Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

Live like a High Roller - Without the High Roller Prices

2009-06-19T16:00:06Z

By now almost everyone has heard how inexpensive property is in Las Vegas. The national media has beating the foreclosure drum to death. However, certain parts of town still command a hefty price tag. For those looking for a condo on the strip, prices have gone down...but are not at rock bottom.

That doesn't mean that you can't enjoy a high roller lifestyle on a more modest budget. There are quite a few communities located within walking distance to the strip that have fallen in price dramatically. They offer some of the same amenities found in strip properties, but cost far less. A good example would be the mid rise Meridian condos. Located on E Flamingo within walking distance of the strip and a monorail station, the community offers a host of resort style amenities you would expect in a higher end community including onsite dry cleaning, mail services, concierge services, two lighted tennis courts, pools, fitness center and underground secure parking.

If you have a little larger budget and prefer high rise living, Allure condos are a good choice. The Allure has brand new units that have fallen out of escrow now listed at 50% of original list price. The community has all of the upscale amenities you would expect and is located on Sahara Avenue, just a few hundred feet from the strip.

If you would like to have listings sent to you for either property, call 702-493-8033 or visit www.lvrealty.net and send us an email at info@lvrealty.net.-cr

Carnival of Real Estate

2009-06-19T15:36:53Z

We will be hosting a carnival of real estate on July 6th on our Las Vegas Real Estate Blog. We have decided on a specific theme as of yet (other than real estate related of course). The carnival will be accepting quality, original submissions between June 29 and July 5th. So if you wish to participate, stay tuned for further announcements.

Carnivals are a great way to increase your readership and interact with new people.-cr

Invitation Virus

2009-05-08T00:13:27Z

I received this email from a friend and thought I'd pass it along:

You should be alert during the next days:

Do not open any message with an attached file called 'Invitation' regardless of who sent it, It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called 'invitation', though sent by a friend , do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

In others words, you are out of luck. As always, its wise to have a back up of your important information. A cheap and easy solution is a USB external hard drive. They are sold everywhere, and some come with a software suite that will back up everything for you. -cr

Boomers keep coming to Southern Nevada

2009-03-30T16:16:23Z

The Las Vegas area is experiencing what could be called a gold rush lately. With so many foreclosed homes on the market, prices have plummeted. Great news if you are a home buyer for sure, especially if you've never owned a home before. The low prices combined with the first time home buyer tax credit makes it a powerful draw, especially for retirees.

Prices for most of the retirement specific communities have been cut in half since 2006. There are several Henderson and Las Vegas retirement communities to choose from. You can use our interactive map to view different communities around the valley.

You can view the map legend on our site along with community profiles on every age restricted community in the Las Vegas valley, plus search listings online or receive them by email. Free feel to contact me directly at 702-493-8033 or at info@lvrealty dot net.

New Mortgage Resource

2009-03-26T18:09:09Z

I just read a post here on Active Rain about getting more links to help boost your ranking on search engines. By a strange coincidence, a friend of mine has started a new mortgage resource site. Right now he is looking for authors in the mortgage (and real estate) industry to write some consumer oriented articles about the mortgage industry.

This is a great way to gain additional links back to your own personal site as well as traffic. You can see my author's link here. There is also a real estate and mortgage directory that is accepting (for now) free submissions. So if you are looking to expand your influence on the web, here is a great opportunity. -cr

Transparent Phising

2009-03-03T17:53:37Z

By now, almost everyone should be familiar with the term phising. Yesterday I got a phising email about my paypal account. Thankfully, the thieves aren't that sophisticated at all as you can see:

Dear Pay pal valued member,

Due to concerns, for the safety and integrity of the pay pal account we have issued this warning message.

It has come to our attention that your account information needs to be updated due to inactive members, frauds and spoof reports.

If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and renew your records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension

This notification expires on 48 hours.

Once you have updated your account records your pay pal account service will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Please follow the link below and login to your account and renew your account information
www.web66-cmd-rlogin .com

Sincerely,
Pay pal customer department!

So basically they are asking you to give them your paypal login information on a strange website...so they can log into Paypal and wipe out your account. Whenever you get these type of emails to "update" or "verify" your account, disregard them. Your bank or other institutions will never email you to update your account online. They will physically send you something or call you directly...if ever. -cr

What the market numbers really mean: Looking at Anthem Highlands

2009-02-16T18:49:53Z

There has been a lot of talk about the state of the economy and the real estate market in general over the last several months. Reports of home prices falling, interest rates going down and when will the market "hit bottom". Over the last several days I've been looking at homes across the valley for a friend of ours. One of the areas he was interested in was Green Valley.

We ended up looking at Anthem, specifically homes in Anthem Highlands. We looked at a home listed at $212,000 that originally sold for just under $400,000. That is a great example of what has happened to the market and what it means for home buyers. Areas that you could only have dreamed about are now affordable. That particular home just came on the market and already has an offer pending.

If you are thinking about buying a home and are waiting for the market to drop lower, you may be waiting in vain. Great deals are not staying on the market, but not every bank owned property is a great deal either! Feel free to call me at 702-493-8033 if you are thinking about buying a home in the Vegas valley. -cr

What's going on in the Las Vegas Market

2009-01-14T15:30:15Z

Along with this blog, we maintain several other blogs, some concentrating on the condo market as well as other niche markets. If you are looking for the latest Las Vegas Condo News or Las Vegas Homes news, check out either of these new blogs. Read about Ryland homes latest sale or the announcement by CityCenter dropping condos (posted on January 7th).

If you have been following the media coverage of the Las Vegas real estate market, you've may have noticed something strange....positive media coverage. That's right, the media has gotten off the gloom and doom train. For the second straight news cycle, print media as well as some television have been reporting positive news about the market. Two different studies by real estate tracking companies have been released in the last two weeks (one was in the Las Vegas Review Journal earlier this month, other at Forbes.com), stating that sales are up (the local REALTOR association can back that up with hard numbers) and prices are way, way down. Those are definite facts. I can't remember when you could buy a nice new two bedroom townhouse for under $60k. But its not just the entry level of the market seeing huge price drops. One of our clients is closing on a luxury home that listed for just under $1 million last year (and worth every penny). Full of custom features, built-ins, pool, park like landscaping and a huge lot, the property sold for just under $500 and its not a bank owned property. The falling prices are directly tied to the number of bank owned properties on the market. If you're looking for a new home, call us at 702-493-8033. Thanks for stopping by. -cr

Support your Favorite Animal Charity in Las Vegas

2009-01-09T12:36:54Z

If you have visited our website or follow this blog, you know that we are huge animal lovers and are very active in the animal rescue community in Las Vegas. I received an email alert about a contest being held by care2.com. They are giving away 25,000 to the top 29 shelters across the US and Canada with the most votes. So I'm asking for your support for my favorite rescue, Heaven Can Wait Sanctuary. Here is a short list why they deserve to win:

NO KILL
All breed rescue
Free mobile spay/neuter clinic targeting impoverished areas that can't afford vet care
Free pit bull spay/neuter clinic
Feral cat clinic - trapping and spay/neuter of the feral cat population
Pups on Parole program in both women's prisons in Southern Nevada. Inmates learn valuable skills while training foster dogs in basic obedience and house training, so they are more adoptable.
Many, many more community programs

You can cast your vote here: http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest/74514/?refer=7302.12.1231525455.5618

What you may have missed

2009-01-06T18:10:35Z

A new year is upon us and things are looking up, especially if you are planning on buying a home in Las Vegas this year and here is the why its a great time to buy in Las Vegas. Last year has been pretty rough on a lot of consumers and businesses as well. Many projects lost funding and were unable to find a new source, resulting in a lot of closures or abandonments of projects around town. One project did beat the odds, the Cosmopolitan. The lender had an affiliate buy up the property and the original contractor is working on its completion. Really its not surprising since the Cosmo is located on the strip next door to the massive CityCenter project.

Speaking of CityCenter, they officially started the hiring process to fill some 12,000 positions when the resort opens. The resort is due to open at the end of this year. -cr

Taking a tour of Laughlin

2009-01-03T23:39:45Z

When people think of Nevada, they can't help but think of Las Vegas. If you took a poll of a random group of people, most would probably think Las Vegas is also the state capital (its not, Carson City is). So its no wonder that Laughlin is often overlooked. The community of Laughlin started off as a sleepy little town on the Arizona border by the Colorado river. Over the years the town grew into a prospering city with resorts, gaming and golf.

Unlike the Las Vegas market, the Laughlin real estate market was largely unaffected. A quick look at the MLS (Laughlin is still in Clark County) shows only 21 homes for sale in a city with a population of almost 9,000 residents!

Laughlin has become a destination for many groups and individuals over the years. It is the third most visited resort destination in the state. The popular Laughlin River Run has become a tradition to raise money for charity. Right across the Arizona border is Bullhead City, which shares a communal airport with Laughlin. New Year's celebrations are very popular there, since quite a few revelers will celebrate New Year's next door in Bull Head city and then celebrate it again an hour later in Laughlin.

If you are thinking of getting away for a long weekend or purchasing a retirement home, Laughlin deserves a look. Its only 90 miles away from Las Vegas as well.

Its not Microsoft Emailing You!

2008-12-07T13:43:31Z

Tis the season for yet more new virus, phising scammer and trojan downloaders. You might receive a friendly notice from Microsoft (yeah, right) telling you about new updates to download. DON'T CLICK THE LINK. It takes you to an IP not run by Bill & Friends. Only use the windows update link in Windows or turn on automatic updates. Here is the email:

Install a New Microsoft Update !

	Try Microsoft Update today. New! Regularly update your computer with the latest software from Microsoft to boost the security and reliability of your Windows PC.
	Now you can get updates for Windows, Office and other Microsoft applications all in one place
	Microsoft Update is easy to set up and use. Download and install updates automatically:
	Microsoft Update is a new service that brings you all the features and benefits of Windows Update plus downloads for other Microsoft applications including Office
	Improve your computer_s health and security.Sign Up for our free, monthly e-mail security newsletter that's packed with valuable information to help you protect your home computer.

Updates are ready for your computer. Click here to install these updates:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/update. exe

The live links were Microsoft Corporation and the exe file. Make sure you have all of your anti-virus/malware software up to date. Believe me, a little prevention in this case will save you hours of cure later! -Charles in Las Vegas

Taking a look at Coronado Ranch

2008-12-05T22:29:01Z

Las Vegas is fortunate enough to be home to many wonderful master planned communities. From the massive planned community of Summerlin, to many smaller communities around the valley Las Vegas has a community for everyone. A great example would be the community of Coronado Ranch. Most Coronado Ranch homes are two story, with some single story and three story homes available.

There are some gated communities available as well, plus a community of townhomes. Some neighborhoods have additional amenities like a community pool, fitness center, clubhouse, etc. The community is fairly new. Most of the homes in the community were built after 2004. If you are thinking about buying a home in Las Vegas, take a look at the Coronado Ranch community. For listings of available properties, call 702-493-8033 or email me at info@lvrealty.net.

Thinking of a condo? Think Coronado Palms

2008-11-20T00:20:10Z

Right now its a great time to be a condominium buyer in Las Vegas. Condo prices are at their lowest levels since pre 2000 and there are tons of communities to choose from. With so many choices, it can be hard to settle on just one. Whether you are looking for a brand new community, or an older community in an established neighborhood, odds are you will find units for sale in those projects. But how do you choose? Let's take a look at a condo conversion community, Coronado Palms (not to be confused with another conversion project, Coral Palms).

This gated community offers six beautiful floor plans offering one, two and three bedroom condos. The Sago and Pindo floorplans are the smallest units available. For those individuals that crave a little more space, the Canary and Costal floorplans feature two bedrooms and two baths, ideal for having guests. Or if you need three bedrooms, there is the Palmetto floorplan.

The community is located off of Buffalo in zip 89113. The community has nice amenities including two swimming pools, spa, business center and entertainment areas. If you would like to tour the available condos for sale, call me at 702-493-8033. -cr

A new blog

2008-11-03T11:49:33Z

I couldn't resist the pull of Wordpress any longer and have launched a new WP blog covering Las Vegas Homes. As soon as I get a little comfortable with using WP, I'm going to make it a do follow blog as well and add in a few more plugins. Still on the fence as to which CMS I like better, Wordpress or Drupal. Each one has its advantages. I have more control over urls in Drupal than in Wordpress, although you can change them for both types of pages, like I did for this page about Las Vegas Senior Living. The theme is thesis and eventually it will be a little more colorful. Right now I'm concentrating on just adding content, so please excuse the stark look. I also started another WP blog about Las Vegas Condos.

Please stop by and take a look. -Charles

Austin Bantam Society Trophy Meet

2008-10-06T14:21:00Z

The Austin Bantam Society is having its 40th annual trophy meet October 8th through the 11th in beautiful Boulder City, Nevada. These little cars were America's first economy car. The company also invented the Jeep.

There will be a car show at Wilbur Square this Saturday, October 11th (My father in-law will have his car out there on display). For local information about the event, call Mark at 293-1913.

Vegas update

2008-10-04T14:30:57Z

There has been a lot of things going on in Las Vegas lately. If you haven't been watching CNN, the OJ Simpson trial has come to a close. One thing is for sure, some people will be happy and others won't. Here is the verdict.

Another interesting thing happened, the media actually reported some good news. I guess with so many bad things going on they felt compelled to report something good about the Las Vegas housing market. Here is a short video of Jane Wells reporting. The news couldn't have come at a better time, considering Las Vegas was topping the foreclosure list.

Live in Middle Earth

2008-09-18T16:49:58Z

Okay, well not exactly Middle Earth. Following the huge success of trilogy films, Engle homes announced one of their communities in Mountain's Edge would be named Rivendell, after the home of the elves. The street names are all taken from Tolkien's books as well.

The gated community features three floor plans of larger, single story homes up to just over 3,000 square feet. Engles homes also has a townhome community at Mountain's edge, Beacon Hill. If you are looking for a larger, single story home, Rivendell is worth a look. Call 702-493-8033 or visit our site for more information. -cr

It's not a Hallmark card

2008-09-15T21:47:46Z

By now, most of us are pretty savvy when it comes to spoofed emails or virus generated email. There is a nasty new email going around that contains the worse virus created thus far according to CNN and Microsoft. I got an email from a friend about it.

The virus comes in an attachment called 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK'. The return address may come from someone you know, regardless don't open it. Basically the virus destroys the zero sector of your hard drive. So far, there isn't a repair for it yet.

If you receive a mail called 'POSTCARD' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it!

PLEASE DELETE IT.

Make sure your anti-virus program is up to date and it is scanning your email. -Charles

Cool mortgage tools for your blog

2008-09-12T13:38:40Z

I was surfing the 'net today looking for a nice mortgage calculator for my blog. A quick search turned up a lot of results. Most of the sites offered a free calculator, although there were also several that had a paid version with a few more features and without a link back to the site.

I came across mortgagefit.com. They had the usual calculator as well, but they also have a huge section of mortgage and website tools. Everything from rate tables, calculators and maps, plus other widgets for your site. The site also has a community forum, articles and other information. -Charles

Property Auctions

2008-08-28T17:15:01Z

It seems auctions are the new 'thing' for trying to sell foreclosed properties. Property auctions are nothing new, they've been around for a long time. The last large auction I attended were auctioning off Valencia condos, a small condo conversion community located just off Maryland Parkway, about a half mile from UNLV. Some of the one bedroom condos sold for $50,000.

There is another auction coming for Lake Las Vegas. You can also read about it in the LA Times. The community is located in Henderson, on your way to Lake Mead. Lake Las Vegas real estate consists mostly of luxury homes, but there are a few condominium and townhome communities there. With so many foreclosures happening in the valley, its surprising there aren't more auctions going on. -cr

Custom living in Summerlin

2008-08-19T23:28:38Z

The master planned community of Summerlin is known for its great parks, golf courses and beautiful neighborohoods. In keeping with the grand vision of the community, The Ridges offers several custom home neighborhoods limited only by your imagination. There are two communities still offering lots for custom build homes. Some lots offer views of Bear's Best golf course and other sweeping views of the valley. The Ridges offers some of the most intimate Summerlin real estate available and was named one of the most desirable neighborhoods by Forbes magazine. Some neighborhoods have additional community amenities like private parks. There are also two neighborhoods of semi-custom homes to choose from as well.

If you prefer turnkey living or are looking for a weekend getaway, there is also a small community of townhomes by Toll Brothers. Fairway Hills townhomes has its own community amenities including a beautiful clubhouse, pool, barbecue area and putting green. There are six two story floor plans to choose from offering between two and four bedrooms.

Feel free to contact me for more information about housing opportunities in the Ridges or any of the other villages in Summerlin. I can be reached at 702-493-8033 or by email at info@lvrealty.net -cr

Summerlin: The Arbors a Tennis Lover's Haven

Summerlin - The Arbors: a Tennis' lovers haven

2008-08-05T19:51:54Z

Most people when shopping for a home relating to a sport it inevitably ends up being golf. Not that I have anything against the sport, other than I can't hit a golf ball to save my life. So it's no surprise that there are a lot of choices when it comes to golf course real estate. That's why the Arbors in Summerlin is such a rare treat for tennis afficiandos.

The Arbors is located closer to the surrounding mountains, giving it a higher elevation and consequently, great views of the city and mountains. The views are nice, but the big draw is the Arbors Tennis and Play park. It features five outdoor tennis courts, including a stadium court that are fully lighted. The park also has a tennis pro shop! The park also has a wonderful children's area called "Arborville" that has a toddler's tricycle track and lighted basketball court.

The community also has several other parks with sports fields, picnic areas and shaded seating areas, all linked together by the linear Arbors Paseo Park. It is also home to the 45,000 square foot Veterans Memorial Leisure Services and Community Center that has a fitness area, full court gym, play room, aerobics area, workspace and classrooms.

If you love to play tennis, you won't find another community in Las Vegas better suited to tennis afficiandos. For listings of the Arbors homes for sale or other Summerlin real estate, call 702-493-8033 or email me at info@lvrealty.net. - cr

Las Vegas condo living

2008-07-17T19:48:21Z

When it comes to condominium living, Las Vegas offers a bewildering array of choices. From entry level communities like Rancho Lake to ultra hip condos at X-it, condo hunters have a lot of communities to choose from. Why choose a condominium over a traditional home?

Condominium living offers a less complicated lifestyle. Outdoor maintenance is handled by the community association. Condo communities typically offer several amenities, like a clubhouse, fitness facilities, swimming pool, etc. Condo residents enjoy a more lock and leave lifestyle. Many people often choose a condo as a second or vacation home due to these conveniences. Some communities offer additional security, guard gates or video surveillance (or any combination therein) an additional amenity. Some communities offer some unique amenities for their residents like private pet parks, putting greens, tanning booths, free wireless internet and shuttle services to name a few.

There are thousands of Las Vegas condos on the market currently in every price range. If you are thinking about a condominium in Las Vegas, give me a call at 702-493-8033. -cr

Which CMS do you prefer?

2008-06-15T22:40:33Z

With so many real estate agents jumping on the blog bandwagon, the number of platforms to pick from keeps growing. But which platform is right for you? Really most of them come down to personal preference and your own level of technical knowledge. Let's take a look at some of the more popular content management systems out there.

Blogger. Everyone has heard of it and there are a ton of real estate blogs using this platform, like this self-hosted Arizona Real Estate News blog and there are some being hosted for free by blogger, as this Las Vegas Homes Blog is. On the plus side, you have complete control over the html, whether you are hosting the blog or not. There are tons of templates available or you can simply create your own if you have the html skills. However, the platform is only moderately search engine friendly and there aren't a lot of free plug-ins readily available for it compared to other platforms.

Wordpress. Probably the most popular blog platform ever created. Because it is a free, open source program, there are lots of hybrid creations out there being used. Like blogger, you can have a free hosted wordpress blog or you can host your own creation like this modified Wordpress blog about Paradise Valley real estate or this one about Scottsdale Real Estate. Both are using Wordpress as their backbone, but the coding has been modified by the provider. There are hundreds of free plug-ins available as well as thousands of templates. Community support for Wordpress is unsurpassed and new releases are put out on a regular basis. You can also generate static pages as well as regular blog pages. Currently it seems that Wordpress is the platform of choice by most real estate bloggers. It is extremely search engine friendly.

Drupal. This popular CMS powers quite a few corporate and public sites due to its extreme flexibility. Like Wordpress, there is a lot of community support and hundreds of free plug-ins available. However, you can't get a free hosted drupal site at this time, you have to have your own hosting. Set up is more complicated than a WP or blogger site, so there is a learning curve involved. Our Las Vegas real estate site runs on it which was done by the same person that created this Phoenix real estate site. You can set up Drupal to be a regular website, blog or any combination you can think of in between. Like WordPress, Drupal sites are extremely search engine friendly and you can control every aspect of the site.

Typepad. This blogging platform powers thousands of real estate blogs. You can sign up for a free trial, but after that you will need pay for the service. The interface is hosted by typepad and you are given a subdomain for your blog. You can forward your own domain to it, but the site will still be visible at the original subdomain name you picked (according to their FAQ). Its a great choice for someone with no technical expertise and very little time (and inclination) to learn how to set up a site. The platform is moderately search engine friendly and has a full corporate support.

Rsspieces. This custom blogging platform is relatively new to the scene and is designed specifically towards real estate bloggers. In addition to being very search engine friendly, owner Mary McKnight and her company provide additional blogging training and seo advice. There are several member of Active Rain who have Rsspieces blogs and are doing quite well in the search engine results. AR member Ines' site Miamism is a great example.

Joomla! Another open source CMS, it powers everything from websites to blogs. There is large community support for the platform and hundreds of plug-ins or extensions available for download. Like Drupal, there is a bit of learning curve.

There are of course, many, many more out there. I haven't include many other popular real estate blog providers, not because they aren't good products, I just wanted to hit the mainstream only. I know there are several members here who have a tomato blog (which seems to be a great product) or a dakno blog. If those of you with those sites would like share your experience in the comments, that'd be great. -Charles