[Music]
Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in
Greenville South Carolina I'm your host
as always Stan McCune realtor right here in
the upstate of South Carolina you can
find all of my contact information in
the show notes if you need to reach out
to me for any of your real estate needs
if you're buying if you're selling if
you're investing any of those things
with regard to real estate please let me
know cuz I'm your guy and just a
reminder as always please subscribe to
the show if you enjoy it please leave a
short little rating short little review
particular if you're on Apple podcast
which the vast majority of you are I
would appreciate if you could just hit
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quick little review a few of you have
recently and I appreciate that the more
the merrier because we can get this show
out to as many people as possible and
and that helps Greenville that helps me
that encourages me to continue going
with the show so I appreciate if you
guys do that we've been doing a little
minseries I've been doing a little mini
miniseries on overviewing different
areas of Greenville and today we're
going to overview Simpsonville so we
started with Greenville proper we went
to the city of Greer now we're doing
the city of Simpsonville Greer and
Simpsonville are just to diverse and too
large of areas to combine together with
any other areas however this will be the
last individual City pod that we do next
week our episode is going to kind of
round out the upstate and then for
anyone that's interested they can
basically listen to four episodes worth
of content that will give them a pretty
good overview of of the the
Greenville the greater Greenville area
in general not going to hit on really
too much with regard to the other
counties Spartanburg Anderson
Pickins aone I'm not really Cherokee
County I'm not really going to get into
those counties although they're
worthwhile places there I've bought and
sold and helped people buy and sell real
estate in those counties as well but
because this is a a podcast really
focused on Greenville we're really
focusing on Greenville County with
regard to these overviews so let's jump
right right into Simpsonville
Simpsonville like Greer as I've already
kind of alluded to really encompasses a
large geographic area it goes all the
way from Five Forks which is you know
near Interstate 85 near Woodruff Road
and and goes all the way to just north
of Cedar Falls Park which is I mean I I
didn't even check to see how many miles
that was but it's a very very I mean if
you drove from Five Forks all the way to
Cedar Falls Park you're probably talking
about a 45-minute drive and so
that is what Simpsonville encompasses
and and including Five Forks some people
think of Five Forks as like its own
thing no Five Forks really is
Simpsonville when you're living in Five
Forks you have a Simpsonville address
now I've heard a lot of differing
opinions about Simpsonville over the
years in terms of just the the
reputation that it has it's always
interesting to hear what people
relocating to Greenville from another
area think about different areas or what
they've heard about different areas and
in Simpsonville I've heard the most I
guess rumors about it from people
moving here than I really have any other
areas rumors that I would disagree with
I had one client that was relocating
here that had heard that Simpsonville
was quote unquote busy which I
thought was a really interesting opinion
since most of Simpsonville to me is
really rural I I would never the first
thing that would come to mind for me
when it comes to Simpsonville isn't that
it's busy it's it's more that much of
Simpsonville is rural I've heard
other people say that it's not close to
anything which is also an interesting
opinion since a good chunk of
Simpsonville including that Five Forks
area is right by Woodruff Road and some
of it is right by 385 and some of it is
right by Highway 14 and a lot of
these connect to some of the main
shopping areas of Greenville so
there's just there's a lot of rumors I
guess out there going around about
Simpsonville I don't know why that's
that's the case but we we need to
to cut to the chase here that
Simpsonville is a big area so some of
those things might be true are there
busy areas of Simpsonville yes are there
parts of Simpsonville that aren't close
to anything yes but we need to figure
out what those areas are by the way I
just want to take an aside if you've
notice a sound difference I have
upgraded all of my sound equipment so
I'm I'm hoping that this is translating
over to you guys I'm very excited about
some of the sound equipment that I
purchased recently I felt like you
guys deserved an an investment into the
show and so I've I've invested some
of my hard-earned money from this past
year which you guys helped me to earn
which I'm very grateful for in order
to upgrade the sound equipment so I hope
that that is is coming through as
you you Avid listeners know my
main microphone bit the dust a few weeks
ago I was using kind of a temporary mic
and then I was like you know what we
need to take this to the next level
so I'm hoping that that that's the
case here all right so without me
furthering bragging about my audio
equipment here I would like to split up
Simpsonville in four ways and as I've
said before with the other area
overviews you can split up the any area
of the upstate into like a gazillion
different areas but for the purposes
of this podcast so it doesn't go on for
hours and hours I'm splitting up Five
Forks sorry Simpsonville in four ways
Five Forks Adams Mill Road area downtown
Simpsonville and lower Simpsonville I'm
sorry this is not going to be satisfying
for some of you that live in
Simpsonville but this is just going to
have to do the past year the median
sales price if we look at every sale
that had a Simpsonville address that the
city was Simpsonville whether it was in
city limits of Simpsonville or not
the median sales price was 360,000 with
a low of 45,000 and a high of 9 million
which is a an eye popping number for
for the greater Greenville area in
last week's episode I I regretfully did
not break down the prices for the
different sub regions in Greer that was
an oversight on my part I am going to do
that for Simpsonville for this for
this episode now as we' done with the
other episodes in this miniseries I'm
going to start with downtown simps Ville
which I'm going to Define as the area
south of where Highway 14 and 417
combine if you're looking at Google Maps
and continuing South including the
obvious Main Street area as well as the
Heritage Park area and now again some of
you might might be like wow that's way
wider than downtown Simpsonville but
again it those areas outside of like the
main downtown Simpsonville drag where
the CL where that big clock is and and
where the railroad went through and
whatnot I don't know you can't
really call the areas the Heritage Park
area and and whatnot around it suburbs
in my opinion I feel like those are all
kind of just part of the downtown area
maybe you would call some of that
Midtown but Simpsonville is not big
enough to have a Midtown in my opinion
so I'm just including all of that as
kind of part of the greater downtown
Simpsonville area so with that in
mind the median price for this area was
a reasonable 351,000 the past year as
say reasonable because that's that's
over the median for the greater
Greenville area as a whole but for a
downtown area that is a reasonable
number and unlike the other downtowns
we've talked about Greenville Greer
you can still find houses actual houses
not just apartments and condos near the
main drag some of which are are small
mail houses which is Common Place Greer
has that Greer has some small Mill
houses that are somewhat close to
downtown Greer but there's also some
fancy old and and even new houses that
are within walking or biking distance of
downtown Simpsonville itself which is
unique downtown Simpsonville is much
more residential than the other
downtowns in the upstate we've talked
about Greenville Greenville Downtown
Greenville basically switched over
almost all of the single family housing
made them commercial tons of attorney
offices that are working out of what
would would have been old houses and
Greer kind of copied that model and and
basically turned downtown Greer into a
miniature version of downtown Greenville
in my opinion Simpsonville has not
done that Simpsonville although it
has converted some of its single family
housing over to commercial you still
have single family housing available
and accessible to the actual main drag
of
downtown now of of course as with any
area area in the upstate of South
Carolina there are plenty of condos
being built around downtown as well
as several subdivisions with production
build homes so I'm not saying that there
aren't those things but there's a little
bit more variety close to downtown
Simpsonville than there are some of the
other downtowns the low sale of the
past year for this area I already said
the medium was 351,000 the low sale was
115,000 and the high was 715,000 so
not a lot of particularly expensive
housing being sold in downtown
Simpsonville the past year now
Simpsonville has a cute Main Street area
with several great restaurants bars
several really good Parks including of
course what I've already referenced
nearby Heritage Park which has the
Heritage Park Amphitheater which has
some really great concerts during the
summer months it's not enclosed it's an
outdoor Amphitheater and and I've
been to several concerts and events
over the over there over the years
and actually we went to a major
concert recently in September One
Republic was there if you don't know One
Republic that's fine they did the hit
song in the Top Gun sequel that came out
this past week I ain't worried or
something like that anyway we got to
see them perform that live in
Simpsonville so that was kind of cool
I've also o been to downtown
Simpsonville they have a little
pinball arcade game place right in
downtown that super cute you would
never even know it's there and that
was a really fun experience it was like
$10 for entry and you can like come and
go all day if you want at least that
was when I went that was way earlier
this year so there's a lot of stuff
to do in downtown simsville I wouldn't
say quite as much as in the other
downtowns but there's still plenty to do
and again heritage Park and the
amphitheater really really rounds it
out that makes it unique for the area
Greer for instance doesn't have anything
like that being said downtown
Simpsonville I don't really consider
it to be nearly as walkable or bikable
as the other down towns in the area
and getting around it on a busy night
can sometimes take a while there's so
many traffic lights everywhere so
many busy intersections that it can just
take forever to get through to to make a
turn and and so for that reason
downtown Simpsonville is really my least
favorite downtown area to drive through
it can just really be a pain and if
you're going to the amphitheater for
a major event like that One Republic
concert Good Luck I mean it took us
oh man it it took us a very long time to
from the time we got into downtown
Simpsonville until the time we got into
the atheer I mean I think it was close
to 30 40 minutes it just it just took a
really long time so that Amphitheater
where it's located you have to like
drive through neighborhoods to get to it
it's it's quite clunky in a lot of
ways so even though it's cool that
it's there it's also Just the Way
Simpsonville is laid out it it just
makes for a difficult time
navigating now there's plenty of
convenient shopping nearby particularly
when you go down to Fair viiew Road
that's one of the main shopping areas in
Simpsonville just south of Interstate
385 Walmart and Target are both very
close to this area but if you're looking
for boutique shopping art galleries that
kind of stuff Simpsonville doesn't
quite have as much as you'll find in
some of the other local downtowns like
that's not the primary reason that
people go to downtown Simpsonville you
can find that type of stuff it's just
not as prevalent now just outside of
the Main Street part of Simpsonville but
still within this area we have the
nicest movie theater in the upstate a
Regal Theater which also includes IMAX
if you're wanting to go to the movies
and you're wanting the best experience
that we have in Greenville County
Simpsonville is where you go and it's
the only place where you can see IMAX
that I'm aware of in the
upstate now in between Five Forks and
downtown sonville is what I will call
the Adams Mill Road area which is a very
very loose description but it is what
it is this is what I'm this is what I'm
stuck with here okay it doesn't have
a name because it was just like all
farmland for for so long but I've
heard some people that have lived in
this area say they live in the Five
Forks area some say they live in
Greenville some say they live in Malden
etc
etc but for my purposes I'm going to
call it the Adams Mill Road area of
Simpsonville but it's clearly
distinct from downtown Simpsonville and
Five Forks so I I don't feel like it's
fair to lump in with Five Forks like
some people do CU once you get outside
of I mean if you're looking at Google
Maps Five Forks is clearly defined
within Google Maps right they they have
it kind of grayed out I would
probably say that's a little too
specific for Five Forks
proper for instance I would consider
Orchard Orchard Farm sorry not
Orchard Farms Heritage Lakes which
we're going to I I'll probably reference
this later but Heritage Lakes is not
inside that grade out area but I would
still consider Heritage Lakes to roughly
speaking be Five Forks I think most
people would but that being said
we've got this area this area in between
that grade out area and downtown
Simpsonville that I think has really its
own identity u and so that area had a
median price of past year of 385,000
with a low sale of 70,000 and a high of
9 million this is I've referenced 9
million earlier this is the area that
had that $9 million sale all of
Simpsonville besides downtown was very
rural up until the past probably 20 or
30 years so in this area you know as you
find in a lot of areas that were very
rural up until recently you find a
tremendous mix of housing ranging from
large custom homes with acreage to
40-Year-Old brick ranches to production
built neighborhoods really a huge
variety and and you if you drive
through depending on what road you are
that will kind of determine what you're
seeing whether you're driving past a
bunch of production built neighborhoods
or whether you're driving past a bunch
of custom homes and that home that sold
for $9 million that was really an
incredible estate on over 40 acres and
it ended up being the most expensive
home sold the past year in all of
Greenville County at least in terms
of what I was looking at in the MLS
there may have been something off Market
that sold for more expensive I don't
know but that home which was 455
mckin Road if I remember correctly
that was the most expensive home sold
the past year in the greater
Greenville area and that ended up being
in this Adams Mill Road area of
Simpsonville if you're wanting to
shop the part of this area that you
want to be in is the part that's closer
to i38 5 and Highway 14 those two
highways really bring some great
convenience to this area allowing you to
get to downtown malen 5 Forks Woodruff
Road Etc it in really quick order and
between those areas you can find pretty
much any sort of store that you might
need but the Eastern edge of this area
is extremely Rural and not close to
shopping besides Five Forks which we'll
discuss momentarily again and
that's a a plus for some right some
people want to be in a more rural area
but this is also part of why I can't
just say oh Simpsonville is busy yeah
downtown is very busy but in some of
these parts of this Adams Mill Road area
you get out there and and oh it's not
busy at all it's I mean you feel like
you're in the middle of
nowhere and it's going to take you a
second to get to a grocery store or
to get to Woodruff Road or to Fairview
Road or to any other sort of shopping
that you could come up with as far as
like Parks go there are a few parks and
holly tree is a nice golf course
that's right in this area but because
there are several homes with land which
we discussed I believe last week
along with major residential
developments that have gone up in recent
decades there isn't a ton of Green
Space devoted to the public immediately
within this area you have to go to
downtown Simpsonville Heritage Park
maybe cross over towards malen go to
Lake kesty areas like that that aren't
very far from there but aren't within
this immediate region now one thing
that's nice about this area is it's an
opportunity and for some people this is
as I already said a major appeal it's an
opportunity for you to live in a rural
area without being super far from
anything I mean there are some rural
areas of Greenville that it would just
take you a really really long time to
get anywhere even if you're on that
Eastern edge of of this area you're
you're still going to be less than
probably 30 minutes away from from any
sort of shopping now for some people
that would feel like an eternity my wife
couldn't handle that she wouldn't want
to be in an area that rural but but
for some people that's nice they want to
kind of be more out in the country and
they don't do shopping every single day
and so to be able to get to most
shopping within 30 minutes that's
totally acceptable to them to be able to
have to drive 2020 minutes to a grocery
store no problem we'll just stock up
when we go So Different Strokes for
different folks it's neither a plus
nor a negative that that there are some
rural areas there it's just if you don't
want that you have to be more on the
Western Edge I think I might have said
Eastern Edge before if if I did I meant
the the western edge of this where it
butts up against I 385 and Highway 14
that's the the part of this area that
gives you that offers you the most
flexibility now Five Forks which I get a
lot of questions about Five Forks
Five Forks is one of the most
controversial areas in the entire
Upstate on the one hand you have a lot
of recently Built Homes the vast
majority of which are less than 20 years
old and you have great shopping
options within Five Forks itself as well
as great restaurant and shopping options
just a few minutes away on Woodruff Road
but you ALS o have a tremendous amount
of traffic and this would be an area
that generally speaking I would consider
to be a busy area mainly because one of
your main connecting roads is Woodruff
Road and anyone that lives around here
knows that Woodruff Road for all of the
great things about you know the various
shopping options that you have there
navigating it getting to and from it
that's not one of the things that we
like about it I love to go to Costco I
go to Costco all the time which is on
the far end of wooder Road this time of
year I hate going to Costco because even
though it's I mean it's not even in the
middle of wood road so in theory it
should be easy to get in and out of no
it's not and maybe I'm whining a
little bit here some of you were
probably listening and being like oh
come on it's not that bad it it
depends on your perspective for me no
thank you I try to avoid major heavy
traffic at all times I don't want to be
driving around the Costco parking lot
for 20 minutes looking for a parking
space this time of year so I'm just
going to take a little Costco time out
until the holiday season is past us
but speaking of the holiday season if
you're trying to go from Five Forks all
the way to let's say you're going from
Five Forks to Costco oh man brutal it's
it's only a few miles but it's it's
just going to take you so long to go all
the way down there it's going to take
you several minutes to get to Interstate
385 inter State 85 it's just that's
just one of the downsides of Five Forks
it is close to things but at the same
time just the way it was built was not
conducive to all of this traffic and
this is why people you'll hear people
complain about infrastructure in
Greenville County that that's one of the
reasons is that there were a lot of
developments that were built without
in areas like Five Forks without really
putting enough concern into the
infrastructure that they should have and
and so this is what we have as a
result Five Forks is also
controversial because it's one of the
areas as I've already said that has been
developed heavily so it's a lot of
production Built Homes on small lots and
that's not for everybody and if it's not
for you then you just go south to the
Adams Mill part of Simpsonville and then
you get a lot larger Lots that are
very close to Five Forks but for some
people they like those those production
built neighborhoods those subdivisions
that you know some of them have pools in
the subdivision some nice amenities
for some people that is a major draw and
if you're moving to Five Forks that's
probably a major draw for you the
median price point in Five Forks for the
past year was 365,000 with a low of
120,000 and a high of 3 million so
higher a good about 50 ,000 higher than
the Greenville median the the greater
Greenville area median but in terms
of a price per square foot basis you're
probably looking at around
$150 per square foot which is
reasonable you know a
$200,000 sorry a 2,000t house for
$300,000 that's for by Greenville
standards that's pretty good right now
now there aren't a lot of parks
around here although there is a massive
soccer comp Lex called Mesa I've never
done anything out at at Mesa but
for those of you that are into soccer
perhaps there's some interesting things
to go on there as far as schools I
haven't really talked about schools in
this episode much and I always have
to be careful with that but there
are some award-winning schools in and
around Five Forks as I've said before
the shopping there is great you do have
Woodruff Road very close by which if
you're willing to battle that traffic
obviously super
convenient but just within Five Forks
itself there are several restaurants
fast mostly fast food and chain types of
places but you could argue that the
best grocery stores really in all of the
upstate are right there in Five Forks
there's a Lowe's Foods which is a
which is a kind of Boutique but large
it's not like Trader Joe's size it's
still a large grocery store but I would
consider it more of a boutique grocery
store for instance you can they have
like a brewery and a a barbecue place in
there you can like get something to
drink or something to eat and be like
eating it while you're shopping kind of
thing one of them is right there in
Simpsonville there's a Sprouts grocery
store which is the only of its kind
right there in Five Forks and the
Publix and Five Forks I've had to go
into a few times and Publix is a major
grocery chain here probably the the
largest grocery chain that we have here
in the upstate and that Publix in 5
Forks has to be the nicest one in all of
the upstate it's really really nice
so you've got some great grocery store
options right there that will only take
you a few minutes to get to long story
short most people who move to Five Forks
will do so because it offers some
affordable neighborhoods with nice
houses in it for instance Orchard Farms
is one of the most popular
neighborhoods subdivisions in the
upstate it's right there in in Five
Forks but traffic and infrastructure are
concerns that aren't going away anytime
soon and neighborhoods just west of Five
Forks proper such as Heritage lakes that
I already referenced they almost
never have homes go for sale so
that's just kind of the the way it is
lots of homes go for sale in Five Forks
proper that that shaded area in Google
Maps
but again it comes down to do you want
to be in a production built home are you
fine with that are you fine with that
location with it maybe taking a while to
get to downtown Greenville it's taking a
while to get through Woodruff Road
and what is it that you're willing to
give up to be in a subdivision that is
really nice that's really kept up with
that offers housing at often times
more affordable pricing than the rest of
Greenville County that is kind of the
push and pull of Five Forks now last
but not least we have what I'm just
going to call lower Simpsonville I don't
know if anyone has a better name for it
than that but I'm just going to call it
lower Simpsonville and think of it as a
section of Simpsonville South of both
Interstate
185 and Interstate 385 which they're
kind of the same thing right 185 just
Loops right into 385 the only
difference is 185 is a toll road 385
isn't now this is a massive area and
I hate to lump it all into one but I
couldn't really think of a better way to
do this this is about 11 miles from the
northern tip of it to the southern tip
of it nuts so unsurprisingly it had a
lot of homes sold the past year the
median price for this area was 340,000
with a low of 45,000 and a high of $1.3
million now this area is almost
exclusively rural some parts of it are
really in the middle of nowhere most
of the time people moving here only do
so if they really want to live in the
country or if they've just been priced
out of the quote unquote suburbs
now if you're close to West Georgia Road
or Fairview Road you'll be fine for
shopping otherwise you'll need to
drive a bit to find a grocery store or
other
shop restaurants there there's not
really any unless you're going towards
Fairview Road outside of Fair viiew
Road there's just not a whole lot of
restaurant options in this area as I
said it's a very rural area generally
speaking there aren't a ton of parks
but the REI River does cut through
this area REI River if you're not
familiar with the upstate is the river
that cuts straight through downtown
Greenville and where the waterfall comes
off of it's also the river that the
Swamp Rabbit Trail popular bike trail
in Greenville County it's the river
that that Trail
follows so anyway REI River cuts
through this area ultimately ending up
at Cedar Falls Park which is just
outside of Simpsonville I believe
technically it's peler if I'm not
mistaken but Cedar Falls Park is
probably the the closest thing to a good
Park that this area has even though it's
just outside of it but it's close
enough to make sense and what's what's
nice about Cedar Falls Park is that it's
a really nice natural park that because
it's in a more rural area it doesn't get
a lot of traffic I've actually gone
there several times it's it's really a
Hidden Gem for this area in general I
wouldn't say that there is a ton to
do I think there is a playground whatnot
but it's just a nice little area to to
see some flowing water if you've got
kids that want to Splash around or a dog
that wants to splash splash around in
water walk on some rocks it's just
it's it's a nice park that that you can
kind of get away from the craziness of
downtown
Greenville and some of these other
areas that have water features but still
be fairly convenient to all of that kind
of stuff now in general if you're
interested in going into downtown
Greenville as I've already as I just
referenced with any regularity I don't
recommend this part of Simpsonville I
mean it's just going to take you a while
to get there and really any of the
areas that I've referred to as rural in
this podcast if you want to get to
downtown Greenville it's it's going to
take you probably a good 30 minutes to
go from the rural areas of Simpsonville
to get into downtown Greenville if if
you're down near Ceder Falls Park it's
going to take you even longer so you
just need to be prepared for that now
I'll be hon I know a lot of people that
live here that never go to downtown
Greenville so that that's crazy to me I
love Downtown Greenville I well
sometimes if I have like a meeting down
there I will just kind of take an hour
to just walk around you know
sometimes we'll go do some things with
the kids downtown etc etc m so I'm not
one of those people but I know a lot of
people that live in this area that
literally never go to downtown
Greenville so if you think that
that's a possibility for you then
perhaps being in one of these more rural
areas of Simpsonville Isn't So
outrageous and if you're wanting to
live in the country these are some some
really great areas the more rural
areas T to have cheaper housing in
general because you end up paying a
premium when you're closer to shopping
closer to parks and all of those types
of things but that's it that's all
I have to say about Simpsonville in
general really a huge variety of areas
and as I said a very controversial
area of the upstate but at the end of
the day I've had a lot of clients that
have moved to Simpsonville and they love
it they love you know variety of housing
that I've helped sell in that area
over the years but I've never heard
anyone that moved to Simpsonville say
they regretted it I've only heard
positive things and that is the
feeling that I get every time I'm in the
area with the exception of the traffic
that I've run into particularly downtown
and around that Amphitheater
otherwise I'm a big fan of
Simpsonville I love what they're doing
and and I think the the future is
bright for that area that's it for
today's episode I appreciate you guys
listening as always all my contact
information is in the show notes please
subscribe to the the show if you enjoy
it please leave a rating or review if
you're listening in Google podcast or
Spotify and we'll talk again to round up
this minseries next week
[Music]