All Forum Posts by: Troy Gandee

@David M. South Carolina is also an attorney state, but the attorneys here are minimally involved in the actual transaction. Their primary role is to complete the transaction. They prepare closing documentation, handle escrow funds and adequately record the sale. Some times, attorneys will act as referees if there's a disagreement, but they usually want to stay out of those conflicts and leave it to mediation or a court to decide if it's a serious issue. 

The agents are responsible for all the negotiations and coordinating all the terms of the contract. I've seen plenty of people hire a RE attorney just to help them draft offers, but the attorney usually won't even deliver the thing to the listing agent.  

I can totally understand why the public feels negatively towards agents. Many agents I have to deal with don't seem to know anything about actual RE law. They can also be unprofessional, appear greedy and be terrible communicators. I think the problem is that these big companies have trained up legions of desperate agents to think there is actually a standard commission rate and have failed to teach them that real estate exists outside of their myopic little bullpens. I can't tell you how frequently I have to explain things to agents from big companies. They don't train these agents to be educated on the scope of real estate. They think their company's policies are actual law. Now us little guys who rarely see a full 3% commission are having to adjust. 

@Bryan Hall welcome to BP and Charleston. Come by REI Central some time if you want to meet other investors in person. We have ~100 people in the room every month.

@Brandon Curry The first thing I would do is check the tax rate. $900 is a pretty big jump. It's possible that the tax rate is being incorrectly administered between the 4 and 6% rates. Or it was previously incorrectly administered, but is now properly assessed according to the usage of the home.

If the escrow items (taxes and insurance) are being correctly, there's really nothing you can do. The tax rate is pretty static. You could try to shop for cheaper insurance, but there's not much of that out there right now. 

If the charges are correct, there's no way around it. You'll have to eat the fees or sell the home. 

@Stephen Bruce Like some of the others here have suggested, call your closing attorney Monday morning and ask them about an estoppel certification/letter. A judge will likely be hesitant to process an eviction if there is no documentation on hand. I've seen this happen in other cases where the tenants can basically say they had a verbal agreement for another X months. Without any documentation, a judge may just have to take their word for it. 

The estoppel will probably require you to make contact with these tenants and come up with an end date on the lease. It's likely the original leases are expired, so a 30 days notice would suffice, but without any documentation, they could make up any lease terms they want. Your estoppel is probably going to essentially be a negotiation with these tenants to come to terms you both agree with.

@Dennis Dougherty If I were in your position, I would sell it. Cash flow is always the safety net. If you can't get something you DON'T OCCUPY to cash flow, then it's not worth keeping. Of course, that won't be the case if you're going through any sort of stabilization phase, but if the property is in market conditions and not cash flowing, I would sell it. 

Also, if you're in Charleston, you should come to the REI Central networking events. You'll get a lot of knowledge and meet a lot of people very quickly. We had about 150 people in the room for our big meeting this month.

I'm a broker in Charleston, SC. I sell quite a few commercial assets, including multifamily and own a couple of apartments myself. There is almost no off-market multifamily inventory moving around at the moment. For one, multifamily is extremely popular, so inventory has been obliterated over the last few years. Sellers are savvy and know that they will do better if they list these properties and get wider exposure. There are still some complexes that trade off-market, but most are 100+ unit buildings where institutions are trading them back and forth. That is the only real exception to the off-market inventory at the moment.

1st Thursday of each month from 6-8pm at Palmetto Brewing Co downtown for the main meetup. We also have sub-group meetings for the annual ticket holders. www.rei-central.com

In Coastal SC, it has definitely become very saturated and much more competitive. It still works well and cash flows just fine, but you can't be lazy. The product just has to be more marketable and attractive now. I see plenty of owners struggling, but they often has less than desirable properties, poor photos and no remarkable amenities to set them apart. Our primary unit is still operating about 95% occupied and rates have never declined for us. We have another one in a luxury beach community that does nominally well, but I really blame the regime/community fees more than the strategy.

@Rahma Z. This is very common here. Especially with permitting becoming quite restrictive. If you're renting the home for more than 30 consecutive days per tenant, it's no longer considered STR and does not need a STR permit. We usually refer to these are MTR (Medium Term Rentals). You can certainly charge more than if it were unfurnished, but how much just depends on the area, home and comparative rents. Just do some research on a site like FurnishedFinder to try to find some comparable homes.

@John W Pointer Sr both. Our brokerage is investment focused, so we broker a lot of investments. And I invest a lot, as well.