David Hughes' Blog: All Categories

One of the biggest questions I get when selling real estate is, "Will my property taxes go up when I buy a home". The answer is "No". We are not a prop 13 or market value state like California which puts your tax at 1% of the sales price and stays there until you sell the property. If you bought your property 30 years ago and paid $100,000 your annual taxes are still $1000 per year, where as your neighbor who just paid $700,000 for the house next door is paying $7000 annually for his taxes.  Doesn’t seem fair. The good news is Nevada does not operate this way.

The way the Washoe County tax assessor taxes real property owners can be a little confusing but I am going to give it a shot.

The formula that they use is this:

Taxable value = market value of…

There are some homes in our area that are taking a beating, literally. Some disgruntled homeowners are taking out their frustration on the home as they are going through the foreclosure process as their castles are being taken from them. Appliances, fixtures, windows, door handles, whatever they can pry loose or load in their truck is what some of these unhappy homeowners are taking with them. As their dream of home ownership comes to an end, so does the condition of the home. It does not happen in all cases but as realtors we see it on a daily basis. This not only hurts the bank but it certainly hurts the neighborhoods and neighbors that these homes are in. In this state of disrepair the bank will have to fire sale the home to get it sold, thereby…

5 star quality at a 3 star price according to John Graham of Dickson Realty, Colin Smith and his wife Mary Beth have created the new hot spot in Somersett. Colin’s many years experience as a chef in the area is paying huge dividends and their motto of everyday gourmet is just what Somersett was looking for. They started with the Roundabout market which they are turning into a gourmet pizzeria with home delivery to all of Somersett plus the market will still have the staples you need if you forgot to go to the grocery store on the way home. Click here for a link to their menu and check out Colin below on the Dickson Realty’s Real estate today show in action.

In these crazy times you are going to get lots of calls from people wanting to help you with your mortgage troubles.  Be extremely careful as these people will tell you what you want to hear to get you out of trouble. Once there is a notice of default recorded it is public record that you are in trouble. There are people out there who will take advantage of you in this situation.  My policy is that I do not do business with anybody who has come to me via a sales call on the phone. If you need help, "get a referral from somebody you trust". Below I have listed just some of the scams that are currently taking place in our area.

Phantom help: The potential rescuer charges outrageous fees for phone calls that the homeowner could make themselves usually…

From this October to last October sales in Washoe County have increased by 47%, but October of 2007 was a horrible month for sales. In this uncertain market any increase is a good one. There were 348 sales in Washoe County this past October, of which half of them were foreclosures. The other bad news is the median price is down 22% from October of 2007. The median home price in Reno is $274,000 and in Sparks it is $215,000.  Right now approx. 50% of all the homes on the market in Reno and Sparks are either a short sale or a foreclosure.

I did a study of Reno foreclosures and so far this year in our area they are selling at 98% of asking price. That’s a good thing. This means that the agents representing them are doing a decent job of pricing them to…

Good news!  You are getting more shifts and can let that pesky real estate license expire. But you thought it was going to be so easy to just jump in there and sell all your friends and family a house.

In these tough times buyers and sellers are turning to seasoned professionals who have been through tough markets before and have the know how to get their property sold. I do feel for the agents that work hard and are having to get a part time job to keep up in this market.  You do what you have to do to survive. But the agents that aren’t full time and this is not their profession should maybe rethink and get back to the mall.

The old adage still stands, 10% of the agents make 90% of the money.

Let me paint you a little picture.  Let’s say somebody comes to you and says, “Hey how would you like a nice 6% investment on your money?” But next year your money is only worth 75 cents on the dollar, meaning the value of the asset that your investment was tied to has gone down in value and or the very qualified borrower of the money has lost his job and cannot sell his home for enough to pay off the mortgage (short sale). Bad things are happening to good people right now and it cannot be helped until prices stop falling.

There are too many variables out there right now that is scaring investors into investing in mortgage backed securities. Rates right now should be in the 5-5.5% range but because of the added risk investors are building in a 1%…