Category Archive : Property Management

LAS VEGAS, NV – As short-term rentals – such as Airbnb and Vrbo – finally approach a state of legality in Clark County as of July 1, lawmakers are signifying that they are in favor of establishing a lottery system for when it comes to issuing the over 2,800 licenses to individuals and companies that are looking to get involved in the local house-sharing industry.

The Clark County County Commission is not only looking to find an ideal method to address the huge number of house-sharing rental applications they will receive, but also how to crack down on the even larger number of illegal short-term rentals that are clandestinely operating within the county’s jurisdiction; current estimates put the number between 6,000 to 12,000 properties.

In 2021, Assembly Bill 363 – sponsored by Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen – was voted into law, and decreed that as of July 1, 2022, short-term rentals would begin to be legal in Clark County; furthermore, the county would also be tasked with regulating the new industry within its borders, and lawmakers have been working ever since to craft ordinances for that purpose.

Recently, Commissioners agreed on several possible regulations for short-term rentals, including capping licenses to one percent of all homes; adopting a 1,000-foot distance requirement between rentals; limiting licenses to one per homeowner or company; and enacting an application cost of at least $1,000.

As for tackling violations, lawmakers seemed to favor fines up to $1,000 per violation for legal short-term rentals, and fines of up to $10,000 per violation for ones that are operating illegally.

However, details are still in flux and have yet to be cemented amid various concerns that officials do not possess the significant backing in terms of finances or manpower that will allow them to enforce the new ordnances, both among legal and illegal short-term rentals alike. Renters finding ways to skirt around the laws – such as creating multiple LLCs – are a potential issue as well.

A recent survey indicated that the majority of Clark County’s residents are not in favor of short-term rentals becoming legal; those who want to provide input to the county’s plans can email them to [email protected].

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 – With affluent out-of-state residents fleeing highly-taxed regions of the country for Las Vegas due to its more affordable cost of living experience, demand for luxury rental units have reached a fever pitch, driving the market to surpass the $50,000 per month mark and beyond, and without any signs of slowing down due to increasingly low inventory.

Newer listings on the market in Southern Nevada have several luxury rental homes and condos going for prices ranging from $35,000 per month all the way up to a full-furnished unit – a 10,600 square foot residence in The Ridges with six bedrooms and six baths – for a whopping $65,000 per month.

Currently, the most expensive rented luxury property – acquired last fall on a one-year lease – is a $50,000 per month for a Summerlin one-story mansion that comes with landscaping, pool maintenance and weekly cleaning. The home is situated on 0.82 acres and is estimated to be worth over $9 million, and includes a private office, game room, movie theater, sunken wet bar, resort pool with spa, a gym and a basketball court.

The second-most expensive, currently rented rental property in Las Vegas is a $30,000 per month Ascaya property.

In addition to fleeing highly-taxed states such as California, another driving factor of the luxury market in Las Vegas was the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent rise of remote working, enabling people to ply their trades from any region of the country during business lockdowns. Prior to COVID, experts say, the high end of the Vegas luxury rental market was averaging about $25,000 to $35,000 a month, as opposed to $50,000 or higher now.

Experts say that many of these wealthy, out-of-state renters have actually purchased their own properties and are currently in the midst of having their own high-end homes built upon them; in the meantime, they are renting local luxury units to reside in until construction is completed, at which time the property is passed on to the next affluent transplant to the region.

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 – Questions of affordability have once again reared their ugly head in terms of Las Vegas’ rental marketplace, as year-end reports indicate that pent prices have jumped considerably over the course of 2021 when compared to the year beforehand.

Reports say that Nevada overall has now been thrust into the nation’s top five states in terms of rent increases over the past year, and when the two-year average is figured in, Nevada is actually propelled into the top four.

According to analysts, in Nevada the average price of rent has jumped 25 percent since the beginning of 2021, and 34 percent since 2019.

The report also indicates that the city of Las Vegas itself has seen a large jump in rental prices in 2021, with costs increasing by 27 percent since the beginning of the year; the average rent in Vegas currently, the report says, is $1,243.

Developers in Southern Nevada have been ramping up construction of new apartment complexes and rental homes over the past year in order to address the rising rent prices the region has been experiencing since the recovery of the local economy and the arrival of more jobs and out-of-state residents.

The development of more living options are, according to many real estate professionals, the key to solving the skyrocketing prices that are currently weighing on Las Vegas’ rental marketplace, which are leading many to question the region’s long-standing reputation for affordability when compared to neighboring states such as California.

Of all U.S. states, Arizona experienced the greatest increases in rental prices since 2019, with a 38 percent jump. In direct contrast, North Dakota was at the very bottom of rental prices over the past two years, with the state actually reporting an 8 percent decrease since 2019.

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 an effort to crack down on unauthorized New Year’s Eve parties in their rental partner’s properties, Aidbnb recently announced that they would be blocking users with poor credentials from reserving one-night rentals in the Las Vegas region. The move, Airbnb says, is to assist with noise complaints from neighbors and damage complaints from their rental partners.

The announcement comes as a great many neighborhoods across the country have issued previous complaints regarding Airbnb customers disturbing their neighbors with noise and wild partying, which has been a long-standing complaint – especially in suburban Las Vegas communities – in regards to the service.

The vacation home rental company noted that guests who have a series of negative reviews from people they have rented from in the past will be automatically blocked from reserving one-night stays in the Southern Nevada region – always known as a popular destination for partiers on New Year’s Eve.

Airbnb has implemented similar one-night rental bans on other major holidays in Las Vegas, including Halloween, New Year’s Eve 2021, the Fourth of July, and local users under the age of 25 with a history of poor reviews. Overall, the company noted that over 1,550 reservations in the region were blocked due to these policies.

Based on their success in lowering the number of holiday-related complaints in Las Vegas with these new policies, Airbnb has announced that they intend to implement these bans on individuals with consistently poor reviews in other cities throughout the United States.

In addition, Airbnb has other polices that discourage users from renting properties to use as party hangouts, including putting a cap on the occupancy of any rental home at 16 people due to the ingoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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 – Since the end of the eviction moratorium in Las Vegas on May 31, 2021 – which was originally set in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic – Las Vegas has since seen a significant spike in evictions for a number of different reasons, but primarily for nonpayment of rent for an extended period of time.

While some of these evictions are due to genuine financial hardship brought about by the pandemic, reports indicate that many of these were due to tenants “gaming the system” by claiming hardship when none actually existed.

In September 2020, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported 800 eviction notices were served, along with 395 lockouts; these took place while the eviction moratorium was still in-place. It should be noted that while the moratorium forbade evictions due to financial issues encountered due to the pandemic, other reasons for an eviction – such as destruction of property or being judged to be a threat or nuisance to your neighbors – remained valid.

In September 2021 – after the eviction moratorium had ceased – police reported that the number of evictions on record effectively quadrupled, with 1,168 for eviction notices served and 1,482 lockouts having been carried out.

Some of these tenants, however, are able to remain in their residences due to Nevada Assembly Bill 486, which states that someone cannot be evicted if they have a pending application for rental assistance through programs such as the CARES Housing Assistance Program (CHAP). However, if an application is not pending, Bill 486 does not apply and the eviction can go forth.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused untold hardship not just for renters in Las Vegas – as well as nationwide – but also for landlords, many of whom were forced due to eviction moratoriums on both a federal and local level to allow tenants who were not paying any rent to nonetheless live for months in their properties, essentially for free.

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 pandemic winds down and more travel restrictions are removed, more people are looking to catch up on the vacationing that they were forced to do without when the pandemic was at its worst. And, in Las Vegas, according to Fox News, short-term rental hosts are taking in bigger profits than ever before as tourists seem to be willing to pay nearly any price to get away for a few days.

Travis Schurr, an Airbnb “superhost” – which Airbnb’s website describes “as experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences for their guests” – currently runs nine rental homes in Henderson.

Because of his superhost status, Schurr is able to access software programs that synch up with current rates that hotels in the region are charging, allowing him to change his pricing of his short-term rentals dynamically on a day-to-day basis in order to remain competitive. And so far in 2021, the profits he’s enjoyed month-to-month have only gotten higher and higher due to the incredible demand.

“January we did $30,000 and then we did more the following month and then we did more the following month,” he said. “We didn’t see a slowdown from January until August we dipped and then September we outdid August, and then October we outdid September.”

October was a huge milestone for Schurr, with the superhost earning over $150,000 from his Henderson rentals, which range from a two-bedroom condominium to a half-acre of land with a four-bedroom house.

Prices can really go up if a major local event is taking place, Schurr notes; for example, when the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team played their first-ever home game at Allegiant Stadium, he was able to change sports fans as much as $1,300 per night – often for several nights in a row – to stay at his properties.

With holiday travel expected to pick up in November, Schurr said that he is expecting this month’s profits to continue their upward trajectory.

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 Nevada State Apartment Association (NVSAA) released a report earlier this week indicating that the apartment marketplace of Las Vegas is showing definite signs of stabilizing after months of skyrocketing rents and low availability, while nonetheless remaining one of the very fastest-growing markets in the United States.

The report shows that, in the third quarter of 2021, apartment rents in Southern Nevada jumped an eye-opening 22 percent when compared to the corresponding period of time in 2020. The current average apartment rent in Las Vegas is $1,403 per month, representing a $255 increase year-over-year, when the average rent in the region was $1,148.

NVSAA Executive Director Susy Vasquez noted that the report is good news for Southern Nevada, as its previous rate of growth was not sustainable in the long-term.

“Rents are stabilizing as we enter the time of year fewer people tend to move,” she said. “Rents are expected to continue increasing, but not at the rate we’ve experienced this year. The growth rate of the past 12 months is just not sustainable for a healthy market.”

In addition, the average apartment vacancy rate in the third quarter of 2021 was 3.9 percent; this number represents a sizable decrease from the third quarter of 2020, when that number was at 5.4 percent.

The NVSAA noted that Las Vegas is still holding on as one of the fastest-growing apartment marketplaces throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 data indicates that the number of residents of Clark County has jumped by approximately 40,000 people – or 2 percent of the overall population – over the course of the last year.

The fact that the county’s population has continued to swell despite the effects of the pandemic and subsequent business lockdown measures speaks to the region’s quickly-recovering economy and increasing job growth in the recovering leisure and hospitality sectors.

The report also indicated increasing growth in apartment construction, with 6,300 new units currently in development during the third quarter of 2021, as opposed to only 3,800 units in the second quarter.

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 – Last week, the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overrule the Biden Administration’s latest eviction moratorium – originally enacted to avoid homelessness in the midst of the COVUD-19 pandemic – is nonetheless a prime example of being far too little in the face of far too much, reports say.

The Supreme Court found that the decision of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to enact a new eviction ban during the COVID-19 pandemic without the express approval of congressional legislation was essentially illegal, despite its well-meaning intentions of avoiding homelessness that could contribute to additional spikes in infections due to the new Delta COVID variant.

However, while eviction cases that have been held in limbo will now be allowed to finally continue, multiple landlords are saying that – due to myriad eviction bans that have allowed some tenants to live rent-free in their homes for over a year – the Supreme Court’s decision may essentially amount to too little, too late.

The majority of landlords in the United States are not large corporate entities, but small mom-and-pop originations that relied on their rental incomes to support their retirements; but after a year of no income and requirements that nonetheless forced them to provide upkeep without any return, many of them are facing financial ruin regardless of the Supreme Court decision.

James Bathgate, a landlord in California, notes that federal rent relief funds have been trickling out ineffectually over the last few months, and will likely never fully cover the immense losses that they have faced due to draconian eviction moratoriums over the past year.

“We had to sell the property because I couldn’t afford it every month, not getting any income from rent and being forced to take $3,000 a month expenses on the property,” Bathgate said. “Is the government going to now pay me $70,000 that they stole from me? I doubt 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.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court struck down the Biden Administration’s nationwide eviction moratorium; however, is unlikely to have any impact whatsoever upon tenants facing eviction for nonpayment of rent due to a recently-passed piece of legislation in the state of Nevada which offers ironclad protections for those who have applied for federal rent relief funding.

Kaila Leavitt, president of Leavitt Evictions, noted that Assembly Bill 486, which prohibits eviction if a tenant has applied for federal rent relief funds, potentially offers more protections than the recently-overturned eviction ban put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Here in the state of Nevada, we have [Assembly Bill 486] which arguably protects tenants more than the federal moratorium does,” she said.

A previous eviction moratorium issued by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak ended on May 31; the moratorium enacted by the CDC, which targeted counties with high COVID-19 transmission rates, would have expired on October 3 if it had not been struck down last week by the Supreme Court.

Leavitt noted that AB 486 offers protections for 90 days for renters that have applied for federal relief funds and are awaiting the outcome of their case, allowing them to remain in their homes whether or not they are currently paying any rent to their landlords.

However, according to Leavitt, that may not be the case in terms of constitutional legality, and despite the fact that a renter may have applied for federal funds, it may still be possible to evict them for nonpayment of rent.

“I think many landlords were under the impression that the federal moratorium got extended again, they couldn’t evict. And that was just not the case,” she said. “When the tenant gets the notice, they don’t communicate with their landlord. They don’t respond. They just think they can’t be evicted and they just write it off. That’s just really not the case.”

AB 486 is due to expire on June 5, 2023, or when the $360 million in rental relief funds allotted to Nevada is spent.

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 United States Supreme Court on Thursday issued a ruling that struck down the latest eviction moratorium enacted by the Biden Administration – stating that it can only be extended via Congressional legislation – clearing the way for potentially millions of evictions across the country to begin.

The newly-invalidated eviction moratorium was initially issued on August 3 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); this was done after a previous ban was allowed to lapse on July 31 after the Supreme Court had ruled that it could only continue through an act of Congress, which failed to materialize due to lack of support.

Nonetheless, the Biden Administration issued a more targeted eviction moratorium, aimed at areas with high infection rates; President Job Biden himself told reporters that he doubted it would pass Constitutional muster, but hoped that time eaten up by legal challenges would give states more time to distribute $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance funds. The moratorium had originally been scheduled to expire October 3.

The new moratorium – much like the original – was aimed at preventing homelessness by not allowing evictions due to financial hardship experienced from the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the Supreme Court declared Thursday that it was beyond the CDC’s authority.

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the Supreme Court’s ruling stated, effectively ending the eviction ban immediately.

Liberal Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer, dissented from Thursday’s ruling.

The eviction moratoriums have been an especially strong hardship for smaller mom-and-pop landlords; currently, according to reports, as many as 15 million households in the United States owe a combined total of approximately $20 billion in back rent, with about 58 percent of tenants currently behind on rent.

Meanwhile, landlords have been forced to not only allow their tenants to live for free in their properties, but they have also been required to maintain the properties out of their own pockets, driving many to financial ruin.

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 recent study, the eviction moratoriums enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help reduce homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic have had the incredibly negative side-effect of proving extremely costly to both Nevada landlords and the state’s overall economy.

The positive benefit to Nevada’s economy that is generated by the state’s residential rental industry is estimated to have decreased by a full 9 percent – or a whopping $511 million – in 2020 when compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to the report released last Thursday.

In addition, lost wages and their subsequent lack of contribution to the state’s economy due to the eviction bans have cost Nevada approximately $12.6 million in lost sales and use tax revenue in 2020 as well.

The report also found that small mom-and-pop landlords – who make up the majority of the rental marketplace in Nevada – have suffered the most financially from the eviction bans, with an average loss of approximately $1,870 per unit. In addition, landlords with over 30 units have been deprived of about $350 per unit, with an average of $422 per unit lost between March 2020 and February 2021.

Nevada Realtors and Nevada State Apartment Association President Brad Spires noted that the report helps put this damage caused by the CDC eviction moratoriums into perspective from an economic point of view.

“It reinforces what we’ve been saying throughout this pandemic about the disproportionate harm these policies have had on individual property owners who depend on rental income to survive,” he said.

The report arrived at these findings by surveying 140 landlords and property management firms, who own a combined 21,000 units among them.

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 U.S. Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Friday that upheld the eviction moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 3, after the previous eviction ban was allowed to lapse by Congress. The next stop for the case, filed by a group of Alabama and Georgia landlords, is the Supreme Court, which is slated to hear the case this week.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiffs who were seeking to block the new moratorium, but the landlord groups quickly pivoted and filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court. In turn, Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered the administration of President Joe Biden to respond to the lawsuit by 12pm on Monday.

“As five Members of this Court indicated less than two months ago, Congress never gave the CDC the staggering amount of power it claims,” the motion filed by the landlords read.

This quote in the motion refers to the previous decision rendered by the Supreme Court in June that allowed the CDC’s first eviction moratorium to remain in-place until its original expiration date of July 31. However, Brett Kavanaugh – who voted with the 5-4 majority in that ruling – noted that he would not support any further extensions of the eviction ban without the approval of Congress, which failed to materialize.

After the ban was allowed to expire, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the new eviction ban, citing the rapid spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. The new ban applies to counties where at least 50 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people have been reported over the past seven days, which currently covers nearly 95 percent of all U.S. counties.

The new ban is set to expire October 3, but can be lengthened or shortened based on changes in the spread of the virus.

President Biden himself has admitted to reporters that the new CDC eviction ban many not be constitutional, but noted that any legal challenges would grant extra time for states to distribute federal rent relief funds.