[Artynonymous]

Hi all,

Some of you might remember some of my previous posts about renting and housing in LV. Spouse and I currently live in WI and he got a new job in LV so we're moving cross country the first week of August. We had been advised not to come out to view property until 2-3 weeks before we were ready to start paying rent.

So the time has come and we are flying out to LV on Tuesday and have set aside 3 days to look at properties. Last Friday, we sent out close to 30 inquiries on different rental home properties and maybe 5 realtors have even bothered to respond. One even wrote that we should give her a call when we get into town and she'd set up an appt. then.

I am having difficulty understanding the way the rental market works here. We have always lived in university communities where properties are rented months in advance and advance notice is required to show a unit as it was usually occupied. I realize LV is different, as we were advised to wait until mid-July to come out, but I do not understand why no one seems interested in setting up viewings? Is this lack of communication normal? Is it normal to wait until the day-of to cold call a realtor and ask to be shown a property? Since we're flying cross-country to view properties, it seems foolish not to have lined up at least few in advance, right?

I just want to make sure we find an appropriate place because I do NOT want to move again for at least 2 years after this pain-in-the-rear cross-country move.

Any suggestions for how I can make this process go smoother? And what is a normal timeline, anyways?

[cecnj]

I just returned from four day condo hunt in Vegas. I received the same advice from several realtors and heeded it, waiting until a couple days before flying out to reach out to one realtor. He advised to call him when I landed, which I did and we spent the following day looking at properties. There are many, many rental properties available and no more than a 1-2 week lead time was necessary on my part to secure any of them. Ironically, I went with nothing the realtor showed me and found a condo on my own that better met all my criteria. I walked in off the street, met with the property manager, and within two hours had secured a one year rental. Coming from New Jersey, I too find this bizarre. My experience in NJ, as a renter and homeowner over the years, has always been that a minimum of two months leg work is required to find and secure a place to live. Not so in Las Vegas---at least in my situation. Best of luck!

[olecapt]

First off understand that there is not much money in it for the RE Agent. Either you have to hustle a whole lot of rentals every day or they are mostly a side thing. You make 300 or 400 for a rental. You make 3000 for a small house.

The market tends to be a rent after vacant one. So mostly they don't get the new tenant until the old one is gone. So they are always motivated to get it rented quick . Neither the LLs nor the tenants are very good at renting places while they are occupied. So they tend to rent after the tenant moves out.

Generally you need only one agent. Working the set of listing agents is good only for the listing agents. Wastes your time and energy and makes them bigger commissions. Your agent on a rental is paid by the listing agent. So if you do the work the listing agent keeps both fees. A rental agent knows vastly more about the avialable complexes than any civilian. Yeah the teach from NJ can luck into a deal but it is not the usual method. The Property Manager is actually just another RE Agent if it is a condo.

[SouthernSarah]

Taking tons of notes. Ten weeks and counting!

[Artynonymous]

Originally Posted by olecapt

First off understand that there is not much money in it for the RE Agent. Either you have to hustle a whole lot of rentals every day or they are mostly a side thing. You make 300 or 400 for a rental. You make 3000 for a small house.

The market tends to be a rent after vacant one. So mostly they don't get the new tenant until the old one is gone. So they are always motivated to get it rented quick . Neither the LLs nor the tenants are very good at renting places while they are occupied. So they tend to rent after the tenant moves out.

Generally you need only one agent. Working the set of listing agents is good only for the listing agents. Wastes your time and energy and makes them bigger commissions. Your agent on a rental is paid by the listing agent. So if you do the work the listing agent keeps both fees. A rental agent knows vastly more about the avialable complexes than any civilian. Yeah the teach from NJ can luck into a deal but it is not the usual method. The Property Manager is actually just another RE Agent if it is a condo.

So basically you're telling me that the hours we spent pouring over mls listings are pretty much wasted? I should have just found a rental agent in the first place and let them do all the leg work?

[airics]

Originally Posted by Artynonymous

So basically you're telling me that the hours we spent pouring over mls listings are pretty much wasted? I should have just found a rental agent in the first place and let them do all the leg work?

Yes... The agent would have entered all of your criteria and found the place easily. When a customer tells me what they are looking for, if it's nearby I'll check the place out before even showing it. Why would I show a dump to a customer?

[mishmom]

Artynonymous,

Our situation is similar to yours. Hubby has been working in LV since February, I just moved out 2.5 weeks ago from Minnesota. Lease is up on small apartment on 8/1 and we wanted to find a bigger house/townhome by 7/15 so that we could take our time moving in and not have to do it in a day. Started looking at rentals the last week of June, and looked at about 8 properties before signing a lease on Sunday (July 3). About 8 or 9 days of looking -- and only being able to schedule 1-2 walk throughs a day. We would have liked to look at more if we could have.

Same experience as you, only about 20% responded to our inquiries. And the common element in looking at all these properties was that they will only hold it for 2 weeks, maybe 3, tops. I would recommend you look on Craigslist, realtor.com and the newspaper. We actually found our rental through the weekly throwaway paper that comes in our mailbox which I think is part of LVRJ. It's a numbers game I think. You do have to make 30-40 inquiries before you have enough of a pool to choose from. And on anything online, if they list a phone, call them, don't send them an e-mail and wait for them to respond to it.

Good luck with your search!

[mishmom]

I just wanted to add, re: Rental Agents -- we called a couple of them who were well recommended, and they never contacted us back so that's why we looked on our own. One finally called back 2 weeks later, but by then we'd signed a lease.

[nowincal11]

This is a big West Coast thing not just Las Vegas. But I imagine even more so with Las Vegas because so many people plan to move, then don't.

[SportyandMisty]

You might want to make sure you have a current credit report available to show a prospective landlord.

Having a job & a clean credit report is more than half the battle for you.

Best of luck!