Summerlin Las Vegas Townhome Community

las vegas townhome - buena vista, originally uploaded by CynAbel.

Buena Vista is a nice townhome community located in Summerlin (just off Buffalo and Lake Mead). Two story homes, one car attached garages, clubhouse, public pool, fitness room, and green spaces.

Want to see more pictures? Click here.

Las Vegas Crime Maps

Las Vegas crime maps are available online. It is very easy to plug in an address and see how a neighborhood stacks up.

Here are the links:

City of North Las Vegas Crime Map:

http://www.cityofnorthlasvegas.com/departments/Police/CrimeSearchMapDisclaimer.shtm

Las Vegas Metro Crime Map:

http://www.lvmpd.com/crimeviewcommunity/

City of Henderson Crime Map:

http://www.cityofhenderson.com/police/crime_search.php

Recent Real Estate News

A few stories:

Overlooked Signs the U.S. Housing Market is Turning - talks about the Las Vegas market.

Federal Homeowner Program May be Making a Dent in Foreclosures - Obama's Making Home Affordable Initiative is showing promise.

How to do you own Home Inspection

I always say to hire a professional home inspector. But, it never hurts to have some information on what to look for in a home prior to making an offer.

Click here to view the video.

Foreclosure Help - Mediation

A new state law goes into effect in July which allows homeowners facing foreclosure to demand a mediation with their lender. Lenders would be required to produce promissory notes for the loans.

This gives homeowner's a chance to re-negotiate terms with their lenders. This is especially helpful in cases where the lender has not been very cooperative.

The cost will be about $200.

More information here.

Aw Shucks! Client Testimonial

I need to update my testimonial page. I am fortunate to have some fantastic clients. Here is one testimonial that came in last week.

Dear Cindy,
I just wanted to again thank you for the incredible professional and personal help you provided to my wife and I in our recent search for a home in the Las Vegas area. Being from out of state, made us wonder who we could trust to really listen to our needs and help us make an educated choice - all from 1200 miles away. When I began searching on the internet, I ran across several "well-advertised" realtors and tried to work with them to find a home. Unfortunately, none of them really tried to understand what we were looking for.

When we finally ran across your website, we were impressed. After I emailed you with our basic desires, you set up the best automated search that found the type houses we wanted, in the areas we were interested in. It was even more impressive when we found your email notices gave us "inside" details about each listing that was not found on the standard public realty websites - or from other realtors that we had tried.

I was amazed that you applied no pressure to look at "your" listings like the previous agents had done. We were now starting to learn about the area and listings, all by email and internet. After a few days of looking with your leads on the internet, my call to you by phone further confirmed my belief that we had found a great realtor. Your guidance in directing us away from some areas that looked good on the internet and toward other areas that were family friendly was wonderful.

After another week of searching with your daily email alerts, you recommended that we fly out there to walk thru some of the listings and neighborhoods to further narrow down our choices. I was expecting to get a couple of hours of your time, but was I surprised when you said you would spend whatever time it took to find our new home. We visited about 12 listings as I recall, before we found the 1 that we were looking for.

Again, your advice guided us well in placing a great offer, but the listing realtor was not as helpful since they omitted mentioning that they already had a matching offer in hand - so we lost that one.

Finally, it happened early one morning! I opened my email alerts from you and there it was - truly the home of our dreams. I went to the public realty website and it was NOT there. Could it be a mistake? I hurriedly emailed you, since it was early, and you called back quickly. Since I could not fly out on short notice, you agreed to make a walk through and send pics. Was I surprised when we got not 5 or 10 pics but 50 posted on your Flickr website so we did not have to download or overload our email.

Your site visit confirmed that your website listing was correct so we placed the offer again remotely by email - on a house that we had not ever walked through. In reflection, that did not worry us since on my previous visit there, after the 4th house we looked at, you started predicting what I would like or not like - from my comments on the previous houses. In other words, you didn't just show us houses, you listened and understood what we were wanting.

A few days later you called to inform us that the seller, a national bank had accepted our offer, but needed more paperwork to finalize the offer. You immediately worked with them to get that handled and left us with little to do - except sign the documents. It was amazing that after these days of emails, the public website still had little info on the house. Your website had the info a full 7 days before it was on the public website!!!! THAT GOT THE HOUSE FOR US!

But what now? We were from out of state and had no local (or national) lendor that would handle the loan (due the national lending crisis, where even Donald Trump was on TV saying he couldn't get a loan.) You recommended a local broker and somehow they got the loan approved, insured and closed - even in those trying times. When one of the other firms needed a push to move forward, again you were there to get the deal done so we could move in.

After closing, we were still new to town and living out of state. We needed people to clean and do some fixups on the house. Again, you had great recommendations. These people did an incredible job and we will use them again.

This may sound like a fairytale to others or an infomercial - but it is not. This is the true story of how a pair of Southerners bought a house in Las Vegas, that they had never walked into, and LOVE IT! Thanks Cindy for ALL your work.

Sincerely'
R.G. & Mary Edwards

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You can see why I love my clients!!!

Las Vegas Homes

Some interesting news stories:

Where recent out-of-state-homebuyers are based - 40% of the homes sold this year have been to out of state buyers. Thisstory has an interesting chart showing where tax bills will be sent. Surprise! California leads the pack.

How many homes do banks really own? - We keep expecting a wave of foreclosures to hit the market. Where are they?

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SW Las Vegas Finally Getting a Library!

On June 12, the Las Vegas- Clark County Library District is breaking ground on a new library at the corner of Windmill and Rainbow. Here are some details from the web site:

27,096 SF library with additional shell space of 11,342 SF for future growth

86,617 SF service center housing District administrative offices, support functions and centralized materials processing center

9,390 SF, 300-seat auditorium

Seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification

Regional building materials and water efficient irrigation systems

Efficient use of daylight to minimize the need for overhead or other lights

State-of-the-art book and media management system

The library is scheduled to open March 2011. It will feature an art gallery, meeting space, computer labs, computer area, and a bookstore.

More information available here.

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FHA Buyers and the $8,000 Tax Credit

There is some confusion whether this $8000 can be used towards the 3.5% down payment requirement for an FHA loan. Well, it appears this cannot be used towards your 3.5% down payment. However, you can get a tax credit advance to be used as an additional down payment, to buy down your interest rate, and towards closing costs.

Talk to your lender to get the details. You can also read the details here.

Tenants in Foreclosed Homes Must Be Given 90 Day Notice

Read below from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors:

REO Agents and Investor Buyers Take Note!
New Federal Law Gives Tenants an Extra 90 Days
By Deanne M. Rymarowicz, Esq.
GLVAR Legal Counsel

Earlier this month Congress passed (and the president has already signed into law) a remarkable bill known as the “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.” The bill was styled by lawmakers as “an Act to prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability.”

The bill received some media attention, mostly for giving a safe harbor to loan servicers who use loan modifications and other loss mitigation tools to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

One aspect, though, has largely escaped notice, and it has a far-reaching impact on state law and owners’ rights. That aspect is protection for tenants living in a home foreclosed upon by the lender. A bona fide tenant, whether subject to a lease or not, must receive at the very least 90 days’ notice before vacating the property.

Yes, you read that correctly: a new owner – whether an investor, a buyer who intends to be an owner-occupant, or the bank – who purchases a foreclosed home now takes the home subject to the tenants’ possessory rights and must provide a tenant with 90 days notice before requiring the tenant to leave.

The new notice provisions apply to “any foreclosure on a federally-related mortgage or on any dwelling or residential real property.” In other words, pretty much every home foreclosed on after May 20, 2009 (the effective date of the new law).

To be eligible for the 90-day notice, the tenant must be “bona fide.” According to the new law, a lease or tenancy shall be considered “bona fide” only if --

“(1) the mortgagor or the child, spouse, or parent of the mortgagor under the contract is not the tenant;

(2) the lease or tenancy was the result of an arms-length transaction; and

(3) the lease or tenancy requires the receipt of rent that is not substantially less than fair market rent for the property or the unit’s rent is reduced or subsidized due to a Federal, State, or local subsidy.”

Some tenants may live out the remainder of the lease term if the lease was entered into before the date of the notice of foreclosure. (Because the new owner is required to honor the lease, it appears that the new owner would likewise be entitled to rental payments.) However, if the tenant has such a lease but the new owner intends to occupy the home as a “primary residence” then the owner has the right to terminate the lease as of the sale date, but the tenant still gets 90 days’ notice. If the lease is terminable at will, or the tenant has no lease, the new owner may terminate the tenancy but still has to provide the 90 days’ notice.

For purchasers at the trustee’s sale, the questions become more significant: how to determine if the property is occupied by a tenant or the mortgage holder; what is the status of the lease; what kind of financing and insurance are available if the new owner intends to occupy the home, but legally cannot do so for 90 days?

REO listing agents who are assigned tenant-occupied homes by an asset manager must exercise caution to avoid practicing property management if they do not possess a property management permit. All listing agents should inquire how their clients intend to address the requirements of the new law.

This federal mandate expires on December 31, 2012.

The ramifications to this bill are extensive and completely overwrite the provisions of NRS 118A and NRS 40. Simply put, Nevada’s “three-day notice” for bona fide tenants living in a foreclosed home no longer applies. More notice, and a greater awareness of federal mandates, is required.

Loan Modification Now Available for Second Mortgages

The Making Home Affordable Program has now expanded to include second mortgages. Under this Second Lein Program, modification of the first mortgage will reduce the payment on the second lien.

More information is available here, and here (pdf document).

Second and Investment Home Guidelines

Here is some recent information emailed to me by a local lender re. loan guidelines for second and investment homes.

Cumulative Required Reserves
1. Subject property is a second home: two months reserves
for each residential property owned, excluding the primary residence or those
owned free and clear.

2. Subject property is an investment property: Six
months reserves on subject property investment property plus two months reserves
for each other residential property owned, excluding the primary residence or
those owned free and clear.

Detailed Clarification
1. The reserves are calculated using the full PITI for
each property - P&I, taxes, insurance, HOA dues (excluding any utility
charges), mortgage insurance, ground rents, special assessments, subordinate
financing, etc.

2. DU has not yet been updated to calculate the
required reserves for the subject property, and will not be able to calculate
the number of other financed properties owned. Therefore, underwriters
must manually apply the reserve requirements to second home or investment
property transactions.

3. Example: Borrower is financing an investment
property with a proposed $900 qualifying payment, and also owns another
investment property with a $700 PITI payment, and a primary residence with a
$1,600 PITI. The required reserves are 6X $900 plus 2X $700, for a total
of $6,800 (do not include the primary residence in the reserve
calculation).

Thank you to Steve Mevorah, Icon Mortgage for this information.

Las Vegas New Homes: Builder Deals and Discounts

Looking for Las Vegas new homes deals? Southern Nevada Realty has them.

Remember, the builder pays our fees and commissions. This allows you to be represented in the transaction without having to incur extra closing costs. We will be there to help you every step of the way.

New Builder Pricing! Base Prices starting from $160K

SW Las Vegas Community (Blue Diamond near Rainbow) - Gate community with a community pool and tot lot - Square footages start at 1366 and go up to 1776 - Up to 5 Bedrooms - Low maintenance community

Interested? Contact Us

Don't forget - if you are looking for Las Vegas homes for sale - visit our Web site.

Las Vegas New Homes: Builder Deals and Discounts

Looking for Las Vegas new homes deals? Southern Nevada Realty has them.

Remember, the builder pays our fees and commissions. This allows you to be represented in the transaction without having to incur extra closing costs. We will be there to help you every step of the way.

Close Out Pricing!! $119,000 (price includes builder incentives)



Two Story - 1342 Square Feet - Cul de Sac Lot - 3 Bedrooms - Low E Windows - GE Appliances - Located at 95 and Tropicana.

Contact us for more details.

Las Vegas New Homes: Builder Deals and Discounts

Looking for Las Vegas new homes deals? Southern Nevada Realty has them. Here are a few items builders have notified us of over the past week.

Remember, the builder pays our fees and commissions. This allows you to be represented in the transaction without having to incur extra closing costs. We will be there to help you every step of the way.

SOUTHEAST:
Lamplight Gardens at Silverado Ranch
Lilac Plan - 1,286 square feet
Priced as low as $175,990

Mockingbird
Calistoga Plan - 1,907 square feet
Priced as low as $209,990

Fiesta Park near the Fiesta Casino
Recently Reduced
Acapulco Plan - 3,181 square feet
Priced as low as $325,990

Clermont in Anthem Highlands
Builder Close Out - Only 5 homes remain!
Tropez Plan - 1,898 square feet
Priced as low as $266,990


NORTHWEST:
Remington Place
Walnut Creek Plan - 1,987 square feet
Priced as low as $214,990

Antelope
Roan Plan - 1,302 square feet
Priced as low as $172,990

Hampton Glen inside of Providence
Easton Plan - 1,795 square feet
Priced as low as $210,990


NORTH LAS VEGAS:
Sage Creek
Santa Monica Plan - 1,760 square feet
Priced as low as $175,990

Diamond Point
Santa Clara Plan - 2,714 square feet
Priced as low as $247,990

Walnut Grove
Aspen Plan - 2,217 square feet
Priced as low $200,990


NORTH CENTRAL:
Lexington Park
San Carlos Plan - 1,531 square feet
Priced as low as $175,990

New Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan

The Obama plan resources and news:

Financial Stability.gov

Washington Post

What people are saying