Our Rental Houses

Buying, selling and maintaining our rental houses has been a truly educational experience.

In 1999, my wife and I decided we wanted to try our hand at real estate investing. I had some past experience at this, but we didn't want to buy property in New York.

In 2002, after much travel, we settled on Las Vegas as a good location, buying 10 houses in less than a year. We had a few problems along the way, but learned a lot as we went. Over the next few years, we sold four of our original purchases, and bought three more.

We moved into one of our houses in early November of 2003, and have been here ever since.

The information in "Las Vegas Houses" comes from our own experience.

The Houses

Our rental houses include (in no particular order):

One semi-rural house on just over 3/4 of an acre. It was built in the 1970s, has a septic system, and gets its water from a community well.

One small, but upscale house in a gated community, with a very vigilant homeowners association. We furnished this house with the idea of leasing it for a few months at a time. Instead, we got a tenant who was in it until we sold it, about three years later. The tenant traveled quite a bit, and kept odd hours. It was here we first discovered HOA rules about when the trash can be out. It was here, too that my wife's car almost got towed

Three other houses in associations, each with its own (and sometimes, ever-changing) rules and regulations.

Three older properties (by Las Vegas standards) built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s respectively.

Four "normal" Las Vegas houses between 8-15 years old.

The house we eventually moved into (see Our House).

Several of our rental houses had a pool. Most had a garage, but two didn't (and still don't). About half had natural gas. The rest were all-electric. Most needed some work to get in shape to rent. Some need a lot more. Many have had major landscaping work. Some were empty when we bought them. Some were lived in. One had a tenant (who is still there).

Over the years, we have put on roofs, converted lawns to desertscapes, put in a complete new kitchen, installed two swimming pools, and replaced furnaces and hot water heaters. In short, we have done everything you might do to your own house. But many times over.

Through our own experiences, and those of our tenants, we have run into most of the problems your likely to find when buying, or living in a house in Las Vegas.

We have also found out, or heard from our tenants, what makes a house here a truly great place to live.

Welcome to Las Vegas!

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