My New Outside Blog

Las Vegas Short Sales Report

Well... not really just Las Vegas Short Sales but since today's Las Vegas Real Estate market is primarily dominated by Las Vegas Short Sales as we all anxiously await for lenders to approve our short sales and let home owners move on in life with a reflection of the real estate correction... let's just call it what it is.

The Las Vegas Real Estate short sale market or The Las Vegas Short Sale Real Estate market... not sure which one sounds better.

Reports indicate that over 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas owe more then their home is worth so I don't think short sale numbers are going to go down anytime soon and the market will continue to be bogged down.

The numbers below reflect AREAS 101 through 606 on the Las Vegas MLS which includes Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson, NV Real Estate. (And yes... this includes Summerlin Real Estate.)

Currently Available for Sale:

• 10,194 Total Listings for Single Family Homes, Condominiums (under five stories), Townhomes and Manufactured Homes.
• 4,852 Short Sales
• 3,714 Regular Sales
• 1,598 Bank Owned Homes

The number of Bank Owned Homes available for sale in Las Vegas has decreased significantly since November of 2009... and decreased significantly since tracking these numbers in our Las Vegas Bank Owned Homes for sale on the Las Vegas MLS reports.

Currently In Escrow - Contingent / Pending

• 14,401 Properties in Escrow
  
• 9,826 of these are Short Sales!
• 3,049 are REO aka Bank Owned Homes
• 1,514 are Listed as Regular Sales (Yes... there are regular sales going on out there.)

January Closings

To show how many lenders are bogging down Las Vegas Short sales for the Las Vegas real estate correction... let's take a look at how many of all those short sales are actually closing escrow.

• 3,147 Total Closings with the same criteria as above.
• 1,836 of these were Bank Owned Homes
• 684 of these were Las Vegas Short Sales
• 622 of these were Listed as Regular Sales.

So... while Las Vegas Short Sales by FAR dominate the Las Vegas Real Estate market, actual closings of Las Vegas short sales, while improving over previous reports... still lags. Especially considering that 5,467 of the Las Vegas short sales currently in escrow have contract dates of 2009 on them. In other words, we are going on the third month of 2010 and 55% of the short sales in escrow had contracts written on them in 2009!

Some more Interesting Facts:

3,917 of the 9,826 Las Vegas short sales in escrow are listed as Vacant Properties.

257 of the 684 Las Vegas Short Sales closed in January were with Buyers using FHA financing.

480 of the Bank Owned Homes that closed in January were bought with buyers using FHA financing.

928 Buyers of Bank Owned homes that closed in January were Cash Buyers!

ONLY 14 Cash Buyers closed escrow on Las Vegas Short Sales in January.

So... while cash is king when it comes to Bank Owned Homes, Listing agents advising their clients on short sales are giving the FHA buyers a shot. Representing buyers that are using FHA financing... my experience has been that they have a far greater chance of getting an accepted contract on a desirable home listed as a short sale then a Bank Owned Home.

For Las Vegas Real Estate Sellers who may have to do a short sale

If you need to do a short sale... right now may be the absolute best time to put your Las Vegas home up for sale. The Federal Reserve is planning on backing off of buying up Mortgage Backed Securities with the current dirt cheap interest rates and planning on the private sector to step up. Interest rates are projected to go up which means the buying power for buyers is going to go down.

Also, (as of right now) the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit is scheduled to end and buyers must have a home in contract by 04/30/2010 and closing by 06/30/2010. As there was in October / November of 2009 - there will be a rush of buyers in March / April.

As reported above -- Short Sales are still taking a significant amount of time so START NOW if you have a hardship and need to sell. If you are waiting on the new HAFA program and more promises from inexperience, it is my personal opinion that the program offers little incentives for Las Vegas Short Sale lenders to participate. I was right about the Making Home Affordable Program when it was announced and due to my experience and reviewing the full 53 page guidelines report, I think I'll be right about the new program when it comes to Las Vegas Short Sales. Waiting until the program goes officially into effect on April 5th will be waiting until it is too late in my opinion.

With years of Las Vegas short sale experience and multiple short sales closed, I can certainly help you in consulting to see if a short sale is right for you. I not only have taken several Las Vegas short sale listings (the majority of which sold in the past year) but I also represent buyers in selecting which ones to go after which have a very high rate of success due to knowing which ones are a waste of time to begin with... and which ones to go after.

Undecided with loads of legal questions? Contact me for a reference for FREE legal advice on which alternative (Loan Modification, Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, Short Sale or Bankruptcy) will be the best for you.

For the most part, Las Vegas Real Estate Agents are NOT Attorneys and should not be giving you Legal Advice. Giving Legal Advice is a sign of INEXPERIENCE in Las Vegas. The True Experts have an arsenal of references to the experts for you to utilize.

Use the Contact information below to get started with moving on in Life with somebody who may not tell you everything you want to hear... but you need to hear.

Paul Francis, CRS
Prudential Americana Group - REALTORS
Las Vegas Short Sales
702.592.3058

*Information on Las Vegas MLS activity is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Sales numbers do not reflect For Sale by Owners or direct sales. Even if the information is not 100% exact... it is a pretty accurate reflection of what is going on in the Las Vegas short sale real estate market... or is it the Las Vegas Real Estate short sale market?

Regardless... we are all being "shorted" when it comes to moving forward.

Are you ready for a SUPER tool to add to your SEO toolbox? Take a look at the Wonder Wheel.

What is it?
Wonder Wheel, right there hidden on Google search results page, is great and easy to use VISUAL Search Engine Optimization tool. The Wonder Wheel shows your search results in a visual format - wheel - with your search term in the middle and terms that Google sees as related on the spokes of the wheel.

Why wheel it?
To improve your blogs, posts and sites. You can optimize your content with keywords/terms whether it is within a post, a blog or a website. You could also use these related terms when doing a Pay Per Click campaign.

How do you find it?
The wonder wheel is there, hidden in the Google search results. Here is how.

I did a Google search for Miami foreclosures (as an example) - below is the typical search results page



Click on Show Options...

... and you see the left hand column



Look at the left hand column and find Wonder Wheel - click on it...

... and this appears




Nice Visual!

You can see that each spoke has a search term that Google sees related to the term in the middle.
If you click on any of the terms on the spokes another wheel opens up with related terms to that particular term - in the example I clicked on the spoke/term Miami Beach foreclosures



How do you use this information?

If you are writing a blog post you could add one of two of the related terms as your secondary keywords. You could also add links to other posts that you have written about one or more of the terms on the spokes. Or you could write about your main term and each of the terms on the spokes in your same blog.

If you were looking for a content for a website this could be a great starting point to see what types of pages to add to your site.

Once you have written a few posts or pages you can start linking them to each other and voila there you have some SEO in action.

From one term you can write up to EIGHT other RELATED posts or pages - if the terms make sense. I did a few other searches and some of the terms would not have worked as they mentioned some companies by name, even ours - hope that is a good thing.

I am such a visual person so I love how easy it is to use the wheel and just keep adding related content. There certainly are many, many other ways to tackle SEO, keywords and such, but as simple as this is to use and implement, you might find that adding this to your toolbox is a great addition.

Rita

I use the word "term" here to mean keywords.

Copyright 2010.© Rita Burke. All Rights Reserved. "Wonder Wheel"