A LAS VEGAS RENTAL INVESTMENT STIFF COMPETITION FOR INVESTOR CAPITAL
When you buy a property as a Las Vegas rental investment, you join the world of investors who recognize the value of an investment that’s as solid as the ground we walk on—one with the additional advantage of providing a steady cash dividend. With those dual advantages, you’d wonder how other investments can offer much competition, were it not for one major consideration: your time. That’s the part that not everyone fancies. A Las Vegas rental investment is one that simply requires more active management attention than many others. You don’t have to check on your bond portfolio regularly, but when you have a house or condo rental, it’s a good idea to do so. You don’t have to monitor your stock investments to be sure you’re in compliance with the latest Las Vegas, state, and Las Vegas fair housing rulings, but for an Las Vegas rental investment, it’s prudent. Your IRA holdings don’t require your attendance at seminars on risk management, but hands-on landlords sometimes show up at them. No wonder everyone isn’t automatically drawn to rental real estate investments. The truth is, Las Vegas investors with sufficient free investment capital are also likely to be people whose time is at a premium. They’d like their investment to make life easier, not more complicated. Who can blame them? As a strong proponent of the advantages of Las Vegas rental investments, I’m happy to point out that there are two major solutions to those built-in drawbacks. The easy solution is what folks who are close to retirement age sometimes discover about themselves: they like being landlords! If their time is actually not in critically short supply, retirees (or in today’s more common circumstance, semi-retirees) who have mastered a career or two of management challenges often find the hands-on administration of their rental investments to be a relatively low-intensity assignment. No sweat, since they have enough free time to do their due diligence where needed. Piece of cake! The other solution is what busy people in leadership roles have learned to use in other spheres: delegation. And the lucky fact is, there is a whole industry staffed and ready to accept the assignment. They are our Las Vegas professional property managers—eminently qualified and experienced in handling the management burdens their clients send them. Their fee can cover any part or all of the landlord’s duties, from composing tenant advertisements to collecting the rents…from monitoring Fair Housing compliance and supervising maintenance emergencies to preparing rigorous financial documentation. This month’s market features some terrific Las Vegas rental investment property offerings at prices that make them worth exploring. Give me a call for more details!
A LAS VEGAS APPRAISER CAN SPEED A HOMES SALE OR NOT
A skilled Las Vegas appraiser provides a service that should help make the buying and selling of a residence a smooth transaction. ‘Should’ is the operative word. Going back to ancient times, homes have always been ‘real’ when it comes to establishing the amount of money that they are worth. The home’s role as the center of family and community groupings guarantees that it will change hands carefully. When something is so important, its ownership does not come about haphazardly—doubly so because of its typically hefty price tag, arrived at after deliberation and scrutiny from buyer and seller alike. Every home that is sold in Las Vegas today should be a shining example of the efficiency (and fairness) of our free market. As a mechanism for determining the value of a good, the system is without equal, since buyer and seller have to agree on a price. That’s where having a skilled Las Vegas appraiser comes in. An appraiser (not to be confused with a home inspector, who reports on the soundness of a property) performs an important function in the transition from a Las Vegas house for sale into a house that’s sold. The appraiser’s report provides an outsider’s unbiased opinion of a home’s current market value. Having a professional who knows how to analyze the property as it stacks up against comparables in the Las Vegas—then determining its value in the lively Las Vegas market of August 2015—is intended to provide peace of mind to all parties in the transaction. That it doesn’t always work that way is because, in addition to the buyer and seller, another party may be involved—the mortgage lender. The National Association of REALTORs® puts it this way: as “the increasingly common scenario [that]…even when both sides agree on a price, the deal could fall apart thanks to an under-appraisal.” The situation where buyer and seller agree on a fair price—but the bank’s appraiser determines a value that falls short—usually means that a sufficient loan won’t be offered. Bankers are required to protect the bank, and if they aren’t reassured that the equity in the loan’s underlying collateral supports the mortgage amount, okaying it would expose the bank to a loss. Bankers would rather not. But Las Vegas homeowners on the verge of a sale can head off the problem. The solution is to address deferred maintenance and significant repairs or, per the NAR, “any condition that affects safety, soundness or structural integrity.” It’s a cinch that the best comparable sale figures reflect homes where those issues were addressed. There are also some less-obvious actions Las Vegas homeowners can take. For instance, some experts advise removing sensitive or religious pictures before an appraiser’s visit. The reason isn’t that of any prejudice from the appraiser. Rather, since rules prevent an appraiser from violating a homeowner’s privacy, some photographs of rooms might not be allowable—resulting in a report that lacks sufficient photographic documentation! An accomplished Las Vegas Realtor will advise you on how to best prepare for an appraiser’s visit, as well as make sure the appraiser has all the details needed to prepare the kind of comprehensive report that lets bankers sleep at night. This is part of my service—and another good reason to give me a call!
BUILDING A NEW HOME IN LAS VEGAS COULD MEAN CUTTING CORNERS
If you are considering buying a new home in Las Vegas, it might have occurred to you that building your own could be another option. Even if you aren’t one who has always dreamed of designing your new home with exactly the features you want (and none you don’t), the idea might seem worth exploring—particularly when the reasonable asking prices for some of today’s Las Vegas “land-only” listings make for tempting daydreaming… The fact is, few have mapped out the cost of building their Las Vegas new home, for some reasons. The most obvious one is that to project anything like an accurate cost, you would have to know its features—in other words, design it (or have it designed). But, short of hiring an architect, you can begin to appraise some of the major cost considerations that factor in when building a new home. A few: • Once you have selected a Las Vegas contractor, you will find yourself asking him for his estimate of today’s average price per square foot. That will only be useful for a ballpark estimate (certainly not for creating the final budget). It’s simply the case that the details will determine the final square footage cost average. Kitchens, for example, as well as bathrooms, are usually the most expensive rooms in the house, so if you have more bathrooms or a larger (or smaller) kitchen, your total cost will shift accordingly. There are other variables as well: it usually costs less to build a two-story home than a single-story one with the same square footage due to the smaller roof and foundation. • Add-ons will add up, of course—but the amount can be surprising. While the difference between a standard tub in your future master bathroom and that $3,500 Jacuzzi tub may not seem significant compared with the overall budget, but it’s not unknown for installation details like extra wiring and plumbing requirements to add more than anticipated. • If you’ve ever wondered about the origin of the phrase “cutting corners,” it may be illuminating to check out some of the software that contractors use to estimate costs. One of the first questions is “How many corners does this new home have?” The difference between a 4-cornered and 10-cornered home is like night and day. There are also categories of features that run from classes (quality levels) of “Standard Homes” to pricier classes of “Custom Homes.” In other words, at the design stage it is possible to “cut corners” when you build your new home. • Cutting corners or not, those with remodeling experience know how necessary it is to add a ‘cushion’ to any initial budget. The same goes for new construction. That cushion should be at least 10%–and 20% is often advised. Surprises pop up, and you will inevitably find yourself ordering last minute changes. It always seems to happen. Buying a lot and building your new Las Vegas home can mean the fulfillment of a life-long dream—but one that’s most rewarding for those with the time and patience for such a major project. It’s also true that many of today’s best properties can be purchased for the same cost (or less) that such an undertaking would run. Contact me to go over today’s latest Las Vegas offerings!
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