While we can write an offer for a regular sale any way that we want, this doesn’t work while making an offer on an REO home or condominium in Las Vegas.

1: The home or condo that you buy as a regular sale does not have to be sold to you AS IS. Unless the buyer waives his right to the property disclosures, the buyer can and should ask for disclosures and a CLUE report  The CLUE report is like Car Fax and will show the history of any insurance claims for the home or condo.

Foreclosure sales are (as is-where is) and for good reasons, the lender who has foreclosed on a home has not lived in the property and doesn’t know the history of the property. The bank will sell the property as is but this doesn’t mean that the buyer has to buy the home or condo as is and has the right to and should inspect the property by a licensed Nevada inspector. What happens now depends on who the buyer is.

A: Owner occupied homes or homes that have to be financed. In this case the lender may fix appraisal contingent repairs. For example a home that is purchased by a buyer who is financing through a VA loan has to meet certain requirements by the lender such as having an oven, if the home doesn’t have an oven, the lender has to put one in as an appraisal contingency.

B: Cash investors: the bank will often refuse to do any repairs on the home or condo. They also will refuse to contribute anything to the closing costs.

2: Appliances or personal property: these can be sold in a regular sale through a bill of sale however the bank doesn’t do this. Any appliances that are in the home or condo at the time of the offer may or may not be there at the time of closing. There is no bill of sale; however I have not had a deal that the appliances went missing before close of escrow yet.

3: Writing the offer; we can write an offer on a regular sale any which way we want, not bank foreclosures.

Banks look at two factors when reviewing offers written for bank owned homes or condos, one is the price and the other one is the terms. Offers should be as simple as possible with the easiest possible terms. The initial offer on the bank owned home will be replaced by a bank addendum that negates the initial offer and replaces it with the bank contract and is often take it or leave it. This is the reason that banks call it an addendum and not a counter offer.

The above was so Las Vegas real estate investors would adjust their expectation when buying a Las Vegas bank owned home or condo and not to scare them. We make offers on foreclosures all the time and close the deals while protecting our clients. Foreclosure deals in Las Vegas may be a bit harder to close than regular sales, but they are often more than worth the trouble due to the big savings that they offer the investors.

1: What is the total amount of money that an investor would like to invest in Las Vegas homes or condos?

2: Is the investor going to pay cash or finance the property?

3: What does the investor expect from his/her investment?

1: What is the total amount of money that an investor would like to invest in Las Vegas homes or condos?

The reason is that those who have enough money for several properties have to know how they want to invest the money. For example an investor who wants to invest $500,000 in Las Vegas real estate can buy one $500,000 home or condo, two homes or condos for $250,000 each or 4 homes or condominiums at $125,000 each, etc.

Needless to say, the cheaper the price for a home or condo, the fiercer the competition and an investor who makes an offer on a home with 25 offers on it will not get a bargain. The two most important factors that a real estate investor has to pay attention to is vacancy and repair costs. Older homes or condominiums have a bigger probability of future breakdowns and longer vacancy rates than newer homes.

 Some investors are still wetting their toes but are trying to time the bottom of the bottom of the Las Vegas real estate market. I spend a great deal of time tracking the real estate market and even I don’t claim that I know when we will reach the bottom for Las Vegas real estate. We will know that the real estate bottomed out at least 3-4 months after the fact. Additionally the Las Vegas real estate market is too general to discuss. Even Las Vegas home or condo market is too general.

Las Vegas homes or condo market should be analyzed block by block and based on square footage, price VS rental income and days on the market before a home or condo is leased. For example, in many areas in Las Vegas homes that are bigger than for example 3000 are not leasing quickly and 1400 square foot homes do much better.

The rental income for a $500,000 home may be $25,000 a year while someone who buys 4 homes at $125,000 each may earn $35,000 for the same amount of investment.

2: Is the investor going to pay cash or finance the property?

This makes a big difference in what the investor can purchase. For example other than a few exceptions, those investors who want to finance their purchase cannot buy a hotel condo like the Signature at MGM Grand or most condo communities in Las Vegas.

Foreign investors will have a hard time financing their deal in the United States to my knowledge; however I am not in the mortgage business. Foreign investors should research financing themselves. I have had investors from Canada who used a line of credit or a home equity loan in order to buy for cash in Las Vegas. It is best for a foreign investor to obtain financing in their own country and buy for cash in Las Vegas.

3: What does the investor expect from his/her investment?

Is it cash flow, a shot at future appreciation or both? Properties with better cash flow could appreciate less in the future and nicer properties with a shot a future appreciation do not offer great cash flows. Bear in mind that no one can guaranty future appreciation; however one can take an educated guess.

3: What is investor’s timeline to buy?

Timing is important in making a real estate investment; the rule is to buy when others aren’t and that can’t be generalized. Homes that are priced below $250,000 and are priced right are getting multiple offers at this time and I have advised my investors to be patient until the rush on the properties calms down a bit. If the investor wants to buy a one bedroom condo at MGM Grand or Meridian, try to do it now.

It also affects how often we would contact the investor. If the investor wants to buy in three months, we will not contact them often until they are ready to buy. Instead we will try to educate them by e-mailing them different products in different locations in order for the customer to get an idea about pricing versus location. When the customer is ready to buy, we will interact with them more frequently.

I hope that I gave an explanation about why we ask the questions that we do and why correct answers will help both of us in the search for a great real estate investment that will make the investor happy.

• Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, 227 condos
• Veer Towers, 670 condos
• Vdara Condo Hotel, about 1,500 condo

MGM Mirage and their partner Dubai World claim that they have about 50% of their ultra luxury condos under contract. It is unknown How many will close escrow due to reduction in the prices, or how this price reduction will help sell other unsold condos.

I still recommend against buying at City Center until they close escrow on the condominiums which are under contract. Only then a prospective investor would know how many luxury condominiums have actually sold and under what terms.

Keep in mind that the biggest financial threat to an investor’s nest egg is blind speculation.

The problem is that REO agents have learned from Las Vegas real estate auctions and put an unrealistic asking price on their listing in order to attract buyers or buyer’s agent’s attention in order to get multiple offers. They know well that offers are based on COMPS and not asking price, buyer’s agents know this too, but buyers who look themselves don’t know this.

This problem is magnified with short sales;

Banks don’t negotiate with short sale agents unless they have an offer in hand. So short sale agents sometimes put an unrealistic price on their listings in order to get the required offer. I have heard of cases that the owner’s cousin has made an offer on his/her cousin’s property so the agent can open the negotiation process. This is all good, except that after the receipt of the offer, short sale agents start negotiation with the lender and it takes time to reach an uncertain conclusion. In order to do a short sale, the owner has to prove hardship and the bank has to agree to the short sale.

The buyer needs to know this, or they can make tens of offers on ridiculously priced properties and get none, while wasting valuable time in an appreciating market which we have at the moment in Las Vegas.

Short Sales, Foreclosures and regular listings at the Signature at MGM Grand

A good example is short sale condominiums in the Signature at MGM Grand.

The Signature at MGM Grand listings=117

• Short Sale listings at the Signature at MGM Grand listings=64, sold in September=6, Price range=$175,000-$250,000
• Foreclosures or bank owned listings at The Signature at MGM Grand listings=14, sold in September=3, Price range= $125,000-$290,000
• Regular sale listings at the Signature at MGM Grand listings=40, sold in September=3, Price range= $170,000-$415,000

Now, when a perspective buyer contacts me in order to buy a short sale listing at MGM Grand priced at $100,000, what do think I should tell them?

By the way, the rush that alerted interested buyers at The Signature at MGM Grand condos have started and perspective buyers should raise their offer by 25% or more from a couple of months ago. Las Vegas high rise condo market has come to life.

Even a first grader can decipher what is selling at MGM Grand at it is foreclosures, they control pricing at MGM Grand.

Now multiply what I wrote about MGM Grand by a hundred and expand it to all homes or condo listings and you can see that doing something so basic as searching real estate data bases on your own could be misleading.

Masoud and Karen Saberzadeh, (702)-478-7800

In August, 42 percent of residential real estate deals were cash transactions, 23 percent were financed through conventional loan and 5% were VA loan; also 92% percent were priced below $300,000.

Even though much of the run on Las Vegas residential properties have been attributed to the US Government tax credit for first time home buyers, this is not the only factor in the run on Las Vegas homes and condominiums. Most of the real estate investors which are responsible for the 42% cash deals will not benefit from the tax credit. Some of the investors have actually financed their deal and not all homes or condo buyers are owner occupied first time home buyers, so the effect of the tax credit on the homes and condo market in Las Vegas is probably less than 20%. For example investors who invest in Las Vegas high rise condominiums like the Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas will not benefit from the tax credit.

Below are the answers that we get from Las Vegas REO agents, the first one is for a home that we made an offer on for the aforementioned client when Karen wanted to confirm that they received our offer.

Attached is an offer on above property. Please confirm receipt. Thanks, Karen
Las Vegas foreclosure agent’s Answer: Your offer is received along w/ 25+ other offers.

Buy the Signature at MGM Grand condo before it is too late

Offers on MGM Grand: I wrote in my blog that MGM Grand is where Meridian Condos were 4 months ago and there is going to be a run on MGM Grand condos. Well the run has started, forget about further price cuts at MGM Grand for the near future and things will get worse from now on. 520 square foot studios that were selling for less than $125,000 are getting multiple offers at $150,000 or more. I called the listing agents for the 5 least expensive studio suits in MGM Grand, they were priced at $129,000-$169,000, and every single one had multiple offers on it. Below is the response from my inquiry about whether or not she has any offers on a 520 square foot condo at MGM Grand which was listed for $179,000.

Her answer: 3 and counting. Just called in 2 more agents

Buying a condo at Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas will become very difficult, if you want to buy, the time is now.

I do not have a crystal ball and every time I have written about the Las Vegas real estate market, I have enumerated my reasons. No one can say what is going to happen to the Las Vegas real estate market in six months or a year or five years. However based on the past performance of the real estate market, one can take an educated guess at the future direction of the market.

If the same interest in the Las Vegas real estate market continues and the market is as active as it is now, look for true double digit increases in Las Vegas homes and condo prices in terms of comparables and this is the true measure of real estate market performance and not the meaningless median price.

Disclaimer: I don’t know the future behavior of investors as it is impossible to predict.

Investing in Signature at MGM Grand Residence condos, renting condominiums at Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas, part two

The Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas condos are listed in Las Vegas MLS in three ways.

1: Regular sales at MGM Grand Signature residence in Las Vegas:

The condo hotel (condotel) owner is represented by a Las Vegas REALTOR. The asking price for these Las Vegas luxury condos is often far more than short sales and bank owned condos.

I have gone over the pricing for the junior suite (520 square foot condo) and one bed room condominiums. I also stated that no condo has sold through Las Vegas MLS for more than $300,000. Asking prices for the regular sales for the 520 square foot condos are $170,000-$824,000. Obviously the listings that are priced for $800,000 have little chance of selling as Las Vegas MLS shows only 2 regular sales in the last 3 months. Those owners who have sold their condo this way have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

MGM Grand pool view from a 33rd floor one bedroom condo at Tower One

2: Short sales at the Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas

520 square condominiums or junior suites:

There are 57 studio condos that are listed as short sales, 44 condos are under contract as contingent sales, zero pending sales (all contingencies have been removed and the deal should close, if not, the buyer loses earnest money deposit) and 6 short sales have closed in the last 3 months for $160,000-$200,000.

One bedroom 847 square foot condos at Signature at MGM Grand Residence as short sales:

There are 23 one bedroom condos listed for sale, 7 contingent sales and zero pending sales. Two short sale condos have closed escrow in the last three months for $275,000-$300,000.

 You can see that despite the high number of short sales listings the percentage of offers that close escrow is low. These are the same condos that usually get foreclosed upon. Signature at MGM Grand condo’s original buyers have a hard time getting short sales approved because they were rich and can’t prove hardship which is a requirement to do short sales.

The Signature at MGM Grand condominium on 33rd floor view Of McCarran Airport

3: Foreclosed condos at the Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas:

520 square condominiums: There are 8 condos that are listed for sale in the Las Vegas MLS. Seven are contingent sales and 8 are pending sales. Despite the low number of available listings compared with regular sales, these are condos that close escrow, as 29 sales have been recorded in the last three months.

847 square foot one bedroom condominiums: There are only three, one bedroom condos listed in the Las Vegas MLS currently. No contingent sales right now and three condos are pending sale. 21 one bedroom condos have sold in the last three months.

Foreclosed condos at the MGM Grand sell quickly and the days on the market (DOM) for the vast majority of these bank owned condos is less than a month.

18 out of 21 one bedroom condos have sold for more than $240,000. Higher floor condos bring more money than lower floor condos. There is a premium paid for condominiums with Strip view and those which have a balcony.

Conclusion: Don’t be fooled by low asking prices for the short sale condominiums at Signature at MGM Grand, many of these don’t close escrow and become foreclosures and if they close, it will be for more money than foreclosures.

Related web site pages: Las Vegas luxury Condominium and High Rise Condo for Sale, Buy Las High Rise Condo Hotel, Invest in Las Vegas Real Estate

Masoud and Karen Saberzadeh

Realty One Group, Las Vegas

Lasvegasaber@yahoo.com, (702) 478-7800

In order to analyze investing in Signature at MGM Grand Condos, I made several assumptions that are not backed by any data, such as average rental days at MGM Grand. Although I have tried to get all the info that I could, until I finish a transaction at MGM Grand condos, I am sure that there are fees that I have not included in my article and issues that I have not discussed. But this analysis should give the investor some idea about investing at MGM Grand Signature condos.

This blog post is a stripped down version of my analysis for investing in MGM Grand condos, the full article with the numbers will be e-mailed to my investors today.

Investing in Signature at MGM Grand Condos as a value investment:

What an investor will buy at Signature at MGM Grand Residence Condo Towers is a world class, fully furnished condo hotel that is built right behind MGM Grand Casino. The land that these condominiums are built upon could sell for 20 million dollar plus per acre. The owner has access to all MGM Grand amenities such as their awesome pool in addition to the pools that belong to the tower and 10% discount from MGM Grand Spa and various restaurants. The owner has easy access to the Strip through the monorail.

One thing that separates Las Vegas high rise condominiums from most other areas is that condominiums such as MGM Grand were built to sell and originally sold for $800-$900 plus per square foot and the investor benefits from others miscalculation and misfortune.

It is my opinion and my opinion only that junior studios and one bedroom condos are excellent values for their current prices, regardless of cash flow. Where else can you find a condo such a MGM Grand Residence Tower to buy fully furnished for $120,000-$300,000? Only Las Vegas baby (say it like Elvis the King would, thank you very much)

This blog is credible because I do not advertise for the seller, but if I like a product, I will not be shy to say so and at this moment I like MGM Grand condos because I believe they provide the investor with both a great value and a chance to make real cash flow. The investor should do his/her own due diligence and not rely on my blog post only.

Renting hotel condo units at Signature at MGM Grand, cash flow:

The Las Vegas real estate investor who was successful at buying a Signature at MGM Grand Condo Hotel can rent his/her condo in three ways.

1: Put the condominium in the MGM Grand Hotel pool. Totally easy for the investor, the investor enrolls his condo hotel (condotel) in the MGM Grand rental pool. The condo is put in queue and the first condo in line gets rented first and goes to the back of the line afterward. MGM Grand rental office could not tell me the average time that they rent one of the Signature condominiums per month due to the uncertain market.

But I will do an example just to look at some numbers. Please note that there is no proof that a condo at MGM Grand rents for this many days per month. The assumption is 15 days average rental period per month in order to run the numbers. If the condo is in the MGM Grand rental pool, MGM Grand takes 10% of the top and then takes 40% of the remainder with 60% going to the condo owner.

 520 square foot studios rent for the following prices:

Regular week days= $129+ per night, weekends for $179+ per night and special weekends and days like New Year for $499/night.

I just assume the rates as the $129 and $179 per night, and assume three weekends a month and 9 days on week days for total 15 rental days per month. The total rental for the studio condo for 15 days is $2235.

One Bedroom condos rent for the following prices:

Regular week days= $179+ per night, weekends for $219+ per night and special weekends and days like New Year for $549/night. The total rent is $2925. The investor will be left with $1580 gross income.

Assuming that a condo rents three weekends per month (weekends are busy time for MGM Grand and nine week days a month for a total of 15 days a month, the investor may expect about  $1200 gross income without taking account the special rental days. Needless to say if the vacancy is less than 15 days a month the return on the investment can be more, or less otherwise. If we deduct HOA  fees and taxes, the owner could possibly expect 0-$500 profit per month.

Drawbacks: If the owner decides to use the condo himself/herself then there is $27-$40 cleaning and maintenance fee per night to MGM Grand that cannot be waived.

2: Not enroll and rent the condo in MGM Grand rental pool and rent the unit directly and long term:

There is not a lot of data available at this time since renting the condominiums long term and by owner is a new phenomenon at MGM Grand. 10 condos have been rented long term so far through the Las Vegas MLS. Most of the one bedroom condos has been rented for $1800-$2000 per month with a 1-4 and 3-6 month lease; days on the market or DOM for these units are 7-39 days.

If an owner doesn’t enroll in the MGM Grand program and wants to rent it himself, then he has to pay an extra $200 for a studio and $250 for a one bedroom unit to MGM Grand per month. Owner has to take care of cleaning the unit and supplying towels and sheets. There are companies that do that for the owner.

 The owner could be left with about $300-$500 per month for a junior suite or studio suite and 0-500 for one bedroom condos.

3: Renting the condo short term by using internet:

This could be the most effective use of condominiums at MGM Grand. The owner uses internet to advertise their condos. Now the full power of owning a hotel condo can be harnessed. The owner could make 15%-25%+ cash on cash return on his /her investment. But the info about the numbers and how to do this is for my customers only, call me or e-mail me for the info.

As for waiting for more price reductions, I can’t tell you whether the prices will go down further or not, all I can say is that I believe MGM Grand condos are where Meridian used to be about 4 months ago. If there is rush on MGM Grand condos as there was and still is on the Meridian, then there will be no price reductions and prices will go up. The action on MGM Grand condos has picked up considerably in the last three months. Like I said, whether you want to wait or not is your call, but in my opinion, MGM Grand is a great value right now.

Analysis of investing in Signature at MGM Grand condos, a Las Vegas high rise condo hotel based on value and cash flow

Signature at MGM Grand condo for sale, Las Vegas high rise condo for sale, investing in Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas, Las Vegas luxury condo, invest in Las Vegas real estate

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

My Name is Masoud and I am a Las Vegas Realtor, my contact info in the bottom of the left side bar.

Las Vegas MGM Signature is a good option for you if you want a hotel/condo. They let you use your unit as much or as little as you want and you can get in their rental pool to rent it on nightly basis when you’re not there. You can rent it yourself but have to pay a rental fee each month if you don’t use their management. Owners (not renters) get to also use the MGM Grand Hotel pools and get discounts at restaurants and the spa at the MGM Grand.

Three MGM Grand Signature Residence Towers in Las Vegas

I have previously written about issues that an investor must consider in a previous blog post:

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

Now I will go over a few issues that the investor has to consider, however there is much more which I will not write about and save for my own customers.

MGM Grand Residence Towers was built in 2005-2007. According to SalesTraq which is a new home and condo data base in Las Vegas.

The Builder originally sold 578 high rise condo units in three towers. Four hundred two, 520 square foot luxury studio suites where sold for an average of $622,000. Twenty eight, 847 one bedroom luxury condos were sold for an average of $800,000 and another one hundred fourty eight, sold for an average price of $1,000,000.

Inside view of ultra luxury studio condominium at MGM Grand Las Vegas

In the last blog post I wrote that the reason that I think Las Vegas high rise condos are now a viable investment opportunity is because they provide some kind of positive cash flow at a reasonable price and MGM Grand Las Vegas condos are not an exception.

Let’s discuss current pricing; an investor has a good chance of buying a 520 square foot studio suite for about $150,000 plus or minus, thirty thousand dollars. This is about 25 cents on the dollar as compared to the original price. One bedroom condo hotel suites can be purchased for $250,000, plus or minus $50,000. This range is not too wide since some condominiums have a balcony and penthouse units should be more expensive than a third floor unit. Strip and pool views add to the price too.

The 520 square foot studio suite in MGM Grand is comparable to a Meridian two bedroom condominium in terms of price and HOA fees. The reason that MGM Grand Signature Towers beat Meridian is that there is no rental restrictions in MGM Grand Signature Towers and the owner of the condo can rent his/her condo on a nightly or weekly basis if he/she wanted to, Meridian rentals have to lease for at least a month. MGM Grand condos come fully furnished; the investor has to pay through the nose to get a rare furnished unit at Meridian.

Related web-site pages:  Las Vegas high-rise condos news, Las Vegas condos and investment properties for sale, Buying Las Vegas, Henderson, North Vegas condos for sale,

My Name is Masoud and I am a Las Vegas Realtor, my contact info in the bottom of the left side bar.

Many of these high rise condominiums in Las Vegas either failed to close due to repeated delays by the builder, buyer’s remorse (the buyers forgo the deposit), or due to the sharp price drops. I did not recommend buying any condo units until prices came down. I am still recommending that investors should avoid City Center.

Blind speculation was the downfall of many investors; most of those investors are no longer, because they lost their money. The reason for their loss was that they got into the Las Vegas high rise luxury condominium market with no plans except for an eternal hope of unending price increases. Those investors who set themselves apart from loser investors plan to win before they invest.

How the losing investors lost their behind on Las Vegas high rise condominiums: an example

The history of a 1356 square foot high rise loft at Soho Lofts which has sold for $141,000 in August 2009

This loft or condo unit at Soho Lofts originally;

• Sold for $675,000 in 08/01/07,
• Was foreclosed for $304,000 in 09/01/08 by the bank, this means a bank had loaned the original buyer $304,000 to buy this loft unit.
• Sold for $141,000 in 08/01/09 as a foreclosed high rise condo unit.

A 1352 square foot loft was recently leased for $1800 per month, the term of the lease is one year and this condo-loft was on the market for 64 days before it was leased.

Investors gross income for this unit is $21,600, deduct annual HOA fees (condo fees) of $5280 and $5385 in annual taxes and the investor is left with about $10,900. I am not going to discuss other expenses such as leasing real estate agent’s fees or property manager fees or repair costs, etc, it is not needed for this discussion.

Let’s say the investor will end up with $9,000 net cash on cash return on his/her investment. The investor is getting about 6.3% cash on cash return for his/her investment, this is way more than a bank would pay him for parking his/her money in a bank account or CD and he is protected against upcoming inflation and can realistically hope for profit when he/she sells her loft in a few years.

In what world would someone invest $675,000 to make $9,000 a year on his/her investment and what sane bank would make $304,000 loan on a property with a cash flow of $9,000 per year? Like I wrote at the beginning, “A long, long, time ago (2003-2007,) in a distant planet (Las Vegas).

This is the reason United State’s economy came to the brink; blind speculation.

Well, the Las Vegas high rise condo market is coming back to life and 128 high rise and luxury condominiums have sold through the Las Vegas MLS in the last three months. I am neither including builder’s sales in this blog post, nor going with the Las Vegas MLS definition of high rise condos being 4 stories or more (like Manhattan condos and Park Avenue). I am counting real high rise condos.

4 condos sold for multi million dollars, the most expensive was a 9125 square foot Penthouse condo at Turnberry. This luxury condo sold for $5,780,000. The asking price was 2 million dollars more. The least expensive was a 970 square foot condo hotel at Platinum Resort Condo that was sold for $99,000, asking price was $108,000.

In our example, the price of the Soho Loft condo was about 20 cents on the dollar as compared to the original purchase price. This is the reason that I say Las Vegas high rise condos are a viable investment option at this time. I like the fact that an investor can make a small positive cash flow and then wait for the future appreciation as many of these units cannot be built at the price per square foot cost that these high rise condos are selling at. No one can say for sure when and by how much Las Vegas high rise condominiums will appreciate.

In conclusion, the last buyer of the Soho Lofts has a heck of a better shot at future appreciation when he/she bought the loft for $141,000 that the last buyer ever had when he paid $675,000 for his long gone high rise condo.

Related web-site links: Las Vegas homes, condos, land and commercial real estate for sale, buying Las Vegas condos for sale

Please find our contact info in the bottom the left side bar or call me at 702-478-7800. Masoud

We keep making offers for our clients in Meridian and keep losing, we can’t get one in ten offers accepted and below is the reason.

In the last 60 days eleven 692 square foot condos have sold through Las Vegas MLS, although a price spread of 10-25 Thousand dollars could be justified for differences in upgrades, location, view and furnishings, the difference in price between the most expensive and the least expensive condo unit is a whopping $37,000. The most expensive unit has sold for $92,000 with the asking price of $69,000. Same goes for the 727 square foot condos; again the least expensive unit has sold for $55,000 and the most expensive sold for $76,500.

The problem is magnified for 927 square foot condominiums. The least expensive condo sold for $70,000 and the most expensive sold for more than twice that, $150,000. Asking price for this condo was $74,900. There is no reason for this. Given that an offer should be based on comparables, that is the same square foot unit that has recently sold in the same community, how does a Realtor compute the comps?

The price difference for 1035 square foot condos is about $100,000. Evidently some buyers got a great deal and some have paid way too much. The deal with Las Vegas foreclosures is that the sale process by the banks has become a silent auction.

As we are on the subject of silent auction, banks and REO agents have leaned from the public auctions like REDC auction where the starting price is artificially low to attract bidders, so they put a low asking price to attract buyer’s agent’s and other’s attention and start getting bids.

Asking prices have nothing to do with the final accepted price and in are computed based on Comps and a lot of luck as it comes to Meridian. This may or may not change since new rental Comps have been available recently. For the long term leases, 692-727 square foot condos rent for about $1000, plus, minus, $100. Now deduct HOA fees or condo fees and taxes from this and the positive cash flow for these units become very low. For example the HOA and taxes for a one bedroom condo is about $500-$600, so say the owner is left with $400 after deduction of condo (HOA) fees and taxes. Now deduct 600-900 for the leasing agent to lease the condo and 6%-8% property manager fee and a month or two of vacancy from the $4,800 that is left for the owner and then the owner ends up with very little cash flow. Now the investor could put his/her money in the bank and make the same cash flow. But the investor has a decent condominium which is 10 minutes walking distance from Caesar Palace, Bellagio, Paris and City Center and hopes to make the profit through selling the condo in the future. At any rate, if you want a condo at Meridian, be prepared to pay $100-$125 per square foot.

Meridian is not the only game in town and I am starting to like MGM Grand Signature Towers much more than Meridian, but that is for the next blog post. Up to this point I have recommended against buying high rise condos in Las Vegas, but due to sharp price drops, there are starting to be viable real estate investment options in Las Vegas as long as the investor knows what it is he/she is doing.

I will start a series of blog posts about Las Vegas high rise condos, next.

DISCLAIMER: No one can accurately predict the future of the Las Vegas real estate, all anyone can do is to make an educated guess, and I am no different.

My name is Masoud and you can call me at 702-478-7800, find other contact info in the right side bar.

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

Greater Las Vegas real estate market, an analytic look at the Las Vegas homes, condos and townhomes market part two

Well, seems like someone is reading my blog, since the Las Vegas Review Journal, for the first time did two articles that discussed much of what I have written in the last two blog posts, such as the number of pending sales and contingent sales in Greater Las Vegas and why they should not be included in the available for sale numbers.

Even Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors are considering changing how the count available for sale listings. See the articles below.

HOUSING MARKET: Prime loan borrowers may be poised to face home foreclosures, local foreclosure crisis expected to worsen

Las Vegas home sales rise; inventory down, “it’s not the free fall we were seeing,” Realtors association president says.

See a few paragraphs from their articles below.

“The actual number of homes available for sale in Las Vegas, including foreclosures and short sales, is much smaller than the 20,613 units reported by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, industry observers say.

Las Vegas-based business advisory firm Applied Analysis is showing 13,028 properties listed as available for sale, down 9,224 units, or 41.5 percent, from a year ago. About 5,100 units are identified as short sales, which leaves about 7,900 units available for sale in a normal transaction.”

Isn’t this what I wrote? I must be an “industry observer”‼

Let me explain what Greater Las Vegas is, Greater Las Vegas consists of the City of Las Vegas, City of North Las Vegas, City of Henderson and Unincorporated Clark County.

The deal is that the reporter has to get his/her numbers from the “experts” and one of these is foreclosures.com. See the paragraph below and the next one also,

“For the first six months, Clark County foreclosures rose 84.3 percent to 23,588 from 12,800 in the year-ago period, Sacramento, Calif.-based investment advisory firm Foreclosures.com reported. Pre-foreclosures increased 34.8 percent to 47,467 from 30,922 a year ago.”

This number is NOT accurate, I get my numbers from the Trustee sale itself and the Number of foreclosed properties 1/1/2009-7/27/2009 is 20,000. 23,000 for the first six month of 2009 is dead wrong. Now pay attention that I wrote properties and not homes and condos since Las Vegas vacant land and commercial properties are included in these numbers. The reason that Trustee sale numbers are accurate is that all pre-foreclosure properties have to go through this sale in order to become bank owned or foreclosed properties.

In the same article

“Through June, financial institutions acquired 6,472 real estate-owned properties and sold 11,254, the broker-owner of Residential Resources reported. He defines an REO, or bank-owned property, as any transaction in which the lender acquired the property through a trustee sale.”

I am lost here, aren’t you?

I don’t agree with a lot of numbers in this article and trust me, mine are authoritative because I go to the source and don’t ask some “experts” from California.

I have started telling my investors that they have to wait for a couple of months before they buy residential properties, due to lack of inventory. I am not worried about a sharp price drop for Las Vegas homes that are priced under $250,000 and condos that are priced below $125,000. There is no inventory to buy.

A sweet lady from North Carolina whose daughter has found a job in the Aria Tower of the City Center visited Las Vegas to get familiar with the city and find a one story home with 3 bedrooms for her daughter for about $150,000. Her criteria is not unreasonable, she liked Nevada Trails in S.W. Las Vegas. I could not find one available for sale listing in Nevada Trails to show her and could show her two contingent sales only. There is a severe shortage of reasonably priced inventory now.

I tell my Las Vegas high rise condo investors to wait; I see big price drops coming.

Anyway, we should have definitive answers about the Las Vegas real estate market reports when the numbers for October and November come in. If the current level of banks foreclosing on the Las Vegas real estate and the current sale numbers hold in November, then watch out for the next year.

One last sentence “He’s heard that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac foreclosures could increase by 400 percent to 500 percent by the end of the year.”

Rumors don’t make facts.

PS: I have designed the web-site and blog so it attracts educated buyers and sellers. The problem is that some of these people believe that they know Las Vegas real estate market better than I do. NOT happening and I don’t appreciate it.  Since so far I am the most accurate predictor of the market direction, especially since the meltdown as we started to get real numbers from the government and not “the fundamentals of our economy are strong”.

If you think that Las Vegas homes or condominium prices will tank, don’t buy now. No one has put a gun to your head.

If you like my blog posts you can subscribe to it by clicking on the RSS Feed on the top right hand column.

Contact us at lasvegassaber@yahoo.com, our phone number, 702-478-7800.

Related web-site pages: Las Vegas Homes, Condos and Commercial Real Estate for Sale, Las Vegas homes, condominiums and townhomes market report, buying Las Vegas condominiums for sale, Buying Las Vegas homes for sale

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.

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

At any rate, I was and am right. However, no verdict should be hacked in stone as we live in a dynamic world and at some point in the future my opinion may change, but believe me we are not there yet.

 The same goes with the CityCenter high rise hotel condo towers, as I am not discussing their residential high rise Veer Towers. The problem with hotel condos in Las Vegas is that there is a huge over supply of condo hotels in Las Vegas and when Las Vegas casinos have a hard time selling out; hotel condominiums will not be filled up. In addition to CityCenter, Fountainebleau will add 1000 hotel condominiums to the inflated inventory.

Dubai World filed a lawsuit against City Center for cost overruns in City Center and I don’t blame them. If I bought a few billion dollars of MGM stocks at $88 a share and lost most of it when MGM shares fell to $3 and now have to deal with the problem of selling unsold units in CityCenter Las Vegas, I would be mad too.

Now MGM has paid the 200 million dollars to keep the project alive and is talking with Colony Capital LLC to get $750 million loan to finish construction. So, I am asking, what is the rush to buy CityCenter hotel condo units? Although CityCenter is in a class by itself, investors have nothing to lose by waiting till the dust settles.

I watched an infomercial by a couple of “dignified looking” Persian real estate brokers from California about the CityCenter the day before yesterday. These jackasses were advertising CityCenter as 70% sold, and were looking for additional investors. There is a difference between, reserved, under contract and sold. Ask Mr. Trump if you don’t believe me. This is proof positive that looks can be deceiving, do not trust these guys.

A couple of points of caution:

These numbers don’t include the high rise condo units or luxury homes that are sold by the builder, or any multimillion dollar foreclosures which have been sold through a real estate auction in Las Vegas. I am not going to comment on these numbers, draw your own conclusion.

Related web-site links: Las Vegas homes, condos, land and commercial real estate for sale

I have designed the whole business model from scratch and in my image only, I have placed the most stringent ethical policies possible on myself and anyone who is associated with me to insure a great outcome for my clients. Still when I get the kind of reactions that you will see below, pain and discomfort gives way to joy and satisfaction.

We found a three bedroom, two-story home for Josie in North Las Vegas and her mortgage is less than her current rent. At any rate the title of this blog is the best testimonial for a Las Vegas real estate agent ever and a picture is worth a thousand words, please find their testimonial below

The best testimonial for a Las Vegas real estate agent or a Las Vegas Realtor ever

Josie is getting the key to her first home in North Las Vegas

We were Josie’s first gusts, she is welcoming us into her home

Josie and Brandon fulfilling their American dream

Josie, Karen Saberzadeh my slightly better half and Brandon

Related web-site links: buying Las Vegas homes for sale, buying Las Vegas condos for sale ,Las Vegas homes, high rise condos, land and commercial properties for sale, buying Las Vegas homes for sale, Buying Las Vegas new houses for sale

I kept writing that most of these condo projects exist so the land owner could get the parcel entitled for a high rise building so they would turn around and flip (sell the land quickly) and make a profit as many did, and that no more than 15% of these purposed condo towers will be built. As usual, I was correct and less than 15% of these were built.

Today I got an e-mail from Channelle Beller who now represents Lawyer’s Title about what happened with these Las Vegas high-rise condo projects so you can see for yourself. Many title companies in Las Vegas were bought out or merged with other title companies.

Cancelled Las Vegas high rise condo projects

Purposed Las Vegas high rise condo projects

Under construction Las Vegas high rise condominium projects

Finished Las Vegas high-rise condo towers with condo units available for sale