Dear Neighbor:
2005 has been the year of change! Our market has changed dramatically. Real estate agents have
changed, costs to sell property have changed, our battles at the County Commission have changed
and our neighborhood has changed. (My annual calendar has been the same for the last 22 years.)
In this letter I will try to bring you up to date on what these changes mean to you.
      First, I want to address the market and the conflicting information on various news sources and
information mailed to our area by real estate agents. Every market, ours included, is driven by
supply and demand. In early 2004 we had about 2,000 homes for sale in the Vegas area. Today we
have 15,191 residential properties for sale (supply) in the MLS! Needless to say, our population
(demand) has not increased over 750% in the same period of time or we would have 11 million
people living here. These numbers, however, only tell part of the story since the 2,000 homes for
sale in early 2004 were largely made up of “high end property,” which were never short of supply,
verses today where all price ranges have available homes. Therefore, make no mistake questioning
whether the market has slowed and prices are adjusting to it. It is a fact.
      So what is effected most and why? The middle of the market homes (approximately $600,000 to 1
million in our area) because that is the largest price category available for sale and considered to be
“high end property” for all but a small percent of home buyers. The million and multi-million dollar
homes will always exist with a larger supply than demand and will always be a market that must be
priced to compete with a diverse market of totally unique homes and can always be expected to have
longer market times. (I listed and sold the very first home in our area for over a million dollars in
1988 and it took 6 months to sell to my buyers.) The low side of the market ($400,000 to $599,000
in our area) will always sell the quickest, will be the easiest to market and will be the least effected
by price drops to compete with a change in supply and demand.
      This leads me to why the market has built up such a huge inventory in a time when our economy is
still doing very well. The answer is real estate agents. Approximately 500 new agents a month are
entering the business and competing for the existing number of buyers and sellers of which currently
there are more agents than the 15,000+ sellers. (Same old supply vs. demand.) This has lead to
competition among some agents, of whom will give the seller the highest estimate of value at the
cheapest price in an effort to obtain a listing so they can place a sign in the yard to get a buyer to
call. Or they will hold an open house to meet a buyer who is looking for what all buyers are looking
for - the “best priced home that suits their needs.” Since buyers usually look at several homes for
sale before buying one and are usually not interested in the overpriced ones, the market continually
expands. (15,191 homes for sale is about double what would be a normal market.) So when the
home expires another agent is always willing to “take the listing” instead of face the prospect of recommending a reasonable price and losing out to 10 other agents “that are sure they can sell it if
you sign with them.” A case in point, a home in our area was placed on the market for well over a
million dollars in early 2004, when the market was booming. When it had not sold in late 2004,
when the market was cooling, another agent listed it for about $500,000 more! Again, when it
didn’t sell (gee, I wonder why) another agent took the listing for about a million more than the
original listing! After another six months of it not selling (still no surprise) a fourth agent had the
listing at approximately $800,000 above the original list price. (Someone needs to take a realistic
look at the comps!) I sold a home the night before I started this letter, that I rescued from having
expired with another agent. The owner who was related to one of my past clients had listed the
home with a friend and over a period of time reduced the price over 10% and still received no offers.
In this time, they had purchased a new home and moved into it and were now making two payments
when the relative recommended they call me for some “straight answers.” After reviewing what
similar homes were “actually selling for,” we priced the home to compete in the market and obtained
18 showings and an acceptable offer in a little under 30 days. In this case, it involved a minor price
adjustment and some changes in how the property was marketed to get results. (“Straight answers”
is what the client needed to hear.) As a side note, the average home sold in our area is reducing the
price $50 to $100K before selling instead of starting out right and possibly getting more money
because the property is not “shop worn” in the buyers eyes from being on the market too long.
So what is the good news? All of this agent competition along with the large price gains we have
seen in the last 2 years has resulted in savings to the seller in the form of commissions. To keep pace
I am now accepting 5% instead of my usual amount, which means you can now work with the areas
number 1 agent (over the last 22 years!) for about the same cost to you as the non-brand name and
discount companies. Since I am a believer that my knowledge and expertise in the area can result
(and has in the past, based on MLS averages, reported in previous letters) in a higher percentage
sales price, this is a double savings. While interest rates remain low and new loan programs can
reduce monthly payment costs, now is also a good time to invest in rental property as rents are
increasing due to condo conversions and higher home values. I would be happy to discuss the
details of this profitable investment with you, one on one (I own 10 and love them.)
      I am also happy to report that we are seeing a large reduction in the number of zone change requests
that do not conform to the master plan in our area and we have been successful in defeating those
that do apply. However, we cannot afford to relax, so if you are new to the area, or one of my
hundreds of past clients and need “straight answers” about zoning, property values, investments or a
general question about what’s happening in our area, please give me a call.

Happy Holidays,
Jac Lindell