ALL
January 31, 2012
The Vegas Video Network, the first and only LIVE online broadcast network in Las Vegas, is ready to do some more growing. We develop and produce completely original daily and weekly live and on-demand programming that has a world-wide reach. To date, our weekly average of live and on-demand downloads calculates to over two million (2,000,000) a year.
We have found ourselves in the enviable position of needing more help in our eleven-camera capable, all high definition, live streaming video studio. As a result, we’ve created an opening for a part-time, PAID, studio apprentice.
This is not a "go-get-me-some-coffee" type of gig.
We’re looking for a unique individual who wants to roll up their sleeves, work hard, and get deep into the inner workings of what is arguably the next step in broadcasting.
If you’ve ever wanted to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new way of reaching a world-wide audience, this may be the opportunity you’ve been looking for.
Sounds interesting? Cool. You’d be a great candidate if you are personable, enthusiastic, and willing to work crazy hours. You should be VERY comfortable around technology — you’ll be helping with. . .
- pre-production (cameras, lighting, sets, graphics, guest prepping),
- production (video, audio, cameras, live chat), and
- post-production (audio, video, graphics, software, computers, social media, online)
Naturally, you are a fast learner with an affinity for all things techy, so regardless of the work you’ll be asked to do, you’ll catch on quickly and get the job done. You should have a creative eye and mind, and should write well. As time goes on, you’ll be capable of doing everything from writing show notes to being a technical director for any of the VVN shows.
This position will require 16 to 20 hours a week of your time. There will be a mix of morning, afternoon and evening hours. And it may turn into a full-time position.
If you’re our (wo)man, let us know. Send an email to jobs@vegasvideonetwork.com. Include your resume, tell us a bit about your technical capabilities/experience, and let us know why you’d like to work in a dark studio that is usually occupied by two crazy individuals. If you’ve done any previous video work, we’d love to see that as well.
We look forward to hearing from you!
January 31, 2012
Welcome to Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s what you and your REALTOR need before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM! Today we’ll talk about making your home feel bigger, an unusual farm, and rentals.
Summary: We have 10715 available properties, yet another drop. We haven’t seen this low a number of available units since June of 2010 and the end of the Home Buyers Tax Credit. The number of bank owned properties is abnormally low as lenders try to figure out how to comply with relatively new state laws and rulings by state judges. Expect more foreclosures by summer. More short sale and traditional sellers should start to appear with the flowers of Spring. While the number of available units is down, properties under contract are up — a healthy sign by most measures. We have a major tick up in both the number of leases waiting to be signed and the new leases signed. Rentals continue to move fast in this town, so don’t delay if you need to lease!
The News: The Feds are still trying to push through a big foreclosure fraud settlement that involves forgetting about investigating — let along prosecuting — the illegal actions of banks. However, they are bending under pressure from the public and at least two state Attorneys General to at least attempt to look into the matter. It turns out that “let the guys who wrecked the economy off the hook” is a bad strategy in an election year. In local foreclosure fraud news, yet another Nevada court has ruled that lenders must actually prove they have the right to foreclose before doing so.
December saw a drop in the number of homes under contract to be purchased nationwide. But don’t panic! That’s down from a 19 month high! Available inventory is down nationwide, too. It seems logical that if there are fewer homes available, fewer purchase contracts will result.
Two interesting problems to look out for. First, some economists think that all-cash real estate purchases are driving down home prices. Since roughly a third of our deals in Vegas are cash, this should be alarming. However, we have a large inventory of homes that are effectively un-mortgageable — those under $50,000 and those in very poor repair — so I do think this theory is overstated at least on the local level. It would be easy to say “See?? Look at all these homes selling for less than $50,000!” without pointing out that almost nobody locally will write a mortgage for that little. The other interesting thing is a study on what would happen if the minimum down payment on a mortgage went up sharply. It turns out that a minimum of as little as 10% would be a problem for as much as 40% of homebuyers. More alarming is that even more minority homebuyers would theoretically be out of luck. This study, of course, assumes that just because somebody made a lower down payment, the borrower couldn’t afford a bigger one. I find this assumption unrealistic.
January 31, 2012
It’s time for Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. This is real data you and your REALTOR need before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Normally you can watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live every Friday at 2:00 PM, but today we are off. See you next week!
Summary: We have 10897 available properties, compared to 16231 a year ago. For those of you playing at home, that means one of my 2012 real estate predictions is very probably busted. Don’t let anybody tell you this is a buyers market! One truly bright spot is that year over year, median price on available single family homes is ever so slightly UP! That’s right, I said UP year over year. There has also been a remarkable year over year decline in the number of available condos priced under $100,000. While the number of available properties is down, the number under contract is up; this is good because it means that we aren’t having a lot of expiring listings. We had a jump in the number of short sales under contract both from last week and year over year, supporting my prediction that it’s the Year of the Short Sale.
The News: NPR had an interesting item on property taxes this week, and why they aren’t necessarily going down. You might also enjoy this CNN item on unusual homes for sale. One interesting local item is on dropping prices for high-rise condos.
Home sales were up in December. That’s 3 months in a row, and an 11 month high! That also brings us down to a 6.2 month supply.
The latest version of the foreclosure fraud settlement would include writing down the mortgage balances of one million homeowners by roughly $20,000 (which won’t change anything in Las Vegas). However, there is some concern that banks will not actually lose this money, but pass the loss on to the investors who bought mortgage backed securities. The problem with this is that many of those securities are held by pension funds. Meanwhile, MERS is trying to settle a lawsuit rather than be dragged into a class action suit.
January 13, 2012
Thanks for stopping by to read Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s what you and your REALTOR need before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM. Today I’ll tell you why this is “the Year of the Short Sale”!
Summary: The number of available properties is down just a little to 11048. Apparently non-institutional sellers are waiting until spring to list — a questionable tactic in today’s market. Interestingly enough, the number of properties listed for more than $700,000 seems to be trending up. The number of properties under contract is up slightly, a good sign for future closings. Expect light closings next week, as title companies and government offices will be closed Monday.
The News: We have what might be good news on the foreclosure front: fewer of them! In fact, foreclosures are down to 2007 levels. But is this a sign of things to come, or just a glitch caused by stronger state laws, more scrutiny, and not wanting to admit that banks are losing money on non-performing mortgages? If so, we can expect foreclosures to pick up again very soon now. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration still wants to ram through a foreclosure fraud settlement that would slap banks on the wrist and prevent investigation and punishment for crimes committed by the banks.
Mortgage rates are down again this week, to a new record of 3.89%. I am deadly serious when I say I don’t expect rates to be this low a year from now; if you are on the fence, get thee to a mortgage officer.
While the CoreLogic House Price Index suggests that prices were down in November, rents are being pushed up nationally by high demand.
January 6, 2012
It’s the first Friday Figures of 2012! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s the no-spin data you and your REALTOR need before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM. Today we talk about new FHA limits and my 2012 Las Vegas real estate predictions!
Summary: Surprisingly we had another drop in the number of available units to 11124, compared to 12120 last month. The reduced inventory has pushed the price of both bank owned and traditional sales up. The median price of foreclosed homes is up 9% from the bottom we put in last summer! Properties under contract are also declining as properties close. The price of properties closing is stable, but I expect it to edge up a percentage or two over the coming 90 days as available properties go through the pipeline.
The News: The Feds are floating another proposal to start renting out some of the foreclosed homes owned by agencies of the government. This is partly to keep rents up nationally, and avoid having to rejigger how inflation is measured. Ironically, this may drive the price of foreclosures down, because the “nicest” ones are more likely to be rented out than the gutted disasters at the bottom of the price range (can we hope for a bulldozer?).
The number of visitors to Vegas is back to its pre-recession levels, despite the fact that convention business is still down. Visitors returning should remember that the Hilton is no longer a Hilton.
And the foreclosure fraud trial of a Florida lawyer suggests that the shadow inventory problem may be much, much bigger than anybody thinks. But then again, the man is on trial for lying.
January 4, 2012
It’s the last Friday Figures of 2011! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. This is what you and your REALTOR need to know before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Normally I would talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live every Friday at 2:00 PM, but the show is taking a break for the holidays. We will be back on the air Friday, January 6, 2012 with my personal real estate predictions for 2012!
Summary: We’re down to 11486 available properties ahead of year-end. Hopefully, next week will be the big week for new listings that I’ve been looking for. The number of foreclosed homes on the market is continuing to slide (and probably will until banks figure out how best to tackle new laws in Nevada), but the good news is that the median price on those properties is up 8% from the bottom we had earlier this year. Predictably, the number of units under contract is down: banks and other institutions wanted both foreclosures and short sales off the books before the end of the year. The number of sales closed this week is remarkable when you consider that the County Recorder’s Office was closed Monday to observe Christmas.
The News: There’s still one more day of recorded documents to go through, but it looks like 38% of residential real estate purchases in 2011 were made with cash. Cash has been king here in our local market for some time, and will continue as long as we have un-mortgageable property for sale.
The Case-Shiller numbers came out this week, and generally speaking they weren’t good news. Housing prices were down in October. Keep in mind, it’s the end of December.
The foreclosure fraud settlement hasn’t materialized yet, and I am hopeful that there will be criminal investigations and prison sentences before any settlement can be made. In the meantime, Karl Denniger has some ideas about what the law should be (and frankly I’m shocked that this isn’t already law). Right now in Nevada, there is a case before our state Supreme Court asking just how much documentation must exist to bring a foreclosure: is some computer record from another state good enough? Speaking of foreclosure, here’s an interesting item on how long it sometimes takes to foreclose!
December 16, 2011
Almost done with Christmas shopping? I hope so, because it’s time for Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s what you and your REALTOR need to know before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Be sure to tune in and see me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM. Today we talk about the NAR’s upcoming home sales revisions and Occupy Our Homes.
Summary: According to our MLS system, we’ve broken under 12,000 listings! There are only 11851 available properties. A year ago we had 16417. Remember that this low level might be partly seasonal, as non-institutional sellers (”normal people”) don’t really want their holidays interrupted by showings! Banks also want to avoid the bad publicity of foreclosing and evicting someone right before the holidays (how Grinch-like!), so the number of bank owned properties may rise after the first. One interesting thing is that list prices are very close to where they were last year — a great sign considering how far they’ve fallen. There are also signs that short sales are being processed more quickly, even if banks aren’t exactly following Nevada’s 90 day rule.
The News: There are some signs that we are recovering from the foreclosure mess nationwide, but that doesn’t mean all will be sunshine and roses. Meanwhile, it looks like a foreclosure fraud settlement that lets banks get away with fraud is likely to be made by Christmas. At least one Senator thinks that’s a bad idea.
Mortgage rates have hit yet another all time low, now at 3.94%. That’s just crazy.
The NAR will be revising it’s existing home sales figures for the last 5 years. I’ll be talking about how they managed to overcount by roughly 13% on today’s show.
December 9, 2011
I’m back and ready to go! Welcome to Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s what you and your REALTOR need to know before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Be sure to tune in and see me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM. Today we talk about Vegas’s new foreclosure ordinance, stupid Realtor tricks that could prevent people from buying your home, and a very special What Were They Thinking.
Summary: We now only have 12120 available properties in our MLS. Expect more classic and short sale listings after the first of the year, as people finish the holidays and face reality about the need to sell their homes. Surprisingly, the number of properties under contract is also down — a sign that these listings are closing rather than falling out of contract and becoming available again.
The News: California and Nevada are continuing to fight for a proper investigation of foreclosure fraud — despite the mysterious death of at least one witness — putting a nationwide foreclosure fraud settlement at risk (good, put a stake through the chest of that settlement, because it sucks!).
There’s been a lot of speculation this week about whether the nationwide market has bottomed or not. The opinions? Probably, but we aren’t out of the woods yet and it may well take half a decade to actually recover.
This week, the Las Vegas City Council approved a strict foreclosure ordinance. The purpose is to force banks to take care of foreclosed properties and not let them fall into disrepair. I will be talking about this proposal on the show today, so don’t forget to tune in.
And finally, I am an agent at a Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services branch. Earlier this week, PRERS was sold by Prudential Financial Services to Brookfield Residential Services. Brookfield will continue to license the Prudential name. This should not effect my business in any meaningful way.
December 6, 2011
Whew! It’s nuts out there. Thanks for taking time away from the stores to check out the Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s what you and your REALTOR need to know before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Normally I talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network every Friday at 2:00 PM, but we will be taking this week and next week off.
Summary: Available units continues to drop, now at 12582. Expect a spike after the first of the year, since many sellers don’t want to have their holidays disrupted by potential buyers. It’s very encouraging that availables are down since the number of available foreclosures and classic listings are both up! Obviously, this means we have fewer short sales this week. There are also fewer short sales under contract. Closings were very strong, considering the short work week.
The News: One of the big news items you won’t hear too much about is that PMI has filed for bankruptcy. PMI is the largest provider of private mortgage insurance — the stuff that is supposed to pay the bank if a a borrower defaults and the lender has to foreclose. Speaking of foreclosures, it looks like there might be a 49 state deal that excludes California. That is, unless New York, Delaware, and Nevada decide they have enough evidence to really tackle the fraud that banks did.
If you love charts and figures, go check out this great post over at The Mess That Greenspan Made!
Mortgage rates are down yet again, this time to an absolutely amazing 3.98%. I will be shocked if rates are this low a year from now. Maybe that’s why existing home sales are up.
November 22, 2011
It’s time for Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s the real deal, information you and your REALTOR need to know before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Join me as I talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network today and every Friday at 2:00 PM! Be sure to join us!
Summary: The number of available properties dropped again, this time to 12645. That’s a change from 16474 last year. There were major declines in the number of distressed properties for sale over the last year, and a more modest change in the number of non-distressed listings. While there’s not much seasonality for foreclosures, “smart money” short sellers and traditional sellers have their homes on the market now, through the holidays. They know that only serious buyers are out before year end! There is a small divergence in median prices of available vs. contingent/pending single family homes, probably due to bargain hunters.
The News: You read that item I posted earlier about 2 people being indicted on 606 counts of mortgage fraud right here in Nevada, right? I can’t believe that’s not all over the Review-Journal’s online edition!
The HARP changes announced a few weeks ago now have guidelines to go with them. Underwater and need to refinance? This might help you. Speaking of refinancing, Freddie Mac has made the startling discovery that most people who are refinancing — at record low interest rates, I might add — are choosing fixed rate mortgages! I guess they are surprised that people are using common sense.
Remember that just 6 weeks ago, new lower FHA limits came out? Now Congress has passed a bill allowing those limits to be raised again. There’s no word yet on whether there will really be any change here in Clark County. I stand by what I said on air: we have a lot of houses available for less than $287,500, and if you can really afford a $300,000 home you can surely afford to put down more than 3.5%.
And just one more local item: 10 of the strangest shops in Vegas. Ready for Christmas shopping season yet?
