Clients frequently ask me about other property tax related issues, including questions about applying for a refund for the 4% legal residence exemption, the Homestead Tax Exemption, and other ways to potentially reduce their property tax liability. Because these questions are so common, I want to provide a plain English overview of those topics here: 4% Legal Residence Exemption – Request for Refund If you purchased a home and live in it as your primary, owner occupied residence, but you forgot to apply for the 4% legal residence exemption, South Carolina law allows you to apply for a refund of “property taxes overpaid if the property was eligible for the 4% legal residence exemption” as long as you can establish…
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I get more questions about (residential) real estate property taxes than any other subject or issue in a real estate closing – so here is your introduction to understanding residential real estate property taxes (often referenced as the “4% exemption”). (Assume for the purposes of this article that we are in Charleston County). In South Carolina, real property is taxed based on how it is used – at either the 4% assessment rate (for property used as one’s primary residence) or at the 6% assessment rate (other real estate, such as that used for investment/rental property or a second home/vacation condo). South Carolina law allows taxpayers who own and live in real property as their primary (owner-occupied) legal residence to…
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Purchasing a home or commercial property is possibly one of the biggest, most important investments you will ever make. Title insurance is one of the most important pieces of a transaction, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. Here is a plain English explanation of what it is and how it works: In most, if not all, real estate transactions a title search is done to determine what issues exist that may affect title to the property. The title abstractor goes through the public records and collects all of the information – checking the county courthouse, for example, for prior deeds in the chain of title, open mortgages, liens, judgments, restrictions, rights of first refusal, open estates in…
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