Charleston MLS Search Tips

If you have searched the Charleston MLS recently, you may have noticed how many listings are currently available.  We have seen a significant decrease in the number of listings in the past year, but there are still many homes for sale on the market.  Right now, there are over 10,000 properties listed in the MLS!  This number is down from about 12,000 earlier this year.

Buyers who have been in the market for a while are the main people who have noticed this increase.  If you were looking at homes this time two years ago using roughly the same search criteria, you would have had a very manageable number of home results to sort through.  However, now buyers are finding anywhere from 150 to 400 results from a basic MLS search.  And, Charleston is not the only city with this problem right now.  Sure, our market has a lot of homes for sale, but it is not as flooded as many other real estate markets across the country.  So if you are looking at other cities in addition to Charleston for buying real estate, you may encounter this MLS search problem in these other markets as well.

If you are one of the many buyers looking to narrow down your MLS home search results, here are some tips to adjust your search.  Ideally, the number of results should be under 100.  We used to say under 50, but that was a few years ago before so many homes came on the market.  And, of course the fewer results you have, the better.  The smaller you can make the list the more likely you will actually look through the listings and be able to pick out new homes that come on the market.  And, if you know that, realistically, you will not be happy living in a home with a tiny backyard, for example, why not go ahead and set your search criteria to reflect that?  There is no sense in sorting through homes that do not match your needs.  After all, buyers can afford to be a little picky in today’s market (and this heyday will not last forever, so take advantage!).

1)  Every search should have type, area, price range, and number of bedrooms and baths.  Some buyers say that they do not want to rule anything out early on in the search.  But, realistically, does it make sense to sort through 1 bedroom houses when you have children?  Why even waste your time scrolling through MLS listings that will inevitably be ruled out?  It is better to rule these out early on in your search criteria.  For the type, choose either condos and townhouses OR houses.  Some buyers want to see all.  But, again, it is better to go ahead and make this very basic decision upfront so that you can really view the kinds of homes that you plan to buy.  You can always change your search criteria later if you are not finding the kinds of homes that you like.  Price should be the easiest criteria to pin down.  On our website, we get a lot of buyers with initial price ranges that span several hundred thousand dollars.  For price, ask yourself, “Am I really going to spend $700K or $400K?”  Ideally, price ranges should only span about $50K.  And to get this number, you should always talk to a lender to get pre-qualified before you go look at houses in person.  (And, I would not spend too long looking at just the listings online without knowing how much I can spend.  There is no sense in getting your hopes up for that $700K house when you are realistically in the $400K range). 

2)  To narrow down your MLS search further, you have lots of options – some that buyers do not even know about!  Most MLS searches on standard websites now allow you to choose square footage, year built, garage options, acreage, etc.  Go ahead and use these to your advantage.  If you need a large yard, acreage (or lot size) is a good way to weed out those houses with no yard whatsoever.  This option does not necessarily mean that you will be looking at home listings with large backyards.  After all, you will have to go and look at houses to better weed out the ones you do not like (whether or not a backyard is large enough for your needs is completely subjective).  However, you know that a home on .15 acres will certainly not have a large backyard, so there is no point in even taking the time to sort through these listings.  Some of the more advanced searches even have a lot description section that lets you choose among lot features such as beachfront, marshfront, deep water, shallow water, pond front, and river front.  Other options you will find on advanced MLS searches include amenities (golf, pool, tennis, etc.), exterior features (dock, fenced backyard, exterior material of home such as brick or hardy plank siding), and stories (1, 2, etc.).  Although it is rare, you may also find a master bedroom downstairs option.  This is a great search option for retirees and anyone else looking to cut down on the stairs.  Many buyers do not know to use any of these additional features listed in this second grouping – they usually just think about the main options like bedrooms and price.  However, as these additional features are becoming more commonplace on real estate websites, you may as well take advantage of them.  You will have a better chance of finding what you are looking for in the long run if you do. 

The most important thing to remember with creating an MLS search is that you can always go back and change your search criteria later.  If your narrowed-down search only yields 12 results, you can tweak it to yield more.  So, do not feel like you are setting in stone the only criteria you will use to find a home.  However, the more you can narrow down your results (especially in this market), the better your home buying experience will be.  Streamline now, and save yourself a lot of headache and feelings of being overwhelmed in the future!