Whether Las Vegas residents are looking for a home equity line of credit, a refi, or a new mortgage, when it comes to getting a loan, everyone knows that it’s the credit score that ultimately determines the outcome. Yet when it comes to a working knowledge of what major factors affect your credit score, a new survey shows that many of us are less certain than we should be.

The Consumer Federation of America is a nonprofit outfit that from time to time releases reports designed to improve that situation. Their latest is a sort of report card on how much average adults understand about credit scoring — the key factor in getting a loan of any kind.

On the plus side of the report card, CFA says that people who have obtained one or more of their own credit scores within the past year are significantly better-informed than those who have not. No surprise there. Those people tend to know that there are three large credit bureaus (although how anyone who watches TV doesn’t already know that is a mystery to me).

On the minus side, more men than women misunderstand how age and marital status affect their credit scores (those factors have no effect). Men, on the other hand, “are more skeptical than women about the value of credit repair agencies.” CFA doesn’t go into why that is, but I’d like to think that it’s because they understand that a more straightforward way to repair your credit is to pay all bills on time.

Sandwiched in among the charts and graphs are various bits of good advice for any Las Vegas resident getting a loan. A few bear repeating:

1. Avoid maxing out credit cards; try not to even get close

2. Pay down debt instead of just moving it from account to account

3. Keep track of your credit from time to time, even if you’re not planning on getting a loan right away

If you are planning to become a Las Vegas buyer or seller in the near future, I’m here to help you make the most it. Call me anytime.

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Credit Score Knowledge Eases Getting a Loan appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas REO homes (the “REO” is Real Estate Owned, meaning bank-owned)are still being offered at relatively low prices — sometimes, remarkably low prices. But like skilled investors in any realm, successful REO buyers make sure they know why those prices are where they are. In the REO world, the standout factor is this: buying REO means cutting out a proud owner who cares, instead dealing with a bank that wants to sell. It’s a personal pride deficit that inevitably translates to the bottom line. So finding winning REO opportunities in Las Vegas means hardheaded assessment of the minuses as well as the plusses.

For sure, banks are not in the business of losing money. They may not wish to remain landlords, but they have an asset on their books, and want to get the most for it. They are looking at the Las Vegas real estate market, too; when we see the direction that prices are heading, they do, too. If their cost of holding onto an asset is less than it was last year, a standout bargain basement price is almost certainly condition-based. Unlike owner-owned offerings, banks have no interest in perfecting a home prior to sale. More importantly, they have fewer mandatory disclosure obligations. Ca-ching!

My clients know that’s why they must be able to secure a thorough inspection by a proven Las Vegas inspector. Only after they are able to estimate how much budget will be needed to bring a property up to snuff will the complete size of the investment be clear.

And then they need another quality that distinguishes a successful Las Vegas REO investor: patience. We are dealing with a bank. Enough said.

The overall market may have picked up considerably, yet I can point you to deals that are still to be had in the REO realm. Give me a call to discuss today’s inventory!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Las Vegas REO Bargains Take Thorough Assessment appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

When it comes to a Las Vegas home sale, adults automatically appreciate the importance of presenting a pristine property to potential buyers.

Kids, on the other hand, would like a glass of apple juice, please.

Parents are forever juggling their other adult responsibilities with the needs of the children, so when you add home sale showings to the list, it might seem to make for a stressful situation. But a home sale doesn’t need to be disruptive — after all, it’s just one more ball in the air!

A few tried-and-true tactics make the process easier:

• If you’re blessed with grandparents who live close to Las Vegas, this is the time to enlist their help. Showings are simply well disguised opportunities for extra quality time with Gram and Gramps. No family in the area? See which play date parents will step up and volunteer for an occasional last minute get-together.

• Avalanches of toys — especially when they stray far from the kids’ room —don’t do much to advance the home sale you’re trying to accomplish. Make a game out of organizing toys into attractive storage boxes, complete with a ceremony for the moment when yesterday’s are put away and today’s opened up. If your kids are old enough to roll their eyes at this idea, I bet they’re old enough to help you with emergency cleanups. That will be easy (and maybe even fun) when you sit down together to create a written Emergency Home Sale Drill, complete with who’s responsible for doing what, and in what order. And don’t forget: successful drills merit special rewards!

• If some very young ones are in the mix, sleep-deprived adult noses can sometimes become desensitized to the simple truth that dirty diapers put off even the keenest of prospects. In addition to your regular diaper disposal regimen, don’t spare good quality air fresheners. The ones that emit seasonal scents periodically are best.

I’ll help by giving at least 30 minutes’ warning for any showing (24 hours whenever possible) Our teamwork will result in a serene setting for all our Las Vegas home sale showings.

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Your Las Vegas Home Sale and Kids Do Mix! appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

The Real Estate Staging Association is always telling the world that when you are selling your Las Vegas home, you can expect to spend 73% less time on the market if you use the services of a professional staging company. Although this is an outcome everyone aims for, the cost of full bore professional staging can be a budget-cruncher.

A compromise solution is to combine a little personal elbow grease with some of the ‘inside’ tricks stagers use. When selling your home in Las Vegas as quickly as possible is the goal, it’s worth following through with these staging pointers

Magic Act

Everyday living creates clutter — but to establish the look of a well maintained, move-in-ready home, the debris has to disappear. You don’t need to be David Copperfield or Houdini, but you will need a dedicated place to store all that stuff out of sight. No place on the property? Go ahead and rent some temporary storage space.

Bland is Better

The Swiss are known for remaining neutral despite centuries of European strife. When it comes to selling your Las Vegas home, avoiding controversy can serve you just as well. ‘Neutral’ means sticking to inoffensive color schemes. Stagers know that when it comes to matters of taste, extreme decorating styles tend to drive off some potential buyers. When it comes to selling your home, creams and beiges create the kind of clean look that’s more universally appealing.

Consistency Wins

When the budget is tight, setting a theme throughout your home may seem beyond reach. So instead of replacing a lot of furniture, see if making subtle changes in home accessories and textiles can’t accomplish wonders. Selling your home in Las Vegas quickly can hinge on such small touches as placing bunches of uniformly colored flowers with matching throws in several rooms. It can create the kind of uniform look that stagers strive to achieve.

If this spring will find you selling your Las Vegas home, don’t neglect your own version of staging. If you are just deciding on your choice for your selling team, give me a call: we can start with an in-home consultation!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post How To Set the Stage for Selling Your Las Vegas Home appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

You are buying a second home: this will be more than a sizeable investment — by any measure, it’s a considerable personal achievement as well. This home may be a family retreat, a vacation property you will be renting out (at least part time); or a pure income-producing rental. When a realistic appraisal says that you won’t be able to devote much time and attention to your new holding, the way to fill that gap is to locate an experienced Las Vegas property manager.

As you will learn, it’s a specialized field. According to the latest studies, the median income for property managers nationwide tops $80,000 per year — a pretty trustworthy real world indicator that what they do has substantial value. If your second home is going to do duty earning additional income, the last thing you want is to face a commitment that competes with your full-time profession. Yet when tenants experience problems, dealing with them right away is a ‘stitch in time’ that does more than fostering good will. It can wind up saving money!

Your new property is a business, and like any, needs cash flow supervision. A vacation home, for instance, may from time to time incur unforeseen end-of-stay housekeeping costs which could require an extra payment. Your Las Vegas property manager will handle this kind of problem for you (in fact, he or she probably made sure your rental contract foresaw this in the first place!).

Whether or not you buy your second home for profit, you want it to be more of a joy than a burden. A professional property manager delivers insulation from the smaller details, and corresponding relief from the stress of 2 am phone calls, maintenance worker no shows, and all the other day-to-day management details.

If you are fortunate enough to be in a position to buy or sell a second home in Las Vegas, I offer the kind of first-tier real estate service that will get you what you are looking for. Contact me anytime for reliable property manager recommendations — Las Vegas has some of the best!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Skilled Las Vegas Property Managers Earn Their Keep! appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

According to the Rental Protection Agency, by last week there were more than 107,000,000 renters in the US — a number that increases by 2,600 a day. In other words, if you are a little unsure about snapping up even the most perfect Las Vegas house for sale, you are hardly alone. Still, there is that nagging suspicion that homeownership brings substantial financial advantages to some people…

Fortunately, there are concrete indicators that when a Las Vegas house for sale looks like a good fit for your family, it will be a good fit for your financial future, too. As a rule, if you qualify for a mortgage, you stand to benefit from homeownership, too.

One of the main reasons people don’t take advantage of an otherwise ideal house for sale has to do with their credit history. Qualifying takes a credit rating that pencils out to merit a mortgage with beneficial terms.

If you have savings that are substantial enough to serve as a down payment (generally somewhere between the FHA’s 3.5% to as much as 20%), you have an important leg up.

Importantly, in the big picture, you need to gauge your overall financial stability. No one can see 100% into the future, but even if a Las Vegas house for sale is a great value and ideal for you, unless your income has been steady for at least two years, you probably should wait (and most lenders would agree).

With good credit, savings for a down payment, and a steady income, you are likely to belong to the group which sees substantial long term benefits from homeownership. If you find a Las Vegas house for sale that seems well suited to your needs, here’s an undaunting first step: call me today to help get you pre-qualified!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Las Vegas House for Sale: Beacon to Unsure Renters appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

Yes, they will. But the purpose is not to replace a final inspection — it’s to attract more offers and hasten a final sale by minimizing re-negotiation.

Picture yourself as a prospective buyer. Las Vegas listings which headline the availability of a pre-inspection report automatically seem to be offered by someone who is proud of their property’s condition and unafraid of what the final inspection will reveal. To skittish prospective buyers, it serves to lessen the “fear of the unknown” that can make buyers hesitate before writing an offer. If there were a formula, it would look something like:

Eliminating objections = Attracting more offers

Pre-inspected listings let you document major conditions that have either been addressed or left for the future owner to remediate as he or she sees fit. By noting how your asking price includes precise dollar allowances for named conditions, you display openness and conviction in the basis for your pricing. Local listings written after a pre-inspection are a lot more likely minimize last-minute re-negotiation: if you have ever been asked at the last minute to knock off $20k from an accepted offer, you know the value of that.

It is worth noting that any serious defects that a pre-inspection identify must be disclosed, for better or for worse. But fear of a major discovery shouldn’t dissuade you: any major defect will certainly be discovered by the buyer’s inspector. The old saying applies: knowledge IS power.

If you plan to add your own property to the Las Vegas listings any time this year, my job is to see that it brings you top dollar. Contact me today to talk over the way we will get that done!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Pre-Inspected Las Vegas Listings Help Save Time, Money appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

The undeniable value of home ownership is pretty clear when you take a look at some of these financial facts —

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 56% of workers report that they haven’t even attempted to calculate how much money they will need for a comfortable retirement. That should get them thinking (although it looks like it hasn’t). If the Center for Retirement Research is right that only 42% of private sector workers have any retirement savings at all, it might explain why they don’t want to think about it.

I believe we can safely ignore Fidelity Investments’ finding that a 65-year-old couple retiring last year would require an estimated $240,000 for retirement medical expenses. Not that they will require more or less, but with the Affordable Care Act currently being eyed suspiciously by politicians in both parties, who knows how much (or what proportion) of care will be provided by…who knows?

On the brighter side, a certain degree of realism seems to have crept into the general populace. That is, if the Employee Benefit Research Institute is right that only 14% of American workers are very confident they will have enough money to live ‘comfortably’ in retirement. It’s undoubtedly why more and more Americans are planning on working well past the former retirement age.

What you can deduce from these facts is how much brighter your own future is if you have owned your own Las Vegas property for a while. Owning your property free and clear puts that shelter expense money back in your pocket. From the moment you make the final mortgage payment, the likelihood of having a ‘comfortable’ retirement goes up dramatically.

It’s why the American Dream of owning property is such a great wealth-building tool: one that forces long-term saving regardless of how daily living pulls in the opposite direction. If you haven’t started building your own property ownership yet, I’m here to show you how to make it happen!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Las Vegas Property Owners Get a Jump on Retirement appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

Ah, spring is truly in the air…the traditional time when people can fall in love at first sight! I’ll try not to dampen those springtime spirits too much, but for anyone currently looking into the I’ll try not to dampen those springtime spirits too much, but for anyone currently looking into Las Vegas luxury home listings, some advice may be in order:

Online love at first sight is a really bad idea.

Those Las Vegas luxury home listings can indeed be truly alluring, and using your computer (or iPad, or smartphone) to winnow through the current crop of terrific Las Vegas luxury home listings is a supremely practical approach.

But do remember that any warm glow you experience after checking out a particularly fetching online tour is best held in check until after you have paid an in-person visit. Then the love affair is more likely to be the real thing.

Especially when it comes to the luxury home listings, they have been created by talented professional stagers and photographers (not to mention musicians, when a video is part of the presentation). We work with them to create an immersive online experience, which is all to the good.

The only drawback comes if we do such a good job that Las Vegas luxury home prospects fall head over heels. If reality can’t possibly match the romance of their mind’s eye abstraction, well…just ask a teenager’s parents about what the falling out of love experience is like! Until you have contacted me and we’ve made a real life, in-the-flesh house tour, what we are dealing with is — let’s face it — puppy love.

Seasoned buyers know that stunning photos can’t begin to reveal all the details that make for ‘the real thing.’ Does the kitchen fit a family’s cooking style? Is that gorgeous landscaping a good setting for kids and pets? Is the neighbourhood right for a particular family?

If your own home belongs among our eye-catching Las Vegas luxury home listings, you probably also know that prospective buyers will be genuinely impressed when they visit in person. If that’s the case, I hope you’ll be contacting me soon for a complimentary consultation.

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

The post Las Vegas Luxury Home Listings & Springtime Romance appeared first on Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Short Sales.

Which schools are best?

School quality affects more than just property values. Especially if you have your own kids, buying a house in Las Vegas is least disruptive when their new school is the best one available. You’ll make the soundest choice by comparing more than one parent’s opinion.

Is there a neighborhood watch?

You will have already aimed for the safest area possible. Now, getting involved with an active neighborhood watch can further ensure your family’s safety. When buying a house, the presence of a neighborhood watch is a good indicator of some solid community spirit…and if there isn’t one, make sure the reason is that everyone already feels secure in the area.

What local events are available in Las Vegas?

Buying a house means buying a home base for all your family’s activities. By asking your neighbors which local events and activities they enjoy the most, you’ll get a glimpse of the scope and depth of the cultural life that’s going to surround you. As a side benefit, just inquiring shows you as someone who is sociable — and that you’ll be a good new neighbor to have!

The simple act of reaching out in this way lets you familiarize yourself with a new neighborhood faster, and ultimately leads to a better-informed long term real estate decision. Especially if the area is new to you and your family, buying a house in Las Vegas is actually a one-time opportunity to make a host of new friends. I have tons of information available for future residents. If you’re even considering buying a house in Las Vegas, don’t hesitate to call me today!

Mark Karten is a Las Vegas Realtor ^® who specializes in listing and selling homes in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. If your home is “upside down” – learn more about your choices before you think of walking away – a short sale might be the right option.

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