Relocating to Las Vegas

Relocating to Las Vegas, the city inside the valley, means choosing among places that share a name and not much else. The southwest, where a lot of the valley's starter homes and newer subdivisions are, and where my office sits on West Sunset Road. The older neighborhoods closer to the center, with bigger lots and often no HOA. Summerlin on the west edge and Southern Highlands at the south end, both master-planned communities on the Las Vegas side of the valley with their own pages. Condos near the center. A person moving here from another state who picks a neighborhood from a screen is picking blind, because the city name tells them almost nothing.

The three facts that bring most people here, no state income tax, a lot of sunshine, and a lower cost than the coasts, are all true and none of them tells you where to live. What does is your commute, or your certainty that you will be remote, and then your real monthly number, which includes HOA dues where the community has them, car insurance that runs higher here than most places, and what a house costs to cool in July and August.

The first conversation is by phone: where you will work, or whether you are certain you will be remote, when you are moving, what the house has to do and what you are hoping to spend. Talk to a lender early and get the whole payment clear. A pre-approval is not required to start with me, but I recommend it strongly, because a relocating buyer with a start date cannot afford to lose a house over paperwork.

Then the 3D walkthroughs do the first round from your couch, and the ones that survive become the short list you fly in for. When you visit, drive your actual commute at 5pm on a Tuesday, from the neighborhood to the office or the airport, and drive the neighborhood itself on a weekday evening, not on a Sunday afternoon when every neighborhood in Las Vegas looks good. Before or during the first showing we sign a buyer representation agreement, so you know in writing who I work for and how I am paid, which is negotiated and never fixed. The offer, the due diligence period, the appraisal and closing are here, and signing with a mobile notary is normal in Nevada if you cannot be here. If the right answer is to rent for six months and learn the valley before you buy, I will tell you that.