Investment Property Charleston SC | Income Producing Real Estate
CHARLESTON SC INVESTMENT PROPERTIES & INCOME PRODUCING REAL ESTATE
For investors in Charleston SC the real estate game is a tricky one. We all made thousands and — probably millions if you add it all up — flipping houses, leasing offices and renovating condos. Then the real estate market collapsed, throwing the U.S. into the 2007-2009 recession.
Now the prognosis for real estate investments is looking much better, though it’s anything but simple. Some commercial real estate has rebounded, with investors craving income that real estate provides, while Low-country residential Charleston real estate — particularly single-family homes — may be at once-in-a-lifetime bargain prices.
Four top experts were asked for their take on the the opportunities and potential pitfalls facing real estate investors in the coming years. Edited excerpts of their interviews follow:
Jim Sullivan, managing director of REIT research, Green Street Advisors
Every diversified investor should have some exposure to commercial real estate, and REITs [real estate investment trusts] provide a terrific, transparent and liquid way to get that exposure. Operating fundamentals in most property types range from good to great, with good being the shopping center business and industrial business and great being the apartment business. The economy is not doing great, but the silver lining for commercial real estate is how little new supply is coming on the market. Too much new commercial construction is typically what puts a halt to real estate recoveries. This time around, it’s just not an issue.
Multi-Family Income Properties
REITs tend to be specialized by property type. You can pick and choose, depending on what your economic outlook might be. If your forecast is a little rosier, you’d want to be in property types that respond well in economic recoveries — hotels, for example, or REITs that own shopping centers with lots of small tenants. If you wanted to be a bit more defensive, health care REITs are a terrific place to be. When investing in Charleston real estate the safe bet would obviously be in tourism based avenues considering that is the most consistent driver of revenue.
The biggest opportunity is buying distressed single-family homes, because that market has been completely beat up. The next biggest opportunity is buying land because very few people have been focused on it. If you have a long-term view, you’ll probably see a significant multiple return. Buying land is a complicated business, though. Mom-and-pop investors should not be buying land.
Lauren Pressman, director of investment research at wealth management firm Aspiriant
The U.S. is in a period of sustained but very slow growth. Job reports are huge factors for real estate, because jobs create demand for housing, for offices, for travel and at retail establishments. We’re wary of things like retail and office, except in very unique circumstances. Multifamily real estate (apartment buildings) arguably had all the tail winds at its back to do the best of all asset classes. However, be careful. There is so much capital chasing multifamily, and that can lift prices beyond a point where your return is commensurate with risk.
No matter what your strategy is always be careful and have a good local agent to help you navigate through the maze of options out there for investing in real estate in Charleston or anywhere. Find a great contractor in Charleston and let them help you with the renovations, and repair necessary to get a C.O. and move onto the next real estate opportunity.
VACATION RENTALS
One of the long tried and true income producing real estate investments popular in Charleston area is in beachfront homes or 
resort vacation rentals. It’s no mystery that homes in beach communities are very attractive year round and hundreds of thousands of visitors come to our beaches in S.C. to unwind. Homes for sale on the Isle of Palms and in Wild Dunes real estate make big money on weekly vacation rentals for their owners. Many developers and investors will even buy an existing home, tear it down and build a new one just for the returns it can produce. Weekly rentals on Folly Beach, Kiawah, Seabrook Island, and even downtown Charleston garner upwards of $4000 to $7000+. Even with HOA Dues in Wild Dunes, Kiawah Island, and Seabrook Island + monthly regimes for condos/villas these properties can get easily $30,000 yr for one bedroom to $90k+ for beachfront and 3 bedroom units.
There has never been a better time to pull money out of the equities market and into real estate, rates are low, and prices are too.
The factors that determine the cost of your home’s insurance expenses varies greatly as one can imagine. However, here in Charleston SC there are additional concerns that we have to consider like; wind from hurricane’s, flooding from, and the intense heat our summers bring. All these contribute greatly to the longevity and strength of your home’s structural integrity. Age of a home is one of the largest negatives when it comes to the price of house insurance because the older the home the more likely there are defective, outdated, and deficient structural components that are likely more apt to fail or be at greater risk. The design of the house is also a huge consideration to carriers when quoting your policy. When considering buying a home it’s a good idea to look at a newer home (no more than 20 years old) if saving money is something you are concerned with. If your home was built in 2008 or later, make sure you are getting credit from your insurance company for having a home that meets modern building codes. Also, if your home has a hip roof – a pyramid-like roof that slopes on four sides – be sure your insurer is factoring that into your rate, because hip roofs are more hurricane-resistant than gable roofs.The amount of the incentive varies according to risk associated with the geographical location, building materials, and construction methods of each home as well as actuarial data from individual insurance companies. (Discounts apply only to the hurricane-wind portion of your policy; contact your insurance agency for more information.)Considering all this, you may still qualify for a DISCOUNT ON YOUR HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE. To qualify you must submit an inspection from a state certified wind mitigation inspector, 
Nationally, the number of homes sold rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.47 million. The numbers missed economists’ expectations of about 4.52 million home sales, according to Drew Matus, an economist at investment bank UBS.“Mortgage interest rates have been at record lows this year while rents have been rising at faster rates,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Combined, these factors are helping to unleash a pent-up demand. However, the market is constrained by unnecessarily tight lending standards and shrinking inventory supplies, so housing could easily be much stronger without these abnormal frictions.”Independent economists are looking for the housing market to begin slowly reversing its more than 30% slide in prices, though most do not expect substantive price gains until at least 2013 or 2014.“It was a little below expectations but still good,” said Mike Zoller, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. He said the sharp gains in prices reflect the smaller percentage of foreclosure-related distress sales included in the numbers, as well as the shift to more higher-end home sales.
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