Moving to Myrtle Beach
and the Grand Strand.

Who moves here

Where our relocating clients come from

More people move to the Myrtle Beach area than almost anywhere else in the country, and our clients reflect it. The single biggest wave is from North Carolina right next door, followed by the Northeast, mainly New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, plus Ohio. They come for the same handful of reasons: the coast, dramatically lower taxes and cost of living than up north, and a slower pace without giving up a real housing market. If you are one of them, start with why everyone is moving here, in one read. Then the tax and housing comparison in full, state by state: moving from North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Each covers the taxes in both directions, including the lines that cost more here, and each carries a calculator that puts your income tax and property tax now next to what you would pay here. Beyond the taxes, seven pages answer what life here actually looks like: which Grand Strand town fits, jobs and the economy, healthcare and hospitals, every hurricane since Hugo, the weather in numbers, and getting around, from the airport to the roads, and the beach rules, town by town. Our neighborhood guides break down which Grand Strand towns fit which kind of move.

You don’t have to be here yet

You can buy before you finish moving

Most of our relocating buyers start the search from hundreds of miles away, and that’s completely normal here. We do video walkthroughs, pull the same investor-grade reports we run for our investors (permits nearby, what the block is really like, what a seller might not volunteer), and handle the process so you can make a confident offer without flying down for every showing.

Here is something worth knowing: a lot of Grand Strand homes are bought with cash by out-of-state buyers. To compete with a cash offer you need a strong pre-approval and an agent who can move fast, and that is far easier when your agent and lender work at the same company.

The real hurdle

The hard part is usually the mortgage, not the house

Relocating often means a job change, and a new job, a gap between jobs, or self-employment income can complicate a mortgage right when you’re trying to buy. This is exactly where our preferred lender, BrickWood Mortgage (NMLS #189497), makes the biggest difference. Because the brokerage and the lender are the same company, we can structure the timeline around your situation instead of forcing your life to fit a rigid loan process. (Here is exactly how our preferred lender relationship works.)

The single biggest mistake we see relocators make is putting in an offer before they have a job lined up here. You can actually get approved for the mortgage with a signed job offer letter in hand, so line the job up first. When people do it the other way around, go under contract and then start job hunting, the deal too often falls through, and we have seen buyers lose the home they were under contract on simply because they could not line up a job they liked here before their contract deadline. Get the job, then we will move fast on the house.

The takeaway: sort out your job and income first, because the whole mortgage depends on it. Then move fast on the house.

A real relocation we handled

What it can actually take, and why the preferred lender matters

An older couple relocating to the coast found their home, but they were still lining up new jobs here, and you generally need to show income to qualify for the mortgage. Three separate contract extensions were negotiated with the seller to buy them time while they landed those jobs, and because they had a pet and needed somewhere to land, they were put up in a pet-friendly short-term rental at a steep discount in the meantime.

After a lot of back-and-forth between the agent and the lender, the kind of coordination that only works when the two sit inside the same company, they closed on their coastal home. A separate agent and lender, with no simple way to work together, would likely have lost that deal.

The honest version

Your money goes further here. Protect the difference.

Almost everyone who moves down is surprised how much further their money goes on taxes, insurance, and day-to-day costs. The trap we see: people celebrate the savings by overspending in the first year and end up tighter than they were up north. Enjoy the head start, just don’t give it all back. Our cost of living calculator compares your current city with this one line by line, and if you’re retiring here, our retirees guide lays out the specific South Carolina tax breaks in detail.

Buying a second home →   How buying here works →   Compare submarkets →

The real monthly number

Lower prices, but build the real monthly number first

Almost every relocator sees Grand Strand prices and feels relief. Homes here usually cost less than the Northeast and less than many big metros. That part is true. The mistake is stopping at the sticker price. On the coast, three things move the monthly cost that you may not have paid up north.

• Coastal insurance. Near the water you often need more than one policy, and it can add hundreds of dollars a month. We flag this in the mistakes list above and get you real quotes early, not after closing. The buyer mistakes that are not relocation-specific have their own page: common Myrtle Beach buyer mistakes.
• Flood zones. FEMA, the federal agency that maps flood risk, marks some areas as more likely to flood. If your home is in one, a lender will require flood insurance. Two homes a block apart can be rated differently, so we check the map before you commit.
• HOA or condo regime fees. Many Grand Strand condos and planned communities charge a monthly fee that covers shared insurance and upkeep. On some buildings it is small; on others it is a big part of the payment. Always ask for the current figure.

None of this means the coast is expensive. It usually is not. It means the honest number to compare against your old home is the all-in monthly cost, not the price tag. We build that number with you before you commit. For the city-by-city comparison see the cost of living calculator, and for a town-by-town look at prices, our neighborhood guides.

You do not know the area yet

How to pick a Grand Strand town before you know the area

When you are moving from far away, every Grand Strand town sounds the same at first. They are not the same. Before you tour, it helps to answer a few honest questions about how you want to live. The town most relocating families tour first has its own guide: Carolina Forest.

• Beachfront or a few minutes inland? Right on the water costs more and can mean more tourists and traffic in summer. A short drive inland often gets you more house for the money and a quieter street.
• Busy and tourist-heavy, or year-round and quiet? Some areas are lively all summer and slow in winter. Others feel like a normal neighborhood every month of the year.
• How far is your daily drive? If you or your partner will commute, check the drive to where the jobs are: Conway (the county seat, home to local government and Coastal Carolina University), the Market Common district in Myrtle Beach, and the main hospitals such as Grand Strand Medical Center and Conway Medical Center.
• Schools or a 55-plus community? School quality varies a lot by area, which we cover in the FAQ above, and some communities are age-restricted.

We do not expect you to know this yet. That is our job. We match your answers to the right towns, then set up a tour so you feel the difference in person. For the full profile of each town, use our neighborhood guides.

Buying from far away

How out-of-state buyers close remotely, step by step

You do not need to be in South Carolina to get a home under contract. Most of our out-of-state buyers do the early steps from home and make one short trip. Here is the usual order.

1. Get pre-approved with a South Carolina lender first. Pre-approval is a lender's written estimate of what you can borrow. Coastal condos and flood-zone homes are reviewed differently here, so a letter from your old state may not hold up. Our preferred lender can do this remotely.
2. Tell us how you want to live, and we build a shortlist. We match your budget and must-haves to the right towns and send only homes worth your time.
3. We tour for you on live video. We walk the home and the street on a video call, point the camera where you ask, and tell you what a photo will not, like road noise, the neighbors, and the real condition.
4. Make your offer from home. You sign the offer digitally. You can be under contract before you ever move.
5. Inspect during your due diligence period. That is the window after your offer when you can inspect the home and still back out. We line up the inspections and get your insurance and flood quotes so the monthly number is accurate.
6. Close remotely. In South Carolina an attorney handles the closing. You sign the final papers in front of a local notary, a person authorized to witness signatures, and send them in, or sign on a planned trip. Then the home is yours.

One in-person visit before closing is still smart, and we build one efficient trip into the plan. Many buyers find their home on a single two-day visit.

Why relocators pick us

How Chapter3 Realty helps relocators specifically

Moving is hard enough. Our whole process is built so you can do most of it from where you are now, and so the loan does not fall through when your job is changing.

• A remote-friendly process. Video tours, digital signing, and a local agent who checks the home and neighborhood in person for you. You can run the whole search from your current home.
• A preferred lender for a changing job. Relocating often means a new job, a gap between jobs, or remote or self-employed income. Because our lender, BrickWood Mortgage (NMLS #189497), works at the same company we do, we can time the loan around your situation instead of forcing your life to fit a rigid process.
• Local research before you commit. We run the same checks we do for our investors: what the block is really like, nearby permits and plans, flood-zone status, and what a seller may not volunteer. You commit with the facts, not a guess.

An agent and a lender working together, with real local data, is how we get out-of-state buyers to closing without surprises. Start with a free 15-minute call and we will build your shortlist before you buy a plane ticket.

Common Questions

Frequently asked questions