David Hughes' Blog: Reno Real Estate News

1989 headline in Golf  magazine ''Northgate is one of the best new courses in the country".

2009 headline from the Reno Gazette Journal "'RSCVA closes Northgate due to budget shortfalls".

Tom Lehman shot the course record back in 1991, a stellar 62 when the Ben Hogan tour came through here. How did it come to this?  That course was in pristeen condition and a layout that was one of the best in Reno. Times have changed, there are a lot more options for golfers in the Truckee Meadows and a lot of the courses are struggling for players.

Dave Aiazzi of the Reno City council has started a website called http://savenorthgate.ning.com/ , I think he has a great idea to turn it into a regional park that could be used for music type blues festivals etc..…

About 40% of all evictions in Washoe County are tenants who have done nothing wrong.  They pay their rent and then the sheriff shows up at their door to give them 3 days to move out. The owner of the home did not make the payments and the unsuspecting tenant gets the boot once the foreclosure is final. If you are one of these landlords please contact your tenant and let them know what is going on. Yes, you are mad at the bank, the economy, whatever, there is no reason to possibly put good, hard working people who pay their rents on the street.

Fortunately, there is a bill in the state legislature right now that would notify these tenants as soon as the foreclosure process starts and they would be given 60 days notice to find another place to live. There…

There will be 300 foreclosure that will be sold this week in Nevada, 39 of them will be in Reno and the rest will be in Las Vegas. Banks are increasingly turning to auction companies like Hudson and Marshall to sell their vast inventories of unsold foreclosures. According the National Associaion of Realtors in the fourth quarter of 2008 45% of all real estate transactions were foreclosures. Nevada lead the charge with a 133% increase in sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007. At these auctions the properties are sold "as is" and the buyers are required to make a $5000 deposit either in cash or a cashiers check for each successful bid they get.

For more information buyers should go to www.hudsonandmarshall.com or call 866-539-4172…

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…

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.