Last week, I heard one of my top agents call to tell his well-qualified, first time home buyer that another offer was accepted on the home he wanted. This is the second time he's had to make that call. They are looking for a newer 3 bedroom home with a 2 car garage in Summerlin. They had offered more money than the asking price.
I am hearing of this happening more and more. Many homes in Las Vegas that sellers could no longer make full payments on, or that couldn't be sold in a Short Sale, have been foreclosed on and are now being sold as REO homes, or Real Estate Owned-owned by a bank. The banks are very smart. In some cases they are pricing homes well below market value to generate a lot of interest. It's getting to be like a feeding frenzy in some areas of the valley like Summerlin, Green Valley, and Southern Highlands. Yesterday, an agent called me to ask what to do if the property her clients wanted to write an offer on was priced incorrectly on the Multiple Listing Service. Should she write the offer, or call the agent to verify the price? I told her to check the tax records, and sure enough, the home was owned by a bank. I told her to expect to see 20 other buyers looking at the same house when she took her clients there, on its second day on the market. The banks are doing what savvy agents recommend to their sellers: price the property well below market value to create an auction style environment. A seller could generate a ton of interest and is more likely to get potential buyers into a bidding war and drive the price up. I am hearing over and over that the homes my agents are writing offers on are up against at least 7 other offers. This tells me that in some cases, the banks are helping us to find the bottom of market value in some neighborhoods.
I don't think that this is over, however. We still have many mortgages adjusting on the horizon and sellers not generating the income they thought they would at this time to cover their new payment amounts. Many people in our community are being forced into foreclosure and bankruptcy. It's a double edged sword: bad for those that bought between 2004 and 2006, and good for the current investors and buyers with strong FICO scores and some money to put down. Buyers right now are getting rock-bottom pricing and great rates-which will not last forever.
Many experts are predicting another housing boom in Las Vegas in late 2009 to 2010. I keep seeing article after article that Las Vegas is the place to buy right now, due to major Strip projects opening in the next few years creating many employment opportunities. We still have a wonderful tax shelter; pay no state tax, and we have a mild climate that residents love, with every kind of entertainment one could imagine.
A lot of our friends thought we were crazy to do what we're doing, but it is exactly because of what is going on that I co-founded a new residential Real Estate brokerage with owners Billy O'Keefe and Rich Casto last year. Rich, a national Real Estate trainer, predicted this market three years ago and leveraged his knowledge in opening a company here in Las Vegas. With so many other Real Estate companies down-sizing or declaring bankruptcy, agents are flocking to us, a leadership team with a solid business model that truly puts our clients--buyers and sellers--first. We are the only company in town to offer a money back guarantee. There are many reasons that real estate agents are one of the least respected professions and we are committed to changing that. We are coaching and training many local real estate agents, for free, no matter who they work for. We are working to create a win-win for agents and their customers.
If you are a seller or buyer with questions, or an agent looking for something different, contact Dana Whittaker, Manager, at O'KeefeCasto Residential Brokerage, at (702)804-7703.
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