Learn How to Reduce Your Utility Costs! Go GREEN!

Green Real Estate is one of the fastest growing segments in our marketplace today. The big mixed used projects like the MGM City Center and also local homebuilders are now incorporating the principles of Green Real Estate into their developments because of the terrific cost savings and benefits of renewable energy efficiency.

Join us on March 5th at 6:30 pm for a FREE seminar on Solar Thermal by Walt Michaels of Jusalt, Inc. and The Las Vegas Green Performance Network. Walt will be giving a demonstration of how Solar Thermal works.

* Reduce your “fossil fuel utility bill” by developing a Homes Business Plan
* New Years Resolutions for American Homeowners
* My Home, My Own Power Company
* Estimate Home Cost Energy Savings
* Home Business Energy Plan Strategy
* Funding Sources and Incentives

Bring your utility bills for the year (or at least your most current ones) and find out how much you can actually save just by implementing a few strategic methods of renewable energy!!

March 5th at 6:30 pm
871 Coronado Center Dr Suite 100
702-596-7821

Directions: From St. Rose Parkway, go south on Eastern Ave, and turn right at the second stoplight which is Coronado Center Drive. Turn right into the first parking lot and follow the signs for the Solar Thermal Seminar into the Prudential Americana Group office where it is being held.

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Las Vegas is Still the Choice of Second Home Buyers and Investors

WHEN Bob Carson set out last year to find a second home in the Las Vegas area, his list of must-haves was short but sweet. He wanted to be close to golf courses. He wanted a pick of fine restaurants. Perhaps most important, he wanted to be a comfortable distance from the hubbub of Las Vegas, without keeping it too far out of reach.

Mr. Carson found all of these things in and around Summerlin, a booming community about 12 miles northwest of downtown Vegas. Mr. Carson, a retired shopping-center developer, spent nearly $2 million on a 10th-floor condominium at One Queensridge Place, a new two-tower Art Nouveau high-rise on the outskirts of Summerlin with commanding views of the Las Vegas Valley.

“Being here is the best of both worlds,” said Mr. Carson, who expects to visit from his primary home in Del Mar, Calif., roughly once a month.

Despite a sagging real estate market across the country (including in Las Vegas itself), real estate agents say second-home owners are still attracted to this area in the shadow of the fire-red Spring Mountains and the 196,000-acre playground known as Red Rock National Conservation Area.

While nobody keeps specific figures on secondary residences in the Summerlin area, Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst at Applied Analysis, a real estate economics consulting firm in Las Vegas, said that over the last five years Summerlin had become one of southern Nevada’s top destinations for vacation homes.

“Summerlin offers many different things to many different people,” he said, noting that Las Vegas homes prices range start in the high $200,000s and go up to more than $10 million.

Real estate growth in this part of the West certainly is nothing new; according to data from Home Builders Research, a Las Vegas research firm, there have been nearly 257,000 new housing units since 1998 in Clark County, a 55 percent increase overall.

On the Las Vegas Strip, many of these properties have been planned expressly with the second-home buyer in mind — urban retreats for people tired of frittering $300 a night for hotel rooms. In the Summerlin area, some of which is in Clark County and the rest in Las Vegas, the vibe is much more residential, and development is accelerating.

First there’s Summerlin itself, where crews recently broke ground on a 107-acre urban core named Summerlin Centre, which eventually will house department stores, offices and restaurants. Adjacent to One Queensridge Place, construction also is moving forward on the Village at Queensridge, a 700,000-square-foot mixed-use facility with offices, restaurants and more. Both spaces are scheduled to open next year.

Other projects in the Summerlin area are already complete. The Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa, the flagship property of Station Casinos, opened in 2006, and now includes a 16-screen movie theater and 72-lane bowling alley.

Elsewhere, Boca Park Fashion Village, a 97-acre shopping mall, opened a few years ago and now contains such high-end boutiques as Talulah G, Pink and Von Dutch.

Top-notch dining options have sprouted, too, including a number of chic wine bars with tapas-style menus and Marché Bacchus, an upscale Mediterranean bistro with a menu that attracts Damien Dulas (of Guy Savoy) and other top chefs from the Strip on their days off.

Summerlin has endless options for outdoor recreation; the area is home to more than 100 public parks, nearly 150 miles of manicured trails and nine golf courses, including the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin, which was designed by the golf greats Fuzzy Zoeller, Bobby Weed and Raymond Floyd.

Add these to the hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing and horseback riding available in Red Rock National Conservation Area, and even the most committed coach potatoes can’t stay slothful for long.

For Howard Cohen, a local second-home owner who spends half of the year in Aspen, Colo., all of this was irresistible. “We bought here because of all the things to do,” said Mr. Cohen, who paid $1.5 million for his 3,400-square-foot, single-story home in Summerlin. “The area is new, exciting, convenient and has all the comforts of home.”

Mr. Cohen added that there are financial benefits to buying a home in southern Nevada: the state has some of the lowest property taxes in the country at less than 1 percent of assessed value, and (for those second-home owners who end up staying for more than six months a year) is one of seven states that do not levy personal income tax.

THE area surrounding Summerlin wasn’t always such a hot spot; as recently as 25 years ago, it was nothing but sand. In the 1950s, Howard Hughes purchased 25,000 acres for 25 cents per acre. He named the parcel after his grandmother, Jean Amelia Summerlin, and sat on it for decades. In the late 1980s, as Vegas established itself as one of the 30 largest cities in the United States and the Howard Hughes Corporation started building, people arrived in droves.

Today, this Las Vegas land comprises a 22,500-acre master-planned community with a combined full- and part-time population of nearly 100,000. Tom Warden, vice president of community and government relations for the Howard Hughes Corporation, said an additional 120,000 residents are expected in the next 10 to 20 years.

Many residents live in tract-house neighborhoods with names like the Mesa, the Willows and the Trails. Most of these neighborhoods have European roundabouts, walking paths and easy access to a new I-215 freeway, dubbed the Bruce Woodbury Beltway after a politician on the Clark County Commission, which governs unincorporated portions of Clark County.

A handful of neighborhoods, including Red Rock Country Club, Eagle Rock, the Ridges and Aventura, are gated — a feature that has appealed to second-home owners concerned about securing their investments between visits.

For these people, knowing that their homes will be safe and looked after if they don’t get back to Summerlin for a month or two offers great peace of mind,” said JoAnne Federico, an agent with Prudential Americana Group in Las Vegas.

One Queensbridge Place, on the outskirts of Summerlin. A 700,000-square-foot development of offices and restaurants will go up nearby. Tricia Reilly Johnson and her husband, Matthew, are leasing a house in Summerlin before they decide what and where to buy.

Still, life in a master-planned community can have its drawbacks. After adding up fees for the community’s master plan fund and the individual neighborhood homeowners’ association, most buyers must shell out about an additional $1,000 a year. What’s more, a number of local homeowners’ associations have adopted strict regulations, such as limitations on when cars can park on certain streets, requirements that homeowners put portable basketball hoops away at night and restrictions on the colors that homes can be painted.

Michael Chorna, who has owned a home in the Sun City neighborhood since 1998, said the codes present challenges for those who frequently come and go.

“It’s not like you can just buy a second home in Summerlin and do whatever you want,” said Mr. Chorna, who also owns homes in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., and Century City, Calif. “For someone who is new to the rules and regulations of a master-planned community homeowners’ association, it can be tough to keep up.”

Perhaps the biggest concern for all homeowners in the high desert is water. Lake Mead, the area’s main water source, has dropped to 48 percent of capacity, and drought conditions have forced the Las Vegas Valley Water District to prohibit use of sprinklers between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. from May through September. Violations during drought alerts result in water-waste fees starting at $40 a pop, but the water district also doles out credits to homeowners who rip out grass and plant desert landscaping.

“Dealing with the ongoing water shortage is just part of life here,” said Jason Ekus, an agent with ReMax Central in Summerlin and president of the homeowners’ association for the Casa Rosa neighborhood.

With so many housing options, perhaps the biggest challenge for prospective second-home buyers in the Summerlin area is figuring out where to buy. Mr. Warden, the vice president of community and government relations for the Howard Hughes Corporation, said new homes in the master-planned community are still sprouting almost daily.

On the outskirts, with projects like One Queensridge Place and the brand-new C2 Lofts, alternative living options are adding up as well. For all of these reasons, Tricia Reilly Johnson and her husband, Matthew, are getting acquainted with the Summerlin second-home market slowly. Mr. Johnson is the owner of the Sushi Samba restaurant chain, and the couple came to the Vegas area from New York City in late January to open one of his restaurants at the Palazzo, a new hotel on the Strip. Knowing they’ll spend the better part of the next two years here, the Johnsons opted to lease a second house, instead of buying one, until they find the perfect Las Vegas Real Estate.

“We’ve identified certain neighborhoods as ones we like, but at this point, we’re just waiting to see what’s available and what’s coming onto the market next,” said Ms. Johnson. “Things are growing so quickly here that it’s possible the home we want hasn’t even been built yet.”

By MATT VILLANO
Published: February 29, 2008

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Builders Predicting Another Major Las Vegas Boom!

Despite the decline in the Las Vegas homes market over the past two years, even major builders who have been the hardest hit are predicting that the bottom has been hit and another mini boom coming!

Fueling that boom will be the literally tens of thousands of jobs provided in the new mega resorts Fountainbleau, MGM City Center and Echelon as well as the millions of baby boomers set to retire over the next 15 years who are looking for a warm tax free climate. Many have given up on Florida where insurance is prohibitive and Texas where the humidity can be unbearable. Las Vegas’ dry climate, $0 state income tax and reasonable cost of living is proving attractive to boomers on a fixed income.

Focus Group, one of the Valley’s major land developers, has been intimately involved in acquisition and planning for the successful master planned communities at Inspirada, Mountain’s Edge and Kyle Canyon. Focus was very aggressive in its Las Vegas land purchases and is now being forced to look at different avenues for restructuring that debt. Fortunately, Focus has a strong reputation and is in the process of negotiations that should prove fruitful.

Focus actually already had $150 million in sales in escrow for multifamily property, but the buyer was uable to obtain financing which killed the deal. “It all happened after the first of the year,” Ritter said. “We would have been fine. We have talked to one of those companies, and it still wants to do the deal, but it can’t find the money to build apartments. In 2009 and 2010 there is going to be a huge shortage of multifamily products and also homes, because if you look at the residential market, no one is starting new subdivisions this year. When it starts turning around, we have low interest rates and pent-up demand and much less product in the marketplace. It is going to get very strong here very quickly.”

Personally, right now I am looking to buy as much rental property as I can while prices are still at a three year low, and I am advising all my clients to do the same.

EcoBrokers Take Home Buying to a New Level

For those that are energy conscious, a new breed of real estate agent has been born: the EcoBroker. EcoBrokers are educating the public on ways to make their existing Las Vegas homes more energy efficient, showcasing Las Vegas new homes builders who build eco friendly homes and giving advice on ways to make our lifestyles more eco efficient.

EcoBroker is a program designed to help people find real estate that embraces energy efficiency and sustainable design. EcoBroker trains real estate agents in green building and home technologies and practices so that they can help buyers find green homes and assist sellers to integrate and market green features in their homes to help them sell. The designation consists of a total of 18 hours of continuing education in energy-efficiency, green building programs, indoor air quality, sustainable development, and environmental issues..

The Tonnesen Team is proud to announce that Lisa SantaCaterina, one of only two EcoBrokers in the Las Vegas Valley, is joining their team. Originally from the San Diego area, Lisa has always been concerned about the environment and was thrilled to learn that she could proactively promote one of her life’s passions through her real estate career. Lisa will be conducting a series of seminars on green real estate for team clients over the coming months. To register, please give us a call at 702-985-7654.

Refinancing Your Home Profitably

For homeowners who thought the federal tax refund checks were a nice surprise, you may be a candidate to save a lot more than a few hundred dollars. Fixed interest rates are still at very affordable levels, so it may pay to pull out your mortgage note and do a bit of comparing. Especially if you have an adjustable rate mortgage that is getting ready to go to a higher level. Refinancing may also allow you to avoid becoming a Las Vegas foreclosures statistic!

But before you jump on the refinance bandwagon, here are a few “dos” and “don’ts” that should help in your search for the best refinance option.

· – Refresh yourself with the exact terms of your current mortgage. Know your rate, mortgage balance, monthly principal and interest payment, possible pre-payment penalty and the remaining term. Las Vegas mortgage brokers will have trouble giving you the best advice if he or she doesn’t know your current situation.

· – When you get a new mortgage, each monthly payment is divided between interest costs and principal reductions. At first, most of the payment goes to interest, but over time, more and more of the loan is devoted to principal. Refinancing starts the process from scratch, which again means most of the monthly payment goes toward interest. This is not necessarily a bad thing if refinancing means lower monthly payments. Additionally, mortgage interest is usually deductible.

· – Don’t get sucked into a “low” rate with high fees. Avoid paying points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the loan amount in cash. If you borrow $200,000, then one point equals $2,000. Generally, if you pay points up front you can get a lower rate–but you have to look at the cost of a point versus the monthly savings from a lower rate. It is rarely advised to pay points to “buy down” the interest rate because of the time it takes to recoup the points. But all situations are different, so a good broker or loan officer will be able to run the numbers and calculate a payback period.

· – Consider a “zero closing cost” option if available in your area. Such loans, of course, have costs–they’re just not paid at closing. Instead, you’ll likely pay a somewhat higher rate. Lenders around the country offer refinance rates with no points or closing costs. This will enable you to refinance your Las Vegas home without any out-of-pocket expenses or loss of home equity.

· – Think about your objectives before shopping around for a mortgage. Do you want lower monthly payments? A larger loan to take equity out of your house? A shorter-term loan, such as a 15- or 20-year mortgage? If you plan to sell within a few years, what adjustable rate programs are available? Different loans will work best in different situations.

· – Don’t take a loan with a pre-payment penalty. These programs can hurt if you pay off the mortgage completely or pay down a large part of the loan early. It’s best to have the freedom to pay off the loan whenever you want.

If you want to check in to refinancing your Las Vegas mortgage, give us a call and we will be happy to provide you with information on some of the best local lenders in the city.

Loan Rates – To Lock or Not To Lock, That is the Question!

Borrowers always wonder if they should lock-in interest rates on their new Las Vegas homes when they first apply for a loan–or should they wait and see where the market goes?

That is the question. But there is no sure answer because either choice involves some risk. If you lock now and rates fall, you lose. If you don’t lock now and rates rise, you also lose.

Alternatively–and here’s the good news–you win by locking before rates rise and you also win by not locking in a market where rates are falling.
What to do?

The first step is to understand how the locking process works. In essence, there is no single lock-in “standard”–a “lock-in” with one lender may be radically different from the lock-in program with another. Here are some issues to check:

What is being locked-in? An interest rate? Or an interest rate and points? Given that “points” are a form of interest, if a rate is locked-in but not points, then the effective rate for the loan can rise before closing if the interest level stays the same–but the number of points increases.

How long is the lock-in? A typical lock-in lasts 30 days, but longer terms may be available.

Is there a cost to lock-in? If you pay a fee for a lock-in and borrow at a different rate or from a different lender, then the lock-in fee will be lost. In some cases, lenders collect a lock-in fee and then credit the money to the borrower at closing. In this situation, there is no additional cost to lock-in if you go through with the loan.

What does the small type say? Some lenders have been known to lock-in rates–unless “market conditions” change; then all bets are off. But ask yourself a question: is there ever a time when “market conditions” do not change? Surely there must be a reason why interest rates change daily if not more often. In this case, the fine print effectively defeats the benefits a borrower wants from a lock-in.

Is there a “float down” option? In this situation you lock-in a rate–say 7 percent and 1 point–but have a one-time option to lock at a lower rate if interest levels and points fall.

What happens if you can’t close by the end of the lock-in period? Typically, you lose the rate you reserved. This is not unfair because a lender cannot be expected to hold a given rate indefinitely.
When you lock-in a loan, lenders have one of two choices: They can secure a loan commitment with an investor at the promised rate or they can play the market and hope that by settlement they can get your rate–or better.

But what happens if a lender plays the market and rates go up? The lender loses. The problem is that not all lenders play fair. It doesn’t happen often, but some lenders will delay the loan application process past the lock-in period, thus ending their commitment to make the loan.

How can you avoid this problem? Consider Las Vegas mortgage lenders recommended by your broker. An experienced broker will know which lenders have a good record delivering on commitments.

In general, whether you lock-in or not, it’s best to be in continual contact with the lender. Make a point to promptly supply all required paperwork, and keep notes showing when you spoke with the loan officer and what was discussed. Get timed, dated and signed receipts for all paperwork you deliver.

So when should you lock-in? There just isn’t a single answer that works for every situation. You need to consider general interest trends–and also that no one can predict future rates. At best, a properly-written lock-in can limit exposure to rising rates–and that’s not a bad deal.

For more information regarding lock-in agreements for your purchase, just call and we can review the features that can best serve your interests.