Las Vegas, Nevada Real Estate Agent’s Las Vegas Homes, Condos, Land, Commercial Real Estate and Personal Blog

   When distressed Las Vegas home owners start missing payments on their mortgage, they often have no idea how long they can keep their home or condo or where to look for advice. Unfortunately, they turn toward their mortgage holder or the bank for advice; doing so is seeking advice from your adversary. How smart is that? Distressed home owners should seek the advice of a credit counseling agency, their Realtor, a CPA or a lawyer since these professionals do not work for your lender and would have your interest at heart.

Bellow is the foreclosure process timeline.

Time-frame: Statutory: 112 days. However it may take longer. After the borrower misses four payments then the first legal action is

First legal action: Recording the Notice of Default (NOD)

Notice of Default has to be mailed within 10 days after recording, certified and first class

Notice of Sale: 20 days before sale, registered and first class

Publication: Once a week for 3 weeks

Reinstatement: Within 35 days of the Notice of Default mailing (this is the period in which the borrower can become current on the payments and stop foreclosure process)

Postponements: Unlimited

Miscellaneous: The Trustee and the Beneficiary is required to disclose any known defects at the time of sale.

Deficiency Judgments after a non-judicial foreclosure sale: Yes\

 Related web-site links:  

Las Vegas, Nevada Homes and Condos for Sale, Short Sales, Foreclosures, HUD Homes and Fixer-uppers

   I have admittedly ignored the third and in my opinion the best part of Las Vegas Homes, condos, land and commercial real estate and that is the Las Vegas real estate forum. The reason is lack of time and that it needed to be updated to function properly. But the forum is updated now and ready to come to life.

I have started to enlist the help of real estate related experts who truly excel in their field to moderate and answer questions in individual forum boards. The first one is Mr. John Le Francois who I have had the pleasure of working with for awhile. He is an excellent mortgage broker who works with Direct Access Lending and has agreed to be the moderator for Greater Las Vegas, Nevada Commercial Real Estate Financing and Mortgage. Go ahead and ask him any mortgage related questions.

He has posted a great article about understanding mortgage rates as it relates to current real estate market.  He shows by example that as inflation raises so do the long term mortgage rates, and the inflation is rising due to declining dollar value, high price of oil and the cost of current wars. None of these factors show any sign of slowing down so the mortgage rates will go higher.

Those who are waiting for further significant drop in Las Vegas residential real estate to buy a home or condo, risk paying higher mortgage payments due to higher interest rates. The accumulation of these higher payments over a period of time will wipe out any savings due to an erroneously perceived further significant price decline which is not coming.

    These days some Las Vegas Realtors price a short sale much lower than other comps so they can open negotiations with bank with an offer in hand. Making a purchase offer on these short sale homes or condos often end in a long wait for the buyer, and eventual rejection by the lender.

Approval for a short sale by a bank requires two separate processes. The first is that the bank or mortgage lender has to approve their client’s property for a short sale. The seller has to fill out many forms and provide the lender with all kinds of documents such as tax returns and bank account statements and prove to the bank that he/she can’t pay the mortgage any longer and that the seller qualifies because of some kind of hardship. Needless to say this process is time consuming, but needs to be done prior to listing the property. Those Realtors that get through the short sale process, add the following to their listings “approved short sale”, and need as little as 2 days and no more than 3-5 weeks days to get an answer for the offer from the lender.

In order to detect if the listing Realtor for a short sell has done their job or not, I ask these Greater Las Vegas Realtors how long it will take them to give me an answer on my offer. If it is a reasonable time frame, like up to 4 weeks, then they have gotten a short sale approval from the bank and the bank or lender has to approve the selling price. On the other hand if the listing Realtor is asking for two months or more, then the wild goose chase is afoot and it will end up in failure most of the time. The longest response time that a Realtor wanted to answer my offer was 90-120 days. While her listing was immaculate and ready to move in, she had priced it $9 less per square foot than other comps.

I can’t think of any buyer who is willing for 3-4 month to get an answer for their offer, especially in a dynamic real estate market such as Las Vegas. That beautiful condo has a snowballs chance in hell of selling. Even though I had warned my clients about this practice, they still were angry at the listing agent. Actually, Frank, a retired chief master sergeant (this is equivalent to 4 star general for enlisted personnel) in the air force tracked down her number and read her the riot act, against my advice

Related web-site links: Buying Las Vegas new condos for sale, getting the best deal for a Las Vegas condo, Las Vegas condos for sale, short sale condominiums, foreclosed condos, HUD homes and fixer-uppers

   This is the concluding article of: Las Vegas condo auction pricing, and if the buyers who purchased a condominium at Adagio condo auction got a good deal?

I have researched the closing prices for three condominium conversion models in Adagio condominium community that have sold last year. The models are as follows:

A: 3 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1344 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage. The highest selling price for this model at the condo auction was $173,000 and the lowest was $147,000.

 B: 2 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1204 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage. The highest selling price for this model at the condo auction was $229,000 and the lowest was $141,000.

C: : 2 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1074 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage. The selling price for this condominium at the condo auction was $147,000.

In the previous posts I have discussed pricing at this auction and have proved that those who have paid the highest prices have paid too much for their condos. How about those who managed to pay the lowest prices at the Summerlin condo auction. Did they get a good deal? Well 4 months have passed and new numbers are in.

As for the 1304 square foot, three bedroom condo, the lowest winning bid price was $147,000.  There are currently 8 condominiums listed in Las Vegas MLS for sale in the same community. The high asking price is $168,000 and the cheapest three condos are listed for less than $150,000, the lowest asking price is 139,000. So as you can see, one can offer less than $147,000 and have a very good chance at buying them. There are other 3 bed room condos in the same zip code with the asking prices starting at low $130,000. So those who paid the cheapest price at the auction got a so-so deal.

As for the 1204 model, the lowest winning bid was $141,000. Again, there are 2 condos listed in the same sub division for $149,000 and $139,000 respectively and another has sold for $138,000 in June 2008 and other condominiums in comparable communities are listed for sale for less than $120,000. Again, these low price buyers got a so-so deal, definitely not the great deal that they had in mind when they braved bidding at a real estate auction and buying the condominium “as is, where is”. Then again, why would you bid at an auction if there is not a “great deal incentive”?

As for the 1079 model, the winning bids were all $147,000. Do you really think that this is an accident, or that a very able auction team orchestrated this final price?  Again, there are 3 condos which are listed in the same community for $152,000, $145,000 and $125,000. The latter is a short sale and not as is, another has sold for $138,000 in June 2008, other condominiums in comparable communities are listed for sale for less than $135,000. Again, these low price buyers got a so-so deal, definitely not the great deal that they had in mind when they braved bidding at a real estate auction and buying the condominium “as is, where is”.

Click here to see the market snapshot for all the listings and the location map and hybrid satellite picture and map for 89 homes for sale and 11 recently sold homes that have 2-4 bedrooms, 0-4 bathrooms in the area of zip code 89128. This market snapshot includes the data for all for sale condominiums and sold condos that I have discussed in this series of blog posts.

In conclusion, these were the low price bidders and buyers, others paid thousands of dollars more. Not being represented by a competent Las Vegas Realtor cost these Las Vegas condo auction buyers tens of thousands of dollars.

   Some kind of a weblog this turned out to be. May be we should call it a “once in a blue moon log”. The reason for the disappearance was that I had to visit my parents because my father is not in good health. But that is life and I am back alive and improved. I got to get rid of a 12 year pain in the neck and I mean it literally. My brother, Dr. Mehdi Saberzadeh who is a great surgeon, removed a hard tissue from my neck which had surrounded a nerve and was agitating it, darn thing cost me many nights of sleeplessness.  I have had many steroid shots to my neck and some had jelled and fibrosis had set in.

I also got a couple of pairs of nice glasses that could possibly survive the harsh abuse which I will unwittingly put them through.

I have purposefully backed off on promoting the web-site as I needed some time to catch up with ever changing Las Vegas real estate market and those who contacted us while I was gone. Thankfully we have had contact from people who are looking for all types of investment opportunities in the Las Vegas commercial sectors and those looking to buy a home or condo. Although my wife and brother, Parviz Saberzadeh, put up a valiant effort toward taking care of our residential customers the commercial customers had to wait for me to come back and I truly appreciate their patience and will do my best for them.

I have predicted in my previous posts that there would be many casualties among those who purchased commercial properties in Las Vegas in 2004-2006 and surely the signs are all over the place. In many instances Las Vegas commercial real estate prices have not been adjusted to current market realities and will come down considerably, however great bargains abound.

All I can say is that I will do my best to get this weblog going again, but at times my best is just not good enough.

 This is the third article in Las Vegas condo auction pricing, and if the buyers who purchased a condominium at Adagio condo auction got a good deal?Due to the increasing popularity of real estate auctions in Las Vegas, especially foreclosure auctions, I have added new pages to the web-site that are dedicated to Las Vegas real estate auctions.

 In How We Prepare Our Customers for bank repo home or condo auctions in Las Vegas I have written

“We will help you set an upper limit on your bid price. The upper limit is calculated by using the comparative market analysis (CMA) of like homes or condos, real estate market trend, asking price for competing homes or condos that are currently listed in Greater Las Vegas MLS and compensation for the additional risk involved in giving most of your rights away as a home or condo buyer in Nevada purchasing a home or condo AS IS”.

So, the correct way to analyze sold prices for this condo auction is that all the factors that I have written about have to be considered. Needless to say those who paid the top prices for the 1344 square foot condo ($173,000) and the 1204 square foot condos ($183,000) each at the auction have paid anywhere from $7,000-$25,000 too much. This is if we only compare the selling prices in the condo auction. Above numbers take in to account about a $17,000 discrepancy in the same model condo pricing due to location and upgrades.

I strongly suspect that those who bid the highest prices in this Summerlin area condo auction are those who were affected by the fast and furious action at the start of the auction, when there was no bid on any condos. Again below is how I describe this in the auction pages of the web-site.

“Good auctioneers make a lot of money and at times are flown to the auction site. Their job description is to cause as much confusion as possible so the bidders can’t tell if someone is bidding against them.

This type of real estate auction starts fast and furious with bids coming one after the other in a matter of seconds. A few homes or condos are declared sold within minutes and at high prices.

If the auction for the home or condo starts at $90,000 and the bid price is up to $130,000 within seconds and keeps going up way past the upper limit on pricing which we have set, and if the same home or condo miraculously falls out of escrow within minutes and is back on the auction block quickly; the chances are that there were no bidders to begin with and the property was sold to no one”.

Sadly these people actually thought that they got a good deal because

THESE CONDOS WERE PREVIOUSLY VALUED UP TO $250,000-$280,000.

When interview by a young and bubbly news reporter from one of the Las Vegas television stations, few buyers quoted the same ridiculous number when asked if they got a good deal in the condo auction. To add insult to injury the same reporter advised the prospective Las Vegas auction buyers to bid fast and often if they don’t want to lose on a great deal. This is a road map to the poor house; follow it at your own risk.

I have already discussed the highest price bids at the auction; these bidders didn’t get a good deal, even if we compare the sold prices for the one day condo auction. But no Realtor picks comparables based on a one day sale and other factors have to be accounted for.

So let’s go radical and pick the lowest priced 1344, 1204 and 1079 square foot condos that have sold in the condo auction and figure out if these lucky devils got a good deal.

Unfortunately you have to wait for the next post to find out.

Related web-site links: Buying Las Vegas condos for sale, Las Vegas homes and condos, real estate market news, : getting the best deal for a Las Vegas condominium

This is the second article in Las Vegas condo auction pricing, and if the buyers who purchased a condominium at Adagio condo auction got a good deal?

I have researched the closing prices for three condominium conversion models in Adagio condominium community that have sold last year. The models are as follows:

A: 3 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1344 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage.

 B: 2 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1204 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage.

C: : 2 bedrooms 2 full baths, 1074 square foot condo with a fireplace in the living room and a garage.

Below are the close of escrow dates and selling prices for the above condominiums in Adagio since May 2007

Even if we assume that the average selling price for the 1344 model condos at the auction was $160,000, this is still a 42% drop from the same time last year. Although this number is not accurate due to the small number of comparables, it is still a heck of a lot more accurate than the meaningless average, or median price of residential real estate in Las Vegas. At least I am comparing the same condos that are sold in the same community.

There is also a $27,000 discrepancy between the highest selling price at the auction which was $173,000 and the lowest price which was $147,000. As a rule, first story or ground level condos are priced $5 to 10 thousand dollars less than 2^nd floor apartments and this is due to the fact that upper floor

apartments ( penthouse condos) have higher ceilings and get more light, additionally no one is walking over their ceiling. Other factors in the price difference in these conforming condos could be having a pool view or additional upgrades. Given that these condos were converted by the same company, their upgrades were almost identical, thus any price discrepancy of over $17,000 is hard to justify.

The only explanation is that most of these Las Vegas condo auction buyers chose to not be represented by a competent Realtor and ended up paying too much for their condo.

Not being represented by a competent Las Vegas Realtor cost these Las Vegas condo auction buyers tens of thousands of dollars

Especially note worthy is a buyer that paid $173,000 for a condo which he/she closed in 4/2008, I strongly suspect that the buyer purchased this after the auction as there were 25 or more condominiums that failed to sell at the auction. This buyer has managed to have more than $30,000 in instant negative equity (upside down).

I keep preaching the necessity of being represented by a competent Las Vegas Realtor or a commercial real estate agent if you plan to buy real estate in Las Vegas or surrounding communities. Failing to be represented by a real estate agent could be fatal to your finances, and here is proof positive.

Still don’t believe me?

Then check out the 1204 square foot condo that has sold in January 2008 for an incredible $247,000. The highest price that was paid for a 1204 square foot condo in this Summerlin area condo community, was $252,000. Prices had dropped to about $225,000 within 4 months and kept dropping. These buyers paid $247,000 in January, while the highest condo price for this square footage at the auction was $183,000 and the lowest was $141,000. These poor souls have managed to lose $64,000-$100,000 in less than a month (the auction was held in Feb 2008) and have nobody to blame but themselves.

I will continue Las Vegas condo auction pricing and prices in the next post.

The bus that we have purchased for Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas foreclosure bus tour is being readied and hopefully will be ready in 45 days. I appreciate any suggestions on this matter. Please chat about this post and any other Las Vegas real estate and mortgage related subjects in our Las Vegas real estate forum.

PS: Great sadness has befallen our brothers and sisters in Myanmar (Burma) and China. My heart breaks when I see so much pain and suffering in the innocent faces of children who have lost their parents and other siblings and it breaks even more when I see the stricken faces of parents who have lost all their children. Please pray for them as they need it desperately. I also pray for a just punishment for the criminal Junta that rules this grief stricken country.

  A new phone scam has hit Las Vegas and below is how it works.Your phone will ring, usually after 7 pm to on a weekend night to get you upset, so you will listen to the whole message, and then comes the following recorded message:

If you are not the person who owes HealthSouth please hang up now,

And after a brief pause asks the person to call 1-866-608-7107

When the person calls that number, he is directed to call 1-900-622-8000

Those who call this number are subsequently billed anywhere form $50-$150. Please go ahead and Google 9006228000 and you will find many forum posts from the poor people who fell for this and were surprised with a big bill subsequently.

Needless to say, this is only one scenario and different names or phone numbers may be used. Following is post from a victim:

“Yeah, my parents got hit with this last week. Their VISA statement came with an odd $120 charge on it and the only note was a 1-800-290-8630 that then in turn leads right to this 1-900-622-8000 number to talk to a real person for $10 (and more I assume). Oh, and the line on the bill “1F - great fun”, I mean what jerks. We are disputing the charge and I am sure it will disappear. We will see.”

Please note that the prefix 900 for a phone number means that there will be charge for the call. 900 numbers are exactly opposite to 800 numbers as 800 number guaranties no charge for a call, 900 number guaranties that there would be a charge. So never make a 900 number call unless you know how much you will be charged.

I found out about this today after getting 3 calls over the weekend from these dirt bags, all after 7 pm. Needless to say we didn’t fall for the scam and didn’t call the 900 number. We contacted HealthSouth’s administrative office and they were unaware of what is going on, as we suspected. To me this means that this is a relatively new scam here in Las Vegas, so I decided to do a post about this and alert the innocent souls that will fall victim to these %&*#@ ( please let your imagination run wild in replacing these with nasty words) criminals.

These lowest of the low are targeting poor defenseless people by covering a large area by the name of an institution that many may owe and hit them with a fraudulent bill. I can’t overstate my disgust for these cancerous tumors in our society which grow and prosper only by destroying others, the best cure for cancer is to shut down its food source and then it will die.

If you receive a bill from these low lifes, contest it.  

I will get back to my analysis of Las Vegas condo auction in February-2008 next, but if I can save one person from these predators, this post is well worth the time.

Please forward this to the law enforcement agency of your area and alert everyone you can. GOD willing we can try to shut this down before it claims more victims, as I know it will.

I will return to my series about the homes that are for sale in 89149 and the adverse effect that Las Vegas foreclosure homes and short sales have on the resale home pricing shortly.

 I have promised to analyze what happened at the big auction in Summerlin area which was advertised heavily and attended by hundreds of Las Vegas condo buyers.

 The only way to find out what the selling prices for these condos were is to do a manual search of Clark County records as these sales are not reflected in the Greater Las Vegas MLS. Needless to say a manual search of grant bargain deeds is tedious and time consuming, but due to a large number of foreclosure and short sale transactions, this is the only way to come up with correct comps for any property. Las Vegas MLS data is no longer sufficient because they don’t include real estate deals that don’t involve a Las Vegas Realtor.

The Adagio condo auction was held in Las Vegas in early February 2008 and I assumed that most of the condos that have closed escrow in March 2008 are those that were sold at the auction, since the deadline to close the deal was one month from acceptance of the offer by the sellers.

Before I talk about the auction prices, I would like to discuss the condos that were offered at the auction and how much they were selling for since May 2007.

The models that I discuss include the following:

A: 1344 square foot condominium conversion with 3 bedrooms two full baths, fireplace in the living room and a garage.

 B: 1204 square foot condominium conversion with 2 bedrooms, two full baths, fireplace in the living room and a garage.

C: 1074 square foot condominium conversion with 2 bedrooms two full baths, fireplace in the living room and a garage.

Adagio is a Las Vegas condo conversion community that was purchased for over $45 Million Dollars and was subsequently converted to condos and sold individually. Adagio has 42 buildings and 282 condominium units, the seller paid about $160,000 per condo unit and spent additional money for repairing the condos and painting them from top to bottom. Needless to say repainting the whole condominium made it impossible to an untrained person to find defects by just eyeballing the condos, and this didn’t help matters as these condominiums were sold as is. I have talked about this and other issues that concern buying a condominium from an auction as these condos are sold as is. Please note that when a property is sold as is, it doesn’t mean that you have to buy it as is, ask us how. The seller also had equipped these auction condos with brand new appliances.

More on the prices for these Summerlin area Las Vegas condos that were auctioned, in the in my next blog.

Related web-site links: getting the best deal for a Las Vegas condo, Buying Las Vegas condos for sale, Las Vegas residential real estate market news

Las Vegas foreclosed homes, short sales and resales, priced $300,000-$350,000 in 89149

Greater Las Vegas MLS shows 9 houses that are under contract for $300,000-$350,000 price range since Jan 1, 2008. Please note that the Las Vegas MLS does not include homes that have not sold by a Realtor in their statistics and the true number is higher. Las Vegas real estate market statistics that I provide in our site are much more accurate as they include foreclosures homes or those that are sold in an auction.

Three of the nine are 2 story 3730 square foot houses that were built by Beazer Homes, one of the major new home builders in Las Vegas. These homes where purchased in mid 2005 for about $525,000, were listed for sale in 2006 for about $600,000 and one actually sold for that amount. One seller got to flip his/her home and made a few thousand in profit, the other two got foreclosed on, along with our 2006 buyer. A few of these houses were listed in the $600,000 range as late as April 2007. Unrealistic pricing killed the Las Vegas real estate market last year, but this is not true at the moment. This is the underlying reason for the rebound in the real estate market and commercial properties will soon follow. A 4 bedroom, three and half bath, 3700 square foot home that is only three years old for less than $94 per square foot is a great deal, period.

Of the 16 homes that have closed escrow in 2008, 10 are foreclosures and short sales, 1 was corporate owned and the rest have been sold by private sellers. 7 of 16 have been on the market for less than a month; this is a significant percentage that attests to the rebounding residential real estate market in Las Vegas. Henderson, North Las Vegas, Summerlin and Green Valley and unincorporated Clark County which are witnessing a rise in the number of homes and condos transactions also.

Currently 37 homes are listed for sale in the Las Vegas MLS in 89149. 16 of these are bank owned homes or short sales, two are corporate owned and the rest are offered by private sellers. These homes were priced $88-$330 per square foot. The discrepancy in the pricing per square foot could be due to two factors. One is unreasonable pricing and the other is due to the lot size. Some of them that are sold or listed in 89149 are horse properties and have a big lot. Some of these North Las Vegas homes that sold for $165 and up have a .5 acre lot or larger, some even can be subdivided into two lots and the buyer can turn around and sell half or part of his/her lot to get cash back on the purchase.

What happens to the Las Vegas residential real estate market is anyone’s guess and depends on the number of foreclosures and short sales that are in the pipeline. But in three to 5 years whoever bought a 3700 square foot Las Vegas foreclosure home that is only three years old for under $350,000 will brag about his/her great deal.

Unfortunately the market snapshot is currently down, but I will add it tomorrow.

   There are currently over 25,000 homes and condos for sale in Las Vegas, but this number is misleading as many of these homes have no chance of selling at this time due to incorrect pricing for the current real estate market conditions. One can sell a bottle of water for 3 dollars but the greatest Las Vegas Realtor couldn’t sell a home when another house which is just like it and on the same street is priced for $20,000 less.

The other issue I would like to discuss is why the Las Vegas real estate market was dead last year and is starting to pick up now. The answer is that a significant percentage of owners have to sell their property now, and they happen to be banks. The other is that with every sale of a foreclosed home in Las Vegas, the prices for the neighborhood kept dropping over a two year period.

Talk about unreasonable pricing, one home that sold for $310,000 was listed for as high for $675,000 two years ago and sold for more than the asking price of $299,000. Another house that was purchased for $415,000 three years ago sold for $289,000. Prices on a few homes have dropped $80,000-$120,000 from their purchase price in 2004-2005. 4 out of 6 homes that closed escrow in 2008 were bank owned, 1 was sold at a Las Vegas foreclosure auction, 1 was corporate owned and the others were by private sellers.

A home does not have to be a foreclosure or short sale to sell in Las Vegas, regular houses can be sold if the price is right. Actually regular sales and short sales have many advantages over foreclosed homes and this is due to the fact that an owner should logically do his /her best in order to get the top price for their home, so at the minimum they keep the house presentable and if any minor repairs to the house are required, the owner will take care of them. But an owner who has lost his down payment and is being evicted from the house couldn’t care less about the house’s condition when they leave it. I have seen houses that were badly vandalized by their evicted owners. The other issue is the all important disclosures which private sellers have to provide to the buyer and banks don’t.

Las Vegas MLS shows 7 contingent sales. Two of these are in a golf community and all are short sales or foreclosures. Perspective Las Vegas home buyers should accept the fact that if they don’t buy a new home, the chances are that they will purchase a foreclosed or short sale home. Thus extra time should be allowed to conclude these types of real estate deals. The history of one home is particularly noteworthy. This a Christopher built home which fronts a golf course in Painted Desert Golf community. It was purchased for $282,000 in 1998 and was listed for sale on October 2006 for $495,000. The asking price for this home dropped to $470,000 shortly after and remained there until Dec 2007. After another 4 price drops this home went under contract for $299,000.

Now imagine what has happened in the last 6 months to justify the price drop of $170,000 in the last 6 months. Las Vegas real estate prices have dropped in the last 6 months, but I guarantee you that the price for a $470,000 have not dropped 36%. This N.W. Las Vegas golf home was hopelessly overpriced for the current market conditions as are probably over 75% of the properties that are listed for sale.

33 homes in 89149 are currently listed for sale in the Las Vegas MLS and three of these are foreclosed, 13 short sale homes and 2 brand new homes which are listed by Astoria homes which is a new homes builder in Las Vegas. These homes are priced competitively.

Click here for Las Vegas homes for sale $250,000-$350,000 in the zip code 89149 market snapshot . I have explained Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas homes market trends snapshot in the web-site.

Las Vegas homes priced between $200,000 and 250,000 in 89149 in Nort West

Greater Las Vegas MLS shows 70 sold homes in $200,000-$250,000 price range since Jan 1, 2008; the true number of sold houses are higher as some foreclosure are not sold by Las Vegas Realtors and are sold in foreclosure auctions. 15 out of the 70 have sold in less than 14 days on the market. Actually one of them sold twice in less than 4 months and they say the Las Vegas residential real estate market is dead.

The majority of these homes sold after a price drop of $25,000-$60,000 and a few houses sold quickly because they were priced right from the get go. 3 out of 15 homes actually sold for more than the asking price. Those who like to keep beating a dead horse, miss on great deals. A good deal is a good deal, no matter when or where. The price per square foot for many of these homes was in the $90 range, with the exception of a Painted Desert home and other similarly situated houses. The average price per square foot for these homes was in the $150 range.

Contingent or pending sales include a 2646 square foot two story home that was built in 2004 on the larger side and a one story, 3 bedrooms, 1700 square foot, 2005 house. Again, 16 out of 17 are bank owned homes or short sales. It is easy to see how Las Vegas foreclosures have affected the housing market as private sellers have a hard time to compete with (REOS) bank owned and short sale homes.

Of the 58 Las Vegas homes that are listed for sale in 89149, the vast majority are foreclosures and short sales. Short sales usually are priced less than foreclosures due to the fact that some Las Vegas Realtors set a low price for their listings, hoping that when they contact the bank with an offer, the ROE division will take them more seriously  to come back with a counter offer.

Doing this sends the buyer and his agent as well as the seller on a wild goose chase which normally ends in failure as the bank may not answer in a reasonable time. The perspective short sale buyer could miss on other opportunities. I have read stories about frustrated buyers who had not gotten an answer from the bank for two month or longer. That is why I advise my clients to make sure that the short sale is approved by the bank, these cut down on the bank response time.

I am adding a market snapshot to my posts since it gives you a great deal of information in one place. You can see how many homes have sold in the zip code in the last three months, how many homes are listed for sale, asking prices versus sold prices, how many days on the market and number homes that have sold for more than asking price, or less. Las Vegas MLS Market Snapshot also gives you satellite, map, hybrid and bird’s eye view of any home in Las Vegas coupled with school and community information. The only shortcoming of the market analysis is that it doesn’t take into account foreclosed or auctions homes that have not involved a realtor since it gets all its information from the Las Vegas MLS.

I have gone in to quite a bit of detail in this post in order to show that the Las Vegas real estate market is very local and market trends can vary wildly with price range, location, and amenities, and that the biggest factor in selling a house is correct pricing, no matter what market trends are. A house in 89149 sold twice in four months after all.

Related web-site links: Las Vegas homes and condos and commercial real estate for sale,  Getting the best deal for your Las Vegas home or condo, Buying Las Vegas resale homes for sale

89149 is located in North West Las Vegas, this area had one of the highest rate of commercial and residential real estate construction since 2002 which is still continuing. Residential properties are close to Centennial Shopping Center and other retail outlets.  I-95 and I-215 facilitate the residents commute to other parts of the Greater Las Vegas Valley.

89149 is one the hardest hit areas with foreclosures. Foreclosed homes and short sales abound. Currently, over 500 resale single family homes are listed for sale in Las Vegas MLS for the zip code 89149.

Homes under 150,000 in 89149, N.W. Las Vegas

A quick search of Las Vegas MLS yields about 12 homes that are priced under $150,000. Six out of 12 are already under contract. It should be noted that all these resales are either foreclosed houses or short sale homes.

Most of these homes have been built on or after 2005 and the original sale price for many of these homes was in $230,000 range. The current asking price shows a 36% price drop since 2005. Most of these homes are zero lot or have a small lot, have 3 bedrooms and 2-2.5 bath. I don’t see much more price drop for these homes; $145,000 price range is being met with resistance as 6 out of 12 homes are under contract.

Homes priced $150,000-$200,000 in 89149, N.W. Las Vegas

There are 67 homes that are listed for sale for $150,000-$200,000 and by far the best deals are offered by foreclosures and short sales. Having said this, all short sales and foreclosures are not equal. There are 4 listings for Twilight Walk Avenue; one is corporate owned at $124 per square foot, one is a regular resale at $123 per square foot and two short sale homes priced at $209 and $205 per square foot respectively. Other homes in the area are priced $90-$125 per square foot. The prices have dropped by about 38%-45% since 2005 and bargains abound.

I will start a series of blog posts which are dedicated to single Las Vegas homes and condos in different zip codes and areas in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and unincorporated Clark County. Please note that Las Vegas real estate is dynamic and ever changing and keeping up with it requires constant research and vigilance.

    As I had written in my last post, I was even a little disappointed at the lack of sales for Loft 5 at the conclusion of my visit to Loft 5 on South Las Vegas Boulevard.Buyers would get a 1570 square foot well built luxury loft on the South Las Vegas Strip that is packed with amenities, easy access to I-15, The Strip, word class shopping and dining.  Two more casinos will be built on Las Vegas Boulevard and Saint Rose plus a number of other significant projects that is sure to benefit this area and help in future price appreciation.

Las Vegas Boulevard is recognized as one of the five best America’s streets along with Michigan Avenue in Chicago and it upsets me to see the price per square foot of luxury condos and lofts to be far less than an average flat or apartment in London or Paris. I am talking about location as I am discussing these projects as an investment because many buyers for these loft and condo projects are snow birds or investors.

The amenities and upgrades in these Las Vegas lofts include: Custom cabinets, sub zero refrigerator, Wolf appliances, 4 pools, 5 spas, fitness center, saunas, fire pits, limestone flooring in kitchen and baths and more.

Loft 5 has four basic models:

Loft A has two models. One is about 1638 square feet, 1 bed room, one loft and 2.5 baths and the other is a 1700 square foot 2 bed room, 2.5 bath loft. SalesTraq, which is like the MLS for new homes and condos for sale in Las Vegas shows the opening price for this model was $544,900 in June 2007 and a price increase to $571,900 and $578,000 as of February 2008, go figure! The builder is offering 10% off this price for buyer incentives which brings the price down to $514,000. The all important price per square foot is about $338/square foot.

Loft B has two models also: 1770 square foot, one bed room one loft with 2.5 baths for $553,000 and the 2 bed room 2.5 bath 1800 square foot models for $566,000. The price per square foot for these lofts after a 10% discount is about $312 and $314 respectively.

Penthouse C is the other model, this 1300 square foot 1 bed room 1.5 bath penthouse lofts is priced at about $515,000 after the 10% builder’s contribution to buyer’s closing costs, etc, price per square foot of $457.

Penthouse D lofts have two models. One is 1937 square foot and is priced at $733,000 after the builder discount. The price per square foot for these penthouse lofts are only $378. The other larger penthouse loft is 2409 square feet at $848,000 which brings the price per square foot to $352. Yes, Loft 5 offers a penthouse loft on the South Las Vegas for $352/square foot. This price was unimaginable a couple of years ago and will be gone in a few years.

So again, why is the builder not selling these Las Vegas luxury lofts briskly? The answer is resale condominiums, foreclosures and short sales condos and lofts in their own buildings or immediate area.

There are currently nine lofts, in Loft 5 listed for sale in the Greater Las Vegas MLS.

One 1638 square foot model A loft for $475,000 asking price or $275 per square foot.

Two 1340 square foot Penthouse lofts for the asking price of about $454,000 or $348 per square foot, this unit has a 500 square foot balcony.

Three 1823 square foot model B lofts which are listed for $479,000 or $263 per square foot, $499,000 or $274 per square foot and the last one is priced at $540,000 or $299 per square foot.

Two penthouse D lofts which are 1936 and 1963 square feet respectively are offered for sale for $669,000 and $709,000. The prices per square foot for these penthouse lofts in Loft 5 are $346 and $361.

It should be noted that none of these units are short sales or foreclosures as Loft 5 started selling in June 2007 and by that time the mortgage stuff had hit the fan. However it is easy to see how these units undercut the Loft 5 builder’s pricing.

For model A lofts the resale loft undercuts builder’s price by $39,000 and remember this an asking price with room for negations.

The resale 1340 square foot model C penthouse loft price is $60,000 below the builder’s price.

The cheapest 1823 resale model B loft undercuts the builder’s price by $87,000 and one of the 1936 square foot model D penthouse lofts is listed for $64,000 less than builder’s price.

Now, nine resale listings out of 270 units should not affect the builder that much, actually if I was the builder, I would buy back these lofts and keep my prices steady. The problem is that Loft 5 is not just competing with its own resale units; it has to compete with resale condominiums, REO (bank foreclosure) condos and short sales in other luxury condo communities in its immediate area such as Manhattan, Park Avenue and Boca Raton.

More on how Las Vegas foreclosures, short sales and resale condos affect new luxury condo projects in South Las Vegas Boulevard (Strip) particularly, and Greater Las Vegas area generally.

A note of caution for those who are waiting for an even worse real estate market in Las Vegas in order to find an even greater bargain than a penthouse loft in Las Vegas Loft 5 for a bargain price of less than $340 per square foot:

The last I checked Loft 5 has not moved to another location, it still is close to world class shopping and entertainment and their hotel like interior did not fall apart. The only reason these great lofts are not flying off the shelf is the current downward real estate pricing trend in Las Vegas.

 The only thing Loft 5’s builder did wrong is that his grand opening was in 2007 and not early 2004. Had the grand opening been in 2004 the seller could price their units at $500 plus per square foot, a buyer’s line would start forming by the gate 10 days prior to the grand opening and those who won a lottery to buy these lofts would come out of the sales office, beaming like a lottery winner. Like Mr. Greenspan said, the markets are greatly affected by faulty human nature.

I am not saying that any condo project in Las Vegas is in distress, but if one was, a mountain of money is sitting on the sidelines ready to snap up distressed projects or properties at fire sale prices and in bulk. Not that I have anything against those who have a mountain of money, actually, give me a call if you read this! If it comes to that, new money will come to own these properties and in turn, will want a chunk of profit for flipping them. The original builder’s or previous owner’s loss will be their gain and not yours. As a Chinese proverb states, be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it.

Related web-site links: getting the best deal for a Las Vegas condo, Las Vegas condos for sale, short sale condominiums, Las Vegas foreclosed condos, Buying Las Vegas condos for sale, Las Vegas residential real estate market news

  I have come to believe that Las Vegas real estate has entered an irrational depression period after celebrating with irrational exuberance for a few years. When Allen Greenspan speaks, I tape the interview or the speech and watch it over and over until my wife gets so tired of it that she erases it. Answering a reporter’s question about whether his job got easier with experience, his answer was a big NO, reasoning that economic conditions are dependent on human nature and that human nature is not only flawed, it had failed to improve during his tenure, so his job never got easier.The whole roller coaster ride in the Las Vegas real estate market can be attributed to flawed human nature as Mr. Greenspan has brilliantly observed. In the hot days of Las Vegas real estate, new home builders would raise prices on their new houses by 10 thousand dollars every other week and the buyer’s line would only get longer. When Beazer homes announced the grand opening for their community on Cliff Shadows in Northwest Las Vegas, lines of new home buyers formed 4 days prior to the grand opening and whoever won the lottery to purchase a new house would come out of the sales trailer, beaming like a lottery winner. Pulte, another Las Vegas new home builder raised the home price for one of their Summerlin communities by 25%-30%, or $200,000 overnight and still kept selling homes. Home buyers weren’t choosy at that time and would buy anything they could get their hands on.

Talk about irrational exuberance, these people were not buying a home, what they were really doing is more like buying Wall Street stock options, with all the risk and rewards involved in such transactions, except that they thought they were financing their purchase at historically low interest rates and with a much longer term than a stock trader can obtain.

What I am trying to say is that the reason for purchasing so many homes and condos in the Las Vegas area was that these buyers were blinded to all other factors in a home or condo transaction, except seeing an upward trend in Las Vegas home and condo pricing and hoped to make a quick buck by flipping a Las Vegas property and making a quick profit.

Well, it did not work out the way these buyers were hoping, and the foreclosure problem reared its ugly head and real estate pricings in Las Vegas, with the exception of a few areas, started a downward spiral trend. Low and behold the same faulty human nature has the public looking like a deer in the head lights and again all they can see is the downward trend in Las Vegas real estate pricing, forgetting the fundamentals, just like they did when Las Vegas real estate was on fire. Except that this time they suffer from irrational depression.

If a person exhibits great happiness for no reason and a short time later goes into depression, he/she would be diagnosed as bipolar and be given medication. Naturally the question to ask is, is the pubic bipolar?

My visit to Loft 5, re-enforced my belief that Las Vegas real estate pricing is no longer based on logic and fundamentals, just as it was in the run up phase. I was lucky enough to be guided on the tour of model lofts by the marketing director for Loft 5. She shared my frustration with the Las Vegas condo market trends as I believe that with their low pricing and an additional 10% contribution from the seller, these well built lofts with a great location to boot would be selling briskly. But then again, the public is hypnotized.

I will do the next blog post about the downward pricing pressure that foreclosed condos have been putting on the new condo builders pricing as the builders have to compete with other units in their buildings that have been foreclosed or are listed as short sales.

Related web-site links: Buying Las Vegas new condos for sale, getting the best deal for a Las Vegas condo, Las Vegas condos for sale, short sale condominiums, foreclosed condos, HUD homes and fixer-uppers