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

This is the 5^th article in the Las Vegas real estate market series. What is going on in the Las Vegas housing market in May-June, 2012? Asking prices for single family homes are a going up like a rocket and this is NOT good.

Asking prices for recent listings of Las Vegas bank owned (foreclosure) homes sold by Fannie Mae during the first look period are $15,000-40,000 higher than the highest COMPS (similar home in the same common interest community or close vicinity of subject home that sold recently) which are usually non-distressed homes in excellent shape. Non-distressed Las Vegas homes usually sell for 15% more than short sales and foreclosures due to excellent shape and ease of transaction. Needless to say, other banks and short sale agents are following the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lead.

Before I get into the Las Vegas housing statistics, I will show you examples of 3 Las Vegas homes for sale that currently are listed in the Las Vegas MLS in order to show you what is going on in our real estate market in real time.

The first listing is a Fannie Mae foreclosure that was listed for 151,200 on 5/16/2012 and for 30 days only owner occupied buyers can make an offer on it. The highest COMP for this listing is a private non-distressed home in excellent shape that was sold for 111,500 only 3 three months ago. To my amazement it went under contract within 2 weeks and don’t let the 2 weeks fool you, the buyer had received the acceptance sooner; however it took two weeks to get the executed contract from the bank in order to open escrow.

This home will NOT appraise, however cash buyers or buyers who finance through HomePath (financed by Fannie Mae) do not need appraisals and this is how Fannie Mae gets away with their unrealistic pricing. I do not believe, or at least I hope, that this home did not get a full price offer but have no way of knowing how much it sold for until it records.

The next listing is another Fannie Mae bank owned home in the first look period.  This home had gone under contract as a short sale with the asking price of 169,000 in 2010 which failed to close. Again the highest COMP for this home is again is a non-distressed and highly upgraded home that sold about a month and a half ago for $148,000. This home is not under contract due to higher price as competition gets much stiffer as the price goes down.

The last listing is an unapproved  Las Vegas short sale with one picture that is priced at $53,500 over the highest COMP  or about 150% higher than the highest COMP which again was a non-distressed home and in excellent shape. To tell you the truth this listing makes my blood boil a bit as the poor short sale seller probably doesn’t know that he/she doesn’t have any chance of short selling his/her home and if things stay the same, this home will be foreclosed upon. The listing agent’s job is to prevent this outcome, not to guarantee it.

Sometimes my brain fails to compute, and over priced short sales is one of those instances. Given that in a short sale situation the owner/seller doesn’t have any equity in the home and the lender has to take all the losses, why would a short sale agent price his/her listing at 150% of the highest COMP and fail to take adequate pictures of the home as pictures sell home. I have NEVER had a client contact me about a listing with one or no pictures. If you don’t think that the Realtor has a big effect on selling your home, think again.

I will go over the Las Vegas housing statistics and what is on the way in the next blog post.

Despite the so called real estate experts prediction of a 10% price drop in housing prices, which is blown out of water by now, I have been telling my clients last year that if they didn’t buy they will be sorry this year, I repeat it again, if you don’t buy this year, you will be REALLY sorry next year.

Lastly those who think that Las Vegas homes, condos and townhome prices will revert back to 2011 pricing know nothing about how we calculate offer prices which is through COMPS. Right now the latest comps are much higher than those 3-6 months ago, however we do look at the older, lower priced COMPS and include them in our offer price calculations. In 6 month, ALL our comps will be at current prices.

Those Las Vegas real estate experts who based their predictions on employment numbers and the number of underwater homes have already proven wrong, and Masoud right.  Right?

Due to a very good response for my video series about picking the best Las Vegas investment homes, I will repeat the links below and highly recommend that you watch them.  If nothing else you will get a good approximate real cash on cash return on your investment and the concept of rentability factor which I have developed myself.

Picking the best Las Vegas investment properties part 1

Picking the best Las Vegas investment properties part 2

Picking the best Las Vegas investment properties part 3

Picking the best Las Vegas investment properties part 4

The one and only Masoud Saberzadeh