Rob Anderson

thanks for the answer. I tried your suggestions and the city really didn't care UNLESS there was some kind of crime being committed. Apparently, that is running rampant through Las Vegas. Brokers are getting houses and doing as little as they need to on them. - Thu Apr 24 2008, 15:42

Hello

On various posts I have read and addressed my perspective as a buyer in the current market. One thing that keeps being repeated is "Now is a great time to buy" and 30000 to 100000 new jobs in Vegas.

Here is the problem with this from a non realtor point of view...

1. Now is a great time to buy...while this may be true to a point, if you look hard enough on this site you will find those in the real estate business who made this same declaration in October 07. Since then prices have dropped 20%. So is now really a good time? Yes, Maybe, No

Yes - if you have the cash, credit, and time, you can find some good REO's. I have looked at a bunch and if you find one with all the appliances still in place, no missing cabinet or fixtures, and no major repairs needed, then jump on it immediately. These are the good buys and are few and far between.

Maybe - if you find an REO needing less that a 5K investment and you have the 5K yourself to put into it AND you plan on staying in the house for 5 years, then this may be for you.

No - REO's beat up to the point where they need in excess of 5k in repairs.

Traditional resales are generally out of the price range of the REO's and there are no comps to support the non REO pricing.

30000 to 100000 jobs. - OK, lets be realistic here folks, most of those jobs will be SERVICE ORIENTED jobs that don't pay enough for someone to buy a 300K house in todays market without great credit and a big downpayment. The rental market will be affected more than the housing sales market in my opinion.
Its not going to be like in the past where a loan was given with stated income. Yes, the jobs will come and so will the people, but rentals seem more likely to the income of the workers particularly with the rise in gas, food, and energy.

So to all those realtors not in touch with the real world, it is not the best time to buy. Quit putting your commission ahead of your clients best interest.

For all those realtors who tell it like it is and inform the client of the real market conditions, trends, and stats in order to properly inform your client of what they are about to get into, I commend you. - Wed Apr 23 2008, 23:35

Hi Emily

I am in the exact same situation. We bought for 342000 in 2006 and now the comps in the area are 240000. We are stuck too. However, we are looking at possibly renting ours out probably for less than our mortgage. We have the cash and credit to buy one of the REO's more along the lines of what we want.

Yes, we lose a couple hundred a month, but sooner or later, the market goes back up and we reclaim our equity and break even on the current house and make money on the 2nd house to offset the loss. Not the best strategy for everyone though.

If you bought for 240K, your payments are probably around 1600/month is you did a 30 year fixed at 100% financing, so you should have around 5K paid off. If you add more to your payments, you could lower your balance owed substantially and get your home to break even status in a couple of years.

I would suspect the homes going for 140K are Repo's. Those will work their way out of the system over the next couple of years, then we will be back to normal sales of resale homes. The Repo's are dragging the prices down everywhere. In Green Valley, a home bought in 2004 for 450K is now selling for 250K as a repo. The resales in the area are about 350K. So once you clear out the repo's things will look a little bit better.

If you get foreclosed on, then you are part of the problem to begin with. I have heard of this strategy all over the city and frankly I think it sucks and should be made illegal. It just further complicates this mess. All that will happen is those who do this will get foreclosed on a 2nd time in a couple of years. If that happens, you should be put in jail for fraud. - Wed Apr 23 2008, 23:18

Unbelievable!!!

What a feeding frenzy from the realtor posts. Its actually quite funny...

I am currently looking myself (I have a realtor, thank you) and have been looking at foreclosures and REO's in the 200 to 300K range. There are some deals out there, but if you find something in good shape with all the appliances, cabinets, toilets, and hot water heaters still in the house, and something that does not need a whole house cleaning and painting, you need to jump on it quick. Then if its an REO, expect the bank to want a deposit of 8000 to 10000 dollars and then sit and wait while the REO agent collects multiple offers to send to the bank for approval. The one with the best offer wins.

It is a slow process in the REO market now which is the bulk of the sales. Anyone doing a regular resale is overpriced relative to the REO properties and just can't sell. We tried, but there was no way we could lower our 4 bedroom home 80K to compete with what is out there now. Hence, we are going to rent it when we find something we like.

Most of the realtors out here are in the "its never been a better time to buy" mode. They said that back in October too before prices dropped 20%. Those are the ones to watch out for because they need the commission to survive.

My advice, get a realtor who is realistic about the market and will tell you that there are another 8000 properties going into default soon, that the market hasn't hit rock bottom yet, and that it will remain slow for the remainder of 2008 and into 2009. Once you get someone who will be straight with you, you will better understand the market here.

the person below who suggested renting is also correct. Rental rates are down and you can get a lot of house for less money, only you don't own it. Not a bad strategy for the next year.

As mentioned, we are looking to rent our 4 bedroom house in henderson after we find a house we like tha better suits our needs personally. Not in any hurry though so we can look at a wide variety of homes and take our time.

Back when we moved here in 2006 (PEAK) the best we could find is what we have now for 342000. Our house is probably worth 240000. The 450K house we wanted back in 2006 are now 280 to 300K. That should give you an idea of how bad it is here, - Wed Apr 23 2008, 23:05

Hello Again...
JR - my realtor didn't do it out of charity, thats what the market here dictates right now and he is not the only one doing that. Homes in Vegas are so out of control, that for a listing agent to try and make a sale, they have to do something to get the price in line with all the foreclosures.

A lot of agents are refusing to take listings too. Why, I would guess that it is because they know the amount of time and money that will need to go into selling a non REO house in Vegas and that will cut into their wallet unlike the boom when all they had to do was list and walk away 30 days later with a big chunk of change for very little work. A ton of people got a license in 2003 and 2004, now a lot of them are out of the business.

No I cannot claim to know everything a realtor does on an hourly basis. My wife was in the real estate industry as a loan closer for years both residential and commercial. She had a couple of really good agents who earned their money. More often than not, she had people like mentioned below who just got their license to cash in on the boom and had no clue. Those are the folks who gave you guys a bad rap.

Just like all the other industries you mentioned, there are those who do their jobs and do them well, and those that don't. - Tue Feb 26 2008, 10:10

Thanks to Ken and Goad Team for listening.

I am in a bind in Vegas like most. I bought in 2006 at the peak, put down 20%, have a credit rating of 780, and got a loan at 5.75%. 2 years later, the 72K I put down is GONE. Evaporated into thin air due to the mess created in Vegas. I was looking at relocating for a job and left the area. We listed our house with our agent we purchased from who worked with us on commisions. If another agent brough a buyer it was one rate, if he brought the buyer it was a lower rate, and if I found the buyer, even lower than that. This gave me incentive to get involved as well witht he marketing process.

Long story short, I can't sell the house right now because of the 25% drop out there. That is nearly an 80K loss so I am returning to Vegas.

My point though is this particular agent wanted to work with us to try and reduce our out of pocket because houses are too high in Vegas.

Its seems unfortunate, but all the statistics and such I have read on this site and other suggest that the market will remain down, then flat for a while in Vegas.

The problem is when in the 300,000 to 400,000K range like I am in, 3 to 6% is ALOT of money and sellers can't give all that up right now.. As City Center comes online, yes more jobs and more people, but withthe tightening lending practices, will I ever be able to sell my house without taking a loss? It will take YEARS for that to happen if it ever does.

Again, there are good realtors, no question, but during the boom, how many people got their licenses and how many of those are still active? I have heard it dropped significantly. Those who are left and still LISTING homes are the ones working hard because they know the challenge right now. Those who bailed are the ones that I speak of so negatively.

Incidentally, I would theorize that those agents who bailed when things went bad are also the ones driving up the prices with the shady lenders, builders, and appraisers who created this mess to begin with.

As a seller in a tough market, I need to save as much as possible and if I weren't out of town trying to sell, I would flat fee MLS and do the ground work to save anywhere from 3000 to 9000.

Thanks to all who heard my rants!

If anyone needs a house in Henderson, I have on for sale :) - Mon Feb 25 2008, 20:23

Ken

I am sorry, I didn't see your posting and will answer your questions as best I can.

All the homes I have sold were because of job relocation, not for profit and in general, because we were trying to relocate, we did not look to make huge gains. As a matter of fact from 94 to 2004 we only profited on two homes that we sold of 6, and it wasn't a whole lot.

Of the agents we did use to sell the homes, only one really did anything to help the home sell by agressively marketing the house. The rest of the houses sold because we had our closing costs covered by the company I worked for and could price 6% below the market. Needless to say, the one we did profit on was the one that had the good agent.

Through our experiences as buyers and sellers and my wifes experience as a real estate paralegal in another state, (She averaged 40 closings a month for 5 years), we have come to find that there are some good realtors and some bad as in any profession.

The housing crisis here in Vegas is a perfect example. Some realtors and lenders steered people into homes they could not afford knowing the consequences would not affect them (realtors and lenders) later.

We had a realtor in the past who simply wanted to list our home at the standard 3%/3% where we lived. It was on realtor.com and we had some flyers, THATS IT. When we had people come through, we asked thathe provide us feedback and contactthe other agent so we could determine if we were priced right or needed to do something to improve the house for sale. He considered this to be too much work to do and told us our house would sell when it sells. Needless to say, we fired him, did a flat fee MLS and sold it ourselves 3 weeks later.

I think there is a need for realtors, especially on the buying side to help you with local laws, inspections, closings, and negotiations. Thats where the money is earned and they deserve the 3%.

As I mentioned, when I did a flat fee listing, I offered 3% to the agent and had no issue with it.

In the selling side, the house sells itself. Yes there is a lot you can do to improve the chances and after you sell a couple of homes, you know what the game is. It is at this point where I think that the fees should be more negotiable and give the seller more of a cafeteria plan of marketing strategies. For the more informed seller, they need less help and can save money which helps them in turn sell quicker than those less informed.

Having said that, it is not easy to find a realtor who will do that on the selling side. - Mon Feb 25 2008, 19:29

Sorry that this bothers you but people need to know that there are alternatives. Here's one that will soon change the game for all of us.

http://www.iggyshouse.com/

this is a new service that lets you list for FREE on the MLS. The exact same MLS that realtors charge 3% to 6% for. This will allow the person who wants to sell his home himself to do so and greatly reduce the money they have to shell out.

To answer your question, I think fees should be based on services provided and on a tier system to make it more affordable to those in a pinch. For instance...

If someone such as myself who knows the process and is willing to manage it myself, the MLS should be Free or a nominal flat fee that I have access to.

If I am someone who is new to the process, then I get to pick and choose the services available to me through a realtor such as MLS, listings in papers and magazines, etc and I pay a flat fee for that as well

If I am a seller, I have no problem paying 3% to a buyers agent.

Realtors better start understanding that their "corner" on the market is going to dissappear if IGGYS is successful. No longer will the informed seller have to give up an additional 3% to a realtor who does nothing other than list them on the MLS.

The funniest part about all of this is how particular Realtors got in this blog when it comes to commisions.



. - Mon Feb 25 2008, 18:52

The question is what does an agent actually do for the money? Not a whole lot in some cases. We sold a house using a "flat fee" MLS listing where we paid 399 for the same listing the Realtors use and sold the house. It saved us 3% of the sales price because we paid the buyers agents commission.
Frankly, I think the MLS should be open to any and all for a fee. In our experience, realtors are helpful when something goes wrong, but they are not required to sell a house. The problem is they are sort of like a monopoly. If you flat fee MLS your house, some won't show it because they are "offended" that you didn't use the services of a realtor. Others, good agents, will show it because they make money if it sells. Think about it, in Nevada right now, I am trying to sell a house. I have it listed with an agent ONLY because I am out of town due to a job relocation. The agent cut me a break to 1.5 % for the listing and 3% to the buyers agent. If I sell my house for 300K, I have to give my agent $4500 and their agent $9000. Now you tell me, did the listing on the MLS and the flyers he made cost $4500? I don't think so. Did the gas the buyers agent spent driving them around cost $9000. I don't thinks so there either. Its a big scam. We have had good agents, and my wife has done real estate closing for over 7 years. She will tell you that most realtors are not worth the money they get. Maybe 10% of them are. Most are just looking for a quick buck for no work - Mon Feb 25 2008, 14:29