With more and more homes closing with the terms "AS-IS" in the language of the contract, are we getting sloppy with disclosure? Has the industry decided this is the magic term to keep them safe?

This is the topic of discussion Spectrum Inspection Group has outlined in a real world scenario in my most recent blog posting. http://www.timmerrell.com/can-the-reo-listing-agent-hide-behind-as-is-condition

Please add your comments and point of view on this discussion.

A few weeks ago I was on the local FOX5 morning news talking about a couple of the Biggest Mistakes Buyers make when they purchase. This was the impetus for me to expand the list into Ten Different Mistakes, as I see it, and I have posted them at my http://www.lasblogvegas.com/ page. I think they cover some of the basics but if you dig into them you will find there is a bit more thought provoking ideas. Enjoy!

I know in our Las Vegas market there seems to be a lot of confusion between the two types of management. Here is a link to information about an upcoming CE class in the Vegas area in the next couple of weeks. If you are in any type of property management, I think you should check it out! You even get breakfast, what a deal!

As you can see I have not been very active on "Active Rain" in the past few months. The main reason for this is that I have been working on my own blog site. It is LASblogVEGAS.com, I have been posting everything at this site. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

The past couple of weeks have been strange weather conditions for lots of people and for some it has cost them millions! Here in Vegas we've seen several days of freezing temperatures here at my house in Seven Hills I recorded a low of 18 degrees last week. It's not going to cost us millions but there is going to be lots of repair work for thousands of home owners here in Southern Nevada. The photo is one of my pressure relief valves that filled with so much ice it exploded the top into pieces. I know there will be lots of maintenance for almost every home in town between the broken water lines and the dead plants. Good News if you are a landscape contractor!

Yesterday was the day we've all been waiting for! Toll Brothers opened their sales office at Inspirada yesterday and started taking reservations even without having prices! This was the first day of sales for over 11,000 new homes, WOW! The Toll Brothers Models are under construction with all of the different floor-plans in the framing stage. This is a very different concept for us here in the Las Vegas area and the floor-plans are going to be very interesting when they open. KB Homes will be opening for sale in their models in the coming weeks there is also an information center that will be opening in a few weeks. It looks to me like all are operating on generators at this point! I have all of the floor plans in my office and will be putting them on my web site very soon! Please contact me if you are interested! This is a photo of the Toll Brothers Sales Office.

 

Just this past week my broker, Mark Stark, proposed a very good idea to all of us at Prudential Americana Group. Here is the concept in a nut shell, use your HELCO as your bank account. Here is the idea, every month there will be a minimum payment on your HELOC but if you start to deposit your paychecks and daily cash into this account it will act as the payment, so you say "Big Deal"! We'll it's all about cash flow, let's say that you use your HELOC to pay off your car payment which will result in a minimum monthly payment of several hundred dollars, when you deposit your paycheck (hopefully several thousand) it will act as the payment an in effect reduce your monthly cash flow! This is a great concept and I found myself doing it without even know what a great concept it could be. This is a tool that we can all help our clients, family and freinds understand to reduce monthly cash flow and ultimately reduce our over all debt. I've even heard from a lender that there is a program out there that is very similar to a HELOC as a bank account but it is a first mortgage, this way as your cash is sitting in your account for a couple of weeks waiting to pay the mortgage it is being used to reduced your daily interest accrual. Good luck and start saving some money!

SECOND WEEK DOES A TREND MAKE? Well this week we see another large drop in our inventory here in Las Vegas. We are down 426 active listings to 20,524! WOW! Quite the change we are seeing in the past few weeks. Again it is the month of December and it is rumored that Realtors take the month off?!?! December is unique in that Realtors are as busy as they want to be. On the other hand sellers are ofter waiting for the beginning of the year and sometimes there are taxes to consider. Everything I've been reading and all of the people I talk to think that we are seeing the turn in our market. If you think I'm wrong just count the cranes on the strip! If you are a buyer you'd better get out there and go shopping, we currently have a couple of great foreclosure deals! Here is the best place to start your search for a new home.

This is a bit off topic but I wanted to share the first photo of our new kittens. Christy & I got both of them this week. They look bigger in the photo but they are still quite small, both of them are Bengals. We named them Leo & Chloe! They've only been at our house for a couple of days but we are already hooked as they are so much fun! It's been some time since we have had a pet in the house....Any words of wisdom would be great!

This photo was taken on December 1, 2006 of the new Hampton Inn in Seven Hills, Henderson, NV. It looks like it is getting very close to being complete but I don't think it will be in time for all of the extra family visitors this December. For everyone in the Seven Hills area they are just going to have to send the extra Holiday guests to the Strip, maybe next year they can stay just down the hill. There are also several spaces still for lease in the same parking lot, if you are looking to start a new business here in Southern Nevada!