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The Best Black Friday is Coming!

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 14:05:00 GMT

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T his black Friday is going to be my favorite black Friday ever! Unless we lose. It’s not because there's going to be some amazing sale on something that I want or don’t need. THIS black Friday the USA is playing England in our second game of the World Cup at 2:00. For those of you that know me, you know my main interest outside of family and work is soccer. This World Cup is the first time in 8 years that the US will be playing in the tournament. There are going to be some great places to watch the game, Yee-Haw Brewery in Greenville, will have it on the big screen outside for one. Lots of other places will have the game all over. There are plenty of interesting twists and stories to each of these teams. (Hey England – Harry Maguire!) With so much passion from each player representing their respective country, there is always some drama and great sport stories. This is the biggest and most watched tournament in the world -of ANY sport- on the biggest stage, and on Black Friday it will be time to actually perform as a national team. If you are not a soccer follower, then wondering why in the world is coming up this Thanksgiving and holiday time, it is because Qatar is the host country for the World Cup. There is a great deal of controversy and human labor rights surrounding that, but there's no way they could be played in the summer with their temperatures, so it has been adjusted to the winter for this tournament.

Four years from now the Cup will be hosted between US Canada and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. If you want to join me in watching it, look for me at Yeehaw on black Friday to see it on the big screen outside!

SCHOOL IS BACK!!!

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 15:09:00 GMT

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S CHOOL IS BACK!!!
Whew! For those guessing, that is a relieving sigh, for the kiddos to be back in school after the last few weeks of summer. My wife and I love our children and love being around them, but as two working parents, we are ready for the routine again. So are our kids if you ask them.

With that, fall market is just around the corner. In the upstate of SC, we are seeing numbers of available homes slowly climb (but still not where we should be), and also the market normalizing back towards a balanced market.
Over the last about 6 weeks or so I have seen a lot price reductions on listings as sellers wanted to “test the market” with a high price that numbers don’t really support – but when buyers could finance more with lower rates, they could afford to overspend a little, or possibly cover an appraisal gap with cash. As a result, these high “test” prices don’t create offers, so to get offers or more traffic in, these sellers are reducing to what the accurate price should be.
Some buyers don’t have the same buying power they did in March if they are financing a high percentage of their purchase. Does that mean your home is worth less? Not necessarily, it means some of the inflated prices that we have seen are fading, and we are getting back to a more normal market where most homes last more than 2 days on market. Happy to continue a conversation with any of you on it if you reach out!
Hope you have a great month!

I did a thing! Or maybe it should say we? - No ‘I’ in Team, right?

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:02:00 GMT

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I did a thing! Or maybe it should say we? - No ‘I’ in Team, right? Some of you have heard or seen in TOWN magazine and a few other places I market, or that know me well, learned that I have joined the Furman Group in our company. There are 3 of us: Patrick Furman, Samantha Snyder, and myself. As I have told friends and clients, Patrick and I have been working together as the New Development Team for Joan Herlong & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty for the better part of 2 years. He and Samantha have been a team on their own outside of the New Developments. Well, all of our business has grown, and we all had been sounding boards for each other at times, helped cover some showings or things when one was pulled in too many directions, among other tasks. We all want to continue to grow our business, reach, and especially our service to clients. We all work well together, get along well, give each other a hard time (all in good fun), and enjoy being around one an other. So as you see things from me that are branded “Furman Group,” yes, I am still in the same amazing Sotheby’s International Realty affiliate, with Joan still being our company principal and fearless leader. Now, whenever a client is working with myself, Patrick, or Samantha – they get 3 sharp agents for the price of one.
-Matt

New Contract for South Carolina

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 17:21:00 GMT

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S o, the contract that we all have been using to buy and sell residential real estate in SC has changed as of June 13. The forms and contracts committee has been reviewing and revising the current contract that we have been using for the last several years. I’m also grateful to have one of the instrumental people on the forms committee as our CEO. This change is here, so we all need to be prepared to use it, and understand how it affects you as a buyer or seller. The biggest change to note is the removal of the inspections and repair process, and changing it all to a due diligence process. A main idea behind it is that contracts should stay together more often than not with that process, and should not fall apart with negotiations on repairs, as it can/could with an inspection/repair process. With due diligence, the buyer has at minimum a termination fee at stake if they decide to walk away before the end of the due diligence period. They can inspect as much or as little as they want in that period, make repair requests if they choose to, but the seller doesn’t have to do them if they don’t want to. They could take the termination fee and put their house right back on the market. There is of course more to all of this, and the important take away is to be ready for it, and understand how it affects your strategy as a seller or as a buyer. The termination fee has existed for due diligence contracts now, so that part is not new. Really knowing what your offer says to the other side to land the contract is the crucial part. Feel free and reach out to me for more on it! -Matt

The Network

Tue, 17 May 2022 00:31:00 GMT

The Network

A few weeks ago I went to a Sotheby’s international Realty networking event called the Ski NE. One of our brokers in charge and I were supposed to go to a different event out west back in the fall, but a goose hitting the plane pretty much derailed that whole trip. So we were going on the next one that would work for our schedules, which to both of our liking was out in Big Sky Montana, a skiing and networking event.
We wanted to make sure that we didn't end up with something like the previous trip affecting this one, so we safely book ended travel days on it, and to include an additional ski day for us.
After day one of skiing, we met up with our Sotheby’s group that evening and enjoyed a happy hour and mixer. From the beginning of that happy hour to the end of the event, I met about 150 different Sotheby’s International Realty agents in markets other than the upstate of SC. From Telluride, Lake Tahoe, Scottsdale, all the way up the California coast and around Seattle, Montana, Boston, and down in Orlando with smatterings in between.
They were of course valuable takeaways from different panels, and different conversations with individual agents over the days there, but it was interesting and reassuring to see how high the standard for Sotheby's International Realty is everywhere.
The small world experience of it is I was sitting next to an agent I had been emailing with in Boston, regarding an upcoming listing, and here we were sitting next to each other at Sushi restaurant at the town center in Big Sky, Montana! I also spoke about the Upstate of South Carolina market to that group, who some had no idea about what all Greenville in the surrounding areas have to offer. If you could live and work anywhere, why not here!? Great experience, great people, amazing network!

Guardians of the Pond

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 09:58:00 GMT

Hi all,

So I get asked a lot of questions from friends, clients, and just people who know that I am an agent about various topics and things that come up in real estate. Whether it is: do you know a good lender? What do you think of this market? or just an interesting feature or funny home showing experience, I am going to post about them here periodically. I am going to aim for a biweekly post, whether long or short. So be on the lookout, and I will also have a link in my monthly e-newsletter to it.
I am going to start with something short on the lighter side: I was on a listing appointment sitting down with the sellers talking through the details, and what was being conveyed with the home and property. There is a private stocked pond on this one with a handful of ducks, and on the list of items that convey, will be those ducks. They aren't basing any future home purchase on the livelihood of their feathered friends, and want to make sure the future owners know those guys will be long lived "guardians of the pond."