November 2022 Events

It’s November, Native American Heritage Month, and here comes cooler weather, more festivals (some are new!), seasonal holidays and related events! There’s the Coastal Carolina Fair (1st-7th), AfroSouth Film Festival (4th-6th), Charleston Literary Festival (4th-13th), 51st Annual Charleston Scottish Games and Highland Gathering (5th), 1st Annual Charleston Oyster Week (6th-18th), 16th Annual Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival (10th-13th), YallFest young adult book festival (11th-12th), Annual Holiday Festival of Lights (11th-12/31) and other festivals.  Holidays this month include Election Day (8th), Veterans Day (11th), Thanksgiving (24th) and some fun ones...

NOVEMBER 2022 NEWS

Kudos to Charleston… Again & Again & Again!

Charleston continues to earn accolades and not just for our visitor appeal. Just last month, we earned the top spot in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Reader’s Choice Awards for the Best Small City for our history, culture, food and charm. This follows on the heels of other recent rankings, including: #1 Top U.S. City by Travel + Leisure (10 years running), #1 Best Place to Retire by WalletHub, #1 Minor League Sports Market by Sports Business Journal, #2 Most Profitable City for rental property owners by HomeAdvisor and #19 Best Foodie City by WalletHub. Read more here.

Our Growing Manufacturing Base

Sweet Grass Vodk...

If you’re planning to sell your house this year, you likely have questions about what the shift in the housing market means for your home sale.

You might be wondering:

Should I wait to sell?

Are any buyers still out there?

And can I afford to buy my next home?

Let’s connect so you can get answers to these questions and learn about the opportunities you still have in today’s housing market.

Call/text 843-900-0155 to get a one-on-one, personalized appointment with us. 

Charleston Voted the No. 1 Place to Retire by Wallethub

Cities in Florida still take nearly half of the top spots, according to WalletHub’s 2022 Best and Worst Places to Retire survey. This year Charleston, SC edged out Orlando, FL as the top place to retire in the country! The survey assumes that retirees will live on a fixed income and ranked 182 cities based on four key categories of equal weight: affordability, activities, quality of life and health care. Read more here.

Volvo to Debut SC-Built All-Electric SUV Successor in November

On November 9, Volvo Car will unveil their South-Carolina-built EX90, the all-electric successor to its best-selling XC90 sport-utility vehicle. Ac...

Wow! It’s already October and we have festivals galore to enjoy across the Charleston area this month: Oktoberfest (8th), MOJA Arts Festival (through the 9th), Latin American Festival and Summerville Italian Festival (9th), SC Reggae Jerk & Wine Festival and Edisto Beach Fall Festival (15th), Children’s Day Festival (16th), FollyPalooza (20th), several fall and harvest festivals, The Fall Tours of Architecture, History, and Gardens (5th-29th) and the Coastal Carolina Fair (15th - Nov 7). For holidays to celebrate this month, there’s Columbus Day (10th), Halloween (31st) and a host of others highlighted on this page. We’ve also listed lots of weekly and individual events below - with lin...

Have you been appointed as the Personal Representative for an estate in probate in Charleston, South Carolina?

Are you finding it difficult to navigate the paperwork? Need any help or guidance in dealing with the real estate? 

As Certified probate Experts (CPE), we have built a network of local professionals and service providers to help Personal Representatives in their functions.

In the video below, we invited attorney Morgan Insley of Blanco Tackabery, to talk with us about how to handle an estate in probate, and how to avoid it by planning ahead. 

Her contact information is below. 

Morgan Insley, Blanco Tackabery mmi@blancolaw.com (336) 293-9006

Alan Donald, Broker Associate...

ESTATE PLANNING 101

We invited attorney Morgan Insley of Blanco Tackabery, to talk with us about estate planning, a topic that is important for seniors, children of seniors and even for young families. 

Her contact information is below. 

Morgan Insley, Blanco Tackabery
mmi@blancolaw.com (336) 293-9006

Alan Donald, alan@alandonald.com

It’s September and we can look forward to cooler temps and several festivals in the Charleston area this month, such as the Edisto Beach Shag Festival (2nd - 4th), Lowcountry Jazz Festival (3rd - 4th), Fall Food Truck Festival (10th), Pechakucha (15th), Resonance Music and Arts Festival (15th - 17th), 3rd Annual Cookin’ On The Creek BBQ Festival (16th - 17th), Sweet Tea Festival (17th) and MOJA Arts Festival (29th - October 9th). Plus, there are some major holidays, including Labor Day (5th), Hispanic Heritage Month (15th - October 15th), Constitution Day (17th), Yom Kippur (24th) and Rosh Hashanah (25th). The Autumn Equinox - when fall officially begins - is on the 22nd. We’ve listed m...

SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS

Pickleball Restaurants Coming to the Lowcountry
Have you heard about pickleball? It’s claimed to be the fastest-growing sport in America. Perhaps closer to ping pong and badminton, it’s played on a court that is similar to but smaller than a tennis court and even comes with a kitchen. To learn more about it, watch this video. And if you are already a local player, have you heard about the two new pickleball developments being developed in Mount Pleasant and Summerville? Crush Yard is a club and casual restaurant complex that will soon open off Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant. The 40,000-sf complex will have 8 indoor courts, shuffleboard, outdoor fire pits, live music, a...

August 2022 Events

School resumes later this month, but there’s still time to take advantage of many fun events occurring across the Charleston area. Looking for something to do with your children? Goose Creek hosts Kids Fest on the 6th, with plenty of activities and food for everyone. Want to boost your spirits? On the 27th, you can join the SC Reggae Jerk and Wine Festival in downtown Charleston or head over to Deepwater Vineyard in Wadmalaw for the 2022 Grape Stomp Festival. Schedule tee times for Sunday the 5th to celebrate both National Golf Month and International Beer Day. On the 26th, break out the leashes and take your dogs for a walk in honor of National Dog Day. For more t...

AUGUST 2022 NEWS

New and Upcoming Attractions for Greater Charleston 

Two new museums are coming to downtown Charleston and new rides will be on offer at this fall’s Coastal Carolina Fair in Ladson. The Charleston Digital Corridor (CDC) has just opened the Charleston Apple Museum, with over 75 exhibits showcasing the evolution of Apple devices and related items from its 40+-year history. The museum, located at the CDC’s Flagship on Morrison Drive, is open to everyone with free admission, and the founders hope schools and children interested in technology will visit to discover how far technology has come. Donations are also accepted. Read more here. Charleston will soon welcome the $1...

The housing market is at a turning point, and if you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, that may leave you wondering: is it still a good time to buy a home? Should I make a move this year? To help answer those questions, let’s turn to the experts for projections on what the second half of the year holds for residential real estate.

Where Mortgage Rates Will Go Depends on Inflation

While one of the big questions on all buyers’ minds is where will mortgage rates go in the months ahead, no one has a crystal ball to know exactly what’ll happen in the future. What housing market experts know for sure is that the record-low mortgage rates during the pandemic were an outlier, not the n...

1481 Landings Run, Mount Pleasant, SC

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$700,000

3bed - 3bath - 0.33-acre lot

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Peaceful enclave with a CONVENIENT LOCATION, CHARACTER & PRIVACY! Built on a beautifully-landscaped 1/3-acre lot on a quiet cul-de-sac, this 2-story, 3-bd/3ba upgraded home boasts DUAL MAIN SUITES, high vaulted ceilings, French doors, large windows and a delightful screened porch that allow soft natural light and serene views of the private, fully-fenced backyard overlooking a wooded tidal wetlands area. The yard has been thoughtfully planned and carefully maintained so you can show off your gardening prowess, relax, unwind, entertain...

Plans Accelerated to Widen I-26

In response to regional traffic growth, the SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has fast-tracked plans to widen Interstate 26 from 4 to 6 lanes for 70 miles between Charleston and Columbia. The State Legislature recently approved $600 million for this undertaking, with just over $450 million to come from Covid-19 aid allocated to roadworks and the remainder from the state’s “rural interstates” budget.  This move will cut six years from the original timeline, with completion now projected for 2034. The 30 percent increase in lane size equates roughly to traffic growth experienced statewide over the past decade, with 22 million vehicles now traveli...

Happy Independence Day, everyone! If you’re looking for ways to celebrate over the July 4th weekend, check out this article and our list below. You’ll see that there’s something for everyone across the metro area.  Later in the month, there’s the 10-day Beaufort Water Festival starting on the 14th and the 18th Annual Sweetgrass Festival in Mount Pleasant on the 23rd. National Vanilla Ice Cream Day is also on July 23rd, and if you are looking to celebrate it properly, stop by The Crazy Mason Milkshake Bar off of the IOP connector for a special ice cream treat. For more fun things to celebrate, visit this website for something new every day!

WEEKLY EVENTS THROUGHOUT JULY:

Monday...

The Mark Clark Extension Project

This proposed highway extension project connects the Southern end of I-526/Hwy 17 with the James Island Connector and Downtown Charleston.

The following information was extracted from https://www.scdotmarkclark.com/

"The purpose of the Mark Clark Extension project is to increase the capacity of the regional transportation system, improve safety, and enhance mobility to and from the West Ashley, Johns Island and James Island areas of the Charleston metropolitan area." 

Current Project Schedule

Proposed 2-Phase Project

Here's a great video simulating the proposed extension from the air:

If you have questions, please visit https://www.scdot...

Higher Rates and Short Supply: The State of Real Estate in 2022

The last two years caught many of us off guard—and not just because of the pandemic. They also ushered in the hottest housing market on record, with home prices rising nationally by nearly 19% in 2021, driven primarily by low mortgage rates and a major supply shortage.1

But while some had hoped 2022 would bring a return to normalcy, the U.S. real estate market continues to boom, despite rising interest rates and decreasing affordability.

So what’s driving this persistent demand? And is there an end in sight?

Here are three factors impacting the real estate market right now. Find out how they could affect you if...

Record Growth and Expansion Plans for CHS Airport

As the number of passengers traveling through Charleston International Airport (CHS) continues to rise, so does its need to expand. The airport served close to 487,000 air travelers this April alone - second only to July of 2021 when over 490,000 arrivals and departures were recorded. During the first four months of this year, CHS welcomed almost 1.5 million passengers, which is greater than the same period in 2019 before Covid-19 impacted travel. CHS CEO Elliott Summey believes the airport will set a new record in the summer months to come and projects 5 million passengers by the end of this year, due to both new carriers and route exp...

June 2022 Charleston SC Events

As the summer heats up and we head into June, there’s a lot to look forward to and much to celebrate. June is Pride Month, and we recognize the LGBTQ+ community with local events including a parade downtown (25th) and more found here and here. Charleston’s Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto Festival are well underway and there are still many exciting events left to see before they end on June 12th. We can then break out our red, white and blue to commemorate Flag Day (14th) and prepare for Independence Day before honoring our fathers on Father’s Day (19th). Juneteenth falls on a Sunday this year so it’s observed on Monday (20th), which is also t...

Food for Thought: "Everything You Wanted to Know About Probate But Never Dared to Ask"

This week we had the privilege of sponsoring a "lunch and learn" hosted by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce on the ins and outs of probate.

Our guest speaker, Judge Irvin Condon, CPA, Esq. was very entertaining and informative. 

As Certified Probate Experts (CPE), our main goal is to help Personal Representatives by providing "connections" to professionals and service providers who may be able to help them with their probate duties.  Click the picture below to view some of the service providers we can connect them with.  Read more here.

If the estate wants to sell any real estate (in any state...