Myrtle Beach · Trading Up
Trading Up to Your Next Home in Myrtle Beach, SC
Selling your current home and buying the next one, planned together so both closings line up.
A Quick Note
This page is general information, not legal, tax, insurance, or lending advice. Loan, tax, and insurance rules change and depend on your situation, so please confirm what applies to you with your lender, your CPA, your insurance agent, and your closing attorney. I am a real estate professional, and my part is pricing your current home, finding the next one, and lining up both sales.
Trading Up in Myrtle Beach: Can the First Place Be a Rental?
Trading up in Myrtle Beach usually raises the question of keeping the first place and renting it. In this city the answer starts with zoning: Myrtle Beach does not allow rentals under 90 days in any district beginning with R, except RMV, and a property outside an allowed zone cannot be converted. A yearly lease is a different matter, though every rental needs a city business license. Local to Coastal Realty checks the zone and runs both paths with your numbers.
Buy First or Sell First
Selling first gives you a firm number and a strong offer, and you may need a short rental or a negotiated stay after closing. Buying first lets you move once, but you have to qualify for both payments or have the cash to bridge them. A contingent offer protects you but competes against offers that do not depend on another sale. Ask your lender for a pre-approval that covers both owning and having sold your current home.
Sell It or Keep It: the Numbers
Selling. South Carolina's deed recording fee is $1.85 for every $500 of value, paid by the seller, so a $450,000 sale carries $1,665. The IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 of gain on your main home, or $500,000 on a joint return, if you owned and lived in it for two of the five years before the sale. Your home gets the full launch: drone photography, a video walkthrough, a property website, and a targeted paid social campaign.
Keeping it. Once it is no longer your legal residence, it is assessed at 6 percent and pays school operating millage. Inside the city on Horry County's 2026 levies, a $450,000 home goes from about $2,619 a year to about $6,874. Start with what your Myrtle Beach home is worth.
The Next Home: Compare the Millage
For a $700,000 next home you live in, Horry County's 2026 levies work out to about $4,074 a year inside Myrtle Beach at 145.5 mills, $3,139 inside North Myrtle Beach at 112.1, and $2,573 in unincorporated Little River at 91.9, all on a 4 percent assessment once you apply for the legal residence rate on the new home. Lenders require flood insurance on a federally backed loan for a building in a Special Flood Hazard Area.
Two Closings, One Calendar
Closings in South Carolina run under attorney supervision, as the state Supreme Court held in Doe v. McMaster. When both close the same day, I confirm the order with both attorneys and both lenders in advance. Read selling your home in Myrtle Beach and buying a home in Myrtle Beach, then call me.
Sources
The rules and figures above come from these sources, checked in October 2026. Confirm the details for your situation with your lender, CPA, insurance agent, and closing attorney.
- City of Myrtle Beach, Know Your Zone: short-term rentals
- South Carolina Code, Title 12, Chapter 24, deed recording fee
- Horry County Auditor, 2026 tax levies
- South Carolina Code, Title 12, Chapter 43, Section 12-43-220, assessment ratios
- South Carolina Code, Title 12, Chapter 37, Section 12-37-220, property tax exemptions
- FEMA, flood risk and lending requirements
- IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home
- Doe v. McMaster, South Carolina Supreme Court (2003)
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I turn my Myrtle Beach home into a weekly rental when I move up?
Only if it is in a zone that allows rentals under 90 days. The city says R districts do not, except RMV, and properties outside an allowed zone cannot be converted.
What happens to my tax if I keep the first place?
It is assessed at 6 percent with school operating millage. Inside the city on Horry's 2026 levies, a $450,000 home goes from about $2,619 a year to about $6,874.
Can both closings happen the same day?
Yes, with coordination between both attorneys and both lenders. I confirm the order in advance.
Myrtle Beach
What trading up looks like in Myrtle Beach
The Grand Strand's Boardwalk, SkyWheel, and Broadway at the Beach, with golf and shopping close by.
Myrtle Beach holds a 1.2-mile Oceanfront Boardwalk, the 187-foot SkyWheel, and shopping at Broadway at the Beach and The Market Common.
The Grand Strand comprises 14 communities along 60 miles of coastline, and Myrtle Beach calls itself the Golf Capital of the World.
The method
How we do it in Myrtle Beach
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Local to Coastal Realty?