Sales Surge at DeBordieu!

Activity at the private, gated oceanfront community just north of Charleston, SC has been brisk to say the least! But it's not just at DeBordieu. The National Association of Realtors has found through its annual survey that investment and vacation-home sales rose to 27% nationwide in 2011. 

According to Dawn Wotapka of the Wall Street Journal, "sales of investment and vacation homes surged last year, the latest evidence that investors and higher-income households are taking advantage of low home prices to scoop up bargains." 

Read the whole story below. 

At DeBordieu, we're finding that it's not just vacation homes selling...we've seen a surge in primary residence sales as well. People are realizing that to find a gated community, with beach access, creek access, private golf and tennis, on-site fine dining, all surrounded by thousands of acres of nature preserves is a pretty special opportunity. 

We've also seen a number of people lately who bought a home to use as a vacation home years ago, decide to make it a permanent move, and relocate here. Pictured throughout this article are homes that would make wonderful vacation homes as well as permanent homes. 

CLICK ON THE PICTURES to be linked to more information about the homes and a virtual tour on the DeBordieu Website. 

Click here to watch the WSJ Video

Here's the Wall Street Journal story by Dawn Watapka:

Sales of investment and vacation homes surged last year, the latest evidence that investors and higher-income households are taking advantage of low home prices to scoop up bargains.

In its annual survey of investment- and vacation-home sales, the National Association of Realtors found that the number of homes purchased by investors rose 65% during 2011 to 1.2 million, accounting for 27% of all home sales. In 2010, investment properties accounted for 17% of all sales.

The number of homes purchased as second or vacation homes jumped 7% last year to 502,000—accounting for 11% of all transactions, up from 10% of all sales in 2010.

While the majority of homes sold last year went to traditional buyers who plan to use the home as a primary residence, their presence in the market declined to 61% from 73% in 2010.

During the housing boom, speculators were blamed for helping to inflate the bubble by snapping up homes, especially new homes, and then quickly reselling them as prices rose higher. That led to overbuilding. Some economists now believe that investors are helping to stabilize the market by buying up excess inventory.

While their activities could help to stabilize prices, they also are creating problems for some buyers. Real-estate agents say investors, and to a smaller extent vacation-home buyers, are outmaneuvering traditional buyers, who are less likely to have the financial means to pay cash for a home and may not devote as much time to searching for properties. The NAR survey found that nearly half of all investors and 42% of vacation-home buyers purchased their homes using cash. Traditional buyers, meanwhile, are seeing deals derailed because they can't qualify for a mortgage or because appraisals for the homes they are trying to buy or sell come in too low.

"The last two to three years has been a battle between the first-time home buyer and the investor," said Budge S. Huskey, president of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, a national franchiser based in Parsippany, N.J. "Investors have won."

In some of the hardest-hit housing markets, investors are the largest category of buyers. But unlike during the boom years, when many investors were buying properties to "flip" quickly for a profit, many of today's investors buy the homes with plans to rent them out and sell them when the market improves.

"Obviously, it's a great rental market, and it's going to be a great rental market for a while," said Geoffrey Jacobs, principal at Empire Group, a developer that has amassed a portfolio of nearly 1,000 single-family homes in Phoenix since 2009. Because the typical home that he buys is only about 10 years old, "it'll compete well with a new home down the road when we go to sell the houses," Mr. Jacobs said.

Amid increased demand from investors, real-estate agents say there aren't enough foreclosed homes in good condition available in some markets, including parts of California and Florida. Buyers are "begging for properties," Mr. Huskey said. "There is an insatiable demand."

Thirty percent of vacation-home buyers said they plan to use the property as a primary residence in the future, indicating that buyers who can afford to take advantage of low prices and low interest rates to buy their future retirement homes are doing so.

In December, Sarah Donovan, who owns a home in Littleton, Mass., purchased a roughly $300,000 vacation home on Cape Cod. "My husband has wanted a house on the Cape for about 20 years," said Ms. Donovan, a stay-at-home mother who made an offer near the asking price the day she saw the three-bedroom home with a guesthouse. "The Cape market is coming back with decent housing prices, and we didn't want to miss out," she said.

(—Nick Timiraos contributed to this article.)

DeBordieu Colony is an oceanfront community located just south of Pawleys Island, South Carolina featuring private golf and tennis, saltwater creek access to the ocean, a manned security gate, and luxury homes and villas surrounded by thousands of acres of wildlife and nature preserves.

For more information, visit the website, www.DeBordieu.com, or call Troi Kaz, 843-455-4523. 

Happy Leap Day!

Realtors..... We want YOU at the Dieu! 

Lately, I've had a few realtors from the Pawleys Island and Myrtle Beach areas ask me to explain to them exactly how we do business here at DeBordieu Colony Real Estate, so I thought it would be a good blog topic!  One thing is for certain, we want to “roll out the red carpet” and welcome realtors who have buyer clients who wish to consider a purchase in this gorgeous place just south of Pawleys Island, South Carolina. .

HOW IT WORKS: If a realtor who is a member of the Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors physically brings their client to DeBordieu the first time, walks them in the door of the sales office, just once, their company will get a full co-broke commission on the buyers side of the transaction. If they are too swamped to accompany the buyer, just by picking up the phone, it’s a 25% referral fee. Either way, we will take it from there, whether it takes 5 days or 5 years….when they buy, that realtor will be covered.   

WHO TO CALL: To make plans to come, and to set showing appointments, only one DCRE agent needs to be called. The agent can call me, Troi Kaz, at 843-455-4523, or call one of my fellow sales executives at the office, 843-546-4176. The important thing to us is that the agent get quick answers and excellent service.
WHEN TO CALL: As soon as the agent has a buyer client interested in DeBordieu, it’s best to call and register them. All we need is the name and hometown. That way, if they visit the website and begin gathering information, the agent is protected.

THE DOG AND PONY SHOW: I wish I had some scientific research to back this up….all I can offer is personal experience, but I can tell you that the more time a prospect spends hearing about DeBordieu’s development philosophy and history in the sales office while looking at all of our beautiful pictures and maps, the more likely they will be to buy here…..and the more significant their investment will be. When I was working in Pawleys and Litchfield, I tried to buzz people through DeBordieu a few times on my own, and I can tell you….it doesn’t work. We encourage agents to USE US! It’s what we’re here for, and it’s all we do. If a buyer doesn’t have time for at least a 5- minute dog and pony show, it’s been my experience that they won’t buy in here anyway.

Again, we want to make sure that everyone knows that we love transacting business at DeBordieu with area realtors. We want to make it easy and lucrative! Please let me know if you have any questions.


There has never been a better time to consider purchasing property at DeBordieu!


DeBordieu Colony is an oceanfront community located just south of Pawleys Island, South Carolina featuring private golf and tennis, saltwater creek access to the ocean, a manned security gate, and luxury homes and villas surrounded by thousands of acres of wildlife and nature preserves.

 For more information, contact TroiKaz@DeBordieu.com. 

Easy as Pie...."Derby-Dieu" Pie!
Savvy Realtors up and down the coast have realized that it is wise to bring their Luxury Buyer Clients to DeBordieu, the private, oceanfront, golf community just south of Pawleys Island, South Carolina. And I have so much fun encouraging them to do just that, particularly around the holidays!
Last week I loaded up my car with delicious “Derby-Dieu” pies, home-made by my very own elf, Sharon Shirer, who works in the DeBordieu Rental Department. I delivered these pies to local real estate agencies in the Pawleys Island area to remind the realtors that bringing their clients to DeBordieu was as easy as PIE!
The note said “In 2011, lets shoot for the sky, but in the mean time enjoy this “Derby-Dieu” Pie. They all know I’m a big corn-ball, so they got a kick out of the thought, as well as the melt-in-your mouth pie!

Then on Friday I attended the big Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors Holiday Luncheon at Pawleys Plantation.

My friend/colleague, Leigh Reid Hope, of First Trust Mortgage was doing a promotional drawing for a weekend at her beautiful Fairway Oaks Villa at DeBordieu. Congratulations to Mr. Dave Alexander, for winning the weekend!

This is actually one of the 3BR villas we use in our guest program, where we make the villa available for a couple of nights, at a nominal fee, to prospective buyers interested in purchasing real estate at DeBordieu.

It is also for sale! CLICK HERE on or the picture for details and a virtual tour.
There has never been a better time to consider a purchase at DeBordieu!