According to our own Vegas Confidential reporter Norm Clarke, there is actually talk of doing a Saturday Night Live spinoff right here in the Las Vegas Valley. Well, he doesn’t exactly have an exclusive on that story, which appears to have originally appeared in the New York Daily News’s gossip column.

I hope it happens.  It makes sense, because so many actors, musicians, and comics are based either here or in nearby Los Angeles (one hour by plane with 3 hours at LAX, or 4 hours by car).  But the producers and directors are going to have to make sure there’s a minimum of “bad seasons”:  there’s nothing like a Vegas crowd to enforce quality control.

It would be good for our economy, too.  After all, both locals and tourists would come see the show, and the tourists will spend money on hotels, food, and other entertainment.  Not that I am worried about filling those 40,000 hotel rooms we are expecting by the end of 2012, but it’s nice to know.  Also, the dozens if not hundreds of folks that work on the production — directors, writers, stage-hands, lighting directors, extras, sound engineers, and many other professionals –  will need places to live, and they will create more jobs by needing goods and services.

I think Martha Stewart said what I’m thinking:  “It’s a good thing.”

According to the NAR, a REALTOR can help you get more money out of selling your property — even after commissions.  Doubters will of course point out that these numbers were put together by an organization with a vested interest in the outcome.   Even so critics and economists who doubt these figures concede that REALTORS provide valuable services to their clients and will never be completely replaced by such things as websites that allow sellers to list their FSBO (”For Sale By Owner”) homes for a flat fee.  A new study from Stanford spells it out:

Sellers potentially benefit from [real estate] brokers’ services in a variety of ways. First, brokers provide promotional services. They help prepare a house for sales, circulate flyers, place advertisements, hold open houses, and recommend the house to individual buyers. Second, they often assist with negotiations. Third, they screen prospective buyers, facilitating and potentially accelerating the process of matching buyers and sellers. Fourth, they provide access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which lists all homes available for sale. Fifth, they provide market information and recommendations pertaining to the appropriate asking price. Sixth, they often assist with paperwork and legal documentation.

It’s a short version of the list, but it gets the point across.

Of course, the same report comes to a couple of interesting conclusions:  They did not find the same improved pricing that NAR and other research has reported, but they did find that  “[sellers] who use brokers sell their houses more quickly.”

That’s an important finding!   We are currently in a national real estate market where sales are at the lowest level since 1999, prices are declining over time, and we have an average of 10.3 months supply of housing on the market right now.  Locally, inventory has declined to a mere 21.22 months. Add to that the fact that foreclosures are up 57% since last year and 8% since December — including over 45,000 actual bank repossessions! — and it is clear that a lot more homes are coming on the market, either as short-sales or as REO (bank owned) property.  Even if Congress manages to pass Senator Dodd’s HOLC proposal, a lot of people will need to get out of homes they simply can’t afford.

Do you have 21 months to sell your home?  No!  Of course you don’t!

And are you prepared for the fact that if your home sells 6 or 10 months from now, you may very well get less for it than if you were to get a buyer 30 to 60 days from now?

Yes, selling a home more quickly is a big deal, even if you don’t have to relocate quickly.  In a declining market, time on market is money lost on market.

To get my free publication on how a REALTOR can help you titled “50 Things a Licensed Real Estate Agent Does”, or to get help finding or listing property, be sure to call me or click the “Contact Me!” link to the side.

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Desert Shores Dojo this Friday night!

Good news for Vegas real estate development: the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino will avoid foreclosure. When finished, the hotel and convention facilities will be run by Hyatt. The complex will include roughly 3000 hotel rooms in addition to a number of luxury, high-rise condominiums.

A couple items on that quintessential Vegas export, weddings! First we have the Vegas Wedding FAQ. Not up for a Vegas wedding? Join some other couples in a much more sedate (but equally quick) Henderson wedding.

Confused about the various mortgage options and qualifications out there? Thanks to Inman News for pointing out Mortgage Grader. Warning: inline sound and video.

And a foreclosure prevention currently under debate would allow bankruptcy judges to modify or “cram down” new terms on some mortgages of owner-occupied homes with “subprime or non-traditional” mortgages. A bunch of stipulations apply, of course, and terms are still under negotiation in Congress. Needless to say, lenders hate this idea, and say it will increase lending costs to consumers. Notable economic minds like Larry Summers advocate some sort of bankruptcy reform needs to be a part of the foreclosure solution.

Looking forward to seeing some of you this Friday, February 29, 2008, at the Desert Shores Dojo!

I will be at the United Studios of Self Defense Desert Shores Dojo on Friday, February 29, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM to meet you and answer any questions you may have about buying or selling property, local market conditions, the economy, and real estate in general.  I will also gladly set up appointments to list your property for sale, or help you find a great property to buy.  They are located at 8410 W. Cheyenne, Suite #104 (in front of Albertsons and CVS, for a map click here).  You will also be able to meet with representatives from other local businesses.

Yesterday, Sensei Brian told me there are a number of RSVPs, so to get your business represented or get a list of businesses that will be there, call him or Miss Teri today.  Their phone number is (702) 396-9944.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Somehow I think this has progressed beyond being a “fixer-upper” right into the realm of “tear-down.”  But it even comes with many fixtures, some bar ware, and a phone!

Seriously, however, be aware of what you are getting into when buying distressed property.

Thanks to the Movable Buffet for pointing out the Las Vegas Sun’s new database of flight delays. This should prove to be a great tool whether you are coming to Vegas, or trying to get out of town!

In our current market, I get a lot of questions about short sales. And no wonder! As of Monday one out of every 5 listings in the Greater Las Vegas MLS was a short sale! For those of you that are terminally curious, that’s over 4000 short sale homes.

If you are interested in purchasing a short sale home, this is a must read article from Real Estate Journal. Here’s some of the important bits:

Even with experienced people at your side, it pays to arm yourself with facts before you make an offer. Don’t assume that the house is a bargain, since the owner may have bought the house at the peak of the housing cycle and may owe so much that he can only discount it to current market prices. Find out what comparable houses are selling for, whether a foreclosure notice has been filed for the property, who owns the loan or loans, and how much is owed — you’ll have to deal with them all.

The seller may eagerly accept your offer, but he isn’t the final arbiter of the deal — the note holders are. So make your offer contingent on the acceptance of the lender or lenders. Since the lenders want to know that you can back up your offer, include as much information as you can on your financial resources, as well as a preapproval letter from a lender.

Although the property may be advertised as-is, make sure the deal gives you the right to have and approve home and pest inspections by qualified professionals. Short sellers usually have given up maintaining and repairing their homes; you need to know what other expenses to expect.

Also, place a time limit on your offer — ask your agent what is customary in your area –since lenders will sometimes drag their feet, hoping to get a better deal. Short sales rarely take a short time to complete, but you shouldn’t have to wait around forever.

It’s a tough deal; even though roughly 20% of our listings are short sales, only about 5% of our actual sold homes last month were short sales! The frustrations involved in short sales are so universal that my office has prepared a document specifically for our clients on what to expect. If you would like to receive more information, click the “Contact Me!” button in the sidebar, or call me at the phone number at the top of this page.

I am proud to announce that I will be on hand at the United Studios of Self-Defense Desert Shores Dojo for a networking open house on Friday, February 29 from 6-8 PM. The dojo is at 8410 W. Cheyenne, Suite #104, near the intersection of Rampart/Durango and Cheyenne in the Albertsons parking lot.

I will be on hand to answer your questions about the Las Vegas real estate market, real estate in general, local neighborhoods, and of course I will be glad to discuss helping you buy or sell a home. If you have specific issues you want to discuss with me, don’t wait: call me at 702-727-7842 today! If you would like to search listings first, click here!

Other businesses will be on hand to discuss their products and services as well. For more information, a list of businesses that will be there, or to reserve room for your business, be sure to call 702-396-9944 and talk to Miss Teri or Sensei Bryan today!

Scientists have now said that whether or not Lake Mead exists in 15 years is a coin toss:

Based on models constructed from the analysis of historical records from the Federal Bureau of Land Reclamation, the researchers, Tim Barnett and David Pierce, say there is a ten percent chance the reservoir will be dry in 2014, and a 50 percent chance no water will be left by 2021.

Lake Mead was created by the Hoover Dam’s blockage of the Colorado River. The river is fed by snow pack from Rockies, which has been decreasing. The dam, of course, was one of the prototypical megaengineering efforts of the 20th century and a symbol of how human ingenuity could conquer any obstacle, including supplying water to a city the size of Las Vegas in the middle of the desert.

But the sheer amount of water that natural and manmade climate changes and human usage is drawing out of the Colorado River system is staggering. The researchers estimate that 1 million acre-feet, or 326 billion gallons, of water are being leached out of the system each year. They say that’s enough to supply 8 million people.

While this sort of story is sensational, I think it’s more than a little alarmist.  For one thing,  it ignores the springs that initially brought settlers to the Las Vegas Valley — by the way, while you are in Vegas you can check this out for yourself at the Springs Preserve.  For another, they specifically say that the current quantity of water taken out of the system would supply a city the size of New York City when Las Vegas only has a population of half a million people — the entire valley has a population of maybe 2 million. Even if all our roughly 125,000 hotel rooms were occupied, and all 42,000 additional rooms scheduled to be available by 2012 were occupied, and all the people who will be employed as a result of those rooms were counted, there would still be far fewer than 8 million people in the valley.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, may want to think about desalination.

I have lived in (or near) a number of large cities over the years, and have now had the occasion to see multiple metropolitan areas dealing with the problem of vacant housing. Sometimes, integral to the problem is unclear ownership. Other times, it is a large concentration of bank-owned properties — so-called REO — that for whatever reason can’t be moved. Ironically, sometimes local efforts to make sure homes are up to code and livable makes it more difficult to rectify the problem: banks and other remote owners are not in a position to arrange lots of repairs and inspections. Hopefully other regions will come up with novel solutions to the issues of vacant housing, because they are coming to a metropolitan area near you.

“Separate But Equal” used to be a perfectly valid legal principle. Now of course, you would be sued into oblivion for advertising a “Blacks Only” community — and rightly so! — but there was a time when such developments thrived. Now such neighborhoods are fighting for historical recognition.

If you are not familiar with the BondDad, you really should be. Here he talks about some of the issues involved in banks and mortgage companies unwinding their bad loan positions. Here he discusses housing prices and historical averages — please note that he is looking at the big, national picture and not the Vegas picture (which is looking up in my opinion). And here he talks about employment data. This is normally a topic I would discuss elsewhere, but people who don’t have jobs have a hard time paying the rent or mortgage.

And interesting news from the construction front. Could bamboo be the building material of the future? It’s strong, renewable, and grows like crazy. In some parts of the world, it’s already the building material of choice.