check http://www.carolinalivingrealty.com/ask_the_expert.php every week for the latest updates!

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Question:  It seems like my house has been on the market forever.  I dropped the price six months ago, and it still hasn’t sold.  What gives?

Sharon: In a buyer’s market, it is critical for sellers to take on a business mindset when trying to sell their home.  There are several things to do and keep in mind in today’s market::

1.  Separate your emotional attachment to your home from your financial interest in your largest financial asset.  The right mindset will make all the difference in the world as you go through the selling process.

2.  Make a good impression.  Buyers in today’s market are picky, picky, picky — and they can afford to be.  Make sure that your home has great curb appeal and that everything (inside and out) is in good repair and looks as good as it possibly can.  Deep cleaning is a must … powerwashing, painting, window cleaning, de-cluttering … these are all low-cost “musts” that will have a major impact on attracting an offer.  Think of it this way:  if you were selling a car, you would clean it from top to bottom, inside and out, maybe even have it detailed by a professional before you ever took the first picture of it and put a sign in the window.  Your house is no different — it needs to look better than it’s ever looked before when it’s on the market.

3.  Price it right.  The right price for your home is whatever a buyer is willing to pay.  Make sure it’s priced competitively from a business point of view — not what you think it’s worth emotionally.  Forget what you could have gotten for it two years ago or what you paid for it.  The only thing that counts is what’s happening today in the market you’re in.  Look at what’s sold in the last 12 months, what’s available in the general price range today and determine how your home compares.  If YOU had to pick between your house and 3 others on the market, which would YOU choose?

4.  Hire a competent agent. It seems like that would be obvious, but very few people actually understand what an agent really does and how an agent can, should, and will work for them during the listing period.  If your agent is counting on someone else to sell your home, you need another agent.  Anyone can stick a sign in the yard or enter data into the Multiple Listing Service.  What SPECIFICALLY will your agent do to attract buyers to your home and make it stand out against the competition?  How knowledgeable is your agent about what’s going on in the market — who’s buying, what are they buying, where are they coming from, how did they find out about the property they bought?  What kind of support does your agent have — is he or she a “one-person” show or do they have other agents in their office working to sell your property as well?

5.  Be realistic.  If a qualified buyer gives you a reasonable offer, be prepared to accept it.  Don’t lose the deal over a few dollars.  With so much inventory on the market, a buyer can easily move along to the next property and negotiate until he gets the deal he wants.  Remember that the buyer isn’t emotionally attached — your property is one of many from which they can choose and be satisfied.

Join the Carolina Living Realty Team at The Reserve

Come meet us Friday afternoon (July 25) at The Reserve as we volunteer at The Reserve Showhouse.  (See our previous description of The Reserve Showhouse here.)  We’ll enjoy an afternoon of fun as we help provide tours around the gorgeous landscape of The Reserve and do our part to give back.  (All proceeds from The Reserve Showhouse go to Hoscpice of the Foothills!)

If you’ll be at The Reserve on Friday – look for us and say hello!  Here’s where you can find us:

- Patti will be directing traffic and helping people find parking.  (She’ll help you find a prime parking spot.)

- Sharon and Bob will be at the Showhouse helping everyone find their transportation boats.

- Michael and Jennifer will be “docents” – providing tours of the Showhouse.

If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, it’s not too late to join us.  Tickets can be found here.  If you are attending – shoot us an email and let’s be sure to meet.

We’ll see you out there!

A taste of Greenville

Residents of Lake Keowee often find themselves spending their nights and weekends in the neighboring city of Greenville.  With an abundance of fine restaurants and a multitude of night-life offerings, Greenville is at the center of Upstate South Carolina.

Considering moving to Lake Keowee or the Upstate and want to get an idea of what Greenville has to offer?  Greenville Magazine is most obviously an excellent resource to learn about the city’s culture and all that it has to offer.  This month’s magazine features article about dining in Greenville, nearby travel destinations, and developments with local universities.  Check out Greenville Magazine!