HOLIDAY HOME SALES THE ULTIMATE PRESENT
Okay, granted: a new family home won’t fit under the tree… This year, Las Vegas TVs have been filled with commercials that mix Santa with new automobiles. If you believe the ads, a number of automakers apparently offer models that will fly like reindeer onto driveways for big boys and girls who are sufficiently nice. One do-gooder is portrayed stitching up Santa’s ripped tunic in an act of selfless un-naughtiness that earns him a new sedan on the big day. I’m pleased to say we haven’t seen a National Association of Realtors® commercial with Santa and elves flying a new home onto a surprised family’s driveway, but the idea is no more divorced from reality than Santa’s harmful of vintage Mercedes (it looks like he loves the red gullwing best). If you’ve never thought about shopping for a home during the year-end holiday season, you might be surprised to consider that in some cases this is a very fortuitous time of year for home sales. Aside from the few who can give such a fantastic gift (it actually happens!), there are a couple of other reasons why holiday Las Vegas home sales do take place: Lower Prices First of all, nothing typifies the holiday spirit quite like the spirit of generosity—and at this time of year, there are some Las Vegas home sellers who are predisposed to be more generous than usual. The possibility of their accepting lower offers doesn’t necessarily owe to holiday altruism decking their halls. Fewer visits and fewer offers are made over the holidays, while at the same time there are a number of circumstances that could materially benefit sellers who can close out the Old and usher in the New before calendar year’s end. In some cases, as Forbes points out, home sales may be a matter of the seller wanting to complete the transaction before year’s end for tax purposes—or simply to get the sale out of the way. Favorable Rates When you buy in part determines how much you’ll pay, and the waning days of 2014 still offer historically low home loan interest rates. Whether home sales in Las Vegas during the coming year will long be able to boast the same advantage is a matter of conjecture, but certainly this is one year when beneficial rates are in place. Last-minute year-end shoppers may reap a happier holiday if they’ve locked in the kind of rates currently available. Asking Santa for a new home may sound like a bit of an overreach, but for those who make this year’s holiday buying benefits work in their favor, it can be the most memorable season! And for the rest of us who will be leaving a chocolate chip cookie and milk by the fireplace…it couldn’t hurt, could it?
LAS VEGAS HOMES FOR SALE USE STAGING TO SET THE MOOD
When you think about the importance of staging when a Las Vegas home goes on the market, you might relate it to how department stores go about increasing sales during the holidays. You have only to stroll through the front door of any of the legendary department stores this time of year to experience what I mean: the most successful ones fairly assault your senses with the color, glitter, sounds (sometimes even the scents!) of the season. If you’ve ever strolled down 5th Avenue in Manhattan any time after Thanksgiving, you’ll have experienced a major jaw-dropping tourist attraction. It seems like the whole place is staged—and masterfully, at that! Why so many veteran merchants put that kind of effort (and budget) into a holiday decorating is proof of how cost-effective staging is for merchandising. It’s not that different when a town home is being prepared to be offered to the public. Effective staging for a Las Vegas property performs the same function that Macy’s and Neiman Marcus hope to achieve: to indirectly alter their visitor’s mood to one more receptive to the designer’s goal. Department store holiday décor is more than just eye-candy created to instill a jolly mood. By transporting us into the spirit of the season, it gently cues us into recreating how we feel at the moment of gift-giving (i.e., the generous gift giving!). Sometimes that might take 50 or more fully-decorated Christmas trees—all for the sole purpose of creating an atmosphere that Scrooge himself couldn’t resist! In the same way, staging a Las Vegas home effectively can put prospective buyers into in a receptive frame of mind. The goal is to create an instant impression that does two things. First, it immediately establishes trust. By presenting a well-designed and smartly maintained environment, it acts to dispel one major element of buyer resistance—the fear of the unknown, which in the case of a Las Vegas home sale translates into lurking suspicions about the condition of “somebody else’s” house. Good staging envelops visitors in spaces that just feel substantial. Second (just as important), staging a Las Vegas home effectively creates a welcoming feeling. If visitors feel comfortable—at ease enough that they can easily picture themselves at home there—they are much more likely to consider the next steps. Not every home can appeal to every prospective buyer, of course, but good staging does away with idiosyncratic artifacts that would narrow the field. National studies show time and again that, staged correctly, homes are more likely to garner higher offers—and more quickly. Of course, staging is only one step in the process of listing and selling a home, and it isn’t even the first: that one is giving me a call!
SELECTING GOOD LAS VEGAS TENANTS WHILE HEEDING HOUSING RULES
Every landlord has had the feeling at one time, or another that a prospective Las Vegas tenant may not be a good choice. Call it a hunch, or intuition—but something tells you that this tenant may be trouble down the road. There is more than enough riding on the decision to make you want to pay attention to your instincts, but that’s where being aware of the dos and don’t of tenant management comes into play. You need to protect your business and property, but in so doing, you also need to heed outside factors. Chief among those factors is the housing laws and regulations. This is a realm where there’s no shortage of fine print—and since I don’t offer legal advice, we needn’t wade into the technical weeds. But there are some common sense concepts that should shed light on the subject. One of the key things to remember is that it is frowned upon to arbitrarily accept or reject tenants based on personal preferences or whims. Of course, the landlord does own the property whose use the tenant is asking to borrow, but nevertheless, most people understand why anti-discrimination laws have been created. Some feel they go too far—some that they don’t go far enough—but at any rate, one fact is indisputable: ignoring the rules can have bad consequences. One easy-to-follow idea is to prepare your written standards for accepting prospective Las Vegas tenants (standards that are certain to not contravene discrimination guidelines). Another that is universally considered good practice is to require every applicant to fill out an application form with the kind of information that state and federal guidelines allow. When everyone is required to complete an application in full, failing to do so becomes grounds for rejection. The kinds of information should be relevant to the landlord’s business needs, and the standards may be high or low, as long as they are evaluated evenly for every applicant. Some common criteria: • Prospective tenants should never have been evicted from the property. • Prospective tenants should have a credit score above a certain level • They should have no record of any judgments having been levied against them for failure to pay utilities. • They should have proof of employment and enough income to pay rent reliably (the national average income level is three times rent). • Prospective tenants should supply references from previous landlords—references that can be verified over the phone. Of course, none of this means a landlord is required to rent to just anyone who comes by. The key is to define the ideal tenant, make sure that the ideal isn’t based on random discriminatory criteria (like race or sex or religion)—and then to adhere to a consistent evaluation process. And the fact is, the potential financial rewards should more than compensate for heeding the basic ground rules. If you will be taking a look at the inviting opportunities that Las Vegas income properties currently offer, I’d like to show you some of the best ones. Give me a call!
Categories
Recent Posts
