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 here in

Greenville and if you need a realtor in

Greenville or elsewhere you can find all

my contact information in the show notes

if you're a realtor looking to join a

team uh I have a small team that I uh

co- team lead and I would be happy to

discuss with you about joining our team

so please let me know contact info in

the show notes also in the show notes

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whole little pocket here of uh of the

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please if you do none of those things at

the very least please leave a review if

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leave a comment I will respond if it's a

thoughtful comment I can assure you I

will I don't get a whole lot of them I

will respond um so I'd appreciate if you

guys could do those things and Happy

Thanksgiving to everyone right I'm uh

going to release this before

Thanksgiving I'm guessing probably the

vast majority of my listeners will

listen after

Thanksgiving um so um if you're

listening prior to Thanksgiving I hope

you have a good one if you're listening

post Thanksgiving I hope it was a good

one and that you didn't blow all your

money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

um but uh every year at least for the

past few years I've done a thankfulness

episode and this year is no different

definitely something that I wanted to to

get in for the year 2024 but if I'm

going to be completely honest this has

actually been an extremely challenging

year for me personally probably the

hardest year that I have personally had

since 2020 which was the co year but

also the year I got diagnosed with

epilepsy and wasn't allowed to drive for

6 months uh which is challenging for a

realtor my wife was driving me to

showings which was weird and kind of

embarrassing um but uh it's it's been a

tough year there's just been a lot of

personal stuff lingering in the

background constantly in addition to the

market being challenging various

transactions being challenging I mean

feels like every transaction has been

hard like even the layups have been hard

um big changes obviously happening in

the real estate world that completely

shook up our industry complicated the

job Etc it's just been really for I

think for a lot of Realtors this has

been a very very hard year um and uh

it's been no exception for me and I'm

not looking to boohoo you know cry on

someone's shoulder but I'm just being

honest um and that was that was where

when I went into preparing for this

episode that was immediately where my

headspace went was just like man this is

going to be hard I'm going to have to

put in some work to try to uh to try to

come up with uh 10 things to be thankful

for um but uh it actually wasn't that

hard and and you know as I've already

said I've done this now for for several

years where I discuss what I'm thankful

for with Greenville real estate

generally uh generally being the primary

topics of my thankfulness um and uh I

felt like I needed to do this exercise

more this year than in the past because

of the sort of year that it's been um

and and you know at the end of the day

and what I learned from from going

through this and and from finding that

it really wasn't that hard uh for me to

come up with with 10 things to be

thankful for it's just easy to forget

all the good things that have happened

when our brains are pre-wired to focus

on the bad um that's just the way we are

that's you know when when we we feel a

threat when we feel uh icky our brains

just focus on that double down on that

um there's a lot of psychology behind

that that I won't get into um but um but

that's the reality of the situation so

sometimes we just have to reset and just

list out what we're thankful for and I I

think that this year is going to be a

little more

biographical uh than other years a

little more focus on stuff going on in

in my actual life uh somewhat as it

pertains to real estate because like I

said there was a lot that went on in my

life that was challenging this year and

so to combat that um I specifically

Focus my heads space around what the

things were that happened that were

positives for me so Let's Just Jump

Right In I don't like this episode to be

super long um but I do like to to do

this episode there are some people that

tell me that this is their favorite

episode of the year so I always want to

make sure that I that I get this out to

everyone um so in no particular order

number one on my list and I already said

there's 10 things on here I got my first

podcast sponsor this year and I was able

to use that money and of course it was

Piper Insurance Group as I've already

referenced um I was able to use the

money that Piper Insurance Group uh paid

to be sponsor for this podcast to help

someone battling cancer I I committed

all of that uh to helping a friend of

mine who is battling cancer I don't mean

this as a humble brag at all just to be

clear okay what I mean by this the

reason why I bring this up rather than

you know trying to Pat myself on the

back oh I did this I'm so great no no no

you guys did this there would be no

sponsorship if it wasn't for you guys my

listeners I were just shouting into the

void and nobody was listening to this

content

there would be no sponsorship and so

thank you to you guys thank you to Piper

Insurance Group I'm I'm very grateful

that I got a sponsor I'd love to get

more at some point um but it's not

something I'm actively

pursuing um at this time I'm not you

know sending out a gazan emails I don't

have time to you know find sponsors uh

Piper was was a great option because

they're local I've I have a bunch of

policies with them uh Stephen Piper is a

listener of the show so it just made

sense it was just a good fit um and I

appreciate you guys for helping make

that happen uh number two uh the

Greenville real estate market stayed

stable during a time of tremendous

upheaval I've already referenced I mean

this year was crazy right we had several

several things in a normal year would be

a complete death now to the real estate

industry High rates uh presidential

election and and a crazy one at that

right assassination attempts a uh

presidential candidate uh stepping down

without a primary to replace him like

all sorts of

stuff um and then in addition to that

I've already referenced you know we had

all these changes that happened we've

had so many different um forms contracts

that were the language has changed we've

had to go through all sorts of classes

uh our compensation model has completely

changed for realtors um some people are

dropping out of the industry because of

that and at the end of the day has it

been a good year for real estate in

Greenville no no it really hasn't uh

like let's just be honest uh but the

market has stayed stable we haven't seen

it crater like it has in some other

parts of the country and for that I'm

grateful that is not a small thing right

I could be sitting here like without any

business and that's not the case in fact

I'm listing two homes later today um so

that's something that I I think and and

of course I'm I'm recording this well

before Thanksgiving because I will be

with my in-laws uh at my in-law and

Thanksgiving um so um anyway the I'm I'm

grateful that the market has stayed

stable my business has not been as good

as I wish it would have been but it has

also been stable and and for that I'm

grateful during a time of great upheaval

um number three I became the the co-

team leader of the Morgan Group which is

the team I've been on since I entered

real estate and that was really a great

honor for me and something that I'm

immensely thankful for it's not

something I've we've gone super public

with but I've T I've told you guys on

the show

um and uh that's something that for me

personally was was a a huge stepping

stone right um I've always wanted to uh

I I've always enjoyed mentoring people

I've always enjoyed um trying to help

people with with training and just

become better versions of themselves and

I think that this is going to give me a

great opportunity um obviously we need

to to grow the team first and foremost

so if you know people that might be a

good fit to to join a small real estate

team uh please let me know uh but for

the time being I'm just grateful um that

I have this opportunity this worked out

um that the person who founded the team

uh Bob Morgan that he was gracious

enough to to bring me in uh as uh

basically an an equal with him on the

team that he founded and built um and

I'm I'm just super grateful for that and

that's uh that's something that I'm I'm

really excited 2025 and Beyond uh what

that means for for me for my business

and uh for those that join the team uh

moving

forward number four um mortgage rates

peaked and then came back down a little

I'm very grateful for that right

mortgage rates hit in the 8% range per

mortgage News Daily at one point and now

they're back down in the 7% uh low right

around 7% range um 7% is really rough 8%

like if they were at 8% right now I I

don't think anyone would be buying

anything so the fact that they did Peak

they did come back down um that is that

is tremendously huge right I I did an

episode uh back in September where we I

looked at I analyzed a ton of data um

going into the episode and then broke it

down for you guys where I looked at the

30-year fixed rate mortgage average uh

per the Morin's daily composite and then

compared it to the unemployment rate

basically if you add those two numbers

together um if it's over 11 that's

really bad for the housing market well

it is over 11 right unemployment which

is a lagging number but unemployment

currently the best number we have 4.1

mortgage rates around seven um that is

over 11 right and if we hit

11.45 that is a truly catastrophic

that's usually when we see a major

housing market recession um much worse

than what we've currently experienced we

haven't hit that yet um we were at

11.18 yesterday yesterday uh when I

looked and hopefully by the time you

guys are listening to this hopefully um

mortgage rates will have mediated uh not

mediated hopefully they will have

moderated that's the word I'm looking

for moderated and perhaps that that

number will come below 11 perhaps

mortgage rates will be in the high sixes

by that point because they're just kind

of going up and down Market's doing

weird things um but the main thing I'm

happy about is that we're not at that

eight range we did come off of that

number um because if if if it wasn't for

that the the market would be in pretty

bad shape right now uh number five um my

mom again I said there would be more

personal things in here my mom now lives

less than 10 minutes from me and um that

was a a big thing it was a it was a

something that you know was a long time

incoming she had said and and my dad

when he was still alive um you know for

years that they were going to move to

Greenville um it finally happened this

year unfortunately my dad passed away

last year so um so he wasn't able to see

the promised land as it were um but um

but he's looking at us from above and um

and now you know I've got my mom less

than 10 minutes from me and and it's

nice it's nice to just you know be able

to to go on a walk together do a meal

together or or this or that uh first

time since I graduated college that I've

lived near my mom um so uh so I think

that that's great and by the way she is

a residential cleaner she and and she

can also do things like churches as well

although it's not been a big part of her

business in the past um but she's

cleaning for a ton of agents and clients

right now and if you need a cleaner

please let me know um my contact info in

the show notes I'd be happy to connect

you with her number six Greenville

wasn't hit as hard by Helen as it could

have been okay and listen Greenville was

hit pretty hard um in fact it's it's

interesting I uh I I went to a uh a

session recently that uh was led by

someone that was not from Greenville and

he said something to the effect of you

guys weren't weren't thankfully hit by

the hurricane and everyone just kind of

looked around like uh we were without

power for multiple weeks um and uh yeah

he he stepped right into a trap he

didn't realize people didn't realize

that Greenville was hit because so much

Focus was on Western North Carolina um

but that's because Western North

Carolina was hit insanely hard and other

parts of uh in Helen's path were hit way

worse um some parts with gusts of wind

100 m per hour and over Greenville did

not have that and for that I'm immensely

grateful right we you know we we did

have uh immense loss of of property

people now having to fight insurance

claims um people without power from

multiple weeks as I already referenced a

lot of things like that um a lot lot of

people were hit very hard by the storm

but it wasn't a devastating storm I

don't know anyone that was injured I

don't know anyone that was killed um as

a result of Helen and um and all of my

clients that were affected um it did

hurt us right it I I you know two months

ago I or or after Helen I discussed you

know I don't know if this is going to

just eliminate one to two months of real

estate business from the real estate

economy for the year in Greenville or if

it's going to cause a backlog well it's

looking like it's it's just eliminating

those one to two months which which is

kind of lousy because it was already

kind of a a down Year anyway um but uh

but imagine how much worse it could have

been had we gotten hit with those 100

mile per hour wind gusts that Western

North Carolina uh got hit with and so

I'm particularly grateful that that that

didn't happen I live in a basement home

I know people that have basement homes

that got flooded mine did not even

though I've got a creek right on my lot

like you know like 100 ft away from my

house um and that Creek sits in a flood

plane and that water um did not it it

entered my garage which my garage is

between the creek and uh and my house

and uh and it came into my garage and it

essentially stopped there and uh and so

I'm extremely grateful for that which

leads to point number seven my home

wasn't damaged despite being near a

flood plane right and we got the winds

um we and I have huge trees on my lot

I've got about one and a half acres um

massive massive trees um but only one

tree fell it was a tree in the far back

of my lot that was termite

infested and um and you know it fell

wasn't a big deal um didn't didn't

impact my yard using my yard is all like

I said all the way in the back didn't

impact my house uh didn't have any

obvious wind damage uh sometimes I go on

the roof you know I used to be an

insurance adjuster so I can go on the

roof and identify wind damage I didn't

even bother CU I could see from ground

level if you're an insurance adjuster

listening to this you're probably like

you can't see anything from ground level

yeah you can you you can you can see

some stuff from ground level you can't

see the full picture um but I saw enough

from ground level to know that I don't

even need to get get on that roof the

roof is doing okay we didn't even have

wind driven rain right that's a that's

another thing your roof can be perfectly

fine you can have rain enter it through

the eaves um and that's uh wind driven

rain didn't even have that so I'm very

grateful my house was not damaged

because I was not prepared for that

storm I was completely checked out I

have never had uh we've never had in the

time that I've lived in Greenville a

storm come up from the Gulf and impact

Us in that way if you know the the worst

storms that we've had have always come

from the Atlantic during the time that

I've lived in

Greenville which is 20 years now so um

it it it was completely not on my radar

that a golf storm could

completely uh

incapacitate Greenville uh but that

happened and um and you know I woke up

the the day of the storm saw that had

shifted and and was like basically right

over my house and I didn't even really

think about it I didn't think maybe I

should go in my basement to see if it's

flooded I just was completely and and

I'm a big weather guy too I was

completely checked out I just had no

idea i' been very busy that week I was

focused on some other things and um and

so I'm I'm extremely grateful because I

was completely caught with my pants down

completely caught unprepared and

thankfully ended up uh not being a

problem for my house specifically uh

number eight um I was able to take on

leadership positions this year that I

wasn't even pursuing uh but that allowed

me to give back to Greenville and the

real estate industry as a whole so I now

chair the uh realtor political action

committee here in Greenville I've

referenced that a few times

um I've been on that committee since

2020 um and I've I've had a lot of fun

in that committee we do we we really

tried to to push for private property

rights there's nobody nobody I'm I'm

telling you no independent organization

that's pushing for proper private

property rights in Greenville besides uh

our our Pac committee like that's the

reality of the situation um and that

very much excites me I'm I'm a big right

guy um and so to be able to chair that

committee um has been a lot of fun for

me this year I'm also this year um I

well technically last year but this year

is my first full year on the uh South

Carolina uh realtor legislative

committee which is kind of the same

thing um but on the state level right

and I don't chare that committee I'm

just I'm just a part of that committee

um and uh and so that's another way that

you know I can get back to the state can

we can we're constantly I mean the

amount of stuff that you guys if if you

truly knew what was happening at the

state level you'd probably be appalled

um because there there is just trampling

of Rights left and right on the state

level and again we're able to advocate

for private property rights and try to

ensure that uh it's on our legislators

Minds that hey people need housing they

need the flexibility to use their

property how they want and they need to

be able to do all this affordably in so

in so far as uh as it's POS possible and

and that the market allows and um in our

legislature quite frankly a lot of them

wouldn't care uh if they weren't being

constantly having to be constantly

educated by outside groups and we're one

of the main groups doing that on the

state level um I'm also on the this year

the and I was just sworn in uh to the

greater Greenville Association of

Realtors board of directors um and that

was something I never asked for um I was

actually in

Mexico when I

um over uh New Year's when I received a

call from the current uh president of

the uh of the board and um and you know

just out of the blue she asked me if if

I wanted to join the board and it was

like um I was not prepared for this

question um and I'm here on a beach in

Mexico and I might drop this call but

sure why not you know it's another way

to give back and little did I know that

this was would be probably the most

chaotic time to join a Realtor

Association board because as I've

already said the National Association of

Realtors lost a well I didn't directly

say this but we've talked about this in

the past they lost a massive lawsuit

this year and that created huge ripples

down to the South Carolina Association

of Realtors and the greater Greenville

Association of Realtors that resulted in

tons of changes um in fact we had a

whole um from the time that I recorded

this a week ago we had this whole uh

brainstorming session on on what kind of

value can we give back to our

membership um you know even if perhaps

they don't see the value right or or the

main thing that they find to be the

value no longer is the value of being a

part of the Association of Realtors um

and

um and so it's just been what what an

interesting time to to join that board

when it's kind of a crisis time and um

so I'm grateful for that I'm going to be

serving a a two-year term and uh from

from now moving forward the next couple

of years um I had been in an in an

interim term um from uh starting with

the new year um but uh I'm I'm excited

to see you know how I grow in that role

and how I'm able to contribute in that

role over the years um and that leads

right into number nine which is um from

a real estate standpoint I'm grateful

for the leadership at the greater

Greenville Association of Realtors at

the South Carolina Association and the

National Association listen they're

getting a a lot of negative press right

now in fact as I'm recording this um

yesterday the New York Times just

published a a gnarly article about the

National Association of Realtors about

their finances and extravagant spending

and and all sorts of stuff um it's a hit

piece I'm I'm thinking it was probably

an inside job by someone that was

recently let go or perhaps fired from

National Association of Realtors um but

the reality is that um even though they

lost the lawsuit that they should have

won um I not it it's hard to know

exactly how much of that was their fault

because the lawsuit was kind of rigged

in a lot of ways which I'm not going to

get into here um and uh it is what it is

I think the leadership that's in place

now um is doing a good job and I'm

particularly am impressed by the local

leadership here in Greenville and in the

state of South Carolina um I know that

leadership much more more and they have

done a great job because I mean they

steer the ship for the the real estate

market right people don't people don't

know how much is happening be behind the

scenes and even if you're not using a

realtor right even if let's say you're a

big for sale by owner person which

probably nobody listening to this

podcast is um but let's say you're a big

for sale by owner person um you don't

like to use Realtors maybe you're an

investor that you know you you do your

own Direct Mail programs uh so that you

don't have to use a buyer agent um just

know that even if you're not using

agents the the real estate market is

still being worked and still being moved

by professional real estate

organizations that's just how it works

uh in in a variety of ways um and so all

that leadership that trickles down to

everyone that affects the entire

market number 10 last but not least I

actually saved Best For Last is that my

clients were amazing this year despite

the insanity of the year I mean this was

a stressful year for buyers and sellers

incredibly

stressful and yet my clients were great

um we we had some hard conversations at

different times um we had some some

challenging challenging situations

challenging talks homes that went under

contract fell out from being under

contract went back under contract fell

out again kept doing this back and forth

over and over again homes that wouldn't

get any showings um buyers that couldn't

find anything because rates uh in their

price range because rates were so high

so many different things and yet in all

of that my clients uh were fantastic and

any of my clients past future present

listening to this just know that I

really appreciate you and I appreciate

all of my listeners I've already said

that uh in point number one with my uh

sponsorship uh

uh part of this that I talked about but

I'm thankful for each and every one of

you guys if you're listening great

watching on YouTube great if you're a

client that's not listening you're still

getting a little bit of a shout out here

so thank you to each and every one of

you guys and I hope that you guys have a

lot to be thankful for I encourage you

to take some time to do this sort of

exercise as well just come up with 10

things um it might be easier than you

think once you start rolling with the 10

things this was 10 things just all about

more or less all about real estate for

me I didn't even get you know even

though it was more personal than normal

I didn't get into anything personal I

didn't get into anything with with my

family besides my mom moving here I

didn't get into anything with you know

all sorts of of other things um going on

in my life that I could be thankful for

so there is so much uh that we can be

thankful for so many ways that that we

are have been and will be blessed and

and I hope that you guys feel that that

you feel that this year uh despite the

the challenging year that it's been and

that uh you have you know to uh

continually the ability to see the light

ahead at the end of the tunnel even when

things are dark so thank you guys for

listening a lot to be thankful for I

hope you have or had a great

Thanksgiving please like rate review

subscribe please contact me if you need

a realtor please contact Piper Insurance

Group if you need an insurance agent and

we will talk again next time