Learn from the IMN Condo Hotel Symposium regarding Las Vegas High Rise Investments

One person's trash is another's treasure. How else can you explain the conclusion reached at the IMN Condo Hotel Symposium at the Mirage that "nothing effectively generates a buzz about the launch of a condo-hotel project like a powerful website". Most of the "powerful" websites supposedly selling their high rise projects do nothing to actually sell the project. These high rise marketing teams all believe an extravagant "Flash intro" movie along with those annoying Flash scroll bars and Flash loading screens actually translate into interest. From a website developer's point of view however, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, potential purchasers looking for quick information get more frustration than answers from these websites. I think you know what I mean.

But that's not to say you can't take useful information from this conference. Here's the most important part of the conference you need to know: if you're looking to purchase a Las Vegas high rise condo-hotel, make sure you have a ton of disposable income and like to vacation in Las Vegas because you'd be hard pressed to make it work as a strict investment. Legally, real estate agents aren't allowed to mention anything regarding a return on investment for your high rise condo hotel purchase. Nothing! Agents can only sell the real estate and the lifestyle. We can't tell you how much your unit will rent for in 2008. We can't tell you what vacancy factor to use. And that creates a "catch 22" situation for most investors. You want to buy something that'll give you a certain percentage return, but you won't know what that percentage is until you buy the unit and rent it out.

The truth is, it probably won't work out to anything you'd feel comfortable with. Remember we're talking strictly from an income producing point of view - buying a high rise to live in or for a second home is an entirely different story.

For those looking for real estate as a strict investment, I recommend buying investment real estate instead. For those with the deep pockets looking to own something that says Trump, welcome to Las Vegas! There's plenty to chose from.