I have always written that attending a Las Vegas real estate auction and buying from one requires expertise that most real estate professionals in Las Vegas lack, let alone amateurs. Some silly buyers call me and want me to give them pointers on how to buy a from a real estate auction so they can do this on their own. I am in business to make a living, my job is not to teach silly people to do something that takes years of experience in both buying from auctions and doing real estate transactions.

I have repeatedly written that one needs to find targets to shoot at and before a buyer even thinks to buy from a real estate auction, he/she should find target properties through the Las Vegas MLS, find out exactly what the comparable properties sell for and only then start to wait for a comparable property to hit the auction.  Keeping in mind what I have written about buying from a Las Vegas real estate auction, then one can attempt to buy from the auction. If a buyer does everything right, that doesn’t guarantee success in a real estate auction. Click on the link below for the story of experienced real estate investors who hired a Las Vegas Realtor to help them, researched about 50 homes, were the highest bidder on one property and ended up with nothing since their bid did not satisfy the reserve price by the bank.

Investors Picking Up Cheap Las Vegas Real Estate

The deal is doing everything right in a Las Vegas real estate auction doesn’t guaranty success, but not doing everything correctly only guaranties failure.

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

Why? Because many of the homes and condos that are auctioned at the next REDC real estate auction are those that are listed or have failed to sell through the Las Vegas MLS. And as for Trustee sales, many of these have failed to sell through the Las Vegas MLS also and ended up getting foreclosed.

Robert, like other real estate investors asked me to e-mail him Las Vegas homes and condos for sale listings that are suitable for investment.

 I did e-mail him some condominium listings on South Las Vegas Boulevard (Strip) that I personally think are good investment opportunities. I believe that condominiums in Manhattan and Park Avenue that are priced in the low $100 range per square foot are excellent investment opportunities; partly due to the fact that they couldn’t build them again for more than $150 per square foot. Park Avenue has some buildings that are under construction defect litigation so care should be exercised when making an offer on these condominiums.

Robert, who is an experienced real estate investor from the Washington DC area, didn’t like the cash flow that is generated through buying and leasing these semi luxury, South Strip mid rise condominiums and asked me to e-mail him

Las Vegas homes or condos listings for sale that can maximize his cash flow as well as have a chance of future appreciation.

Truthfully, I did not have a good answer for Robert, as I have not analyzed the difference between property types, such as a single family homes, condominiums, high rise condos and townhomes in different parts of Las Vegas for generating cash flow.

The deal is that property taxes along with Home Owner Association (HOA) fees for condominiums in Las Vegas can take a big chunk out of the rental income for the investors as the nicer the condo community and more amenities, the higher the HOA fees. For example; the HOA fees for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo for sale for $149,000 in Red Hills in Pueblo which is an upscale condominium subdivision in Summerlin, Las Vegas is $290 per month while the tax is $121/month. Units like this rent for $1050 per month with the days on the market of less than 20 days. However, a 2 bedroom and 2 bath condominium for sale for $94,000 in the Brava condo community has HOA fees of $170 and the tax is $142 per month. Units like this rent for $1000 per month with the days on the market of less than 30 days.

As you can see the net return on the investment minus tax and HOA fees for the condo at Red Hills can be about $640 for an investment of $149,000 while the unit at Brava Condos will return $690 after one deducts the HOA fees and taxes for an investment of $94,000. So in this example Brava will provide the investor with a much better cash flow.

So I have started a progressive analysis of these condominiums and townhomes and single family homes in different parts of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson so I could provide investors like Robert with an educated answer.

Needless to say this is a tedious and time consuming process and may take a couple of months, and that is contingent on my worthless back improving a little. But when I am done, I will make my clients money.

While the HOA fees for most condominium communities in Las Vegas are usually higher than $100, many single family homes for sale in Las Vegas don’t have such a high HOA fee, but in the case of absentee owners a property manager is a must and property management companies charge 6%-10% of the rental income, so that makes up for the HOA fees that condo communities HOA charge.

I will peruse investing in Las Vegas homes and condos in future blog posts; however I will only discuss in general terms as the real data is for my clients only.

Related web-site links: buying Las Vegas condos for sale, Buying Las Vegas new homes for sale, Las Vegas, Nevada Homes for Sale, Short Sales, Foreclosures, HUD Homes and Fixer Uppers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still don’t believe me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The models that I discuss include the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 These departments also serve as a barometer for how the Greater Las Vegas economy is performing. When the Las Vegas real estate was hot, I would have to wait for half an hour or much longer to get to the counter. Now, it takes a very short time to see the current planner, and I am their only customer at times.

This means that commercial real estate as well as residential real estate has slowed down in Las Vegas. This is how people who are in the trenches see what analyst will write about in a few months, the head line will be something like this “Commercial real estate construction has slowed down by whatever percent, this and that commercial real estate companies bit the dust and on and on”.

A side effect to this slow down is that a great number of entitled parcels of Las Vegas land are being offered for sale with big discounts.

What is significant besides the big discounts is the fact that these vacant land parcels are entitled. Entitling a parcel of land means that the seller has done everything that his/her current planner has ordered and has a site plan, elevation, setbacks, traffic studies and environmental impact reports, parking plan, etc. and then, has gotten his plan approved by the current planning department, and Clark County Commission if located in unincorporated Clark County or the City Council if in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas or Henderson.

Entitling a parcel of land is neither an easy process in Greater Las Vegas, nor is it cheap. Depending on the scope of the project, the seller has had to pay an architect, traffic engineer, a real estate attorney who specializes in zoning and master plans, permit fees, environmental impact study fees and much more. The buyer could be the beneficiary of special use permits  which where obtained by the seller that allow the new owner to exceed the allowable specs of the property, or to use the property for a higher zoning that is not allowed under the current zoning or master plan. Builders love entitled parcels of land as they know exactly what they can build on it and are able to start construction quickly, as I mentioned, getting a parcel of land, entitled is time consuming.

There is a down side to buying entitled land, the buyer is locked into the seller’s exterior architectural plan, but the interior can be changed. So you say, what if the buyer doesn’t like the seller’s architectural plan? Well, the buyer has to do everything from scratch.

 So what does the buyer gain? That depends on the seller having gained a special use permit to up-zone the parcel of land (for example from residential medium density R-3 to Urban Village U-V) or has gained a special use permit to exceed the allowable height of the building, etc.

Following is an example of a listing that is offered for sale in Las Vegas:

“Parcel can be used for almost any type of commercial use. Currently the parcel is zoned U-V (Urban Village) and has a special use permit in place which allows for a structure to be built up to 100′ tall. Conforming zone changes are M-D, M-1, and C-2. Seller is willing to help with zoning changes if required by Buyer. Seller is anxious …”. Source: Property Line.

As I have mentioned before, commercial real estate market trend lags residential real estate market by about one to one and half years, and commercial real estate market in now catching up with the residential sector.

We will have a large number of Las Vegas land for sale listings hit the market in coming months and the prices will go down further. Many sellers had to finance their purchase at a much higher interest rate, and shorter period than those who bought a home or condo in Vegas. In addition to the purchase price, these poor sellers have had to spend a great deal of money to get their parcel of land through the entitlement process. Most of these sellers fully intended to build their properties; however the credit crunch, coupled with lower land valuations in most locations in Greater Las Vegas Valley prevented them from financing their projects.

 Needless to say many, including multimillion dollar parcels of land will be foreclosed on in the future. This will provide investors with unprecedented opportunities to buy land at some of the most desirable locations in Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas at bargain basement prices.  

I am not ashamed to admit my affection for the city I am happy to call home, the Great Las Vegas, but I try very hard to not let feelings affect my judgment. However this doesn’t mean that great deals are not in abundance, one has to know where to find them.

It is my sincere hope that commercial real estate in Las Vegas doesn’t over correct as residential real estate is, home and condo pricing in Las Vegas is starting to approach the levels before the run up in 2003.

 It’s my belief that Las Vegas price appreciation happened because Wall Street failed the investors, so they turned to speculating on real estate. The other factor was that Las Vegas real estate was undervalued at that time. Guess what, after 4 consecutive rate cuts by the FED, which is targeted to solely to benefit the Dow Jones and banks, Dow Jones is failing investors again and Las Vegas real estate is undervalued again.

So take a wild guess as to the future of Las Vegas real estate.

Oh, did I forget to mention that 30 billion dollars in investments will come to fruition in 2009-2012 and the whole investment is aimed at bringing super rich visitors (whales) to our town so they can spend their money here.

Related web-site pages: Las Vegas homes and condos market condition report, Las Vegas economic news, Las Vegas Commercial Real Estate News, Las Vegas Vacant land and commercial real estate for sale

More than 300 bank repo homes and condos where auctioned in REDC’s Foreclosure Auction in Las Vegas. How many sold is unknown and will not be announced by the auction company. The only way to find out how many of these homes and condos sold at the auction is to check on them individually at Clark County.  

We have added pages to our web-site, Las Vegas Homes, condos and commercial real estate about these real estate auctions, including a page about what happens at a real estate foreclosure auction,  why people buy from a Las Vegas real estate auction and what could defeat them and How we prepare our customers for a real estate auction. Since these pages cover a lot of the issues which can affect a buyer at a real estate foreclosure auction, I am only going to analyze a home that to my surprise didn’t sell at the auction, and discuss pricing at the foreclosure auction be it a home, condo or commercial properties. The trick is to come up with a correct price for the property.

The home I want to discuss is 2804 Kinknockie, which is located in the southern part of Anthem in Henderson. This 2066 square foot, 2 story building was originally listed for 444,000 in 11/06 and has had successive price drops since then. The last asking price was $329,000 in 3/08; this house is no longer listed in the Greater Las Vegas MLS.

The highest bid at the auction for this property was $240,000 and to my amazement it did not sell. This could be due to three factors:

1: There was no high bid. I believe that there was a good bid on this property.

2: The high bidder did not qualify for a loan as pre-qualifying was not required prior to this Las Vegas foreclosure auction, all that was required was a $5,000 cashier check.

3: The bank didn’t accept the high bid. This may look reasonable due to the asking price at the time of the foreclosure auction.

I will analyze the pricing and why the bank should have accepted the high bid in the next post.

Related Web-site pages: Las Vegas Foreclosure or Bank Repo Homes and Condos Auction Bus Tour,  Las Vegas Foreclosure Homes and Condos Real Estate Sniper Bus Tour Process, Las Vegas, Nevada Homes and Condos for Sale Short Sales, Foreclosures, HUD Homes and Fixer-uppers,

My plan for creating the Las Vegas homes, condos and commercial real estate web-site had two goals. One was to teach perspective Las Vegas real estate buyers the fundamentals of doing a real estate transaction and the other was to reach the top of search engine result pages so it can be viewed by many, as I chose this method for our marketing program.

The web-site, blog and forum are only a start and my plan is to expand it to include other information that I can’t legally provide, such as legal advice or information that only a CPA can provide. The problem is to get these people to work with me and to donate their advice to my clients.

Google’s business plan consists of selling advertisement based on the key word search, and I decided to use the same principals to find partners. Needless to say, there are many real estate attorneys and CPA’s in Las Vegas and each would like to have their name seen online but this is not easy.

The other problem is that the public doesn’t realize what it doesn’t know when it comes to real estate transactions, most are not willing to learn, and then they get foreclosed on.

Las Vegas Real Estate Sniper Bus Tour, our foreclosure and auction homes and condos bus tour

A bus is a tool and tools can be used to better something or be used to cause harm. A knife in the hand a surgeon could heal a patient that got there because he was stabbed by another knife.

So what to do with our Las Vegas Real Estate Sniper bus tour?

The idea of a foreclosure bus tour started in Stockton, California and has caught fire since. The guy that came up with the idea freely admits that it is a gimmick to get customers.

Any Las Vegas, Henderson, or North Las Vegas Realtor can take buyers on a tour of foreclosure homes in Las Vegas that match their criteria, you don’t need a foreclosure bus tour for this, actually this method could be better since it is tailored to the customer’s need.

So what can a buyer gain by going on a foreclosure bus tour? Why should I be even attempting a real estate bus tour in Las Vegas?

Following issues had to be considered:

1: We don’t want to charge for the bus tour and these tours are not cheap to conduct.

2: We don’t want to conduct blind tours, and by that I mean that the tour must be tailored to our customers needs. There is no point in showing bus tour attendees properties that they don’t want or can afford.

3: We want to offer more than a bus tour; our goal is to educate buyers and sellers.

Our Solution

A foreclosure bus tour can give an incentive to buyers and sellers in Las Vegas to attend a mortgage financing and real estate buying class. The class would cover issues concerning buying foreclosure homes or condos, such as waiving the required disclosures, Las Vegas real estate market trends, different mortgage packages, first time home buyer’s assistance and how to harness the full power of the Las Vegas Homes, Condos and Commercial Real estate. Las Vegas homes or condos sellers should attend this class to find out what the buyer’s are looking for and also gain an understanding about pricing and market trends in their area.

We will be offering these classes with no strings attached

Our goal is to prevent any more disastrous transactions for anyone who chooses to attend the class. Here is where the web-site and Real Estate Sniper Bus Tour come in handy. No real estate agent has the power to get a real estate lawyer, an escrow agent and a mortgage officer to teach every single one of his/her customers about the issues that will be discussed in our class, for free. The web-site and bus tour make this possible and we are currently in negotiations to arrange this class.

At the conclusion of the class, those who would like to attend our bus tour can register for our free foreclosure bus tour. Investors who are versed in real estate deals do not need to attend this class; however a proof of financial capability to purchase a home or condo is required.

Anyone who would like to attend the bus tour will have a period of time to prepare for the bus tour and we will be able to arrange the bus tour based on their needs. We will not be conducting a blind tour.

I have added the pages that discuss our foreclosure bus tour to the web-site and you can find them below.

Related Web-site pages: Las Vegas Foreclosure or Bank Repo Homes and Condos Auction Bus Tour,  Las Vegas Foreclosure Homes and Condos Real Estate Sniper Bus Tour Process, Las Vegas, Nevada Homes and Condos for Sale Short Sales, Foreclosures, HUD Homes and Fixer-uppers,  Las Vegas Foreclosure or Bank Repo Homes or Condos Auction , How we prepare our customers for a real estate auction.

In old days all a real estate investor (owner occupied home or condos are investments too) had to do was to buy real estate and let it sit for a while and collect a handsome reward when the selling time came. That was true in the last millennium, not now. Those who haven’t learned this are only one millennium behind.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. People still attempt to buy real estate on their own and expect a good result. Are people insane then?

The main point that I have tried to get across to the real estate buyers or sellers, is that hundreds of thousands have failed at what you are trying to do, and paid for it in horrific ways, like homelessness. So why follow their bankrupt practices, isn’t that insane?

I believe that most real estate buyers and sellers are ignorant of the issues that can affect the outcome of their real estate deal. Thus I have tried to explain their choices and issues which they have to pause and reflect about.

I have also added the Las Vegas, Nevada Homes, Condos and Commercial Real Estate Auctions since bank repo or foreclosure real estate auctions are becoming increasingly popular in Las Vegas. As the foreclosed properties increase in Las Vegas, these auctions offer great opportunities to get bargains. The problem is that buying a home or condo is treated as a single act by buyers. They go and register at the auction company’s sales office. Get a pre-qualification from whomever the auction company or the seller is working with; see a few listings and go bid at the auction where they compare their bid amount to a meaningless number which is stated as previously valued and win or not.

This is the wrong way to attend or bid at Las Vegas real estate auctions. I explain the right way in how we prepare our customers for Las Vegas, homes, condos and commercial real estate auctions. It is a great waste to not take advantage of the current real estate market trends in Las Vegas. The trick is that one has to know what he/she is doing. I thought that the foreclosure problem could subside a bit by now, it doesn’t look that way. The problem is that this foreclosure thing is snowballing and is starting to do damage to other housing related segments. As I have stated in Why Las Vegas real estate’s future in three to five years is so bright, you need to wear shades at some point all these foreclosure properties will be absorbed by new money from investors and then watch out. I truly believe that investors will look at these days like a lost dream.

Related web-site links: Buying condos for sale in Las Vegas, Nevada,  homes, condos and commercial real estate for sale in Las Vegas, Nevada,  Las Vegas new homes for sale.

Given that we are here to serve, a few words of caution about this auction, if you are dumb enough to attempt this by yourself and a lot of people are:

 Read the purchase contract that the sellers have provided on their site, auctiontoday.com. In addition to the purchase contract, you can find the CC&Rs , floor plans and a web-site address for a home warranty company. Below are some important points that deserve further discussion.

1: These condos come AS IS as the seller has spelled out in capital letters in the condominium purchase contract.

2: Due diligence expires at the time of acceptance of your bid. You can’t get an inspection afterwards. The sellers recommends that you get a non-intrusive inspection on the condos that you are planning to bid on. That is cool if bidders chose only one condo to bid on, however this is not a likely scenario, most bidders plan to bid on more than one condo, and getting inspections for more than a couple of condos can get very expensive. Additionally people hesitate to pay hundreds of dollars in inspection fees when the chances are that they will not have the winning bid. I repeat these condos come AS IS.

3: These condos have been repainted and this makes a visual inspection ineffective, we found some trash disposals that were not working, a little noise in some air conditioning units and a few hair line cracks in some walls.

4: One of the most attractive points of attending an auction is that if the amount of your bid is more than other buyers at that auction, you should win. But that is not the way it really works. This is NOT an absolute condo auction and the seller’s reserve (the least amount of money the seller is willing to take) has to be met before a bid is accepted. The auctioneer has stated in writing that the auctioneer may repeatedly bid on behalf of the seller to drive up the bid amounts so it can meet the reserve, except where prohibited by law. I don’t know whether this is illegal here.

5: You should have a good idea about condo prices in the area so can set an upper limit on your bid and not exceed it.

6: A 5% premium will be added to your final bid amount to pay the real estate agents or Realtors that are involved in the transaction. If you had an agent advising you in this condo auction, your agent would have gotten 2% and the auction company 3% and you would have been represented at no cost to you. Now that you have decided to attend without being represented by a real estate agent, the auction company will get the whole 5% and you are on your own. Why take a risk that may put you in financial danger when you get absolutely no reward.

Related web-site pages Las Vegas, Nevada Homes, Condos, Land and Industrial Commercial Real Estate, Las Vegas, Nevada Residential Real Estate News, Buying Las Vegas Resale Condominiums.