FIRST TIME LAS VEGAS HOME BUYERS AND THE HOME INSPECTION QUERY
A reasonable question posted recently on a real estate website can open an interesting discussion. It’s one that touches on a fundamental component of most Las Vegas real estate sales. The question was, “Can I request a home inspection before I make an offer on the home?” The answer from the moderator was, “I can’t think of one good reason why you would do this.” The moderator should have thought a little harder! And the truth is, for any would-be Las Vegas buyer who has never been involved in buying or selling a home, it’s a pretty logical question. Take a fictional example. We have a young couple who have no previous real estate experience. Their parents never walked them through how they had gone about buying the homes they’d been raised in, and although both husband and wife have college degrees, neither has been exposed to the first thing about buying and selling a house (this is a hole in the educational setup that would seem to be pretty easy to fix…but at least for now, parents have to fill the void). Our couple has fallen in love with an existing home. They like its size, style, and its Las Vegas neighborhood—which is in a superior school district. They have some reservation about the asking price, which is a little more than their pre-determined target, but they decide to make an offer that shaves a few percentage points off the asking. They agree with their agent that for the seller to entertain their offer seriously, they need to accompany it with a 1%-2% earnest money deposit. Just as they are on the verge of taking the leap…one other thing occurs to them. What, they wonder, will guarantee that there aren’t serious mechanical or other difficulties with the house? The solution would be simple—just order an inspection—except that, not yet being in a contract, the $300 – $600 inspection fee could be a waste of money. What if the sellers accept an offer in between the time the young couple orders the inspection and submits their offer? In practice, a “before offer” inspection IS done in some cases – usually when a multiple offer situation is expected. In such cases, multiple sets of buyers would probably be advised by their savvy agents to invest the money on the front end to increase their odds of writing the offer that will be accepted. The way savvy agents help their seller clients avoid this problem for buyers is to have the sellers order a home inspection report themselves—and make it available to any potential buyers for review. This helps the sellers to get ahead of any unknown issues that might come up, as well as encouraging offers. When buyers have information about the basic condition of the home, it frees them to write an offer with more confidence. A sound offer triggers the start of a process that ends in handshakes and smiles all around—and the transfer of a very valuable set of keys. Whether buying or selling, strategic guidance regarding the offer is just one contribution of your chosen Las Vegas real estate agent—and another reason why teaming with the right one is so key to getting the result you are looking for. I hope you’ll give me a call to discuss how I will help you reach those goals!
TOP 10 LISTING PHRASES MIGHT NOT ATTRACT LAS VEGAS HOME HUNTERS
It’s small wonder that with this spring’s selling season underway, our Las Vegas’s house hunters can afford to be a discriminating bunch—they have the luxury of picking and choosing from a crop of truly inviting offerings. And it doesn’t hurt that today’s low mortgage interest rates have enabled more Las Vegas properties to fit within more family budgets. For those of us who get to translate those home offerings into words for the Las Vegas listings, the job is to find phrases that draw attention to each given property’s uniquely attractive features. But there’s another dimension that complicates things. English is a rich and powerful language, but when it comes to marketing lingo, it’s also true that these days everyone is being deluged 24/7 by vivid advertising claims. We’ve all developed callouses when it comes to the ballyhooing we get from every quarter. Today’s house hunters have developed sales resistance. Times 10! So what’s the answer for cooking up language that helps a property jump out from among the others? One way is to find out the Las Vegas’s Top 10 listing phrases—and avoid overusing them! Same ‘ol, same ‘ol isn’t what works when the object is to attract Las Vegas Prospects. True, some truly accurate descriptors can’t be totally avoided—but emphasizing them isn’t likely to fire many house hunters’ imaginations, either. Here are a group of most frequently appearing Top 10 listing words and phrases—with some alternatives more likely to spark more attention from Las Vegas house hunters: 1. Beautiful (‘gorgeous’ ‘spectacular’ or ‘captivating’ bring more energy) 2. Hardwood floors (what kind of wood—and what hue?) 3. Stainless steel (at the very least, add ‘gleaming’ or ‘lustrous’) 4. Updated (‘renovated’ ‘remodeled’ ‘renewed’…or maybe even ‘reimagined’) 5. Private (this one is actually okay as-is…it may be a cliché, but it’s a desirable one!) 6. Spacious (puh-lese! How about ‘cavernous’ ‘commodious’ or ‘enormous’?) 7. Landscaped (another okay one, but in need of a boost—like ‘lusciously’ ‘stunningly’ or ‘exquisitely’) 8. Custom (‘tailor made’ ‘individualized’ ‘unique’ ‘personalized’ or ‘specially crafted’) 9. Clean (this is close to Top 10 listing phrase malpractice: if it’s clean, it’s surely also ‘spotless’ ‘flawless’ or ‘immaculate’) 10. Brand new (could be ‘state of the art’ ‘untouched’ ‘mint’ or ‘just completed’) Even after a bit of polishing, those Top 10 listing phrases, and words need to have a credibility boost via listing photography that illustrates what’s being promised. Putting the whole package together is just one part of the service you can count on when you give me a call!
LAS VEGAS MARKET VALUES SELDOM EQUAL THEIR REPLACEMENT VALUES
“Ideal” is a Shangri-La kind of a word. It’s not just because of its feel-good, pie-in-the-sky definition (“a standard of perfection or excellence”)—but because contained right there inside the word itself is a tacit admission. It’s only an idea—not something necessarily connected to concrete reality. Las Vegas residents don’t come across “ideal” anything very often in their daily routines, so few would be surprised to learn that even in something as important as determining the value of their Las Vegas residence, the calculation turns out to be less than straightforward. The ambiguity owes to the fact that it all depends on how you look at it. In reality, there are two quite different approaches for determining any Las Vegas home’s value. Ideally, both methods would produce the same value for the same Las Vegas property. That would be the Shangri-La outcome—a fine idea—but it’s seldom the case. The two methods are the Market Value approach and the Replacement Cost approach. Knowing how and why they differ explains why they yield dissimilar results. When Las Vegas homeowners examine their home insurance policies, they may find a breakdown of the replacement cost. The face amount of such a policy is meant to cover what the current cost would be to construct a similar building of equal quality—one that would have the same utility as the one that was destroyed. Such factors as materials, labor, the builder’s overhead, profit and fees are probably part of that calculation. In actuality, some of the costs that might be encountered may not be included, though: things like demolition of the old structure, debris removal, licenses and permits. It depends on the policy. The market value is an estimate of the amount a buyer would pay in today’s market to purchase the same home in its current condition. Right off the bat, you can see that this would include the cost of the land—so you might deduce that its market value would automatically be greater than the replacement value. Ideally, that might be true. If the home were brand new. But for structures that have been in existence for a while, that might or might not hold true. For a home in less than top condition, the total might be less… likewise, if the Las Vegas residential market were in a slump. On the other hand, for older homes having architectural details with fine workmanship that is expensive to duplicate today, the reverse would be true. You get the idea: given the vast number of variables that can influence the difference between market and replacement value calculations, it would be miraculous if the two ever came out the same. When you are buying, selling—or even insuring—your Las Vegas home, weighing market and replacement values is more than an abstract exercise. I’m here to help with those and many other issues that will help you determine how to make the choices that serve you best. Call me!
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