Watching the House Next Door

This is a recent comment I made on Ken Burger's column in the Post & Courier in which he talks about his neighbors house being on the market for over a year and nobody even slowing down and looking at the home, etc.

Ken, selling a home requires more than just putting a sign in the yard nowadays, you have to have it priced right according to the market, it has to show well and most important you have to have an agent and a company that can afford to market the property the way it needs to in order to get it sold.

In many neighborhoods there are not a lot of for sale signs, like Summerville Place for example. I listed a home last Monday night that had been on the market with a local real estate company that has no internet presence for months, with my marketing I had it SOLD by Thursday and had another offer come in yesterday as well. A few weeks ago I listed a townhouse in Ashley Park West of the Ashley and SOLD it in the same day. I closed one on Daniel Island this past week that I had listed at $569k and SOLD in less than 2 weeks for $540,000.

So, in my opinion the market has picked up and I can show you the sales to prove it but you have to list with a company that has embraced the internet, has the traffic and can properly market your property, small local companies that got spoiled in the past by just putting up a sign don't understand why their listings aren't selling. Also, some sellers are still unrealistic.
If you owe more than your property is worth we can sell it thru a short sale, we have done numerous short sales and many of them our sellers did not get a single bad mark against their credit.

I do believe that real estate will drive the economy and help it get back on solid ground as we have large industrial projects underway that will spur smaller projects and those people will need homes to raise their families in addition to the retirees we have coming to the area and buying now while prices are down. I have been thru many cycles like this in the past 26 years and I know one thing for sure is "This too shall pass"

Opportunity Knocks

Never in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as now exists. The six-year economic collapse has reduced all men, substantially, to the same level. A new race is about to be run. The stakes represent huge fortunes which will be accumulated within the next ten years.

We who are in this race for riches should be encouraged to know that this changed world in which we live is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods of marketing, new books, new literature. Back of all of this demand for new and better things, there is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose - the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

Those words, which accurately describe today's business conditions, were written 70 years ago, toward the end of the Great Depression. They appear in "Think & Grow Rich," the classic motivation and personal development book authored by Napoleon Hill and published in 1937.

Now compare that to today's enviroment and I hope you realize the opportunity, call David Wertan & The Wertan Team today at 843-330-2500 to take advantage of the opportunities that exist today in foreclosures, REO properties, short sales, etc.

More Jobs Coming to Charleston

Check this out, more and more jobs, two new companies have announced that they are taking over recently emptied warehouses on Clements Ferry Road, this area saw a mass exit in 2007 when Mikasa and the other company pulled out. The number of jobs being created now by the new companies are double the amount that we lost when the other companies pulled out and continues to diversify our economy.

If you haven't already now is the time to buy !! First Time Homebuyer Tax Credits are running out April 30th (as well as Tax Credit for existing homeowners that buy a new house), also foreclosures are selling with multiple offers, short sales are getting easier, rates are at all time lows, all making this the time to buy.

Don't look back and say "I wish I would have bought when......"

Call me or a member of the Wertan Team today, and feel free to pass this info along to any friends and relatives,
Thanks, David Wertan of RE/MAX Advanced Realty 843-270-6455

Moody's Forecast Real Estate Performing Best in Charleston, SC, for 2010

Yes, another article comes out about Charleston, SC, is one of only 5 metro areas expected to actually see an increase in prices for 2010.

It comes as no surprise to me as our area is tough and the economy is diversified, we have the beaches, the historical downtown, tourist, the port, large industry, retirees, etc. All this makes Charleston more resilent.

Yes we have felt some hard times but they are soon to be a thing of the past. The recent article in Smart Money Magazine says “Most of these markets did not have a big boom — they did not have a lot of new home construction, so you didn't get a lot of excess supply. You didn't get prices shooting up above national averages for the most part,” says DeVol.

Well that is not true for Charleston, we experienced one heckuva run up with prices doubling in less than 4 years on many properties, thousands of condos selling with people sleeping outside overnight, every major builder in the country calling Charleston their # 1 market. I remember an article on the front page of the Post & Courier (and this should have been a sign) that we had 23,000 new permits issued for new homes to be built in our area which meant over 100,000 new people would have to move here to absorb them. That is happening and will continue to happen but could not keep up the pace at which they were building new homes.

What these articles mean to you is if you or anyone you know has ever thought about buying a new home or investment property, than NOW is the Time !! Call me and lets find you a deal before the supply twindles and prices increase. Thanks, Sincerely, David Wertan of RE/MAX Advanced Realty 843-270-6455 or check out my online magazine about Charleston at www.CharlestonLowcountryLifestyle.com

Read more: 5 Metro Areas on the Real Estate Mend at SmartMoney.com http://www.smartmoney.com/Personal-Finance/Real-Estate/5-Metro-Areas-on-the-Real-Estate-Mend/#ixzz0hhSUTHSf

Look Out for the Retirees

Just read an article that South Carolina has now won out as the Retirement State of choice for Baby Boomers, this is a huge generation of people that are all about to begin retiring.

They interviewed 1,000 Baby Boomers across the United States and said which State do you want to retire to, and for the First time we beat out Florida, the list went like this

1. South Carolina
2. North Carolina
3. Florida

and then who cares who is after that.

With all of the great news about our area recently in the press NOW is the time to buy and take advantage of the foreclosures and short sales and get something at a deal before prices double again.

Homes are now selling and sales are way up but this is just the beginning.

Our First Home Ported Cruise Ship left earlier this week for its inaugeral cruise out of Charleston with Celebrity and then the Carnival Ship starts in April or May. I think they under estimate the impact that these ships will have on our area. People will come to catch the ship, stay a day or two before or after and fall in love with Charleston and then go back and make their plans to move here.

What an exciting time to be in Real Estate !!

Call me soon so you don't wait and say I wish I would have bought back in 2010 !!

Also, if you know of any agressive, young real estate agents that are willing to work hard and would want to make $100,000 per year, I have two openings on my team that need to be filled immediately so tell them to call me.

Sales Are Up Again

I don't know about you but every where I go I see that sales are up. I was just at lunch at Wild Wings and on the News they had in background it said housing sales were up 10% and that builders were having their first profitable quarters in years with housing stocks going crazy on the news.

I got back to my computer and low and behold the stats are out for our market, in Charleston sales for December 2009 were up 30% over December 2008 !! YEAH !!

And Other Headlines over past few months read "October 2009: Sales Up 31%", "September 2009: Residential Sales Increase 7%", "August 2009: Residential Market Reflects End Of An Active Summer Season", "July 2009: Residential Real Estate Sales Increase 4% From One Year Ago", etc.

Do you see the trend ??

It is just like in 2006 and 2007 when all they talked about in the media was the housing bubble and mortgage defaults in 2007 and 2008, well NOW in 2009 they started going positive and you can really see the numbers and feel the activity. The market is now alive and well, yes prices are down and there are foreclosures and short sales to contend with but with rates at all time lows you could not ask for a better combination to make it the "BEST TIME TO BUY EVER"

So call me or a member of my team today at RE/MAX where our sales were up 48 % in 2009 over 2008 and in the last quarter of 2009 we were up over 200% over the last quarter of 2008.

You can reach me at 843-270-6455 or my team at 843-330-2500 anytime or visit www.DavidWertan.com and buy now so you don't look back and say "Oh, I wish I would have bought ....... "

Charleston's Economy is Getting Ready to Kick Butt

I don't know about you but I am already seeing increased activity from all of the announcements about Companies coming to Charleston.

Of course, everyone is stoked about Boeing and the huge impact it is going to have on Charleston for years to come. They just broke ground and already have the land cleared and are surveying to start building, they say during construction which is going to run 24 hours per day there will be as many as 700 workers per shift just to build the huge plant.

Then you have TDC or that Huge Tire Distribution Company that is building a distribution center here that will be the # 4 user of the Port immediately upon opening operations.

You have the announcement that Mersk has decided to stay in Charleston.

You have the Cruise Ships that are starting to visit on a regular basis and for the first time ever in the Spring we are going to have a ship that runs out of Charleston as its regular port.

And, now you have the announcement about the Turbine Facility to be located on the former Charleston Naval Base that will become a test bed for the world's largest offshore wind turbines.

All of this news and I have seen the activity in Real Estate as well, for example I listed a home on Daniel Island the other day and through my internet exposure of the property we had an offer within the first week from a buyer moving here for a new job from Boston, Mass.

In addition to all of this the banks seem to finally be getting it together with new loan programs coming out on a regular basis and get this we had a short sale with Bank of America on a house in Riverland Terrace that I got approval from the bank within 6 weeks of submitting the offer, which has been unheard of.

We are rocking and rolling, and so will the economy in Charleston so NOW is the time to make that purchase, buy an investment, a lot to build on later, a REO or short sale to step up, etc. Let me know and I am here to help you or anyone that you know find the right deal or if they need to sell quickly I can make that happen as well. Call or E-mail me anytime and I hope you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving, I know I will. Sincerely, David Wertan of RE/MAX Advanced Realty 843-270-6455 or visit www.DavidWertan.com

Home Buyer Tax Credit

The Tax Credit has been extended and expanded to include those that already own their home and want to buy a new home.

Basically you have to have lived in your existing home for 5 of the past 8 years to qualify for $6500 credit and if you are a first time homebuyer you qualify for the $8000 tax credit.

See www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com for details or give me a call. This will surely keep the housing market rolling along.

Call or e-mail me for the best deals, Thanks, David Wertan of RE/MAX Advanced Realty
843-270-6455 or visit www.DavidWertan.com

Buyer Activity Remains Strong

Buyer activity is high. We have had more contingents on the hot sheet this year versus the same time last year. We're ratifying about 165-180 per week as opposed to under 100 for this time last year.

Importance of Positive Mindset

I thought you might enjoy this article:

Now more than any other time in our recent history it is important that we find ways to stay positive. Why? Because your success depends on your mindset, not on the economy or on the marketplace. How do I know this to be a fact? I’ve interviewed hundreds of top producing sales people all over the USA and Canada, and when I asked them the secret to their success, unquestionably and without a doubt, they all said the same thing, “My mindset.”

These are top producing sales people that have been in the business for 10, 20, or even 30 years. They’ve been through up times, down times, and all kinds of different markets, and they said without a doubt it was their mindset. When times get tough, people start to look outside of themselves for answers and what they really need to do is look inside themselves and ask themselves the question, “How can I stay positive, how can I stay hopeful, how can I stay optimistic?”

This article will provide you with some tools to make it easier to be in a positive mindset no matter what.

The first tool is to really stop watching, or listening, or reading the news. Why? Because the news is based on negativity. The news amplifies fear and negativity in order to capture more listeners, more readers, and more viewers. The more scared they can make people, the more people will buy more newspapers to find out what’s going to happen, or turn on the TV more, or in some way stay fixated because they’re in fear, they stay fixated on what the media is telling them.

The second tool is stop being around negative people. Your colleagues are going to want to constantly come up and talk to you and tell you how bad it is. Maybe your clients or prospective clients are going say to you on the phone how bad it is, and even friends will do the same thing. First, avoid those kinds of people that are negative and second, if you’re stuck with them in an elevator or your car, I suggest you do what a former client of mine does. When the other person is talking negatively, my client just tunes them out and just says, “Well that may be true for you, but that’s not true for me.”

You’re creating your own inner environment.

The third tool is a very powerful tool called The Stop Technique, the way it works is that if you start to notice your mind going in a negative direction such as, “Oh I can’t succeed in today’s economy. Oh I just don’t have what it takes to be successful. I have to work really hard and struggle and sacrifice.” Any of those negative thoughts that will bring your energy down, your job is simply to catch those as early as you can and say, “Stop.”

Take a deep breath, and then put in a positive new thought.

If some of your negative statements are about yourself like, “I’m not good enough, or I’m not smart enough, or I’m not experienced enough,” or whatever those kind of disproving thoughts, a really good generic empowered thought to put in is, “I love and approve of myself unconditionally.” That takes care of those self judgmental statements. Another kind of limiting belief is something that you continually tell yourself, “To succeed I’m going to have to really struggle, and sacrifice, and stress out, and work hard, and then I won’t have a life.” If that’s been your primary belief then you put a stop on that when you hear it coming, and in inside you’re saying to yourself, “I’m not going there. I’m not going there.”
You take a deep breath and positive new thought could be, “I’m committed to working smarter, not harder.”

One of the things that’s great about this technique is that it forces you to become aware of what you’re thinking and it’s what you’re thinking that will create a negative or positive mindset. If you’re continually thinking negative thoughts either about yourself, or the market, or about money, or any of that, then guess what, you’re going real fast into a negative mindset. Then what happens is what you believe tends to come true, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. For example if you tell yourself, “I don’t have what it takes to succeed in today’s market,” and you tell yourself that over, and over, and over again, your thoughts will create your reality and then you’ll find that you don’t have what it takes.

Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.” The way to create a positive mindset is to continue to bring your thoughts back to, “I can do it.” You need to have unwavering faith in your ability to be successful. The way you do that is to retrain your mind. The stop technique is the most powerful technique for retraining your mind, but you may have to use it a few hundred times a day at the beginning. Your mind has been going down that negative track in a very undisciplined way for a long time and like wild horses that have been all over the place, you now have to reign them in and that is going to require a lot of vigilance at the beginning.

Now Go Out and See Who You can Have a Positive Impact on !!

Taken from an article by Maya Bailey and edited for space