Compare these stats to the data collected 3 years ago.  Las Vegas Rental Statistics by Area - and Area Map 07/2008

The following rental statistics are all median values on single family detached homes and patio homes leased within the last 12 months.  They are between 1400 to 2800 square feet, built after 1996, without pools and without furniture.  Age restricted communities have not been included in these stats.

** GLVAR Deems Information Reliable, But Not Guaranteed **

I was reading the zillow.com blog and saw this featured blog giving consumers bad advice on when to "break up" with their agent.  I didn't like what I read.

When It May Be Time to Break Up With Your Agent

Has your home been sitting on the market for months? Years? You’re not alone, and while there’s an obvious reason why...

The first bit of advice to consumers was:

"A good real estate agent — no matter how busy they are — is on the cell 24-7"

I strongly disagree.  Some good agents may operate this way, but I know plenty of great agents who have established business hours and do not need to answer their phone 24/7.  "Break up" with this agent and you may have just traded a great agent for a desperate one.  Besides, let's say an agent does answer their phone on Sunday at 6pm while out to dinner with their family...they don't have the file,  don't have a computer or notes with them...isn't that conversation going to be much more productive if they speak Monday morning when the agent can give their full attention and have all the available info at their fingertips?

The next bit of advice I had a problem with was:

"Are you getting bad advice?"

You've got to read this one...I don't even know where to start.  How could a recommended price drop to be in line with comparable sales be bad advice?  ...and how is replacing a broken screen the "good advice" that will get the overpriced home sold???

At the end of the post was this gem:

"Have you gotten ANY offers?"

The author suggests that a home which is getting a lot of inquires and a lot of showings, but no offers is the fault of the listing agent because they can't "sell" or "close the deal".

WHAT?  If the house is getting lots of inquiries and lots of showings, the agent has probably priced it well and marketed it extremely well.  The fact that buyers are disappointed when they see the property says more about the property than the listing agent's sales ability.  "Break up" with this agent and you might have just traded an expert marketer for a slick talker.  My experience tells me the slick talker's deal will crumble because the buyer will come to their senses at some point during the 30-45 day escrow period.

And of course the author mentions the importance of reading "online ratings and reviews on Zillow" because how can they possibly be a good agent if they don't have online ratings and reviews on zillow (sarcasm)?

Researching local public schools is a good idea when purchasing real estate even if you're buying investment property. Being zoned for a "popular" or highly desired school can make a property easier to rent or sell in the future. But keep in mind, re-zoning is common.

Here are some sites to help research schools. From these links you can find information such as zoning, school comparisons, parent and student opinions, & much more.

http://www.greatschools.net - Nationwide site

• Research & Compare
• Parent & Student Opinions
• Advice
• 1-10 rating scale for easy comparisons

http://www.ccsd.net - Clark County School District website.

• Zoning by address & zoning maps
  
• Calendar
• Individual school websites
• Contact info
• Lot's more

http://www.nevadareportcard.com/

• Compare Nevada schools
• Assessment
• AYP
• Fiscal
• Student
• Teacher

http://www.vegasproperty4u.com/school_reports.shtml

• School Profiles
• Nationwide
• Search by City, County, or Zip Code
• Search by school or district name
• Maps

Also be sure to check out trulia's new crime map --- Click Here

If you list and sell short sales in Las Vegas like I do, you already know it's common to spend 1-2 months negotiating a short sale approval and proudly proclaim to your seller, the buyer's agent, title, and the buyer's lender: "Short Sale Approved!" ...only to hear a few days later from the buyer's agent, "...uhm, well...the buyer decided to cancel".

What's really going on?  I believe an average buyer is putting 3-4 homes in contract, but only buying 1.

How'd I come up with that?  In short...We've consistently had about 11,000 homes in contract at any given time, but we're only closing about 3000 per month.

Of the 11,000 or so homes currently in contract, about 6800 (about 62%) are short sales.  However, we're closing about 3000 homes per month, but only about 25% (about 750) of the closings are short sales.

Bailing buyers have become a huge problem here in the Vegas market for short sale sellers and agents and banks. (Although I don't have much sympathy for the banks, I do believe that what hurts the banks also hurts our market, but that's a topic for another discussion.)

Why are buyers bailing on deals?
I don't blame the buyers or their agents.  They want a house and don't want to keep all their eggs in one basket waiting several months to find out the bank didn't approve the sale, or wouldn't release the deficiency so the seller decides to let it foreclose instead, or they decided to try a loan mod, or (I could go on forever with reasons a short sale can fall apart...)

What can be done about it?
The real solution lies with the banks.  A pre-approved short sale would go a long way to fixing this problem.  We had some hope with HAFA, but in my opinion this plan has not worked well at all.  Yeah, I've done several successful HAFA short sales, but they've been a drop in the bucket when it comes to really fixing the short sale/foreclosure problems we face in Nevada.  And even the HAFA so called "pre-approved" short sales require a whole mess of additional paperwork, time & red tape even after the "pre-approval".

The banks can fix this?  Yeah, right...so what can we really do about it?
In my opinion, buyers and sellers need to require a little more commitment from each other in their contracts.

I see it so often, I'm not even surprised anymore when an offer come across my desk where the buyer doesn't want to even put earnest money in escrow until we have short sale approval.  ...so you're asking the seller to take the property off the market for a month or two while I spend countless hours negotiating a short sale approval and you don't even have a single cent in the game?  Really?  Are some sellers accepting contracts like that?

Another common item is due diligence beginning upon short sale approval.  I think it might be a mistake to wait until short sale approval to begin the due diligence period and/or order the hoa resale package.  Both of these items are easy "outs" for buyers with no skin in the game.  Why not get these other contingencies out of the way early on?  The buyer doesn't want to spend the $300 or $400 bucks for an inspection and the seller doesn't want to shell out the $200 bucks for the resale package until we get the "Approval", but that might have to change if we are to see any improvement to the current pattern of canceling contracts and 4 escrows to sell 1 house.

Each week I spend a little time answering Las Vegas real estate questions for people who have yet to choose an agent, are looking for a second opinion, or couldn't get an answer from their own agent.  Often the questions are asked on sites like trulia and zillow, and I thought why not post my answers on my own blog as well? 

Home is underwater and upside down, spouse died, and am senior citizen. Loan mod refused and now facing foreclosure. Why not walk away?

During the two loan mod trials, they said don't pay the mortgage payments, so we did as told. Spouse was very ill and forced out of work and out of insurance.. During the 2nd trial and two hospital visits, spouse died. All I have now is SS.
Loan mod was refused, despite extreme hardship. Mortgage payment was up to almost $3000. First mod offered to lower to $2800. Ridiculous. Told them to do it again. Second time around was $2400. Now they will not do again and I have no cash to pay for another. Paid the attorneys a ton of cash to no avail. House is now facing foreclosure, got the notice, but they are just fiddling around and haven't done it yet. It's been almost a year.
I have nothing left here.
I have a place to go and don't need this house.
Can someone give me one good reason why I shouldn't walk away?

Answer:

I'm sorry for your loss. While I feel badly for what you are going through, it also makes me angry to hear how uncooperative and unreasonable your lender has been, and just as bad are the attorneys who took your money and failed to help you.

Unfortunately, I often see the same scenario of failed loan modifications and expensive legal fees to attorneys who failed to help. If I could give 1 piece of advice to other people who just getting into trouble with their loans it would be to seek advice from many sources sooner rather than later and especially before paying any money to an attorney or loan mod company. Talk to several attorneys, talk to several real estate agents who specialize in short sales, talk to several loan modification companies (make sure they're licensed).

To answer your question, here are 2 reasons why you may want to consider a short sale instead of just walking away:
1. You may want to explore your options regarding a short sale. If you qualify for the HAFA program or other similar short sale program, you may be eligible to receive up to $3000 from the sale.
2. One of the goals in doing a short sale would be to get the lender to grant "full satisfaction of the debt". Without that, the lender could go after you for the deficiency balance of the loan.

I'm a certified short sale professional. Don't hesitate to give me a call if you'd like some more information.

Damon Botticelli
Realty One Group
(702) 523-7713

Each week I spend a little time answering Las Vegas real estate questions for people who have yet to choose an agent, are looking for a second opinion, or couldn't get an answer from their own agent.  Often the questions are asked on sites like trulia and zillow, and I thought why not post my answers on my own blog as well? 

What is the average discount sellers are making to close the deal on their home?

01/02/2011 - Market Conditions in Summerlin - asked by Jwsale on trulia

Great answer from Bill. To add on that, the average sale price to listing price in Summerlin over the past 12 months was 97.5% for single family homes. So on average sellers discounted 2.5% off the list price. It's also common to allow up to 3% towards the buyer's closing costs, but I don't have the data at hand to back that up.

It's also important to mention that averages mean little to nothing when you're negotiating on a specific property. When you look at average, you're including an 8.9 million dollar house that sold for 7 million, a $180k house that sold for $240k, a $200k home that was gutted and sold for $160k, etc... none of which have anything to do with the home you are either buying or selling.

Every deal is different and that's why the best agents will look carefully at all the details effecting your deal to give you the best possible angle in negotiations.

Right now, we have over 12,000 available homes on the market and over 10,000 homes under contract.  If you've been searching homes for sale in the Las Vegas, N. Las Vegas, or Henderson areas, chances are you've come across the perfect home online, only to find out it was under contract, but the site you found it on wasn't updated.

http://homesearch.botticellihomes.com

This site is great because it will only show search results for AVAILABLE property.  Why waste time sorting through thousands of homes that are NOT available?  If you find a property listed on another site and you want to check to see if it's actually available...just type in the address in this site and you'll find out right away if the property is still available.

Details, Details, Details!  You can set up and save your own searches and specify even the most detailed criteria.  For example, you can filter out "short sales", or only look for "foreclosures".  You can specify details like, "Master Bedroom Downstairs", "Granite Counter Tops" or "Guard Gated Only" or even search within a set price per square foot.

I could go on and on about the search capabilities, but I suggest you check it out for yourself.  It does have a lot of features, so you may want to click on the "Website Tutorials" tab in the upper right, or just give me a call and I'll be happy to point out some of the advanced features and help get your search up and running.

http://homesearch.botticellihomes.com

Here's a snap shot of the map based search page:

Or use the list view:

And here is a sample of just SOME of the search criteria: