Las Vegas Homes, Condos, Land and Commercial Real Estate Blog

About Vice President of First American Title Mr. Richard Lee’s presentation

Yesterday Karen and I were invited to a presentation by Richard Lee, Vice President of First American Title Company, that was conducted by Prospect Mortgage. Mr. Lee’s presentations are very interesting and well planned; he knows how to make a point. I don’t attend many presentations any longer due to the diminishing returns on my time but never fail to pick up really cool stuff from Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee is very optimistic about the future of Las Vegas, as I am, and the new phrase he used is VEGASIZATION, and definitely NOT Manhattanization. He said that the best places to introduce a new product are Hong Kong and Las Vegas, not New York or Chicago and Las Vegas can highly profit from this as the economy recovers, and that recovery is certain due to historical precedence.

I personally think that Las Vegas became a tourist attraction because it offered the best bang for the buck for an average family to spend their vacation and things went wrong when those in power strayed from this. I believe that the future of Las Vegas should be general commercial and not tourist commercial and the way to go is types of Bazaars with small stores just like those in down town Los Angeles where a family can go and buy merchandise at significant discounts.

He discussed how Las Vegas has become a Hub of National Security. Exceptionally low start up cost due to low real estate prices which is augmented by the quality high tech employee’s willingness to move to Las Vegas is attracting high tech companies to Las Vegas.

I am closely familiar with this problem as my best friend who has an ultra high tech factory in Las Vegas couldn’t get quality employees to move to Las Vegas. He was so frustrated by this problem that he was considering moving back to California. He has added 12 highly paid specialists to his company since the beginning of the year.

Mr. Lee also discussed a graph like the Case Schiller housing graph that shows Las Vegas residential real estate is about 18% undervalued, however this graph predicts a spike in housing prices in 2012 and not the average appreciation on 5%-8% for housing that doesn’t need a jumbo loan to be purchased.

While the Las Vegas housing market is alive and well for homes that are priced below $300,000 I haven’t discussed the luxury housing market in Las Vegas as of yet and it is not good. Predicted price drops are for these homes and not cheaper homes.

Mr. Lee gave an example; a buyer with 700 Fico Score and two million dollars in the bank wants to buy a million dollar home and finance it, how much down payment does he need? He asked mortgage officers in the room and there were a few good ones there. The answer was 40% or $400,000. Then he asked how many buyers are willing to put down 40% to buy a million dollar home? Silence!

The other issue that I want to discuss which made me very angry is that it was brought to my attention that someone has complained that my web-site may not be conforming to the Nevada Real Estate Division regulations, since the interior pages of my web site don’t have the necessary logos in them.

A series of arguments ensued which I don’t care to discuss here, however I knew for a FACT that I was right in the matter, and I don’t back off when I am right, ever and at any cost. Without discussing details, I have verified that my site fully conforms with the law, so whoever complained can sleep easy tonight as all is well with Las Vegas real estate now.

To understand the reason for my anger read the previous blog. A gentleman flew from Colorado to Las Vegas and stayed here for two days to see 8 condos at Panorama. We tried to make appointments to pick up keys two days in advance and failed in 6 out 8 cases. Imagine how pitiful and hateful someone has to be to bring up a silly issue like this in the current environment.

I have never tried to hide the fact that I am an Iranian- American, since I am proud of being both and have done my best to set a good example. My first cousins call me Las Vegas when I visit.  Living as an Iranian-American in US I have been subject to many acts of kindness which vastly out number the hostile acts or I wouldn’t be here.

 The flip side is that I have many enemies that I didn’t make and haven’t met. Thankfully these people are ignorant by default. When I argue with a redneck, and there have been many, I bring up the following example; one of the recent presidents of Harvard University’s brother was a reputed Mafia criminal whom law enforcement was looking for and couldn’t find. When two full brothers can be so different, how can any sane person judge someone based on where they were born or the color of their skin or how they decide to worship our (NOT their) Creator, as it is one.

The following is only for the person that complained about me:

Whoever you are, as the GOOD LORD is my witness I am not angry at you. I pray that our Good Creator bless you with love and life since you are so immersed in hate and jealousy that all you are doing is dying a bit every day, instead of living it. The biggest waste in the universe is a wasted life.

General Franco, who was the Spanish dictator before the current King Carlos, was involved in a skirmish and while he was walking, an enemy shot the coffee cup in his hand. He didn’t flinch, looked towards the enemy line and famously said better luck next time. Buddy, you missed by ten miles, however better luck next time.