Category Archive : Area Living

The 18th annual Las Vegas Bowl sponsored by MAACO  pits No. 15 BYU against No. 16 Oregon State.  For the fifth straight year all the tickets have been sold out.  Fans can still contact BYU and Oregon State ticket offices for seats to the game.  The game will be played on December 22nd and a crowd of 40,000 is expected.  The game kicks off at 5 pm and will be televised nationally on ESPN. Read More

British Airways announced they will be adding a daily direct flight to Las Vegas from London starting in October, just in time for the opening of Project City Center.  This is great news for Las Vegas as visitor count over the last year has dropped and any opportunity for Las Vegas to add more flights to McCarran International Airport is another opportunity to bring in more tourists. According to British Airways, round trip fares will start at about $460, plus fees and taxes.

With many Americans staying closer to home because of the recession, it’s important that Las Vegas keeps doing a great job of tapping into the International Markets.

Buyers Beware! The disturbing trend of low ball listings in Las Vegas!

A disturbing practice I am seeing more and more of lately is the low ball listing of Las Vegas short sale/foreclosed properties. A low ball listing is a listing that is priced, by the Listing Agent, SUBSTANCIALLY below what a common sense comparative market analysis says the property is really worth.

I have spoke to many Las Vegas Listing Agents and asked them why they priced their listings so artificially low. They tell me they were not getting any offers at a higher (more realistic) price. OK, I understand that logic but are they really helping to sell the listing any faster with an unrealistic price.

I would argue that low balling the listing doesn’t help sell the property any quicker and in fact hurts the chances of a sale for the following reasons:

1. Buyer expectations – The Buyer sees the artificially low price and thinks they can get the house for that amount. Even after it is explained that the Seller’s Bank has the final say on what they will or will not accept, this is a difficult psychological hurdle to latter overcome.

 

2. Wasted Time – So the low offer is in and the waiting begins. Banks are not known for quick decisions and several weeks could go by before they respond to the offer. During this time the Listing Agent is required to place the property as Contingent in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This could lessen the chance of the property being shown since other potential Buyers could see the property as possibly being sold already. It is also against Nevada law for the Listing Agent to submit other offers while the first offer is pending review by the Bank. Many times the offer will come back from the bank 10% or more higher than what the Listing Agent had it listed for. This tends to anger the Buyer and often causes a complete breakdown of negotiations.

The best way to mitigate against this practice is to educate the Buyer in advance. Las Vegas Buyer’s Agents need to prepare their clients for the possibility of a counter offer above the listing price. If the comparative market analysis shows that the property is worth more than the asking price, share this with your client, it might be what saves the deal in the end.

If you read the newspaper or watch the news, it makes you wonder why you would want to buy a home in this real estate market.  All the media has been reporting is that home prices in the Las Vegas Real Estate market are dropping and more homes are being foreclosed on every month.  I won’t deny that’s true but there’s other information that is not being reported that might give you a different perspective on the Las Vegas Real Estate Market.

Las Vegas sales of existing homes and condos are up from the same time over the previous two years. For November, Las Vegas’ existing home sales were 120% higher than the same month in 2007.  The increase in home sales has reduced the standing inventory even with all the new foreclosed homes that are entering the Las Vegas Real Estate Market every month. Available inventory of homes for sale sits at 10.4 months compared to a 24 month supply at the end of 2007.  Homes that are priced below $200K are receiving multiple offers and are selling above list price.

If you are interested in buying a home in Las Vegas, make sure you act now as housing inventory continues to decrease, you can expect prices to stabilize and even begin to rise.

If you have any questions about the Las Vegas Real Estate Market or would like us to send you properties for sale in the Las Vegas Valley, contact us at 702.376.0088.

Today has been a strange day as it has pretty much snowed for about 8 hours straight in the Henderson area.  I measured over 5 inches of snow that accumulated on a table in my backyard and in some parts of Henderson they were reporting 10 inches.  Read More

Christmas is only a few weeks away and home sales have slowed down a bit in Las Vegas as it usually does every year around this time.  Most people are spending time getting ready for the holidays and buying a home is not on the top of their list of things to do.  Getting presents for Bobby and Susy is at the top of their list.

With home prices in Las Vegas at levels we haven’t seen since 2003 and 2004, with so many bank owned homes for sale and interest rates at historic lows, a new home should be at the top of your Christmas List!  Homes on the market for sale have dropped over the last year and will probably continue to decrease which will inevitably cause prices to level off over the next 18 months, so don’t wait and pass up the opportunity to buy a home in Las Vegas below market value!

If you have any questions about the Las Vegas Real Estate Market or would like us to send you properties for sale in the Las Vegas Valley based on your criteria, contact us at 702.376.0088.

If you have made the decision to sell your Las Vegas Home after looking at all other options such as Loan Modification than the next step is finding an experienced agent specializing in short sales.  Short Sales require a real estate agent to not only list your home, market your home but negotiate on your behalf with your lenders to accept an offer for less than you owe on your mortgage. If you have a 1st Mortgage and a 2nd Mortgage it can be even more of a challenge, which is why your real estate agent needs to specialize in short sales.

When you interview perspective agents, make sure you ask them how many short sales they have sold in the last 6 months and how many where they actually represented the seller. There is a difference in selling a short sale when you represent the buyer as opposed to representing the seller.  Make sure you ask them what you can expect during the process and what they will do to ensure you get your home sold.

You can contact us at 702.376.0088 to set up a free consultation and we can discuss the process of selling your Las Vegas Home.

Many people in the Las Vegas Valley have lost their home due to foreclosure and have been forced into the rental market.  With the recent changes to FHA lending guidelines, homeowners whose homes were foreclosed on will not be able to purchase a home for 5 years.  So instead of buying a home in Las Vegas within the next few years, they will be forced to rent a home a little longer than they had thought.

Even though you might look at renting a home as a setback, if you look at it from a different aspect, it could actually be just what you needed.  Majority of the time, the rent that you are paying is much less than what your monthly mortgage payment was and you are no longer responsible for paying home owner association fees.  If you add the savings between the two, this extra money can help pay down some other debts that you may have or save the money for a future down payment on a home.

You also don’t have to worry about fixing items that break or are need of repair, just call the property management firm that is representing the homeowner and they will handle it.

If you are in the market for a rental home, feel free to contact us and we can assist you in finding the right rental home in Las Vegas for you!  We can be reached at 702.376.0088.

Las Vegas has been named one of five “mega-politan” areas. These places are considered newly recognized super regions that combine two or more metropolitan areas into a single economic, social, and urban system.

Many experts predict that Las Vegas will continue to grow but will have to come up with solutions for water resources, education and infrastructure.

Las Vegas is already experiencing a construction boom on the Las Vegas Strip.  There are numerous projects under construction but none come close to the massive project on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip called City Center.  Project City Center is a project that consists of condos, hotels, casinos and retail district sitting within a 76 acre area.  You can easily say that Project City Center is a city within a city!

Even though home prices are still dropping in the Las Vegas Valley, you can rest assured that home prices will begin to stabilize very soon.  The reason I say that is because many foreclosures that are placed on the market for sale are receiving multiple offers.  When homes receive multiple offers, it usually means the property is priced below market value.  You can see why Las Vegas real estate is a great investment!

Las Vegas is poised for a strong come back in the years to come!  If you are looking to buy your first home or an investment property, you can’t go wrong with choosing a home in Las Vegas!

We have been seeing a trend of foreign nationals investing in the Las Vegas Real Estate Market.  With the dollar at an all time low, foreclosures at an all time highand Las Vegas Real Estate prices at levels we haven’t seen since 2003-2004, foreign nationals are finding great investment opportunities in Las Vegas.  The majority of the foreign nationals that we have been working with of late are from Canada. Read More