Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

Just had to share

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:45:10 -0500

Everyone blogs for different reasons. Sometimes its for strictly informational purposes, other times to share a personal experience or observation. Visitors often comment for the same reasons. I recently received a comment on our First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit post that I would like to share:

Thank you

On October 18th, 2009 Anonymous (not verified) says:

I would like to say.

Thank you Jacqulyn Richey for placing this post up for us to read and reply to. This is one of the most imformative sites I've found.

Its things like this, a simple comment that makes its all worthwhile. That post now has over 1,400 comments.

Affordable Luxury: Southern Terrace

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:50:18 -0500

When surfing through the internet about Las Vegas homes, you'll find a lot of sites that talk about Summerlin, Spanish Trail, Silverado Ranch, etc. They are great communities with a lot to offer a home buyer. However, there are a lot of other wonderful communities that have been largely ignored. One of these is Southern Terrace. The community was built by then Nevada home builder Perma-bilt (who was later acquired by housing giant Meritage Homes shortly after the community was built). It was probably the last master planned community built under the Perma-bilt brand and offers a lot of the same amenities you'd find in a Green Valley or Summerlin community. The association fees are under $100 a month and the community has two swimming pools, spa, fitness facilities, club house and picnic areas with bbq grills.

Southern Terrace real estate offers four beautiful neighorhoods of one and two story homes ranging from just under 1,400 sf to over 3,400 sf. The community is located on the west side of town near Tropicana Avenue and Fort Apache in zip code 89148. The I215 beltway is just a short drive away, plus a variety of shops, restaurants and more. If you would like listings of the current Southern Terrace homes for sale, call 702-493-8033 or visit our website www.lvrealty.net -cr

Thinking about CityCenter? You Might Want to Think Again

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:54:04 -0500

The massive CityCenter project is finally nearing completion. For quite a while, the project was on the fence. Earlier this year, the project suffered a near fatal blow. It started with a construction defect prevented the construction of the Harmon condos, forcing MGM Mirage to refund buyer's deposits on those units already sold. Then in April, their partner in the project, Dubai World, refused to honor their financial commitment to provide funding of the project.

Despite their differences, MGM Mirage and Dubai World managed to resolve their conflict and came to agreement. Funding and construction resumed with the target date of completion by December of this year.

Now, CityCenter is facing another obstacle, early buyers wanting massive price reductions. A small group of early condo buyers have filed a law suit demanding that their contracts be changed and their unit prices reduced.

Will CityCenter still be completed? I think that it will be completed, but it may be sometime next year. CityCenter may not have a choice as far as the price reductions are concerned. Buyers at those price levels may not be able to get financing unless the prices are reduced to near market level. On the plus side, CityCenter will be a LEED certified green project, grandfathered into the original law. Owners will enjoy hefty tax benefits after taking possession.

So if you were thinking about buying a condo in CityCenter, there is a lot of things to consider. There are a lot of different projects to high rise condos to choose from in the valley that are already completed like Palms Place. If you would like listings of the current high rise condos for sale in Las Vegas, call 702-493-8033 or drop me an email at info @lvrealty.net -cr

Submit your Real Estate blog posts to Puurple

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:20:37 -0500

For those of you familiar with Digg, Puurple looks very similar. The site allows you to post your favorite real estate stories and vote on them, just like Digg. Submitting your blog posts to Puurple will also help draw in more traffic to your site.

In all fairness, I must disclose that my husband Charles is a moderator on the site (aka spam killer). Posts not related to the real estate industry (mortgage, etc) will be removed. You will need to sign up for an account (it's free) in order to be able to submit and vote on stories.

Live like a High Roller - Without the High Roller Prices

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:00:06 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:36:53 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:13:27 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:16:23 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:09:09 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:53:37 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:49:53 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:30:15 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:36:54 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:10:35 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:39:45 -0600

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!

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:43:31 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:29:01 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:20:10 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:49:33 -0600

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:21:00 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:30:57 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:49:58 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:47:46 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:38:40 -0500

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

Jacqulyn Richey - Las Vegas Real Estate (Prominent Realty Group) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:15:01 -0500

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