Glossary
The words that trip up Lowcountry buyers
Regime fee. POA versus HOA. Fee simple. The 4% and 6% assessment ratios. Local vocabulary that means something specific here and nothing at all where most buyers are moving from.
- POA vs HOA
- Why it matters: My single strongest piece of advice is to read the POA's finances before the listing. Buyers routinely assume the two are interchangeable; the governing documents and the money behind them are not.
- Regime fee
- Why it matters: A South Carolina term that confuses almost every out-of-state buyer, and one of the twenty-one questions I'm asked most.
- Plantation vs community
- Why it matters: Local usage that means something specific on Hilton Head Island and nothing at all anywhere else.
- Deepwater vs marshfront
- Why it matters: The difference decides boat access, and it moves price substantially.
- The 4% vs 6% assessment ratio
- Why it matters: South Carolina taxes a primary residence and an investment property at different assessment ratios. Two of my most-asked questions turn on it.
- Fee simple townhome
- Why it matters: Buyers ask what it means when a townhome is described as fee simple, and the answer changes what they actually own.
- Condo vs villa
- Why it matters: The first question on my list of twenty-one. Local usage does not match what most buyers arrive expecting.
- CLHMS
- Why it matters: A luxury-market designation buyers encounter when comparing agents. I don't hold it — Q25 confirms I hold no designations yet — so this entry exists to define the term, not to claim it.
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