Windsor Plantation, Hunters Ridge, Deerfield (Socastee, Conway: for sale, apartments, rent)

[patt]

We are heading down to meet with an agent. Anyone have any info on living in Windsor Plantation in the Socastee/ Forestbrook area? Is it mostly retirees, any major issues in the community/HOA/developer issues/ flooding/crime/adding apartments to the community, etc.
Also the same for Hunters Ridge in Forestbrook and Deerfield in Surfside? We are trying to figure out where to live to retire.
Any feedback would be appreciated to give us an idea of issues the agent may not mention or be aware of. We just want a friendly neighborhood, with minimal HOA drama. I know about the crime in Horry county, but not so much in these communities. Thank you!

[CTyankee54]

Windsor Plantation is a nice development near lots of shopping and restaurants. It has two negatives that you will need to determine whether they are important to you. First, it's on Rt544 just beyond a major shopping area where there is a major bottleneck even in the winter. During tourist season, traffic backs up on Fri-Sun with everyone trying to get to the beach. We never use 544 during the summer. The second negative is that it backs up to a concrete plant. The newer section is a fair distance from the plant but you should be aware of where it is relative to the house you look at.



I don't know the makeup of the development as far as retirees vs families and agents legally aren't supposed to tell you, but as you move about the neighborhood, look in people's yards for evidence of kids. The community has had multiple developers but they have all been pretty well known. I don't believe there is any flooding issue. I think they are putting in townhouses in part of the community but no apartments. Townhouses, though, can typically be rented out so see what the hoa documents say about renting.



We live near Hunters Ridge and it's a mostly more mature community. There are some very nice areas with larger lots and homes and some very average areas with smaller homes. So, it depends on where the house is that you are looking at. Be aware of where the house is relative to Rt 31 as the development backs up to the highway and the houses nearest the highway get some noise (but not too bad since there is a tree buffer). No crime or HOA problems that I'm aware of. Forestbook Road, which is now a 2 lane country road, is supposed to be upgraded in the next 10 years to a 4 lane road (I'm not looking forward or in favor of that) so you would impacted by the construction at some point (not in the near term).


Deerfield is in Surfside and is closest to the beach. We almost rented a house in there when we first moved here. It's an older community as well although I think they are building some new homes in there now. Be sure and get a flood map of the community and see where the house is that you consider as they do have some water issues in certain parts. The community used to have a golf course which went belly up and there was a big fight over what to do with the property but I don't recall if/how it was resolved so be sure and ask about that issue. Also be aware of where the house is relative to the condos. I understand that there are issues with crime associated with the condos although the crime map doesn't really show anything terribly bad.



I highly recommend that you get an actual copy of the HOA Covenants and any associated rules & regs for any community and read through them carefully before you sign any contract. Make sure you can live with the rules as they are written because you will be expected to obey them. We live in an HOA community and I hear people complain all the time about either not knowing it was an HOA community (it said it was right in the sales contract) or that they didn't get a copy of the HOA docs (supposed to get a copy at the closing although sometimes agents fail to provide them).



I also recommend that, unless you're very familiar with the area, that people moving here rent for a year and get to know the area before committing to a house. There's few things more frustrating than sinking several hundred thousand dollars into a house only to find you don't like the community. We rented for over a year and explored lots of different parts of the grand strand before settling on the Forestbrook area.



Since you seem to be focused on the south end, I suggest that you also look at the Arrowhead community. It's about 2 miles from Hunter's Ridge. It's also a mature community with little building going on but very nice. We love it there (that's where we rented when we moved here). They have a large pool, tennis/pickle ball courts, playscape for kids, convenient to everything and is very walkable. The only reason we didn't buy in there is that we couldn't find a house on the market at that time with a floor plan we liked in our price range. If you look there, focus on the sections away from Clay Pond Road...that end just seems more congested and not as nice as the rest of the community.

[patt]

Thank you for so much great information! We are going to look at homes in Arrowhead and Hunters Ridge. Rivers Edge Plantation is another one, although I am concerned about flooding. Also my husband wants a community with a pool so I know that limits some options. We also looking at Murrells Inlet too - Fox Chase - although part of it may be in a flood zone. Lots to consider here, and agree we need to read HOA info before getting to excited about a home.

[CTyankee54]

We looked at Rivers Edge and it's a very nice community. Even though they've completed International Blvd to make getting to the beach easier, it's still a little bit of a haul to get to the beach (if that's important to you).



If you're looking at Fox Chase, you should also look across the road at Blackmoor. I don't know much about Fox Chase other than the first houses are right up against 707 which was just upgraded to 5 lanes. The upgrade made getting around soooo much better but it can be noisy. The Blackmoor homes sit back further from the road and is a very nice layout.



Flooding is definitely a concern especially in Conway so definitely look at the flood zone maps and talk to neighbors if you see them out and about regarding their experience with the flooding last fall. Also look at the areas around the neighborhoods too. When we called Emergency Mgt during the beginning of the flooding, they said our area was fine but we should make sure we had supplies because the areas around us might flood and we wouldn't be able to get out until the waters receded. I hadn't though about that possibility. Fortunately, that didn't happen but it did put that on our radar for the next time. Finally, my belief is that if an area didn't flood last fall, it's probably never going to flood in my lifetime...that's was a major event.

[Hamiltonjoe1950]

I know 3 retired couples in Windsor Plantation and another that is moving into the Berwick section that is being constructed with townhouses that are very nice, (we went through one with our friends)

The old golf course at Deerfield is being developed now...supposedly Condos but I haven’t followed it to know exactly what is going up. However, it looks like virtually all that was left of the golf course is being eaten up from just off 17 Business over to Deerfield Links which is just off 17 Bypass.

We looked at several homes in the older section of Deerfield and decided to look elsewhere as the homes that were on the market than were all older and needed too much upgrading. Yet there are some lovely homes there as another of our friends has owned in there for about 20 years.


We are in the Meadows of St. Patrick which is Murrells Inlet and between two developments: the Lakes and Meadowoods. There are currently 3-4 homes for sale in MoSP ( 2 on our 7 houseful de sac.)

Between our house appt the rear of MoSP are two developments that are underway now. One is by Caviness and Cates but the other the site work is still being developed. The Caviness and Cates site has one house only that is up (it was just recently sold) but all the infracture (water, sewage, utilities, even community mailboxes) are in place and work restarted in the last couple of weeks.