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 Greenville area 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 just a

reminder as always please like rate

review subscribe all those good things

if you're watching on YouTube if

you're listening on Apple podcast

Spotify whatever please make sure you

don't miss future episodes by hitting

the Subscribe button or whatever button

it is that is on the app that you're

using we're going to jump right in

this is episode 200 200 for the show

an insane Milestone could not have made

it to episode 200 without you guys my

great listeners so many of you tune

in every single week and yeah I just

I'm just blown away that we've made

it to 200 episodes and there will be a

special prize given to one of you

listeners I'm going to get into a few

more details later but there will be

a an episode 200 a special prize that

that I will be doing and I'm going to

announce that not at the beginning not

at the end it's going to be somewhere

in the middle of this podcast make you

guys actually listen because I want

to make sure that that I don't just

give it away in a very obvious Place

but please listen to the entire

episode so you don't miss that and by

the way a lot has happened since

since I last recorded I've been

recording all of these episodes you

know a week or two in advance so I

recorded the past week's episode

the week

prior and a lot happened by the way I

forgot to wish everyone a Merry

Christmas last time that was my bad this

is what happens when you record episodes

early you kind of forget okay this is

going to be my last episode Before

Christmas whatever I'm making up for it

for those of you watching on YouTube I

am wearing an ugly sweater that

involves Santa actually riding a

T-Rex which I think is the most

American thing ever okay regardless

I've been dealing with a lot of

interest inter in things lately it's

just been an interesting last few weeks

and this episode that I'm recording

I'm recording on December 18th long

story short I do not want to have to be

recording or thinking about podcasts

over the holiday season so recording

everything early so this won't be

until after Christmas but I hope you

guys had a great Christmas but I'm

excited to share if you don't already

know which probably a lot of you do a

few days ago as I'm recording this

now if you're listening to this a few

weeks ago Fox News actually reached

out to me not Fox News local Fox news

digital reached out to me because

of this podcast for a comment on why

people are flocking to Greenville from

other areas of the

country and so I gave them some

information and I really didn't know

what was going to come of it I've never

had the media reach out to me local

media tends to have their own kind of

Circle of a handful of realtors that

they like to get comments from but

the national media does not have ties to

those agents and so a local person

that works for Fox News digital

passed along my information apparently

and and they ended up quoting me a

lot in this article that they

published in Greenville and I was

just pretty much blown away from it I'll

link to the article in the show notes if

you want to read it there's no pay

wall but it does it has prompted some

people to enter an email address and

if you want to bypass that I believe you

can bypass it by simply turning on

reader viiew in your browser after you

click the link anyway I am really

grateful to have had the opportunity to

get the type of exposure that Fox News

granted me that AB absolutely blew me

away and that wouldn't be possible if

this show didn't have listeners so again

one more little tidbit we're episode 200

and I'm going to do something special

for my listeners in this episode

specifically I'll be giving away a $200

Amazon gift card $1 for every episode

to one of you but again you have to

listen to the rest of this episode

because at some point I'm going to give

the details on how you can win the gift

card it's going to come a little bit

later okay on to the meat and and

potatoes of the episode this is the

recap of 2023 look at all these things

coming together right the end of 2023

episode 200 me being on Fox News me

doing a giveaway like this is just an

exciting episode all around for

me and this isn't going to be too data

heavy we are going to look at the market

stats for the month of November that

just came out a few days ago but I

just want to kind of talk really big

picture well both macro and micro I

guess and I want to start off just by

talking about my personal business right

because some of you have have actually

expressed interest in what the year was

like for me we talk a lot about just

the General what's happening in the

market but I want to talk

specifically about what was going on

with my business and I just want to say

that my business reflected a lot

of people's business that I

experienced earlier this year which was

in January we just had a really really

insanely slow start to the year like it

was it it was most comparable like the

the closest thing I can compare it to is

when we had the the pandemic and like

things kind of came to a halt we're all

in in lockdowns nobody is you know

calling about real estate people are

just walking their dogs keeping their

distance from people all of that and

that's what it was like at the very

beginning of this year and I talked to a

lot of other agents that are even

more experienced than me that

experienced the exact same thing and

then in February our phone started

getting hot people started calling

people started getting interested in

things a little more activity and

then when March came around all of a

sudden we were right back in the thick

of it before you knew it it felt like a

normal year again we discussed this a

lot on this show but buyer demand

stabilized in November of last year of

2022 and it simply took a few months for

that demand stabilization to actually be

felt all over the country and with

Realtors Nationwide and so that's what

happened with me I really didn't feel it

until the end middle towards the end

of the first quarter that was when it

was like okay this isn't going to be an

apocalyptic year it's going to be

okay we're going to make it and then it

ended up being a very very normal year

overall now essentially two months of

the year were very slow so in a sense I

kind of lost two months of of this year

of normal business and as a result my

business was down ever so slightly this

year now I'm not going to discuss actual

numbers numbers of closings numbers of

Comm commissions or amount of

commissions all of this stuff because

it's literally a no one situation if I

start getting into that right there's

going to be some people that will hear

that and be like well that's like

nothing right you know they they'll hear

you know they have in their mind that

the average realtor gets hundreds and

hundreds of closings they're going to

hear my number and be like well stand

small time then on the on the other side

of the equation you'll have some people

that will

hear the numbers be like well my gosh

Stan is making tons and tons of money

you know he's doing super well like he's

doing better than me like why should I

have to pay him a commission you know so

there's really no in situation when you

start getting into this I've heard

Realtors I haven't really experienced

this too much myself but I've heard

realtors that have actually lost out

on deals on on both sides of the

equation right you've had some people

that are like well I'm not going to use

you because I want to give you're you're

doing just fine I want to give business

to my cousin that just got licensed they

need the money right that's a subtle way

of saying we don't think that you need

the

money and we're not going to give you

our business but on the other hand I've

heard of Realtors there was a realtor

just recently that was telling me how

she missed out on a listing she did went

to a listing appointment and she was it

was a competitive appointment so there

were other realtors that had already

talked to these people that were selling

their home and the other realtor had

must that that had come before this

this lady must

have skewed numbers in some way said

that she had

had like several hundred closings the

past year which had to have been

either just a straightup lie or she

might have been lping in numbers from

her team which you shouldn't really

count in a situation like like that

but

nonetheless this friend of mine lost

out on the listing because the the

people that were listing their home were

like well you're too small time we we

want this other agent that does hundreds

of of transactions per year so all that

to say no one's situation if I reveal

specifics on those numbers but I will

reveal some some highlevel

stuff so my best year on record is still

2021 which is shouldn't really be a huge

surprise since that's the best year in

the history of Greenville real estate

it's not going to be my best year for

forever it's not going to be

greenville's best year forever either

but right now for a lot of Realtors 2021

was their best year no different for me

we've had two straight declines in our

markets in our Market in real estate

closings and that's reflected in my

personal numbers I had

7.7% fewer closings in 2023 than I did

in 20 22 22 was down from 21 as well

and the money that I made from

Commissions in 23 about

99.4% less than 2022 and yes I'm

accounting for I'm recording this before

the end of the year I'm factoring in

some end of year I'm making some end of

your assumptions in some of those

numbers so my business was down a

little bit given the fact that I

essentially lost two months out of the

year it's really not down much at all

but also as you guys know if you

listen frequently I flip houses a little

bit on the side not a big thing that I

do and but I did that more this

year than previous years knowing that it

was going to be a down year and also

feeling like there was an opportunity to

bring some inventory to the market in a

low inventory environment and so I

actually ended up making more money on

the house flips and things of that

nature than I normally do and that more

then made up for the decrease in

commissions for those of you that are

really worried about about me yes I'm

I'm talking to you Mom assuming that

you're listening I'll say this as

well another positive is that my average

commission has gone up substantially in

recent years going up every year since

2020 some of that is simply the

result of me being able to command a

better commission split with my company

that I'm with in other instances

that's simply the result of me entering

a higher tier Market as it were although

you guys know I don't look down on

anything I had a $80,000 listing earlier

this year last year I had a a $60,000

listing I I don't look down on on

actually it was a $50,000 listing last

year I don't look down on smalltime

things at all so you guys know I cut my

teeth in this business helping

investors that was really how I started

and those investor closings particularly

back in like 2017 2018 you're talking

about 30 $40,000 homes with

regularity and so I'm never going

to look down on small transactions I

legitimately am not focused on on my

commission I'm focused on just

delivering the best service that I

can for my clients I get fulfillment out

of that and I'm not just saying that to

say it like that's that's legitimately

true

now in terms I found this interesting I

kind of broke down because I wasn't

really sure exactly how much how many

specifics I was going to give in this

episode so I broke down my business in

terms of I looked at total closings I

looked at investor closings like I said

traditionally a huge portion of my

business has been for investors I

also looked at new construction

obviously we've talked about new

construction is has been a much

bigger part of the market in Rec years

so I looked at that as well and

basically here's what I

concluded since 20 19

2020 my business has completely trans

transitioned from being around 30 to 50%

investors so 30 to 50% investor closings

relocations back 2019 2020 people moving

here from out of state very low 0 to 5%

relocations just kind of depending on

the year it would be like kind of I

might have one Closing one year and then

zero the next maybe two the next year

you know whatever small percentage of my

closings and then about 50 to 60% of my

closings were just your standard

owner occupant Greenville to Greenville

moves you know someone that's just

staying in Greenville but upsizing or

downsizing or whatever the case may

be that all has transitioned again 30 to

50% investors almost no relocations and

then roughly 50% Greenville to

Greenville 50 to 60% depending on the

year Greenville to Greenville moves

that has transitioned now to my business

is roughly 20% investors so that's gone

way down and that's just a reflection

of the fact that there's not been a

whole lot of opportunities to invest

recently 20% relocations that's in large

part due to this show and to you guys

listening to the show from out of state

looking for a realtor and contacting me

and I really appreciate that and

60% of my business roughly speaking

is Greenville to Greenville so that's

about the same that really hasn't

changed I said before it was 50 to

60% before basically the biggest thing

that's changed is my investor pool has

gone down and my relocations have gone

from basically being an afterthought in

my business to being a core chunk of my

business so I I find all of that to

be very interesting what about the

market as a whole all right so that was

my specific business let's just talk

about the market as a whole for a second

first

off contingencies again this isn't going

to be anything shocking but for those of

you that are new to the show

contingencies are back they came back

with a Vengeance in 2023 and when I say

contingencies a lot of people think

about home sale contingencies right when

someone makes an offer on a home and

it's contingent on the sale of their

homes but I'm talking about all

contingencies due diligence

contingencies financing contingencies

all of those types of things but home

sale contingencies for sure those were

dead between 2020 and

2022 they are back PE sellers are no

longer afraid of home sale contingencies

because they're not getting as many

offers as they as they used to get

they can't be as choosy as they used to

be able to be and so here we are we have

more and more home sale contingencies

and other contingencies than we've had

in the past VA loans are back I'm VA

loans certified I love VA loans a lot

of Agents don't like them because

they've had a bad experience with them I

think that's a bunch of hogwash I think

that they're they're blaming VA loans

on something that you can easily blame

an appraiser for right and I talked

about appraisers I'm not going to trash

them on the show there there's another

time in place for that but but I'm

a big proponent of VA loans VA loans in

2023 are the highest percentage that

they've been since 2019 and we're we're

almost back to 2019 levels so we have

this period of time where VA loans

really started to go down in terms of a

percent of the market and again this is

just you've got all these agents that

are scared of them and they'll warn

their their seller clients you know

particularly in a multiple offer

situation hey you don't want to accept

to VA loan there's all sorts of things

that can go wrong with it listen it's

about the same amount of stuff that can

go wrong with any other Loan program

that's out there I'm not worried about

them I'm glad to see that they're

coming back comparably to what they

were before the pandemic cash

transactions this is also an interesting

tidbit for me cash transactions

essentially flat in 2023 as compared to

2022 about 25% a quarter of the market

a quarter of closings are cash

transactions it used to be pre

pandemic well below 20% closer to 15

16 70% usually that was where we were

hovering but since the pandemic or

well really since let's see

here since around towards the end or

middle towards the end of 2021 that

really started to change cash

transactions have have always been

King but particularly now a quarter of

transactions are cash transactions a

huge amount and that's a direct

result of there being a lot of baby

boomers and other people that are

sitting on a lot of cash that aren't

afraid to spend it that like real estate

as an option for dumping that cash in

versus taking a risk in the stock market

or whatever the case may be okay we're

going to look at the market stats that

were just released for the month of

November but before we do that we are

going to talk about the $200 Amazon gift

card giveaway we're finally getting to

the details I told you it' be in the

middle of the show so here we are all

right very simple how you can get this

$200 gift card it's only one gift card

only one of you guys are going to get it

you got to do a few things first

youve got to subscribe to the show on

your favorite podcast app I don't care

which podcast app it is if it's Apple

if it's Spotify if it's something else

you need to subscribe to it on there

secondly you need to go to YouTube you

need to find this podcast on YouTube

I'll tell you how to how to find it

because people are stealing my selling

Greenville name on

YouTube which is very easy to do

what you need to do is you need to

search selling Greenville podcast okay

and and I recently changed my

username on there to selling Greenville

pod but if you just go to YouTube and

you just search three separate words

selling Greenville podcast I promise you

that you'll find it you can also just

search my name you'll likely find it

that way as well and once you do that

you want to subscribe to the show on

YouTube and you need to like an episode

and you need to comment on one of the

episodes on YouTube this is what I want

to grow this year I want to grow the

YouTube channel I do plan to improve

things like the video quality you

know my background which has been this

window ever since I started this

at some point there's going to be a

better background than a window I

promise you guys but guess what this

I thought that was going to happen this

year right I started doing this video

when I thought okay this is going to be

a slow year and then ended up not being

a slow year and so I wasn't able to get

back to trying to improve the video

quality that's a good thing and I thank

you guys for that the video quality will

improve but when you guys do like

subscribe and comment on one of my

episodes on on the YouTube

channel you need to actually give a

specific comment about the episode okay

not just like awesome content or

something like that actually comment on

the episode something related to the

episode that you listen to right you

obviously listen to it I'm fine if

you want to ask a question as well I

will get back to you as I have

opportunity but that would be okay as

well how long do you have to do this

you have until January the 4th to do

this and then I will select someone at

random from the people who did this and

I will announce on my January 10th

episode of this podcast who won okay so

you'll need to tune in really you want

to tune in every week right but you want

to do all of these things subscribe to

the show on your favorite podcast app

subscribe on YouTube like and comment

comment on an episode on YouTube and

do all of that by January 4th and then

listen to the show on January 10th I

believe it's January 10th but it's that

week and then I will announce who won

on that show and I might need to I might

announce the name I might not be able to

identify you depending on how your

name shows up so it's the kind of

thing where I'm going to say it on the

show and then I'm going to I I might be

asking you guys who you are and then ask

asking you to text me which one of

you it is so so please make sure that

you listen all

right we are going to transition here to

Market stats and I'm going to screen

share if you'll just bear with me one

second well this is taking a lot longer

than I anticipated because I keep

clicking on other things by accident all

right let's see here share screen here

we

go all

right Market stats all right here we

go got the market stats here if you're

watching on

YouTube you can see these if you're not

if you're just listening that's fine as

well I'm just going to hit some high

points I'm not going to go through these

in a ton of Det details simply

because I don't want this show to go too

long new listings new listings

data was up 15.2% year on year very

interesting and here's what I think

is happening mortgage rates are going

down more people are buyers buyers are

typically sellers so demand goes up also

Supply goes up usually those things

happen in tandem and so guess what

new listings went up 15.2% it was still

a big drop off month to month but

still that's a a a pretty tremendous

increase and now we've had two straight

months of new listings increases

again very interesting I would imagine

since mortgage rates are still down that

this trend will continue into January

pending sales pending sales for the

most recent month for some reason a

greater Greenville Association of

Realtors who produces these stats for

some reason always the most recent month

is not right for pending sales but

what I anticipate is that this 715

number for the month of November is

going to be revised into the low 1000s

compared to November of 2022 our pending

sales were 987 so we should see I'm

predicting that once this number is

revised we will see our first increase

in pending sales since April of 2023

April of this year so that will be

interesting to see if I'm right but I

I think that I am going to be right

because I know these stats very

well as you guys know if you've

listened to this but also just again

Common Sense mortgage rates going down

demand goes up pending sales are

going to go up as well closed sales

for the month of December we're down

4.8%

year-on-year but still following the normal

seasonal trend line it was just that

we just happen to have a stronger than

expected November of last year if

you're looking at the at the chart

you can see that there was a little

upswing in November 2022 that was an

anomaly remember I said demand

stabilized in November of last year

that's one of the indicators that we

have of that days on Market until sale

we hit our highest number since May

of this of this year we're at 44 days

on Market until sale that's a

25.7% increase Year on-ear from November

of last year which at 35 now what will

be interesting to see is if we find a

way to surpass the first quarter

numbers of last year we got all the way

up to 58 days on Market until sale in

March of last

year I could see it going either way

with mortgage rates going down if

that holds if we keep seeing mortgage

rates into the first quarter of next

year below 7% then I would be very

surprised if we exceeded the days on

market number of of the first quarter of

last year I would think that we would

have lower days on Market numbers

because going to be more again more

buyer demand coming into the market

but we'll have to see because there are

a lot of homes right now that are kind

of languishing on the market that aren't

reflected in this days on Market data

and when they sell after having been on

the market for 120 150 days it's going

to really skew this data so this will

be very interesting to see this is the

kind of data where I would honestly

we're looking at averages but I would

love to see the median for this but

unfortunately we we don't have that

that's not very simple I could

probably try to pull that myself but for

the time being I'm just going to rely

on the GG

numbers what we do have a median for is

the median sales price and the median

sales price came down month on Monon to

31275 but that still up 2.9% year

on-year which is when you look at the

entire year that's one of the stronger

year- on-year increases that we've had

for the whole year and this has been

something we've been looking at really

closely I've been telling you guys you

know hey we've got we've got to to look

at seasonality to we know that prices

are going to come down in the fourth

fourth quarter of this year but it's

important to compare year on year versus

just month- on month and here we are

December of last year was at 295 all

right so for us to end the year below

December of last year we would have to

see the month-on-month number come

down really low and we've not had a

print below 300,000 since March so it's

really really looking like we're going

to end 2023 with a positive median sales

price print which is indirectly tied

to price appreciation so it's not

one: one that this median sales price

going up means that every home has

appreciated in value in the Greenville

Market but it is an indicator that

that's happening and so 312,000 was

the November number that's up from 303

about

34,000 in November of last year so a

2.9% increase year-on-year the average

went up 5 and a half% again as I've said

before the median is more accurate when

we're trying to track what's happening

in the market cuz the average sales

price is skewed by those really

expensive homes that sell every now and

then but still it was up 5.5% we only

had one month we discussed this last

week one month that was down that was

the month of March every other month has

been has been up year on year and you

know the past five months in particular

have been really strong we've only had

one month that was less than

52% increase year on-year to the

average price of a home in Greenville

that was the month of August it was 2%

otherwise we've been seeing the

average sales price go up over 5%

over 5 and a half% every single month

for the past for the past five months

with the exception of August percent

of list price received stayed flat

98.3% and this now gives us our first

month of the year where the percent of

list price received was higher year on

year November of last year was

98.1% November of this year

98.3% so sellers are for the first time

on a year-on-year basis getting more

than they did the year prior for

their

home and you can if you're looking on

YouTube you can read the description

I'm not going to get into the Weeds on

it but this is the percentage found when

dividing a property sales price by its

most recent list price then taking the

average for all properties sold in a

given month not accounting for seller

concessions okay I'm not going to

explain all of that again because we

need to keep plugging away with this

I've explained that in other episodes

you can go back and listen to housing

affordability index we had some nice

movement in the month of November

finally finally a little bit of relief

for home buyers and I would imagine

that this is heavily related to mortgage

rates going down it went up from

79 79 housing affordability index to

86 in the month of November now that's

still a 6.5% year on-year decrease from

the 92 that we had the prior year but

it's at least good to see it getting

higher in in the month of November

now seasonally that is pretty normal

but I'm hoping that this trend continues

for the next few months as mortgage

rates hopefully are lower than what

they've been so that's great to see what

we want to see this number at is 100

when at least 100 100 means that the

median household the standard household

in Greenville can't afford the median

priced home so that's what we want to

see at 86 then the median household

can only afford 86% of the median priced

home in the market that's not great we

want to see that number higher in so far

as we

can inventory of homes for sale this is

another one similar to pendings that

is typically off a little bit okay so it

says

4,55 which is a big increase from

November of last year which was

3522 that's going to get revised down to

probably 3700 3,800 something like that

after it's all said and done still going

to be an increase year onye and October

La the last month that we have these

stats for was up 3.8% year on year it'll

probably be something similar for the

month of November so inventory is still

going up but it's going up at a much

slower Pace than it was with some of

these earlier prints like in March we

had inventory was up

114% Year on-ear we're not seeing

anything like that we're and we're

still below the prepandemic Norms right

so as long as we are below

4,000 we are still below pre-

pandemic but we're getting closer we're

getting very close to to the

pre-pandemic Norms now that said we're

still not particularly well I guess

we're getting closer to the pre-pandemic

norms and month supply you don't want to

look at at the most again the most

recent number but we're right around 3%

month supply that's what October was was

revised to and I imagine that November

is going to be pretty close to that

about 3 months supply of inventory

and and so we'll keep tracking that I

talked a lot about that in in some

other episodes recently so I'm not going

to get in the Weeds on that so there we

go th that is some of what's happening

in in the market based on the market

stats Nationwide we've had a decline

in closing I've read some some data

recently 18% declin in closing is

Nationwide so Greenville is much more

steady and stable than that and and

that's something that I think is is

great I I like that about our Market the

highs in Greenville aren't as high as

other places and the lows aren't as low

when it comes to the real estate

market and that's really helpful for me

as a realtor that's really helpful for a

lot of my clients they they you know

when you're in a boom and bust type of

Market that's really terrifying if

you're a buyer or a seller the

Greenville Market is stable and that's

reflected in all of these numbers at the

end of the day

now next week I've got another episode

that I'm very excited for we're going to

talk about the Bold predictions that I

have for the year 2024 we're going to

kick off 2024 right with 10 bold

predictions but before then we had

this episode The recap of 2023 I hope

you guys appreciated it I appreciate you

guys and I appreciate you all of my

listeners I'm looking forward to giving

away a $200 Amazon gift card to one of

you if you skip to the end to try to

figure out how to get that gift card

you're going to have to rewind because I

said it earlier but I appreciate you

guys listening please like rate review

subscribe to this podcast however you're

watching or listening and please just

a reminder as always my contact

information is in the show notes Fox

News found it and they sent me an email

and I replied to them within just a few

hours I saw the I actually saw it right

when it hit my inbox and I said I need

to not look desperate I'm going to wait

a few minutes before I respond to this

and and so that's exactly what I did

which I don't know that it's probably a

silly thing to do but but it was a

slow day and and I saw that email as

soon as it came in and and and I was

tempt to just respond right away and I

was like no give it some time to breathe

give it some time to think about your

response and so I did but but yeah

there's a little peek behind the veil at

how some of that went down but I

appreciate all you guys that contact

information is in the show notes if you

need a realtor or if you need or if

you're a media publication you need a

comment on the Greenville Market here

you go I'm your guy thank you guys for

listening we will talk again next time