What's Happening to the Las Vegas Market?

For the last year, everyone has continued to expound on Las Vegas, how bad the market is, everyone is moving out, all the foreclosures, blah, blah, blah. Why is it that everyone would rather focus on the negative then on what's really happening?

Over the last 3 months, our market has gone from ugh to WOW! Everyday I explain to buyers that our market is hot, but they would rather believe what they read on the news. I tell them that not only is over half our market under contract and every well-priced property is juggling multiple offers (and I mean 10, 20, 40, even 80 offers) and so they better make their offer their best one because they are not going to get a counter or an opportunity to make their offer better. In fact, yesterday our local paper posted an article on the fact that we closed more deals last month than we did in June 2004, which was the height of our bubble just before it started to deflate. (Just click on the photo to read the article.)

But of course, they just read in their paper or saw on their local news channel how bad the market was in Las Vegas so they want to low ball and if the bank really wants to sell it, they'll counter. And so they wait, and wait, and then hear from me their offer wasn't chosen and they have the nerve to be surprised.

Hopefully, the buyers you work with chose you because they trust your judgment and advice. Hopefully, they will believe you when you advise them on how to write their offer so it has the best chance of being accepted. Hopefully, they will at least feel that if they didn't get the house, they made the best offer they could live with. Hopefully, they won't get discouraged when they lose 2, 3, 4 or more bids because they continued to try and lowball the offer.

I have discovered that most buyers in my market have to lose 2 or 3 bids to realize I'm not just trying to up my commission. I want them to be successful and get the house they really want. So I will continue to explain what's going on here, advise them on making their best offer and hopefully they will take my advice. In the meantime, I will continue to work with them and assist them the best way I know how.