Las Vegas Real Estate News

An Emergency Posting On An Amazing Deal In Paradise Palms

July 21st, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

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At least I think it is, until I see it.

I had shown this home in 2006 when it was 535,000, and almost wrote an offer on it that would have been in the 490’s.

NOW, it’s come on the market over the weekend as a bank owned REPO at only 259,900. Here’s the link to the NEW MLS. The agent says it’s not beat up at all.

If Ever There was a “going to go quick” deal, then this will be one of them.

I’m on my way to go see it, now.

 

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Fun Fixtures Found In A FSBO

July 20th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

I found a FSBO (for sale by owner)  home, where the seller welcomes my helping to find the right buyer. It’s $240,000 and 1538 sf of “Mid Mod meets Bungalow”

There’s 3 large bedrooms. Hardwood Floors over crawlspace, and both bathrooms and kitchens have ALL the original period tilework. The hall bath is in yellow and grey and the master bath is in Pink and Grey.

Both the front and back yards are beautifully landscaped with covered patios under roof.

 

 

 

I’m not going to show all the pictures, but trust me, if you’re into original custom floorplans, beamed ceilings, hardwood floors and original kitchens and baths that are in excellent condition, then you ought to give me a call.

Even though the seller has opted to “go it alone”, you should ABSOLUTELY have representation on your side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fun Fixtures Found In Foreclosures

July 17th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Found a couple of interestin fireplaces the other day. The Brick one is in McNeil and the Stone is in Glen Heather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both of these houses are contenders for the next foreclosures open house I do. I’ll decide which one by tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

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Foreclosure Roundtable: Educated Buyers And Agents Have A Better Shot At Getting The Property

July 17th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Yesterday, my Keller Williams Realty Office held a roundtable with leading players in today’s Foreclosure Market.

One of our agents, Karol Lucan actually took detailed notes. All of this information is stuff I try to convey to the buyers BEFORE they start the process. This gives me the opportunity to give the information to lots of you all at the same time.

Previously, (the last 6 months) all of the foreclosure business I was doing was with investors who were buying cash. They aren’t ever going to live in the property. Without exception every one of those investors had a 1 or 2 year rental period in their business plan before they will even consider trying to re-sell.

There’s been a big shift in the market in the last month. OWNER OCCUPIED (reallllllly going to live in the home) buyers have started looking at and buying the foreclosure inventory.

There’s Things You Need To Know About Buying Foreclosure Property In Las Vegas

The roundtable was FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS, so that they can INFORM THE BUYERS. I’ve cut and pasted Karol’s notes for you.

If you want to take advantage of this market, or have any questions, GIVE ME A CALL OR SEND ME AN EMAIL.

Before writing an offer on a bank-owned property, what should an agent do?

1. Educate the buyer on the process – that it is longer because you are dealing with asset managers, servicing agencies and banks.  There are many people involved in reviewing the offer, counter offers and signing off on a purchase agreement.  There may also be numerous offers on a single property.  Don’t set your heart on a property.
2. READ the MLS listing, especially the Agent/Agent comments!  This is where you should find the latest information.

Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s a BOY!

July 11th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

I finally gave up trying to fix the old computer. I’ve been limping along for a month with a curser that would only move 3 or 4 inches at a time before it froze up for 2 or 10 or 20 seconds. You can’t even believe how annoying that can be. I’ve probably freed up a cumulative hour a day where I won’t be waiting for the curser to move.  Photoshop which is the biggest program I use to create the flyers etc, ran like it was on a 128k modem.

I spent more money on tech support and geek squads than the price of a new computer.

We’re going to wipe the old one clean and reinstall the operating system to finally once and for all try to determine if it was a software problem or a hardware problem. 

I haven’t named the baby yet, but I’m open to suggestions.

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Mid Century Modern Foreclosure Opportunity

July 11th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Obviously, we’re talking foreclosures this week, and yesterday we found a fairly dilapidated mid century modern home that a bank just listed.

Actually, I’ve been watching it for a couple of weeks while the bank hauled away 2 dumpsters full of stuff, but there’s still a ton of work to do in order to restore it to its former glory.

Custom classic mid mods rarely come to market. I’m sorry that this one isn’t in better condition overall, but the redeeming features that are still intact will make it worthwhile.  It’s priced at $165,000 for just over 2000 sf. That’s only $81 per square foot.

It’s not for the first time buyer, though any mid century modern enthusiast would love to live there when it’s restored.

The beamed ceilings and rock wall fireplace, and walls of glass out to the brick patio are the primary features. I’m saving some of the cool little details and fixtures for the new series we’re doing on “fun fixtures found in foreclosures”.

 

 

 

 

I’ll be around all weekend if you’d like to see it, or if you’d like to talk about finding the right home or investment opportunity for you. Give me a call.

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Fun Fixtures Found In Foreclosures - Part 2

July 11th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Doors don’t have to be solid! This bank owned repo has a frosted glass insert with a  Iron grate over the top of it. What’s really fun is the brass door bell mounted in the middle of the door. It’s a mechanical bell that extends thru the door to a small crank handle on the outside. It’s still working and sounds like a bicycle bell from our childhoods. The door itself is raised panel, but the top row is very unique in it’s design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door hardware is also very old world and charming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house is in need of a lot of TLC, but it’s just chock full of some very fun fixtures. Yesterday I showed you the wrought iron globe lights in the patio. The RJ reported yesterday that 65% of the homes that sold in June were bank owned foreclosures. Most of them will need some work – or a lot– but there’s some very interesting homes and a lot of really cool fixtures hiding among them.

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Here’s How I’d REALLY Like To Live!

July 6th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

I’ve been goofing off in between about a dozen different house showings this weekend. Since I was feeling guilty about not posting anything since Friday, I thought I’d show you how I’d really like to live. Thanks to Mark for sending me the link.

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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day -

July 3rd, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

The “how to stage your home” book said to add some colorful decorative touches.

 

 

 

 

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

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How Tight Is The Rental Market?

July 2nd, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions, Mortgage

I don’t manage rental property, so I rarely advertise or even think about them. Yesterday at 3pm, we made the decision to take 3212 Brazos off of the market and rent it out instead. The seller had gone as low as he was willing and able to go in trying to sell it.

I changed the flyer on VVV to reflect the rental status, and posted the flyer on Craig’s List. The first call came 3 minutes later. and then another and then another. 11 calls by 6pm when I went to show the property to 4 of the callers.

3 of them want it. Almost every person I talked to had the same story to tell of rentals that they call on being already gone in a matter of hours.

I explained to them that there’s a huge shortage of rentals because so much of what was once rental inventory is now foreclosure inventory. Many of the previous owners who have lost their homes to foreclosure, or are about to, have caused an unusually high amount of people looking to rent again. 4 of the 11 calls yesterday were from people in foreclosure who know they’ll have to be out of their home in the next few weeks.

I saw a banner on an apartment complex yesterday that said “FORECLOSURE FORGIVENESS”. They’re having a heyday filling their units with people who’s credit was now ruined because of the foreclosure mess.

Rents have risen 25% in the last year as a result. A year ago, the seller on Brazos and I talked about 1000 to 1100 a month. Yesterday we put it out at 1300 a month and look at the response we got.

I’m not sure where it will balance out, as most of the people I’m currently selling homes to right now are giving up on being tenants and are buying their first homes. The investors who normally buy property to rent out are being hit really hard by the lenders and are having to put down 20% or more, and even then at interest rates at about 8%. There’s not a lot of investors buying at the moment.

In the meanwhile, it’s a landlords market. If you’ve been renting for a long time, you might want to put the upcoming rent increase that you are probably going to be hit with into the equation. Between the tax deductions, and the drastically reduced prices for homes, it’s probably time to start thinking about owning instead of renting.

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Worst MLS Photo Of The Day -

July 2nd, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News

Maybe it’s a feature, maybe its decor. Either way it’s blurry.

 

 

 

 

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

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A Game With No Rules - Real Estate In Las Vegas

June 30th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Market Conditions

I’m  writing this post to make the point that it’s still worthwhile to buy real estate, but that the rules of the game are constantly changing. It’s not as easy as it once was. It has to be treated as a game. Winning the game has enormous rewards, though. Besides the obvious eternal reasons for home ownership (pride, tax savings, pay yourself, build equity, control of how you live, no landlord, etc), there’s terrific opportunity to get into a home at prices we haven’t seen in 3 years.

You’re going to need help from a great agent, a great lender, and maybe even a great therapist before it’s all over. But it’s WORTH THE TROUBLE, and you might even get one of the easy transactions where everything is predictable and goes the way it’s supposed to.

Yes, they do happen, but not as often as they used to. In my 20 years of selling real estate and and consulting with buyers and sellers, I used to have a problem of some sort on maybe 1 out of 10 deals. Usually we’d get it fixed, and overall only about 1 in 20 had serious complications, and only about 1 in 50 where things couldn’t get fixed and actually fell apart all together.

Those numbers have changed dramatically. Buyers, sellers agents and lenders  need to be wearing their track shoes. Everyone has to be prepared to punt. All of us will need a lot patience and flexibility. The banks, whether they’re the seller or the lender, aren’t making it easy. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s worth pursuing.

I’ve spent 20 years figuring it all out. How to negotiate. How to promote, and market listings. Knowing what the buyer will buy before they do. Common business courtesy. Pricing strategies. Contract clauses. FHA “livability” Standards,  Rules of Law. Checklists.

All of it for naught in this market. Everyone is just making it all up as they go along. Every listing, every agent, every brokerage, every deal is a new variation of the game of real estate. But that’s what makes life exciting. When things zig, I’m always ready to zag.

For example:

I thought the banks were putting ridiculously low prices on properties to get bidding war going. Except,  I just made a deal on one of them last week that was accepted below the ridiculously low low list price. We were the only bidder. At that price I thought there would be a dozen. The buyer would have bought it for 30 or 40,000 more than what it was listed for.

I submitted an offer on a property last week that wasn’t a foreclosure. I emailed it last Sunday, 8 days ago. I faxed it in on Tuesday because the listing agent hadn’t returned my 3 calls on Sunday and Monday.  I started calling the broker on Wednesday, who says he can’t reach the agent, and doesn’t have a phone number for the seller, who lives in Michigan. We’re frustrated but we’re ready to start over.

5 counter offers on a bank owned property, and each counter took 4 or 5 days to get a response. The final form the bank sent over was never presented with the first counter. It has a clause in it that says that the “contract is not binding on the seller. The seller can cancel at anytime and for any reason and return the earnest money to the buyer”.  The listing agent says “it’s just routine”. HUH? Will the buyer sign it? Will the bank take the deal with that clause removed? I’ll know today.

The bank evicted the former owner after the trustee sale. The former owner’s wife had moved away and filed for divorce and wasn’t on title in the first place. The title company says they won’t give title insurance until she signs a paper for them. I think trustee sale wiped out any claim she might have had. Buyer’s ready to go and the bank/seller can’t provide clear title. HUH?

The mortgage company approved the buyer loan. The buyer signed the loan docs. The funder says they don’t want t