Very Vintage Vegas

Jack LeVine Is On Facebook! Would You Like To Be My Friend?

January 6th, 2009 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

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I just posted an album of the pictures from my birthday party. I even finally changed my profile picture.

Want to get connected to the movers and shakers and hipsters, and artists and musicians and neighbors and activists and politicians and writers and tv personalities and even some old fuddy duddies, too.  that live and work and hang out in the new old Las Vegas? Lot’s of us are one facebook. You should be, too. Social networking is all the rage, and facebook makes it easy to share with your friends and for them to share with you.

First You’ll have to register, which is easy. Upload a picture if you want. Create a profile.

Once you’re registered, you can type in my name in the search field and see my profile page. Go ahead, invite me to be your friend. Play around a few minutes and you’ll get the hang of it. If we’re already facebook friends, tell me who your friends are that I ought to be friends with. It’s a pretty small world and life’s a lot more fun when you’re feeling connected.

Scroll thru my list of friends and see who you know. Scroll thru their friends. Create a profile for yourself, and invite everyone you know to do it too. 

You probably already know a lot more people than you think, and there’s a ton of people you ought to know. It’s a lot of fun…check it out.

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Las Vegas Loses Another Historic Landmark - Maude Frazier Hall At UNLV

January 6th, 2009 Categories: Historic Preservation

We’re sad to report that Maude Frazier Hall is no more. It was the first building ever built at UNLV. We’ve been covering the efforts of the preservation community to save this historic building for over a year. For more background, you can go here, and here.

We held protests, signed petitions, lobbied the county and the Board of Regents all to no avail.

It’s been vacant and fenced off for a few months now, and we knew it was imminent. Now it’s a done deed. Today the bulldozer and the back hoe were busy at work destroying the historic beginnings of UNLV. 

Classic Las Vegas has some photos of it as it was today, and I went over and took a very amateur video of what I saw.  

We’ve been doing a series on the Architecture of Walter Zick and Harris Sharp. Maude Frazier Hall was one of theirs as well.

Zick and Sharp left a massive body of Mid Century Modern Architecture in Las Vegas. Maude Frazier Hall was a classic example. Unfortunately, historically and architecturally important buildings mean nothing to the powers that be of UNLV.

 

 

Here’s my still photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day

January 6th, 2009 Categories: Worst MLS Photo

Who says you can’t teach an old dog a new trick.

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing worse than a bad picture is NO PICTURES AT ALL!

 

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Fun Features Found in Foreclosures - The Best Deals Are Retro, Vintage and Classic Homes In The Historic Neighborhoods Of Las Vegas

January 4th, 2009 Categories: Alta Rancho Historic District, Fun Features Found In Foreclosures

There’s a doozy of  bank owned REO (real estate owned) foreclosure property in the Alta Rancho Historic Neighborhood. It came on the market the other day for $232,750.12. Actually, I’m just kidding about the twelve cents.

The MLS Pictures aren’t bad, but they left this shot out. I think it’s worthy of being shown, as it’s the centerpiece for this classic home in an historic neighborhood of Las Vegas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/2 Acre Lots In Historic Neighborhoods are hard to come by at this price. I’ve said it before….The banks are just giving away the foreclosure homes for the sake of getting rid of them.

 

 

 

A 1000sf+- garage/storage/workshop/studio?

I know there’s one of the artists out there that could REALLY produce with a shop like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Bathrooms?

 

There’s plenty here that needs polishing, but it’s not trashed, bombed out or ever been re-muddled.

 

 

What more could you want?

 

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Why Jack LeVine (Uncle Jack) Is Writing Long Drawn Out Headlines With The Words Vintage, Historic, Mid Century Modern, Mid Mod, Retro, Classic, Urban, Foreclosure and Las Vegas In Them

January 4th, 2009 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

That’s how the search engines determine which websites show up when you search for various combinations of those words. They look for keywords that are used in both the headlines and in the body of the posts.

Of course, once you’ve already become a reader, they’re annoying, but I have to keep on using words that people are searching for if google is going to think I’ve still got relevance to the searcher.

I got lazy mid year, and stopped practicing the art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I don’t think I need to tell you in every headline that I deal in Classic and Retro Homes In the Historic Neighborhoods of Las Vegas. But I do need to tell google often, that if someone is looking for a foreclosure or even for a nice well loved and well maintained home that’s classic or retro or Mid Mid Century Modern (mid mod), then they definitely ought to get pointed to VeryVintageVegas. I’m also working on my name and Uncle Jack as well as Unclejack.

Of course, there’s current owners who want to sell their classic, retro Mid Century Modern Homes in Las Vegas, and they often search for a Realtor who specializes in homes in historic neighborhoods. I want them to be able to find me also.

Some of the other things the search engines look for in determining relevance is how many other websites link to this one, how often I give links out to other websites, how often I link back to myself in previous posts and HOW OFTEN PEOPLE COMMENT. That’s why I mentioned trying to get lots of comments the other day, though it didn’t work as well as I had hoped.

Now you know. I’ll probably get lazy about it in a few weeks again, since it’s not how I talk, and I think it’s a stilted unnatural way to write. But it works! You probably found me that way yourself.

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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day

January 3rd, 2009 Categories: Worst MLS Photo

Gate way pictures should be outlawed. They can only lead to more dangerous pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing worse than a bad picture is NO PICTURES AT ALL!

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Imbleachment - By Diane Bush

January 3rd, 2009 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Poor Diane, 8 years of having to share a name with a notoriously imfamous family. Though I’ve emphatically and intentionally stayed non-political on this blog and doubt that I’ll be offending many of my readers, and since there’s only 18 days to go…. What the heck.

Diane Bush did this piece of audience participation art at the October First Friday. See what fun you’re missing if you don’t attend regularly.

 

 

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A Case In Point About How The Banks Are Selling Their Foreclosure REO Homes In Las Vegas

January 2nd, 2009 Categories: Market Conditions

I get emails every morning telling me what’s newly listed, newly contracted or newly closed. I have an automatic search set up for almost every neighborhood that I pay attention to. The Marycrest – Crestview - Morning View neighborhoods are among them. You can do the same for yourself with our MLS Search, if you’re inclined.

On November 24, about 38 days ago, I got an email about 1733 S. 17^th Street in Morning View Heights.

$65000.

I pinpointed which house it was and got there in about 5 minutes. One of my cash investor buyers put in a bid at list price about 2 hours later. Almost everyone I work with has their own search set up. The buyer that I wrote the offer for was the first one to call me from the alert. Even they were surprised that I already had been there. That’s how Meghan got the “Dean Martin’s Cousin’s House”, as well. (and here also)

The thing is….the house should have been listed for about 120. There were comps (recent sales) of fairly decent houses to support 120,000 if there was an appraisal. There was even a comp in the 180’s with a pool that was the same size. Why the 65,000 list price? Why were the very broken 1 bathroom Huntridge foreclosures being listed, and then selling quickly for 65000+-?  After all, there’s even smaller homes with one bathroom in North Las Vegas being listed and sold in the 60k’s. Why this one at 65,000. Why not at 100,000? Why not 120,000?

We were told at 2m that there was already another offer coming in.

Ooops, multiple offer situation. Not uncommon lately.  On the 25^th we got it in writing with what’s called a “highest and best” counter offer from the listing agent. 5pm on the 26th would be the deadline to counter back with our best offer. Then it’s just waiting to see who won the guessing game.

It’s a lot like poker. But not as immediate. Well anyway, before turning in our best bid, we got wind that we were bidding against an FHA buyer who would be living in the house. I knew the house would pass FHA if a few roof shingles and a window got replaced. On the 25th, I ran into another agent when I was at the property. He had an investor buyer with him. They were trying to scare us off and we were doing the same in reverse. Getting this house at anywhere even within 20,000 of the list price, would have allowed room to fix the place up and flip it. For the last year, almost all the investors are/were buying and renting them out for a year or 2. At 100 to 120,000 that would have happened to this property. At 65,000, there would have been room to flip. We also assumed that an owner occupied buyer would see the house as an already pretty livable property for a really low amount, so they’d be willing to pay more that an investor would. My buyer was actually rooting for the FHA buyer, however. Our bid? A paltry 70,000, instead of dropping out completely….just in case there was a going to be a miracle.

Somehow, this story sounds vaguely sounds familiar…HMMMMM. A three year old flashback? Something’s different though. Oh, yea,  the numbers are different.

Anyway, the results were posted today. The FHA buyer got the house. Turns out out the other investor never put in a bid. Turns out that the bank could have gotten a whole lot more, and sold it just as quickly at a considerably higher list price. Turns out that the buyer got a not so “pretty” but perfectly livable home that only needed minor maintenance repairs. The major cosmetic overhaul might get done sooner or later….or not.

And the FHA buyer managed to land an 1800 sf home with a view of Sunrise Mountain, on a terrific street in Downtown Las Vegas for only $75,000.

The shame is that all the negotiations from typing it into the MLS to the declaring that the bank had accepted an offer was all of 3.5 days. If it had been listed at even $100,000., and shown over the next weekend, then a lot more buyers would have found it, especially a lot more FHA want to live in it buyers, WHO WORK DURING THE WEEK. I believe it would have sold at over a 100 if they would have listed it that way.

Moral? No one’s smarter than anyone else. There are no rules. It’s totally a guessing game. The banks are screwing themselves yet again. And they’re SCREWING ALL OF US AT THE SAME TIME. Why? Because CONSUMER SENTIMENT AND WILLINGNESS TO SPEND and our whole overall economy is heavily dependent on how we feel about our home prices!

Thousands of homeowners and scores of other banks got hurt hugely by this “NEW COMP” in the record. One homeowner made out like a bandit. I’m happy for them. Really.

And that’s why prices have crashed well beyond “correction of the excesses of a few years ago”. That’s why when they give away perfectly livable (even though a foreclosure REO) homes for the same price per square foot as the totally trashed homes, prices go down even further.

ATTENTION ALL BANKS. It’s not that far to ZERO. Give a couple of them away for a dollar and watch how fast we can start an upward skyrocketing price trend when the next bank sees see the comp you just created. We’d unload ALL THE FORECLOSURES AND REO property in a matter of weeks. Then we could have a stable market again.

Maybe that’s what they’re trying to do. Anyone who buys a house this year is going to be  be among this year’s winners. But on the other hand, it doesn’t make any sense to be waiting around for the $1 house.

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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day

January 2nd, 2009 Categories: Worst MLS Photo

Directions: Sweep floors. Then take the picture.

The only thing worse than a bad picture is NO PICTURES AT ALL!

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There’s A Birthday Party For Jack LeVine After First Friday At The Downtown Cocktail Room in Downtown Las Vegas

January 1st, 2009 Categories: Events

It was a going to be a surprise, but the cat got out of the bag. There’s a ton of you out there who aren’t known by the people putting on the party, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t invited!.

If you’re in Downtown Las Vegas on Friday Night for First Friday, then stop in at the Downtown Cocktail Room after 9:30 pm. Or just head to downtown Las Vegas for some late night partying.

Normally, Jack LeVine pays no mind to birthdays, but after the heart attack and all that, I’m HAPPY to celebrate one, and grateful to friends for throwing me a party. Stop by if you can.

Downtown Cocktail Room 111 S. Las Vegas Blvd (first door south of Fremont Street) Downtown Las Vegas!

Jack LeVine was talking to another blogger the other day about how difficult it is to get people to comment, regardless of the topic. Maybe this time?

It would make the SEO Gods so happy. I’ll tell you what that means in a day or 2.