Realtor Jim Souza, standing this week outside his home in south Las Vegas, is optimistic about Las Vegas real estate for the long term. He says now is the time to buy because housing investments can pay for themselves with rental income.
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 | 2 a.m.
At the height of the real estate madness a couple of years ago, the San Francisco Bay Area was littered with billboards and radio ads hyping real estate in Las Vegas.
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None of the ads encouraged people to move to Las Vegas — they were selling houses here as can’t-lose investments.
But all of that stopped when the real estate bubble went down like the Hindenburg and house flipping became as socially acceptable as selling kittens as a food additive.
Which is why my dad was so surprised when he got a glossy postcard in the mail urging him to invest in, yes, “property in exciting Las Vegas.”
“Exciting” barely begins to describe it.
So who is this person selling real estate investments in Las Vegas?
Jim Souza, 56. He just got his real estate license in August.
Of 2008.
He is very bullish on the (eventual) future of Las Vegas real estate. “I can’t imagine why everyone isn’t,” he says.
He admits he is something of a contrarian. He takes Warren Buffet’s motto to heart: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
And he’s looking for a few good investors.
His theory: Real estate may not have hit bottom yet, but it’s passed two significant benchmarks. Houses are now cheaper to buy than to build. And house prices are so low that renting them out can pay the mortgage payments.
Eventually people will start building new houses again, at which point houses bought now would yield profits when they’re sold. In the meantime, the houses can pay for themselves, in Souza’s view.
Souza is confident in this theory. He has bought a dozen houses so far with his own money, if you count the one he bought four years ago to live in.
“It makes me sick how much my house has lost,” he says, “but I made it up by buying 11 more.”
(He says he got the real estate license because he was sick of paying commission.)
The only thing Souza isn’t confident about is when this turnaround will come. Three months? Six months? A year, maybe five?
Well, whenever. All of his investment houses are currently rented out, he says.
In the meantime, Souza keeps costs low by being his own property manager.
And how did Souza’s Bay Area real estate advertising campaign work out?
Of the 10,000 fliers he sent out, he’s been contacted by four people who want to schedule trips to Vegas to look at houses.
“The momentum isn’t there, yet.”
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