Alright well, I've done some research regarding a possible move to or around Vegas by the end of the year. I'll be enrolled @ UNLV by Spring '09 and I'd like some advice on moving there while the market is down (probably the next few to 8 months) I've looked into places like Henderson, and have decided that's pretty much the ideal place to live it seems. I'm pretty much stuck to all the listings that you can find by searching "homes in henderson nevada" and end up using the Google housing search. My question comes as to what the quality of a $250,000-$300,000 home is like over there, and if theres a big difference in homes comparing a $300K home to a $350-$400K home that it's worth making the jump. Realistically, if you do the math, a $300K home comes out to peanuts between 3 people so the move seems relatively easy and feasible.

So, if I were to make the move towards Vegas, is Henderson the ideal place, or is there another spot that has quality homes in nice neighborhoods for the $300K price range? We kinda wanna go all out with all the good toys and stuff so, a nice neighborhood and a good sized home is obviously ideal. If anyone lives there who could give me help on this it would be much appreciated. Pretty much any input on anything involving moving to Vegas would help. Thanks.

Henderson is the best community but not the ideal place to get full value out of a home. I use to work for my dad in real estate (he's a realtor in vegas so if you're looking for realtor pm me) and the best location to buy a home right now for value is in the the north west (alliante and others, etc..). that is expanding right now and the communities are very nice but the homes are selling cheaper than in henderson. i'm not sure precisely what the market is right now, but what i over hear my dad say at times is that houses that are listed in the 350-400 range is the best deal b/c they aren't selling well and people that need to sell really quickly will drop down to 300 or so - and in a couple of years the turn around will be well worth the extra money.

zillow.com should be a big help. It overlays on a Google Maps satellite view and lets you look at property values by address and neighborhood.

Yea, never heard of zillow, but as far as where to live, it seems everyone is saying NW, SW, & Hendo. Also, Jet, what kind of assessment can you give me on the market down there if any? Should I be able to score something nice at a reasonably sized price reduction from the asking price, or should I expect to basically be prepared to make a usual offer lol? I obviously don't know much, the only thing I know is I'll be finishing school @ UNLV in '09, and I refuse to rent something out and throw my money away like that. Plus actually living there would be cheaper to pay for school rather than being considered out of state.

Thanks for the help so far, guess what it all comes down to is having to take an actual trip up there to see in person what's good.

definately a buyers market, which means u have alot more inventory to look at and a lot less competition when you decide what u want. so u can get most homes anywhere from 80% and up from the listing price. really depends on the area though, some areas homes sit on the market for a long time, others they move alot faster. u just have to go and check out the variety and different areas and it will become obvious which ones u like and which u don't.

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/searc...x&bedrooms=

craigslist is cool and all but generally homes for sale on there are homes that have been OTM for a while and the agent/owner is looking for any way to advertise/sell the home.

I'm a mortgage broker (not licensed in NV so I can't do the loan for you just give advice) so I can tell you as much as you should look at issues pertaining to the property, you should probably be more concerned with getting a mortgage. do you have verifiable (not poker) income? If not, do you have a good down payment? and how's your credit? maybe you're prepared for what you need for a mortgage, I don't know, but if you haven't considered that yet then all the property research you've been doing might be just spinning your wheels. if you have questions feel free to PM me.

Yea, getting a mortgage shouldn't be a problem from what it looks like. It would be a bit complicated as most likely I would be moving along with 2 friends as we'd all have equal ownership of the house. Not sure how that would be done, if it could even be done on a mortgage. I never really got into mortgages, etc.. The combined incomes as well as credit scores should be enough for a $300-$350K mortgage. If worse came to worse, my father would end up getting the mortgage with the possibility of me co-signing. He'll have 0% problem getting one with the equity, credit, and income he has.

Everything is really in the beginning stages right now. My friend works for a company that runs the Las Vegas Convention Center I guess, so he's most likely going to transfer there. I in the meantime am going to be just finishing school, playing poker, and possibly doing something part-time maybe to start getting a few contacts for when I finish school.

So again, everything is in the preliminary, but if we can find something that we like, and know are able to afford, we can start doing what's necessary to make the move final, and hopefully as soon as possible because either way, 100% ill be moving there for school, I just would like the chance to take advantage of the market now while we can because I don't want to waste money renting an apartment.

Thanks for the insight, and I'll make sure to PM you if I need anything answered if you don't have any feedback to give me on this.

u cant go wrong with henderson or summerlin, but th\ way the mortage business has been lately i think your gonna have a hard time getting a 400k mortage with 3 people on the mortage , i moved from seattle and was paying 5k a month mortage until i sold it and moved here but it was alot more difficult to get a mortage down here on 300k home then it was for my home in seattle that was 750k, also not sure if they changed it yet but the mayor of LV made it illegal for mortage companys to do stated loans in LV, so if that was your route check in to it

Yeah, you are probably right. Plus probably 40 minute drive to UNLV.

It is 20-30 minutes to bellagio

Riskky

Renting is not necessarily wasting your money. With the money you save from renting, it can be more beneficial to rent in some cases. Ask people that bought a house last year and saw their homes actually depreciate...

Yep, I guess the stated income is going to be harder to get nowadays. That's alright, I actually wasn't even planning on that, but that would've been a sweet and easy route towards a mortgage lol. Guess I'll be going the herd route.

Most likely going to take a trip down for the WSOP and just take care of everything hopefully while I'm out there then anyway so, I'll let ya guys know how that goes. Maybe I'll speed up the process and do it next month instead, depends how shifty I'm feeling.

Thanks for all the insight guys. Much appreciated.

im not sure what that is, but forclosures you usually buy straight up, but sometimes the banks have auctions as well, and it is actually happening a lot right now because there are so many.

Where do you find info on these foreclosure? I used to do this in WA, but not nearly the market that CA or LV has.

Riskky