Are You Ready To Become a Homeowner? Experienced Home Buyers Agent

Buying? Existing vs. New Home?
Buying new home or previously owned? "Bank Owned" Pre-Foreclosures, Foreclosed Homes vs. "Short Sale" in Las Vegas or Henderson Nevada? That is, perhaps, one of the first questions you may ask yourself in your home search process. Perhaps you've fantasized about purchasing a fixer-upper and giving it an extreme makeover. Or maybe you've always dreamed of building a home from the ground up and making all new color and appliance choices.

For many homebuyers, choosing a neighborhood is the most difficult part of the decision to buy a home. This is true even if you already own a home and are trying to decide where to live next. When you tackle the “location, location, location” question, it’s smart to prioritize various neighborhood features, then start looking for homes in areas that match most of your criteria. Here are some things to consider:

Transportation:
Check the length of your commute to work from your neighborhoods of choice. Do streets get clogged at rush hour? Is mass transit within walking distance? In a consumer study, 79 percent of respondents said that a top priority in deciding where to live is having a commute time under 45 minutes. Seventy-five percent also wanted easy access to highways.

What’s close by:
Research nearby schools, restaurants, places of worship and parks. Seventy-two percent of survey respondents ranked sidewalks and places to walk as a top priority when considering where to live.

Costs:
In addition to the costs of mortgage, insurance and home maintenance, consider local property taxes and homeowner association fees, Lids and Sids, if applicable.

The different types of fees that may be involved in purchasing a Las Vegas home will be specific to each different community.

SIDs and LIDs - When a developer builds on unimproved land, the city will install the sewer plumbing, streets, water hydrants, and lighting. This cost is passed on to the developer who can then choose to pay the city up front and add the cost to the sales price of each lot/home. OR the developer may elect not to pay for these improvements up front. If so the city will place an assessment on the community as a whole. The assessment is then divided among all of the properties within the master planned community and paid off on a semi annual basis over a pre-determined number of years.

There is the total assessment amount and the annual assessment amount. The annual amount is a portion of the total assessment that is due each year until the total amount is paid in full. The assessment runs with the property, so, if the property is sold, whatever amount is still owed is transferred to the new owner and until the assessment is paid in full. The community is basically paying off a bond /loan at a fixed interest rate for a set amount of years. However, each homeowner has the option to pay their SID/LID in full at any time (there may be a pre-payment penalty). This is very common in our valley. As a side note, you will find that our property taxes are much lower than in most other states.

HOA Fees and Master Plan Fees - The HOA or Homeowner's Association fee is paid to the association company that is maintaining the affairs of the community. The community does not have to be gated for there to be an association, but if it is gated then the gated community may have a second association that maintains the area within the gates. Many Las Vegas Valley communities have associations. The Association will ensure that the maintenance and all matters pertaining to the community are addressed. In addition there may also be a Master plan community fee for the overall upkeep of the entire geographic area within which there are many sub-communities. The outer walls, community entrance, landscaping, etc. The fees can range from $15/m to $300 and up depending on the community. Association fees are fixed and only a meeting and voting session by the board members can change those fees.

If homes in your preferred neighborhoods are out of your price range, consider condominiums.

Future:
Try to imagine what the neighborhood will look like in 10 years. Will you still want to live there, or do you expect to move before then? Will it be desirable to future buyers?

Once you’ve prioritized all your neighborhood amenities and features, you’ll find it’s much easier to focus your home search. Remember, the neighborhood is usually as important to the value of a home as what’s under its roof.

I encourage you to contact me about the choice that’s best for you. I'll help you consider your personality, lifestyle, budget and personal preferences, as well as show you both new and existing homes that may be of interest to you. Bank Owned Las Vegas Homes are selling up to a 60% discount from peak prices of 2006! Yikes, even luxury condos on the Strip!

As a Las Vegas Realtor providing comprehensive real estate services in all aspects of Short Sales and REO's, Pre-Foreclosures, "Bank Owned", "Corporate Owned", Foreclosures, 1031 Exchanges, Income Producing Investment Rental Properties, my greatest value comes in being able to guide homeowners and home buyers through the sale and purchase process with ease in these challenging times. My focus is to offer a level of expertise by enabling my clients to reach their long and short term real estate goals.

We’re doing everything we can to make searching for the perfect home in Las Vegas as easy as possible. One way we do that is by allowing you to sign up for "email alerts". It’s easy: You specify your new home requirements and we automatically inform you by email any time a home comes onto the market that meets your criteria!

Here’s how it works...

Las Vegas Real Estate, MLS Listings in Las Vegas, Nevada, Homes For Sale, Condos for Sale, Las Vegas Realtor, Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, Las Vegas Buyer's Agent

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From The Desk of Linda Strasberg

Start By Filling Out The Home Criteria Form Below...Then Just Kick Back And Let The Listings Come To You. You Can Opt Out Anytime!