Archive for Las Vegas Market
Can I short sell my home with a tenant?
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I get asked this question by many clients, particularly from those who live out of state. The simple answer is yes, banks will accept a short sale with a tenant in place paying the owner rent. The key here is what hardship does the owner have with receiving rent. For example, is there a negative cash flow once you calculate the entire costs such as taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs, sewer, vacancy factor, etc. Or is there an over-riding reason to sell the home.
Usually the biggest obstacle is availability to show the home with the tenant. Ideally there should be a lockbox so that agents can show the home after making an appointment, I have found that not having a lockbox will seriously curtail the marketability of the home. Most agents will call the “day of” or the night before, and if the home is not available, then they will just move on to the next home. There are several incentives that you might offer the tenant to allow for this. A reduction in rent or a set amount taken off the rent for each showing provides an incentive for showing.
In fact in some cases having a tenant in place will be attractive to a potential investors as long as the rental amount pencils out for them. The lease will continue with the home, even though ownership has changed hands, so if you have a long term lease with a below market rent, that will also minimize the marketability. A lease will also prevent a lot of buyers who intend to occupy the property from looking at the home as their loan will be for owner occupant only.
Pricing the home to over come these challenges will be important in getting your home sold. Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Be a Genius in the Las Vegas Market
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If you watch the news, read a newspaper, or live in the Las Vegas area, then you’ve probably heard that the recession has hit the Las Vegas real estate market. But a new article in the Las Vegas Review Journal has some good news for those who think the Las Vegas market is in the dumps.
Hubble Smith, quoting a recent SalesTraq finding, says, “Sales of existing homes in Las Vegas rose to the highest level in 17 months with 5,114 closings in March — a 7.6 percent increase from the same month a year ago.” Not exactly what you would expect from our “recession-hit-market.”
And even with the bad image of the Las Vegas market, home sales remain brisk! 50% of all sales today are for CASH. Many investors apparently feel that our housing market is over corrected and under-valued. We feel the same way. We expect prices will continue to decline through the end of this year, and possibly into next year, but not by much.
It’s not that there is going to be a quick turnaround, but we do feel that we are at or near the bottom of this cycle, and that the long term outlook is excellent. Every recession in history has come to an end at some point, as will this one. So, if you want to look like a genius five years from now, buy all the Las Vegas real estate you can today.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
Things are Looking Up for Las Vegas Homes
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Positive real estate news is few and far between these days, especially in the Las Vegas real estate market. But I’m happy to report some good news.
The first fact: The median price of a single-family Las Vegas home is up .8%, from $125,000 in April to $126,000 in May, Hubble Smith of the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
The second fact: The number of homes sold in Las Vegas increased: From May of last year, single-family homes increased 7.9% and condos and townhomes increased 14.4%, Smith reports.
Either fact alone would be a good sign; together, they’re a great sign. Indeed, Realtor’s Association president, Paul Bell, notes that “This was the first time so far this year that both of these key indicators increased in the same month for both single-family homes and for condos and townhomes.”
On top of this, the traditional home buyer is coming to the fore in the Las Vegas market. In the past, banks and investors were the main players, outbidding the traditional home buyer. And at least for the lower price ranges, the housing market is seeing some welcomed stability, says Rob Jenson of ReMax Central.
Residential Resources reports that 1,322 bank-owned sales, 985 regular sales, and 758 short sales. Frank Nason, president of Residential Resources, estimates that these numbers, together with the assumption that payments have ceased for short-sale listings, adds up to $5.54 million financial shot in the arm for the Valley.
Well that’s a lot of numbers, but what are we to make of it? For one, we shouldn’t oversell the good news—there’s nothing that deserves the word “trend” quite yet. It looks as though more homes are being sold, the price is slightly increasing, and people, not institutions, are buying more homes. And portions of the market are beginning to sail into calmer waters. This is what the scant data seems to suggest. Let’s just hope that it’s a microcosm.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
Could a Las Vegas Short Sale be your Lifesaver?
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A recent article in the New York Times portend some clearly good news for buyers and some good news for those looking to short sell. Let’s take a look at each, in turn.
First, a fact you might already know: Housing prices are very low, making for a great environment for those looking to buy. Now this isn’t good news for many, especially because the prices might even drop further, but for buyers this isn’t a bad thing. The depressed prices, as you might have guessed, are the result of a surplus of foreclosed homes, with banks owning a grand total of about 872,000 foreclosed homes, Eric Dash reports for the New York Times. The surplus is bound to grow: Banks are in the process of foreclosing roughly a million homes and in the coming years are estimated to eventually take millions. Typically, foreclosures and sales stay one-to-one, but in some hard-hit cities, such as Minneapolis, the ratio is six-to-one. In Las Vegas, a whopping fifty-three percent of all home sales are foreclosures, Buck Wargo reports for VegasInc.
Now this all might look like gray skies, especially for banks, home owners, and even for those working in the real estate business. But if you’re looking to buy a home, we’re either at the bottom or we’ll be there very soon. As Les Christie for CNN Money reports, given the current economic climate, buying is typically a better deal than renting.
Now what about those already in their homes? Well, there are some government programs–namely the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA)–that short sellers could take advantage of, but unfortunately, the program and the short sellers aren’t hooking up. As Hubble Smith of the Review Journal reports, HAFA has been seen as a failure, but things may be picking up. HAFA was billed as a program to streamline the short sale process, but either the program wasn’t advertised widely enough, or it didn’t help: Sometimes short sellers, close to a sale, would be foreclosed on because of a technicality. But things are looking up. As Laurie Maggiano notes, policy director in the Treasury’s Office of Homeownership Preservation, the program has been modified to allow more borrowers to participate. So there is help out there for short sales, but finding it can sometimes require a savvy real estate agent. If you’re smart, you can gracefully exit your home with minimal loss.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
How to Avoid Pitfalls When Buying a Las Vegas Home
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It’s a great time time to buy a home, but there’s a catch—only for those who buy smart. Tara-Nicholle Nelson, a broker in San Francisco, gives some tips that are relevant to the Las Vegas short sales market.
- First, stay on track by getting the order right: Know what you want before looking rather than looking to find what you want. By having a concrete vision of your home–including your price range, your vision of the home itself, and your vision of the location–you’ll avoid homes that are a bad fit. An agent’s job is partly to translate your sometime abstract vision into a concrete dwelling, but the more you work to focus your vision, the happier you’ll be in the end. Towards this end, write down what you want before consulting an agent.
- Second, know what you want, but also know when to settle. To find the best deal, you need to strike a hard bargin but also be realistic about what kind of home you’re going to get for the money you’re willing to put up. If you’ve been searching for months on end and no home has met your complete wish list, then it might be time to compromise. A real-life home that meets most of your needs is better than a dream house that remains merely a dream.
- Third, caste a wide net, but then focus on one good fish. That is, in the beginning, look widely around to find a broker you trust, but once you find your broker and your strategy, focus like a laser beam. Housing markets vary from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood within a city. Having someone–a broker–with intimate knowledge of the local market can make a world of difference. The focusing aspect of this strategy is necessary to avoid wild goose chases and to succeed in the sometimes tiring process of finding a home.
- Fourth, the small print matters, especially for the Las Vegas short sales market. Contracts for short sales vary widely and the facts about the condition of the home become especially relevant. Make sure to read inspection reports for short sales.
- Fifth, beat your own bad psychological habits by doing your accounting on paper and in the cool hour. By this I mean that making financial decisions and calculations on the fly and in your head can sometimes break your bank. We humans tend to weigh the price tag more heavily than extra fees and costs, even though money is money. We also tend to let our desires get in the way when we’re in the process of actual buying. To avoid this, write up your all of the costs on paper or on a spreadsheet and make your decisions when you’re at your most realistic.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
