The Goad Team, GRI, e-Pro, ABR

Bob makes a good point "Is it time to buy in Vegas" is all relative. While home prices have declined further than they were 6 months ago, the mortgage lenders have also tighten their guidelines since 6 months ago. While a buyer may have paid a little higher price 6 months ago than that same home is selling for today, that same buyer may not qualify for a loan today at the lower price. So therefore even though prices went down, that does not benefit the buyer that is now no longer able to buy.

As far as market conditions, things have definitely improved. Homes we could not give away 6 months ago, now have multiple offers on them. Most buyers or agent working with buyers that need the seller to cooperate with Down Payment assistance and/or closing costs will tell you, it is getting very tough to get a seller to cooperate with these programs today due to the multiple offers on the properties (provided the property is priced competitively). While 6 months ago many sellers would have jumped all over offers such as these.

The things I see going on in the market at this time are reminiscent of the Real Estate Boom of 2004-2005 where first time buyers had little chance of getting a home, as their offers are being beat out by "investors" who have large down payments or are paying all cash. So if things continue on the path that the market is heading in, the first time buyer (or buyer with little cash) that are sitting on the fence do not get in soon, there is a good chance they may miss out on an opportunity to own a home. Along the lines of what Bob pointed out, however what Bob did not point out is that if those buyers that are not making larger salaries do not get in soon, they will more than likely be “renting” a home from those that did get in. A prime example of "the rich getting richer while the poor are getting poorer" syndrome - Thu Apr 24 2008, 08:34

Kenny,

It is horrible, Vegas is horrible, go away, stay away, it will never get any better.

THIS IS ENTIRELY A JOKE DO NOT GIVE ME THUMBS DOWN, KENNY HERRERA IS MY OFFICE MANAGER SO I AM MESSING WITH HIM!!!!

Sincerely,

John Goad, Jr. of The Goad Team
Century 21 Infinity (the best office in Las Vegas...right Kenny!!!) Haha. - Tue Jan 15 2008, 03:01

I have definitely seen a HUGE increase in the Las Vegas market.

In March there were 1,782 Sales, which is far better than the low points of only about 1,000 - 1,100 Sales. Before the Boom when we had what I refer to as a “stable market” (not a buyers or sellers market, more or a middle of the line market). Back then the Las Vegas market would have about 4,000-5,000 Sales a month. So while we are still a ways away from a Stable Market, things are improving and headed in the right direction.

We deal in allot of Short Sales and REO's listings, and properties we could not "give away" 6 months ago, now have multiple offers on them (many of which are over list price). I have one Short Sale listing that has 25 offers on it. And this particular listing is priced in line with the Comparable Sales, not at a Steal Price. It is definitely time to buy in Las Vegas, as if things continue on like this, it is my firm belief that we have finally seen prices bottom out, or at least very close to it.

However I also firmly believe that the High-Rise Condo market is still going to take a much longer time to recover. - Tue Apr 8 2008, 21:20

If you are referring to a Short Sale scenario then the answer is week to sometimes months...

There are so many factors when it comes to the banks making a decision on a Short Sale...
1. Does the seller’s loan have Private Mortgage Insurance?
2. Is the sellers loan a Government backed loan (Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac for example)?
3. Is the bank allowed to make the decision on the Short Sale Offer or does it have to get approved by the original investor on the loan.
Etc, etc.

As far as REO (Foreclosures) go, generally the response time from the banks is much faster. Some of the banks that we are handling REO properties for, respond to offers in hours while others take as much as a week.

Hope this helps,

John Goad, Jr. - Wed Apr 2 2008, 11:13

One last thing...

Make sure to have your agent finds out from the listing agent, how they are handling their Short Sale Listings.

Here is how we handle our Short Sale Listings...We price Short Sale listings at what the bank can "Realistically" expect to get for the property. We accept offers until we have Short Sale Approval from the bank. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART...we encourage agents to NOT have their client submit an offer over the list price (I will touch on why in a moment).

For purposes of this example I will use one of our Short Sale listing located in the Southwest that is currently listed at $208,000. We have 18 offers on the property, but again I have encouraged agents not to submit offers over list price. (by the way the bank had an appraisal conducted, which is standard on a short sale, and the appraisal came back at $208,250). The fact is that no matter what the home sells for, the Seller will not get any funds from the sale. So our obligation to our seller is to help save them from foreclosure. If one person offers $225,000 for the property and the remaining 17 buyers all offer the $208,000 list price, once the bank obtains a $225,000 offer this is what they will want for the property, as obviously they want to minimize their losses. Now let’s fast forward (for the purposes of this example) to 45 days from now when we get the Short Sale Approval back from the bank. If the buyer that submitted the $225,000 offer NO LONGER WANTS THE HOUSE OR HAS PURCHASED ANOTHER HOME, we now have to go back to the other 17 buyers with a Counter Offer of $225,000 because of that offer. If none of the other 17 buyers are willing to pay the $225,000 for the house, then that puts us back to square one with no one to sell the house to. This also puts the seller another 60 days behind on payments and closer to foreclosure. So by turning the sale into a "bidding war" this has not helped anyone involved, as the seller is now closer to foreclosure, the remaining buyers cannot get the house for a “realistic price”, none of the agents get paid, the bank may now have to foreclose, etc, etc.

Now let’s say the situation is different. All offers are at $208,000 the bank agrees to that price, but now there are only 2 buyers that still want the property once Short Sale approval is granted. On our Short Sale listings this is where your 849 FICO score will help you, as at this point the seller now has to choose which of the 2 buyers offers they will accept. Obviously time is of the essence and they need to be sure that the buyer can close the deal, so at this point we would advise our client to accept the offer that has the strongest buyer and that can most likely close the deal.

When it comes to Short Sales, our client is the seller that is trying to avoid foreclosure, not the bank trying to minimize their losses. And again no matter what the property sells for, the client still does not get any money from the sale. On a Short Sale listing our obligation is to the seller and to help save them from a foreclosure and to help salvage their credit as much as possible. So again causing a “bidding war” could ultimately cause the property not to sell and therefore hurt our client in the end, as it may be too late to obtain another buyer for the property before the bank takes the home.

On our REO (Bank owned) properties and standard sales this is a different situation. Our client is now the bank, or the private seller, and our obligation to the seller is to get the most we can for our seller. So REO’s and standard sales are handled in a much different manner.

Bottom line is that not all agents handle their Short Sale listings in the same manner, so knowing how the agent will handle the sale will help you a great deal.

Please forgive the 3 answers, and this lengthy explanation, but I am trying to pack almost 10 years of Short Sale experience into a few posts on Trulia. - Sun Mar 16 2008, 22:51

Dear LV Home Buyer,

After viewing the responses by other agents, Jason Salsbury hit the "nail on the head". He basically answered your question the same way I did, however he answered before I did (and went into more detail).

Again I have been conducting Short Sales for almost 10 years, and Jason Salsbury gave you the most accurate and complete information in regards to your looking for an agent to help you with Short Sales. If you would like to e-mail me, I can send you a list of the current short sales that my team and I are handling. I am sure there is one in there that will suit what you are looking for, as we currently have over 30 Short Sale Listings. And because of our Short Sale experience we have over 25 agents that are referring their clients to us if a Short Sale needs to take place, so we are getting an average of 3-5 new short sale listings each week.

In regards to "Pre-Approved Short Sales"...If an agent says they have a Pre-Approved Short Sale one or more of the following statements is true...

A. The agent is lying
B. The agent does not know what they are doing, or talking about
C. A previous Short Sale offer was made to the bank(s) and a conditions list was supplied to the agent with the terms by which the bank(s) will agree to a Short Sale. So therefore the agent now knows the terms by which the bank has agreed to a Short Sale.

Many agent out there are claiming to have "Approved or Pre-Approved Short Sales" as they think because they have submitted documentation that the bank requested to "Consider a short sale". However without an offer, most banks will throw this documentation away or toss it to the side. Most of the banks have Loss Mitigation and/or Short Sale Departments which are overwhelmed right now, so most of them will not bother with Short Sale packages (and most of them will not even accept the package without an offer) that have been submitted without an offer by someone to purchase the property. In fact one bank that I am currently working with is so overwhelmed that they have outsourced many of their short sales to "First American Asset Preservation" to assist them in handling the great number of Short Sales that are taking place.

Again good luck in your Short Sale pursuit and if there is any thing we can do to be of assistance, feel free to contact us.

The Goad Team of Century 21 Infinity
(702) 586-2772 - Sun Mar 16 2008, 21:31

While it is smart for you to seek out an agent that has Short Sale experience, the buyer's agent is not the agent that deals with the banks when it comes to Short Sales. All of the dealings with the bank (or banks if there is more than one loan) is done by the Listing Agent and/or the Sellers. So again while you do want to have a Buyer's Agent that is experienced in Short Sale representing you, your agent will not be the one dealing with the Bank(s) in order to gain Short Sale approval. The only way your agent would be the one dealing with the bank(s) is if you are purchasing the home directly through the listing agent on the specific property you wish to purchase.

Good luck to you.

John Goad, Jr. - Sun Mar 16 2008, 20:23

One last note and then I am done with this post. What amazes me is how people will pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, when they can get a cup at 7-11 for about a buck. But when it comes to buying or selling the biggest investment that most people will make in their lifetime, many want to put their trust in the cheap real estate agent. Evidently in many people’s minds the major priority here is a lousy cup of coffee, not the largest investment they have ever made. Is it just me or do the people in this nation seem to have their priorities out of whack? - Tue Feb 26 2008, 18:09

In a Nut Shell.... My son can go to the crappy Clark County public school for FREE. I choose for my son to attend a private school, and I pay $7,000 a year to ensure that he gets A QUILITY EDUCATION. Bottom line....You get what you pay for. - Tue Feb 26 2008, 17:57

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Ummm. Could that be because there aren't a whole lot of homes OFFERED with a coop over 4 %?

J R...Yes it is true that there are not as many 4% or more commissions being offer NOW (there were a great deal more being offered when I originally posted my comments), but there were a GREAT deal of these co-ops being offered to the buyers agent up until recently. My point was this...MOST of the listings offering a 4.0% co-op to the buyer’s agent are doing this to make up for the fact that the property is priced too HIGH. There are agents out there that will only show listings that are paying a 4.0% co-op or higher, but agents that operate in this manner is what makes the general public view agents as crooks. Agents such as they are only looking out for their own interests, not their clients. If you honestly believe that higher co-op's to the buyers agent is what will sell homes today’s market, instead of pricing the home correctly...tell that to the new home builders, as most of them WERE offering outrages commissions over the last year. But most have clued into the fact that the prices needed to come down, and that doing this is far more effective than offering a higher commission rate to the buyer’s agent. I am all for making more money, than the “standard” but NEVER when it means that my client is getting screwed in the process.

Rob Anderson - I know this is going to upset some of the agents out there, but I agree with you 100%. Many agents are not worth a hill of beans, much less thousands of dollars in commissions. I am primarily a listing agent and you would be shocked how many offers I get where the buyer’s agent cannot even fill out an offer correctly.

I have stated for many years that most agents spend way to much time in: sales classes learning how to convince someone to buy a home they do not want, going to motivational seminars, etc. etc. Instead of attending classes that will teach them more about Real Estate and how to do their job to the best of their ability.

There is a 2 fold problem here....#1 Most Real Estate agents do not know how to properly market real estate and/or do not have the funds to do it. Many also lack the knowledge of how to do their jobs. In Nevada you have to go to school longer to cut hair than to sell real estate, THIS IS A SAD BUT TRUE FACT. #2 Brokers are not educating their agents as much as they did in the past (there are a number of reasons for this, that I am going to go into). Most of the Continuing Education classes that we must take to renew our licenses go over the same stuff as pre-licensing classes and do not teach "next level" real estate education. Those agents that are serious about their careers seek out and attend classes that will further their career and teach them how to be true “professionals” but again most of the classes are basic "Real Estate 101" type classes.

The fact is that the real estate profession has damaged itself. Real Estate agents used to be viewed as professionals, but when agents are out in the field showing houses in Shorts and Flip-Flops, and the kid working the drive through window at your local McDonald’s has a real estate license, it is no wonder why the general public no longer has a great deal of respect for Real Estate Agents as a whole. However this does not mean that all agents are unprofessional and are not properly educated. - Mon Feb 25 2008, 19:57

Mansur,

With all do respect to your post The Ballen Team asked a question of "What is the highest commission you would pay a Realtor and why?" at no time did they ask anyone to get together and establish a set commission (in other words price fix) it was simply a question that was asking people their "oppionions" on what they feel that they would pay. In order to be a violation of "price fixing" The Ballen Team (and anyone who responded) would have had to suggest some sort of agreement that everyone would charge the same commission rate. Which from my review of the posts, no one has ever made any sort of suggestion that anyone "fix" their commission rates.

The fact is that the Anti-Trust Laws state that we cannot "fix" commission rates, but never mentions that agents cannot freely express what they choose to charge, or what "in their opinion" is a fair commission rate. - Mon Jan 14 2008, 18:59

WOW 10% no wonder why my team has over 45 listings, and why we are having one of our best years ever (this is not to knock those charging 10%, as I am now rethinking our commission rates). We take 3% on our end but the total commission we charge is based on the comps. When we do a CMA we not only do an analysis of the price the property can realistically sell for, but look to see what other agents are offering as a co-op to the buyer's agent. For example if there are several agents offering a 5% co-op to the buyer’s agent, then we may charge a total commission of 8%. However it is my firm belief that PRICE SELLS, so typically I try to show our sellers why they need to be lower priced than the competition and if someone is offering 5% to the buyers agent on an overpriced property, it is generally better to be competitively priced and offer the "usual" 3% co-op to the buyer's agent rather than over price the property with a higher co-op.

After seeing this question, I conducted some research of the homes that sold during the month of September 2007.
This is what I found...
218 Sold Offering up to 2.9% co-op
1,682 Sold with a co-op of 3.0%
174 Sold with a co-op between 3.1 - 4.0%
76 Sold with a co-op between 4.1 - 5.0%
6 Sold with a co-op between 5.1 - 6.0%
1 Sold with a co-op between 6.1 - 7.0%
7 Sold with a co-op of 7.0% or more.

Take note more homes sold offering less than the "typical" 3.0% than those with a 3.1 -4.0% co-op. Before anyone mentions it, yes I am aware that most of the listings offering less than 3.0% are REO Properties, but that does not change the facts. As you can see the higher co-op to the buyer’s agent does not appear to be making a big difference, and from what I “GENERALLY” see on the MLS the properties with the higher co-op’s are usually trying to compensate for being overpriced. Again my belief is that “price sells” in this market. Now before anyone chooses to get into a debate with me over this, I will state that I do know of a limited number of agents that say they will not show a listing unless it is paying at least a 4.0% co-op. However the agents I know that are conducting business this way are not looking out for their clients best interests, they are only looking out for their own.

We do a GREAT deal of marketing, and every agent on my team is a highly experienced professional, so after seeing this post I am beginning to rethink our commission rates.

I will leave everyone with this note. One of my buyer’s agents recently sold a New Home that was paying a 7% co-op with a $20,000 bonus. Well later on she ended up not being able to take the entire commission as Countrywide Home Loans would not allow the builder to pay her more than 8%. The funny thing is that she stumbled into this new home community with her buyer while out showing resales and the buyer wanted the Standing Inventory home that was offering all this. She had no idea of the commission offering so this was not her motivation for taking her client to this housing development. Oh by the way she told the builder that they did not get to just keep this money, and had them apply the money towards their association dues.....her buyer is paid up for 10 years. - Sat Oct 27 2007, 00:32