Purchasing Property in Las Vegas

Gabby Franco

In 2008, my wife and I purchased a house in Las Vegas.  The primary reason was that the Canadian dollar was above the US dollar and this was coupled with the market crash that affected most major cities in the US, especially Las Vegas.

We decided on Vegas for several reasons:

  • Prices were very low
  • When compared to Phoenix, which is the default city for most Albertans, Vegas has everything that Phoenix has, and then some:
  • Same weather
  • Same shopping
  • More entertainment
  • More recreational activity (Vegas was named the best city in the US for outdoor recreation by National Geographic’s recreational publication)
  • We were looking for a property that could serve as an interim investment until we were ready to begin snow-birding in a few years.  Since most of the people that were foreclosed on still needed to have a place to live, we decided on a rental property, but one that we would want to live in ourselves someday.  We have been fortunate in that we have had only two tenants in the 5+ years that we have owned the house.
  • However, the prevailing reason for choosing Vegas is that every city in North America flies to Vegas, and with five children we would only be one flight away if we or they needed to connect

While looking around for a property to purchase it dawned on me that the Vegas market opportunities were under-represented in Canada.  Being a registered real estate broker in Alberta, I partnered with Tony Allotta of the Prudential Americana Group, and we began promoting Las Vegas real estate to Canadians, with a particular focus on Calgary and Edmonton.

We set up our website: www.lasvegasforcanadians.com and held a series of seminars in Calgary (2) and Edmonton (1).  Basically, I provide the local knowledge in that I have experienced the process of buying a house in Nevada.  The way we work things here with lawyers is quite different over there where they use title companies.

Advice for the would-be purchaser:

  • You may find that there are more listings than you have time to view, so be as specific as possible about what you are looking for: number of bedrooms, baths, size of garage, etc.
  • On this point, if you can find a floor plan that you like, then just view the properties listed that have the same floor plan.  This eliminates the questions that arise regarding locations of bedrooms, kitchen, laundry room, etc.
  • Just like we do here, builders will put the same model home in several areas of the communities they build in. They vary these with facades.
  • Once you focus on one or maybe two floor plans at most, then the guesswork is eliminated and the two remaining variables are the condition of the property and the community it is located in.  Price is also a variable but price will be more standardized because you’re basically comparing the same types of houses.
  • Do your search by US zip codes.  Limit the areas of the city that you want to have the property located and this also helps your realtor find you one in a location that you want.
  • We focused on the west and southwest parts of the city.  Henderson is fine also, but stay away from North Las Vegas.  We ended up buying in 89178.
  • Research the crime statistics for the community you are looking in.
  • Use a foreign exchange broker to get your US dollars.  They give better rates than local (Canadian) banks.  When we bought our house we used a broker from San Francisco.
  • Unless you have verifiable US income, it would be very difficult to obtain financing from a US source.  So be prepared to finance this purchase from Canada or pay cash for it.
  • Stay away from short-sales whenever possible.  As short-sale is a situation where the homeowner mortgage is greater than the value of the house.  The short-seller has to try to get his financial institution to accept a smaller mortgage payout or the short-seller has to come up with the financing shortfall. 
  • In either case, the purchase process could drag on for a long time.  One of our first bids on a house was a short-sale and it took months to get a response from the seller and his bank.  In the end we withdrew our offer and instead focused on houses that were either already foreclosed on or were being sold by the owner directly.

While the market in Vegas is no longer at its all-time low of a few years ago, this is actually a good sign because any purchaser at this point would probably be looking at a future upside as opposed to  wondering if new lows are still on the horizon.

Lastly, we haven’t sold any in any RV lots or subdivisions that have RV parking (that I’m aware of) but my partner Tony Allotta would be better informed than I would be regarding the availability of these.

Should anyone need more information, Tony Allotta is at: allottahomes@gmail.com or (702) 301-1534.

Gabby Franco is traveling extensively but can be reached at gabby@lasvegasforcanadians.com