About James Schiller Realtor James Schiller | Charleston & South Carolina Luxury Real Estate Broker A Different Approach to Real Estate I’m James Schiller, a South Carolina real estate broker based in Mount Pleasant and specializing in higher-value residential real estate throughout Charleston and across South Carolina. I’ve been a licensed real estate broker since 2005, but real estate is only one part of my professional background. Before becoming a real estate agent, I spent years in mortgage lending, business ownership, digital marketing, media production, home construction, and property insurance. That combination has shaped how I approach real estate today. I don’t view selling a home as simply putting a property in the MLS, putting a sign in the yard, and waiting for another agent to bring a buyer. I approach a listing as a business problem: How do we position this property, reach the right buyer, respond to the market, and ultimately produce the best possible outcome for the seller? That requires marketing ability, financial understanding, knowledge of the property itself, an understanding of the local market, and perhaps most importantly, the willingness to stay engaged and keep thinking. My Approach to Representing Sellers When a sophisticated seller hires me, they’re hiring someone who is highly involved in the process. I’m responsive. I return calls and texts quickly. I communicate what I’m seeing in the market. I use data to help determine how a property should be positioned and priced, but I also pay close attention to what buyers are actually doing once a property hits the market. Sometimes the market tells you something that the comparable sales don’t. That’s where experience and judgment matter. I’ve advised sellers to change course after a property was already attracting offers because I believed there was more money available. In two separate transactions, those decisions resulted in sellers receiving an additional $25,000 and $10,000 respectively. My philosophy is straightforward: If I’m representing you, I’m going to keep looking for ways to improve the outcome. Real Estate Experience That Extends Beyond Real Estate Mortgage and Financial Experience I entered the mortgage business in 1998, during my senior year of college. I eventually founded Mortgage Professionals, LLC in 2002 and built the company to 13 employees, with more than $300 million in mortgage production through the company. That experience gave me an understanding of real estate finance that I still use today. I previously held a South Carolina mortgage broker license and spent years helping real estate agents understand how financing could be used strategically to help close more transactions. I also spent two years as a licensed South Carolina property and casualty insurance agent, working with homeowners on property, flood, and hurricane insurance. I did it primarily because I wanted to understand how that side of the industry affected my clients. Understanding how financing, insurance, property value, and the overall economics of a transaction interact gives me another perspective when advising buyers and sellers. Media, Photography and Property Marketing My undergraduate background is in Media Arts from the University of South Carolina, with a concentration in video production. That background has become one of the most important parts of the way I market real estate. I don’t believe every home should be marketed the same way. A photographer or videographer can produce technically excellent images, but the person behind the camera doesn’t necessarily understand what makes a particular property desirable to its most likely buyer. I spend considerable time thinking about that. What should we emphasize? What should we minimize? What does the property do better than its competition? Who is most likely to buy it? What does that buyer need to see to understand the property’s value? I even own professional photography and 3D equipment, including a digital camera, 3D camera and a gimbal, in case I have to step in when necessary. I have personally edited real estate video for many of my listings. When I subcontract media production, you can trust I remain hands-on with the creative direction, you can’t hope the media gatherer also has real estate knowledge and vision. That’s not their wheelhouse. For me, real estate media isn’t simply documentation. It is marketing. Digital Marketing and Search I began working with online marketing more than 20 years ago, at a time when many businesses still didn’t have websites. I recognized early that consumers were going to increasingly use the internet to find the products and services they needed, and I built my business around understanding how that behavior worked. I studied it, and embraced it. So I understand it at a level that most real estate agents simply don’t. That experience eventually led to the development of multiple real estate search websites serving South Carolina. Today I operate four real estate websites serving South Carolina, with thousands of pages of real estate information and property listings that collectively generate substantial organic search traffic, oftentimes 7000+ pages views PER DAY. Regularly ranking above Zillow and other tech companies. My background also includes serving as a Chief Marketing Officer for an organ-transplant service provider, where I helped triple the company’s business. That marketing experience is unusual in residential real estate, and it directly influences how I approach listing marketing today. A seller doesn’t simply need a listing online. The property needs to be positioned so the right buyer can find it, understand it, and become interested in it. Construction and New Home Expertise I’ve owned homes, renovated homes, flipped homes, completed numerous home-improvement projects, and worked extensively with contractors and construction professionals. I’ve also represented buyers purchasing new construction from major national home builders. Over the years, I’ve developed a strong understanding of how homes are actually constructed and what is happening behind the walls—not simply what a home looks like after it has been finished. I know how and why builders and tradesmen do what they do. When looking at a home inspection I actually understand what and why things are there, what needs to be addressed and what doesn’t. That knowledge has proven particularly useful during new-construction inspections and final walkthroughs. I enjoy the technical side of houses and have developed relationships with contractors and other construction professionals throughout South Carolina. For buyers, that means I can often look at a home differently than someone whose experience is limited to the finished product. For sellers, it means I can better understand how construction quality, improvements, condition and features affect how a property should be presented to the market. Luxury Condominiums and HOA Knowledge Luxury condominiums require a different kind of due diligence than a typical single-family home. Over the years I’ve developed substantial experience with condominium regimes, homeowners associations, special assessments, capital reserves, capital reserve studies and the financial considerations that can materially affect a condominium owner’s investment. I believe buyers of luxury condominiums need to understand much more than the finishes inside the unit. They need to understand the financial and operational health of the building and association as well. That has become an important part of my approach to representing condominium buyers and sellers. South Carolina Real Estate Experience I grew up in South Carolina and was raised in Columbia before eventually making the Charleston area my home. I’ve spent most of my life traveling throughout the state and have friends, family, professional relationships and clients throughout South Carolina. While Charleston and the surrounding coastal communities are my primary market, I can represent clients throughout much of the state. My primary areas of expertise include: Downtown Charleston Mount Pleasant Daniel Island Sullivan’s Island Isle of Palms Kiawah Island Other Charleston-area coastal communities Luxury and waterfront properties throughout South Carolina Select higher-value properties in major South Carolina markets For properties farther from the Charleston area, the value and circumstances of the property determine whether I personally handle the transaction or have someone on my team assist. A Few Examples of My Approach $915,000 Mount Pleasant Lot — September 2020 A client asked me to try selling a large residential lot in a luxury Mount Pleasant neighborhood after another agent had been unable to sell it. Rather than marketing the property simply as vacant land, I thought about who the eventual buyer would be. I believed the most likely buyer was a family planning to build a home there. My son was three years old at the time. I took him to the property with a ball and recorded him running through the grass and kicking it. I combined that footage with professional drone footage to create a marketing video designed to help prospective buyers visualize what the property could become—a place where a family could actually live. The lot ultimately sold for $915,000 in September 2020. The lesson wasn’t about the video itself. It was about understanding who the buyer was and selling the possibility of the property rather than simply selling dirt. $2.1 Million Oceanfront Condo — Wild Dunes A seller of an oceanfront condominium at Ocean Club in Wild Dunes Resort contacted me after researching agents online. He had previously been a licensed real estate agent in Texas, so he and his wife knew enough about the business to interview me carefully before choosing me to represent them. The seller’s objective was to net approximately $1.7 million. After roughly two months on the market, we secured a cash contract for $2.1 million. The transaction was an example of the type of seller relationship I value: sophisticated clients who want someone who understands the numbers, the market, and the strategy behind the listing. $1.85 Million Myrtle Beach Area Sale A couple who owned a waterfront property on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Myrtle Beach area originally contacted me through one of my websites because they wanted to move to Mount Pleasant. After helping them with their purchase, they asked me to represent them in the sale of their Myrtle Beach property as well. The property ultimately sold for $1.85 million, setting a record for the highest sale ever recorded in that neighborhood at the time. Breaking Boat-Slip Sales Records I have also represented sellers of luxury boat slips in the Charleston area. In Yacht Harbor marina on Isle of Palms, I sold a boat slip for $375,000, establishing a record for the highest-priced sale in that marina, thus setting the market going forward at that time. in 2025 I sold another boat slip in a different marina for $450,000, again establishing the highest-priced sale in that marina. In both cases, I was told beforehand that the prices I was targeting were unrealistic. The market ultimately proved otherwise. The Lake Murray Home That Had Already Failed to Sell A family member asked me to sell a Lake Murray property after the owners had first attempted to sell it themselves and then hired a prominent local Lexington-area agent. Neither attempt resulted in a sale. I wanted to avoid doing business with family for obvious reasons but he insisted. I took over the property and had it under contract within two days. The point isn’t that every property sells in two days. It is that sometimes a property doesn’t have a problem—it has a positioning problem. Why I Work Best With Certain Sellers I’m probably not the right real estate agent for everyone. I’m direct, business-minded and results-oriented with a big smile. I probably won’t be your bunko playing buddy, but I’ll go fishing with you, or play golf, but the bottom line is I want to help you sell your property first and foremost. I care about my clients, but the way I tend to demonstrate that is through preparation, responsiveness, honest advice, hard work and attention to the details that affect the outcome of the transaction. If you want an agent who will simply tell you what you want to hear, I may not be the right choice. If you want someone who will give you an educated opinion, back it up with data whenever possible, respond when you need him, think strategically about your property, and continue looking for ways to improve the result, that’s how I work. Who I Represent My ideal clients are generally financially sophisticated homeowners, investors and second-home owners who own higher-value residential property and want professional advice rather than simply someone to put a property on the MLS. Many of my clients discover me through online research rather than through an existing personal relationship with a local real estate agent. Simply put I’m too busy to be out networking at bars and parties to try to find new business. That is particularly common among second-home owners who live outside the Charleston area and need someone they can research and evaluate before making a decision. I have represented clients with backgrounds in finance, law, accounting, business ownership and other professional fields, and I enjoy working with people who want to understand the reasoning behind a recommendation. What I Bring to a Listing When I represent a seller, I bring together several disciplines that are rarely found in one real estate professional: Real estate brokerage experience since 2005 More than $300 million in mortgage production through my former mortgage company Experience owning and managing a mortgage company with 13 employees More than 20 years of digital marketing experience Media Arts and video-production education Hands-on real estate photography, video and 3D experience Construction and renovation experience New-construction expertise Condominium, HOA and capital-reserve knowledge Property and casualty insurance experience Extensive South Carolina market knowledge Data-driven pricing and market analysis A hands-on approach to listing strategy and marketing None of those things, individually, guarantees a successful sale. Together, however, they give me a perspective on real estate that is difficult to replicate. James Schiller | South Carolina Real Estate Broker I have been a licensed South Carolina real estate broker since 2005 and am affiliated with Brand Name Real Estate. I am a member of the National Association of Realtors, Charleston Trident Association of Realtors, Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors and Columbia Multiple Listing Service. My goal is simple: Give my clients the level of effort, expertise, communication and strategic thinking that I would expect if I were trusting someone with one of my own properties. If you’re considering selling a luxury, waterfront, condominium, new-construction or other higher-value property in Charleston or elsewhere in South Carolina, I’d be happy to have a conversation about the property, the market and what I believe it would take to sell it successfully.