While swarms of people try to buy homes in Las Vegas, real estate agent Shawn Cunningham has a method to show property hunters who don’t live here.
He walks through a house while he’s making a video and gives people a virtual tour instead of a real one before deciding whether to bid on a house they have never stepped into.
RE / MAX Advantage’s Cunningham said he has been doing this for years. He wants buyers to have a full understanding of a home, he said, adding that they need to act quickly these days.
“You don’t have time to think for a day or two,” he said.
The real estate market in southern Nevada has been in a hot phase for months and continues to accelerate, despite the crushing economic impact of the pandemic. This makes it a ripe time for Cunningham and others to sell homes. At least in theory.
Sales have increased year over year and prices hit record highs allowing agents to close lucrative deals for commissions.
But the number of properties for sale has fallen and more and more people want to become real estate agents. With many buyers popping up, some builders have slashed commissions on brokers who attract customers and sellers working with buyers are having a hard time closing deals as homes flood with offers, according to industry professionals.
“They don’t make the same money as they do in a normal market,” said realtor Aldo Martinez, president of the Las Vegas Realtors trade association.
Urban Nest Realty agent Christina Chipman said that some salespeople are very busy and that the market is lucrative for them.
However, some agents face stiff competition, including those who work heavily with buyers or agents who are just starting out or who think they can sell homes as a sideline, Chipman said.
If an agent doesn’t know how to compete or accept customers’ offers, they will be “chewed up and spat out”.
Listed Friday, sold Monday
The real estate market in southern Nevada was hit by turmoil when the pandemic revitalized daily life last March. But the market has regained its foothold, warming despite the devastating impact of the pandemic on tourism, the foundation of Las Vegas’ casino-heavy economy.
Low borrowing costs have provided much of the fuel by letting people – at least those who can still afford to buy a seat – secure lower monthly payments and stretch their budgets. The market has also received a boost from out-of-state buyers who can often get a bigger, cheaper home in southern Nevada.
People from California, a long-time source of newcomers to Las Vegas, appear to be buying more homes than usual in the valley, in many cases with cash, since closed offices allow people to work from home without the commute, real estate sources say.
At the end of March, there were only around 1,770 single-family homes with no listings on the resale market, a decrease of almost 69 percent from the previous year, Las Vegas Realtors reported.
Realty One Group’s sales director Tim Kelly Kiernan said that in his 13 years selling homes he has never seen inventory levels so low and that real estate agents are doing fine right now with homes getting multiple listings and selling quickly.
However, buyers are more frustrated.
Steve Howell, an agent at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties, said he has a husband and wife moving from Northern California to be closer to the husband’s elderly parents in Las Vegas. With limited inventory, they couldn’t find a home.
According to Howell, agents and their customers must act quickly or the entries will be deleted.
“When a house comes on the market, you often have to see it that day. … It’s not uncommon for a house to go on the market on Friday and it’s in escrow on Monday, ”he said.
“A waiting game”
With inventory dwindling, many buyers are looking for a spot with builders, but that may not be an easy task today. Builders have put buyers on waiting lists and accepted bids for land, and at least one contractor, KB Home, has been holding lotteries to see who can buy a home, according to industry sources.
A KB spokesperson said that in some of the construction company’s communities where there is less land available and “demand far exceeds supply, we sometimes hold drawings to pick a buyer from those interested because we believe they do is a fair and equitable course of action. ”
Agents and brokers also say that some developers in the valley have reduced brokerage commissions or offer flat-rate fees.
According to Kiernan, home builders lower those payments as the market accelerates and a lot of walk-in traffic shows up without the help of agents. However, if at any point the market slows down, it expects payouts to decline.
“We just know it’s a waiting game,” he said.
People usually pile up to become real estate agents when the apartments are hot and today is no different.
“We had half a dozen school teachers who were off to a great start,” said Kiernan.
Debbie Zois, owner of the Las Vegas Real Estate Training Center, said her school had seen an increase in new students, which estimated a 30-35 percent increase over the past year. Many Nevadans who are unemployed are considering getting real estate.
She said new students “flash” through the program, which requires 90 hours of instruction in a couple of weeks instead of playing it over several months.
But Zois pointed out that being a new agent was a difficult time, adding that after 34 years in the business, she had never seen Las Vegas homes sell so quickly.
“This is kind of a hectic business right now,” she said. “It’s almost not as fun as it usually is because people are tense and there is a lot of emotion in it, and I think we’ll see people get out of business.”
“Trying to Discover Gold”
Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said the surge in new agents was nationwide. He said many newcomers are seeing the glowing market and considering changing careers in the face of high unemployment.
“I like the entrepreneurship and the spirit of the newcomers, but it’s tough business,” said Yun. “Existing members see no further competition from people who come in, but it is what it is and, given the low inventory, trying to get that listing is like trying to discover gold.”
Las Vegas realtor Bruce Hiatt, founder of Luxury Realty Group, said it was difficult to land listings as many homeowners don’t know where they are going, given the shrinking supply of homes and rising prices.
“Salespeople don’t know where to go,” said Hiatt.
These and other hurdles have not stopped people like Youssef Salameh from entering the industry. Salameh owned a Lebanese restaurant in Brooklyn, New York before selling it last year and moving to Las Vegas with his family. He said he was lucky enough to sell right before the COVID-19 nationwide shutdown.
He intended to stay in the restaurant business and possibly open a food truck. With the industry in turmoil during the pandemic, he opted for a real estate license.
Salameh joined Scofield Realty in December and has multiple contracts.
“I can’t believe I’m so busy because I’ve just started,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter. Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.
