Hello everyone and Welcome once again to
another episode of Selling Greenville
what I like to think of as your favorite
real estate podcast here in the upstate
of South Carolina I am your host as
always Stan McCune m and yes I am a realtor
here in South Carolina that's why I do
this podcast if you need a realtor or if
you just want to chat all of my contacts
information is in the show notes as
always please reach out to me with any
questions any concerns any ideas any
leads on people looking to buy or sell
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today we're going to be talking about
luxury houses and there is a lot of
confusion on luxury houses and and of
course in our Market here in the the
Greenville great what we call the
greater Greenville area or the upstate
of South Carolina there is some
unique aspects to the luxury housing
market in this area and and again
whenever I talk about real estate on
this podcast it's always through the
veneer of Greenville South Carolina I
say some things on here that probably
would be nonsensical to people in you
know Austin and Los Angeles and New
Jersey and and a whole bunch of other
places this is strictly from a
Greenville lens but this is the way the
market is here and if you're listening
to this you're interested in real estate
in Greenville I can't really speak to
those other markets but we need to
talk about luxury houses because it it's
something that there are a lot of
misconceptions about now for starters
how are we going to define a luxury
house I I thought about this in a lot
a lot of different ways it's kind of
tricky to Define but I think the
simplest way for us to Define it is
basically three times a house that costs
three times the median house price and
the median house price right now is
right around 250,000
so I think we can pretty safely Define a
luxury house in this market in the
Greenville Market as a house that is at
least
$750,000 you might find some homes that
are cheaper than that that you
consider to be a luxury home you might
find homes that are more expensive than
that that you consider to be a luxury
home in this market I think that that's
a pretty good dividing line in in the
Greenville
area so think about homes that are
$750,000 and above and and we do have
homes that are you know five six7
million those are unique homes those are
not the norm but we do have homes
like that in this market but there are a
a decent bit of homes that are between
750,000 and about 1.5 million again
that's not the biggest Market here
because our median price point is
250,000
but we we do have a decent number of
homes that fit that that loose
description that loose price description
so what happens when you start looking
at homes and that price point a lot of
interesting and perhaps
counterintuitive Trends
emerge one of the first things that I
think a lot of people don't realize I
think a lot of people think okay you
know you're if you're getting a house
that is three times the median house
price that has to be just an
unbelievable house that that's got to be
a mansion and and of course those of you
who are listening from other markets
where like $750,000 is a shack okay I
get it you're laughing a little bit
right now but down here you know most
people can't afford anywhere near a
$750,000 house that at that point at
that price point that no longer
qualifies for a conventional loan down
in in this area in South Carolina so
you're having to get a jumbo loan you're
having to bring more down there you have
to have a lot of cash in the bank you
have to be able to to have quite a bit
of income coming in in order to be
able to afford that loan much more than
than the median income for our area
and so there's a lot of Dynamics at
play and what you find is the the homes
that you're looking at at that price
point particularly homes that are
really in that between you know
750,000 and let's just call it 1.25
million roughly in that little range
there you find that you are paying an
extraordinary premifor location and
or acreage now now the acreage becomes
more into play typically in at the
higher price points you know you'll see
homes that are 2 three $4
million they they're typically sitting
on like a massive estate but the
homes that are in that
750,000 and a little bit above that
you're paying you're typically paying
for a premifor the
location and here's the the thing
that is unique about the the location
that you're paying for it's typically
based on school SCH districts
decent neighborhoods but but maybe
neighborhoods that are still somewhat
transitional for instance I can't say
that North Maine is a transitional
neighborhood if you're from around here
you obviously know that North m is not a
transitional neighborhood but there's a
lot of homes that are in a complete
state of disrepair which I assume is
because people just are sitting on
the homes knowing that values are just
going to keep going up and they don't
feel like doing all the work because you
know fixing up an old 3500t house is
going to take a tremendous amount of
work so let's just leave it in a state
of disrepair but you can have a home
that is worth you know close to a
million dollars next to a home that is
unlivable and we see that in some of
these neighborhoods around here a lot
of them obviously as I mentioned before
you're paying for the school districts
and of course the one that everyone
that that has some money and and I
don't mean that in a derogatory way but
if you have money and you can afford to
be in a good neighborhood in in an above
average neighborhood and a three times
above average neighborhood you're
wanting to get in that Augusta Circle
Elementary School District that is the
trendy place to be that is the quote
unquote yepy School District that
that people want to be in
just make sure that you have you know
your kids in a Mercedes vehicle okay and
that's again I'm not trying to be
derogatory I'm just trying to be honest
with you guys this is there are some
there are certain expectations here
if you're going to be in a school
district like that
but the the interesting thing is that
the houses a lot of the houses in these
areas and again I'm I'm I'm talking
about the ones that are 7 150 and you
know up to 1.25 or so million the
quality of those
homes isn't necessarily like in terms of
just how nice they are when you walk in
how they feel it's often times not that
much nicer than homes than some homes
that are5 $600,000 you might have a
$900,000 house that isn't that much
nicer or might not be nicer at all than
a $500,000 house that's just in a
different area you get a a five a
house that it would be $500,000 and Five
Forks and you put that house in the
Augusta Road area that's zoned for
Augusta Circle
Elementary that house might close to
double in value I mean that's just the
way it is the land the location there's
a reason why everyone says location
location
location it's that's a real thing you
pay for the location and you need to
make sure if you're if you're in that
higher price point that you're paying
for what you
actually are using if you're if you're
benefiting from that location in some
way such as okay great you can put your
kids in in probably the best schools in
in the area perfect you're getting
what you pay for if there's something
else that you like about that location
great but if you're just looking for a
nice house well there might be cheaper
places to find you might you might be
able to get the same type of house you
would normally be paying $8 $900,000
for and and get that out in Simpsonville
or get that out in pedmont or somewhere
like that that's not very that's still
not far away from everything but you're
not paying the location premithat
you're paying in some of these other
areas additionally I would just
mention that many of the luxur
communities and this is also something a
lot of people don't realize if they
haven't been actively shopping in the
luxury market around here a lot of the
luxury communities have either older
homes or maybe not super old homes
but but homes with outdated floor plans
outdated fixtures homes that need
updating to be modernized and and again
people don't realize this there will be
$1.5 million homes that I would I
wouldn't personally buy for 500,000
because of how much updating it needs it
has wallpaper from 30 years ago that's
just way out of date all these
chandeliers that are are just completely
out of style now and and
so you're you're getting yes a a
beautiful home in many respects but it
doesn't have the the modern amenities
that we expect for the home itself the
floor plan I mentioned before a lot of
these have very boxy floor plans they're
not open you
know obviously once you get a a large
home you know if you're if you have a
4,500 or a 5,000 ft home it's not as
important for the for plan to be open
because in theory all the rooms are
going to be pretty big anyway but people
still today even in the nicer homes they
still like to have somewhat of an open
feel whoever is cooking in the
kitchen doesn't want to feel like
they're completely cut off from everyone
else and that's really the main thing is
that kitchen being open to to the rest
of the house with some of these older
luxury homes you're not going to get
that a lot of them are will be as
well older homes that have been
updated but there're still still old
homes and so there's still might be
quirks to okay there are things there
are ongoing maintenance things that will
have to be happening with this home just
by virtue of the fact that it's a 70 80
year old
home again a lot of people don't realize
that when they're thinking about the the
luxury Market here in the Greenville
area but these are are some of the
quirks and and there are exceptions of
course this is not the entire luxury
Market obviously we have areas like
heartness for instance which is that
unique we we've seen this in in other
larger cities but it's more of that
Community tightnit Community style
way of Designing a a subdivision where
everyone is kind of oriented around a
common area and the houses are all very
close together that's a very modern
community Al although there are some
classic aspects to it as well they
they drew heavily on very traditional
things
but my point is it's not a one-sized
fit all is not what I'm saying but there
if you're looking if you're heavily
monitoring the market and of course my
job as a realtor I have to monitor all
facets of the market if I have a client
that you know calls me up tomorrow and
says hey I'm looking for you know a
massive you know equestrian estate I've
got up to $3 million to spend I need to
have some knowledge of that I can't just
completely focus on one small part of
the market and so I try to be educated
on all parts of the market and so as
I do this and as I follow the luxury
Market these are things that I see over
and over
again in many of the modern luxury
communities as well so now we're we're
not talking about the older ones we're
talking about the more modern ones
the homes are on very small lots and and
honestly that can be true for a lot of
these older ones as well particularly if
they're closer to Downtown Greenville
they're they're often times going to be
on smaller Lots but in in some of these
Modern Luxury communities the lots are
extremely small I I showed one recently
where the house next door the
roofs were like basically touching I
mean they were like 2 feet apart it was
as close to being in a town home without
being in a town home that you could
be and and often times as well they have
extremely restrictive HOAs and and of
course there's a reason for that they
you know you you don't want someone to
come in there and completely devalue
your very expensive home by you know
parking their ugly car on the street
or whatever the case may be most of the
people that buy into these communities
aren't going to have ugly cars and
they're not going to you know want to
park them on the streets but you know
there might be other restrictions with
regard to having trampolines in the
backyard or what different things you
can do back there or how how high
your fence can be because they don't
want it to be super sectioned off and
all sorts of of different things like
this the the covenants and restrictions
are often times extremely strict and
everyone expects for them to be
enforced and so that's something that
can be frustrating to people that
have you know the money to buy into a
nice Community like this is is it's like
I want to do what I want to do I don't I
don't want to have to you know
completely be to the whim of these other
people unfortunately in most of you
modern communities yeah that's exactly
what you're going to have to do you're
you're going to have to be at their whim
and some of them they have might even
have septic systems and whatnot that
that could prevent you from doing things
like putting in an inground pool and
doing other things like that basketball
court whatever the case may be you have
to be very careful to make sure that
you don't have assumptions that you can
do you know things that you plan to do
at your house that you won't be allowed
to do or won't be able to do because of
of the covenants or because of how the
community is laid out now if you want
something in Downtown Greenville let's
say that you're you know you've got a a
good budget and you're like okay I'm
looking for a very nice Downtown
Greenville
home single family home right not a
condo nothing like
that just a just a nice house downtown
Good Luck Good
Luck because
unfortunately pretty much I with some
exception but like the closest homes to
downtown Greenville the closest single
family home have almost all been
converted to commercial most of them are
like law firms now and you know if you
want something that's like walking
distance to Downtown Greenville that's
really really hard I you know my wife
and I when we were looking for our first
home we were really close to purchasing
a home that basically in Downtown
Greenville that was like dirt cheap this
is during the the financial crisis
like you know back when we were still
severely impacted by it in 2010 Obama
had issued that that first-time home
buyer tax credit all of these
different things that we were trying to
take advantage of and unfortunately we
couldn't take advantage of it because
you know I had just we had both just
graduated from college my wife and I
we didn't have any credit history we
barely had any income but there was a
home that to this day I really wish we
could have purchase but it was a fixer
upper it would have been probably a
headache house and every now and then
I drive by it and think about how cool
it would have been CU I worked downtown
at that time that was before I was a
realtor how cool it could have been to I
could have literally just walked to work
every day well that's pretty much
non-existent in fact that house I I
looked at it recently and sure enough
it's now designed commercial only it's
it's used for commercial
purposes now there are some houses
that come for sale in areas like the
Cleveland Park area or Cleveland Forest
neighborhood right there along the
swamp rabbit near the zoo there's
the East Park historic district that's
relatively close to downtown Greenville
we referenced North Main North Maine is
you
know you're not walking from North Main
to Downtown Greenville but it's close
enough it's close enough Hampton
Pinkney that one is is another one if
you're if you're looking at Google Maps
one that's that's very close to downtown
Greenville these are all areas that have
older homes for the most part now you
will see some
exceptions particularly if you're in
like that Cleveland Park area that's or
like altta Vista that's another one that
comes to mind you'll see some newer
homes and some of those but these are
not really walking distance to downtown
I mean if you're in that that if
you're if you're willing to walk like a
mile to a mile and a half then okay sure
but like you're not talking about like
some of these cities where you can
get a house and like you know you're
like two minutes to a BEDA or you know
just a few minutes away from you know
walking to a grocery store from a
brewery or something like that that's
not the way Greenville is laid out if
you want true downtown living you have
to go the condo route that is pretty
much the only way that you can be in the
heart of the action in downtown
Greenville is by living in some sort of
condos and I'll mention I have shown
some of these Downtown Greenville
condos some of these very very nice very
expensive ones so to speak and a lot
of them are not being well built in my
opinion and I think a lot of people a
few years from now are going to come to
regret the decision they made purchasing
a conduit in that downtown Greenville
area because a some of them are cutting
some serious Corners I'm not going to
call out any any of them but some of
them are definitely cutting
Corners and but in addition of course
there's a lot of these going up I mean
it's it's going to be hard to if if
people are looking to sell their condo
that they just purchased three years
from now they're looking to sell they're
probably going to be competing with new
construction for close to the same price
point as what they're trying to sell for
that's going to be be tough because
there's a lot of these condos going up
all over the place in Downtown
Greenville and that's only that trend is
only going to continue until at some
point the market gets tapped out which I
think if there's a market that we have
that get that will get Tapped Out
relatively quickly I think that that's
the one that's going to happen first is
that that luxury condo that luxury
downtown condo Market because that's
such a a niche market for for our area
here but that's really the only way
that you can live down down you're not
going to be living downtown in a house
it's just not going to
happen building yourself so
basically hiring a builder to create
your own custom home can be an
interesting option as a as a workaround
so we've got all these different quirks
with luxury housing well what about just
hiring your own builder going about it
you know customizing everything your way
just making a nice house from from the
ground up it it can be a really great
option but only if you have a lot of
time obviously a lot of money for a
luxury home custom
built and oodles and oodles of patience
particularly the way things are right
now now one of the the trends that
we're seeing is is regarding like lots
and and the price of
acreage people are that own land are
really doubling down on the
prices just upcharging these small
Lots charging a fortune for acreage it's
it's really starting to get crazy out
there I mean I have you know every
now and then I I'll I'll look at the
price per acre from just like two or
three years ago compared to what things
are listed for right now and it is
astonishing it's and you get something
that lists for like you know know
several
$1,000 you know let's say 50 acres
that list for
$500,000 out in you know like upper
Pickin or something like that kind of
out in the boonies but it's $10,000 an
acre that'll sell overnight there are so
many people looking for that and that'll
sell to a cash buyer and so what
people are doing is is they're they're
holding on to this land just saying hey
if you won't pay up I'm just going to
keep this it doesn't cost me that much
to hold on to land at the end of the day
I'm just going to keep it and so the
prices of of lots and of land alone is
extremely prohibitive right
now and and not to mention that a lot
of the lots that are for sale are either
unbuildable or difficult to build on or
they're in neighborhoods that wouldn't
justify luxury housing anyway you know
you might be able to buy a a lot in a
transitional part of Greenville but
you're not going to you're not going to
throw up a $900,000 house there when
you're next door to homes that are
barely if if they're going to crack 200
they're barely going to crack
200,000 we all know that that you
know the path everything that's in the
path of progress will increase in value
but you just can't overshoot the area
that way
in addition to all of that many of the
builders are are so backlog
backlogged and they're choosing on who
they will build for they're not building
for anyone and everyone you're
interviewing them and they're
interviewing you in the process they
want to make sure that they don't get
stuck with a client that is going to be
super duper picky you need to keep that
in mind as well think of it if you're
interviewing Builders think of it as
they're interviewing you as well and and
honestly some Builders won't even talk
to you until you have the land in your
possession so you you may actually need
to and in many cases you will purchase
the land that you want to build on
before you can even have that that
Builder
conversation and if you're really
wanting
to have the the interview with the
builders to inspire confidence and kind
of get a plan together in place to
help you figure out what land you're
going to purchase that can be difficult
that's a hurdle that you can
probably find some builders that are
willing to talk to you before you have
the land but they really want to see
that you have the land in your
possession there are some instances
where there are some there is some land
for sale that's being sold by a builder
and the Builder has plans already for it
and they're willing to work out
something with you to to kind of bundle
it all together into one purchase
both the land and for them to to do
their their plan to build on it with
you making some
modifications but that's the
exception that's not the rule there's
not a whole lot of those out there
and by the way all of this takes a lot
of time you're look you're finding land
you're you're designing a home you're
meeting with Builders you're
interviewing etc etc we're talking about
potentially multiple
years maybe 2 three years before from
the time you start the process until the
time
you finally have that home completed
so again that's where the patience and
the time factors in and it it's it's
going to cost some money it's not cheap
right now to build a luxury home and
even if you go into a production built
neighborhood those are tricky right
now as well so there's there are a lot
of challenges presented with the with
the new construction options it can be a
good option
but you need to understand what
you're getting into on the front end
that this is even more difficult in a
lot of ways than buying a production
built new construction home on the I
don't want to say lower end but in that
more median price point area that 250 to
350 price point area in some ways that's
easier because some of these luxury home
builders are are are making this
increasingly diff difficult in in many
many ways and so there's a lot to
consider as you're as you're looking for
a luxury home if you're looking to move
into this area from out of state and I I
get these calls all the time people that
that have some some good money because
you know they might be moving from
one state where they sold their house
for $1 1.5 million made quite a bit of
money they have a good salary they're
coming down here and they can can
purchase you know just about whatever
they want outside of those you know
homes that are like $2 million plus
and then they start looking they realize
oh this market like there's not a whole
lot out there and that can be really
surprising part of that is is the low
Supply that we're having but a lot of
that is just the way the luxury Market
is here in Greenville it's very unique
it doesn't compare to a lot of other
cities I imagine that will continue
to change and continue to morph but
for now that's the situation that we
find ourselves in that is it for today's
podcast episode I appreciate you guys
listening if you have any questions my
contact information is in the show notes
as always please leave me a rating or
a review hopefully both for this show
and until next time I hope you guys stay
safe
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