Frustrated sellers choosing to rent out properties

BOTTOM LINE ADVICE FOR OWNERS: If you want to sell, then price your property right. If you don’t have to sell, then keep it. If you’re not living in it, then rent it out.

As home sellers realize how much they’ll have to drop their price to sell - or how long it will take to sell - some are choosing to rent out their properties instead, leaving renters with more options and the ability to be picky about their price in some areas.

Rental agency managers say rents for the most part are continuing to tick upward in price, but in some pockets, like annual condominium rentals and three-bedroom homes, rents are falling.

Unlike home prices, no one tracks long-term rental rates on the Grand Strand.

• However, rental agents say that in some Carolina Forest neighborhoods where there is an oversupply of three-bedroom homes on the rental market… rental prices are dripping.

• Some condominium complexes, like Windsor Green, are also seeing rents fall. Three-bedroom units were renting for between $950 and $995 a month a year ago, but in July six owners dropped the price to $850.

• One-bedroom condos are in the highest demand, and rental rates have not fallen on those.

• Some single-family home neighborhoods such as Hillsborough have all their units rented, and rates are holding steady.

More Realtors are seeing clients pull their home from the market and choose to rent. They do not want to rent it. But they can’t sell. They are frustrated. They feel like they have come down so low in order to sell.

Source: Jenny Burns, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, SC