At the national level, housing affordability is down from last month and down from a year ago. Mortgage rates rose to 4.88 percent this October, up 18.7 percent compared to 4.11 percent a year ago. Housing affordability declined from a year ago in October moving the index down 9.7 percent from 162.7 to 146.9. The… Continue Reading October 2018 Housing Affordability Index
Buyers should never solely rely upon the seller disclosure and advertising materials regarding the property that the buyers are considering buying. Buyers should hire qualified expert inspectors for all issues that matter to the buyers. Often there is great uncertainty about how offsite properties and offsite conditions might change in the future. Buyers must understand… Continue Reading SCR310 Inspections: Buyers can Perform Off Site Conditions
Buyers should always ask the seller about these issues and contract for a seller disclosure form which asks about these issues. Here is a rough draft idea for this issue, perhaps for SCR391. Seller affirms: that the Seller owns the Property and that Seller can convey the Property and that there is no and will… Continue Reading Leased Equipment, Financed Equipment, Servicing/Monitoring Payments
SCR will post the new seller disclosure to the SCR forms library ASAP. EFFECTIVE 1/1/19: REVISED South Carolina Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement South Carolina Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement (Effective 1/1/19) (Revised 11/18) (pdf) Due to a 2018 legislative amendment to the South Carolina Residential Property Disclosure Act, amendments to the South Carolina Residential… Continue Reading New Seller Disclosure (Historic District ?) (HOA ?)
A few questions came in as the 11/15/18 SCR314/SCR312 webinar was wrapping up so here are the answers: Does SCR314 apply to commercial deals? Yes. Commercial brokers send SCR314 offer rejection for to buyers when the seller rejects the commercial buyer's offer without a counter offer or acceptance of offer. What is the counter offer… Continue Reading Follow Up Answers to 314/312 Webinar (Offer Rejection Form & Multiple Offer Form)
NAR reports a win against patent trolls after a decade of legal fighting. Patent trolls are generally defined as a person/organization that asserts a patent on a common generic procedure or idea then uses threats of patent litigation as leverage to extract monetary settlements from businesses who use the common/generic procedure or idea. Brokerages sometimes… Continue Reading Slaying Patent Trolls
The SC Vacation Rental Act was passed in 2002 and is designed to protect SC's tourism industry's reputation after some incidents where vacationing families traveled great distances to visit SC only to find their rental had been sold and they had no vacation place to stay/sleep so their vacation was ruined. Buyers who want to… Continue Reading Vacation Rental Act
The history of traffic lights, insurance for stolen packages, fax machines, dangerous toys, architectural gingerbread and much more compiled by Anne-Marie Siudzinski, Senior Library Information Specialist. Cubicles=Freedom? Not so much. Traffic lights are 150 years old. Dagny Mol/flickr/2010 Police are teaming up with Amazon to outwit thieves. Will insurance cover those stolen packages? Maybe. Does… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: December 10-14
Shannon McGahn, NAR’s Vice President of Government Affairs, issued the following statement after the EPA yesterday unveiled a proposal to change the Waters of the U.S. definition in order to clarify which waters are and are not regulated by the federal government. “Shannon McGahn, NAR’s Vice President of Government Affairs, issued the following statement after… Continue Reading REALTORS® Respond to EPA’s Proposed WOTUS Revision
Buyers are solely responsible to investigate all issues about their insurance needs pre-contract or at a minimum during their due diligence period so the buyer does not become obligated to buy a property when their insurance costs are on the high end of their budget or expensive repairs are required (e.g. old roof, +20, old… Continue Reading Insurance: Buyers Need to Investigate Pre-Contract or At Least During Due Diligence