- So you want to move to Charleston,
and you wanna know what the five pros and the five cons are?
Well, we're gonna talk about it today.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody?
It's Bill Olson here.
I'm a local realtor in Charleston, South Carolina
and today we're gonna be talking about
my five pros and my five cons.
What I love and what I hate
about living right here in Charleston, South Carolina.
Now if this is your first time visiting
or you haven't done so yet, go right below here.
Go ahead and click the little subscribe button,
ring that bell, to make sure that you're notified
anytime I put out a new video.
I love putting out content about
what it's like to live, work and play
right here in Charleston, South Carolina.
Even though there's these cons,
it's still my favorite city in the world
and if you're considering a move here,
please don't hesitate to reach out.
Text, call, email, throw up the smoke signals,
whatever your preferred method of contact is.
Get in touch with me and let's get you here.
I have been helping people from all over the country
and all over the world move right here into Charleston
and I've got a system in place
that can make it as easy and stress free as possible,
but you have to reach out.
Now, without further ado, let's start with my five
favorite things about living right here in Charleston.
Number one, the beaches.
Wherever you are in Charleston,
you are never far from an amazing public beach.
Whether you prefer Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island,
Folly Beach, Kiawah Beachwalker, or down on Edisto,
you always have a place to go to enjoy the sands
and the water.
Something that you need to remember
when you visit these beaches is since they are all public,
they do have their own sets of rules,
which I did a video for.
I'll throw a link down below and then one up here.
Be sure to watch that before you go
so you don't get a ticket.
Number two, the history.
As the oldest city in South Carolina,
Charleston is ripe with history,
whether it's history about pirates
or the start of the civil war
or you just want to walk down the cobblestone streets
and turn into the old graveyards
and see the old gravestones,
which just tell stories of their own.
There is always something new to learn
right here in Charleston.
Number three, is the property taxes.
Now, being a realtor, this is one of my favorites.
We have a lot of people moving here from up North
where you're seeing all these expensive property taxes
and in Charleston, we have...
Or South Carolina, as a matter of fact,
has the fifth lowest property taxes in the country.
They come out to about 1/2% of your assessed value.
So if you're looking to move somewhere
to get a break on your property taxes.
Charleston is definitely a place for you.
Number four is the food.
If you know me, you know I love to eat and I love all foods.
I come from a restaurant background,
being a very tourist town, that just breeds
great restaurants, and everything from a hole in the wall
to fine dining.
You're going to find some amazing food here.
Something for everyone in the family
to enjoy on all budgets.
Number five, there's always something to do.
One thing that I've loved about living here in Charleston
is that year round,
there's constantly something going on
for me and my family to do.
And that doesn't just mean like going to the park
or going to a farmer's market.
There's always festivals going on.
And if you don't want to tackle those crowds,
you can always just go downtown, explore,
go to the libraries.
There's a ton of great museums,
there's so much to learn,
you know, this goes back to the beaches in the history
and all of that.
You can just always find something amazing going on
that the whole family can enjoy.
Well, there you have it.
Those are my five things I love about living in Charleston.
So now, let's get into the five things that I hate.
Number one, the flooding.
Charleston lies in an area called the low country
and once you move here, you'll understand why.
When we have a large rain event,
you can double that with a high tide.
You will definitely see areas with a lot of standing water.
Some areas are more prone to flooding than others,
so if you're looking to move into a certain area,
definitely hit me up.
I can give you all the inside information
to know if you're going to end up seeing water there or not.
Number two, is the traffic.
Now being on the coast and most people working downtown,
there's only a certain number of directions
that people can go.
You're going to see the most traffic
during morning rush hour
heading into downtown,
an evening rush hour heading outside of downtown.
Let me preface this with, yes, our traffic is terrible,
but if you come from a larger city,
our traffic really,
in the grand scheme of things isn't that bad.
Sometimes you just need to plan for a few extra minutes
when leaving the house during these peak hours.
Number three, the heat and humidity.
During the peak summer months,
it gets very hot and very humid.
Some days you don't even want to go outside.
But conversely, we do have amazing winters
and very mild.
We rarely see snow, rarely see ice.
So if you can the heat for a few months out of the year,
then the rest of the year is gonna be extremely comfortable.
Number four, hurricanes.
We live on the coast
so therefore we are going to get hurricanes.
It's just a way of life.
Some people are terrified.
I was, when I first moved here
and first sign, boom, we were out.
We're still very cautious
but the nice thing
about a hurricane where there's nothing nice about them
is that they do start far away and they move very slow.
So you do have plenty of time to prepare
and evacuate if need be.
Number five, is the sales tax.
Now, as I said, the property tax is so low.
Our sales tax is actually fairly high at 9%.
Now, on top of that, if you plan on going out to eat
and having some alcoholic beverages,
you can actually plan on paying up to 12% sales tax
on alcoholic beverages.
Now, I don't think this is a huge con
unless you're someone who likes to go out to eat
and have drinks, three, four, five nights a week.
If it's just an occasional thing,
the offset from the property taxes,
will actually still save you money on your taxes.
So there you have it folks,
my five pros and five cons
of living right here in Charleston, South Carolina.
If you have any other pros or cons,
go ahead and drop them down in the comments.
I'd love to hear them.
If you didn't before, please remember,
go ahead now, subscribe and hit that little bell
so that you're notified when I put out any new content.
And if you're thinking of moving here to Charleston,
please shoot me an email, text call,
throw the smoke signals.
I love helping people move to this amazing city
and find their new home right here
in the number one city in America.
So again, my name is Bill Olson.
I'm a local realtor here in Charleston
with ERA Wilder Realty.
Look forward to hearing from you,
and we'll see on the next video.
Bye.