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

US Congress passed the home buyer tax rebate extension just like I had predicted that they would and when I predicted that they would do it, just when it was becoming very hard for home buyers to close the escrow on time. Basically first time home buyers will get their $8,000 tax rebate and those home owners who have owned a home for 5 years can get a $6,500 tax credit if they can close escrow by June 30th, 2010.

As for the real estate market here, the mad rush to buy a home for the $8,000 tax credit has subsided and the market has cooled down some. We have even low balled the banks for a couple of homes for sale for $340,000 in Seven Hills in Henderson and it worked, we are getting a lot of offers in all price ranges accepted and I am happy about this. We tried very hard to protect our customers from making unreasonable offers and succeeded, all our offers have appraised so far. I have repeatedly written that the best time to buy real estate in Las Vegas will be mid November to January 1^st. Here is why:

1: The rush on homes or condos that will satisfy the new tax credit extension will intensify as we get closer to the June deadline and by that time we will have more than 9 months of stable pricing which will bring more conservative investors to the market.

2: A big part of getting a good deal is timing and I am not talking about timing the bottom of the market, I am taking about buying when others are busy planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas, November and December are traditionally slow times in real estate.

As for me, last month was one to forget and I am recovering from severe back and neck problems. I am starting to feel better now and hopefully will blog more frequently.

I repeat again, now is the time to buy real estate in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas home sellers who owe more than the home or condo is worth in the current real estate market have to sell their residence through a short sale process. Listing and selling short sales requires a special kind of Las Vegas Realtor real estate agent who has the required expertise, incredible optimism and super human patience to conclude the short sale process successfully and at the same time to be able to fail more often than succeed. Successful short sale listing agents or Realtors are a rare breed and I am NOT one of them. I can get a better return on my time and effort doing other aspects of Las Vegas real estate.

Despite the real estate market crash in Las Vegas and elsewhere I have been wondering about the effect of the real estate market crash on construction costs and asked Elizabeth Johnson for a guest blog post about the same subject and she kindly agreed.

I highly encourage anyone who wants to do a guest blog post about Las Vegas real estate, mortgage, construction, loan modification, short sales or any other real estate related article to contact me about publishing their blog as long as it is good and previously unpublished and I will give you full credit for the post. A link in my blog can help previously un-indexed web-sites or blogs to be indexed in Google or Yahoo.

Please find Elizabeth Johnson’s post below.

These are tough times we live in, and the collapse of the economy and the financial markets have brought a sense of doom that still hangs in the air. Even though most of us are limping to recovery among the fallen debris of closed companies and lost jobs, others are yet to recover from the blow. The construction industry has also suffered its share of damage, and from the look of things, it will be some time before things get back to the way they were.

The boom that came before the crash sent housing and construction costs soaring, and even though prices were high, people were able to get mortgages to buy their dream homes. With the subprime mortgage industry failing miserably, there are many houses in the market today, with nary a buyer in sight. The costs have fallen, but people are finding it hard to raise the money for a mortgage. Banks have tightened their lending policies, a far cry from their earlier stand of giving loans to just about anyone who asked for them. So yes, houses are cheaper now, but there are hardly any takers for them.

And when it comes to construction, the cost of building your own home has gone up, because materials and labor have become costlier. There is bound to be a sharp drop in the number of non-residential construction projects, with offices, retail facilities, hotels, hospitals, factories, warehouses and other similar projects coming down by as much as 35 percent in some cases. The worst to suffer will be industrial and manufacturing units because money will be hard to come by for renovations or expansions.

The industry will take at least two years to recover from this blow, but there is one good thing to come out of all this. Housing is now affordable for those who are not looking for premium homes and want something to fit their mid-size budget. Also, the recession has paved the way for more sensible money habits - people are now more careful with their money and what they spend it on because they have realized that it does not grow on trees and that jobs are not certain.

Those in the construction business will have to learn how to stay competitive in today’s harsh economic climate and also be prepared for a time when the boom may start again. If history has taught us anything, it is that it repeats itself, so the best we can do is be prepared for any eventuality.

By-line:

This guest article was written by Elizabeth Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of construction management degrees . She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: elizabeth.johnson1@rediffmail.com

Henderson and South Las Vegas homes for sale for $250,000-375,000, Part One

I told our California ladies that they should pay particular attention to the price per square foot while looking at the homes that we showed them in Henderson, Green Valley and Seven Hills since this is the only way to compare between several different homes with varying square footage, lot size and locations.

The largest home was a 4100 square foot, 2005, highly upgraded two story home in South East Las Vegas around Boulder Highway that was selling for about $77 per square foot and the smallest was a 2547 square foot, 1998 built home at $110 per square foot in Seven Hills. I have used these two properties to show that when one gets away from the green and mature areas like Anthem Country Club or Seven Hills and goes inside the town, the homes get newer, more upgraded and larger.

We showed these ladies all kind of homes with different levels of upgrades and floor plans and one chose a home in Seven Hills that we made an offer on; we are still looking for the other lady.

Investors have to understand that newer homes in choice locations are hard to come by and homes that are built after 2003 on should be considered as newer homes as we have not had a lot of new home construction in Las Vegas or Henderson. Actually this month was one of the best months and the new home builders in Greater Las Vegas have sold only 400 homes.

One last note; these ladies wanted to go much higher in price and I talked them out of it. The reason was that my buyers can buy really nice homes for less than $400,000 anywhere in Las Vegas. These homes used to sell for twice as much only 2-4 years ago. The other issue is that a buyer makes or loses money when she/he buys a home and not when they want to sell it.

One should think about how many high paying jobs will be added in Las Vegas or Henderson in order to produce future buyers for an expensive home and there will be many. Additionally the more expensive a home, the harder it is to rent, the less the cash flow and longer time on the market.

NOBLE PEACE PRIZE FOR THE GREAT MAHATMA GANDHI

This weekend Karen and I were showing homes in Henderson, Green Valley and South Las Vegas that are priced at $250,000-$375,000 to two professional and successful ladies from Long Beach, California. Californians are the only people that believe they are moving down, when they move to Las Vegas, everyone else is happy to move here.

Many of these Southern California home buyers prefer more mature and green areas like Seven Hills, Anthem Country Club, Green Valley, Summerlin or golf communities like Rhode’s Ranch, Tuscany or Summerlin Village and have the money to pay for the more expensive homes. An issue that comes up frequently with out of town buyers is that even if they have visited Las Vegas multiple times for vacation, all they see is the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) or downtown Las Vegas. These buyers are not familiar with pricing versus location in different areas so we take it upon ourselves to show them homes that we think match them criteria in different areas so they can see all their choices.

We looked at about 14 homes in Seven Hills, Anthem, Green Valley and Mission Hills in Henderson and I was surprised by the quality of homes that can be purchased for $250,000-$375,000 since I personally have not looked at homes for this price range in Henderson for a while. Homes that are selling for this price range had sold for about twice the asking prices 2-3 years ago.

A few notes about the homes that are available for sale in the areas that I mentioned.

1: This price range in Henderson is dominated by the short sales and then regular sales, foreclosures are hard to come by.

2: There is wide discrepancy between the sold prices or COMPS, (same model homes in the same subdivision) and the asking prices. To combat this we will look at the price per square foot for the COMPS before picking homes to show them. For example if the COMPS are $85-$100 per square foot and the asking price is at $140-$150 per square foot, then we look at the history of the home and see what happened. If the listing is a flip (bought and sold quickly for profit), then we don’t show it. One of the listings that we didn’t show was a flip that was bought at $130 per square foot and the asking price was $152 per square foot in a subdivision that the COMPS were at $90-$100.

While I am on the flipping subject, I am starting to see many flips that have gone wrong. These properties were purchased by investors that had no idea what they were doing and will be losing thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands of dollars on their blind speculation. These investors would have saved much trouble and heart ache by following the advice that I have provided in the Las Vegas homes, condos and commercial real estate web-site and this blog.

3: The action on Henderson homes that are priced at $250,000-$375,000 is not nearly as much as homes that are priced less than $200,000 and the more one goes up in the price, the less action on these homes.

More about homes in Henderson that we looked at in the next blog.

Unrelated note: I was floored when I learned that Mahatma GANDHI, one of the greatest generals of all time (as defined by Sun Tzu) and peace makers of the last century has not won a Nobel Peace prize, even though he was nominated four times. This is BULL and this organization should know better, as long as Mr. GANDHI is not given this prize, I give it no value. The Nobel Peace prize, in many instances has been given to candles, while ignoring the sun. Although the Noble Peace prize is not given posthumously, an exception should be made in this in order to correct an ERROR. So get used to this, I will have it at the end of each blog post.

NOBLE PEACE PRIZE FOR THE GREAT MAHATMA GANDHI

The US House of Representatives last week passed a bill that extended the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit next year for military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel who are serving overseas. This increases the probability that Congress will agree to an extension or even extend the entire credit program well into 2010.

The White House is also signaling that it sees the tax credit program which is currently set to expire by December 1st as an important element in stimulating new jobs next year.

After an economic policy strategy meeting last week between President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, congressional aides said Democrats generally support an extension of the housing credit.

Senator Reid already has made clear that he is supportive of an extension and is co-sponsoring a Senate bill that would extend the tax credit for six months.

Congressman Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has sponsored the one-year extension of the tax credit for military and other government personnel serving overseas, and is favoring an extension for the entire program. Although the White House has not publicly committed to an extension, it is reported that the President is seriously examining that option.

An unexpected development that emerged following last week’s White House meeting was the possibility of expanding the tax credit to a broader group of buyers next year, such as people who sell their current homes and buy a replacement home.

Though details were scanty, Capitol Hill sources said one option on the table would be to provide a tax credit, most likely at the $8,000 level to replacement home buyers whose incomes do not exceed some limit.

The current credit phases out for single taxpayers with incomes above $75,000, and married purchasers earning $150,000.

A politically sensitive issue, the sticking point is how to manage the cost of extending the housing tax credit and how much it would add to the federal budgetary deficit.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s estimates that widening the credit to all buyers through next August could cost the government upwards of $30 billion.

Rangel’s 12-month extension of the credit for service personnel is estimated to cost more than $30 billion, but it’s mainly being paid for through an increase in penalties levied by the IRS on taxpayers who fail to file corporate or partnership returns.

This article is an edited version of an article by Kenneth R. Harney from Washington

Many real estate investors in Las Vegas have never purchased a bank owned or REO (real estate owned) home before and expect all the good stuff that comes with a regular sale such as property disclosures or CLUE reports, negotiations, etc. So I will write about the differences when making an offer for a regular sale (the owner is represented by a Las Vegas Realtor, or not) and a Las Vegas foreclosure real estate sale.

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.

When prospective investors contact us about buying Las Vegas condominiums or homes or high rise condos, there are a few issues that I would like to discuss here. Most of the investors who contact us about investing in Las Vegas real estate are not Las Vegas residents; furthermore they are unfamiliar with Las Vegas other than the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) or Down Town Las Vegas.

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.

City Center Las Vegas cut their prices by 30% for those investors who have one or more condos under contract there as I had predicted a sizable cut in Las Vegas City Center condominiums prices in January 2009. This price reduction applies to the following high rise towers.

• 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.

Many Las Vegas home or condominium buyers like to search for properties on their own and then will contact a Realtor when they see something that they like and ask for more info. This WAS a pretty good way to find properties in the 20^th Century, but it is currently the 21^st Century and outdated procedures will not work any longer.

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

I do not like to list Las Vegas properties that I can’t sell, and that is why I have only listed one home to sell in 2009. In today’s Las Vegas home and condo market, regular listings should be able to compete with bank owned or REO homes or condominiums. There are not too many listings that can compete with foreclosures and still leave the seller some kind money after deducting all expenses. Most of the homes or condos are short sales and I don’t list short sales or foreclosures. Regular sale (not short sales or bank owned) homes WILL bring more money than foreclosures due to the ease of doing the transaction and also the home is not sold as is and often is in better condition than foreclosures.

The home belonged to a California investor who wanted to go overseas and didn’t want to deal with tenants. However a tenant was already in the home and he was hostile. Hostile tenants do make it hard for the listing agent to show the house, even with 24 hours notice. The first time that I listed this home we would get a lot of requests to show the home, but the tenant would not allow us. So I called the owner and told him exactly what I wrote above, I don’t list a home or condominium in Las Vegas that I can’t sell and dropped the listing.

Three months passed and I got a call from the owner that the tenant was gone and he wanted to list the home again with me. No problems this time and we got a great offer which the seller accepted in less than a day. We will close the deal later this month.

The reason is that most investors who rent the home themselves usually use a standard rental contract that gives the tenant 24 hours notice before being able to access the home or condo. This will bite the investor when they want to sell a home or condo as other Realtors or buyers do not want to wait 24 hours to see the home. They either skip it completely, or in a competitive market, the buyer may see other homes first and if he/she likes one, they will not be motivated to see the home 24 hours later.

The Las Vegas real estate investors who may want to sell their home while under a lease agreement should think of this issue before signing a lease agreement. They should contact a real estate attorney about inserting a clause in the contract that gives the owner the right to put a lock box on the tenets door and be able to show the home within 2 hours after notifying the tenant.

Our brothers and sisters in American Samoa, Indonesia and the Philippines are dealing with disaster after disaster and lost families and properties. I am praying for the Good Lord to give them infinite patience to overcome the sadness and hopelessness that arise from these disasters as you should.

I was notified today that my beloved aunt, Saltanat Mojthed-Soleimani passed away. I loved her deeply and am even sadder for my mom who has to bear losing a sister. My condolences to Soleimani and Mostofi families, plus many others.

I always tell people that when you were born, you cried. Live in a way that when you die, the world cries for you and she did. There are crying eyes in at least three continents that I know of.

Masoud and Karen Saberzadeh, 702-478-7800, saber@lasvegas4us.com

The index page for Las Vegas homes, condos, land and commercial real estate states that I want to change the way real estate is done in Las Vegas. One of the most important factors is that I do not want the customer to feel pressured in any way; there is absolutely no law that buying or selling real estate should be stressful and not fun. So I have tried to build a non intrusive relationship with the customers.

 The way that we deal with inquires from prospective customers used to be to answer their inquiry and wait until they got back to us. This is not working since the customer may think that we have forgotten about him/her or that we are too busy to take care of them.

This problem has been bothering me for a couple of years and that is how to interact with our customers after the initial contact, I could not come up with any answers until yesterday. It came to me while I was getting ready to take a break from work and have lunch. Here is the answer:

Ask the customer about how often he/she wants to be contacted and for what reason.

Isn’t that an elegant and simple solution? I wish I would have thought of it before.

In order to show the kind of real estate market that we deal with in Las Vegas, I decided to publish another rejection letter; I have removed the house number and the name of the REO assistant’s name in order to protect their privacy.

“GATESVILLE - REJECTION NOTIFICATION

This is to inform you that the seller decided to accept another offer on this property. This property received more than 45+ offers.

Thank you again for your offer and patience.

Sincerely, T.C./Executive Asst.”

I don’t see how this can continue as last time that we had a rush on Vegas properties (2003-2006), it obviously did not last. How can a buyer get a good deal on a Las Vegas condo or house when 45 plus buyers are competing with him/her?

Furthermore, banks are not crazy enough to wholesale what they can retail and sell in a couple of days. 45 offers on homes will result in double digit appreciation that I wrote about in the last blog. The question is, is this going to continue? I certainly hope not and 20 plus offers on a home or condo is temporary, but even 3-4 offers on homes or condos in Las Vegas  will result in appreciation, but not double digit.

This is not good for Masoud, as I am sick of abnormal conditions in Las Vegas real estate. I don’t even know what normal is anymore, but one thing is for sure, this isn’t 20^th century real estate and the methods that worked 3-4 years ago are short cuts to failure. Welcome to 21^st century real estate.

At times, people do things without thinking it through, like paying $15,000-$20,000 too much to gain an $8,000 tax credit, which may or may not be extended after December 1^st. Well I highly doubt that the US Congress will make any announcement about this until late November as they want people to buy as many homes as they can by then.

Related web site pages:  Best way to buy a home or condo in Las Vegas, buy Las Vegas house for sale, buy Las Vegas condo for sale, Las Vegas real estate

Masoud and Karen Saberzadeh

Realty One Group, Las Vegas, Lasvegasaber@yahoo.com, 702-478-7800

Las Vegas real estate market for homes and condos that are prices less than $300,000 is on fire.  Any listing that is reasonably priced gets multiple offers. Making offers based on COMPS which are same homes or condominiums which have sold in the last three months in the same community is the road to nowhere. For example, we have made 12 offers for homes that are priced below $135,000 for one customer, these offers are $10,000-$25,000 over COMPS and none have been accepted.

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.

Invest in MGM Grand Signature High rise condo towers in Las Vegas, Las Vegas high rise hotel condos for sale Part one

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