Real Estate and Property Awards 2021

BUILD Real Estate and Property Awards 2021 4 Nov21350 UILD:To start:Within the real estate and property space, what do you specifically focus on? How has this specialism been driven by previous experience? Joseph J. McMillan Jr: Most of our work is done in the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach, and close to the ocean. This is natural. Our office is centrally located at 208 Main Street in the Ocean Drive section, and within a half block of the ocean. Our office has always been within a few blocks of this location. I have also sold properties in Surfside Beach, Little River, Longs, Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, Conway, Red Bluff, the Arcadian section, and the other sections of North Myrtle Beach – Cherry Grove, Crescent Beach, Windy Hill, and Barefoot Landing We handle rental properties throughout North Myrtle Beach, but only close to the ocean. My two grandfathers between them owned most of Marion County, just to the west of Horry County. My mother sold the Marion County farms she inherited and bought the Sea Vista Motel, which occupied half of the oceanfront land where the Avista Resort is now located, three blocks north of our current office address. My parents kept our home in Marion County long enough for my brother and I to finish high school. They sold our home in Marion County while we were in college, so the one of our two homes to which I returned after college, was the Sea Vista. My fashion model mother, as beautiful in spirit as in form, was my first secretary. She was a volunteer, although I paid her back in many ways including financially, later. My first office was in apartment 106 in the Sea Vista Motel, and my first clients were guests at the Sea Vista, who bought pre-construction condominiums at the Sea Cloisters, on a site 15 blocks north of the Sea Vista. My real estate career started with four sales at the Sea Cloisters, which became four rental units. Through word of mouth, we have gradually come to handle almost all the rental units at the Sea Cloisters and through further word of mouth, and the occasional sale, rental units in complexes across the street from the Sea Cloisters. For example, one particularly difficult original owner, Hamm D., stood on the walkway to the beach, looked back at Sea Cloisters, and noted that all the sliding glass doors were clean in condominiums Following his well-deserved recognition in the awards, we spoke with McMillan Real Estate, Inc’s President Joseph J. McMillan, Jr. to find out more about his history and work ethos, alongside the challenges of the last year. B Best Vacation Home Sales & Rental Agent - Horry County handled by our agency, and all the rest, including his own, were dirty. Board members at Sea Cloisters and Tilghman Lakes, across the street from Sea Cloisters, have told me that they wish they could require all their owners who rent, to rent through our agency. Sea Cloisters is by and large a peaceful complex, courtesy of the large and high quality, repeat clientele we have for the complex. A vast number of our renters have rented through us every year for ten, twenty, thirty and forty or more years, and some of our clients to this day, are old Sea Vista renters, from the days when my mother owned it. Some have known me since I was 13 years old, and I worked for 25 cents an hour in my mother’s motel. I was offered the association property management contracts for both phases of Sea Cloisters but turned both down, saying I would rather sleep at night, although there has been precious little of that. In my real estate career, I have more often worked the hour from 12:00 to 1:00 in the morning than the hour from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning, although I would gladly have swapped one for the other if I could. Ultimately, my roots run deep in the Ocean Drive section. BUILD:Tell me about your latest project or a big client you have worked with previously.What were the key challenges you had to overcome and were there any aspects of it that you are particularly proud of? JJMJ: This year, properties often have multiple offers within the first day of being listed, and often sell for more than full price. For example, in this hot market, one listing received 47 offers, and the seller chose to request highest and best offers with a deadline. So, the listing agent had to send 47 SCR314’s to let the buyer sides know of the highest and best deadline. At the later deadline, the seller counter offered one of the highest and best offers, and the listing agent had to send that counteroffer and 46 of the SCR314’s. That is a total of 93 sent SCR314’s on one deal (47 at the first round and 46 at the highest and best deadline). Each SCR314 takes about half an hour to process. In this highest and best offer market, I have become known as the condominium whisperer, guiding my buyers through highest and best blind bids to razor sharp wins. One among many examples is the sale of a two-bedroom condominium at The Summit. The asking price was $299,900. We had to stand in line to view the property, and we had to share the property with another agent and his client during our viewing. The other agent was handsome and young and glib of speech, but it was this experienced war horse who carried the day. The buyer and I interviewed the association president on speaker from my cell phone in the parking lot for our due diligence immediately following the showing. I advised my client to make