|
Expanding firms sold on local real estate craze
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
It seems nothing will stop the nation’s runaway real estate market, and the Charleston region is no different. To meet this demand, area law firms are expanding and retooling their businesses.
“Overall this year, the number of transactions we’re processing is up,” says Christopher Hughes, executive director of Charleston’s Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor, a law firm concentrating in real estate. “We’re seeing a lot of people investing in real estate that had previously used the stock market.”
The National Association of Realtors recently predicted that 2005 will be
another record year for home sales, a result of interest rates that are only expected to rise to 6.1% by the end of the year and reach 6.5% by end of 2006.
The NAR forecasts existing home sales will total 6.89 million this year, up from a record 6.78 million in 2004. New home sales will number 1.24 million.
Locally, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Center For Business Research anticipates a 4% increase in existing home sales both in 2005 and 2006.
All those numbers add up to a crushing demand for real estate services, and in South Carolina, especially in the ever-
popular Charleston-area market, no one may be feeling it more than the lawyers, who under South Carolina law must complete real estate transactions.
At Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor, business is strong and about to get even stronger thanks to a deal with mega-builder Beazer Homes. The deal ensures that Beazer will refer its buyers to the firm, creating about 1,000 closings every year.
To handle the load, Buist, Byars will open a fifth office in September at 2680 Elms Plantation Blvd. in North Charleston.
Six employees at the 2,000-square-foot office will be solely dedicated to residential and commercial real estate closings.
Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor recently signed a five-year lease on the space, one the law firm selected because of its location in the middle of a development boom.
“The location is very centrally located and easily accessible to where a lot of the building is going on,” Hughes says. “Goose Creek, Ladson and Summerville are all within an easy drive to this location.”
The North Charleston office is part of a 10-year plan at Buist, Byars, which calls for 10 offices to open within the next four years. All of the offices will be strategically located in booming areas.
The firm’s approach to expansion begs an important question: If the law firm is building its offices in today’s hottest areas, what will happen to those offices in a few years once the area is built out?
“What happens is that the mix of business changes,” Hughes says. “Right now, you might expect new homes to comprise the majority of transactions we’re processing there. Over time, it will go more toward resale.”
Translation: Buist, Byars expects the real estate boom won’t end any time soon.
In Ravenel’s Hill & Hill Law Firm, lawyer Tommy Hill, who handles the firm’s real estate transactions, says the real estate boom that has reverberated through the country for some time now is finally headed his way.
“I feel it growing now,” says Hill, who added he has noticed land prices in his area are increasing.
“That means there is more demand where I’m at. In the past, you could get bargains out here. Now there aren’t any more bargains.”
As real estate momentum builds in Ravenel, Hill says he will add staff to handle the demand. Currently, he has three employees who work on real estate closings.
“Our current staff seems to be sufficient right now but what happens in this business is there are fluctuations. You can be real busy and super busy at times and then there are lulls. It has to be consistently increasing over a period of time. I’m on the fringe out here in Ravenel, but I foresee having to increase my staff.”
Hill expects he may be making room for new desks within the year.
“It hasn’t boomed yet, but there are rumblings,” he says.
A little over a year ago, those real estate rumblings caught the attention of Charleston’s Bostic Law Firm.
The firm handles many types of law, civil and criminal litigation, but had never ventured into the real estate arena.
When it started receiving numerous requests for closing services, the law firm added another lawyer and paralegal to concentrate on real estate.
Last month, the law firm handled
18 closings but that number has been as high as 24, says Curtis Bostic, a principal in the firm.
“Our goal is to do closings very
timely, and we plan to keep the staff to do that. It’s an area of the practice we’re trying to grow. It’s consistently increasing.”
At Davidson Bennett & Wigger, with locations in North Charleston, Charleston and Mount Pleasant, real estate lawyer Mark Weeks says the firm recently hired another lawyer and three closers, who assist in real estate transactions.
“The market is crazy,” Weeks says. “It’s as hot as I’ve ever seen it.”
Rachel Pleasant is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@crbj.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version