Podcast episode 1

The hosts of the Real Agents of Las Vegas podcast discuss their recent Pi Day celebration and express gratitude for their clients. They also discuss the drop in median sales price in the real estate market and make predictions for the end of the year. They mention an article about mortgage rates impacting homebuyers and builders pulling fewer permits. The hosts highlight the current discounts and incentives offered by builders and talk about the attractions and diversity of Las Vegas. They also mention the city's 24-hour lifestyle and upcoming developments, such as virtual reality playgrounds and artist expos. So, welcome back to the Real Agents of Las Vegas podcast, episode one. So, we're back with Raquel and Russell. Of course, I'm Dorothy, your host. Hey. Hey, I'm your host, too. My co-host. So, kicking off today, just being thankful, we just celebrated our Pi Day here in our office. We had a huge turnout. Our office was loaded with almost 200 Pis, and it was just such a great day. Thankful for all of the people and all of the clients that we have in our lives. Yeah. We're going to need a bigger office after that. I mean, I feel like we had so many people here throughout the entire day, and they just kept piling in. And we had cans of whipped cream that we were giving away, and that's always fun to have some whipped cream around the house. Yeah. Very, very cool. So, if you want to be part of that or you want to know how to join, just reach out to us, and we'll definitely let you know how you can get on the list for next year. Trust me, it's going to be worth the wait. The Pis are enormous, and they are delicious. So, last week, we had our fearless leader unleashed the market update, and we'll do another podcast regarding that information, but last month, the median sales price dropped to $434,500. Wow. Yeah. That's quite a drop. Yeah. Almost what it was at the beginning of this year. Yeah. And we ended last year at $430,000, so we'll see what happens. You actually were saying that that's what you were forecasting it to be at the beginning of this year. Yes. Yep. That's my guess. That's been my guess the whole time, ever since this market started coming down $430,000. But you know what? Looking at the seven-day numbers, we might even be going a little lower than the $430,000. Right? Yeah. I'm interested to see what happens out of it, especially in the coming weeks, towards the end of this year. Yeah. Raquel, what do you think that we're going to end the year at? Ooh. Are we taking bets? Yeah. Let's take bets, because we like to go to Vegas. Of course, we're betting. And I'll take notes right now. End of December, I think $432,000. $432,000? You can't just take my number out of my head. Okay. Russell, what do you think? All right. Price is right rules? Price is right rules. We've got to be the closest. We've got to be the closest. We've got to be the closest. We've got to be the closest. We've got to be the closest. We've got to be the closest. And we can't go over. We'll just put that out. All right. I'll do $435,000. What are you going to say? $435,000 for Russell. And my guess is going to be, after seeing today's number, I'm going to say $428,000. Jeez. That's going to be my new guess. That's definitely it. I'd be really surprised if it hit that low. You never know. But I'd be surprised. We've even had half the closings that we had this time last year versus last year. But I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. I'm going to say $428,000. There's a recent article that came out just about a week ago in the RJ and they were talking about mortgage rates putting many people out of the market and they talked to a lot of new home builders. Raquel, what were your thoughts on that? I mean, if you haven't read the Review Journal article, it's saying how builders pulled 545 new home permits last month and that sounds like a big number but it's actually down more than half from what it was last year at the same time. It sounds like a lot but it's actually half of what it was last year and that's pretty surprising. But Vegas is tiny. It is and it's taken away though from the future because at some point, home prices are going to or interest rates, everything's going to adjust and the market's going to shift again and when that happens, then that's going to affect the inventory that we have. So, everything included together actually hurts things going forward so it'd be interesting to see. Russell, what did you think about that article? Yeah, you know what, it's interesting, right, because Las Vegas is massive but at the same time, we are very small. We're essentially in a bowl surrounded by mountains and how far are we going to expand before we hit that outer edge? Is that something that we can just keep growing and growing and try and reap the repercussions of that afterwards or do we just start slowing down like we're seeing now? Yeah, and it touches on that in the article too, saying that builders are essentially buying no land as of last October, this past October, so it definitely makes you wonder where the new houses are going to be built. They're kind of forced to be built in the north and the south. Right. Yeah, and I actually heard that they did a proposal to extend the city limits of Las Vegas further south, so we'll see what happens that way going out towards June when you're driving out to California. Oh, yeah. So, we'll see, but builders are revamping their purchase prices, huge, huge end-of-year savings. I've heard of some builders actually taking $100,000 off the prices. The amount out of pocket is certainly much better than it was before. You know, earlier in the year when it was a crazy seller's market, you had to pay your clothing costs, your down payment, plus I call it the seller bribe, where we had to pay the seller to take their offer, and now, I mean, your out-of-pocket cost is really limited to just your down payment. We're getting clothing costs paid. You know, you don't have that bribe anymore, getting discounts on things, and yeah, if you're interested at all in knowing some of these crazy incentives right now, reach out to us too. We'd be happy to help. It's literally the out-of-pocket costs right now are the lowest they've been in a really, really long time. So, all of that being said, though, there's still a lot of people still moving to Vegas, and you know, really, Vegas is just a great place to live. I've lived here, you know, 40 years, and I mean, my favorite thing about Las Vegas is just the diversity of things that you can do, going from the mountains to the lake. You could go to McDonald's any hour. You could go to, you know, Carl's Jr. for that Western bacon cheeseburger at 2 a.m. after you've been clubbing, and or you could go crazy and go fine dining and five-star show. It's just a fun place to live. Raquel, what's your favorite thing about living in Las Vegas? My favorite thing is the diversity of food. I love how you can just drive anywhere in the city and find this tiny little place, and it's going to have some of the best food you've ever had, and it'll be so varied in its, you know, ethnicity and geography, but it's all in Vegas, and that's fantastic. What's the craziest kind of food that you've eaten that you did not think that it would be here in Vegas? Oh, well, we have some weird places. We have those shots of tequila shots with the scorpions inside at Nacho Daddy. What? That's not food. That's beer back there. You've got something called garbage nachos. I mean, you've never seen those. They are absolutely delicious. They're delicious. They're just delicious. Right here. Yeah. Russell, what about you? What's your favorite thing about living in Las Vegas? I like that we are a 24-hour town. You know, I feel like if I'm up at 1 o'clock in the morning, that if I wanted to go out and club or go to Walmart for whatever reason that I needed to or wanted to go to a fast food joint, get some food, whatever it is, I can literally just get up and go. And that's one of my favorite things about it. I don't know if I think Las Vegas is a 24-hour town anymore. Yeah. You know what? I would say that it's changing. And I think after COVID, it has changed a little bit. Yeah, the grocery store I saw closed at 10 o'clock the other day was crazy. I was like, what? I know. It's one of the things I'm going to miss. But that's something that is going to change moving forward. But it's one of the biggest things that got me about Las Vegas. And that's why I love it so much. But if that changes, it's not going to be the end of the world. You know? Another thing that I really... He likes to clubber, you guys. You know me. Yeah. Don't let him fool you. He sounds like a rock star, but he's in bed by 10. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, another thing that I really like about, you know, living in Las Vegas is being an attraction city. We have so many things that are coming here. And we are one of the first cities that actually gets to invest or see what new things are coming to the world. Like, for instance, the virtual reality sandbox buildings that are opening up where they're having life-sized VR kind of like playhouses, I guess, that you can completely simulate yourselves and your friends into this big, massive area where you're shooting zombies or doing, you know, whatever it is that you want to do. It's crazy. Yeah. And I love how all of the artists also come to Las Vegas. Because then you have to pay tourist prices to go see them. Right. Of course. But you have the abundance of all the artists coming. All of the expos, you know, like FEMA. Like, we've got everything here. And everything wants to come here. Yep. And it all seems they're going to Area 15. So you have to go check that place out, too. Yeah. That too. Yeah. It's pretty cool all the way around. I mean, I don't know. I think that anything that Vegas was lacking in the past, they're definitely making some headway to bringing it here now. It really is. And the weather. I mean, what we have a couple months of when it's really cold. And really cold to me means 50 degrees. Right. When it's cold. And we have a couple of months of super, super hot. And that's about it. Otherwise, it's amazing to be here. And I just really love it. So. Well, thank you, guys. I think that's the end of Episode 1. Again, if you guys want to get back in touch with us about getting on our pie list for next year, or if you'd like more information on any of the new home incentives or just anything about buying or selling a home here in Vegas, reach out to us. And we'd love to hear your comments below. And we look forward to hearing or seeing you guys next week. If you want to talk with us directly, you can find Dorothy at GoToGirlForLasVegasRealEstate on Instagram. You can find Russell at MuscleRussell with two underscores. And you can find me, Raquel, at RaquelDigsRealEstate. Thanks. Thanks for listening. Have a good one. Hey. Hey. Yo. Yo.