[cecnj]

Thanks Ole Capt---your reassurance, based on knowledge, makes me feel much better!

Originally Posted by olecapt

A 235,000 purchase will require a loan of $115,000 leading to a mortgage payment of about $617 @5%. Taxes would be $196 and the HOA $45. That would total $858 per month. There are 241 such homes for sale in Summerlin.

If you want a pool and no short sales there are 12. No short sales there are 104.

I don't see why you would have a problem.

[cecnj]

Originally Posted by Exaday

MY 3100 sq foot house has only once had an electric bill over a hundred. Why higher a gardener when I do that stuff myself?

For people who have much higher bills, your're doing something wrong. I am not saying they can't be that high.

275 a month for a gardener? No! lol

Don't fall in love with a house, always be willing to walk away.

Good advice. I'm happy to hear that your electric bill has not been astronomical, as reported by others on this thread. Like you, a gardnener would never be on my list of needs (I prefer desert landscape to importing grass).

[Scott456]

Originally Posted by 007 license to sell

I posted this on another blog, this will give you an idea of what the average selling price is in the different master plan communities this should give you more of an idea of what area's are more affordable for you.

Here is some data to give you and idea of what the average selling price is for different master plan communities.

Top-selling master plans Community2010 resalesAverage priceAverage ageAverage lot sizeSummerlin2,651$314,40810.86,738Mountain's Edge1,182$208,3694.55,073Anthem998$309,4687.28,101 Southern Highlands956$264,6887.76,346Aliante819$188,5695.86 ,180Coronado Ranch721$204,9846.53,667Rhodes Ranch765$188,6076.84,136Silverado Ranch657$167,73010.44,914Eldorado421$150,16112.36, 356Green Valley432$218,16021.88,044The Lakes435$195,42523.16,223Spring Valley441$136,31129.56,170Spring Mountain Ranch433$158,1478.44,865
Source: Home Builders Research

If you are quoting these figures again and again, at least you should make an effort to put these numbers to a format that is easier for us to read.

[hubby's girl]

cenj
From someone who has looked all over Summerlin, let me suggest that you try to work with a realtor ahead of time who will give you the REAL fees of houses you are viewing. Oh, yes, there are HOA fees...around 45 - 250 a month depending on where you are....then don't forget the master planned community fee....different from the HOA...add another 45 - 200 a month. Then, there is a pesky thing called an SID fee. Can't remember what it stands for, but basically, when the builder built your house they didn't they should have to pay to bring in roads and street lights etc. so they passed that on to the homeowner. And get this...the HOUSE owes that fee..not the owner. So it passes from owner to owner.

We saw houses with SID fees attached of around 18,000. You can pay that over 30 years, but then of course you pay interest on it. Don't forget to check about those little fees.

Then there are the bills. I am renting a tiny 1500 sq ft. house in summerlin and got here in October. So I can't tell you what the bill was in the summer, but in October it was close to $150.00. In the middle of the winter it was $87.00. And this is a tiny house. Pools add about 60 a month or more for the electricity for the pool equipment.

Check on prices of insurance as well...Not sure if the prices are the same for you or much higher, but you should check into it.

Oh, and taxes vary greatly for each property. No idea why. I would think the taxes on what you are looking for would be around 4000 on the high side...so add roughly 300+ just for the tax portion of PITI. I have about the same money as you and the same dream of a payment under $1000 a month. Pretty sure they will have to give me the house for free to get the payments that low! It might be able to be done...but you will have to do a lot of looking. (And watch out for the fees!!!! I can't say that enough. Ask ask ask!!!)

Be careful. This is not the "you can pick up a house for a song" nirvana I was led to believe. With no state income tax, they get a lot of taxes from homeowners. But those fees! Those are (in my opinion) sheer graft. Every builder I ever heard of has had to include the costs of developing the land in the price of their homes. But it seems that appraisers weren't so keen on viewing the homes as costing that much and the builders didn't want to outlay too much, so they passed on all kinds of fees. I am half expecting an additional fee for the studs and windows while we are at it!

And don't even THINK about new builds. The lots are the size of a postage stamp...have SID fees of over 20k....and usually cost over 100k vs a used home.

This is what I have discovered after 6 months of research. Haven't found a website yet that has all the fees listed on it that is public. Certainly not ZipRealty (which is the best for searching in my opinion as they don't show you houses that are off the market already) or Realtor. Redfin contains a lot more info than both of them. Still, you need to send off the mls #s to a realtor so they can send you the page that contains all the little fees.

Oh...and joy of joys...our lovely "leaders" have determined that it is not fair to charge someone with lousy credit more money to get a loan just because it is a nightmare to find them a loan with anyone...to fix this, they have forced lenders to charge the folks with stellar credit more money for that loan to subsidize the other folks. Cheapest I have found money out here so far is about 2k for a 250,000 loan with 30% down.

(If anyone has any cheaper options please shout!)

Last thing...refuse to sign any agreement with a real estate agent who won't show you things unless you sign up with them exclusively. Forget that! Just be honest and if you find a house with a particular realtor, you have to go forward with them on that particular property.

Good luck to you!

(fyi...Summerlin is easily the most expensive part of town. I would suggest renting for 6 months first so you really get a lay of the land before buying. It has saved us a huge amount of grief by doing it that way!)

(I don't know where that other person got their numbers. Especially the taxes! And they seemed to forget SIDs and Master planned community fees oh, and there are other things called assessments I have seen on a bunch of houses).

One last thing...90% of all houses for sale out here are either short sales or foreclosures. SS can take 2 weeks up to 1 year to close! Scary! Foreclosures are easier, but the houses have either been purposely trashed with things you won't notice (little wires cut that are a nightmare to fix for example) or they have just been empty for so long that pools have cracked due to exposure, pipes are corroded with no water running through them, etc. Houses need maintenance. And the regular sales...well...good luck finding a home owner who understands that 2011 is different from 2007. Prices are down by at least half since then if not more.

[airics]

Originally Posted by hubby's girl

cenj

Last thing...refuse to sign any agreement with a real estate agent who won't show you things unless you sign up with them exclusively.

You just lost 99% of all realtor interest in showing you a property... Why would they show you a property, then you go to a different realtor and buy that property..

[WestieJeff]

Originally Posted by hubby's girl

WestieJeff, I really appreciate your take on things. I might have to go shopping in the supermarkets around there in the middle of the night to get a good idea of what things would be like for me if I moved there. I so appreciate your candor. The last thing I want is tempered PC responses! I can't thank you enough for your honesty.

Seems like you want the same kind of home I do....nice lot...interesting design...custom home that might hopefully be made well...and not have to pay a million for it. Have you found any other areas to look in? What about Warm Springs and Valley View and there abouts? Nice lots over there. I have also been peeking around Lone Mountain. And then there is an interesting little area around Pebble and Bermuda. I keep finding little pockets around town. Have you checked into any of those areas?

I know mostly the Henderson and South areas of town since that is where we are looking at houses. I've heard you'll get more bang for your buck in the NW part of town for the type of home you're looking for if that area works for you.

The Warm Springs/Valley View area is also a mixed area, but definitely not as bad as Oquendo/Lamb. The custom homes in that area are probably a little bit more on the lower end. I looked at and would buy a house in that area if the house and price were right.

Overall I like the Pebble/Bermuda, Windmill/LV Blvd area. The houses are mixed again, some really nice, some real dumps, but the surrounding area is pretty normal middle class. Schools are ok/good in that area. I like the fact it's easy access to both I-215 and I-15. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a house there.

I am familiar with the custom home areas in Henderson, Section 9 (Warm Spring & Racetrack Rd), Section 27 (Equestrian Rd.), and Mission Hills. Section 9 has gotten beat up pretty bad pricing wise so you can get some deals there, but the surrounding area isn't the greatest. Section 27 is pretty nice, a bit remote, but schools are very good. Mission Hills is great in my opinion and is at the top of my list for where to purchase a custom home in Henderson. The surrounding area is pretty nice, great park in the area, and schools are excellent. Pricing for Mission Hills reflects that, not much for sale in the area and they are 400k+.

There is a small pocket of custom homes on off Serene between Pecos and Eastern. A mixed area, but the schools are good, and I like the location since it's right off the freeway and close to both Green Valley and Eastern.

For your budget, I think your options will be limited in Henderson/South parts of town. You may be able to find some stuff in Section 9 in Henderson or off Warm Springs/Valley View area. Realistically for what you're looking for I think the budget needs to start at 300k for anything reasonably nice.

Also, I've been watching inventory in these areas for about a year now and there is quite a bit less right now than I've seen in quite awhile. There were a bunch of homes that got dumped on the market in Jan and they all are under contract now. I haven't seen much new custom home large inventory hit the market in Henderson or South Vegas in about a month now.

Again, I'd take a look at the NW. Olecapt knows that area well.

[hubby's girl]

Well airics....there are HONEST realtors out there who are willing to work with you under your conditions. Why would you tie yourself to a moron who only wants a quick sale, is not willing to show you more than 4 properties a week, knows nothing about contracts, and will cost you a fortune if you get stuck with them?

The last idiot I had didn't even know that a counter offer counteracts the language in the original offer!

I have had enough of paying fools tens of thousands of dollars to incorrectly fill out paperwork, show me houses I have found myself through my own research, not put in all sorts of protections for me in the contracts, and have CMAs (comparative market analyses) cherry picked to try to force to me offer 20% more than needed.....or conversely suggest you sell for 20% under market. And woe the person who tries to argue with them! They seem to think you work for them!

Realtors do NOT have your interests in mind. All they want are quick sales and if that costs you an extra 30k, what do they care?

My recent experiences with realtors:
They lied to each party in my last sale of my house and the buyer and seller had to get together and get the realtors out of the way to get the deal done. Oh, we paid them their cut, but we had to all negotiations without them.

I was told that all appliances were included in the house...oops...our realtor forgot to ask for them in the contract and that cost me thousands.

Seven realtors came over to tell me how much to sell my house for. If I had listened to them I would have lost 50k. My house sold in 2 weeks.

So, if a realtor has no interest in showing me a property...no skin off my teeth. I have saved myself from someone who could care less what my interests are and only wants to protect themselves. I refuse to be scalped.

(Oh, I didn't say you shouldn't agree to buy a house with them if they SHOW you the house. But many realtors have contracts that won't let you even LOOK with another agent. Those are the objectionable contracts.)

[JonathanLB]

The cost of living in Nevada is very low, so don't complain about that, haha. If you can't find what you want you're not looking hard enough. There are a ridiculous number of cheap houses and like some of these guys already said, you can find ways to keep your bills down if you're smart about it.

I will agree with her on one thing, though, you can find all sorts of ways to avoid paying much in Arizona income taxes. My largest source of income (from investments) comes from Arizona, and we paid I'm not joking like $162 last year in state income taxes and let me tell you when you realize what I made in that state, it's absolutely hilarious. I just laughed to myself and thought, there you go Arizona, don't spend it all in one place! They seem to have a very favorable idea of income taxes because she's right, you can deduct so many things, I don't even live there but I'm guessing it's because you can deduct the depreciation of the building and a variety of other things to get it to the point where you're only paying income taxes on a small sum of the total.

Good state! haha.

[airics]

i'm just curious, when you made the offer, Didn't YOU read it also? I find your story hard to believe... and i also don't see any of the many realtors on this board trying to gain your business also.... Sorry, just an observation... the realtors don't charge the buyer anything....

[Robustus]

Originally Posted by cecnj

This thread is an eye-opener. I've accepted a job in Summerlin, to start in August. (Hope that wasn't a mistake!) We are selling our New Jersey home and hope to buy in Summerlin. But reading this thread has me worried. It seems the more I read and research, the more confused I become. I've spoken with several LV realtors and have not gotten a positive feeling at all. The three I've spoken to were both vague and aggressive. So I'm back to researching on my own---for now.

So, here's a question for anyone who feels they honestly know and understand real estate in LV:

Assumptions--We can make a $110,000 to 120,000 cash down payment and would like monthly mortgage payments (with taxes and HOA included) of no more than $1000. We would like a 2 or 3 bedroom home, under 2,000 sf. A pool would be nice. We don't need or want anything fancy. Is it possible to buy a home in Summerlin (within Summerlin, not across the highway from or adjacent to) given these assumptions?

Honest, helpful responses appreciated.

I'm with Olecapt here - I don't see why it should be hard to find what you're looking for. If I'm ballparking the math correctly, you're looking at about a $240k property, of which there are many in Summerlin on Zillow even that fit your description. Just assume that you'll have to pay about 10% over whatever the listing price is, and you'll be in fairly accurate territory.

And for what it's worth, the insistence on living strictly within the bounds of Summerlin is a bit silly. Summerlin is indeed nice, but large swaths of the NW (Lone Mountain, Centennial Hills) are equally nice and a good deal cheaper. Henderson and Aliante also have great areas, though you probably don't want the commute. Seriously, expand your search a little. Coming from NJ where areas go from wealthy to ghetto in the span of 2 miles, you'll be amazed just how consistently nice the dozens of square miles on the outskirts of Vegas are.