October 2007

Hello -

The table below will show you a list of current Foreclosure homes and real estate listings for Sparks NV.  This list was taken directly from the local MLS but does not represent ALL foreclosure listings in Sparks.  The list was compiled based on certain keywords the listing agents placed in the 'comments' field such as "foreclosure", "bank owned", "REO".

You can easily get full listing details by following the link for each listing.  If I can be of any further help with Sparks Real Estate or Sparks Homes For Sale, please feel free to post a reply or give me a call.  Lastly, if you are an investor and have not yet seen our monthly market report, you should check out the Sparks Real Estate trends report and sign up for monthly notifications.

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Greetings -

I am getting a lot of questions from prospective home buyers about Reno foreclosure properties. 

Why is this?

Well, in some cases, you may be able to get a great deal on a Reno foreclosure property (in some cases, not all, you may need to be prepared to do some heavy duty clean up - what we call 'deferred maintenance').  As it turns out, there is not an easy way to obtain a list of Reno foreclosure properties which are also referred to as "bank owned and REO which stands for real estate owned (by the bank) properties".  There are companies that charge a monthly fee to get these lists.

Even within the local MLS, we do not have a field to indicate a 'bank owned property' so how do you know which reno homes in foreclosure are in the MLS

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Greetings -

I am getting a lot of questions from real estate investors about Minden and Gardnerville foreclosure properties.

Why is this? Well, in some cases, you may be able to get a great deal on a Minden foreclosure property (in some cases, not all, you may need to be prepared to do some heavy duty clean up - what we call 'deferred maintenance'). As it turns out, there is not an easy way to obtain a list of Gardnerville foreclosure properties which are also referred to as "bank owned and REO which stands for real estate owned (by the bank) properties". There are companies that charge a monthly fee to get these lists.

The list of homes below all contain the words "bank owned" or "REO" or "foreclosure" in the comments entered by the listing

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Greetings -

I came across a few trivia "nuggets" for the state of Nevada that I thought may be interesting and entertaining for anyone who is looking to move to the state (as well as some of you who already live here).

#1  Lake Tahoe was named Lake Bigler after Governor John Bigler from California.  It was not until 1945 that California's state legislature officially adopted the name Lake Tahoe. 

#2  Nevada was granted statehood on Oct. 31, 1864; prior to 1864 Nevada was in the Utah Territory.   At that time, Las Vegas was in the Arizona Territory. 

#3  Nevada is the most mountainous state in the Union with 314 distinct mountain ranges.  And most people think we are all desert...

#4  Gambling is legal throughout all of Nevada EXCEPT Boulder

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Good Day -

Most of my site visitors are from "out of the area" - as a matter of fact over 65% of you are from states other than Nevada - and Las Vegas isn't very close at all!

If you are from out of the area and want to get a feel for what is going on with new home incentives from local newspapaer advertising, I thought I'd share a couple specials that came out in the Reno Gazette Journal's HOMES section today:

Pulte Homes
(Del Webb at Somersett - Sierra Canyon)

Pulte is offering to make your payments for 12 months on select homes and provided you use their preferred mortgage lender.  This could add to a substantial saving or give more 'cushion' to you if you are selling a home in a slow market.  This offer has a time limitation (this weekend

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 I help a lot of people buy homes - and this includes new homes directly from builders.  I hear of many people who do not have a buyer's agent (representation for their interests) when they buy new homes.

One critical element in the "due diligence" process of buying any home is the independent home inspection.  This blog post discusses various view points and highlights the importance of the home inspection - yes, for new homes too!

Does a new home need an independent inspection?

The home builders generally do not think so. When providing you professional representation, we think it is critically important.

The Builder Position:

"We are quality certified..."

"The county inspector has already signed off on all aspects of your home's

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Greetings!

People often ask me about "the real estate market" and how it is going. Well, it really depends on specifically which market they may be referring to. For example, I help buyers and sellers with Reno Nevada Real Estate as well as Carson Valley real estate (this includes real estate in Minden, Gardnerville, and Genoa Nevada).

The Reno median home price peaked in August of 2005 at $379,000. (Actually, August of 2005 is 'the month' that marks the beginning of the end of the Seller's market in Greater Reno-Tahoe.) Last month (September, 2007), the median price of a Reno single family home was $315,000 - this marks a 16.9% drop in prices.

During the same time period, the median price for a home in Carson Valley was $411,000 (this market peaked

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[[This post is provided by Scott Storace of Guild Mortgage.]]   On September 18th, the Federal Reserve Bank cut the federal funds rate by 50 basis points or one-half percent. They also cut the federal discount rate by the same amount. Following these cuts I received many phone calls from borrowers and real estate agents who were trying to understand how the news would affect mortgage interest rates. To understand this one has to understand short-term and long-term rates, as well as, bonds and inflation.   The Federal Reserve Board defines the discount rate as “the interest rate charged to commercial banks and other depository institutions on loans they receive from their regional Federal Reserve Bank's lending facility--the discount window.”…

Reno-Tahoe Real Estate Market Trends - Oct. 2007 Update

If this is your first time to this Blog, Welcome!

I plan to post information here to point out key market changes and "between the lines" insight behind my monthly Reno-Tahoe Real Estate Market Trends report. I hope you find this useful. You may want to visit the Reno-Tahoe Real Estate Market Trends report page to view or print the report while reading this blog entry.

October Update

Winners and Losers
In today's market, a well qualified home buyer should be the winner if they have the patience and appetite (as well as a good agent representing them) to negotiate the best price. As I'll point out in a minute, however, the median price in most markets is not down that far over one year ago so

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Hello -

I am going to put some posts here that hilight very helpful features on my new web site.  You can now easily search for northern nevada homes for sale by school district. For example, you can search Reno homes for sale by school district from one page.  In addition to homes for sale, each page has links to all public schools.

To Reno's north west is Sparks and, yes, you can search for Sparks homes for sale by school district as well in the same format. About 25 miles south, you can search for all Carson City homes for sale by school district.

Minden, Gardnerville, and Genoa area all in Douglas County and share a common page that allows you to search for Douglas County NV homes for sale by school district.

You can also do similar searches

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