Imagine for a moment that you own a homesite in a beautiful gated community, and you have decided to build a spectacular high-end house there. It seemed like a great idea - especially when the market was booming. But now that your lovely home is complete, and you’ve had it listed with a luxury-specialist high powered Realtor recommended to you by the builder and developer, it sits… and sits… and sits… while you continue to make mortgage payments every month… eating into your profit!

Why, you ask, hasn’t the home sold? You’ve priced it where your Realtor told you it should be priced. Yet nothing. As important, the listing is about to expire, and you’re not sure what to do now!

This is exactly the situation in which one of our clients found themselves recently. The decision he had to make was critical - and would have a profound impact on his financial future! Decisions like this happen every day. Who will do the best job getting YOUR property sold?

The challenge in selling this particular home is that it is in a gated community that does not allow “For Sale” or “Open House” signs to be displayed. In addition, the entrance gates are not manned by a guard - it is an electronic gate with a telephone connection. Consequently, it is prohibitively difficult for prospective buyers to see the house without a prior appointment. Even holding an open house is difficult given the dual challenges of entry gates and signage! This is, of course, the reasons given by the previous listing agent when asked why the property didn’t sell.

This particular situation required something that most real estate agents don’t do, and the big real estate franchises don’t promote: thinking outside the box! This situation cried out for the results-oriented creativity of a small, independent real estate group like Price & Company.

We didn’t reinvent the wheel, but we were very creative in getting the word out – and the people in. The result? We sold the property in just under 90 days, for over 96% of the asking price.

How may we put our results-oriented creativity to work for you?

Every year in February, one of the best shows in town takes place in an unlikely place - and it’s absolutely free!

It’s the induction ceremony for the South Carolina Hall of Fame, held right here in Myrtle Beach. The Hall of Fame itself is tucked away in a corner of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, and features portraits and short biographies of the men and women of tremendous accomplishment.

Among the inductees are such famous people as President Andrew Jackson and musician John “Dizzy” Gillespie. But one might also learn about less notable, but equally accomplished folks, like high school coach John McKissick, who has won more football games during his career than any other coach, at any level of the game, ever.

You’ll find four signers of the Declaration of Independence, but you’ll also find one of this year’s inductees, Judge Matthew Perry, a United States Army veteran who challenged the status quo against segregation of public golf courses, parks, hospital waiting rooms, colleges and public schools, and who eventually became the U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina. His acceptance speech was humble, but received two standing ovations.

The South Carolina Hall of Fame is open every day that the Myrtle Beach Convention Center is open. For more information, visit their website and the Convention Center website.

Special thanks to Joyce Armor, editor of Coastal Business Life Magazine, for reminding us of this hidden treasure.

CBS News’ 60 Minutes gave 13 minutes to the real estate industry on May 13th, but the recognized experts in the industry - REALTORS® - were given the silent treatment. The predictable result, one-sided journalism and a number of egregious errors (some of which have already been retracted on CBS’ website), serves nobody.

So, let’s set the record straight, once and for all:

1. The piece featured interviews with a representative from the now-defunct eRealty, as well as the president and CEO of online discount broker Redfin, but no one from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), even though NAR twice offered and prepared spokespersons for interviews with Leslie Stahl. CBS made the decision to interview opponents of traditional Real Estate agents, and allowed them to make inaccurate and unfair accusations about REALTORS® and NAR policies.

2. This did not come out of left field. In fact, NAR spent nearly a year working with CBS, briefing producers on many of the issues that were ultimately discussed. The producers even attended the REALTORS® annual conference last November and met with NAR’s legal counsel in Chicago. (NAR is in communication with 60 Minutes about its unbalanced reporting and presentation of misinformation, but the damage has been done.)

3. Error Number One: “The six percent commission is ’sacrosanct.’ Fact: All real estate commissions are negotiable. The nationwide commission average is actually 5.1 percent, according to Real Trends.

4. Error Number Two: “NAR is the industry’s ‘governing body.’ Fact: NAR is a trade association. It does not govern the real estate industry. Individual states regulate real estate transactions and license agents and brokers.

5. Error Number Three: “In 2003, NAR issued new rules of its own that threatened to block Internet discount brokerages’ access to the MLS.” Fact: The Virtual Office Website policy did not block access to MLSs for discounters or any other brokers who are members of the MLS.

6. Error Number Four: “The MLS is the database that lists virtually every home for sale in the country.” Fact: There is no single national MLS. Rather, there are more than 900 local and regional multiple listing services. These are not simply “databases” but private exchange of offers of cooperation and compensation between real estate brokers.

7. Error Number Five: “Eight states have ‘minimum service laws’ that require REALTORS® to provide a level of service many Internet discounters can’t afford.” Fact: “REALTOR®” is a trademarked term and should never be used synonymously with “real estate agent.” The intent of minimum service laws is to ensure consumers receive a minimal level of service from licensees.

8. Error Number Six: “The real estate brokerage industry has a powerful lobby. Eleven states flatly prohibit rebates.” Fact: The intent of anti-rebate laws is to prevent kickbacks in real estate transactions, not to limit brokers’ incentives to attract customers. The brokerage industry does not lobby for anti-rebate laws.

One final thought. We find it ridiculous that real estate agents and the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) are being called “anti-competitive.” The truth is, we must cooperate with each other to ensure a successful transaction. The first MLS was created more than 100 years ago as way for brokers to share their listings with each another as a way of procuring buyers for their properties more quickly and efficiently than each could on their own. The MLS is a tool to help listing brokers attract brokers with buyer clients. Without the collaborative incentive of the existing MLS, brokers would create their own separate systems, fragmenting rather than consolidating property information.

The bottom line is, if you have a home listed for sale with us, you expect us to do everything we can to find a buyer for your home. You don’t care whether the buyer is represented by a full-service broker or an online discount broker. We don’t, either. If they can afford to buy your home, and they want to buy your home, we will make a deal. That’s the way it should be. Without an effective MLS, buyers would have to visit every real estate company in town to find out what’s for sale. Now THAT’S anticompetitive!

How much easier can it be? Look how easy it is to search the whole MLS!

Did you catch last Sunday’s 60 Minutes piece on the real estate industry? In what amounts to a 13 minute infomercial for a Seattle-based online discount brokerage company, CBS made the unilateral decision to interview opponents of “traditional” real estate agents, allowing them to make inaccurate, blanket comments disparaging Realtors. Other than a few select comments from one “traditional” Realtor (also based in Seattle), no one from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) appeared, even though they had worked with Lesley Stahl and CBS for the past year to prepare for the story and offered spokespersons to be interviewed. Our next blog entry will go into some of the things that were said - and our response.