Bruce Hiatt

It's clearly out of control with Las Vegas real estate agents grabbing the luxury condo foreclosures I need for my cash buyers. I really don't get it. The media continue to show how Las Vegas is in freefall with sliding real estate prices and surely there must be just tons of Las Vegas luxury condo foreclosures that my clients can buy. Wrong and this isn't an April Fools joke either.

Last week the number of Las Vegas luxury high rise condo foreclosures on or near the prime Strip area were 31 with over half under contract. Some of those foreclosures under contract were for my clients so I thought things were going to show 2009 might just turn out to be a good year afterall. The number of Short Sales for luxury high rise condos in the MLS were 63 with over 1/3 under contract and growing. So much for tons of luxury condo foreclosures in the pipeline. No wonder I'm exhausted running around with my buyers seeking these "tons of inventory" per the media that just don't exist.

Please don't tell the banks what's happening in Las Vegas either. Just a few weeks ago they were willing to negotiate with me for pricing of the luxury high rise condo foreclosure offers I submitted. Now they are trying to hold prices firm and that just isn't fair. Afterall, if the Wall Street Journal can show Las Vegas has one of the worst housing markets across the country then there must be a lot of hidden luxury condo inventory we just can't seem to find. Worse, we are now facing multiple offer situations on our offers too.

So please help spread the word so Las Vegas real estate agents will go sell something else other than the luxury high rise condo foreclosures. We need the inventory for our buyers and surely we can't be forming a bottom already in 2009. Or are we?

Bruce Hiatt can be reached at (702) 456-7080 x201 PST. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter @LuxuryRealtyGrp.

Luxury Realty Group is recognized by the press as a leading brokerage on the Strip. They can be seen on networks and in publications such as CNBC, Forbes Magazine, Details, LV Business Press, Wall Street Journal, The Review Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Disclaimer: All information contained within this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter is not guaranteed and is often considered time-sensitive.

So what do Las Vegas high rise luxury condo foreclosures have to do with a valet? Lately it has become a challenging problem.

Since the start of 2009 the real estate market in Las Vegas has been challenging for sure. However, for the past two weeks, we have seen a significant influx of international buyers seeking luxury high rise condo foreclosures. These are cash buyers seeking prime locations near or on the Las Vegas Strip for prices under $600,000.

What I found interesting are the countries representing these buyers. We expect Canadian and the recent Beijing foreclosure buyers but now the buyer location profile is changing. This week we wrote foreclosure offers for buyers from New Zealand, Switzerland and Germany. Two of those offers are now pending transactions. These are savvy, uber-rich cash buyers who seem to really understand prices in Las Vegas and also understand that some luxury high rise condo foreclosures are most likely below replacement cost (per high rise developer estimates).

In thinking this trend was just a short-term anomaly, we asked the valet and concierge staff at the few luxury high rise towers near or on the Strip about recent real estate agent traffic. What we learned is some towers are adding daytime valet staff to handle the agents and their buyers for foreclosure luxury condos. We confirmed this trend with the guards and concierge staff who seem exhausted from foreclosure buyer traffic in their high rise towers lately.

is this a bottom for Las Vegas luxury high rise condo prices? We don't know but one thing for certain, 2009 may not be the bad year we thought it was going to be. There's no doubt 2009 will be the year for Las Vegas luxury foreclosure real estate.

Bruce Hiatt can be reached at (702) 456-7080 x201 PST. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter @LuxuryRealtyGrp.

Luxury Realty Group is recognized by the press as a leading brokerage on the Strip. They can be seen on networks and in publications such as CNBC, Forbes Magazine, Details, LV Business Press, Wall Street Journal, The Review Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Disclaimer: All information contained within this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter is not guaranteed and is often considered time-sensitive.

It is so fascinating to watch the glass wall skin as it expands upward along the steel and concrete frame comprising the new Las Vegas Fontainebleau Resort Hotel. Sitting right across the street from the luxury high rise condo Sky Las Vegas, Sky residents have watched Fontainebleau unfold from a dirt hole in the ground to the magnificent giant it is becoming.

On March 12, 2009, the Fontainebleau workers are installing some of the last glass panels near the top of the resort hotel.

To gain a better perspective of this amazing blue giant resort, this photo shows just half of the hotel height from the top of Sky Las Vegas.

And if you think this is incredible, take a look at the multiple pool structure being created. I can't wait to walk across the street from Sky Las Vegas to have a spa day at the 16,000 square foot spa or just lounge at one of these incredible pools.

Oh and did I mention that Sky Las Vegas, which sits directly across Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas, has a few REO foreclosure luxury condos for sale?

Bruce Hiatt can be reached at (702) 456-7080 x201 PST. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter @LuxuryRealtyGrp.

Luxury Realty Group is recognized by the press as a leading brokerage on the Strip. They can be seen on networks and in publications such as CNBC, Forbes Magazine, Details, LV Business Press, Wall Street Journal, The Review Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Disclaimer: All information contained within this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter is not guaranteed and is often considered time-sensitive.

No doubt 2009 is the year of the short sale and REO foreclosure real estate transaction. At Luxury Realty Group we've seen a significant increase in the number of luxury forecosures in Las Vegas hence why we recently launched www.LuxuryVegasForeclosures.com .

While we've had a 100% success track record to date for our Las Vegas luxury REO foreclosure buyers, that's not the case for short sale transactions. We now take 3 steps prior to writing short sale offers to educate our buyers about the potential risk in making such an offer for a specific property.

The three steps are:

1. Inquire as to how many short sale transactions has the listing agent had in 2009. 2009 is important as many rules have changed and loss mitigators are often changing the way they handle short sales. If the listing agent has minimal experience then consider the risks as the listing agent needs to know how to properly assemble the short sale package for the loss mitigator.
2. Ask the listing agent as to the number of loans on the property. One loan is ideal and more than one can involve multiple loss mitigator negotiations which comes back again to the level of short sale experience the listing agent has in 2009.
3. Find out how where in the foreclosure process is the property. If the property is close to foreclosure then time is of the essence to gain loss mitigator attention to your short sale offer.

I could go on with an extensive list and short sale horror stories but these three steps are a starting point. It's a complex world with short sales and we hope all of you have much success with them in 2009.

Bruce Hiatt can be reached at (702) 456-7080 x201 PST. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter @LuxuryRealtyGrp or subscribe to our RSS feed at www.LasvegasHighRiseBlog.com or www.FineVegasHomesBlog.com.

Luxury Realty Group is recognized by the press as a leading brokerage on the Strip. They can be seen on networks and in publications such as CNBC, Forbes Magazine, Details, LV Business Press, Wall Street Journal, The Review Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Disclaimer: All information contained within this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter is not guaranteed and is often considered time-sensitive.

With an increasing number of Las Vegas luxury homes and luxury high rise condos going into short sale or foreclosure status, Luxury Realty Group has created a new website just for those seeking such types of real estate.

www.LuxuryVegasForeclosures.com provides pre-defined searches for Las Vegas luxury homes and luxury high rise condos. For the high rise condos, specific short sale and foreclosure targeted searches are pre-defined by high rise tower.

The creator of this new website, Bruce Hiatt, broker-owner of Luxury Realty Group, said "We are the first real estate brokerage in the Las Vegas area to offer a luxury short sale and foreclosure real estate targeted website. We know from feedback of users who participated in our beta version of the website that pre-defined searches were difficult to find on Las Vegas real estate websites. We believe we've filled a niche missing in our market until the arrival of LuxuryVegasForeclosures.com".

Luxury Realty Group has already closed transactions in 2009 for both short sale and foreclosure luxury properties. Such transactions are expected to increase in 2009 with more of luxury real estate moving into short sale and foreclosure status in Las Vegas.

Bruce Hiatt can be reached at (702) 456-7080 x201 PST. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter @LuxuryRealtyGrp or subscribe to our RSS feed at www.LasvegasHighRiseBlog.com or www.FineVegasHomesBlog.com.

Luxury Realty Group is recognized by the press as a leading brokerage on the Strip. They can be seen on networks and in publications such as CNBC, Forbes Magazine, Details, LV Business Press, Wall Street Journal, The Review Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Disclaimer: All information contained within this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter is not guaranteed and is often considered time-sensitive.