Category Archive : Area Living

LAS VEGAS, NV – Ask any Las Vegas resident to choose one word that best describes the climate in the region, and 10 out of 10 will most likely tell you “Hot.” Often excessively hot, which is only natural because the city is situated in the middle of a desert.

With that being said, making sure tenants have proper working air conditioning is a must, but what are the rights of both parties and how can landlords avoid being taken advantage of by renters who may be using an alleged A/C issue to avoid paying?

Nevada State law [NRS 118A.380(1)] defines requirements as they pertain to renters, that are considered “essential services” that landlords must provide, service, and repair if a tenant runs into any issues with it working properly. According to the Southern Nevada Health District air conditioning is included as an item warranting an “Essential Service Complaint” if not provided while Nevada Legal Services says “most judges in southern Nevada consider air conditioning to be essential.”

If the landlord is required by the rental agreement or this chapter to supply heat, air-conditioning, running water, hot water, electricity, gas, a functioning door lock or another essential item or service and the landlord willfully or negligently fails to do so, causing the premises to become unfit for habitation, the tenant shall give written notice to the landlord specifying the breach. If the landlord does not adequately remedy the breach, or use his or her best efforts to remedy the breach within 48 hours, except a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, after it is received by the landlord, the tenant may, in addition to any other remedy:

If a tenant does run into an issue with their air conditioning not working properly, there are certain steps they are required to take to bring the issue to their landlord’s attention.

First, a tenant must send their landlord a written notice – either via email, text message, or USPS certified mail – about the problem with their A/C and both parties should make sure they keep a comprehensive record of their communications back and forth in case there are any complications. It is especially important to keep a “paper trail” in case the matter ends up going to court.

After the notice has been sent, the landlord has 48 hours – business days only, not holidays or weekends – to respond and have the A/C repaired.

If the landlord responds and fixes the A/C, great. Problem solved. However, if they tenant claims – true or false – that the problem has not been fixed, they have several avenues to pursue, including – as a last resort – withholding rent entirely until the alleged A/C issue has been addressed. However, for landlords already weary from pandemic-era instances of tenants pulling scams to live rent-free in their properties for months or even years at a time, have no fear; there are certain safeguards in-place to ensure that any back rent is recovered once the tenant’s A/C is repaired.

First of all, tenants withholding rent over a purported A/C issue are not shielded from being evicted, so if you believe that their issue is not genuine, you may begin eviction proceedings if they are indeed not paying rent.

Also, if a tenant is withholding rent, it doesn’t mean they get to live in the apartment for free; instead, they are required to pay the rent directly to the court during the period of time they are withholding it in order to prove they’re not just trying to pull a fast one. After the A/C issue is addressed, the money collected by the court is given to the landlord.

Most landlords have constructive and positive relationships with their tenants, but on the occasion that this is not true, it’s important to know what your rights are as a landlord in order to protect yourself and your property.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – While visiting the city of Las Vegas on Tuesday’s campaign trail, President Biden announced new actions on the part of his administration to address rising home and rent prices and the construction of more affordable housing options, both in Nevada and in the United States as a whole.

While in Vegas, the announced actions included calling on Congress to pass proposed legislation that would place a 5 percent cap on rent increases on the part of corporate landlords who own more than 50 units, with a failure to comply resulting in the potential loss of federal tax breaks.

Rent is too high and buying a home is out of reach for too many working families and young Americans, after decades of failure to build enough homes,” Biden said in a White House statement released prior to his speaking engagement at the NAACP convention on Tuesday. “I’m determined to turn that around. Today, I’m sending a clear message to corporate landlords: If you raise rents more than 5% on existing units, you should lose valuable tax breaks.”

According to government watchdog Accountable.US, the cost of rent has increased 31.4 percent nationwide since 2019, outstripping the average worker’s wage growth during that period of 23 percent; this, as claimed by the White House, is causing many Americans to struggle with being able to afford housing.

In addition, the President noted that his admin’s actions also include ongoing efforts to release more public land in Nevada in order to facilitate the construction of more affordable housing, as well as to add to the housing stock in pre-existing neighborhoods in the state.

Currently, the federal government owns 88 percent of the land in Clark County along, with over half of that property – 2.9 million acres – managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The failure to release parts of that land for development has contributed to the current housing crisis being experienced in Southern Nevada, experts say.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – As the profile of Las Vegas has risen considerably in recent years, prompting many to want to move there to take advantage of its lower cost of living, the city has encountered a housing crisis as demand is currently far outstripping the amount of inventory available to would-be homeowners.

And one of the primary reasons for this crisis, according to a growing number of those in the real estate industry, is due to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with the federal agency currently managing nearly three million acres in Clark County; the U.S. government currently owns 80 percent of the land in the state of Nevada overall – the most out of any state in the country – and 88 percent of Clark County.

Mike Ford, co-owner of Las Vegas-based public lands consulting firm Abbey, Stubbs & Ford and a former BLM employee, said there is currently no good reason for the federal agency not to release more land for development in Clark County than they already have, which would go a long way towards alleviating the housing shortage currently plaguing local residents.

There’s 2.9 million acres of BLM land in Clark County, and that’s what we really need to focus on because land managed by the other (federal) agencies is generally not available for disposal because it has environmental attributes or it’s part of a congressionally designated special management unit,” Ford said.

In 1998, the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) was passed that set aside approximately 67,000 acres out of the 2.9 million available in the Las Vegas Valley for development of residential housing units or commercial uses, with an additional 33,000 acres that have also been earmarked for potential development that have not yet been released.

The idea was for the BLM to be totally out of the urban land management business in the valley within five to 10 years,” Ford noted. “And that hasn’t happened.”

Multiple members of Las Vegas’s real estate industry have become increasingly vocal with their complaints over the two main issues they claim are affecting the shortage of land in the valley: zoning issues and permit delays that are seen as restrictive on the part of Clark County, and BLM’s seeming reluctance to set aside more land for residential or commercial development, either by releasing it outright or allowing it to go to auction.

When you have 2.9 million acres of land in Clark County, some of it environmentally sensitive land, which is really important, managing rural lands, why would (the BLM) spend 90 percent of the time on the 67,000 acres that are urban lands that are better managed by local units of government?” Ford said. “That’s the million-dollar question.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – A Las Vegas home contractor is facing felony charges after he allegedly bilked numerous clients out of a combined total of over $200,000 in payments for remodeling work he never completed…and all with a license that had previously been suspended back in January, officials say.

Gabriel Adame – owner of Adame Handyman Services, AKA Adame Construction – was taken into custody by authorities last Wednesday following a disciplinary hearing with the Nevada State Contractors Board over funds he purportedly stole from clients for work he never bothered to finish.

Adame and his attorney had accepted multiple charges in February after complaints were filed against him by multiple homeowners, with some claiming that the contractor had left them with as much as $35,000 in uncompleted remodeling work.

At the hearing four months ago, the judge presiding over the complaints, Noah Addison, listened to the tales of five of Adame’s alleged victims, many of whom were very angry over what they said were his deceitful and criminal business dealings with them.

One Las Vegas homeowner, Emily Moon, when asked is she had anything to add about the accused, declined, saying that, “I don’t think I want those words on record.”

Director of Investigations for the Nevada State Contractors Board, Terry Wike, noted upon Adame’s arrest last week that his organization had been looking into the contractor’s activities for quite some time, and wanted to make sure that they had all of their ducks in a row before finally having the cuffs slapped on him.

The investigation took more than a year. We have recently filed five charges against Gabriel Adame for his acts in taking money from homeowners and not completing work,” he said. “There’s a variety of levels of uncompleted work. He would take a down payment, and he would not complete the work.”

Wike said that homeowners should be very cautious when looking to have remodeling work done on their homes, making sure that they use common sense when it comes to issuing down payments and to thoroughly vet any contractor before having dealings with them.

You can’t take a down payment in excess of $1,000 or 10 percent of the value of the contract, whichever is less. We were often seeing down payments of 50 percent of the price of the project,” he said. “Make sure all your contracts are in writing, and they include scheduled payments. That’s so the payments don’t get ahead of the work.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to new census data, Mesquite, a city in Clark County located just northeast of Las Vegas, is the fastest-growing in the entire state of Nevada, and at its current rate of expansion it could potentially see its population increase by as much as 50 percent within the next two decades.

As per the U.S. Census Bureau, by percentage growth Mesquite was the fastest-growing city in Nevada through the years 2020 to 2023, seeing its population jump from 20,616 in 2020 to 22,786 in 2023, which represents an increase of 10.5 percent; this exceeds the growth of both of its nearest competitors, North Las Vegas (9.0 percent) and Fernley (7.4 percent).

As per Mesquite’s Director of Development Services, Sungman Kim, the city could see the number of residents within its borders exceed 45,000 by the year 2041. The reason for Mesquite’s rapid growth is its growing popularity with a very specific demographic: retired Americans and/or Canadians – known as “snowbirds” – who prefer to spend winters in a warmer climate. As a result, about 45 percent of the city’s population is made up of individuals aged 65 or more.

The real estate stats back up the assertion that a growing number of snowbirds are purchasing homes in Mesquite to live in only part-time; while the city had 2016 vacant homes in the year 2023, a mere 16 percent of those – made up of 102 homes, 34 condos and 27 town homes, ranging from $275,000 to $1.6 million – are currently on the market for sale.

“It means that most of the vacant houses are not for sale, which again means, I assume, that those are probably the second house for the snowbirds,” Kim said.

In addition to the warm winter climate, other draws the city offers for older individuals are several highly-rated golf courses – including the Palms Golf Course, which first opened back in 1990 – and three casinos, in addition to several off-road vehicle trails that are especially popular with visitors to the area.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Clark County Board of County Commissioners this week approved two grants totaling $21.9 million from the Clark County Community Housing Fund (CHF) to be disbursed to a developer as part of its “Welcome Home” program, which helps to provide badly-needed affordable housing projects to the Las Vegas Valley.

The grants were awarded to Ovation Development Corporation and its nonprofit partner, Coordinated Living of Southern Nevada (CLSN), who will be tasked with building two facilities that will total nearly 600 affordable apartments.

Construction is anticipated to begin on the first development at the tail end of 2025, and will take the form of a 194-unit affordable senior community located near Burner Avenue and South Las Vegas Boulevard. The second development, slated to break ground in the first half of 2026, will be located in West Henderson on a plot provided by the Bureau of Land Management, and will offer 390 units for low-income working families.

To date, the “Welcome Home” program has awarded a total of $66 million in grants, spread out amongst nine applicants, in order to fund the construction of affordable housing units throughout Clark County. In all, this will result in a grand total of 1,273 units once all work is completed.

Alan Molasky, Chairman and Founder of Ovation Development Corporation, noted that he steadfastly believes everyone is entitled to a place to hang their hat at the end of the day, and is proud that Clark County has shown confidence in his company to help address the affordable housing crisis in the Las Vegas Valley.

Every Ovation project begins with our commitment to the steadfast belief that everyone, regardless of income, deserves a quality home that helps to strengthen individuals, families and community,” Molasky said. “We are grateful for the trust put in us by Clark County, and we do not take this responsibility lightly. This trust is a testament to the incredible work of the entire Ovation/CLSN team and the positive impact we continue to make in our community in our mission to help address Southern Nevada’s critical shortage of affordable housing.”

View a complete list of Welcome Home Community Housing Fund projects.

For more information on the Welcome Home program visit: https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/residents/community_housing_fund/index.php

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Clark County Board of Commissioners have officially approved the first stage of plans for an ambitious project: the Las Vegas Spaceport, which its developer says will build a strong space-based economy in Southern Nevada and will one day become a busy hub for both commercial and private space tourism.

Last week, construction permits were approved for an airstrip for the upcoming the Las Vegas Executive Airport, which will be located at a 240-acre site near Pahrump, north of Highway 160. When the airport complex is completed, according to the project’s CEO Robert Lauer, work will begin on making the connected $320 million spaceport a reality, with a heliport to be built near the Strip in order to transport guests to and from the space-age facility.

But until plans for the spaceport itself are presented to county commissioners for approval, Lauer said the airport will begin efforts to raise its public profile and attract tourists for rides in slightly more conventional aircraft for the time being.

Part one is going to build public support through tourism, because it exposes the average person to what the industry is building and the opportunities that are provided,” he said, noting that visitors would be able to pay $6,500 for rides in fighter jets – which may be available as soon as this summer – that provide enough g-force to simulate the effects of space travel, as well as parabolic flights for $9,000 that actually provide a real zero-gravity environment.

Lauer said that the plans for the spaceport include 40 commercial hangars, a STEM college with advanced flight simulators, a civilian space flight assimilation program, a hotel, passenger terminal, rooftop observation deck and restaurant, with the facility expected to begin looking for an operator within the next three to four years, and actual space travel itself expected to begin within five.

What is on the horizon are space planes,” Lauer said. “There are several companies that we’re working closely with right now that are building the next generation of space vehicles, which I believe will dominate the future of the space industry.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to a new report released by investment management company Colliers, the southwest valley is home to Las Vegas residents earning the highest median household income within the region.

As per its apartment market report for the first quarter of 2024, Colliers notes that the southwest valley’s median income was $86,682, with that number surpassing the median income in Henderson – the previous number one in that category – which was $86,682. In contrast, in the first quarter of 2023, Henderson’s median income was $92,356, whereas that number was $90,531 in the southwest valley.

Colliers International’s Executive Vice President for Multifamily Investment Sales, Jeffrey Swinger, said in the report that the southwestern valley – which is made up mainly by the up-and-coming township of Enterprise – is at the moment very clearly attracting workers and families in higher income brackets who are purchasing homes in the region, although it remains to be seen if this will remain to be the case going forward.

It’s kind of a hodgepodge to be honest. It’s not a master plan, so it’s kind of a free-for-all, and over the past few years it’s become very attractive because it has the land,” Swinger said. “Places like Green Valley and such, they’re all built out now. Summerlin is kind of a different animal, and then if you look at the Beltway and (the southwest valley’s) proximity to the Strip and the jobs, that’s why all the development has taken off there.”

Enterprise is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing areas in the entire nation, with a plethora of residential and commercial development currently underway. Reports indicate that the unincorporated township is growing at double the rate as the rest of the Las Vegas Valley, expanding by 60 percent between the years of 2010 and 2023 – as opposed to 20 percent for the rest of the valley – and boasted 245,243 residents by the end of 2023.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Two developers – Cherry Development and Schulman Properties – have pitched two separate mixed-use apartment complexes for the downtown Las Vegas area that, when completed, will produce almost 400 units in an effort to address the housing shortage in the city.

Based in Las Vegas, Cherry Development is slated to hold their official ground-breaking later in March on their delayed $27 million shareDOWNTOWN project – originally slated to open in June 2020 – which is located on 1.2 acres of city-owned land at 1100 D Street, the former location of the Greater New Jerusalem Church.

In order for the developer to keep the project costs low and, in turn, keep tenant rent at affordable levels, the city is selling the land to Cherry Development for just $6. When completed, shareDOWNTOWN – which is catering to individuals who work in Las Vegas and who wish to reside near its downtown area – will take the form of a five-story building with 104 one-bedroom apartments, each one approximately 500-square-feet in size. It will feature 20 units going for the current market rate, and 84 units with rent caps determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

shareDOWNTOWN will offer a business center, a fitness center, a community kitchen, a co-working area with private conference room and an outdoor courtyard. In addition, there will also be a retail component on the ground floor, mainly consisting of restaurants and other assorted eateries, as well as an 8,400-square-foot shop.

The other project – Schulman Properties’ six story, $115 million Ilumina Midtown, located near Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway – targets a different demographic in the city, as it will offer 275 luxury apartments ranging in size from 600 to 1,800 square feet. It will also have numerous high-end amenities for its tenants, including a 4,000 square-foot restaurant, a 40,000 square-foot health club, a gym, a pool, sports courts and a co-working area.

Ilumina Midtown is currently pending approval by the Las Vegas Planning Commission in April; if given the go-ahead, development is anticipated to begin in spring of 2025, with completion expected in either the summer or fall of 2026.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – One of the Las Vegas Strip’s most historic properties, the Diamond Inn Motel, closed down last year and has sat vacant and unused ever since. However, new reports indicate that it is set to be auctioned off and most likely demolished along with its iconic mascot – a large sculpture of a pink elephant that greeted visitors to the establishment for many years – signifying an erasure of yet another piece of the Strip’s rich history.

Whereas the Strip had previously featured a number of small motels and resorts, these icons of yesteryear have been giving way to massive megaresorts in the here and now, with the Diamond Inn Motel proving to be one of the last holdouts.

The motel – which is set on 1.36 acres of land and boasts 48 rooms – has called the Strip home for decades, and has witnessed the rise of its massive casino and resort industry from the very beginning, according to the business’ website.

“Built in 1940 the Diamond Inn Motel (then it was called the Desert Isle Motel), is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the Strip, which several decades ago the strip was called Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91,” the website reads. “The first hotel/casino built on the strip was called the El Rancho Vegas Hotel & Casino built in 1941. Later in the ’40’s and 50’s, dozens of motels were built next door, the Mirage, Lone Palm, Desert Rose and many others that were the high points of Old Vegas with their glittering neon signs. The Diamond Inn is still standing proud and operating with a profit after all these years, along with its colorful history (especially the landmark, iconic Pink Elephant)!”

One of the most distinctive features of the Diamond Inn Motel was the pink elephant standing at the front of the property next to the establishment’s sign, inviting weary tourists and locals to come in and rest in one of their rooms after a night of gambling and partying.

The pink elephant came from Disney World, probably in the 50’s,” the website says. “He used to trumpet loudly, but the noise caused some accidents. Because of that, the county made the owner take the sound mechanism out. The pink elephant is like the Diamond Inn’s mascot; thousands of tourists have stopped just to take pictures next to it, just like they do in front of the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign.”

However, it has been pointed out that the website claim may have been in error and that the elephant most likely came from Disneyland, which opened in 1955, as opposed to Disney World, which opened in 1971.

J.P. King, a company that specializes in real estate auctions, is handling the Diamond Inn auction. The auction began on March 7 and a minimum bid of $12.5 million has been set for the property.

And yes, the pink elephant is indeed included in the sale.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – In the Las Vegas Valley a tiny home is generating big demand from desperate Las Vegas renters on a budget, with its landlord receiving scores of inquiries from prospective tenants, a situation he said he was not expecting, according to Fox 5 Las Vegas.

The 160-square-foot residence is listed for just $950 a month – half the average rent in the valley, which is currently $1,745 – and is located on the landlord’s own property; he said he built it himself for just $22,000, and did so as a way to help out people during the ongoing economic downturn that the country has been experiencing.

I’ve literally [had] 113 and counting people. [My phone] keeps ringing on wanting to rent it,” the landlord said, who asked to remain anonymous when speaking to local media. “It’s definitely in people’s heart to want to save some money right now. This economy’s tough, and just doing my share on trying to help someone out.”

This isn’t the first time that this generous landlord has put such an offering on the market, having built dozens of other small homes that he rents out. In 2021, the Nevada State Legislature passed a law that requires cities whose populations are higher than 150,000 to create zoning laws for tiny homes, with compliance required by 2024.

The $950 rent includes all utilities and services, including water, electricity, internet, garbage removal, and plumbing. The interior boasts a small pull-down table for dining, a kitchen with a cooktop stove, a bathroom, a washer and dryer combo, and a bedroom located in an upper loft overlooking the main floor.

In addition, the tenant that snags this property will also enjoy a small backyard space, including a garden and a table and chair.

The landlord noted the interested parties run the gamut from a family of four to numerous single parents with children and pets. But the one uniting factor that all of the prospective tenants share is a need for affordable housing, and they are apparently willing to sacrifice some living space in order to acquire it.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya recently picked up his roots and moved from his longtime home of Los Angeles, California, to Las Vegas, and recently held a media event where he publicly unveiled the new residence he and his wife will be inhabiting- a lavish mansion valued at nearly $15 million that is located in Henderson’s affluent MacDonald Highlands community.

Nicknamed “The Golden Boy of boxing,” De La Hoya, 51, competed in the squared circle from 1992 to 2008, winning 11 world titles in six weight classes and is one of the most popular boxers ever, generating approximately $700 million in pay-per-view income during his career, a record at that time.

De La Hoya originally purchased the MacDonald Highlands mansion in May 2022 in an all-cash transaction for $14.6 million, coming in as the priciest Las Vegas transaction that month. The residence, which is still undergoing construction and updating, is located on a 1-acre plot of land and features 10,460 square-feet of living space, with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and an eight-car garage.

De La Hoya is reportedly sparing no expense when it comes to decorating his new abode, building a trophy room that serves as a celebration of his boxing career – including displays featuring his championship belts and robes, a miniature boxing ring, and a huge wall-mounted television for watching boxing matches – in addition to a $500,000 man cave.

Not only is De La Hoya moving his family to Las Vegas from LA, but he’s also moving his business there as well; Golden Boy Promotions, his boxing promotions firm, will be taking up residence in new offices located in Henderson, near the Las Vegas Raiders’ training complex. This move continues the trend of numerous fight entities recently setting up their headquarters in Vegas, including Top Rank, PBC, and the UFC.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.