[good2cu]

I started looking around yesterday and here are some preliminary observations:

Homes in Summerlin (on the west side of town by Red Rock) are still selling and don’t appear to have lost much value. There are some new townhouses being built right by Red Rock and a new mall that seem pretty reasonably priced (high 200s to low 300s) and are selling. This is probably the best part of town to live in but you are going to pay for it.

In the south side of town there are new developments everywhere. It seems to me that almost all of these new developments are unoccupied, The sellers/builders seem very desperate, one builder just told me that he would knock 60k (10%) off the list before I expressed any interest in the houses.

I checked out some units in the Panorama Towers (Baller high-rise near the strip) and was very impressed. This would be the ideal place for me to live from a lifestyle prospective. But in my opinion all of the units are WAY overpriced. A one-bedroom with a den + 2 baths (946sq feet) is listed at $399,000 (on only the 6th floor) and several 750sq feet one bedrooms listed from 350,00+. It appears to me that all of these condos were bought up by speculators and NO ONE is living here right now (empty parking garage, tons of units for resale etc etc.) I’m afraid this problem is going to get even worse with two more Panorama Towers (1000 units) opening soon and tons of on strip high-rises going up. I would love to live here though and am probably just going to put out a ton of lowball offers in the high 200s or perhaps even rent. What do people think about strip high-rise condos from an investment prospective?

Foreclosures, Repos etc. are found everywhere.

I’m resuming my hunt with a real estate agent today and will post some more thoughts after I’ve seen some more properties. The real estate agent I’m using claims to be a buyer’s agent and seems nice and knowledge. I just randomly met him at an open house (the agent StephenNuts recommended was booked full today as I gave him very short notice) and he is chauffeuring me around today (my last day house hunting on this trip). If I decide not to use this agent in the future what do I owe him? Should I be upfront with him that I might change agents and offer to him hourly or something? Seems dickish to me to have him chauffer me around and end up going with another agent.

All comments appreciated.