I’ll be at an Open House in Section 10 on Friday, will you?

 

Hi Friends!

 

I along with my fellow REALTOR, Stephanie Brown, will be hosting an open house on Friday, May 18, 2012 from 4:00pm to 6:30pm at:

 

7450 Palmyra Ave.

Las Vegas, NV 89117

 

This home is located in Las Vegas’ Section 10 neighborhood.  For those who haven’t heard of Section 10, it is a neighborhood known by larger homes with even larger lot sizes.  I just loved driving through this neighborhood, even before I knew the name of it. so if you’re curious, this open house is a great reason to check it out!  So not only are the homes bombdotcom, the neighborhood is super convenient to everything I know I’d need to get to, like the strip, shopping, Summerlin, Hash House A Go Go, etc.

 

A few features:

• 3071 Square foot home with 5 Bedroom and 3 Bath
• 22,651 Square foot lot. (That’s huge!)
• Swimming pool
• Side yard with half size basketball court 

Drop by on your way home from work or before you hit happy hour! Share with your friends who might be interested.

 

Please call, text, email me with questions.

 

See you in Section 10! 

 

Keepin’ it Real Estate,

Arlene Skinner

(702) 635-1178

A bit of REALTOR® bathroom humor

The other day, I was out with a buyer client looking at homes.  As we approached the front door, I noticed it was open.  With all the buyer competition out there it is typical to find other buyers looking at the same homes as us.  Anyhow, upon getting to the door, I call out, “Hello?”  The other agent let us in and notified us that her client was stuck in the bathroom and could not get out and that she was trying to reach the listing agent.

I advised my buyer to go ahead and proceed to look at the place while I tried to help.  (We were there for a reason.)  I did try to help even though I don’t exactly know what to do in that situation.  The place was vacant so there were no tools to help get her out.  It didn’t take long for the buyer to decide if he/she liked the place so we headed out.  I joked with my buyer as we walked to the car, “Quick, lets put in our offer while the other buyer is stuck in the bathroom!”

So please take this as a lesson.

Buyers:  Go to the bathroom in the comfort of  your own home or the nearest Starbucks because you never know the condition of the toilet or the locks of the bathroom doors of the houses you will be viewing that day.

Sellers: Make sure your property does not keep a potential buyer hostage.  They won’t be able to get the offer to you.

Thanks for reading and happy house hunting!

Keepin’ it Real Estate,

Arlene

One of the Craziest Master Bedrooms I’ve Seen

I was out showing houses in a guard gated neighborhood called Spanish Oaks and found this in the master bedroom. All that’s missing is the pole!

We then walked into the master bathroom and saw this:

Check out that chandelier! There were more touches to this house I found I interesting but these were the only two pictures I took.

I found the neighborhood very quiet and well maintained considering it was established in the ’70s and is located in the middle of Las Vegas. I just happened to find this house a hoot!

Well anyhow, if this is something that interests you, let me know.

April 2011 Las Vegas SFR Market Summary

For my figureheads: April 2011 Las Vegas Single Family Residence Market Summary

SFR Sold Volume:  April’s reported sales volume of 3,084 units bested last April’s SFR volume by 4.5%. This was, however, an -8.9% decline compared to March 2011′s volume of 3,384 units. Based on the historical trends as seen on the attached SFR volume graph, with the exception of last year, May has posted gains in SFR sales activity over April’s volumes.

SFR Average Sold Price: April’s average sales price remained flat compared to March, posting only a 1.2% gain and -8.3% decline from same month last year. Housing prices still face downward pressure as foreclosures and short sales continue to dominate the market.

SFR Inventory:  At the end of April, the SFR “available” units (only those without offers) stood at 11,366 units, an increase of only 32 units over March. This is a +57.7% increase over April of 2010. When including pending and contingent to this “available unit” number, the total rises to 22,443. This is a 259 unit increase over March’s number of 22,184, and when compared to April of 2010, a +7.5% increase on total available units.

SFR ‘Sold’ Dollar Value:  April’s total SFR dollar value for the 3,084 SFR sold units was $489,717,936. This was a -7.7% decline over March’s total dollars of $530,813,008, and a -4.2% decline compared to the April 2010 total dollar value.

My opinion based on these figures, buy!!! Or get crackin! Call me to ask how.  Prices are lower than last year and there is more inventory that last year…so to me, the prices are not going to jump up too soon.

Please please let me know if you’d like to see charts for SFR Monthly Details or 6 year

Thanks for reading!

Arlene

Home buying Myths from USA Weekend

Image via Wikipedia

I read this article a couple weeks ago and as a REALTOR(R), I just could not have said it better myself so I wanted to share it with you. Its a quick read which is why I want to share it. Also as I read it, I noticed the author, Annalisa Burgos, who I’m pretty sure was my student government president in high school. Yay!!! So here’s some IHHS love!!!

What I really like about this article as a REALTOR is that she addresses ideas like, “Oh, you’ll get a feeling or the house will speak to you when you find the right now house.” and “The perfect house is out there.”  There actually isn’t a point I don’t agree with in this article.

Please enjoy Annalisa’s article by clicking: USA Weekend’ 6 Myths of buying a Home

What home buying myths have you heard or live by?  I’d love to hear and discuss them.

I, a REALTOR® am also known as…

Image via Wikipedia

• Personal Shopper of Real Estate
• Real Estate Counselor
• Short Sale Queen
• Housing Advisor
• Jeeves
• Contract Negotiator
• Transaction Manager
• Psychic Friend
• Marketing Coordinator
• Housing Professional
• Lunch Buddy
• Neighborhood Information Go to Girl
• In the: Foreclosure Avoiding Business (FAB!)
• Rental Specialist
• BFF

Any others? Help me out!

//

Lots of REO’s to buy in Las Vegas? Guess Again!

Are Short Sales the New Black?

Hey friends!

So I made all these pretty graphs to show visually what I am trying to explain. Since I’m having technical difficulties, I will just jot down my findings and attempt the graphs next time with my Mac instead of my PC.

I checked out our inventory here in Las Vegas and as for Single family residences, here’s what I found:

Of the 22,062 Listings the average buyer or seller will see on REALTOR.com:

• 12,714 or 58% are currently under contract, meaning there are only:
• 9,348 or 42% that are actually available for sale.

Of  the 12,714 are currently under contract:

• 9,053 or 72% are short sales.
• 2,217 or 17% are REO or went through the foreclosure process.
• 1,429 or 11% were Non-Distressed properties.  Actual owners with no financing problems or corporate owned properties that have been purchased off the auction block.  Either way, this type of transaction would behave like what we’d call a “normal” transaction. I guess now, I’d call it an “old school” transaction, which has been rare lately.

Of the 9,348 are actually available for sale:

• 3,828 or 41% are short sales
• 1,761 or 19% are REO
• 3,733 or 40% are Non-distressed

What this tells me:

First of all, there are only 9,348 houses that are for sale in all of Las Vegas.  This doesn’t even take into account how many bedrooms one would need, how big, or what part of town someone wants to live in or the financing available!  But don’t get discouraged buyers, the listings are trickling in and prices remain low.  This just tells me that if you’re thinking about buying, call your REALTOR® right away and start planning.  Don’t have a REALTOR®? Now you do!  Call me! (702) 635-1178

Although Las Vegas is #1 when it comes to foreclosure filings, we’re not exactly seeing them in our real estate market. 

If only 19% of the listings available are REO’s where are the other ones?  Chances are, they were purchased off the auction block and are possibly re-marketed as a non-distressed property.

With the HAFA program in place, it looks as though the processing of Short Sales will be more streamlined than in the past and that Short Sales may be the way to go for a buyer.  In fashion terms, Short Sales are the new black!

Let me at arlene.skinner@century21.com or leave a comment if you’d like me to do the numbers for condos/townhouses or if you want me to do this for a specific area.

Thanks for reading, Las Vegas Keepin’ it Real…Estate!

Arlene

5 Energy Saving Tips for The Family Room

Ode To The Family Room

If you are like me and my family, besides the kitchen, you spend the most time in your family room. Its where we get together to:

• watch what we’ve got on DVR,
• watch my daughter’s favorite TV show,
• and play video games.

It is the place where you kick off your shoes, crack open a beer, (for the more sophisticated types, a bottle of wine or a stiff drink), and chillax. As a result, this room is a concentrated area of energy suckers!

This month, Houselogic.com provides 5 ways to save energy (up to $130 in energy savings) just from making some minor changes to this beloved room.

• 

  5 Tips for Saving Energy in the Family Room

  Reduce your electricity bills by systematically purging your family room of wasteful energy practices. Read

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this because who wouldn’t want save a few dollars???

College Student? 4 things about Credit Cards!

I wrote this a while back but never published it…ah well, here it is.

Back to Basics: Credit Cards

This weekend’s USA Weekend shared a story about credit cards and a few things college students need to know about them.  I thought it was great and I wanted to share it with you.  In this economic day and age, it is imporant to go back to credit card basics.  Now a days, its not even about the money you have, but how good your credit score is!

Here is a quick list of the 4 things college students need to know about credit cards!

1. Shop around
2. Limit the number of cards you have
3. Pay off the balance
4. Be wary of incentives

What I think is so important about this list is it is simple to keep in mind and builds an awesome foundation so that a few years down the line, your college student or someone who is starting over creditwise can get into that housing market and become a credit worthy buyer, not only in Las Vegas but anywhere in the United States!

Click here to read more about 4 things college students need to know about credit cards-read it, the story is not very long! By the way I think it would be beneficial to those who are starting over in terms of their credit.

Thanks for reading, “las vegas-keepin’ it real…estate!”

Arlene M. Skinner, Las Vegas REALTOR®

Got any credit card tips? I’d love to hear ‘em! Leave a comment!

I own my home, now what?

For those of you have decided to wait out this crazy housing market and for those of you who have taken advantage of the homebuyer credit…you’re probably, thinking, “okay, I’ve decided to keep my home or buy my home, now what?” Houselogic.com is an online resource created by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® to help those who currently own maximize the investment and treasure we call our home.

A couple of things I like about it:

• It is easy to navigate!
• It covers many areas of interest such as maintenance, upgrades, finances and community building.
• It has a binder option that allows you to save and organize your favorite posts.
• The binder option also makes it fun to research about the joys of homeownership with a game.
• It is F-R-E-E!

If you don’t get around to visiting the site, no worries!  I’ll probably pick out a few things from the site every now and then that applies to our Las Vegas market and post them on project southwest, lv.

Thanks for reading!

As a homeowner, what do you find are good investments in your home?  I can be in the way of  upgrades or maintenance but I’d love to hear your thoughts!