Trading up in Southern Highlands

Trading up in Southern Highlands is where a move-up family's number often goes furthest. The picture is the usual one: a starter home in the southwest, North Las Vegas or an older part of the valley, bought five to nine years ago, two kids or one on the way, a house that stopped fitting eighteen months ago, and enough equity to do something about it. Summerlin is on the list because it is the name they know. Southern Highlands ends up on it when they find out that a master-planned community south of the Strip often gets them more house for the money than a comparable Summerlin address, with the airport closer.

The problem is the one every move-up family has: you have to sell to buy and you cannot carry both. What makes a Southern Highlands trade-up particular is that the extra square footage is the reason to be here, so the purchase side should be shopped with the Summerlin and south Henderson alternatives on the same screen, and the sale side has to net enough to make that comparison real.

First, the number on the current house and what it nets you. Second, the payment on the Southern Highlands side, with HOA dues included. Third, the comparison: the Southern Highlands house your number buys next to the Summerlin and south Henderson houses it buys, so the extra room is chosen on purpose. Fourth, the sequencing: sell first and buy as a non-contingent buyer with a rent-back to cover the gap, buy first with a contingent offer, or bridge with a short stretch of two payments, a loan against your equity, or a lender's buy-before-you-sell program. I will tell you which one I would choose with your numbers.

Then the current house gets The Week One Launch, marketing running from day one, because in a sell-and-buy the two weeks a listing gets the most attention are also the two weeks your Southern Highlands timeline depends on. On the buying side, we sign a buyer representation agreement before or during the first showing, the 3D walkthroughs shorten the list, and when you find it the offer is written knowing exactly where the sale stands. Every date on both calendars is watched by the same person.