Buyers Gobble up Las Vegas REO’s

The Las Vegas housing market is chewing through excess inventory of foreclosures, which now account for about 80 percent of resale homes.
The inventory of single-family home listings dropped sharply from 23,803 in January to 20,623 in August. The average Days on the Market went from 93 to 62 days during the same time frame.
The population of Clark County is still growing at a furious pace. In 2007, the population was at a cool 2,000,000, now it is estimated at 2,075,000 that is an increase of 6,250 people a month moving to the valley. Stuart Sheinfeld, Realtor in Las Vegas noted “With bank owned homes going for as little as $50/sq ft this makes a great time for 1st time homeowners and investors to get back in the market.” Especially when there is so much lending uncertainty on the horizon
The estimated current housing supply is at 7.3 months
When buying a REO or bank owned home here are a few things to know:
1. Property is being conveyed “AS IS/WHERE IS” condition. There will be no warranties, expressed or implied as to the condition of the property. Seller’s limits of liability to make any repairs to the property will be zero ($0). Seller will most likely not complete or compensate for any repairs.
2. Since Seller(s) do not have the means to provide HOA Association documentation, Buyer(s) are responsible for ordering & paying for the HOA documents; should a fee exist, to satisfy any and all due diligences per the CCR’s requirements to purchase a property in an association.
3. The actual selling price of this transaction will be determined upon getting an acceptable “net proceeds” required notification from the Seller’s Lender(s) and adding the Lenders acceptable costs to that bottom line.
4. The Lenders provided closing date is firm. There will be a monetary increase placed on the Buyers to compensate for additional interest or fees incurred by the Lender(s) for closing after the required date. REO’s are time sensitive and agents must understand that extensions are usually not honored by loss mitigation departments.
5. The Lender(s) may decide not to pay for Buyer’s Appraisal, Home Warranty or other “Buyers Closing Costs.”
6. Any required upfront payments will be paid for by the Buyer(s).
Most of all the list price is not always the price the bank is willing to accept. If the home is turn-key then you can bet there will be multiple offers and most likely be bought for as much as 120% of list price.
More info go to http://www.elitevegasrealestate.com

Short Sale Frustration

Purchasing a short sale property which requires the seller’s lender approval is very complex situation. Even if you are working with the seller, however, the lender must approve the final numbers. We are asking them to accept less than what may be currently owed to them on the property.

If you submit an offer on a short sale property they usually should be submitted to the bank as they come in. This is not always the case since some real estate agents wait to submit groups of offers at once. This can delay an offer for at least a week to 10 days. Once it is submitted, it will take at a minimum 30-90 days to get a response, all depending on the institution that holds the note. Hopefully the seller has received approval for the short sale. If not, this process will take at least 45 days longer. You will need patience with this process!!!

Short sales, may change in the negotiation process in getting a final approval for the sale. The buyer will most likely have to pay for any reports, inspections &/or repair items. The buyer may be responsible for ordering & paying for the HOA documents; should a fee exist, to satisfy any and all due diligences per the CCR’s requirements to purchase a property in an association.

The lenders provided closing date is firm. The actual selling price of this transaction will be determined upon getting an acceptable “net proceeds” required notification from the seller’s lender and adding the lenders acceptable costs to that bottom line.

Short sales are time sensitive and agents must understand that extensions are usually not honored by loss mitigation departments; especially if there is a bank sale date scheduled.

Short sales can be a very frustrating transaction for most buyers. You may fall in love with a property and submit a generous offer on it compared to the comps in the area and still not get it. The worst part is not knowing for months if your offer was accepted or not and not even getting a chance to submit a counter-offer.

I always explain this scenario to my clients. With the numbers showing that foreclosures have doubled in Las Vegas from a year ago and the next wave of adjustable-rate mortgage resets could deepen the misery for an already severely depressed housing market. Almost 1.5 million loans, representing more than 40% of the outstanding loans of subprime ARMs, are scheduled to reset this year, according to the Federal Reserve.

For more information on short sales, foreclosures, reo’s, & Las Vegas real estate contact Stuart Sheinfeld at www.elitevegasrealestate.com

Las Vegas Housing Market. Bottom Yet?

I am Stuart Sheinfeld a realtor in Las Vegas. With the increase of short sales, foreclosures, oil prices, unemployment and the decreasing of the US dollar; when will we start to see a turn in this slumping economy?

New-home sales in Las Vegas have been consistently low over the past six months and appear to have possibly reached the bottom of this dreaded bear market.

There were 922 recorded escrow closings for new homes in June, bringing the total for the first half of the year to 5,747, a 45.1 percent decrease from a year ago.

Taking out 114 high-rise and mid-rise condos and 31 apartment conversions, sales of traditional single-family detached homes totaled 777, the sixth straight month under 1,000. The high mark of 3,233 came in June 2006.

Is this flat trend in new-home closing going to continue through 2009?

The median price of all new-home products sold in June was $269,900, a decline of $54,000, or 16.7 percent, from the same month a year ago. ".

New-home permits increased for the fourth straight month to 884 in June, but the year-to-date total is down 61 percent to 5,653.

Resale activity is picking up, topping 2,000 for the third consecutive month and increasing for the sixth straight month to 2,731 in June. The 12,500 existing-home sales through the first six months is down 15.9 percent from a year ago.

About 65 percent of resale closings in June were real estate-owned or bank-owned homes, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service.

About 26 percent of available inventory in Las Vegas, or 5,800 units, are listed as short sales. Short sales must be approved by the bank; they can take up to six months to close escrow. Sellers must prove financial hardship from unforeseen circumstances such as divorce, illness or loss of employment.

The median resale price in June was $218,000, a decline of $62,000, or 22.2 percent, from a year ago.

With 15 stalled or canceled commercial projects littering the Vegas valley, this takes a lot of unnecessary inventory off the market. Can this help our slumping market?

For more information on the Las Vegas real estate mark please contact Stuart Sheinfeld at www.elitevegasrealestate.com

SLOW CLOSINGS ON HI-RISES IN LAS VEGAS

Selling high-rise condominiums in Las Vegas and closing escrow on them are separate challenges in today’s economy.

Of 2,558 units that opened escrow this year in projects of 50 or more units, 77 percent are still in escrow. Of 3,095 units in this category that opened escrow in 2007, a third are still in escrow.

Trump International has effectively sold out because almost all units are held with deposits by prospective owners, brokers say. There are fewer than 20 percent closed of the 1,282 units since the escrow process began in February

Turnberry Towers, which began closing units in July 2007, has closed escrow on roughly 84 percent of units. The second tower, where closings began in April, has closed on about 17 percent of units. 100 of the 599 condo-hotel units at Palms Place were purchased outright with cash.

Mortgage lenders nationwide are requiring larger down payments, which could mean forking over an extra $50,000 or $100,000. And nervous banks are attempting to reconcile appraisals lower than what the properties were worth earlier appraisals, when the buyers signed their pre-slump sales contracts.

The slowdown in real estate sales has been magnified in Las Vegas, where condo-building hype and official reports suggested a far greater boom than what occurred.

As the condo-building craze started when 90,000 condo units were announced — and most never moved beyond news releases and Web sites. Some developers opened sales offices and sold units to try to secure financing. Most that received financing were canceled when banks tightened credit requirements.

The Las Vegas Valley has roughly 10,000 condo and condo-hotel units in projects with more than 50 units. An additional 8,100 are under construction or nearly complete, with more than 6,200 of those units destined for the Strip.

There will be a decline in new high-rise construction on or near the Strip because land, labor and construction prices continue to rise during this slump. Of the 15 existing and under-construction high-rise residential towers on the Strip in the next few years, Turnberry will have built nine.

For more information on the Las Vegas condo market contact Stuart Sheinfeld www.elitevegasrealestate.com