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

Back to discussing Las Vegas real estate and I want to start with the Greater Las Vegas Valley, which includes Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Unincorporated Clark County, condominiums market by price range. The data for this post is from the GLVAR (Greater Las Vegas Realtor Association) and only includes condominiums that have been sold by a Las Vegas realtor or are listed by one. This data doesn’t include condominiums listings, or condos that are sold by a new condo builder or condos that are sold in a real estate auction or FSBOS ( for sale by owner).

This data includes condos that are sold or have closed escrow in the last 30 days, contingent sales, pending sales and exclusive right to sale or available listings. Condos are priced in thousand dollars increments, for example 1-50 means $1000-$50,000.

As of June-24-2009, total condos sold in the last 30 days in the Greater Las Vegas Valley equal 562, contingent sales equal 1138, condos that are pending sale equal 471 and available units equal 2288. The break down by price range is shown in the table below.

A point of caution, there are many condo units that are under contract and are still listed as available since REO agent are notoriously tardy in updating their listings. Also many contingent sales revert back to the market as the buyer may not be able to obtain financing or doesn’t agree with CC&RS or just changes his/her mind, etc.

In the $1000-$50,000 price range, 164 condo units have closed escrow in the last 30 days and there is a good chance that the vast majority of pending sales and more than half of contingent sales will close escrow in the next 30 days. This will make for a good increase in the number of units sold in the next month. But look at how many condos seem to be available for sale (many are under contract already), the number is 307 which is about a 1 month supply of inventory. If the 200 out of 233 pending sales and one half of of contingent sales close escrow next month, then the supply of inventory for condominiums that priced $50,000-$100,000 is about 1.5 months. Given that less than 30% of the available inventory is priced right (best deals) then you can see why condos in this price range sell immediately and with multiple offers, cash sales and above asking price; the real inventory is very low.

The supply of inventory by month goes up as the price range is increased. The inventory goes up to 2.3 months for condos that are priced $100,000-$150,000. In the upper price range the inventory of condos increases appreciably. There is a 10 month inventory for condos that are priced at $300,000-$400,000.

I have repeatedly written that median and average prices that get so much publicity are meaningless; now you see why. Even this analysis is too general and the data has to be further broken down to small areas and then a good understanding is gained.

FHA, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer financing most condo communities in Las Vegas because the vast majority of them are investor owned. This will have an adverse effect on the condo prices. But I don’t see it affecting the under $100,000 dollar condos as the vast majority of buyers are cash investors.

Iran election fallouts are the top news in the world and here is my take on it. But before I start I need to mention that I have built the web site and blog upon leveraging one’s assets efficiently to achieve success in real estate negotiations or any other situation. I have also written repeatedly that to achieve good understanding of any event it has to be viewed in the context of applicable processes and not as a single event.

Iran is a young and vibrant country with 60% of its population under 30 years old, which is slowly, but progressively moving toward democracy. Now, democracy is representative of the society and in Iranian culture, democracy is a new phenomenon which has to be learned and the new generation (under 30) has learned it well. I was amazed at the tolerance and respect that followers of different presidential candidates showed toward each other. I never even saw these people so much as yell at each other while campaigning for their candidate.

Iranian society is a mixture of authoritarian and democratic societies which is moving toward democracy.   Iranians at all levels like to meddle in their relative’s and friend’s life and fully expect for their advice to be followed. Parents feel that they are the ones who should choose their kids spouses, field of study or future job, etc.

Even at low levels, a significant number of private or government workers do not feel that it is their job to help customers and act as if they are doing the customer a favor. Management is weak. I will give an example here, Queuing Theory is a graduate level engineering course that discusses the most efficient way to receive an information packet from the internet that is waiting in a line or queue. The same can be applied to a bank line were tellers have to help bank customers that are waiting in a line. It is mathematically proven that most efficient to do this is to have a roped line that you see in airports or banks. All customers can wait in one line and can be called upon by the bank teller when a vacancy is created and the teller is ready to receive the next customer. Doing so saves time, maintains order, so no one can cut into the line and makes it easier on the teller as they can call on new customers when they are ready. I have never seen this in any bank, hospital or any other place in Iran, except at the airport. People gather at a bank counter on both sides of the teller and can see what other customers are doing; there is perpetual pressure on the teller as he has to answer multiple customers at the same time. While Mr. Ahmadinejad wants to manage the world, I suggest that he start with banks and governmental agencies in Iran, all he needs is some rope and polls. Nevertheless an evolutionary cultural change in people’s attitude toward order is needed and it takes time; not all is the governments fault.

Now, about Mr. Ahmadinejad, A leader has to be a good manager, a problem solver and have a vision for the future of the country. Mr. Ahmadinejad lacks all of these qualities. He is not a good manager since he has squandered more than $275 billion dollars in oil revenue in his four years of presidency by implementing the wrong policies. Iran’s economy is suffering from double digit inflation and although employment is defined as working more than 2 hours week, still unemployment in Iran is in double digits.

His talent is not managing numbers but he is very good at making them up. In his presidential campaign video he claimed to have started 100,000 projects and finished 70,000. He has been president for 3 years and 10 months or 1368 days. If he worked 24 hours a day and dedicated all his time to these projects, he has started and finished 51 projects a day or 1 every ½ hour. Just how much thought and planning could have gone into these projects? How many jobs did they create? What is the long term effect of these projects? No wonder the economy is in shambles.

His foreign policy and unmeasured claims and speeches have resulted in imposition of damaging sanctions on Iran and severe damage to the international image of a peace loving country which has not started a war in the last 300 years, however has been attacked repeatedly. One can’t go through life by screaming that I am going to slap this, punch that and wipeout the other, while doing none. As the ugly in the Good, The Bad and The Ugly said, when you want to shoot, shoot, don’t talk. Although hard working and not financially corrupt, Mr. Ahmadinejad is a power hungry political knife fighter who wrongly attacked his opponent’s wife (a no no in Iran) in a debate and doesn’t possess the temperament to be a president. A president is supposed to act like a gentleman after all.

Reformers in Iran decided to fight Mr. Ahmadinejad by nominating Mr. Mir Hussein Mosavi an ex-prime minister who I am told managed Iran well during the 8 year war with Iraq.  I don’t know much about him. He was chosen because he has impeccable revolutionary credentials and can’t be accused of corruption or being an agent of foreign governments. He was pretty much out of government for the last 20 years.

In the last nights of my stay in Iran, I witnessed campaigning like I have never seen in the last 30 years in the US. There was an amazing backlash against Mr. Ahmadinejad. Tehran a city of 14 million plus was shut down after 7 pm until 4 am by campaigners gathering in the streets. People were campaigning for Mr. Mosavi and many who didn’t vote in the last 30 years were going to vote this time. This makes a 2 to 1 landslide in favor of Mr. Ahmadinejad very unlikely. All know what happened since the result of the election was announced, in one demonstration, 3 million demonstrated in favor of Mr. Mosavi (Tehran City Hall announced this number). Again demonstrators have showed their maturity and tolerance by minimizing damage to public or private properties.

Regardless of the outcome of the current situation, Mr. Mosavi has suddenly gained the support and leadership of at least 33% of the population (Iranian government’s number) who are educated, rich, computer savvy, digitally connected and highly motivated. These people braved the unknown when they demonstrated for the first time after the election and are standing up to the establishment. I certainly hope that he can lead them well by out-thinking his opponents and not getting in to a premature scrimmage with the government. He has time to identify, organize, network and impose discipline on his backers and in two to four years he will be unstoppable while winning election after election. Winning in politics, as in any other matter needs preparation and time and thinking.

One last point: All of a sudden the same Republicans, like the chief hypocrite Mr. Cantor, who were calling for a US attack on Iran or bombing it to oblivion are suddenly worried about human rights in Iran. Don’t believe crocodile tears, these guys know very well that any US comment or backing of the demonstrators is the kiss of death to them, literary. If the US or backs the demonstrators, they will be called the agents of a foreign government and enemies of Islam in which case wiping them out will be the government’s duty and President Obama knows this. Those US politicians that are “backing freedom in Iran” want nothing more than an Iran that is burning in a civil war.  An unstable Iran or one in civil war is not in the best interest of the US as Iran is the chief enemy of Al-Qaida and Taliban in the Middle East.

I usually try to keep religion and politics out of my blog, although I frequently mention my belief in highest of the high, the most holy, our living and present Creator. The reason is that although the name of this blog has personal in it, it is primarily a real estate blog and as I have mentioned in the web-site “You are much more than a dollar sign to us. When you contact us, all we see is someone who decided to trust us with the potentially largest investment of their life, and we will not betray the trust invested in us, period.”

I have not qualified my statement with race, religion or nationality or political affiliation as I truly believe with all my heart that we are all creations of the “same creator” on earth and brothers and sisters as such. I have frequently congratulated our Chinese, American, African, Moslem, Christian, Jewish, Indian, etc and Iranian brothers and sisters on their happy occasions. Needless to say, as an Iranian- American who has lived 31 out of my 50 years in United States I feel closer to and like my Iranian and American brothers and sisters a bit more than the rest.

I usually try to go visit my beloved mother (Naheed Soleymani), father Mohammad Saleh Saberzadeh (Baba)and brother (Dr. Mehdi Saberzadeh) and dear sister-in-law who I love as if she was my sister (Professor Mitra Mehrazma) and Aria my nephew and other relatives once a year. I have done this for about 20 years and am very happy about it as my own family is not strangers to me.

This year the trip was much more serious as my 81 year old father who has a bad heart (six bypasses), diabetes and other problems is going through last chance chemotherapy to cure his leukemia and having a hard time with it. The medications that he takes have had an adverse effect on his brain and at times he is unable to put a sentence together. This and sever osteoporosis which has ravaged my mother’s body had brought sadness to their home and everyone was depressed, even my younger brother who was one of the top medical students in the country and currently is a surgeon. On the other hand, by the time that I left for Iran, I was in a great deal of trouble myself and was practically unable to walk more than a couple of minutes due to my bad knees and all the joints in my body were on fire.  I couldn’t go on anymore and wanted a full checkup.

Before I left for Iran, I prayed to our Creator to bring happiness and healing with me to our home and to my amazement that is exactly what happened. Baba (my father) went through a vicious round of chemotherapy unbelievably well, a couple of days after his treatment he was eating half a pound of ice cream at a time and for the first time I heard him laugh out loud. My brother, Dr. Mehdi Saberzadeh, his wife and dear sister-in-law and other doctors were dumbfounded and attributed this to Baba’s happiness due to my arrival.  I told them that they were wrong, it was a prayer answered.

Although I was hoping that knee surgeries would take care of my knee problems, I was told by two of the top knee surgeons in Iran that the only solution is knee replacement surgeries which I am not ready for. The doctors also discovered serious problems with joints in my neck and onset of serious osteoporosis, which is reversible.  A life style change is unavoidable.  Other than the left knee I feel much better and my body is not on fire any longer although that is subject to change without notice.

Next I will write about the election in Iran and the current heroic efforts of our sisters and brothers in Iran to challenge the government of  Mr. Ahmadinejad who has done great damage to Iran and Iranians and needs to be stopped. Notice that I have put Iranian sisters before brothers as  they are taking a leading role in these protests and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw one of them repeatedly karate kick an anti-riot policeman on TV.

I was hoping to catch up on my analysis of Las Vegas real estate prices by grids and other matters, such as updating residential market reports which I am 4 months behind on while in Iran. Needless to say this didn’t happen due to not having DSL until 4 days before my return trip. There are a ton of investors that I have to contact since I am the one who takes care of them. Real estate blogs start after I get done with this series and there is much to discuss.

We recently tried to find a 4 bedroom home which is larger than 2800 square feet for less than $300,000 for real estate investors from New York who wanted to invest in Las Vegas real estate. They liked Summerlin and Southwest Las Vegas so that was the area of our search. Although our investors criteria was reasonable, meaning that $300,000 is a reasonable price for a 2800 square foot 4 bedroom home, there is not much out there.

We found only 6 home for sale listings in the whole Summerlin that were larger than 2700 square feet, I am excluding short sales. The total number of 4 bedroom homes that are priced less than $300,000 are 23, the smallest is a two story, 1967 square foot house. There are currently 11 homes that are contingent sales, 10 pending sales and 19 that have closed in the last 30 days. That puts the supply of the Summerlin homes that match our criteria to about 35 days.

Why Las Vegas foreclosures or bank owned homes are getting multiple offers?

Most of the homes that have sold in Summerlin in the last 30 days that match our criteria have sold for $90-$110 per square foot; only 17 out of 23 current listings are in this range. Now, what happens is that banks will price a few of these listing $15,000 or more below COMPS or other listings and voila, multiple offers. If the accepted high offers start to surpass COMPS for a little while, then the price slides will subside.

Southwest Las Vegas was not much better. We showed two listings in Rhode’s Ranch. One was a highly upgraded 4,100 square foot home with a gorgeous in-ground pool and spa, the asking price was $313,000 which put it at $15,000 less than any COMPS or available listings. We showed the home the first day it was listed and it already had 3 above list price offers on it and I bet the winning offer will be in the $340,000-$350,000 range. The other home which was smaller had 12 offers in two days.

If the number of foreclosed homes and condos in Las Vegas stays less than 3000-3500 homes and condos per month for a next few months, then home prices (less than $300,000) should stop sliding.

Problems that too complicated to be solved in one stage are solved using algorithms; algorithms are like systems of interconnected solutions. Now, the first part of the hunt for investment real estate in Las Vegas is to master the terrain, just like any sniper would do.

 I have divided the Greater Las Vegas Valley into sections, usually bounded by the sector roads and have studied the following statistics: The number of homes or condos that are listed in the Greater Las Vegas MLS by square foot and price range (but the most telling number is price per square foot), contingent sales and pending sales plus homes or condos that have sold in the last 30 and 60 days and finally the most important number, lease comps (30,60) days and homes or condos that are listed for rent, percentage of pending sales as compared to the sales and available listings, etc.

This an over simplification of the process, but in the majority of cases, after correlating the stats, I will avoid homes that have little chance of being leased or sold quickly, lease is more important since flipping a home or condo may not be always feasible. Proper consideration should be given to other factors like days on the market before being sold or leased, home association fees, taxes, etc.

A good example is Spanish Trails which is a golf course community in West Las Vegas with many luxury homes priced from the upper $200,000 to 5 million dollars plus. Only 5 homes have been leased in this community in the last 45 days, I want nothing to do with Spanish Trails when it comes to investment properties.

This stage should be done by studying cold, hard numbers; familiarity with the homes or condos in an area is not an advantage as it may skew judgment that should be only based on numbers.

These is the only way that one can compare homes or condos all over Las Vegas and reach a scientific conclusion about the best homes or condos to invest in.

Researching each segment takes hours and involves thousands of pieces of data which have to be sorted in multiple ways and correlated in order to get the good solution, however not enough to gain the optimal or best solution. The best solution is gained trough repetitive filtering.

There are two reasons that I keep giving some of my secrets away. Number one is that Las Vegas homes, condos, land and commercial real estate is an educational web-site and the other reason is most others will not do it since it is tedious (I love it though) and if they do they can’t do a great job of correlating the data. I love to look at pages of computer data while trying to make sense of them and have been doing it for many years.

The knowledge gained through this process will enable the investor to know what the likely outcome of his/her deal is before he/she makes an offer or bid to buy a home or condo. Remember;

You make your money when you buy and not when you sell.

Las Vegas residential properties including homes, condos and even high rise condominiums are at historical lows when compared to the real values and just like 2003 a blindfolded person can shoot and hit a bargain but that is not the real estate sniper’s way, I don’t work that way.

The difference between an owner occupied home or condo buyer with a Las Vegas real estate investor is that a house is a home to an owner occupier and a house or condo to a real estate investor. The buyer of an owner occupied home or condo in Las Vegas has to take into account what he/she likes in a home, what kind of setting the home should be in. California buyers like mature and green areas like Summerlin, Green Valley or Lake Las Vegas. I like to live next to a mountain and another buyer may want a home on a golf course. For the home buyers, the school ranking for the kids may be a strong factor in picking a home or condo.

All a real estate investor cares about is cash flow, future appreciation and that the tenant doesn’t shoot him/her for attempting to collect late rent.

Finding a good home or condo deal in Las Vegas

Easy;

1: Find a Las Vegas Realtor

2: Identify your desired location and floor model

3: Have your Realtor find the cheapest price per square foot for that model, make an offer and buy. You just got yourself a bargain and a good deal.

Finding a good home or condo in Las Vegas as an investment property

NOT easy.

The most important business advice that I try to live by, was from a fast taking Omaha used car lot owner whom I used to travel with to auctions. He kept telling me; Masoud,

You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.

You have to know exactly what to do with a car or property before you buy it. I knew exactly how much my clients would pay me for each car and how soon they would pay me. I knew the outcome before I bid on a car.

Same is true with real estate. An investor has to know his/her outcome and this complicates things as we are not in a normal real estate market.

I have x amount of dollars Masoud, find me the best home or condo for my money.

There are about 12,000 single family homes, 2800 condominiums and 1050 townhomes listed for sale in the Las Vegas MLS as resales all over the Las Vegas Valley. For a price range of say $180,000-$200,000, there are 972 homes, condos and townhomes in Las Vegas that match this price range. Which one is the right one to invest in? I will take this a step further. Is a home or condominium that is priced $180,000-$200,000 the best price range to buy one home or condo as an investment? Which one of these properties will give the investor the best appreciation n a few years? Which will provide the best cash flow? What if these are exclusively mutual, that is the home or condo with the best chance at future appreciation doesn’t provide the best cash on cash return for the investor, then what?

Haven’t had enough fun yet? OK. What if the investor has a lot of money and can buy at any price range and anywhere in Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas?  What is the best solution for this problem, what is the best price range and location to buy homes and condos to try to maximize the investor’s profits? How to buy these homes and condos? What condition should these homes or condos be in? Keep in mind that good homes or condominiums in good locations bring top money in the retail market and the banks have no reason to dispose of them in a real estate auction. What is the business plan, after these homes and condos are purchased?

These are only a small sample of issues that have to be thought about and resolved before a single property is purchased. I love solving problems like this, it gets my adrenalin going.

Meridian, Las Vegas condos for sale, more trouble for Meridian condominiums but I still like them as an investment opportunity

Man-o- man, when the news came out about Meridian Condos on E. Flamingo Road having the entrance to Flamingo Rd. blocked  I was happy and licking my chops. I told all my investors that now I can get these condominiums for them for nothing, and took my Texas investor and his friends to Meridian.  Karen showed them 10 condos, but I only could go to 5 of them, my knees and back were on fire. He asked us to “get him 5″, I told him that I would rather write 5 offers to get one condo unit rather than pay $5,000 too much for them. I would have been happy to get two out of five. Karen prepared 5 offers and faxed it to him and he sent us back the most organized replies I have ever seen (more about him later).

We submitted 5 offers which averaged $4,000 over asking price, no repair money or seller contribution to closing costs, cash offer with two week close. Banks understand these terms. We summarily received two rejections and got another one next day because the bank had accepted another offer the day we submitted the purchase contract. One of these condos broke my heart; it was back on the market for only two days.

Then voila, an almost accepted offer, we actually got a counter offer from the bank. The counter offer was a standard bank counter offer except for this clause and it stated:

“Buyer has been informed of title/HOA issues seller is aware of. Buyer agrees to accept the property with “lis pendens” on title. Buyer agrees to hold the seller harmless for all title/HOA Issues”.

Fair enough, except the seller did not provide the lis pendens (”lis pendens” is a document filed in the public records office that notifies any prospective purchaser of property that there is litigation pending that could affect title to the property).

I called the listing agent and told him the same. He referred me to the title company which was handling the escrow. I called them and asked for either the lis pendens or a preliminary title search before I answered the counter offer.

 Man, I was happy to finally be able to learn about the exceptions to the title insurance, except that the title officer e-mailed within 45 minutes that another agent who had an accepted offer had called her about the same unit and since I lost, I would not get the lis pendens. I called the listing agent back. First they denied that this was the case, but upon further investigation, confirmed it.  I deeply dislike working with this listing agent who gets a ton of foreclosed/reo listings from a bank, but if I think it is in the interest of my clients I will submit an offer to this guy. The reason is that I have no ego in a real estate deal, because it is not my deal, it is my customer’s.

Needless to say I lost this deal over a clause which should be litigated by a real estate attorney in Las Vegas. Lis pendens resulting from HOA troubles should be included in the resale package or CC&RS package, the buyer by law has 5 days from the time he/she gets the package to approve or reject it. This package includes Meridian home owner’s association budget and minutes of the past meeting plus litigation info. To my knowledge no seller can wave providing the resale package to the buyer, the seller can ask the buyer to pay for it, but has to cooperate with the buyer to obtain it. I believe this clause should have never been included in the bank’s counter offer, but it was and I lost because of it. Welcome to the wild, wild world of Las Vegas real estate.

The rush on Meridian condos which is one of the best selling condo communities in Las Vegas happened due to two factors. One is the 10%-15% price cuts that I wrote about in the last blog. These price cuts generated multiple offers because even at $5,000 over asking price, the offer would be $10,000-$20,000 below comps. However these condos will be the new comps when they close escrow. The other reason is the publicity generated by closing one of its entrances; I think that if they close the other entrance to Meridian, it will probably sell out

Related web-site pages: Las Vegas high rise condos for sale, Las homes, luxury condos and commercial real estate for sale, Investing in Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas new and mid-rise luxury condos for sale

I need Las Vegas homes and condominiums in bulk and at wholesale prices. By bulk I mean up to $1,000,000 worth and by wholesale prices I mean 25% or more below foreclosed listings or comps in Las Vegas MLS. I have proof of funds and my investors can pay in cash and close quickly. My preferred areas are Aliante and Southwest Las Vegas.

Please contact me at 702-478-7800 with your listings, principals only.

Related web-site pages: investing in Las Vegas real estate- Las Vegas investment properties, Investing in Las Vegas homes and condos, Las Vegas residential real estate

In the last blog post about Allure condominiums auction I got to the place that the 1882sf came up and I started bidding. I also wrote that my investor and I had already agreed about the high limit of $350,000 which would have brought up the final price to $385,000 since there was a 10% auction premium for an unfinished condominium.

The difference between professional auction buyers and amateurs is that the professional knows why he is attending the auction and the amateur doesn’t. The professional auction buyer is there to make a deal, amateurs may stumble upon one. I was there to make a deal.

The reason that I am so hard on buyers that attend a real estate auction while not represented by a Las Vegas Realtor or real estate agent who is experienced at buying from the real estate auction is that they are doubly blind and their mistakes either cost them a good deal or they end up paying too much.

What really happens in a real estate auction in Las Vegas?

Bidding at a real estate auction requires expert management of three separate but related factors that will decide the outcome.

1: Real estate auctions are business and not personal, ego kills. The bidder attends an auction only to buy real estate or to gain intelligence on some kind of property, not to make enemies.

2: In a real estate foreclosure auction, or any auction for that matter, the bidder has to fight off other bidders; so it is imperative to identify the competition and figure out their strength, weaknesses and motivation, if at all possible

3: At the same time that a bidder is bidding, he/she has a conversation with the auctioneer. Most real estate auctions, including foreclosure auctions have a minimum or reserve that is set previously by the seller. The auctioneers know how much the reserve is and have to do all they can to get the bids to approach the reserve or get close enough so that they can lean on the seller, and believe me they will pressure the seller to make the deal happen. I have done both sides.

A professional buyer communicates with the auctioneer by bidding fast or slow or raising bids by diminishing amounts and taking a longer and longer time to respond when nearing the limit.

What happened when I bid on the Allure, Las Vegas high rise condominium:

A pretty lady was sitting next me and was talking the whole time with a bidder on her cell phone. She bid a few times on a couple of other units, however she didn’t act like an auction expert. I asked her if this was her first time in a real estate auction in Las Vegas and she said yes!

 Question; what is she doing there and why someone would let a clear amateur bid for him or her? I already knew that she was not a good bidder, but didn’t know her motivation.

The same lady started the bidding at $200,000, I bid $250,000 and the only reason for that was to see who the competition is and if there is more than one bidder, the amount was low enough for others to jump in, it turned out to be the same lady. She bid $275,000 and I answered with $300,000, her next bid was $310,000 and I raised it $340,000. Why so fast and furious? I believed that would get my investor a great deal at that price so why mess around and at the same time I let her know that I was strong and meant business, so she could drop out. Guess what, she didn’t drop out.

Next she bid $345,000; I raised that to $347,000 and announced that this could be my last bid by saying one last time. Now why would I do a thing like that? The reason is either she was bidding in behalf of another buyer, in which case I was telling her that I am not going to fight her. Remember, ego kills at an auction. Or she was bidding on behalf of the seller, which I suspected was the case and I was telling the seller that I am not willing to go much higher and if he wants to sell, back off. Well that didn’t work and she bid again at $348,000, I announced that $350,000 is my final bid and set down the bidding paddle. She raised the bid by $1,000 and said that her bidder will go much higher. WOW, I’ve never seen a bidder announce after her winning bid that she will go much higher‼ Fatal mistake in an auction!

Anyway, we left immediately after as best laid plans don’t always work out, but I walked out with all I wanted to learn about the auction. The name of the game is gathering intelligence.

Like Paul Harvey who recently passed on used to say “and now you know the rest of the story.”

 I hope that if you didn’t get anything out of this, at least you learned NOT to attend real estate auctions in Las Vegas without being represented by a knowledgeable Realtor or real estate agent.

Related web-site pages: Las Vegas high rise condominiums for sale- buying Las Vegas high-rise condos, investing in Las Vegas real estate- Las Vegas investment properties, Investing in Las Vegas residential investment properties such as Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas homes, condos and high rise condominiums.

Times are tough at Las Vegas high rise condos for sale market and sales don’t come easy but what happened in the Allure, Las Vegas condo auction was unreal. The builder, who is a good man, hired Auction One Las Vegas to auction off 10 high rise condo units that were advertised as buyer defaults. One of the services that real estate auction companies provide is saturation advertising which along with repeated newspaper articles about this auction brought a few people in.

I registered a client whom I had just had the privilege of meeting in person an hour before. This gentleman is a real businessman from Texas who has major real estate investments all over the world. By real, I mean he is the kind of person whose word you can take to the bank, no contracts needed and I did not sign any with him. He got my word too and he can take it to the bank. I came to the US when I was 18 and lived in the Midwest for 24 years, so I can understand Midwesterners and they understand me. I especially get along well with Texans as I am a Big 12 guy all the way and root for Big 12 teams.

I told my investor to read my last blog about Allure, Las Vegas condos and provided him with a bunch of statistics and took him to Allure to preview my favorite model. I have previously written about my favorite high rise condo model and it is the 1824 square foot and that is the only unit I asked him to consider buying and he agreed. I also set a high limit of $350,000 since there was a 10% auction premium which would bring up the final bid to $385,000 for an unfinished unit. The flooring and any decorations had to be purchased and installed by the buyer. I am not going to discuss why I set this limit but I have my reasons; I should save some info for my clients.

I did not count how many bidders attended the auction but I think it was less than 100. We all got registered and the auction started. The auctioneer stated the auction rules and that this is a reserve auction. Reserve auction means that a minimum price which is set by the seller has to be met before the bid is accepted.

The auction terms included the following “the auction is not contingent on financing, appraisal, inspections or CC&RS. It also said “the seller and the high bidder will meet in private and the seller will accept or reject the high bid” and “the 15% Earnest money deposit is non- refundable”.

I am not sure that the seller can wave contingency on CC&RS but that is for an attorney to decide.

And then the first unit that was a 1223 square foot unit on the 8^th floor came up and the bidding started at $20,000. What the heck for? Do they think Allure’s builder will sell a 1223 square foot high rise condo for $17 per square foot, ha. I told my investor that we have amateurs who don’t belong in a real estate auction in Las Vegas and this is going to be like pulling teeth. Anyway, a bunch of people, whom mostly did not have any intention of buying from this condo auction, did not know jack about real estate or high rise condo pricing in Las Vegas and even less about real estate auctions were raising each other’s bid by small amounts, when the bidding got to $40,000 a smart aleck said $41,000. Usually auctioneers ignore guys like this. But the poor auctioneer was doing his best to get this crowd going so he played with them and ended the auction for this unit at $114,000. The winning bid is an insult and has a snowballs chance in hell of getting accepted. I don’t understand, didn’t these delusional real estate auction experts have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon?

Anyway, the same thing happened again and another condo at Allure, an 886 square foot condo brought a final bid of $145,000 plus 10% premium. The poor auctioneer finally lost patience and when no one offered a reasonable starting bid for another 886 square foot condo on 9^th floor he just pulled it. The 1563 square foot condo final bid was $200,000. Best of luck to the winning bidder on that and then thankfully our unit came up.

What happened with the condo unit that I bid on in my next blog

I got this from a couple of dear friends, Steve and Carolyn who keep forwarding great e-mails to us. This one deserves to be published as it may save a person from getting robbed or badly injured in a robbery attempt or a lady from getting raped. Many renters or those who have been foreclosed on do not have the money for a security alarm system when they rent a home or condo, so this is far better than nothing.

Great security alarm when you are at home. Cheap and requires no installation. Downside is that it can’t protect your home when you are not at home.

Put Your Car Keys Beside Your Bed at Night and Keep it Close When You are Home

Tell this to everyone you run across. If you hear a noise outside your home or feel that someone is trying to break into your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies. The last thing a robber wants is attention and setting the car alarm off will get attention.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.

 Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It’s a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain.

It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break in your house, odds are the burglar/rapist won’t stick around. After a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won’t want that!

And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there. This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or prevent a sexual assault.

My Mom has suggested to my Dad that he carry his car keys with him in case he falls outside and she doesn’t hear him. He can activate the car alarm and then she’ll know there’s a problem.
 It would also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can’t reach a phone.

Related web-site pages: Greater Las Vegas Law Enforcement, Police, Crime Viewer and Sex Offender Registry Links

About Allure, Las Vegas and issues involved in buying high rise condominiums in Las Vegas and buying from a Las Vegas real estate auction

Allure high rise condo, Las Vegas is going to auction 10 luxury condo units this Saturday April, 18^th. I have done a six part blog about Allure, Las Vegas. In these blogs I have provided buyers with the history of condo sales at Allure and rental comps for their condo units for real estate investors who wish to invest in Allure Las Vegas high-rise condominiums. I also discussed why Allure can’t be built at the current selling prices and since the vast majority of unsold high rise condos for sale are condo hotels, residential high rise condos in Las Vegas will be sold out at some point in the future and at that time prices should go up from their present levels. Please see the first and last blog post about Allure below.

Las Vegas high rise and mid rise condominiums and luxury condos, about Allure part one

Allure High Rise Condo Towers, Las Vegas high rise condominiums and luxury condos pricing part six

Few pictures from Allure Condominium Tower and Parisian Palace in Las Vegas

And I have discussed issues involved in buying a high rise condo in Las Vegas in a two part blog

Issues about buying Las Vegas, Nevada new high-rise and mid-rise condos

Buying Las Vegas, Nevada new high-rise and mid-rise condos continued

I have also discussed the process of a real estate auction in Las Vegas in the web-site pages

Las Vegas Real Estate Auctions

Bidding and Buying from Las Vegas Real Estate Auctions and What Could Defeat Bidders

Sarah at Allure’s sales office e-mailed me their last price sheet and the asking price for their luxury condos have dropped significantly from my last blog.

I have removed the price sheet due to request from the builder’s sales office. I am doing it strictly as a favor which will not be repeated.

Check out the price per square foot for these luxury condos, my all time favorite high rise condo unit in Las Vegas. Allure’s 1828 square foot condo with two balconies is priced at $230-$272 per square foot, they throw in the balconies. Allure’s builder is not making any profit at these prices.

About the high rise condo auction at Allure, Las Vegas

Real estate auctions dispose of unsold real estate in Las Vegas and the high rise condos that are going to be auctioned have been advertised as defaulted condo units. The builder doesn’t expect to and will not get above pricing from winning bids, so it is possible to get these at significant discounts. If you are in the market to buy a residential high rise condo within minutes of the Strip, this is a darn good opportunity to get a bargain.

I certainly hope that you have read the pages about real estate auctions in Las Vegas as the auctioneer is not representing the buyer and is working for the seller, so I highly recommend that you be represented by a Las Vegas Realtor, preferably me.

These condo units are being sold as is and the bidders are expected to do their due diligence before they bid.

A non-refundable Personal check shall be made payable to: Nevada Title in the amount of 15% of the final sale price, due immediately after being declared the winning bidder. Only cash buyers are permitted to bid, no financing at this auction, balance is due in cash at COE within 30 days from auction date.

One last point, this is not an absolute auction, the bidders have to meet or come close to the reserve, or the minimum price that the seller is going take, or Seller reserves the right to accept or reject final bid Price.

Karen and I were done showing condos in Summerlin to a couple of investors from Hawaii, Cecilia and Michael, and were returning to the Realty One Group’s office on West Charleston Boulevard.

West Charleston Boulevard is a six lane street and the speed limit is 45 miles per hour and we were traveling on the west direction in the rightmost or slow lane. I believe that I was driving at the speed limit and a SUV was driving a bit more than a car length in front of me in the middle lane. Karen and Cecilia were discussing a condo that she really liked. 

About 70-100 yards west of Rampart I heard a thud and to my horror saw a girl flying about 5 feet in the air and 10-15 feet from the right to land right in front of my car. She was 15-20 feet away at the time. I never saw this girl since the SUV and another car in the third lane completely blocked her, she appeared out thin air. I floored the brake and turned a hard right to miss her, there was no time to avoid hitting her by just braking only, as the car stopped about 15-20 yards past where she hit the ground.

The girl hit the ground 15 yards before I stopped

Turns out that a teenage girl decided to go across the Charleston Boulevard, which is a six lane street on a bike that was clearly too small for her. The lady who was in the far left lane  had seen her, honked the horn and stopped, told me that she wasn’t even looking at the oncoming traffic and  was hit by the car in the middle lane, the back tire of her bike was the point of impact and why she was flying through the air. She eventually got up, crying and screaming and was combative with the medical personnel from an ambulance that finally took her. She made a few fatal mistakes. One is to try to cross Charleston while not in a pedestrian lane, another by riding the bike and not walking it across and another by not looking at oncoming traffic. Death missed her by .3 seconds. The reason I keep mentioning .3 seconds is that a car travels about 76 feet per second at 45 miles per hour and she was no more that 15-20 feet in front of me when I saw her.

The car in the sidewalk

Funny how we get tested in our life and end up doing the unthinkable, given the injuries that I sustained in another auto accident 13 years ago, my absolute nightmare situation is to see another wall coming at me at high speed and me having no control over the car. Last time it happened (I was a passenger) we hit a rebar re-enforced wall so hard that it exploded and I got badly injured. After many surgeries, cortisone and other shots and thousands of pills, I am still dealing with pain and discomfort on a daily basis.

I could not think of any circumstances that would make me voluntarily hit a wall or tree or a pole head on. But I was not given much of a choice here, I had less than .3 seconds to decide and act. I wish I could tell you that I made a conscious decision at that time to miss her, I did not, at times like this who you are decides how you will act, no time to think. This I can tell you that I knew if I hit her, she was dead.

The girl was riding this child’s bike, check out the back wheel

Anyway, for some reason when one is in a mortal situation, time slows down, so somehow I completely missed her, left my lane and somehow found the sidewalk and found myself trying to avoid trees. Miraculously, I stopped the car without hitting any trees or damage to anyone. Check out the tire tracks in the pictures. I did the steering while applying full brakes, thank GOD for ABS.

Check out the tire tracks

She would have been 23^rd traffic fatality in Metro’s jurisdiction this

year. But that number went to another woman. Below are the details

“ Metro’s Fatal Accident Detail says a dark late-model Ford pickup struck a woman around 10 p.m. on Lake Mead Boulevard near Nellis. 

The female victim, still unidentified, was crossing Lake Mead mid-block when she was hit.  After hitting the woman, the driver of the pickup continued eastbound fleeing the scene. When paramedics arrived the woman was pronounced dead.”

Thanks to GOD I wasn’t the one doing the killing, it would have destroyed me.

Good Lord, when it rains it pours, and Meridian Condos is no exception. I have previously blogged about Meridian, which is a condo community 10 minutes walk from Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace and City Center Las Vegas.

Where on earth can someone find decent condos within walking distance of about 18 billion dollars of amazing, one of a kind architecture and world class entertainment for $100 per square foot?

Only in Las Vegas baby‼

Meridian condominiums for sale in Las Vegas part one

Meridian Las Vegas condos for sale part two

Below is the latest Review Journal article about Meridian

Meridian condo owners fenced in, Company blocks main driveway at troubled high-rise

I wrote about some of the problems that Meridian faces in these articles and now their exit to Flamingo Road is fenced in by land owners due to lack of payment for the lease, however the exit to Koval is still open. The Meridian HOA owes these guys $22,000. Looks like a bunch of people are suing another bunch in Meridian, but the litigation that should concern buyers is HOA litigation and HOA budget and not buyers suing INVESCO which is the original seller. I have put in repeated calls to Jory Garbabidian, the attorney for Meridian HOA to inquire about the HOA litigation. He, like many other lawyers, is not very good about returning calls, and has not returned mine.

Anyway, what all this bad news has done is to force another price drop of about 10% for the best deals at Meridian. Although some listing agents for Meridian are not asking for cash offers, financing these units seems to be difficult and most agents are switching to cash only.

The same greed that caused original buyers at Meridian to pay $800,000 for a two bedroom condominium in Meridian in 2006 has swung the other way and although 30 condominiums have been sold in Meridian in 2009, the pricing should have never reached these levels.

Imagine a price drop of 85% in less than three years, this is madness. The Meridian has not moved to Primm, Nevada. It is less than 10 minutes walk from the center of the Las Vegas universe.

Now price per square foot for these condos has fallen to less than $100 per square foot. I don’t care how much trouble these guys are in, Meridian condos should never be priced at these levels. The way I explain this situation to my investor follows:

I usually think of the best possible outcome and the worst. So what if Meridian condos were given away for zero dollars, however the buyers were on the hook for all the litigations that the HOA is involved is and also the repercussions of other lawsuits on the HOA or condo associations. Would the investor reject these free condos? The answer is clearly a big NO since 30 condos at Meridian have closed escrow since Jan. 1, 2009.

On the other hand, how much trouble can an investor tolerate, and how much is this trouble worth? HOA or home owner associations often get in and out of trouble in Las Vegas. Park Avenue condos on South Las Vegas Boulevard (Strip) had all kinds of trouble with their HOA just as Meridian is going through. However, they resolved it the same way that Meridian home owners have chosen to pursue, they fired the HOA board and elected a new one and changed the property manager and Park Avenue is OK now.

One last point; when a buyer buys a Meridian condo or many other properties in Las Vegas that have a home owner association, the seller has to provide (or at least order while the buyer pays for it) the CC&RS or Covenant Codes and restrictions imposed by the HOA to the buyer and the buyer has five days from receiving the CC&R package to study them and then either accept or reject the CC&RS. The minutes of the HOA board’s last meeting plus the balance sheet of the HOA are provided. Additionally, the buyer can obtain a title insurance for the condominium and if there is any cloud on the title, it shows up as an exception. So it is not like there is going to be any real bad surprises.

Meridian, Las Vegas has about 600 units and any debt incurred by the HOA is divided by the same number, so divide $22,000 by 600 and the results is $37, however this additional $37 have resulted in price cuts of $5,000-$10,000 on condos currently for sale.

I am not an attorney and have not heard from the Meridian HOA’s attorney, but If all my money were not tied up in my Las Vegas office building that I am trying to sell, I would have bought a couple condos there and will as soon as I sell my office building. But again I love managed risk since reward is always proportional with the risk. I gambled everything Karen and I have on the success of my real estate web-site when I didn’t know how to design one, and won. Again, I like Meridian condos, but that is my personal opinion.

Related web-site pages: Las Vegas new and mid-rise luxury condos for sale, Las Vegas high rise condos for sale, Las homes, luxury condos and commercial properties for sale, Investing in Greater Las Vegas Real Estate

I have revamped and updated the web-site Las Vegas homes, condos, land and commercial real estate. I have done it to accomplish the following:

 The web site was no longer user friendly and the reason was my zeal about providing all the info that was required in each page which resulted in duplicate or triplicate content. Search engines do not like this and it affects the ranking of the page. I have cut out the segments that were repeated in multiple pages and given them their own page, thus making the site more compact, easy to navigate and SEO friendly. A good example would be for services provided to Las Vegas home or condo buyers.

I have also added pages for Las Vegas high rise condos and new and mid rise luxury condominiums and testimonial pages from our clients for proof positive that follow our road map to insure you success in your Las Vegas real estate deal and how we run our team to optimally serve our clients really works and results in our clients finding great homes or condos.

The web-site was doing well and last month we had about 15,000 unique visitors and the same number of referrals from the search engines. I believe that these numbers should go up by at least 10,000 due to the improvements. I’ll keep you informed.

At any rate visit the web-site and see the improvements for yourself. The other great news is that yesterday was the first day that I could walk without a crutch, so I can blog more often.