Columbia SC Real Estate Podcast with Lance Woodley: Recent Episodes
Lance Woodley
If you are looking to buy or sell a home, get all the information and the latest updates, tips, and tricks from The Lance Woodley Realty Team- your professional Columbia, SC Real Estate Agents.
Here’s a brief history of one of Columbia’s vibrant neighborhoods: Shandon. Shandon (named after Shandon, Ireland) is the first developed suburb in the Columbia area and remains a very popular neighborhood to this day.
In the late 19th century, what we now know as Shandond was nothing but rolling farmland, but development started in 1893 when three lots were established by the Columbia Land and Investment Company. In 1909, Shandon was incorporated as a town, and the next year a streetcar line was built, which spurred further growth.
Homes started sprouting up all over the palace as Shandon became popular, and many of these homes were owned multi-generationally. Parents passed them onto their children, who then passed them onto their children, and so on. By the time the Great Depression arrived, many homes were sectioned into multi-family rental properties, and in the 1950s, these properties became ideal housing among college students (mostly from USC).
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Shandon is a vibrant multigenerational neighborhood with excellent property values. ”
During that last decade, Shandon was considered an older neighborhood—many residents were at or near retirement age. The close proximity to urban areas and amenities attracted young families, though, and as more and more of them moved into the area, they renovated houses, improved yards, etc.
Skip to the present day: Shandon is a vibrant multigenerational neighborhood with excellent property values. Some of those old duplexes and quadplexes are still there, ready and waiting for the next wave of college students.
Stay tuned for more videos where we’ll spotlight the history of the great city of Columbia. Remember, if you have any real estate questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.
Agent Holly Cook’s experience working with our team.Today I’m joined by Holly Cook, the newest agent on The Lance Woodley Team, for a wide-ranging interview about her experience working with us. We’ll talk about why she made the move from part-time to full-time and why she’s been so successful in the month and a half she’s been with us. We’ll also share the benefits of working for a team brokered by eXp Realty.
Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch it in its entirety, or use these timestamps to browse specific points at your leisure:
1:01—Holly’s previous experience working as a part-time agent
1:38—Why she made the move to full-time
2:23—Why her first month on the team was so successful
3:32—Why she now has more free time and security
5:03—The rewards of working at eXp Realty, where agents help each other and opportunities abound7:18—Wrapping things upIf you have questions about any of the topics we touched on during this discussion, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.
Here’s why COVID-19 may have helped change real estate forever. Even amid the pandemic, some people still need to buy and sell houses. Folks moving into our area for work need housing and folks who have similar motivations for leaving need to sell their properties quickly. It’s truly surprising how many transactions we’re doing right now; I initially expected things to come to a screeching halt.
The pandemic has pushed the future into the present. What do I mean by this? Well, we’re doing everything virtually, be it presentations, consultations, showings, or virtual tours. More and more buyers are becoming dependent on these virtual tours to quickly and effectively narrow down their options on the market, and some buyers are even buying online—excellent photos and a drive through the neighborhood are enough for some to put in an offer.
If you need to sell, we can set up a meeting via Zoom to help you determine the value of your house. Though it may not be a physical meeting, all of your questions can still be answered, and our ability to deliver professional insights remains the same. I don’t think this industry-wide shift into virtual operations will revert back once the pandemic ends. Simply put, the use of virtual platforms has made real estate transactions more efficient from top to bottom.
The pandemic has pushed the future into the present.
For instance, if you’re looking to buy, we can send you all of the houses that meet your parameters. We can discuss the terms you like, run a full comparative market analysis, and do our own little virtual appraisal of the house. As the process moves along and you decide to sign on a house, we can send you digital documents via DocuSign. Though we’d be happy to meet with you face-to-face once this health crisis subsides, my point is that everything can be done from the convenience of your home computer or laptop; the real estate game has changed. I’m assessing the market day by day and taking a very cautious approach. I can honestly say that the market is still doing very well, at least for us. Houses are selling quickly, some even generating multiple offers. There are a lot of buyers out there, all equally driven but each with their own motivations. If you’re thinking of buying or selling soon, or you have any questions about our market, please give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to hear about your unique situation, address your concerns, and get to work making your real estate dreams a reality.
Marketing is one of the keys to a successful home sale.
Marketing is something that you have to get right in one way or another in order to be a success in real estate sales. It’s about having a system that exposes a product, in our case a house, because we’re competing against other products on the market and we want to attract buyers to our specific product. The goal of marketing for us is to get buyers to consider our homes.
“Contacting interested buyers is as important as finding them.
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In order to attract buyers, you need to be exposed to them. Another part of marketing happens when you have particular buyers inquiring about your property. How will you respond to them? Is there a way to get their contact information quickly? How are you going to follow up?
If marketing is an interest of yours and you want to know more about it or how we can market your home properly in today’s market, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.
We’re expanding our technology to make our home selling experience even better than before.
Many of you know about our home selling system. We’re great at what we do, but now we’re getting even better: We’re expanding our technology to get the information on the house you’re selling out to buyers faster. In the last three days, we put two homes on the market that received multiple offers within a day and sold for full price. All the potential buyers for these houses saw them right away and were interested because of the strategic and timely way we got the information out there.
If you or someone you know is considering selling a property, give us a call or send an email. I’d love to tell you more about the technology we have to help with this. Also, contact us if you have any questions, or just want to hear more about how we sell homes.
COVID-19 has changed the way we do business, but houses are still being sold at a healthy rate.
How is COVID-19 affecting the real estate market? How has it changed the way agents conduct business? If we look at the data from last month, overall activity was only slightly lower than it was in March 2019. The good news is, home values are still trending upward. Meanwhile, we agents are going virtual to help buyers and sellers.
To get the full scoop on how COVID-19 is affecting the real estate market, watch the video above in its entirety. As always, if you have questions or are thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.
If you’re having a hard time selling, we can help.
If you’re having a hard time selling your house, we have a solution for you. How does it work?
We’re currently working with a property owner who got a wonderful job offer a few years ago that, unfortunately, was out of state. He needed to sell his house, but there was an issue: He owed $10,000 more than what the house was worth.
Instead of bringing $10,000 to the closing table in order to sell that house, we decided to turn this burden into a blessing by offering him our property management services. Over the past few years, we’ve been managing this property; we acquired enough rent to cover his monthly expenses and put enough money into his account to cover his mortgage, taxes, insurance, repairs, etc.
Now, this owner will finally be able to sell his house in a couple of weeks, and he’ll walk away from the closing table with cash in hand.
If you’d like us to do the same thing for you, call or email anytime. We’d love to help you.
There’s no limit to what a talented team can accomplish when they work under a proven system. Here’s why. Today I’m giving you an insight into the highly thought-out system we use at South Carolina Homes and Land Realty to sell your home fast and for top dollar.
A longtime client of mine asked me this a while ago when I closed another property for her: “In good times and bad times, you always manage to get the deal done. How do you do it?”
When you work with us, you will have a whole team working on your behalf.
I wish I could say that it was all me and that I was a superman agent. But it wasn’t; it’s a system developed in conjunction with some of the brightest agents in the U.S. I’ve been lucky enough to learn from and share ideas with some incredibly sharp minds over the years.
When you work with us, you will have a whole team working on your behalf. Every part of the transaction is broken down and handled by a specialist. One person isn’t responsible for the whole process; instead, we have highly competent individuals who know their assigned jobs and do them well.
This system is how we’re able to take a house that’s been on the market for five years, make some adjustments, price it $25,000 above its previous listing, sell it within four hours and close it within 30 days. Simply put, our system has been proven time and time again.
If you want to chat about our system in a little more detail, give me a call at (803)-407-3883 or visit our website. I’m always happy to hear from you.
If you’re an agent, don’t take the holiday season off—take advantage of it!
As an agent, I have an important tip to share with you as we prepare for the new year.
The holiday season is a time when a lot of agents take a mental break. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, they assume nothing happens so they might as well close up shop. Well, if you actually take advantage of this time, you can benefit greatly.
Why? As I said, many agents take this time of year off, so you’ll compete against fewer of them, and there are still buyers and sellers out there. There is more than one reason to buy or sell a home, and many people need to do so during the holidays.
Also, spring is supposedly the hottest market, but those who are planning to list their home at that time are thinking about who they should hire right now. It’s only natural that they’ll gravitate toward agents who are active during this time of year.
People who are planning to list their home at that time are thinking about who they should hire right now.
If you’re taking time off from Christmas to New Year’s Day, by all means enjoy that time. In the time you are working, though, keep your name out there. Keep talking to past clients, expired listings, FSBOs, etc. because this will not only generate more business before the end of the year, but it will also help you start 2020 on a much stronger note.
If you’d like to talk more about how to get ahead in your career or you have any other questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to speak with you.
Home inspections are an integral part of any real estate transaction. Here’s my advice for how to handle them as a buyer or seller in today’s market.
Today I’m here to take a deep dive into home inspections. I’ll answer questions regarding what they are, how they work, and why they’re important.
With today’s housing contracts, prospective homebuyers usually have 10 business days to complete any inspections on a home they’re interested in buying. During that period, they can ask the seller for repairs, or walk away from the contract with their earnest money intact.Here’s an outline of the discussion, with timestamps so that you can skip ahead to the section(s) that interest you the most:1:15- My suggestion for home sellers on dealing with repair requests1:50- My suggestion for buyers in the same situation2:35- A noticeable trend in home inspections that you should be aware of3:25- The dangers of working with an unlicensed home inspector and how to spot them8:06- Wrapping things upIf you have any questions or need help with the process of buying or selling your next home, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
What is it really like to work with the Lance Woodley Team? Check out this testimonial to find out.
There’s a lot we at the Lance Woodley Team could tell you regarding what it’s like to work with us, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Recently, Gary Davis of 560AM was kind enough to share his experience with our team, and, as you’ll hear him say in this quick testimony, he couldn’t have been happier with the results. NAME’s success story is one you won’t want to miss, so be sure to check out today’s message. Also, of course, if you’re looking to buy or sell, yourself, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We want to help you write your own success story, too. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email.
Since it’s the holiday season we wanted to send you a message full of gratitude and cheer.
The holiday season has officially arrived. We hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year and make some fantastic memories with your family and friends. We just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support. We love helping people make their real estate dreams come true, so thank you for working with us. This may be a busy time of year, but we are always here to help and answer any questions you may have. Just give us a call or send us an email. From all of our agents and agents in training, we wish you and your families a merry Christmas and happy holidays. In case we don’t hear from you, have a happy New Year!
There are many reasons to sell your home in the autumn and winter. We’ll discuss the main ones today.Today we’re discussing selling your home in the autumn and winter; what are the things you should consider? There is a common belief that selling a house in the autumn or winter is challenging, almost impossible. We have not found that to be true. Here we are at the beginning of December and we have recently had a flood of homes going under contract for sale.
In the autumn and winter, you usually have less competition. Fewer houses are going active at the same time as yours. You may have an enhanced chance to receive a contract that’s acceptable to you immediately.
Another thing we’ve observed is that buyers who are looking from November to February are generally more motivated. They aren’t looking to kill a Saturday afternoon, they are driven to move forward with a purchase.
Buyers who are looking from November to February are generally more motivated.
We have a considerable number of people wanting to sell their home as quickly as they can for many reasons, but they have great holiday traditions, so selling a home would be disruptive. In that case, we can do our layaway program. What we do is get your house ready to sell, get the paperwork done, and take pictures while the grass is still green — before the decorations go up. Then we’re ready to put your house on the market whenever it works best for you.
In between us getting you ready and your home going on the market, you are known as a “coming soon listing.” So, our agents get the information about your home, and as we have buyers coming through that may be interested in your house, it might be sold before it’s even technically active. We like to sometimes match a buyer with a specific home we know they might love.
If you want to discuss these programs or tips you should keep in mind when getting your house ready to sell in the autumn and winter, give me a call or send me an email. Any advice you need and just want to talk it over, get in touch with us. We’d love to talk to you!
From everyone here at the South Carolina Homes & Land Team and the Lance Woodley Realty Team, we wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. We hope that you make the most of the time you get to spend with your friends and family over the holidays—not to mention the great food!
As always, if you ever have any questions about real estate, reach out to us. We’d love to be your real estate resource. In the meantime, Happy Holidays!
For your latest Midlands market overview, I’ll compare some key year-over-year statistics.Where is the Midlands real estate market headed? To answer that question, I’ll compare the key statistics from the first three quarters of 2019 with the numbers from 2018. Most of what we’re seeing is positive, but there are certain nuances you need to be aware of whether you’re buying or selling.
Follow along in the video above to see my full market overview. For your convenience, I’ve added timestamps so you can jump ahead to various sections at your leisure:
0:50—The number of properties on the market rose 1% from 13,103 to 13,252, and the number of properties sold dropped slightly from 9,595 to 9,558
1:44—What this means
2:09—Why not all inventory is equal
3:18—The average list price rose from $211,470 to $236,902, and the average sold price rose 5.5% from $206,504 to $217,742
4:18—If you market, merchandise, and price your home correctly, you’ll sell for top dollar
5:03—The average days on market dropped from 58 days to 53 days
6:00—How statistics can vary between different types of homes
7:02—Wrapping things up
As always, if you have any more questions about our market or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.
With Halloween around the corner, it’s time to discuss a really scary topic: property taxes.Witches, ghosts, and zombies aren’t the only terrifying thing that you’ll have to face in the near future: It’s almost time to start thinking about your property taxes. Here are a couple of tips that will help you make sure that you’re paying your fair share of taxes, as well as options you have if you find out that you’re not.
When you get your tax bill, if you’re paying anything besides 4% for a primary residence, you need to contact your tax assessor’s office and get it corrected right away. Remember: Even if your mortgage company is paying your taxes for you, you still need to look at the bill and determine if your property is listed as your primary residence.
If you’re paying anything besides 4% for a primary residence, you need to contact your tax assessor’s office and get it corrected right away.
Contesting a tax assessment is simple. You sign a form, show them your driver’s license with your address on it, and present them a copy of your utility bill that has your name and address on it. If you’ve overpaid on your taxes, Richland, Lexington, Kershaw, Fairfield, and Salutin counties will reimburse you for up to three years of your overpayment. The process usually takes about a month or two.
Also, be sure to look at your home’s assessed value on your tax bill. Keep in mind that the average house in the Midlands right now is selling for over $200,000, and prices are going up. If your home is assessed at a higher price than you believe it should have been, you can appeal the assessment. Compile a list of homes comparable to yours that have sold in the last six months to a year and present that to the county; based on those comparable sales, they should reduce the assessed value of your home.
If you need help navigating any of these processes, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. In the meantime, I hope you have a very happy and spooky Halloween season.
If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home along Lake Murray, there are some important rule changes you need to know.
Whether you’re buying or selling a home along Lake Murray, there’s something important you must know: The rules governing the lake are changing. In fact, they’ve been changing little by little over the years, and today I have a few tidbits to share. First, once Dominion Energy gets their hydro license approved, they’ll be able to sell 50 acres per year. To have a dock approval, though, you must have at least 200 feet of shoreline. If you’re a seller and you don’t have a dock permit, this means it behooves you to get one. As we all know, lots with docks are more valuable than lots without them. Moving forward, make sure you’re aware of the ever-changing rules governing Lake Murray so you can get the most value out of your property. If you have any questions about this topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.
Meet Summer Rice, one of our team’s great agents.The agents who make up the Lance Woodley Team aren’t just great agents—they’re also amazing people, and today we’re highlighting someone who is a prime example of this: Summer Rice.
Before joining our team, Summer was a part-time leasing agent at an apartment complex. But this wasn’t enough to support her family. Summer knew it was time to move her life forward and get started in a real estate career, and that’s when she found us.
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Every day when I come into the office, it feels like I’m walking into my family’s house.”
It wasn’t long before Summer realized what a great culture she had just become a part of. Her pipeline was full of leads from the very beginning, and several closings followed. In just her first three months, her life was completely transformed.
“Every day when I come into the office, it feels like I’m walking into my family’s house,” says Summer. And it’s this friendly, collaborative environment that she loves most about being on the Lance Woodley Team.
You can check out today’s video to hear Summer share her experience in her own words.
As always, if you have any questions or would like more information about our team, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
My name is Elizabeth Larned with the Lance Woodley Team. Today I’d like to share a little bit about myself.My name is Elizabeth Larned, executive design consultant and listing partner with the Lance Woodley Team. Today I want to share a little about myself so that you understand my commitment to making your real estate goals a reality.
Prior to joining the Lance Woodley Team, I was an office manager for a local company. My husband and I were talking about making some life changes, starting with us selling our home. We called the No. 1 agent in the Midlands—Lance Woodley—and he helped us sell our home in just eight days!
I had always wanted a career in real estate, and watching firsthand how Lance used his home-selling system to sell our home, I knew I wanted to join the team.
In my first three months on the team, I received dozens of buyer and seller leads and I had three closings. From that point on, I started closing multiple homes each month.
The part that I like most about being on the team is that we are a non-competitive team, so I know that my clients will be taken care of no matter what.
If you have any questions for me or the Lance Woodley team, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help!
Here’s the difference between our guaranteed sale program and our buyout program. What’s the difference between our guaranteed sale program and our buyout program? Each of these
programs benefits different home sellers in different ways. Our guaranteed sale program is meant to sell your house quickly and for top dollar. In short, it
guarantees a home sale because it states that if we can’t sell your home within the agreed-upon time
frame, we’ll buy it ourselves for up to 90% of the list price. The buyout program is designed for homes that are not in the best condition or can no longer
be cared for and just need to be sold. It’s ideal for things like an estate sale. In a situation like this,
perhaps the heirs of the estate live out of state or the house is an old rental property that’s been
neglected.
"Each of these programs benefits different home sellers in different ways."
For example, we recently did an estate sale where the house was bought for the children of the
owners to live in while they attended college. Well, as you can imagine, after 15 years, this home
looked like a giant dorm room. After it served its purpose, the owners wanted to get rid of it. When utilizing the buyout program, we come out to your property and make you an offer. If it’s an
offer you can agree to, we’ll buy the home as-is and close within two to three weeks. If you have any more questions about either of these programs or you’d like to use one for a home
you need to sell, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.
Have you met Rachel Cooper? She’s a rising star on our team, and today you can get to know her a little better. Today we’re happy to spotlight one of our team’s biggest assets: Chief Marketing Officer and Associate Broker, Rachel Cooper. If you’ve never been properly introduced to her, today’s your chance! In our agent introduction, we picked her brain about what her first three months were like with the Lance Woodley Team, what she enjoys most about being on the team, and more. If you have any questions for Rachel or the rest of our team, feel free to reach out. We’d be happy to help.
Today I’m on my way to a property the owner wants to sell as-is, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to
discuss some of the reasons why this is the best option for some.
One reason is that the home is part of an estate sale, and the heirs don’t actually live in the area. In
other instances, parents buy a home for their child to live in while he or she is attending college, and
once the child is ready to move on, the parents want to sell without going to the trouble of fixing it up.
"We and the investors we work alongside have a lot of experience with these sorts of transactions."
Other sellers own a rental home that’s been so poorly managed and is in such a state of
disrepair that the most painless approach is to sell as-is.
We and the investors we work alongside have a lot of experience with these sorts of transactions. So whatever the circumstances, if you or someone you know would like to sell a property as is and make a quick closing, please call us at 803-407-3883, send us an email at Lance@Schlr.com, or visit our website at LanceWoodley.com. We look forward to helping you!
How can you make sure your home sells quickly and for top dollar? You can start by hiring The Lance Woodley Team.when selling your home. Have you ever thought about why homes that are on the market fail to sell? I can tell you why: The people who list those homes have a lack of knowledge about the market and a bad marketing plan. To avoid this fate, we suggest listing your home with a local expert. The Lance Woodley Team, for example, has three decades’ worth of experience. More importantly, we have a professional home selling system that focuses on marketing, merchandising, and pricing to sell your home quickly and for top dollar. If you or someone you know needs to sell a house, give us a call and we’d love to explain in more detail how it works.
Real estate is local, and using that knowledge to help you means hiring a local expertwhen selling your home. We all know that real estate is local, but how do you use that information?If you’re selling your home, you use it by hiring a local expert to help you. Go with the people who
know the marketplace here in the Midlands of South Carolina. They know the area, they know the
process, and they know the people. When picking out a local expert, there are three criteria you need to remember:
1. They must have been in the industry for a long time.
2. They must have performed many transactions year after year, in both good markets and bad.
3. They must have a successful home-selling system.
To that last point, we at the Lance Woodley Team have a home selling system that’s both proven
and duplicatable. We can apply it to your home the same way we’ve applied it to thousands of others.
It’s backed by market research, and more importantly, it gets results. So if you’re thinking about selling or you’d just like to know your home’s value, don’t hesitate to reach
out to us. We’d love to help you. As always, if you have any other real estate questions, feel free to get in touch with us as well.
We look forward to speaking with you.
Merchandising is one part of a successful home selling strategy. Here’s how our team does it.Today we want to talk about something that we think is very important when you’re trying to sell
your house: merchandising.A lot of times, people don’t understand the art of making your house look great. It will take
cleaning, decluttering, depersonalizing, upgrading, updating, and more. Merchandising is one of the
things we do for our clients to help them sell fast and for top dollar.We can make it even easier for you because we have the contractors necessary. A lot of times,
all that is needed is a little furniture adjustment.If you’re interested in selling your house quickly and for top dollar, give us a call today. We’ll take
a look at your house, give you our opinion on its value and let you know what you can do in
order to sell it for top dollar.
If you have any questions for me in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an
email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.