Was Going to buy in Las Vegas

[Vinnyfrombrooklyn]

If you have been reading my post you know I was looking to buy a house in Las Vegas as an investment rental property. Well I made an offer and it got accepted but I backed out when they told me that I didn't need a home inspection and they wanted to close right away.

I did a 180 and decided to add two bedrooms to my current house. My house is in shambles of remodel as I type this. What I didnt account for was the stress it causes.

I decided I am staying in this house until I FIRE and maybe forever as I live in a nice area. I keep saying that it will all be much better in a few weeks. Money is not the object of the stress at all. Bought my house off a relative for 200k and its worth 450k and I am sure adding on will do me justice IF I ever sell. I may have to take a vacation for my sanity. Has anyone been there before.

[Helen]

I think you should make the improvements needed before you sell so you have time to enjoy the updates. I waited to make repairs until right before I put the house on the market. There is a beautiful new deck and new kitchen floor in the place that I won't get to enjoy.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

one of the options i'm considering is adding a bath or two and some closet space and turning a back room into a master bedroom and then hunkering down with two renters paying $750 each (especially tolerable if i get two hunks to rent the rooms--what did you think i meant by hunkering down). just starting to look into it but i might be able to build for about $100/sq ft (is just a frame house) and i should be able to sell at between $200-300/sq ft especially if i wait for the bottom to bottom and assuming the market will improve within the next five or 10 years. moving isn't always the best move.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinnyfrombrooklyn If you have been reading my post you know I was looking to buy a house in Las Vegas as an investment rental property. Well I made an offer and it got accepted but I backed out when they told me that I didn't need a home inspection and they wanted to close right away. I did a 180 and decided to add two bedrooms to my current house. My house is in shambles of remodel as I type this. What I didnt account for was the stress it causes.

You are clearly not bothered by abrupt shifts. Once having decided that I wanted to be in Las Vegas, I think I would have just looked at another house down the street!

Ha

[Patrick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinnyfrombrooklyn If you have been reading my post you know I was looking to buy a house in Las Vegas as an investment rental property. Well I made an offer and it got accepted but I backed out when they told me that I didn't need a home inspection and they wanted to close right away. I did a 180 and decided to add two bedrooms to my current house. My house is in shambles of remodel as I type this. What I didnt account for was the stress it causes. I decided I am staying in this house until I FIRE and maybe forever as I live in a nice area. I keep saying that it will all be much better in a few weeks. Money is not the object of the stress at all. Bought my house off a relative for 200k and its worth 450k and I am sure adding on will do me justice IF I ever sell. I may have to take a vacation for my sanity. Has anyone been there before.

I lived in Vegas for 40 years. I think you made the right decision (I live in Florida now). The real estate market there is on its way down, and probably will be for a couple more years (there are many foreclosures and delinquent properties). You might want to consider buying then, but I wouldn't. It's too damn hot in the summer and too damn cold in the winter. You get about two weeks of good weather in the spring and fall. The traffic has gotten really bad (similar to Los Angeles). It's OK for a vacation if you like to gamble and go to the shows, but bring lots of money! Those resorts weren't built on casino gambling losses.

[Spanky]

I visited Vegas about 3 times while living in Victorville, CA back in 1974. I am sure the city has a lot more offerings now. Back then, the were only a couple of things to do: gambling and watching shows.

[Gearhead Jim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinnyfrombrooklyn ... they told me that I didn't need a home inspection and they wanted to close right away. ...

Is that what we call a Red Flag?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helen I think you should make the improvements needed before you sell so you have time to enjoy the updates. I waited to make repairs until right before I put the house on the market. There is a beautiful new deck and new kitchen floor in the place that I won't get to enjoy.

Dont feel bad Helen, We remodeled my wifes old house (then my girlfriend) with a new roof, new siding, new windows, a new bathroom, new paint, new carpet and new linoleum. Basically a gut and replace except for the kitchen, which got all new appliances.

About 75% of the way through we decided to get married and we sold the house. Bad news is we didnt get to live in it or even spend the night. Good news is we sold it at the height of the crazy RE market for double what it'd go for right now.

Did the same thing with our last house. Painted it inside and out, new floors and new carpet, just before we sold it.

Lots of people do this...know there are things they'll have to do to sell the house or get a good price, but they wait until the house is up for sale to do it. Nuts. Thats why we just did the major renovation on the house we're living in now. I'm going to enjoy this for ten years, not do it for someone else...

Vinny...its a stresser alright. I managed fine for the first few months but then the wheels fell off and I had a tough couple of days. I was pretty much up at 5 and working until 7 or 8 that night. I went a little overboard making sure the disruption to my family was at a minimum by putting all the tools and materials away every night and cleaning everything up, then redeploying it the next morning.

I could tell it worked, when we were just about wrapped up my wife commented about how unstressful the whole thing was and how so many of her friends had huge fights with their SO during a remodel, and we hadnt had so much as a tiff!

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinnyfrombrooklyn ... I did a 180 and decided to add two bedrooms to my current house. My house is in shambles of remodel as I type this. What I didnt account for was the stress it causes. I decided I am staying in this house until I FIRE and maybe forever as I live in a nice area. I keep saying that it will all be much better in a few weeks. Money is not the object of the stress at all. Bought my house off a relative for 200k and its worth 450k and I am sure adding on will do me justice IF I ever sell. I may have to take a vacation for my sanity. Has anyone been there before.

I have been there- I did a gut and remodel on my first home, then added on to it twice. Went from 900 square feet to 3900 square feet, did 80% of it myself. It was a lot of hard work, working full time during the renovations and then coming home and working on the house at night. It was very stressful for the EW, too. Between the sweat equity and the divorce, I pretty much broke even when the project was over...

[2B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum one of the options i'm considering is adding a bath or two and some closet space and turning a back room into a master bedroom and then hunkering down with two renters paying $750 each (especially tolerable if i get two hunks to rent the rooms--what did you think i meant by hunkering down).

Hey lazy,

Two hunks that move in might pair up and leave you out in the cold. Start with one.

[thaidyed]

Remodeling and expanding the house should come with a flashing warning label IMHO

We were engaged when we bought and started work. I had many a conversation during the process explaining that "at least we can't get divorced since we're not married"...

Thank god that's over! Especially since now we're married...

[valsdad]

My wife and I recently retired to Mesquite NV, about 70 miles north of Las Vegas. In the last 6 months we have sold our home in Indiana and our condo in Mesquite. By using our paint brushes and proper pricing we had no trouble selling either. I would agree that this is no time to buy investment property in former hot markets. The market is flooded with rentals. The home we bought in Mesquite has I'm sure dropped in value, but we bought with the intention of spending our remaining time here, so it really doesn't matter to me. We visit Las Vegas every few weeks. Having a large city close by with all the amenities was one reason we chose to live where we do. As far as the weather goes, you can keep Florida. I recall moving my daughter to Orlando a few years ago. It was March and I was sweating buckets just standing around waiting for her to sign her apartment rental papers. Humidity and I don't mix.

[Spanky]

Valsdad,
The cost of living in Mesquite seems reasonable. The scenery of desert, mountains, and mesa, I imagine, is breathtaking. The weather in the summer is pretty hot (106°F high today) albeit the humidity is only 19%.

I agree with you about the weather at Orlando. We were there in July last year. The heat and humidity were unbearable, but we enjoyed the visit to the Disney theme parks and beaches (not in Orlando, of course).

I am considering Temecula, CA as a place for retirement. The weather is also hot and dry in the summer. It's a mid-size town and only 60 miles from a major metro area (San Diego).

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spanky I agree with you about the weather at Orlando. We were there in July last year. The heat and humidity were unbearable, but we enjoyed the visit to the Disney theme parks and beaches (not in Orlando, of course).

There are plenty of beaches in Orlando! There's one by every oversized mud puddle within walking distance of a timeshare. But the surf sucks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spanky I am considering Temecula, CA as a place for retirement. The weather is also hot and dry in the summer. It's a mid-size town and only 60 miles from a major metro area (San Diego).

Nice place. San Diego & vicinity is #2 on our list of "best places". And hopefully you'll never need to actually drive to the big city.

[SteveR]

We did some remodeling of our house before we put it on the market. We toured some houses that were on the market and in our price range to get an idea of our future competition. We quickly realized we needed to do some updating to be competitive. We endured the mess and noise for 6 weeks as a parade of tradesmen tromped thrugh the house leaving a trail of dust, trash, tile shards, plaster, insulation, and other mess.

Once it was done it was a race to get the house cleaned and put back in order before we put it on the market. The renovation paid off as we sold the house in under a month. We did not get a chance to enjoy it but the point was to get the house to sell and it worked.

We moved to the St George, UT area...about 40 miles from Mesquite, NV. We looked at Mesquite but decided the St George area was a better match for us.