Unlocking Vegas Real Estate: Controversies, Californian Buyers, and Investment Secrets

Ready to unlock a treasure trove of real estate wisdom? Join us on Vegas Realty as we roll out the red carpet for Courtney Bohm from JFK Financial. Together, we tackle the buzzing controversies in Sunrise Mountain, where a community meeting spotlighted a fiery debate over rezoning and the potential elevation of the Great Unconformity to national monument status. Stay tuned as we unravel the current trends in the Las Vegas real estate market, dissect the rise in price adjustments, and spotlight the influx of Californian buyers eager to tap into Sin City's real estate action.

But that’s just the beginning. Discover the untapped potential of DSCR loans, an alternative financing option tailor-made for seasoned property investors. Courtney and Trish break down how these loans can fuel your real estate ambitions with fewer hurdles and dynamic flexibility. We also swap tales about the quirky world of real estate disclosures and the surprising power of neighborhood insights. From the importance of engaging with your local community to the hilariously informative anecdotes from neighborly reports, we’ve got a bundle of tips to brighten your home-buying journey. Plus, don’t miss our next episode featuring community insights from Mark Schaefer of My Vegas Magazine.

Chapters

• 0:18 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Overview
• 15:03 Investment Property Loan Overview
• 22:46 Neighbor Disclosures and Community Connection

Transcript

Trish Williams : 0:18

Hey Las Vegas. Thanks for joining us back here on Vegas Realty. Check your local Las Vegas real estate news show. I am your host, trish Williams. If you are watching the show, please make sure you like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about us and keep on following us. And I am very happy to introduce our new co-host today for the show. We have Courtney Bohm, who is with JFK Financial. Courtney, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do.

Courtney Bohm: 0:45

Yeah, so I am a lender. I'm super excited to bring the lending aspect here to the show and thank you so much for having me. I've been here since 1996, since way back when and this town has just grown. It's just crazy to see the growth and how much this town has became a sports town and things have just changed. And with JFK we are almost at 20 years now, so as far as a company and we are in nine states, so I'm just super excited to bring that lending aspect to the show and I look forward to being here.

Trish Williams : 1:17

I look forward to having you here, and it's going to give us so much value to be able to not only talk about what's going on in the real estate environment but also in the mortgage environment, because they are hand in hand, of course, absolutely. So before we get into our show today, we always talk about a little bit of news or things that are going on. There is one thing that I thought was interesting, or interesting enough to talk about. Last night I attended a community meeting in Sunrise Mountain area. If you're not familiar with the town, sunrise Mountain is the furthest east you can go in Las Vegas, and up there in that part of town there is rural. It's rural zoning, so that means that it's two homes per acre. So Century Communities, which is a builder that builds a lot of homes here in the Valley, they were trying to propose rezoning a section of that area to. They were talking about between 4,000 and 10,000 square foot lots, which obviously changes the zoning there. How'd that work out?

Trish Williams : 2:23

There was outrage. Fox News was there. There was a lot of I mean. They even had police there. The room was packed. There were a lot of people there, because one of the things about this city is. You do not see that many areas of the valley that are rural zoned where you can have property and have land. So changing that zoning not only I think it affects the integrity of the town, you know, because it's a limited resource that's available but it also could affect the home values of the people that live in the area. So yeah, that was interesting. There was a lot of outrage. At the end of the meeting the spokesperson that was there for Century Communities did say that he's going to come back with a new proposal of a community that has two homes per acre, which would be luxury, and we'll see if that happens or if that comes through. But that would be nice, it would be interesting and I do hope that they do keep the integrity of the zoning in the area.

Courtney Bohm: 3:28

Absolutely, Because you don't see too many houses now that you know have large backyards anymore and everything's so cookie cutter, so we'll see what happens. It would be nice to have something like that, especially on newer home builds as well.

Trish Williams : 3:39

Yeah, absolutely, and it could do a lot for the community. There is also a proposed plan that they just touched on last night, and I'm not sure exactly if that's official or going through, but they were talking about turning that area into a national monument. Really yes because Sunrise Mountain, the mountain that it's on, actually has um, um, it's something called the uh, the great unconformity, and there's only like a couple in the whole, in the whole world, or or something of um, something with the mountains, and it's uh it's, it's unique, yeah, and uh, for that reason, um, there is talk about turning that into a national monument preservation area, so that would be interesting as well.

Trish Williams : 4:30

So, pretty cool. Yeah, keep an eye out for that monument here. I love it, yeah, Love it. It would be headed out towards Lake Mead. So, yeah, now, every week we do open up with our market numbers and now, since you're here on the show, we're going to talk about what's going on with rates as well. So we will get into these market numbers. Right now In the Valley, we have 5,485 single-family homes on the market, so that inventory is up a little bit. It's been consistently hovering around that number for the last few weeks. And what are you guys seeing as far as, like, new loan applications? Are you seeing a lot of movement out there?

Courtney Bohm: 5:15

You know, lately it's been a little bit steady. As far as you know the market, the rates aren't as sexy as we would love to see.

Courtney Bohm: 5:23

I'm sure that's no surprise to most people, especially if you've been shopping around. As far as the housing market and things like that, I think it's absolutely moving forward and I think this town is growing so much which, if you're coming here, you want to buy a house. You're going to buy a house and we see a lot of movement from California and things like that as well, especially lately, so they're excited about the prices here.

Trish Williams : 5:46

Yeah yeah, the prices are still good. The prices are still good and, on that note, we had quite a few price adjustments. Last week we had 837. So that is up from previous weeks. Those are people that are trying to make those prices more attractive.

Courtney Bohm: 6:07

Yeah, and I think you know, I think in this type of market to get some movement especially, you know, if there's a lot of other homes on the market, sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Yes, Especially when the rates are a tad higher. You know, it's just making it more affordable for someone to be able to come in and purchase a home and have an affordable mortgage, Right, right.

Trish Williams : 6:28

And under contracts there's 508 homes went under contract over the last week and 610 sold. So sold numbers are looking good for the week, I think, because 610, if that were week over week, that would be around a little over 2,000. So I mean not my favorite number at 3,000, but very close. Yeah. Where are we at right now as far as the rate environment? Where are we hovering around?

Courtney Bohm: 7:00

So right now, national average right, we go off averages. You're looking at a conventional loan sitting right around about a 7% FHA. We're right around a 6.3 to 6.4 on a national average. Va is pretty close to exactly the same. So we haven't had a ton of movement virtually at all. It's very calm in the last few days. Obviously there was a ton of movement right after the election, which is no surprise.

Trish Williams : 7:28

Did you guys get hit with a lot of loan applications in those couple days afterwards?

Courtney Bohm: 7:32

It was very steady, but you definitely saw people waiting to see what was going to happen and holding off. I think now, whichever way you go, people are going to be more settled and moving forward on what they had thought before the election. So the market is very calm right now. 7%, 6.3, 6.4 for an FHA still really doable. Obviously, we're all hoping that that comes down, but people are still buying.

Trish Williams : 8:01

Yeah, and the Fed did adjust the rates, but that has not really reflected in mortgages yet. It hasn't made a huge difference. Yeah, so we're hoping that eventually that will, and there's a lot of stuff going on around the world right now in the news and I still think that has buyers a little bit weary, absolutely, yeah. So, yeah, that's where we're at right now. And then, in case you guys are wondering too, I know we always um tell single family homes that are on the market, but condos and townhomes are at 1802 and those are always a little bit less um than what we see in single family Um. So we have some listener questions.

Courtney Bohm: 8:40

Absolutely yeah, looking forward to going through some of those?

Trish Williams : 8:43

Yes, definitely. So our first question we have came from Pamela, and Pamela says she has a home for sale right now and it's not getting any offers. The builder that she bought the home from is still selling homes. They're selling them at a lower price and they're offering lower interest rates, and she wants to know what she can do to get her home sold.

Courtney Bohm: 9:06

Well, that's a hard one, pamela, that it is, you know. Looking at interest rates as well, obviously you know new home builders. Some of their rates are very low, yeah. And why is it that they can do that? Well, one, they have their own in-house lenders. So you know they can offer their own incentives and their own things that are built into the loan that sometimes a traditional lender necessarily can't offer. Or it'll come with different types of upgrades and things that house upgrades if you go through their lender. So, as much as our rates are pretty amazing, there's only so much we can compete with, and and so at that point I mean she has to look at possibly holding the home a little bit longer. Yeah, until that whole development's finished.

Trish Williams : 9:52

yeah, till the builder sells out, or at least at that model. I've seen times where you have a specific model of home and the builder has sold out of that model. Then that will drive some more attention towards your home. But yeah, it is really challenging when you're competing with the builders and when you don't have a lot of equity because sellers can offer rate buy downs to buyers at a certain extent right they can.

Courtney Bohm: 10:18

Typically, when you're looking at that, it really depends if they want to offer it. A buyer cannot do like a two on buy down or three, it just depends. The seller would actually have to contribute to that. So at the end of the day, if she also wants to lower the price but she has to be willing to do that. You know, sometimes if you're competing with other homes that are just as new, just as pretty, it's how can I be different? Or what can I offer to get someone in and get someone to purchase? And you know it just, I guess depends on how ready she is to go and what her motivation is.

Trish Williams : 10:52

Absolutely, and it all does come down to price and concessions. If that's your competition, you've got to shine brighter than the competition, and a lot of times that's in price, unfortunately. I know nobody likes to hear that, but that's just the truth of how it is, and I have a client right now that has a home for sale in a new construction community where they're still building and the builder will not allow signs in the community for cell signs, open house signs nothing.

Trish Williams : 11:23

So that is a I found out the hard way. That is a common thing and that does you know. I mean, it's not that every buyer is going to contact you from signs. We've seen our sign marketing decrease over the years, but it's still an avenue that you can't use. You can't utilize that.

Courtney Bohm: 11:45

I mean, maybe you know from what I've seen like I had friends who bought in Lenar and you know the price of their home. The equity grew so much once everything was done, yeah, so it almost seems like waiting until the entire neighborhood is done and completed. That's where you're going to get your most value.

Trish Williams : 12:02

it seems like Well, in new construction, one thing that happens almost every time is they sell the model home last, and the model home usually sells substantially higher than everything else because it's the model home.

Courtney Bohm: 12:15

It's beautiful, it's perfect, it's upgraded.

Trish Williams : 12:17

It's the most attractive home they sell, so that does when the community closes out. You have a really good comparable that can increase your home value. Because once it becomes resale nobody cares if it's the model home or if it's a regular home or anything. Those are all looked at in the resale perspective. When an appraiser goes in there as the same home it's the same floor plan, same square footage. The upgrades vary slightly and may add a little bit, but when they're looking at it on the resale market it usually doesn't have that effect.

Courtney Bohm: 12:52

And so I think at that point you know her best bet is lower the price, Lower the price, or possibly wait a little bit.

Trish Williams : 13:00

Wait till they sell out, absolutely, absolutely. I agree with that too, and I do think the market's going to come around and strengthen over the next couple months. I was hoping it would happen sooner. Not seeing that happen sooner, but I do have confidence in this market that it's going to get better.

Courtney Bohm: 13:18

I mean, and now that it's the holidays, what do you typically see? Yeah, it's going to get better. I mean, and now that it's the holidays.

Trish Williams : 13:22

what do you typically see? Yeah, Well, I do see, usually in December. December is usually a lot slower, of course, you know, than the rest of the months of the year, but we do get a lot of those end of year buyers like my CPA said, I have to buy a house kind of buyers. Right, we do see a lot of those last minute want to make a purchase before the year closes out. So we do see a little bit of activity in December. It's not that bad and usually the people that are shopping in December are super motivated.

Courtney Bohm: 13:52

Absolutely. I think anyone shopping around the holidays means business and they're ready to go.

Trish Williams : 13:56

Yes, absolutely. I agree with that. There's usually a reason. Our next question is Daniel.

Courtney Bohm: 14:02

Yeah, it says. I heard that there's a loan program that uses the income that the home produces to qualify instead of my income. What is that? And so that was such a great question because, bringing the lending aspect to this show, what I really want to do is showcase different loans once a week and maybe loan programs that people have no idea exist or you know, just to give people a better idea of what is actually possible.

Courtney Bohm: 14:27

A lot of people, when they're thinking of loans, think of standard bank loans, and there's just so many other options out there. Especially, you know, moving forward, there's so many people that are self-employed and possibly don't show all their income. Yeah, self-employed and possibly don't show all their income. We like to say that most do, but the reality is that you have to really look at different types of loans and what that person does and what loan would fit them best. So there really are some great options now, and this loan is called the DSCR loan, so it's a debt service coverage ratio loan. So that's what he's asking and I'll kind of go over that. So this loan is pretty incredible. Okay, this loan most people don't know about, but it's an amazing loan for investment properties.

Trish Williams : 15:09

All right. So this is someone that's buying a property strictly for income purposes.

Courtney Bohm: 15:15

For an investment, right? You know there's people who have tried to get things over on us. But yes, it is not to be lived in. Okay, so it is not to be lived in by the by the owner, correct as a primary residence, right? So this is a type of loan that they do not look at at all your. They don't look at if you have a job. They don't look at your pay stubs. They don't even care if you file taxes or not. Are your pay stubs? They don't even care if you file taxes or not. Are you serious? So this loan is pretty incredible.

Courtney Bohm: 15:45

This loan is really ideal for an investor who, and most investors that we've seen that, are serious about investing. They have three, four, five investment properties already. So what happens is on a traditional loan. A lot of times, when you go to look at their debt to income, it's just way higher than getting a traditional conventional loan done. So the great thing about this loan is no job verification. They don't even have to have a job.

Courtney Bohm: 16:09

So as long as they have some money, some money to play with and they have decent credit, typically on a loan like this, you're looking at 640 or better. Obviously, the higher the credit, the better the rates. But the great thing about these specific loans is they are considered higher risk, but the rates aren't even crazy. They're in the higher sevens on average. That's not bad At all. And so here's what's amazing. When you do this loan. It's so simple. We don't ask you for pay stubs, taxes, nothing. What we're really going to look at is they're going to actually look at what the house, the investment property, is going to be generating per month, and how do they find that out? So typically they have an appraiser come out and they'll do a fair market assessment of the home and what the houses around it are comparable to and how much they could get per month for the home.

Trish Williams : 16:57

Okay, so based off what the other homes maybe have rented for, Correct.

Courtney Bohm: 17:02

So a rental assessment right, it's going to be a fair assessment because we all know there's that one house where someone's charging way more than maybe what it should be. So there's going to be that done and it'll tell us if it says $2,000 for the month is what the appraiser says that they can get. Typically the mortgage has to be, on the new loan, equal to or less than. There are some variations in that, but that's kind of a standard. So as long as the house is generating on a monthly basis what the mortgage would be, then you're good to go. So with that specific loan, 20% down is typically what they're going to be looking for.

Trish Williams : 17:37

That was the next question I was going to ask. I had a feeling, yeah, and then you said you do have to have some cash. Do you just have to have the cash for the down payment or do they require to see a little bit of reserves or cushion?

Courtney Bohm: 17:49

So typically they're going to look at some reserves and every broker everyone is a little bit different on those guidelines, but usually they're going to want to see on average three to six months and, like I said, they are going to look at credit and things like that. That will take a factor into that. But I've done those loans and their debt to income was like 231%. So the person owned a bunch of different houses five, six, seven different houses and he just wanted to keep buying properties.

Trish Williams : 18:17

Wow. So with this DSCR loan, are you limited to the amount of those that you can have as long as you have the money? Really, nope, wow, Wow. That is amazing. That is, I mean, definitely gives people an opportunity to buy investment Absolutely. And right now, with the, you know, we're seeing price decreases. We're seeing homes at more attractive prices. There's probably a lot of options out there for people as far as that goes.

Courtney Bohm: 18:46

Well, I think in a lot of people assume that you know if they've came into some money or something like that, but they can't show income, that they just can't do anything, and that's just not the case. As long as you know the house is going to net, you know a certain amount of income, then we can look at that. And as long as they have the money to put down and some credit, it's really just such a great option for someone who wants to invest in property.

Trish Williams : 19:09

What about homes On traditional loans? You see homes that on the appraisal there'll be conditions. It has to meet certain criteria as far as livable. You can't really buy a true fixer upper with a regular traditional loan. How does that work with DSCR?

Courtney Bohm: 19:27

So those guidelines vary. Typically, they're going to want to see, if they're going to invest in it, that it is somewhat livable. That it depends on what type of work it needs, right? If it's like the whole roof is damaged or there's something extreme, it still needs to be looked at. It still is going to have an appraisal done, so it can't be a house that's just completely not livable, correct? They're not going to do a loan on that. It's already considered a high-risk loan, so it has to be somewhat in livable shape.

Courtney Bohm: 19:57

If it's little things here and there, like needs carpet or paint cosmetic things Absolutely, and that's going to depend on also how strict the guidelines are for that specific broker or whoever is getting the loan done as well. So we work very closely with them and, like I said, if it's absolutely not livable, no one's going to lend on it unless you're doing like hard money or something like that.

Trish Williams : 20:16

Yeah, and one thing I've seen with people that do buy investment properties and people that have that are seasoned in it, that do it. That do it often, a lot of times, all they're looking for in the beginning is to break even, you know to, to have that income be the same amount as their as their payment, you know, or some or or less basically within the criteria because they're looking at the long game, less basically within the criteria because they're looking at the long game and over time they know that either that loan's going to be paid down or go away and of course there's going to be appreciation in the rental market that that amount of income that they're receiving is going to increase.

Courtney Bohm: 20:56

So definitely fits in the criteria of a lot of people that are looking to purchase investment properties and the great thing about this, too of a lot of people that are looking to purchase investment properties. And the great thing about this, too, is a lot of investors are, most of them, self-employed and they don't love necessarily people looking at all their stuff.

Trish Williams : 21:10

Well, when you're self-employed, a lot of times people try to look for the maximum deductions they can because taxes are high and it's anything you can do to offset that. That's what they do. So, yeah, you do see that net income a lot of times very, very low, yep.

Courtney Bohm: 21:28

Yeah, and investors just love that loan. It's just, it's simple. We don't ask for any of their personal really, you know we're not looking at their taxes or any of their income and they just like it. It's just simple, it's easy, it's quick, yeah. And the rates aren't bad, I would think that, something like that, would be in the nines, but it's really that's not a bad rate, so that's definitely a great program.

Trish Williams : 21:48

Check that out, and you guys do offer that.

Trish Williams : 21:51

So people can contact you for information on it. Okay, so our next one is Lisa. Um, lisa wants to know how she can find out if someone died in the house she's going to purchase. That's a fun question. In Nevada there's a lot of states that have that as a mandatory disclosure and in Nevada our seller disclosures do not have that as a mandatory disclosure. You only have to disclose if someone died in the home. You have to disclose it if the house killed them. So I don't know, like Amityville or whatever, but that's interesting. It only has to be disclosed if the house itself killed the person. That's interesting. It only has to be disclosed if the house itself killed the person. Um, so there's, I've heard of websites where you can look up this information. I don't know the integrity or or light or or the reliability of these websites. Like died in the housecom is something I've reliable. The source is, I've heard you can Google the address and if there was ever a news story.

Courtney Bohm: 23:05

I mean I was going to say it'd have to be like something that was absolutely on the news, especially here, to really see that, yeah, unless you move in, and then your neighbor tells you which I'm sure happens a lot I know people that they moved in from California and they said, yeah, the neighbor came over and told us, you know, the lady's husband died right here in the living room and they're like I wish she wouldn't have told us this and, you know, kind of awkward. But I actually Googled it and it said that I think there's only three States now, as of current, that have to disclose. Really it was saying Alaska, california and South Dakota.

Trish Williams : 23:36

Yeah, okay, and I've heard that in Texas they have to disclose if the house is haunted. So that's a fun disclosure, but we have to disclose if it's a meth lab. I always feel like like you know, you're trying to be like super professional talking to the seller and then you're like hey, was your house a meth lab? So, um, yeah, we have. We have some odd disclosures, but die, um, someone dying in the house is not one of our disclosures that we do have to disclose here. But, yeah, always talk to the neighbors, because the neighbors, if you talk to a neighbor before you purchase, they will tell you everything.

Courtney Bohm: 24:13

And then, once you purchase, they always tell you everything that maybe you wish you would have known before.

Trish Williams : 24:17

Yeah, absolutely so. I was out with buyers last week and there was this group of neighborhood kids that just they were just like walking down the street. They came up and started talking to us. Oh my goodness, my buyers were like, no, we don't want to live here. They told us dirt on every house in the neighborhood. These kids, they were like 12 and they just spilled the beans on everything and they were like, well, this house does this and this guy does this and this.

Courtney Bohm: 24:44

I was like wow, you're like get away kids, interview the neighborhood kids.

Trish Williams : 24:49

Yeah, my buyers were like no, we're going to pass, this is not where we want to live. So, yeah, sometimes questioning the neighbors, and they usually are free with information. That they are especially the nosy neighbors. Yeah, especially the nosy neighbors.

Trish Williams : 25:12

Yeah, especially the nosy neighbors. Yeah, so some communities have and I have this in my community and I've noticed that a lot of them have it. So I always tell people go on like Facebook or social media and see if there's a community like group or page. Sometimes they have like a page for the community. That's just that specific. If it's in an HOA or something where they have communications, I mean they don't usually talk about someone dying in there, but you know, sometimes there's just neighbors talking, you know, and you can get an idea. Not only get an idea about what's going on with that specific house, but just get an idea about what's going on in the community like community issues or sometimes community. I mean I think if people look at our community page they'd be like, wow, this is a great community because our neighbors are super awesome.

Courtney Bohm: 25:54

So I love that. Yeah, my brother. Um, they live in Michigan, a little different, but their whole neighborhood is all on one Facebook group and they always do like you know, like yard sale or who wants this. We're getting rid of it and it's just really cool to see. I'm actually part of it just because I like to watch. It's weird, but it's just cool. They have like a great community and they all like know each other and it's just pretty awesome to see.

Trish Williams : 26:14

Yeah, that's how ours is. There's 72 homes. We do like movies in the park every every quarter and we have, like you know, community neighbor like barbecues and stuff like that.

Trish Williams : 26:24

And it's it's great, like when you're, when you're buying a home. Some people like to, especially in Vegas, just like kind of be in their home and shut the door and never talk to anybody A lot of people. But I do enjoy living in a space where, like the neighbors you know, it just feels like, because you also, security is always an issue, no matter where you live. You also know someone's looking out for you, knows you, know who you are, what's going on and if they see something that looks unusual, they're going to let you know.

Courtney Bohm: 26:52

I think it's amazing to have great neighbors, yeah. Yeah, it makes you feel safer and just better overall. Right, if a weird car is parked in front. You know, you know that everyone kind of has an eye on everything, on what's going on.

Trish Williams : 27:02

Yeah, one time I left my garage door open on accident and my neighbor's like hey, your garage door has been open for a couple hours, you might want to shut it.

Trish Williams : 27:10

So, yeah, it's nice. It's nice things. So thank you everybody for tuning in. It looks like that's our show and if you are watching us, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about the show. Feel free to share any of our clips on social media. I do think we make them all pretty shareable. You can check out our link tree at wwwrealtycheckvegas. That's where you can send listener questions and now that we have a loan officer with us on the team here, so you can definitely ask any mortgage questions as well.

Trish Williams : 27:46

So we're super excited about that and, courtney, I am so excited to have you on the show.

Trish Williams : 27:51

I'm so excited. I had a great time. Thank you, so did I. I look forward to the future shows that we have. Next week we're having a community spotlight and we're going to be interviewing Mark Schaefer with my Vegas Magazine and he's going to tell us about what he's doing here in the local community and a little bit about the magazine and what they do and what they offer. So that'll be fun. We do community spotlights the last, the last week of every month, and that's where we just talk to people in the community.

Courtney Bohm: 28:20

I love that.

Trish Williams : 28:21

Yeah, so thanks, guys. Thanks for tuning in in. And, courtney, how do people reach you if they have more questions?

Courtney Bohm: 28:26

so you can give me a call at 702-416-6918 or cbone b-o-h-m as in mary at jfkfinancialcom all right,

Trish Williams : 28:36

and you can get a hold of me at 702-308-2878 call text.

Trish Williams : 28:42

that's the best way to get a hold of me and and we will see you guys next week. Bye, bye, you.