Brace yourselves for a rollercoaster ride through the Las Vegas housing market with your hosts Trish Williams and Tiana Kirill. We're blowing the lid off the December slump and fanning the flames of the market's early stirrings in January. We're not just your tour guides; we're your market mavens, decoding the signals of an early bloom amid frosty forecasts. Our crystal ball isn't only for show, as we dissect the implications of recent legislation designed to rein in corporate investors and their impact on your neighborhood.
Corporate investors are snapping up properties, but what does that mean for you, the local homebuyer or investor? We grapple with this thorny issue, bringing into the spotlight the delicate dance between a free market and legislative checks and balances. With Senator Jackie Rosen's proposed bill hot on our heels, we discuss how a tug-of-war over regulation could shape the future of home buying and selling, potentially affecting your ability to climb that property ladder or secure your slice of the American dream.
And for those of you with homeownership in your sights, we're packing a toolkit of essential advice to navigate the financial hurdles that lie hidden on the path to purchasing your abode. Beyond the down payment, we're laying out the nitty-gritty of inspections, appraisals, and those pesky closing costs. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a first-time buyer, our insights on negotiating in this dynamic market could be the ace up your sleeve. So tune in, and let's demystify the costs and strategies of stepping into your future home.
Welcome to Vegas Realty Check, the informative podcast that dives deep into the world of Las Vegas real estate.
Our expert hosts break down the complexities of the ever-changing Las Vegas property market, analyze market trends, economic indicators, and unique property features to provide you with valuable insights on timing your home sale or purchase.
Don't miss out on the fun! New episodes drop every Thursday! Stay in the know about Las Vegas real estate with insights straight from the pros . Thanks for watching, listening, and sharing!
If you LOVE our content , Please subscribe to our show here
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Brace yourselves for a rollercoaster ride through the Las Vegas housing market with your hosts Trish Williams and Tiana Kirill. We're blowing the lid off the December slump and fanning the flames of the market's early stirrings in January. We're not just your tour guides; we're your market mavens, decoding the signals of an early bloom amid frosty forecasts. Our crystal ball isn't only for show, as we dissect the implications of recent legislation designed to rein in corporate investors and their impact on your neighborhood.
Corporate investors are snapping up properties, but what does that mean for you, the local homebuyer or investor? We grapple with this thorny issue, bringing into the spotlight the delicate dance between a free market and legislative checks and balances. With Senator Jackie Rosen's proposed bill hot on our heels, we discuss how a tug-of-war over regulation could shape the future of home buying and selling, potentially affecting your ability to climb that property ladder or secure your slice of the American dream.
And for those of you with homeownership in your sights, we're packing a toolkit of essential advice to navigate the financial hurdles that lie hidden on the path to purchasing your abode. Beyond the down payment, we're laying out the nitty-gritty of inspections, appraisals, and those pesky closing costs. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a first-time buyer, our insights on negotiating in this dynamic market could be the ace up your sleeve. So tune in, and let's demystify the costs and strategies of stepping into your future home.
Welcome to Vegas Realty Check, the informative podcast that dives deep into the world of Las Vegas real estate.
Our expert hosts break down the complexities of the ever-changing Las Vegas property market, analyze market trends, economic indicators, and unique property features to provide you with valuable insights on timing your home sale or purchase.
Don't miss out on the fun! New episodes drop every Thursday! Stay in the know about Las Vegas real estate with insights straight from the pros . Thanks for watching, listening, and sharing!
If you LOVE our content , Please subscribe to our show here
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1428685/support
Linktree https://linktr.ee/vegasrealtycheck?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=665d8181-2204-45fb-b56f-e8ed3efbfd18
Send Listener Questions to : VegasRealtyCheck@gmail.com
Access All Episodes at RealtyCheck.Vegas
Watch Live on Facebook Thursdays @9:30am PST
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Linktree https://linktr.ee/vegasrealtycheck?utm_sourc...
Good morning Las Vegas. Thanks for joining us here at Vegas Realty. Check your local Las Vegas Real Estate News. Show I'm Trish.
Speaker 2:Williams, and I'm Tiana Kirill. Welcome back Vegas.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and well, it is cold outside, temperatures are dropping, but the housing market is heating.
Speaker 2:That is. That was smooth.
Speaker 1:That was smooth. Yeah, so we are. We're here. This week we're going to be talking about December numbers which don't look good, but we'll talk about them.
Speaker 2:Well, they don't look bad. They're up from November, so that's better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's better, but January is going to look great January I am seeing it already and my my crystal ball it's going to be. It's going to be a lot better.
Speaker 2:It's crazy that. What would we? What do we intend? 11 days of the 11 days into the month, it feels like 50. It feels like 50 in January.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I don't. I don't think I've had a day off in January yet.
Speaker 2:Oh well, that's 11 days of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I'm like only 11 days, that's not happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it is it is busy out there. There's a lot going on, which I'm glad. Usually we wait until like um end of February before spring season starts. But uh, I think Vegas did not get the memo that we're waiting until February. They're like we're doing it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is spring. It doesn't feel like spring, but it's spring, it's spring guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does feel chilly out there today, though.
Speaker 1:Oh, so cold and I hate the wind. White, white wind.
Speaker 2:And we're so bad it's probably like 50 out there, 48, something like that but the wind is chilly because we have snow on the mountains, so it comes in like ice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no it's. It's too cold out there. So.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's only going to be here for a couple of days, don't worry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it'll be hot before we know it. Yeah, so we have some news. Woo, yeah, so, um, the uh, real deal, um, which is a news reporting, but we'll update you there Place.
Speaker 2:I lost my words there. A news platform got it.
Speaker 1:A news platform. Yes, so they reported Las Vegas had the slowest home sales in 15 years. But we knew that. We knew that. No surprise, right?
Speaker 2:Slowest home sale in 15 years and there's still like 1500 homes that sold. Yes, that's Vegas baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was their report for summary of 2023. We did get, which I'm kind of excited about, Lake Mead National Recreation Center, which is Lake Mead, Cottonwood Cove, all that stuff like that. They announced. News 13 had announced that they have implants for a $10 million renovation to Lake Mead area, so I'm excited to see what they're going to do there, just in time for all the water to evaporate. Yes, just in time for all the water to evaporate.
Speaker 2:Actually, there was a raise in the water levels with that rain that we had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's great. We always need a breeze.
Speaker 2:Over the entire span of the lake. It doesn't seem very much, but I think they gained almost an inch. That's good yeah.
Speaker 1:That is good. We definitely need the water. So in other news, this is big. So there was a first off. There was an announcement that they had reported. Lv Las Vegas Review Journal reported there was a Wall Street backed company. They bought over 250 single family homes in one day in Clark County. They did yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw that. I saw that when it was happening. They're going to be rentals.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's for their portfolio. On Tuesday we had an announcement come out by Jackie Rosen Senator. She proposed a bill on Tuesday regarding this and that bill that they have proposed hasn't gone through. It's just a proposal at this point would make it illegal to sell or rent at an unreasonable price during a housing crisis. In Nevada, so estimated, they're estimating 15% of single family homes are owned by corporate investors, so that is how much are they saying in?
Speaker 2:the valley is owned by corporate investors 15% of single family residents. So I've seen reports and stuff showing that 25% of our valley is owned by corporate investors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I'm not sure if they have these numbers absolutely accurate, right, and it could change.
Speaker 2:If you have a single family, if you tie in town homes or whatever, then maybe that pushes it to 25.
Speaker 1:Yeah, town homes condos.
Speaker 2:It's a chunk of our valley is definitely owned corporate rental.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I seen another report that said by 2030, they're estimating that 40% which is huge will be owned by investors. So that is huge. But the problem I have with this bill is making it illegal to sell or rent at an unreasonable price during housing crisis. What defines a crisis Exactly? We've heard the word crisis thrown around in so many different arenas, but a year and a half now, well, a year and a half.
Speaker 1:But we, even even when the market was good, there was a crisis of inventory, there was a crisis of everything. I mean, they throw the word crisis on everything and I don't think the government should be able to tell a property owner, a homeowner, what they can sell their home for. That just negates free market, you know, that is. I don't think that that's right. I don't agree with this bill and I'm not for it. So I understand what's behind it, right, the reason, the reason behind it, and I understand what they're trying to do, but I do not think that. I think that this is one of those things that could turn bad by allowing too much regulation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would be a double-edged sword for sure having that much regulation. Because, you're right, when people talk about real estate, I always tell them listen, it's just too people. They're people coming to terms and you have the agents that are facilitating the deal. Now, all of a sudden, if there's regulation saying you can't sell for peak price or whatever that sort of negates what people get into real estate for once. They've already got their primary. Then it's all about making money after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of those things that's packaged just sound good, like say, oh yeah, we're just doing it to stop investors from doing this. And that sounds great, we all want that. I'm for that too. But at the same time it's one of those things where it's like, okay, but once it goes into effect, now you have the regular homeowner that can't sell their home for a certain price or a certain percentage over their price because of this regulation that's in place and it just doesn't seem fair to the free market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that as a society, we'd wrap our head around more the idea of, let's say, that bill was used for like renter purposes and for rent control, because we've been there and we understand what that's like, but actually telling somebody they can't sell their home for the most profit that they can make off of it.
Speaker 1:That's yeah. So always be cautious of government regulation telling you what you can do with your equity.
Speaker 2:So while you were out in December, there were some bills that were presented that we talked about on the show that were sort of along the same thing, but it was more towards corporate investors that if they were going to buy up like that huge chunk of homes that they bought here in the valley, they would have to pay $10,000 each unit purchase to put into a fund that goes to first time home buyers. So that would make it more fair versus first time home buyer and an investor who's coming in and buying a chunk of land or a chunk of property. So there's all sorts of stuff. There's about three bills on the table now that all have to do with real estate and what we will and will not be capable of doing.
Speaker 1:And I would like to see, in reviewing the legislation on all of that, just see that there is a term that limits it to investors, like an LLC purchasing versus a regular person doing a purchase, like as their first investment property. Like you have your regular blue collar worker that's buying their first investment property to work towards their retirement fund towards everything at their portfolio. We don't want them to have to pay this fee, so hopefully there's something in that legislation that limits it to LLCs.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. So that would be sort of a non-fair scale somebody just breaking into the market versus a hedge fund coming in and saying, all right, we'll take 45 homes, Thanks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so just very cautious on that when that goes through, or I would want to read through the entire thing before making a decision to make sure that it's not going to affect your traditional homeowner. And again, the people that are trying to build their portfolio, build their retirement, build their own passive income, that are working class people that are just trying to make it work. We don't want them to be hit with these types of fees.
Speaker 2:No, we definitely don't. We want to be able to help those people and, as you know if you've been a fan of the show we are big fans of owner occupants and getting people into their first home and then their investment and helping them build a portfolio, because a lot more blue collar workers do it than people think. Everybody thinks that it's all investors and hedge funds and whatever, but there's lots of people out there holding second, third and fourth properties.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and they're very wise by doing that, because it's creating a solid investment for their future. Yeah, so for inventory this week, where?
Speaker 2:are we at? We have 3589 available single family homes on the market this morning. So if you want to get one of those, give us a call, We'll help you. There's still not a lot. There's still not a lot out there. No, 3500 is not a lot, let's see. What does that look like compared to? Oh, I guess we're not. This is just this week in Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have it because we're also doing a market report, this show, so you'll hear all of December. We already talked about that. So and sold we had 269 sold and then our price decreases tipped up at 394.
Speaker 1:But the as we mentioned opening the show. This week has been a lot busier and that's showing in the under contracts. Those are at about 486 this week 486? So I am thinking that we're going to have a stronger sales month this month of closed units come the end of the month, but that's also going to make inventory drop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, unless we get lucky enough to have some inventory starting to come on the market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are getting a lot more sellers that are coming off the fence and wanting to sell and make those moves now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, today isn't, isn't what is today the 11th? Isn't the Fed meeting today?
Speaker 1:I do not know, but I know that they were supposed to meet in January. I just don't know the date, so I think it's today, 11th.
Speaker 2:I think today is the day that they're going to make their next announcement, which might go in line with the announcement that they've been doing, saying we're not going to touch anything at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be great if they drop it, even better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then we'll have lots of sellers and lots of buyers. It'll be a frenzy. You might want to sell those houses before the government comes in and regulates and says, no, no, no, you don't get max profit.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, we've already started to see like quite a frenzy already just with the, the slight adjustment that we've seen in rates, and this spring it's going to be hard to get a house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. I think it's not only just the small price, but now we've had over a year to wrap our head around what 6% interest looks like, and then we saw it go up to eight and then it came back down and we're like, thank goodness, yeah, you know yeah, and we're seeing multiple offers.
Speaker 1:We're seeing a lot of activity out there, a lot of homes going under contract pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, not as quick as in November, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's from December numbers, yeah, yeah from November to December.
Speaker 2:There was a change in the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, December felt a little slow to me. It didn't I know that overall 2024, if we look back like at the year 2023, 2023, yeah.
Speaker 2:Look at you. You're the only person I know who's already in this year. Yeah, keep writing 23 on things and saying 23. I'm like no, no, we are 24. I'm ready for the fours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in 2023, I just in speaking to like a lot of realtors that are like a lot of top producers, a lot of people that do a lot of volume, some of them are telling me their business was down as much as 75% over 2023, which is insane. Which is insane. Yeah, I know my business was down, but I was down more 20% in the 20% range. But I have been hearing a lot of people say that their business was substantially down in 2023. And so this year I'm sure we're going to start seeing that pick up a lot. But yeah.
Speaker 2:So if I had my crystal ball, I would basically say from now. If I had a little starter gun, I'd shoot it up in the air and say go. From now until August is going to be, I believe, a feeding frenzy in real estate. And then I think as we get closer to the election people will get unsure with all of the advertisement and propaganda going in on the news and TV and whatever. Then they'll sort of pause. So I think the end of this year is going to be a hell of a lot slower than the beginning. So now, now, now.
Speaker 1:I always say now, we always slow down right around elections. It's been, you know, every time. No matter what the market is, it's always slowed down right, right, a few months before and even a couple months after the election. Yeah, everything just gets. People just wait to see what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think by the end of the year it's going to be much slower than it is now. So take full advantage of the opportunities that come available to you from now until end of August.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Buyers do have opportunity in election seasons, oh, yeah. To, you know, because there's less competition. Yeah, um, but again, that depends where rates are. It depends on a lot of factors.
Speaker 2:So we will definitely keep you posted on what the market's doing and what good money moves would be if we're in a buyer's market and we're seeing those, um, you know, concessions or anything will keep you apprised that. So make sure you like, share and subscribe to the channels. That way you kept up to date.
Speaker 1:Yeah and um, and we are seeing less concessions and seeing that, um, you know, a lot of buyers, um, I'm working with a couple buyers that are in like that entry level home range of you know, in the 400 ish range, and we're seeing those concessions crazy that that's our entry level. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember like two 35 was entry level home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, not anymore.
Speaker 2:No, that's a good old date Like 200, even in some cases crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm seeing those seller concessions going away um closing costs, things like that.
Speaker 2:Those are um they're decreasing and in some cases just going away, so we're getting that's hard when you have conversations, especially with like new um homebuyers, if they're coming in and saying they're looking for a down payment assistance or can I get a contribution from the seller or whatever, and I'm like, yeah, should have come to me two months ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, as the market picks up, that tight ends up. Yeah it does.
Speaker 2:So our December numbers Yay Um December reported and these are from um LVR.
Speaker 1:Yeah, las Vegas Association of Realtors monthly um market update. So this, uh, this just came out and you know the news is already reporting on it um based off these numbers as well. So um unit sold for December in single family Um was um 1,518.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Down 1% from uh previous month.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's the whole weird thing, right? So, okay, they have it up on the screen. It says 1,518. It does say down 1%, but literally, if I go to the November snapshot, it says there was 1435. So how did we sell more and then go down? Um?
Speaker 1:unit.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that is, uh, it's odd right Cause this is November 23. And that was at 1435 that we reported last month and then this month, december, of 23, 15, 18. And then it's saying it's going down.
Speaker 1:Uh, this is in a year over year uh from um from December of last year.
Speaker 2:Uh well, this is the percentage. It might be it doesn't specify here. But on the next sheet uh, I don't know your thing on the next sheet, page three, it shows from growth of November 23. So I thought all the dates were from November 23.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what does it show for growth from November 23 there, let's see. Let me toggle back to my note.
Speaker 2:It says 5.8% growth.
Speaker 1:Yep, so it the growth was from December 20. We're down 20,. We're down 1% from December 2022.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I wish they'd specify them Okay.
Speaker 1:But that's, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So 15, 18 for our unit sold in December ahead of November.
Speaker 1:The median home price range is the same $449,000 in December, so from December 2022, it's at 5.9%.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, yep, same as last month, though we didn't see any growth this month. Wai, wai, wai.
Speaker 1:Right, new listings in December were down 10.6% from December 2022 at $1,500. Yeah, and the median price for listing so median price for listing is median price listed versus the median price of units sold, that's what we just said was $449,900. But the median listing price was $465, which was up 3.4% from December 2022.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's good growth for the year Yay.
Speaker 1:Yep and how much units were available of single family in December.
Speaker 2:Single units were 3,766.
Speaker 1:Yep Down 39.4% from 2022. But December 2022, we had a large amount of available.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was November. December of 2022 is when we saw all of those homes come on the market and we thought, oh, here we are in a different market, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Every month's a different market. It's so much fun. Yeah, it's been like that for a while Over a year. Yeah, and that is in December. We had two and a half months of availability, so even December was slow, that low inventory. We're going to see that number drop as the market picks up, so be prepared for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unless we get lucky and get a flood of homes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, there are a lot of people that are ready to list now. So we're seeing a lot more of that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:All of the end of December and the beginning of January have been all conversations of people broaching the idea going to be doing this. Let's get the house ready. Let's get some stuff moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's going to take a lot to balance that out, so we'll see Right. Condos units sold in December.
Speaker 2:We did 463 units sold in December, which are condos and townhomes, and that's actually up almost 20% from November of 22. Yeah, december of 22.
Speaker 1:December of 22. Uh-huh yeah, december of condos and townhouses sold was 270,000, which was up almost 10% from December of 2022.
Speaker 2:Yep Year over year, and then that actually the median home price range was 289,000.
Speaker 1:So that median between lists you're looking at about $20,000 difference and that seems to go to par, you know, of what offers were being accepted versus what prices were listed for. That was pretty consistent in December of being around the $20,000 range. Yeah, totally yeah. And then the appraisals, of course. The appraisal sometimes would come in and knock that price down. Sometimes there'd be price adjustments from the original list price. So all of those things factored in Yep New listings we had 501 of the condos and townhouses listed in December.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that was up 10% from 2022.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which effectively we still have about the same amount of inventory on our condos and townhomes just about two and a half months worth of inventory.
Speaker 1:And the units available were 1,133, which were down 18.5%, which we already said that December 2022 had some low inventory, so that is no December 22 had higher inventory. Oh, high inventory, yes, high inventory.
Speaker 2:So that is no big surprise there, yeah no, those are the numbers that we sort of expected to see, and anybody who follows along at home we report the numbers each week, so they'll have an idea of what four and a half weeks of numbers look like in total.
Speaker 1:All right, yep, absolutely. So how long was it taking these homes to sell?
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the interesting thing, because last month like 65% of the homes sold within 30 days, right, In November 2023. Right In November of 23,. Most of the homes sold 65% of them, sold within that first 30-day mark and we're down a little bit. They sort of drug our feet because only 57.6% of the homes sold within 30 days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but it was December. There was so much going on in December Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. Two extra days on the market isn't really changing anything from 65% of the homes selling to 57% selling within that 30 days. That's not very big jump, but it is a jump a little slow.
Speaker 1:Yep, so that did push those 31 to 60-day home sell numbers up slightly to 20.9%. We're selling between the 31 and 60 days, right, so that?
Speaker 2:balances that's been in the teens before, like 17, 18% last month.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, 17.5 in November 2023. And then the 61 to 90 days that was 12.3% of homes were taking 61 to 90 days to sell. That number was up from November 2023 at 8.8%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the same thing for the 91 to 120 days. That number is slightly up too. It was 4.9% in November that those homes were on the market, and then 4.2% in the prior month. Yeah, yeah. So just a tiny bit longer for the month of December. I expect that to change.
Speaker 1:Yeah Like quick, yeah yeah by.
Speaker 2:February, I think we'll be back into like 70% of the homes selling within that first 30 days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and the condo and townhouse numbers look pretty much the same. As far as those time frames were at 59.4% for less than 30 days, 25.5% for 31 to 60, and 11.1% for 61 to 90.
Speaker 2:3.2% for 91 to 120, and 2.8% for 121 plus days on market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so pretty good yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's for a town that has 100 different markets in a month. That's been pretty stable, I guess the last couple months. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:December felt super slow to me. There just wasn't just a lot going on. A lot of people just weren't going out looking, not a lot of things. So definitely I can't believe it's only 11 days since December, but it's a new market now. It is a new market now.
Speaker 2:It has all changed since the new year.
Speaker 1:It has all changed.
Speaker 2:And it's crazy how you see things change. Right, it's a little uptick in property, sitting days on market and less seller contributions and more people are inquisitive. What are we going to do? Should we sell a house? Should we buy a house? Are we moving? It happens, and it happens so fast. It's so weird to watch it unfold in front of your eyes because from one week to the next, you really don't know what's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's why we keep you up to date every week on what's happening here.
Speaker 2:Indeed, because you need to know, I didn't even know that some of those people had 75% decreases in their business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I spoke with some people that we both know that had told me that they they looked over their end of year numbers and it was shocking to them. Yeah, so yeah, that's huge, that's huge and that's crazy. So I know that, even like some brokerages I've talked to, had big decreases in their business. So there was. You know, last year was not a not a very strong year for our industry and you know, 15% are down, the lowest sales report in 15 years.
Speaker 2:So that was Tianna was just living her own world man.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I am somewhere else because last year was great for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I had a great year. That's good. That's good. Well, I was down 20% last year, but I think that's very With the environment that we were in. I think it was very yeah, all the situations that happened Very consistent and I still think I ended the year pretty strong as far as where you know, just with the market that we were in. I look back at the year and say it was a pretty strong year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a good year for me. So we've been doing this thing since the beginning of the year, which is our second episode where we take caller questions, even though we're doing the market report or emailed questions. So if you A have a question that you want to know about real estate, then you can go ahead and email us at vegisrealitycheckatgmailcom and then we can get those questions answered for you on air. We won't have time to go through a lot today, but we could probably knock one or two out.
Speaker 1:Oh, you think we have time for one, let's do one. Okay, let's do one.
Speaker 2:We got three minutes, let's do this.
Speaker 1:All right, so Jocelyn had sent in a question. She's saving for the purchase of a home. She's buying her first home. She's already researched about the FHA loan. It's three and a half percent down payment and yes, Jocelyn, that is correct Yep and she wants to know what other expenses she needs to prepare for.
Speaker 2:Oh, as a buyer? Okay, so this is right. In my wheelhouse, because I deal with buyers all the time, I always let them know that there's two out-of-pocket expenses that happen and are specific to the home, right? So that's going to be your home inspection and your appraisal. Those are going to be paid outside of closing. The inspector will get paid directly and the appraiser will get paid through your lender.
Speaker 2:So, those are the first two things that you have to have cash for. And if you fall out of contract at 123 Main Street and you have to go to 456 Adams Street, then you have to pay for a home inspection, because you need a snapshot of that property and appraisal as well for that. So those are two out-of-pocket expenses, and then there's the handy-dandy closing costs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so closing costs in some markets and in some cases we can negotiate the seller to cover some of those or a portion of it, in some cases all. But as we were talking earlier, inventory tightens up, market activity picks up and more competition we will start to see those go away. So closing costs usually I tell people to be prepared for about two and a half percent of your purchase price for closing costs.
Speaker 1:You definitely have to talk to your lender about that. Some of those are lender fees, some of those are title fees, some of those are HOA prepaid taxes. So that can all vary depending on the circumstance, so always discuss that. But that's another thing I would say if you're getting into the market, go ahead and start that saving and preparing for that. If you get some of it covered, great you keep your cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can never have too much cash when you're moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely that's an expensive process. Yeah, absolutely Home warranties. And we have another question which we'll get to next week which we can get into home warranty a little bit. There I think that's a home warranty issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I love that question, but we'll talk about that next week. That'll be a surprise next week.
Speaker 1:Now we're giving you a teaser. Yeah, just a teaser, but home warranties are something that a lot of buyers will want to do on their real estate purchase. Cover the home with a home warranty during the first year. That fee home warranty fees can you know? They range, I would say, prepare anywhere from 400 to 750 on average for your one-year home warranty Right. A lot of times we can ask sellers to cover that and a lot of times they'll be willing to. But again, that will change depending on the market that we're in.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it will absolutely change. So obviously you want to have all of your ducks in a row and have enough money to pay for your closing costs, your appraisal, your home inspection, your home warranty, and then, if you get an agent who can negotiate down and get some of those things taken care of, great. But it's better to be prepared than ill-prepared. When it comes to and when people ask me how much money should I save all of it. You should save all of it. Everything you look at in life should be like do I want this or do I want to buy a house? Do I want to buy this or do I want to buy a house? And that goes from your cup of coffee to shoes, to nights out, until you were in that house.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So as a bit, I guess, a summering answer to your question, jocelyn, I think that you should be prepared, or try to prepare, to put together a savings fund that's approximately 7% of your purchase price and that should be enough to cushion you to cover your expenses through the purchase. And then, of course, if there are concessions, if there are things that can alleviate some of that cost, that's even better for you because it's more money that you have in your savings fund, right?
Speaker 2:right, and as agents, we're going to try and keep as much money in your pocket as possible, because we do know that there are going to be moving trucks and things that have to come along with this move. But save it all, yeah, save it all. If she says seven, I say 10.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, 10% is even better. You have a better cushion.
Speaker 2:You have a cushion and then if you do need to come over, if you do get in a bidding war, one of the things is like over appraised value. Yeah, if we go to that again and you're going to need cash back up because the bank's not going to finance any over that appraised value. So if you do need to be in some sort of bidding war or to beat out somebody else in the property, cash is king, baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So save, save, save Always a good idea when you're purchasing your first home. All right, well, that does it. We'll save the other questions for next week. So we already have our week started next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're ahead of the schedule.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're ahead of the schedule. So next week on our show we'll be opening with news and then just diving right into those listener questions. So if you have any questions that you want to want us to talk about on the show, please send them in VegasRealtyCheck at gmailcom you can message us directly. You can call or text me 702-308-2878 and Tiana. How do people reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they can call or text me to 702-379-9948 and we'd be happy to answer questions for you, or you can email them in. We'll answer them here on the show. However, we can be of assistance, but make sure you like, share and subscribe so that way you don't miss out on any of this content or information. Thank you very much, vegas. Thanks.
Speaker 1:Vegas. See you next week. Have a good week, bye you.