Buyers Market for Beaufort Homes

As the real estate market here in Beaufort County slowly begins to rebound, many homeowners are reconsidering refinancing or taking out home equity lines of credit. Interest rates have remained low and for many folks it is a good time to get out of a variable rate mortgage or an interest only credit situation. Also, many savy buyers are scooping up nice homes and properties at rock bottom prices as homeowners continue to try and avoid foreclosure. Remember, if you are considering a home purchase, have an attorney draft, or at least review, the contract you intend to use. South Carolina law requires that an attorney close all land secured loans (including equity lines), but many people make the mistake of contacting their attorney after they have already signed a contract.

As an update (June 8, 2009)- There are some signs that the market has made improvement, but many buyers seem to be struggling to obtain financing. However, banks and homeowners of all types remained motivated to sale.

Online Lawyering

For many years the advancement in technology has been shunned by many member of the legal community. This has probably occurred for a variety of reasons including, the perceived cost, a lack of understanding, fears of security and simple inertia. Fortunatley, cost effective software, gadets and technology driven services are becoming more accessible and tailored to the law office environment.
For instance, the South Carolina state Bar now supports the use of off-site data storage through internet based back-up service -specifically CoreVault. This service, and those like it, offer automated back-up services with enough capacity available to back-up a firm's computer data everyday, if desired. These services can go back to specific dates to recover lost or damaged data and are sophisticate enough to store only data that has changed in order to maximize server storage space.
With the ever increasing pace of technology, for a law firm to keep current, technology must be a priority. But the rewards and benefits make it worth the effort.