The Search for a Vegas House, 33% :sweetblog / 33% Nice Tilt / 33% 20 Questions

Ok so I've been super jealous of the baller house that X bought early last year, which is a sweet 6,000sq mansion formerly owned by Randall Cunningham. I've been tossing the idea of buying a 2nd home around off and on in Vegas ever since 2004 when I started coming out regularly to play poker/bet sports. I have to admit though, it was little more than a pipedream until I saw X's house. Sure the first time I saw it there was no running water, it was 100 degrees inside, and there were dragonflies in the pool... but hey, it's super baller now.

My needs aren't quite as elaborate as his, as he plans on using his place for corporate rentals. He filled the house with 100k in leather sofas, plasmas in every room, a fitness center, and a home theatre. For me though the main goals of having a place in Vegas are a little different...

1. House to stay in when I come out 2-3 months a year. Up until this point it's been usually less than 2 months, but my wife after 5 years of asking her finally quit her job. Now I can travel more because of it, sweet.

2. Buy and Hold for a long term flip. Home prices in Vegas have plummeted in the last year. Sure, right now Vegas is a huge disaster, but give it time and I believe it will improve. I don't see how in 20 years I'll be selling it for anything less than 2x the purchase price this year.

3. Not this year, but hopefully as early as next year I'm hoping to bring out my wife and 3 kids out for the summer. My kids are small (4, 2, and 3mo), so I really want them to be in a nice house as far away from scumbags as possible. I don't want to have to worry about their safety playing in the back yard while I'm playing wsop events.

I also have a friend lined up to rent this house pretty much from day one. He would get to live in a fairly large house for the price of a one bedroom apt, and in return he'll help me out by doing things like making sure the pool guy/landscapers show up and stuff like that. Nothing that involves a ton of work, but stuff that needs to be kept up on if I'm back in PA for 4-5 months in between visits.

Ok, so in comes the tilt section. Holy shit, I've been pouring over hundreds of listings for days, and I just can't seem to find the perfect house. I've seen a few nice houses, but those turn out to be short sales and will no doubt be a nightmare and with the advice of my realtor I'm probably going to stay clear of them. At this point a lot of the houses are starting to all look the same, and I'm just going to have to come out and spend a few days looking at dozens of properties.

Questions. I've pretty much narrowed it down to West LV and Henderson. Henderson seems like a great place to be, except I'm just not seeing the kind of house I'm looking for, which is...

250-300k
0-10 years old
2000-3500sq
4+ Bedrooms
Good Condition
Gated Community preferred
Pool Preferred, but not necessary

Everything I look at either has a desert landscaped horrible looking backyard, or has a great view of a desert mountain past the fence. I would love to host some pool party/cookouts from this pad, and that isn't the scenery I'm looking for. I'm not saying I need the Vegas Strip in the background, just not a view of coyotes pissing.

I've found a few nice properties in the NW, where a few good friends live off I-95, but those are way the fuck out there and easily 30mins from the strip if not more with traffic, which there's a lot of on 95/Summerlin Pkwy. That leaves me only due West and SW, which I think is probably going to be my best bet, but I have heard there are sketchy neighborhoods in this area. I really don't want my kids anywhere near any of that. So I'm open to opinions here.

Here are a few props I've singled out so far. A few need some paint, but for the most part are fairly nice and I'll definitely be looking at them.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...9129_1108064239
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...9144_1107747313
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...9134_1105128749
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...9148_1104311700

I am not sure where your optimisim on housing comes from. Your last source should be realtors as they are trying to dump their listings.

The subprime mess is pretty much over and has run its course. But there is a now larger problem: "prime mortgages". These were Alt A Mortgages that used teaser rates to get unqualified buyers into homes tha had above decent credit. This is 100% financing with a 2 or 3% interest rate for the first 3 to 5 years resetting to well above 8% when they mature. These people will foreclose as they had between 0-3% downpayment and can walk away with no issues. Most could barely afford the 3% rate let along a new 8+% rate.

This problem is just now happening and will last for the next three-five years. The whole "stress test" going on with banks right now is because of the wave of foreclosures getting ready to hit, not what already happened. This is independent of sub-prime, this is the new wave of foreclosures in prime mortgages. On top of that unemployment likely can hit above 10% next year which will bring more foreclosures. We arelikely in the 4th inning of a 9 inning game.

If you buy a house in LV this year, you will certainly over-pay. By how much, not certain. But you will over-pay. To think your $300K home will be worth $600K in 2025 (in today's dollars, not inflationary dollars), is pure fantasy. The glut of homes on the market today will be pale in comparision of what it will be like in a couple years.

There is a reason why banks have to submit to stress tests. The government is anticipating a new wave of foreclosures the next few years which will drag down prices of homes even further.

Have you tried looking in the Anthem area? It is really part of Henderson and is for the most part dominated by nicer age-restricted Del Webb communities, lots of seniors....but if you don't mind that probably a pretty nice place to have your wife and kids.

http://www.welcomehomenevada.com/idx/details/1-898192
http://www.welcomehomenevada.com/idx/details/1-903297
http://www.welcomehomenevada.com/idx/details/1-925337

Must be nice to find a halfway decent 4 bedroom house for anywhere near 300k. Jesus.

Was that the same house that Randall Cunningham was trying forever to sell at $20 million dollars?

Anthem is very nice but WAY the fuck out there. It's so big it's like a little city. Getting from point A to point B within Anthem can take 20 plus minutes (and that's just within the community, not counting how long it takes from the strip etc), which in Vegas is really far. the homes there are gorgeous and now half the price or so they were a year ago though - just way out there

Definitely not the 20mil house, but it was worth over 1mil at it's peak. x got a great deal on it, at least at the time that he bought it.

Anthem does look very nice, but very far out. I'm hoping to be within 20mins of the strip, which is why I was focusing on the GVR section of Henderson.

I cant believe you can shop for a house in a gated community and expect to get one under 300k.


Housing is crazy cheap here in Texas and that wouldnt happen.

There are a LOT of communities that are gated in Vegas, because unlike most cities Vegas is blanketed in ghetto/less desirable neighborhoods. You really need to separate even the average middle class homes from some of the local riff raff in places. I guess what I'm saying is that gated isn't really that special in Vegas like it would be most parts of the country. Gated with 24/7 guards would cost you a bit more though.

LOL @ gated with 24/7 guards costing "a bit more".. The "local riff raf" in a lot of places on the east coast live in the 300k homes (not saying anything about you as this is obviously you're 2nd home and will actually be very nice for its price). Just a crazy juxtaposition. I guess buying up property / houses in fly over country is +++EV.

I'm guessing you live in either CT or MA, because I live on the east coast (PA) and my house is about 3800sq and was in the 300s as a base price.

It's true though, there are a ton of under 200k homes in gated neighborhoods in Vegas, as are most 1-2bdrm apartment complexes. A friend of mine lives in the NW part of town and actually has two gates to get to his house, one with guards and one with a card swipe. There are some high 300k houses in his neighborhood, although they are the smallest ones.

Add in the privacy laws in Clark County where every house has to have a block wall enclosing every back yard between houses, and neighborhoods look and feel completely different. For someone coming from the east coast I'd imagine all that would take a lot of getting used to.

On second thougt you are smarter. Buy. You are much smarter. PA buyers have LV makrets scooped....!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syyGqmvCo7Y

With all due respect, because you obv know a good bit about the mortgage business... I'm not some random PA person that just had this great idea to get a vegas place. I have (although, not happily now) a ton of my net worth tied up in private mortgages in Las Vegas in the way of Trust Deeds. Unfortunately for me all my loans that I've invested in were initiated pre market bust, so my 45% LTV loans are pushing 90-100% now. This certainly doesn't help my argument that I'm an ultra savvy LV RE investor, but at the time they were certainly a great investment. Luckily all of them are 2 year loans and all the payments are up to date.

All I'm saying is that I do know a little about the LV lending market, because I've been involved with it fairly heavily for the last few years. I was also under the impression that ARM loans like the ones they were talking about in the 60min piece were not a widely used product in Vegas, and most of our customers that came to us for financing did so because they couldn't get approval for 15/30y fixed which was all that was available to them from the banks.

I know Las Vegas fairly well, and have close friends who are RE investors that have their ears to the ground.. I can tell you one thing, there is already a tremendous amount of buzz with investors looking in Vegas that are willing to wait out the downturn. Once the banks start to release the credit, there is going to be a fury of investment dollars flowing into Vegas by some very savvy investors. Like i said before, my Vegas house is a multi-purpose investment. I'm looking at at least 20 years before I resell, and most likely much longer. I'm 30 now, I could hold this prop as a 2nd home for 30-40 years.

That one's in Rhodes Ranch, mine and Dustin's neighborhood. When you come out here, let me know and I'll show you around. I spent almost an entire year looking at only houses in Rhodes Ranch. As soon as I saw the web site, I knew I wanted to live here.

http://www.myrhodesranch.com/

You can get awesome deals on short sales and bank owneds, because there are a ton of them here, but they are a huge pain in the ass to deal with. I believe my 2250 sq ft 4 BR 3 BA floor plan has gone for as little as $230k recently.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...9148_1105573704

oooo ship this one

If "tiime" is not relevant than there is no need to discuss this any further. Yes, in 30 years from now, when you are 55-65 your house will be worth more than today. Inflation will guarantee that.

Bottom line is this, if you are buying a place out of convenience in LV, then so be it. But if you are buying a place for an investment in 2009 in LV you will get hammered. There are many more foreclosures coming. LV is a housing disaster.

There are/were 5 bubble markets in the US housing market:

1) Florida (Miami, Orlando, Tampa)
2) North Cali
3) South Cali
4) Phoenix
5) Las Vegas

The worst short term is Cali.... long term, is Las Vegas. LV is a by product of the economy. And as the economy gets worse worldwide, less people will come to Vegas and hence more foreclosures. There are no beaches in LV....the only reason to go is to lose money.

There is nothing to suggest in ANY data LV housing will recover any time soon. Nothing.

I've seen warehouses smaller than that.

You're retarded.

So you are suggesting business in LV is robust? Explain yourself.

Reggiman,

I found your new house, you can thank me later. LOL

http://www.welcomehomenevada.com/idx/details/1-880412

A steal at only $17,500,000.