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Realtors: Wild ride with skyrocketing tri-county market
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
With all the homebuilding going on in the Charleston area, realtors couldn’t be more pleased. Sell a $1 million property at a 5% commission, for example, and you’ve just pocketed $50,000, nearly $20,000 more than the average annual household income in South Carolina.
They’re selling to people like Sam Gilner, a New Jersey resident and vice president of finance for a manufacturer of medical devices outside New York City who discovered Charleston some 20 years ago on a golf trip and now plans to move here permanently.
“It ended up being more than golf,” Gilner said. “My whole family started to vacation there. Whenever I mentioned to my two boys, ‘Let’s go down to Charleston,’ they couldn’t wait to get there.”
Because of all the Sam Gilners out there, area realtors are in commission heaven.
There are more realtors in the Charleston area than ever, with the number nearly quadrupling in the past 10 years to more than 4,000, not including agents who are not members of the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors.
Here are a few area realtors with their take on the area’s real estate climate:
Finding a niche
Chris Anderson, co-founder/broker-in-charge, Places Real Estate
“I came here specifically for the real estate market,” Anderson said. He initially came to Charleston to work on Mount Pleasant’s I’On project when it was in its earliest stages. He was with I’On for seven years before he and a partner created Places, a real estate company that focuses on the high-end client.
“The same thing that attracted me is why everyone else is here,” Anderson said. “It’s the location and the coast. It was a strong market back in 1998 and is poised to continue to be a strong market.”
About 40% of Anderson’s clients are from out of town. His average listing price is $1.35 million.
Career change
Mike Cassidy, broker associate, Prudential Carolina Real Estate
Cassidy has a new job and a new country. He and his family moved to the United States in December from Glasgow, Scotland, and now live in Mount Pleasant. His wife, a registered nurse, helped the couple qualify for green cards and found her skills in demand because of a local shortage of nurses. They were also looking for the right place to raise their two daughters, Hayley, 9, and Imogen, 5.
“It was a conscious decision to pick somewhere where there were great family values, somewhere where there was a wonderful climate and excellent schools,” Cassidy said. “And in my mind, South Carolina fit all the boxes.”
Cassidy had worked in Scotland as an operations manager for a major insurance company and was looking for work where he could transfer some of his skills.
“There are a number of transferable skills, I think,” Cassidy said. “One, you interface with the public, which I enjoy very much. I think it can be very rewarding to find someone a new home, plus I think there are a number of opportunities to build your own profile. You’re effectively your own boss, in some respects.”
The prospect of entering what can be a very lucrative profession in the Lowcountry was only part of Cassidy’s decision.
“I think in fairness I was aware there were opportunities in real estate, but I was not aware of the scale of it,” Cassidy said. “It really is massive.”
Making money
Sandy Nettles, realtor and shareholder with The AgentOwned Realty
Like Cassidy, real estate is a new career for Nettles, who grew up in North Myrtle Beach and spent 20 years working in Columbia as a national advertising manager for The State newspaper.
Nettles and her husband had always spent a lot of time in Charleston and, for a while, had a second home in Awendaw. They now live in Mount Pleasant, and Nettles is in her third year of selling real estate for three years.
“I just looked around at the other agents and decided I could do that job,” Nettles said. “It was kind of a natural for me.”
The job also led her to her current home in Dunes West.
“I got it for $225,000 with a clear view of the harbor and a dock,” Nettles said. “That was three years ago. Now, a lot like that would be $600,000, $700,000, $800,000, and you really can’t find them any more.”
The market started heating up about five years ago, Nettles said. A lot of her clients come from the Northeast, Ohio and even Europe. She uses the Charleston area’s amenities, such as its beaches, culture and shopping, in her ads.
“That’s my biggest selling point,” Nettles said. “There’s something about Charleston that just grabs people’s hearts.”
Nettles sees area real estate sales slowing a bit but
doesn’t think the market is getting soft.
Nettles said her sales range from $600,000 to $1 million.
“Those houses are flipping right along,” Nettles said. “Five years ago, you would just have a handful, and now they’re pretty common.”
Like a lot of realtors, Nettles is also in the game, buying up real estate to turn and sell. She has purchased two properties in Dunes West and expects to make money as the market floats up.
“I have had a ball with it. I’ve had the most fun,” Nettles said. “I’d be willing to bet that 25 percent of the realtors here want to invest themselves. Not a week goes by that I don’t say, ‘I want to buy that.’”
Longtime player
Dan Ravenel, founder and president, Daniel Ravenel Real Estate
Ravenel has been in the real estate business for 29 years, starting his company in 1983. Although he has experienced the market’s flux for decades, he calls the past four years “frantic.”
“The last four years has really been the most frantic period, by far,” Ravenel said. “Buyers are very anxious. What they want is a good buy. They want to be there first; they want to make sure their offer is considered. A sense of urgency is what drives up prices.”
Ravenel said one of the biggest fears for realtors in the past few years has been underpricing property.
“You put a property on the market and get four full offers in the first 35 minutes,” Ravenel said. “This has been a frantic, anxious period, but I do believe things are beginning to calm down now. I think it’s less of a seller’s market than it once was.
From an investment standpoint, Ravenel thinks real estate market can be a better bet than the stock market.
“There are ups and then there are plateaus, but there are rarely downs because people have the option to sell,” Ravenel said.
His overview of the years he has spent in Charleston’s real estate arena is simple: “It’s been a wonderful ride,” he said.
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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