Moving to Las Vegas
 

Yeah yeah, I know ... I know ... |loony|

Our closing date on our home is 9/17, and it is going to be a cash sale, so things are looking real good. |thumb

Arizona is out, and Las Vegas is in. There are literally 1000's of foreclosure's to pick from right now, and we can get a nice home in the 3500 square foot range in the low 300's right now. Two years ago, these homes were selling in the mid 500's. Hubby flew out there for a few days and just returned with lots of info.

I have been doing a lot of research about the area, and it really seems that either people LOVE it there, or they really HATE it. Not much in between apparently. When we were there back in June, it was around 106 most days, and both Mark and I loved it. So the heat is not an issue.

Biggest thing is we want to find a home in a decent school district as we still have 1 child in school. (Junior this year in H.S.)

Why the change from Kingman AZ you may ask? Simple really. It was just to far away from where we really wanted to be. We are so isolated where we live now, it is not even funny. It seemed that it would be more of the same if we ended up there.

So we will be heading out there shortly to begin our home search. Wish us luck! |waves|

Congrats on not moving to Kingman. |thumb and good luck with house hunting.

Moving to Vegas in a 3500 square foot house, means that everybody will crash at your place in January and July. |couch|

Lets assume that the current recession is going to continue a little. Lets also consider that the fed probably won't raise interest rates much in the next 6 months. You're making a rather life-changing move -- having picked up and moved 1020 miles myself without knowing the area or people in the past, there's a lot to it.

You could get lucky and buy a house, settle in and get in the right neighborhood, but, here's the thing. You're shopping for foreclosure homes, and, you're going to end up in a neighborhood that probably was built too quickly, people or flippers bought the homes, interest rates reset, and bam, multiple foreclosures in the neighborhood. While this has a preliminary impact on the home price, it will have a real long-term effect as well. Your house probably won't appreciate at the same rate that older construction will in the same area.

That being said, the fact you have a child makes it a tad difficult, but, as Tpat wisely said, consider renting in the area where you might want to live. Try out the area, make sure it fits your lifestyle. Make sure the weather appeals to you, make sure the airplanes that fly overhead don't drop parts in your pool, make sure the schoolsystem hasn't been gutted by all of the recent foreclosures and become mostly vacant or worse, underserved. Great school yesterday doesn't always mean great school today.

I know when we moved to a neighborhood in Maryland, we drove by the houses we were originally looking at several times in the week prior to making the offer.... in the morning when the kids were going off to school, in the afternoon when they came home, on the weekends to see who was in and around the area. At night when things were calm and quiet to hear what we heard. Had we not done that, we would have moved into the wrong area -- who knew that the highway was that close and during rush hour you could hear the cars driving by.

Also, when you do make an offer, write down the serial numbers of the fridge, dishwasher, washer/dryer, etc during the home inspection. You don't want to get to the final walkthrough and find out that the dishwasher, fridge and washer/dryer that were 'inspected' aren't the same ones present 3 hours before you're due to close.

Good luck with it -- not a process I envy for sure. :)

Las Vegas rocks :)

I live way out in Mormonville part of Henderson and love it...no crime, no grafitti, no traffic

Be careful when foreclosure shopping. I'm doing the same thing and wow, there are a lot of real messes out there. Get a good real estate agent to help you find the right home. There are definitely bargains, but there are also tons of money pits...

Kingman, AZ? I know the place well. I have some property in Golden Valley about 12 miles away...

excellent choice :) much better than Kingman(armpit of arizona)

I live in the Rhodes Ranch area in the southwest. We have a studio right off the strip. If you have any questions about the area or want to know anything, feel free to hit me up.

Congrats Lorsha! Sending you some good luck vibes |thumb

WOOOHOOO! A free place to crash in Vegas!

....This is sure the place to be girl!! Ginny and lived in town for many years, moved out here to Pahrump to get a bigger bit of land. You're gonna' love that town!!! I miss the action, but we are only 60 miles away...and we try to do little over nite get-aways at a different casino every month or so!!!! 'Vegas is a truly fun town to live in.....! :-)

Once the kids are all gone, absolutely!

Foreclosures are just one of our options. Naturally it is a good time to be looking for them. We have bought and sold several homes over the years, so we are not green in this area. Good advice however.

I agree.

Thanks hun!

I'm feeling them Sue. Thanks!

|headbang|

Looking VERY forward to it Madhatter!

Congrats Lorsha, I think Vegas would be pretty cool place to move and if I had the choice Id pick there rather than AZ. All the best!

I'm going against the tide here and stating that I hate living in Vegas.

I find it is a very "small" town .. with a strip. Had it not been for a 1 of a kind school program that was implemented by the CCSD, I'd of never come back.

We thought when we moved here that Nevada would offer the "best" of everything to their citizens. It does not.

The State is ranked #49 in education barely beating out Arizona. When we first moved here, my oldest son was 14. When he entered HS, the classes they offered were what he had taken in Jr. High. At age 16 he was emancipated, took his SATs and went to college. There is no benchmark such as the Regents to have students step up to.

There is no state support for the arts, the university here is best known for it's drinking parties and basketball brawls.

The $$ the casinos make does not go back into the community. There is no mandate anymore for them to add to the quality of life for their workers. There used to be a law that said if you built a hotel with more than XXXX number of rooms, you were required to build "green space" or some community center etc. That law is gone. So sure there is the tiger habitat -- At the Mirage so one has to schlep their children through a casino to look at animals in a decent setting because the "zoo" here is a sad joke.

I live in the southwest in an older part of Vegas by Flamingo and Decatur. Most of the houses here were build in the early 1980's. They are solid and made of good materials. Not put up in 6 weeks with particle board and crappy electrical/plumming. I had an offer 3 years ago on my house that was 5x what I paid for it, but when I saw what it would cost me for the same sq. footage but 1/2 the quality of materials, I'll take my chances even in this down market.

Whoever said to come here and rent first was probably right. It took me 6 months to fully realize what a mistake I'd made moving my family here but at the time I thought digging in and staying was the right thing.

We don't even have a cohesive PORN community here. At least when I lived in Atlanta and Seattle those of us in the business got together once a month, or every 3 months and exchanged info etc. Other than Xbiz/Internext we rarely see each other.

so that's MY opinion of Vegas. Why I bothered, is beyond me. *glaring at UW*..

that will be changing soon....
I'm working on putting together a few things locally :)

Spent a couple of hours reading: http://www.city-data.com/forum/las-vegas/ last night and this morning. It definetly appears that people either love it - or hate it. Not much in between. |jester|

After doing more research, we're going to go look at homes in the Summerlin area next week. Looking forward to it! |thumb

I would test the waters before buying, you might discover you hate the traffic or the hubby has a gambling problem (that happened to a friend of mine, they lost everything and damned near got a divorce over it)
You might discover that you miss your family more than you thought you would (that's why we are moving back to California) We almost bought here in AZ and we would be stuck here if we had.
The more research you do the better off you will be, we have already found the house we are moving to at the end of October (when our lease is up) by placing an add on Craigs List and using my son as our eyes.
Here's where were moving to
I have a great property in Paradise that will be available at the end of August. We have renters now that are moving on and I will be spending some time up there to work in the yard. The property has a real log cabin that is the main house. It has three bedrooms and two full baths. It has a wonderful stone fireplace in the living room and a beautiful view from both the living room and the dining room. The house sits on 1.13 pine covered acres and has a nice pond in the back yard. This property also has a gorgeous Dolly Madison barn in the back yard that was once used as a wood working workshop where the original owner gave lessons. It is the size of a large house. Just Beautiful!! There is a newer hot tub on the back deck that is great after a days work.

Summerlin in nice!

once you've lived here, you'll almost never go to the strip unless its to see a show or you have out of town guests. i'll take Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock over most of the stuff on the strip.

las vegas would probably a nice place to stay good luck on your new place.

Yeah I totally agree.. Summerlin is Nice.. and the construction there was begun well before the "surge." I like the Lakes area too.. we lived there for 2 years before we finally bought our house in Spring Valley.

BUT..if either of you works outside the house anywhere outside of your immediate neighborhood, remember that roads/highways in Vegas are always under construction.. in an ongoing effort to shore up the sagging infrastructure..it will add 15-20 minutes to any commute.

On the other hand if you both work at home, Summerlin is a good area with lots of shops, dining etc.

I love vegas...I'm so jealous...I could never live there...I wouldn't know day from night and I'd be strung out on cocaine and blackjack within a week....there's no place better...have fun

once you get a mile or so off the strip, its your average american city. Where I live it looks almost identical to suburban phoenix. While all that craziness is around, its pretty easy to avoid. But its there if you want it. I love living here.

This happened to me. My ex-husband was a gambling addict. We moved to Vegas from Hawaii, and ended up losing everything and divorcing. He's now back in Hawaii. Thank GOD MadHatter isn't one, he doesn't even gamble, lol. And I'm a light weight, I felt guilty yesterday for playing craps for almost 2 hours and spent $20, lol.

Summerland is a nice area, we drive in from Pahrump and shop at the Costco down by Red Rock Casino. I really hate to drive into the city any more, as I'm used to Pahrump traffic. They have everything you need out there, the roads are nice, and not being torn up currently. I never had kids in school in Vegas, and not sure on the school systems though...definitely something to check out. I rented in several areas myself, although when I finally bought a place, I fell in love with Pahrump and ended up out here.

Sounds great!

Thanks raven.

For the most part we both work at home. But being so close to the strip will be awesome as well.

|jester|

"But its there if you want it." |thumb


Well I know my hubby is not a gambling addict at least. We have been to A.C. many times, and we never bring more then 7-800 bucks with us to gamble. Just to have some fun. We always expect to lose, then if we win, it is just a bonus.

We like the property sizes around Pahrump, but it is just to far away from where we want to be. We plan on having member bar meets frequently in Vegas as well. We may very well end up renting an apartment for a month or two, while we look around more. Really still unsure at this point. But we are narrowing down our search area as much as we can.

That's something I'm planning on putting together as well, along with a golf outing here and there. :)

Cool....!
 

Sounds great SykkBoy....I know anything you put-together will be fun man! I remember getting together at that Chinese Restaurant over by the Sunset Station years ago, when that gal with the purple hair was with us...we had a great time! Ginny and I always enjoy seeing you! I guess we have all been way to busy lately....but we need to get-together more often, that's for sure! We are looking forward to it! :-)

Pei Wei...damn good restaurant and it was Zoe with us.

We definitely need to get together for lunch or something again soon...

Ohhh I wanna be "in"... |thumb