Real estate for sale coastal beachfront of South Carolina is very abundant and varying in scope and type. The most common comes as no surprise are condos (aka single-family attached homes) as those of us in the real estate industry call them. The reason condos & villas (just another word for condo really), are so popular is obvious. Developers and builders can make more money on a smaller piece of dirt by building up with increased density.

The “Pee Dee” region of South Carolina is typically known in South Carolina to mean the upper coastal area of South Carolina from Georgetown north to the border of North Carolina including Conway, Florence, Little River, and a few other inland towns.

Understanding the different regions and real estate markets before purchasing a home or real estate in coastal South Carolina is key, so I will do my best to help you know the differences & risks of certain areas and types of properties and how they differ.

Myrtle Beach is the most popular city in the “Pee Dee” region of South Carolina that most people around the world will understandably recognize. As such there are thousands of real estate listings there because it’s the largest city in the area by population and size. It is also one of the biggest tourist destinations in the United States by tourist volume. Usually only second or third behind Orlando FL and/or New York maybe. Beachfront homes for sale in Myrtle Beach SC consist primarily of high-rise condominiums on the ocean, some low & midrise condos (usually older properties), and obviously single-family detached homes.

North Myrtle Beach is very similar in feel and offering to that of Myrtle Beach, but as the name implies it is simply more north. The only positive thing about North Myrtle is that with it being more north it is further away from the “hot spot” commercial busy areas of Myrtle Beach so the traffic is slightly less hectic. Most of the beachfront homes for sale in North Myrtle Beach are going to be the same as in Myrtle Beach. So if you want a little less traffic and a slightly slower pace but want to be close enough to drive into the “goings on” of Myrtle then buy here.

Surfside Beach is just further south than Myrtle Beach and similar to North Myrtle Surfside will be a just slightly slower lifestyle pace than living in the middle heart of Myrtle Beach and have a little less traffic. Surfside Beach is a smaller town so they have a lot less oceanfront condos to choose from but a decent amount of beachfront houses in Surfside Beach SC can readily be found.

Garden City SC is even further south than Surfside and as you can already guess the further you get out from Myrtle Beach the less busy and “trafficy” it is. So when choosing wherein the upper coastal market of South Carolina you want to live this is a must to decide if you want to be in the heart of the hustle and bustle or away from it. Oceanfront homes for sale in Garden City SC will be mostly detached homes as there are only a few condo developments on the beach as compared to the other cities and towns of the coastal real estate market of the Pee Dee region.

Murrells Inlet SC even further south is just after Garden City and the beach there is not very long so there aren’t a vast quantity of homes on the oceanfront for sale here. Most of them will be marsh and creek waterfront because a large inlet (hence the name) offers buyers the option homes with deep water docks.

Pawley’s Island is the last of the Pee Dee areas that have most real estate demand. Pawley’s Island SC beachfront homes will mostly be in one of two resort communities: Litchfield By the Sea & Debordieu Colony which technically is in Georgetown. These two well-known golf vacation resort neighborhoods offer a quiet family-friendly setting on the beach, with golf, tennis, and other family-oriented activities. Also, like much of the entire South Carolina coast there are waterfront and creekfront properties here as well. Pawley’s Island also offers a less busy slower environment as it too is much further removed from Myrtle Beach, and is designed for quiet family fun vs “partying”. Probably the closest Charleston SC feel you’ll find in this MLS region.

Further South – Charleston SC Region

Charleston SC is known as the Low-Country of coastal SC, also has an abundance of beachfront homes for sale in SC, however, there are much less beachfront condos as compared to the northern beach communities of the Pee Dee region. Charleston SC oceanfront communities below.

Isle of Palms

Sullivan’s Island

Folly Beach (known as “the Myrtle Beach of Charleston”)

Kiawah Island

Seabrook Island

Edisto Island

Take Zillow & Trulia With a Grain of Salt

I have a current client that I am currently negotiating a deal with and the contacted me all up in arms about the property with the belief that the house wasn’t coming with the standard kitchen appliances, or HVAC in the sale. So I asked them where did you get that information from?

Almost knowing what they were going to say without having to ask, their answer Trulia. As if Trulia and Zillow are the “Gods” of All knowing real estate?! People, those two companies are NOT real estate companies, they are ONLY tech companies with web developers writing code that pumps out information they can scrap and dig up from other sources, and HOPE that it is accurate in which most of the time it is not. Furthermore, since they themselves are just scraping, and pulling in data from other 3rd party sources who’s to say that the source of their data is even accurate. I wrote an article about this very topic “Realtor Will Always Be Best Place For Information“, because of this exact problem. In the case of my clients they were looking at what was the OLD original listing from 2010, and here we are in June of 2015. So because of Trulia I had to calm down my buyers and let them know that the house we were working on getting them did indeed come with the normal conveyed personal property for most transactions in our area of Charleston SC.

Zillow is the most popular online real estate information site, with 73 million unique visitors in December. Along with active listings of properties for sale, it also provides information on houses that are not on the market. These two sites are called aggregators, meaning they compile as much data from wherever they can get it, then archive (save it) so who knows what you’re going to get.

Most prospective sellers are familiar with Zillow’s “Zestimate”, and use it often where they will quote that number to their agent as a gauge of market value. The LA TIMES questioned the chief executive at Zillow: If a house for sale has a Zestimate of $350,000, a buyer might challenge the sellers’ list price of $425,000. Or a seller might demand to know from potential listing brokers why they say a property should sell for just $595,000 when Zillow has it at $685,000? This is a nightmare of the industry.

When CBS questioned Zillow’s exec about this problem here is what he said; “Back to the question posed by O’Donnell: Are Zestimates accurate? And if they’re off the mark, how far off? Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff answered that they’re “a good starting point” but that nationwide Zestimates have a “median error rate” of about 8%.

Eight percent!! In real estate that’s a huge difference! On a $500,000 house, that would be a $40,000 disparity. That’s just the median error rate, many times it’s off be much larger; and so much so that at the bottom of Zillow’s home page in small type is the word “Zestimates.” This section provides helpful background information along with valuation error rates by state and county. In the LA TIMES article: For example, in New York County — Manhattan — the median valuation error rate is 19.9%. In Brooklyn, it’s 12.9%. In Somerset County, Md., the rate is an astounding 42%. In some rural counties in California, error rates range as high as 26%. In San Francisco it’s 11.6%. With a median home value of $1,000,800 in San Francisco, according to Zillow estimates as of December, a median error rate at this level translates into a price disparity of $116,093.

One agent went to their own efforts to do research on this pervasive problem, and found on 17 sales Zillow overestimated values, including two houses that sold for 61% below the Zestimate. In 25% of the sales, Zestimates were higher than the contract price. In 95% of the cases, he said, “Zestimates were wrong. That does not inspire a lot of confidence, at least not for me.” In a second ZIP Code, Dowler found that 100% of Zestimates were inaccurate and that disparities were as large as $190,000.

In summary.. Take the value you get from Zillow’s estimate exactly like their CEO states: a starting point only, do not take it as bond. Only your local agent will have the most accurate data.