Steve Morgan has returned to his home stomping grounds in Bethany Beach, and he’s here for business.
Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY:
Steve Morgan takes a break from his many duties.
An Indian River High School graduate (1985), Morgan grew up in Middlesex. He moved to Washington, D.C. after college to pick up some metro polish.
With their oldest son, Luke, approaching kindergarten age, the Morgans decided it was time get back to small town living.
So far, it seems to have been a good move. “The quality of life with my wife (Ann) and kids has improved ten-fold,” Morgan said. They have another son now, 1-year-old Blake, and are planning to build a house in Clarksville.
In D.C., Morgan focused on the tech sector (Web hosting, sales), but he grew up around real estate.
His mother, Helen, runs Morgan Realty (Ocean City, Md.) and his sister, Kathy Cramer, has been a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker for 20 years. “I always had an interest,” Morgan pointed out.
Now, he has combined those fields to provide his own brand of service — two ways.
He advises prospective homebuyers on financing, through Anderson Scott Mortgage, and runs the Virtual Care Taker business as well (www.v-caretaker.com).
“The businesses really complement one another,” he said. “Either way, it’s about building relationships.”
Morgan doesn’t have any employees, and said he had no plans to hire anyone — as virtual caretaker, he visits his clients’ homes personally.
Via digital photography or video, Morgan can print, e-mail or upload recent images to his clientele.
“It’s more peace of mind, than security,” he said. Related services include checking up on contractors, winterizing, preparing for storms, responding to alarms and even watering plants.
On the mortgage side, Morgan said his customers sometimes stopped by his home in Bethany Beach to drop off their paperwork (he hoped to use his deck as a conference room once the weather warmed up).
However, with many out-of-state clients, he said technology once again played a major role. “A lot of communication is done via Internet, e-mail or fax, and that seems to work very well,” Morgan said.
He has some personal experience in real estate, with a pair of investment properties, a rental in Bethany Meadows and a piece of land in Greenback, Va.
Morgan earned his bachelor’s in business administration at East Carolina University. Paired with his personal experiences, he stated, “My training should be beneficial to my clients — not only homeowners, but also realtors and investors.
“Interest has been cheap for a long, long time,” Morgan said. “It might inch up, but it’s not going back to where it was. I believe we have enough technology, and we are so efficient here in the U.S. — we have better control than we did when rates were so volatile back in the 1970s and 1980s.”
He didn’t foresee any softening in the local markets, either. “Baby boomers from Philadelphia, D.C. and New York can sell, come down here and buy something we might see as overpriced — but for them, it’s cheaper than what they left,” he pointed out.
How far should people leverage themselves? “If you want something bad enough, you can find it — it just might not be the rate you want,” Morgan pointed out.
He suggested borrowing money required a good measure of personal responsibility, but if people questioned themselves, he wouldn’t hesitate to refer them to an attorney or accountant. “I believe in outsourcing,” Morgan said.
At the same time, as a lender rather than a broker, he said he liked the fact that Anderson Scott retained more in-house control over the loans.
Whether people are already real estate savvy or new to the game, he recognized sharing information about income and assets could be a little touchy.
“I try to look at long-term relationships,” Morgan stated. “It takes a while for people to warm up to one another and develop trust.
“I consider myself somewhat like a doctor, and it’s like offering a consultation,” he said. “I just try to ask a lot of questions, find out what it is the client hopes to accomplish.”
For more information, visit Morgan’s Web site (www.v-caretaker.com) or call (443) 226-5297.