Vegas Realty Check
Join host Trish Williams, one of the Top 25 Women in Real Estate, and co-host, Courtney Bohm, a seasoned loan officer from JFK Financial, as they dive into the ever-evolving world of Las Vegas real estate. With Trish's extensive experience in selling homes and Courtney's mortgage expertise, they break down the latest market trends, mortgage tips , rate updates ,insider tips, and real estate news. Whether you’re buying, selling, or just curious, Vegas Realty Check is your go-to source for insightful discussions on navigating the Las Vegas property market.
Trish Williams
Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace 702-308-2878 S.0175530
@trishlv www.trishwilliamsteam.com
Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Courtney Bohm
JFK Financial , Inc. NMLS#:2008418
cbohm@jfkfinancial.com (702) 416-6918
https://www.jfkfinancial.com/loan-officers/courtney-bohm/
Vegas Realty Check
Fourplex Investments That Stand the Test of Time
Are you ready to unlock the secrets of the Las Vegas real estate market? Discover how the city's property landscape is evolving, especially when it comes to the elusive fourplex units. With mortgage rates hovering around 7%, we explore why the market hasn't reached its usual vibrancy and uncover the enduring strength of property values. We'll guide you on the importance of seizing purchase opportunities and what these mean for your investment journey.
What's the untapped potential of older fourplex properties? Let’s dive into the unique investment prospects they offer. With newly constructed fourplexes being a thing of the past, these '80s and '90s gems present a golden opportunity for savvy investors. Learn how you can live in one unit and earn rental income from the other three, all with the help of FHA financing options that require as little as 3.5% down. We’ll share insights on leveraging rental income for loan qualifications and the appreciation potential that makes fourplexes a compelling choice for first-time investors.
For those stepping into the multifamily property arena, we'll walk you through the essential strategies for success. From due diligence to understanding the impact of rental income evaluations and HOA fees, we cover it all. You'll hear a real-life success story of a client who used an FHA loan to purchase a fourplex, marking a strategic start to a fruitful real estate journey. Plus, stay connected with us for more tips and updates, ensuring you navigate the Las Vegas real estate landscape with confidence.
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.
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Welcome to Vegas Realty. Check your go-to podcast for all things Las Vegas real estate. Whether you're buying, selling or investing, we bring you the latest market trends, insider tips and expert insights to navigate the ever-changing Las Vegas realty landscape. Tune in each week as we break down the data, answer your questions and help you make the best real estate decisions in the entertainment capital of the world.
Speaker 2:Hey Vegas, welcome back to our show, vegas Realty Check, and this today. On today's show, we're going to be bringing you market numbers, like we always do, and talking about fourplexes, how to buy them and all the things about them that you need to know. Those are multifamily fourplex units, so stay tuned as we get into that. I am Trish Williams and I'm Courtney Boehm, and thank you for tuning in. All right, courtney? Have you seen any news going on this week? Anything like big or great updates.
Speaker 3:You know I'm going to say I kind of tried to not watch the news this week. Every time I turn on the news it's like a new plane crash. I don't know what's going on, but it's been kind of strange.
Speaker 2:I know right what is going on right now. I have a plane trip coming up and I'm just like ugh.
Speaker 3:Oh, never mind, Should I drive?
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, there's a lot going on with that. I mean to be fair, though, this last one in Toronto was in the snow, so it was probably slippery, and then it slipped and tipped over and everybody was safe, so that's good. Was there any major real estate?
Speaker 3:news you've seen.
Speaker 2:Nothing. I mean nothing that I would call major. You know there's just the same old stuff going about going along, nothing really going on. That is notable. So let's get into our market stats and our rates. Absolutely so. This week we are up 34 for single family homes that are on the market at 5,111.
Speaker 3:And then we are also up 65 from 1,920 on townhouses and condos on the market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so both those have increased slightly. New listings 1,016. And those three ones keep popping up 111 more than last week. Maybe those are lucky numbers.
Speaker 3:I hope they're lucky. And then we are seeing some price decreases on the market right now 775 price decreases, which is up 54 from last week. So people are trying to get their homes sold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're still in a pretty like you know, the market's doing a little bit better, there's a little bit more activity, but it's not. We're not seeing the activity that we usually see in this time of year, where people are like rushing to buy homes. It's still. Price reductions are still necessary, Guys. Price reductions are still important. This year is not the same as every other year.
Speaker 3:What do you think is I mean right Rightates, I mean, there's no question about it.
Speaker 2:Rates are there because we all know that if they were lower we'd be in a lot hotter market than we're in. But, the market's not doing that bad because the under contracts are doing great. Those are 896, up 81 from last week.
Speaker 3:And then we have seen some homes being sold. So right now we're up $144 from last week, which is a pretty decent amount. Sold was $582.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, not bad. And those you know the sold numbers have been looking good. The overall monthly closed numbers are looking good, and when I say good, I mean like they're good.
Speaker 1:Like they're not amazing yeah.
Speaker 2:They're just not amazing. We're not in this. Like usually, this is the time of the year where it's just like everything's on fire and great and real estate's just booming. Not not really. It's kind of you know, uh, just going along, I'm ready for it to be on fire Gosh.
Speaker 3:I'm ready for these rates to drop After 21, 22,.
Speaker 2:I was like gosh. I just really wish that you know, be careful what you wish for, Because I was like I wish it would slow down a little bit. This is too crazy. And now I'm just like not this much.
Speaker 3:You're like let's get back into those where people were offering $50,000, $60,000 more than asking price.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I'd love to see a little more movement than we've seen. Same On all ends. But even last year, looking back at my 2024 numbers, overall closed out numbers, my units were down. I would say, just from what I'm used to, I do average usually in a good year I'd say, between 50 and 60 units closed. Last couple of years they've been down, you know like around 40 and last year was like 38. So it was just slightly under 40. And even though those numbers were low because of the volume, um, the overall like price point volume and everything at the end of the year was actually um the same or better than it has been in previous years. So these, the prices holding where they're at and the value staying there is really helping the value.
Speaker 3:I mean the values on houses are just going up, and that's why it's so important buy if you can and don't wait, because these values here, especially in this city, are not going down yeah, I don't see any reason why they'd be going down no way.
Speaker 2:And our listener question uh, well, before we get that, let's talk about rates. Where are we at?
Speaker 3:so let's go to mortgage rates, and then I do have an awesome program too. So right now, rates shocker they haven't moved much. This morning they were right at about a 7%, which is what we've been at for the last I mean long while sitting right around there. So we were at a 7% this morning on a 30 year conventional, and then we did just go down a tad right under 7%, like at a 6.9, right before I actually walked in here, and then we're sitting right at about a 6.3% on a national average for your VA and FHA loans. So you know, those are definitely pretty doable, but the rates are sitting still in March 19th. I think we'll see a little bit of a difference there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a slight like drop on Friday. It looked like they like hit under 7% for like a couple hours.
Speaker 3:Right now they're sitting right under a little bit under a 7% too, so we'll see how long that stays. I was like wow promising.
Speaker 2:And then Monday I was like God damn it, I was out there doing the rain dance when it rained here once in the last 215 days. So what about your loan programs? What do you got?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is a pretty awesome program. We have a fix and flip program. So a fix and flip if some people are not familiar, it's typically when an investor buys a property that needs some work. I know you know all about fix and flips, but really what they're looking at is to fix it up and to get it sold for a profit. So typically these investors hold. Longest is usually 12 months on these type of loans.
Speaker 2:Most good fix and flippers have the property done and finished within three months and they're getting rid of it and selling it and making some some money right, and when you resell a fix and flip, like if it's less than three months, fha financing won't let that buyer buy it until it's been at least three months between on the, on the.
Speaker 2:FHA loan if they so. If they were doing for the buyer side, not the fix and flip side of it, but like on a buyer, if someone did a flip and they put it back on the market a month later, they put it back on the market a month later. Fha wouldn't let them get an FHA loan on it for three months.
Speaker 3:There is a timeline and so this particular fix and flip loan is going to be a non-qualified loan. This is not going to be any type of standard loan that we're going to go through, because there's a lot of work typically that needs to be done on these homes. This is not like a turnkey home at all. Typically. Usually it's a house that either is in some type of disrepair or definitely needs some remodeling, and this loan you're looking at credit needs to be over 620 on average. But the down payment is based on, actually, your experience.
Speaker 3:Hmm, so based on your experience, if you've, I know that's kind of interesting, right? So typically fix and flips are higher risk loans, but usually if someone's done it a few times, they kind of have an idea of what they're getting themselves into and they're typically knowing what to look for or what not to do and okay, and they've learned some lessons throughout their their experience. So usually with these type of loans, if they're doing, um, if they've done three or more homes they've fixed and flipped, they can do as little as 15 down.
Speaker 2:wow, that's great and and do you submit a resume Like how does this work?
Speaker 3:So they usually do look at title and things like that, or different things from title, history and things like that. If you have not done any and this is a totally new experience you're going to be looking at minimum 20 percent down. Okay, but the great thing about these loans is that a lot of people go get hard money and so hard money you're looking at 12% on average.
Speaker 3:And the fees to close are typically around like seven to 8%, whereas somewhere you know in this type of loan structure you're looking at about an 8% interest rate and the fees are right around two to 3%. That's not that bad, no, so the really a lot better. And you know, someone's paying a mortgage while they're working on the house, so the lower the rate, the better, the more affordable. Mortgage while they're working on the house, so the lower the rate, the better, the more affordable. And then they're usually going to sell it off and be done with it. But it's really great and you actually get up to 10 draws. So, as you're fixing the house, they know the type of work that needs to be done and they can draw up to 10 times for the work. So they finance the flip.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah the draws are actually included. That's pretty awesome. Yep, okay, now, that's really awesome. I really didn't know that was available. Okay, so my question would be on those Um Noah, is there an appraisal Like because you, usually there's appraisal conditions, a house has to be in a certain condition Is there something that would like where they would say, say nope, we're not doing it, that house is in too bad of a condition? How flexible are they?
Speaker 3:If there's major plumbing issues or things like that, that's typically going to be a hard money loan. If it is still in decent condition, where it's working, the plumbing and things are still intact, it has a roof yeah. If it's completely damaged, typically you're gonna have to do a hard money loan. Um, but as long as it's in in somewhat workable condition, they'll do an appraisal at the beginning, knowing what the work that's going to be done is. That'll have to be something that's discussed and they'll give a final appraisal value.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay, and then the so the total amount that they finance isn't like an open-ended blank check. They you get estimates or something that like says, like this is what we're going to be doing. This is the total amount we'll need.
Speaker 3:So all the all the work that needs to be done is discussed before the process even begins, and so they know everything comes in steps. They know what needs to be lended out to get the work done to the contractors, and then they can do that up to 10 times and then, once the loan, or once everything is done and finished, then the loan is typically closed and then they can sell it off.
Speaker 2:That's pretty awesome the loan is typically closed and then they can sell it off. That's pretty awesome. Now what about like okay, say you don't have a property in mind, but you're like this sounds like a great idea. I want to get more information on this or look into this. Do you just like contact you and work on a pre-approval and just like kind of get pre-approved like preliminary for the amount, like you do if you're doing a regular purchase, or how does this?
Speaker 3:work. So usually on fix and flip loans you want to find the property first, just so we have an idea of what we're looking at. As far as the price point, usually it's a very specific property these fix and flippers look at. It's going to be something that needs work, that they're getting at a lower cost and selling at a decent amount higher cost within a very short amount of time. So usually you want to have a property first. But if you do have more questions, you can call me and I can definitely go through the different options. But, like I said, the rates on these loans are so much lower than a hard money loan. So while you're making these payments, if the house takes six months to sell and 8% versus 10% is, a huge difference, or 12% percent yeah, I've heard some hard money loans are as high as 20%.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've seen 15. I've seen yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you can get in at a lower rate without having to stress to get it sold, you know right away, that's really ideal. So this loan's ideal for that, and someone who who is ready to get their home fixed up and sold in a, you know, three to 12 month period you really don't even want to hold it 12 months. I'd say ideally three to five.
Speaker 2:Three.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Three months is like the quicker you sell it the better.
Speaker 3:Yep, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Um, wow, that's a that is very interesting. Thank you for sharing that with us. And um, let's get into our listener question from Jonah. Jonah wants to buy a fourplex. So for anybody that might not know what a fourplex is, that's those units that have like four it's kind of like four apartments all together in one building. So he wants to buy a fourplex, and he is. He said that all the ones that he's looked at seem like they're very old and wants to know if it's a good investment, even if it's not a newer property. Um, great question. Uh, so I think in the valley they stopped building these four plexes. Um, the ones that are like that you could purchase the whole building, you know, of course they. They sell them now as condos, as individual units, right, but the ones that you could buy the whole building, I think they stopped building those in like the eighties, maybe early nineties.
Speaker 3:I was going to say here in town and I've been here since 1996, I personally haven't seen virtually any newer duplex or fourplexes in years being built. But I did hear someone talking about that the valley's trying to start building newer ones. So I haven't personally seen it. But most of them are in the middle of town. Most of them are older I mean I don't know what the years of those you're seeing yeah, I, I see them like.
Speaker 2:Typically, you know, from 60s to 80s. Those are, like you know, where most of the fourplexes are and and I know a builder a couple years ago started building duplexes. That's where it's just two attached, but they weren't selling them. You couldn't buy the whole building. They were selling them each as individual units. So that's kind of what I guess the city or the builders or whoever moved to is selling them individually, not selling the whole building. But there's a lot of potential in buying these whole buildings even though they're very old.
Speaker 3:I think the condition is probably. I mean, at the end of the day they're going to be older here as of now, but if you look at the condition and the condition's decent, there's just so much cashflow that can come out of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's essentially. You have three to four units that you can collect rental income on, and then let's talk about the loan on that, because you can. You can purchase this, actually as like with an fha mortgage, as your primary residence, as long as you're occupying one of those units and you can collect rent on the other three units. So you can have three rental units that you're collecting rent on which can help you qualify for the mortgage to purchase those absolutely so.
Speaker 3:If people don't know, you can actually do a standard FHA or conventional loan with the four plex up to one to four units. So even if you were looking at a duplex or anything up to four units. So FHA right now, as of 2025, the loan limit on that is $1,000,008, a little bit over a million dollars for an actual loan, and then on conventional they're sitting right at $1,550,000.
Speaker 2:Wow. So you can have plenty of money to do there. And that's still even at that price point, because it is FHA, it's still 3.5% down.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is. With FHA. Obviously you have to be in one of them as a primary. So, FHA, you must reside in one of the units as a primary property and you can do as little as 3.5% down.
Speaker 2:Wow, and that is really amazing. And you're so say that you can't qualify for a million dollar property, for instance, um those other units. The rent that is being collected on those other units will help you qualify because it gets added to your personal income.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so what they do is a 10 oh seven. It's basically an estimate of of the rental value of the pro or of each unit, because there's three separate units and you would be residing in one. So they're going to do an evaluation and basically we can use 75 percent of each unit to qualify. So let's say, just for basic numbers, it's two thousand dollars a month. We can1,500 per each unit as income.
Speaker 2:As extra income for you. And the thing about these units, I think the great. It's a very smart way for a starter and this, you know, this typically does not work for, like you know, for large families or anything, because you're in a little, it's a small apartment okay, but if you're looking at doing your first home, your first investment, getting your foot in the door into the world of real estate incredible Because even though you have to occupy it to purchase it, you don't have to live there forever and one day you'll be ready, maybe, to move up.
Speaker 2:Move on your dynamic, your family dynamic, the people in your household grows somehow and you're ready to move up into a single family or a bigger spot. Now you can actually keep these and have four rental units. This is four streams of revenue coming in, and that's phenomenal.
Speaker 3:And the way the rent is here. It is not going down, it's going up, and people are desperate to find anywhere to live, especially here. We're so short on properties for rent, even you know. So there's just no shortage of cashflow when it comes to those types of investments. It's just and to be able to get into something like that where you're having all these other streams of revenue for as little as three and a half percent. Now, if you're not occupying the property, you would have to go a conventional route and that would be 30% down.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so it makes a big difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And then Jonah asked about appreciation on these. I personally have witnessed these four plexes appreciate tremendously over recent years. I mean back when I started in real estate 2014, I think they were averaging around 200,000. And now I don't think you can touch them under. You know, usually I'd say somewhere between five and 800,000, depending on location, condition and everything there. But, um, so they have had tremendous appreciation, regardless of their age and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Um, a lot of people are now going in and renovating these units and making them, upgrading them and updating them, upgrading them, bringing them up to date, everything like that. A lot of people are now going in and renovating these units and making them, upgrading them, updating them, upgrading them, bringing them up to date. So that's great. The thing that I tell people that you have to look out for when we're looking into these things to like you know it's diligence going into it. For one, usually, when they're selling a whole building, most of the time the whole building's not vacant. They've been using these as rental properties, but most of the sellers understand that one unit at least has to be vacant because you have more potential of buyers that are going to want to buy this as an owner-occupant right. So a lot of times the other three units will have tenants already in it.
Speaker 2:that are in lease agreements which is great, so you don't have to find tenants. They often will come with tenants already in place with lease agreements and on the MLS it will show how much those tenants are paying per month, so you'll be able to see what kind of revenue it's already producing and the lease. It's part of the offer process that we do and addendums or whatever that we do in the transaction process of it, where we make sure that all those leases are transferred to you. You're now the owner of those leases and those tenants that are in the properties.
Speaker 3:And then you can evaluate the cash flow and really look at that. Now with the rental income we have to use, unfortunately, as a lender, no matter. Let's say you have three tenants in each unit with leases for $2,000 a month, but they come back at an evaluation at $1,500, we have to use what they give us. Come back at an evaluation at 1500.
Speaker 2:We have to use what they give us, just like an appraised value and anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know, even though you could be maybe getting a little more for rent on those, that doesn't necessarily mean that the bank's going to accept that it's pretty crazy because I mean, I've seen and here, like I said, I can't imagine those values are just going to continue to go up, especially because they're not building anymore as of right now. But I've seen ones like uh, those are super popular in like San Francisco or do, and I've seen, I've done refinances on buildings that were bought 30 years ago there for nothing and they're literally three, four or 5 million now.
Speaker 2:Yeah and the so they do. They do appreciate, regardless of the year. Sometimes you need to renovate or do things and you can even do that to get more rent, to make them worth more over time worth anything.
Speaker 2:Another thing that you need to look into or be cautious of when you're going into it usually the property taxes on these units are super low oh my gosh. When you compare it to single-family, it's like amazing. They're so low the property taxes. But some of them do have HOAs. I was going to ask that. Yeah, some of them do have HOAs and they can get costly. So that's one thing to look into, especially if they have community pools or something like that, because it's an HOA for the entire building, which is four units. So make sure to take that into consideration and review that as you're reviewing all the numbers and breakdowns. I've had times where I've had clients that are interested and we look at a certain property where they love everything about it, but we run the numbers and it would have been fine with just the rental income, but once you add that HOA fee into it, it's like it just blows it out of the water. So that is a factor to be considered.
Speaker 3:And as a lender too. If we're really high on your debt to income and we're right there, and then the HOA is $500 a month, we have to take that into consideration, and so sometimes that can literally be the means of being able to move forward or not. So the HOA is really important. That's why I always tell people if you're looking at something and it has an HOA, let me know right away what the HOA is, so I can make sure you qualify.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a client a few years back and he was a single man, it was just him, and he just really wanted to get his foot in the door of being. You know, he had um future goals of investing in real estate, you know, but still had not even owned his own, his, his own home. Yeah, so he did this fourplex. He um occupied one of the units it was just him, so it was no trouble, you know and he kept it, um he he remained occupying it for about a year, a year and a half, but now he ended up buying a single family residence. He ended up buying his own home, which he was still allowed to use an FHA on because it was considered an upgrade from this fourplex unit to go into a single family. So, even though he only put three and a half percent down on this fourplex, he was still able to buy a single family home for himself using that same three and a half down.
Speaker 3:FHA. As long as you're in it for 12 months, you can move out and buy another property as a primary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was. I mean, you just thought that was incredible. And now, just with the way rental prices are and his payment and the appreciation of the unit all over together, he's profiting around $3,000 a month after expenses on this fourplex that he bought. That was just, you know, his first. It was basically his first home. So that is when you can just add that to your income and have that kind of be able to generate that kind of income off of, you know, having these four units that you're collecting, you're collecting rent on.
Speaker 2:And that was. It was just one of those incredible fourplexes that you know had two three unit, three three unit build or three bedroom units in it a one bedroom and a two bedroom. So the rent on those is great.
Speaker 3:And that's where I think you know we've had these conversations on the show too. Sometimes it might not be your dream home, but if you can get your foot in the door and it's, it's doable, it's affordable, do that first and then, and then build some equity for a year or two and take that money and buy what you really want next. But everything's a little bit of a stepping stone, so I mean, that's a prime example of that. Now he has all this cashflow coming in and you know who knows what's next for him. I'm sure once you get that taste of investing, it only continues.
Speaker 2:He hasn't stopped. So, yeah, and it is. It's just, you know, it's it's almost every time I talk to him he's like I need, you know, I'm working towards saving for another rental property. Like this is like you know, really he's already been. His eyes have been open to the potential of just getting that rental income. Money that just flows, you know. And he's still working, he still has a job, he still works, he still, you know, does what he does. So this is just all supplemental income that's coming in, which is just amazing.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't really emphasize how incredible that is for um, you know, just for people and you. You could be an average person and be able to make this kind of income.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and I think it's making smart choices, and I think especially here, when investing in properties. These values are just continuing to grow, with NBA coming here and, and baseball and so many other things that it's just get your foot in while you can.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Absolutely, Cause it gets harder as values and prices go up. It does um make that world more challenging. Absolutely yeah, so um, Courtney, how do people get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:if they want to get some money. So if you want to get some money from me, if you're looking to get pre-approved, get a loan, do a refinance. Call me 702-416-6918.
Speaker 2:And I want to give a shout out to our marketing partner, chicago Title. Thank you for your support and if you guys want to reach me to help find that fourplex, that multifamily, even if you're looking for your dream home or you have a home you want to sell, I can help you. You can call me at 702-308-2878. Thank you guys for watching. Our link tree is realtycheckvegas, so make sure to log in, follow, bookmark this page so you can stay connected with us across all portals. I do want to make a mention that we are going to be, if you're watching us on YouTube or even on listening to us on audio, often the avenues that we're going to be being distributed are going to be changing, so please make sure to bookmark that link tree so you know where to find us and we will be seeing you guys next week. Thank you for tuning in you.
