CONDITIONS THAT GOVERN THE DECISION TO BUY A HOUSE IN LAS VEGAS
When you decide that the time is approaching to put your home on the market, you probably take a special interest in exploring the conditions that are likely to motivate families to buy your Las Vegas house. Most of the research on the subject indicates that it has at least as much to do with how people live their lives as it does with external forces–like changes in the economy or jobs market. When you spend as much time as I do chat with people who are in the hunt to buy a house, you’d probably agree. When Las Vegas empty nesters come to the conclusion that supporting more house than they need is wasting their resources, finding the right smaller place can become increasingly appealing. The idea that they could buy a house that’s right-sized for them—and come away with extra cash to support more travel and leisure activities—can soon become Priority 1. The current status of the real estate market doesn’t come close as a determining factor. In the same way, there’s nothing like the arrival of a new baby to prompt the decision to buy a house with an extra bedroom or two. Likewise, when a youngster is approaching school age—but your district isn’t quite up to par—a move across Las Vegas might suddenly beckon. When the time comes to buy a house, people tend to take more seriously these kinds of long-term issues. Since there is a whole universe of possible changes in income or family situation that life can send our way, it does make sense to delay some decisions for a while. If a move is to be from renting to owning, the dollars and cents wisdom is usually clear enough. Across the U.S., rents are rising quickly enough to practically guarantee the practicality of making such a move—even if only because of the ‘forced savings’ advantage that ownership brings. If a move is contemplated to a larger or a smaller home, or from one Las Vegas neighborhood to another, developments in the economy or particulars like changes in the mortgage rate may influence the decision, but not lead it. Family matters motivate most moves. Such outside factors may not be decisive, but the good news is that this fall is one of those times when many of them are in place to make buying or selling a Las Vegas house more attractive than usual…and for sure, a good time to give me a call!
LAS VEGAS FOR SALE BY OWNER MESSAGING MAY BE UNFORTUNATE
If you are selling your house this fall, an early decision will be whether to team with a Las Vegas REALTOR® or go the “For Sale by Owner” route. One thing to consider is messaging. “Messaging” is one of those words that Las Vegas homeowners began to hear a lot after Madison Avenue decided to verbize the noun ‘message.’ I know verbize isn’t a real word, but to me, messaging convolutes English in pretty much the same way. Messaging rose in popularity about the same time that Hollywood actors and politicians started referring to their names as their ‘brands’—apparently on the assumption that it makes them sound more valuable. To some of us, it makes them sound more like cattle ranchers. Nonetheless, since it’s now mainstream to be messaging this and messaging that, whether you’re leaning toward planting a For Sale by Owner sign in the front yard or recruiting a Las Vegas Realtor, you should be considering the messaging. Once you know that, you can message like crazy, confident that you’re not sending any wrong signals. Most of the messaging will certainly be about how terrific it would be to live in the house. The subtexts might be that it’s a fantastic place that’s well worth the price asked; that any owner would be proud to invite friends and relatives over; that it’s clearly a leading contender among other Las Vegas homes in its price range. With messaging in place, your REALTOR can create a complete professional listing, then set the ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard. For those who would rather go it alone, they can figure out how to pay for the listing they create themselves, then plant a ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign out front. But that could be where the messaging goes a little haywire. Yes, a For Sale by Owner sign on a Las Vegas home announce to the world that the house is For Sale—and that is excellent, unambiguous messaging. But the by Owner part will, for some, carry some additional messaging that’s not quite as positive. Think for a moment about the impression you get whenever you see a house with that sign out front (a nicely printed one…the ones scrawled by hand on poster board don’t even count). Chances are, you are like everyone else: you assume you know something extra about the seller. The messaging is, at best, This house is for sale by someone who is up front about not wanting to pay for a professional to sell it. The other messaging takeaways can be less helpful: Professionals haven’t been able to sell this house for the price you’ll be finding out about soon enough is one possibility. There is also: Here is a bargain, sort of like a yard sale—want to pick what’s here? Or: This house is going to be cheaper than a real house. Or: Nobody who is professional will be involved in any way. Or: If you’d like to get into a personal bargaining situation with someone who considers himself a shrewd negotiator, here’s your chance! That kind of For Sale by Owner messaging differs greatly from: This house is professionally represented—the unambiguous messaging all my “FOR SALE” signs send. You’ve probably seen them around Las Vegas (often with a ‘SOLD’ placard attached). They’ve got my phone number on them, but you don’t have to drive around to find it since it’s right here on the website. You can call me right now!
FREDDIE AND FANNIE AND LAS VEGAS HOME LOANS
We all remember Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the twin quasi-public organizations who backstopped the home loan industry for the whole country. Freddie and Fannie were thought by some to be on the verge of extinction during the home loan crisis, but they revived when Washington stepped in. Freddie’s latest quarterly financials show assets that have a small ‘t’ in front of the number (that’s short for ‘trillions’), so it looks like they aren’t about to go out of business. In fact, whenever one of today’s Las Vegas home loans is originated, Freddie or Fannie are probably in the wings. They remain the big guns in the U.S. secondary home loan market, which is so huge its repercussions are felt global. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but so that we don’t have to tread any further through the red tape, let’s just sum up by acknowledging that when Freddie or Fannie sneeze, the entire planet is apt to grab for a Kleenex. Since August saw a good share of planetary financial upset, optimism from Freddie and Fannie would be a relief—particularly for future Las Vegas home loan applicants, who might be a bit rattled by the recent swan dive on Wall Street. ‘What does it mean for the availability of mortgage loans?’ They might well be wondering… Last week, it was a good sign when the stock market emerged from the air-raid shelter where it had spent the previous weekend. By Friday, the S&P 500 had made back “modest gains” (T. Rowe Price) after enduring the highest volatility in four years. But the housing markets looked a good deal more stable if we were to believe Freddie. The hard facts can be elusive, so Freddie Mac puts together something called the “Multi-Indicator Market Index,” which measures the stability of the U.S. housing market. Mid-week, it released the latest reading, which prompted the National Mortgage News headline “Housing Markets Improve Nationwide: Freddie Mac.” The Index came in at 80.3, an improvement of 1.33% compared with a month earlier. In the case that doesn’t sound like a gigantic change, Freddie’s Deputy Chief Economist, Len Kiefer, was there to clarify. “Housing markets are the strongest they’ve been in years,” he told the press. Freddie reads various home loan industry reports, as well, and passes them on to its web site visitors. Headlines there were equally comforting— • “S&P Case-Shiller: Home prices continue to rise in June” (HousingWire, August 25) • “Housing market gains steam as July new home sales rebound” (Marketwatch, August 25)-and most reassuring of all: • “Why the economy is OK, even if stocks aren’t” (CNN Money, August 24) So for the moment, it does look as if Las Vegas home buyers and sellers needn’t be distracted by the news from Wall Street—good or bad. Especially since U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage interest rates were down again for the week…many below 4%! If you’ve thought it might be a good time to investigate today’s Las Vegas real estate market, I couldn’t agree more: time to give me a call!
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