Southern Nevada has seen iBuyers take over a larger chunk of the market in recent months amid a wider surge in investors buying homes, a new report shows.
U.S. real estate firms, who have ventured to convert homes here and elsewhere in recent years, bought 532 homes in the Las Vegas area in the second quarter, up from 296 in the first quarter, according to listing site Zillow, which is itself one of the Buyer was.
The four companies tracked for the report accounted for 4 percent of purchases in southern Nevada last quarter, up from 2.5 percent in the previous quarter, Zillow reported.
Nationally, companies bought 15,028 homes in the second quarter, representing 1 percent of all purchases, compared with 7,056 in the first quarter, or 0.6 percent of purchases.
Driven by low borrowing costs and more overseas buyers than usual, the Las Vegas housing market has seen record prices and rapid sales for months.
In any case, it has been an extreme sellers market, which means fins can face stiff competition when buying, but can also benefit from mature conditions when selling.
Zillow said it compiled the report by compiling its own stores and those of Opendoor, Offerpad and Redfin. It is also said that iBuyers, or instant buyers, will make “light repairs” on the homes they have bought and then “quickly resell” them.
The four companies suggest an easy way to sell through their websites where people can upload information about their home to get a quote.
Offerpad Says It Will Make An Offer “Within 24 Hours”; Redfin Says People can sell “directly to us for cash” with no demonstrations, repairs, or surprises; and Zillow says it’ll make a cash offer too, with no demonstrations, repairs, or surprises.
“Receive an offer in a few minutes, sell within a few days,” explains Opendoor.
Their increased purchases are due to investors buying more homes overall across the country, particularly in southern Nevada.
Residential real estate investors bought 3,043 homes in the Las Vegas area in the second quarter, up 279 percent from the same period last year when sales declined overall in the first few months of the pandemic, according to Redfin, which, like Zillow, is best as a listing site known.
Investors accounted for nearly 23 percent of all home purchases in southern Nevada last quarter, Redfin reported.
Overall, the total number of investor purchases in southern Nevada ranked fifth among the 41 metropolitan areas listed in the report, and investor market share here was the fourth highest in the country.
Additionally, the percentage change in purchases year over year was by far the largest, with Chicago in second place at nearly 209 percent.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
