For sellers — Kiawah and Seabrook Island
The listing truths
What pricing does to a sale here, from 1,868 MLS home sales checked month by month against the MLS’s own numbers — and what you’d net, what South Carolina asks of a seller, and when buyers close.
Last verified
Photo: chucka_nc, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized)
What the first price does
Over the last two years, homes that never cut their price sold in a median 20 days on Kiawah and 17 on Seabrook. Homes that cut it took 138 and 146 — and sold for 89% of where they started on both islands.
Kiawah Island
18% sold at or above their last asking price. 26% of all sales never spent a day as an active MLS listing.
Seabrook Island
15% sold at or above their last asking price. 15% of all sales never spent a day as an active MLS listing.
Homes that were listed in the MLS for at least a day, the last 24 months. Days on the market are cumulative; the share is the sale price against the first asking price.
Price it right the first time. Mike builds the CMA from the comps — your complex, its neighbors and what's for sale today.
Get Mike's CMABased on information from CHS Regional MLS for the period 01/01/2021 through 10/14/2026. MLS figures are aggregates of listings as entered by agents, deemed reliable but not guaranteed. No listing, address or agent is shown.
What yours might sell for
Pick your complex — or your kind of home — and your square feet. The range is the middle half of what homes like it actually sold for.
From 116 closed sales of a villa or townhome on Kiawah Island in the last 24 months: the middle half sold between $767 and $1,034 a square foot. MLS data through October 13, 2026.
Where homes like yours have been selling
Enter square feet
The range comes from closed MLS sales only — no listings and no automated valuation model. Want the real number? Mike builds a CMA from the comps.
Get Mike’s full CMAWhen buyers close
A sale closes weeks after the contract is signed — so the months with the most closings are the months buyers were writing offers just before.
How much is for sale, price band by price band
Kiawah Island, the last 12 months
Seabrook Island, the last 12 months
Thinking about when to list? Ask Mike what's selling in your band this month.
Ask MikeBased on information from CHS Regional MLS for the period 01/01/2021 through 10/14/2026. Homes only. MLS figures are aggregates of listings as entered by agents, deemed reliable but not guaranteed. No listing, address or agent is shown.
What you’d walk away with
Commissions are negotiable and set in your listing agreement — type yours.
What you’d walk away with
Enter a price
Arithmetic on what you typed plus the state’s fee. Your closing attorney prepares the real settlement statement.
Get Mike’s net sheet and CMAWhat South Carolina asks of a seller
Every seller in South Carolina
What the law asks of you on any one-to-four-unit home.
The property condition disclosure
Give the buyer the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement before the contract is signed, unless the contract says otherwise. If you learn something on it is materially wrong before closing, correct it or repair it. The law lists exemptions — among them foreclosures, transfers between spouses or co-owners, never-occupied new homes, and both sides waiving in writing. A missing form doesn't void the sale, but knowingly giving false information makes you liable for damages.
Source: SC Code §27-50-10 et seq. (residential property disclosure); SC Real Estate Commission, Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement (updated 6/2025).
Flood and HOA questions ride on that form
The current form asks about flooding, flood zones, flood insurance and claims, uninsured flood repairs, federal disaster aid and beach-nourishment assessments, and an HOA addendum covers the association. South Carolina has no separate statute requiring an HOA resale certificate.
Source: SC Real Estate Commission, Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement (updated 6/2025); SC Code Title 27, Chapter 30 (homeowners associations).
Built before 1978: lead-based paint
Give the buyer the EPA pamphlet, anything you know about lead paint and any reports, and a lead warning statement in the contract. The buyer gets 10 days to inspect unless both of you agree otherwise in writing. Keep the signed disclosures for three years.
Source: EPA, Real estate disclosures about lead-based paint.
On the beach: the setback lines
If any part of the property is seaward of the state's setback or jurisdictional line, the contract must disclose the baseline and setback lines, where the house sits against them, and the local erosion rate.
The deed recording fee is the seller's
South Carolina charges $1.85 for every $500 of value — $1.30 to the state, $0.55 to the county. The seller is liable for it; the buyer only secondarily. The net sheet below counts it.
If you don't live in South Carolina
Withholding at closing — a prepayment of tax, not a fee, and often avoidable.
South Carolina withholds from nonresident sellers
The buyer must withhold at closing: at the state's top individual income-tax rate for individuals, partnerships, trusts and estates, and 5% for corporations and other entities. It's figured on the whole price unless you give an affidavit of your gain, and never more than your net proceeds. You settle it on your South Carolina return.
Source: SC Code §12-8-580 (nonresident seller withholding); SCDOR Form I-290, buyer's withholding return.
The I-295 affidavit
Form I-295 removes the withholding for sellers who are South Carolina residents and for sales like a principal residence under federal §121 or a §1031 exchange — and otherwise limits it to your stated gain. File it through your closing attorney before closing.
Source: SCDOR Form I-295, seller's affidavit; SC Code §12-8-580 (nonresident seller withholding).
If you're not a U.S. person: FIRPTA
The buyer generally withholds 15% of the price for the IRS. It drops to 10% when the buyer will live in the home and the price is $1 million or less, and to 0% at $300,000 or less. A seller who isn't foreign signs a non-foreign certification and none is withheld.
Source: IRS, FIRPTA withholding; IRS, Instructions for Form 8288 — exceptions to withholding.
Selling on Seabrook Island
SIPOA, the gate and the rental permit.
Tell SIPOA about the sale
SIPOA's bylaws ask the seller to notify the association of the sale and the buyer's name and address. The new owner becomes liable for all assessments, and SIPOA's board can set a transfer assessment as a percentage of the price, paid into reserves.
Source: SIPOA Bylaws (recorded 5/30/2025), §3.2.3 and §4.1; SIPOA Eleventh Amended Covenants (recorded 2/18/2023), §3.
The gate
Your gate barcodes are turned off at the sale. A buyer under contract needs your written authorization for SIPOA's property-under-contract pass.
Source: SIPOA 2026 Rules and Regulations.
Your rental permit can go with the house — for now
A buyer can take over your Town short-term rental permit with a recorded deed and a $25 fee when the sale closes between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2027. The Town caps permits: 557 inside the overlay district with 55 open, and 110 outside with 7 open, on October 12, 2026.
Source: Town of Seabrook Island, STR permit Form M-1 (change of ownership); Town of Seabrook Island, short-term rentals.
Selling on Kiawah Island
KICA's closing charges and the rental license.
KICA's Contribution to Reserves is the buyer's
KICA's covenants put the Contribution to Reserves — 0.5% of the gross price, at least one year's assessment — on the purchaser, due at recording. KICA can ask either side for the contract or closing statement, and gives an assessment-paid certificate on the owner's request.
Source: KICA Covenants (March 2025), Art. V §6 and §10; KICA, Finance — property closing fees.
Your rental license doesn't go with the house
Town of Kiawah Island short-term rental licenses don't transfer on a sale (only within a family). Close yours at the sale; the buyer applies fresh, and in the capped areas — 20% of homes in R-1 and parts of R-2, with a waitlist — that can mean waiting.
What the buyer's tax bill becomes
Buyers price against it, so sellers should know it.
The sale resets the value
A deed is an assessable transfer: the home is reappraised to its value at the end of the year of the sale and taxed on it the next year, without the usual 15% cap.
Source: SC Code §12-37-3140 and -3150 (assessable transfers).
4% or 6%
The buyer pays at the 6% ratio unless they live there and apply for the 4% legal-residence ratio in time — a second home or a rental stays at 6%.
Checked October 14, 2026. Facts, not legal or tax advice — your closing attorney and tax adviser have the last word on your sale.
Selling from out of state, or holding a rental license? Mike walks the paperwork with you and your attorney.
Talk it throughQuick answers
Do I have to give a disclosure statement when I sell in South Carolina?
Yes, for most one-to-four-unit homes: the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement goes to the buyer before the contract is signed (SC Code §27-50-10 et seq.). The law lists exemptions, among them foreclosures, transfers between spouses or co-owners and both sides waiving in writing.
Who pays the deed recording fee in South Carolina?
The seller is liable for it — $1.85 per $500 of value — and the buyer only secondarily (SC Code §12-24-20).
I don't live in South Carolina. Will tax be withheld when I sell?
Usually, yes: the buyer withholds South Carolina tax at closing (SC Code §12-8-580) unless Form I-295 shows you're exempt, and the I-295 can limit it to your gain. It's a prepayment you settle on your South Carolina return.
Does my Kiawah rental license transfer to the buyer?
No. Town of Kiawah Island licenses don't transfer on a sale except within a family; the buyer applies fresh, and capped areas have a waitlist.
Does my Seabrook Island rental permit transfer to the buyer?
Yes, for sales closing between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2027: the buyer files Form M-1 with the recorded deed and a $25 fee.
Every neighborhood’s own numbers: Kiawah and Seabrook, neighborhood by neighborhood. Ready to talk? Book a call with Mike.
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Sunrise on Seabrook
Photo: chucka_nc, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized)
Two ways in
Talk it through with Mike, or ask Val — the guide’s AI assistant, answering from this site’s sourced facts.