Is this the calm before the storm in the Henderson Nevada bank owned homes market? Our inventory levels have shown very little movement through June. With the recent end of the foreclosure moratorium, we keep looking for signs of the "second wave" of REOs, but have not seen it yet.

Henderson Nevada REO Inventory, 06-27-09

Because of the limited inventory and the great perceived value by both investors and first time buyers, activity on Henderson bank owned homes is extremely competitive. Be prepared to write offers on multiple properties and/or above list price if you want one of these homes. 

If you'd like more info about Henderson bank owned homes or the Henderson real estate market, just give me a call at (702) 339-9700 or email me at JohnNovak@kw.com. I'm ready to go to work for you.

If you're looking for a Henderson Nevada bank owned home, you'll likely break down your search by areas of town. The GLVAR MLS system divides Henderson into six areas numbered 601 to 606. The table below shows that although area 606 has the lowest percentage of REO listings, it has the greatest REO activity.

Henderson Nevada REO Activity by MLS Area, 06-21-09

Investors and first-time homebuyers are attracted by very low list prices, but that also creates intense competition. Several neighborhoods have bank owned homes priced at pre-2000 levels. If you're looking at Henderson REOs, be prepared to write offers on multiple properties and/or above list price. 

If you'd like more info about Henderson bank owned homes or the Henderson real estate market, just give me a call at (702) 339-9700 or email me at JohnNovak@kw.com. I'm ready to go to work for you.

Have you noticed the new design on the login page for ActiveRain? The color scheme is slightly different; a few clouds have been added; navigation is in a menu form rather than text links; the buttons are rounded instead of rectangular; and the Business Builder categories are much more prominent.

I'm curious to see how these design changes will be applied to other pages within the site. What do you think of the new look?

In honor of today being "Take Your Dog to Work Day", my Sheltie wanted to get the word out about Dogbook -- a Facebook application for dogs. Here is a screenshot of Sundance's profile:

Dogbook has over 500,000 active users who Sundance can share info with about favorite parks, favorite treats, and other aspects of a dog's life. I just wish that someone would invent a paw-friendly keyboard. Some of Sundance's posts need a lot of editing. Now that this one's finished, we're headed to the park!

Looking at the inventory levels of Henderson Nevada bank owned homes over the last few weeks it would be very easy to conclude that our market has stabilized. And we have ... but it is a very fragile stabilitiy, and my personal opinion is that we'll still see REOs play a big role in the Henderson market for at least 12-18 months. We keep hearing phrases like "shadow inventory" and "second wave", and neither of these are positive indicators.

Henderson Nevada REO Inventory, 06-20-09

Investors and first-time homebuyers are attracted by low list prices, but that also creates intense competition. Several neighborhoods have bank owned homes priced at pre-2000 levels. If you're looking at Henderson REOs, be prepared to write offers on multiple properties and/or above list price. 

If you'd like more info about Henderson bank owned homes or the Henderson real estate market, just give me a call at (702) 339-9700 or email me at JohnNovak@kw.com. I'm ready to go to work for you.

Both first-time buyers and investors are attracted to Henderson Nevada bank owned homes by their low prices. But just how much value do these homes offer? The median selling price for all Henderson Nevada homes in May was $200,000. Six out of ten Henderson REOs are priced at or below that level. Here's the current inventory:

Henderson Nevada REO Inventory, Price Points 06-14-09

If you're ready to enter the Henderson bank owned home market, be prepared to compete. Inventory is at its lowest point in the last 12 months. You should also be ready to repaint, replace flooring, buy appliances, and do minor repairs, as very few of these homes are move-in ready. Still, for those who have a solid plan, ample resources, and a great agent, there are some terrific values.

If you'd like more info about Henderson bank owned homes or the Henderson real estate market, just give me a call at (702) 339-9700 or email me at JohnNovak@kw.com. I'm ready to go to work for you.

On June 19, 2009 the ActiveRain Real Estate Network reached the 150,000 member mark. Congratulations to Jonathan Washburn, Bob Stewart, Matt Heaton, and the entire ActiveRain Team on this monumental accomplishment! Your vision, passion and dedication to building this extraordinary real estate community are unparalleled.

Founded in 2006, it was less than a year ago, on July 25, 2008 that ActiveRain passed 100,000 members. Since then, the network has rocketed to 150,000 in under 11 months, an annual growth rate of over 50% and an average of over 4,500 new members per month.

I'm sure the AR Team has several plans in the works to build on this momentum. It's going to be an exciting time as the network moves to 200,000 members and beyond. Congrats ActiveRain!

Find out more about the vision and growth of ActiveRain in these posts from The Official ActiveRain Blog:

ActiveRain Launches Real Estate Industry's First Social Networking Website

ActiveRain Real Estate Network is 1 month old

Ahhh, pretty charts - First 6 weeks of growth

Let's have a contest: Contest #1
Contest #1: And we have a winner

ActiveRain member 10K!!!

ActiveRain's Membership Surges to 35,000 in First Year

Real Estate Tomato Interviews ActiveRain CEO, Matt Heaton

ActiveRain week in review #1

Big traffic increases for ActiveRain and Localism

ActiveRain's Weltanschauung

Matt and Jon on Inman TV

ActiveRain Hosts the Carnival of Real Estate

ActiveRain Unveils the New Localism

Inventory levels of Henderson Nevada bank owned homes showed just a very slight decline since last week. Low list prices have attracted investors and first-time homebuyers, creating intense competition and enabling us to keep up with new inventory released by banks. If you're looking at Henderson REOs, be prepared to write offers on multiple properties and/or above list price. Here's the current inventory for Henderson homes:

Henderson Nevada REO Inventory, 06-13-09

Several neighborhoods have bank owned homes priced at pre-2000 levels. Today's Henderson real estate market offers great value for first-time buyers, vacation and second home buyers, regular buyers, and investors. However, with prices being so affordable, specific homes are only on the market for a short time -- so you need to act quickly.

If you'd like more info about Henderson bank owned homes or the Henderson real estate market, just give me a call at (702) 339-9700 or email me at JohnNovak@kw.com. I'm ready to go to work for you.

I recently shared my Google success from the post Henderson Nevada Bank Owned Homes; Inventory Overview, 06-06-09. Within twelve hours, that post was ranked #2 on page 1, but a few hours later it slipped to ninth. Three days later, I couldn't find the post within the first 25 pages!

In just 72 hours, my ranking went from page 1 to this:

Well, maybe not exactly like this ... there were 250+ other results for "Henderson Nevada bank owned homes" and I still hadn't found mine.

Gardnerville NV real estate agent Christianne Gordon duplicated my success with Carson Valley Bank Owned Homes: Inventory Update 06-07-09. Her post landed on page 1 within 45 minutes, and six days later holds the #1 and #2 spots for "Carson Valley Bank Owned Homes."

Tonight I checked Google again ... and "Henderson Nevada Bank Owned Homes: Inventory Overview, 06-06-09" is now back at #2 on page 1! In just one week it's been a wild ride from #2 to #250+ and then back to #2.

I know that I can't expect one post to lock down page one for any extended period of time. And I intend to build a series of posts around "Henderson Nevada Bank Owned Homes" to improve my staying power in the search rankings. But can anyone offer an explanation on the volatility of Google's results?

In yesterday's webinar about RealBird and ActiveRain, Katerina Gasset touched on the importance of writing keyword rich titles for our blog posts. It's advice I've heard several times before, but don't always have front of mind when a post idea hits me. Sometimes I just write.

Last night I wrote the first in a series of posts about the Henderson REO market titled "Henderson Nevada Bank Owned Homes: Inventory Overview, 06-06-09". It's just a quick intro, a few paragraphs and some basic statistics.

This morning, only about twelve hours from publishing the post, I searched Google for "Henderson Nevada bank owned homes" ... and found my post on page 1, position 2.

Now the skeptic in me said "John, you've seen hundreds of examples where agents rank well for specifically targeted phrases, but real people never search that way." For example, search for "real estate agents in Henderson named John that own Shelties" and my ActiveRain blog comes up #1!

So to test my theory, I tried a few variations to see where I rank:

• Henderson bank owned homes -- page 1, position 9
• Henderson NV bank owned homes -- page 1, position 4
• Henderson Nevada REOs -- page 1, position 9
• Buying a Henderson bank owned home -- page 1, position 7

What have I learned from this? It has reminded me that there is a huge difference between knowledge and knowledge applied. How many times do we say "Great tip", "I'm going to look into that", "I need to learn more about that", but then fail to fully implement those new skills and ideas in our business?

A popular inspirational video, 212: The Extra Degree, says "At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils." Just one degree completely changes the physical nature and potential of water. That one degree for your blog is keyword rich titles.

Read more about keywords and SEO on ActiveRain:

ActiveRain Settings & SEO Benefits - by Brad Andersohn
Optimizing Your ActiveRain Profile for Search Engines and Visitors - by Brad Carroll
Blogging for Business: Keyword Rich Content to Get Your Phone to Ring! - by Katerina Gasset

Long Tail Keywords for Blogging - by Katerina Gasset
Do You SEO? - by Laurie Manny
How to put your blog on the first page of Google guaranteed - by Mary McKnight

How to Maximize Your ActiveRain Blog's Search Engine Ranking - by Justin Smith
What Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla Can Teach Us About SEO and YEO - by Jeff Turner
Understanding Keywords Can Help You Maximize Your Web Traffic - by Loreena Yeo