Hold your High Rises!

I received a call the other day from a high rise condo investor who posed an interesting question: "I'm not sure whether I should just sell my unit or get out of my contract completely. What do you think makes most sense?"

Perhaps it's a good time to reiterate my thoughts to the masses on high rise condo hotel investing in Las Vegas. In my opinion, investors should not be thinking "flip" when they make the decision to purchase a high rise condo unit. There are very few projects in town right now that the "buy and flip at closing" strategy makes sense. For starters, the Las Vegas high rise marketplace is so new, there are no historical guidelines to go by to determine what high rises will sell for in the short-term. That being said, for the investor who makes a decision to purchase and hold for a few years, high rise investing in Las Vegas could prove to be quite lucrative.

Remember that just about every high rise project in town will require you to close. Assigning your unit before closing probably won't happen (unless you cut a personal deal with the developer). Getting back to the original question, the purchaser's contract went hard (meaning they signed a contract and put down the required downpayment) hoping to see the preconstruction real estate appreciate in the short term to flip at contract time. Well, that's probably not going to happen - but as I maintained, closing on the deal and holding the unit for 2 to 3 years would probably result in a very happy outcome.

Think long term in a quality project to see results. Right now, I can't stress enough the potential of CityCenter and Juhl. For you heavy hitters out there, go CityCenter... for the smaller investor, get into Juhl. If you can hold onto your purchase for 2 years or more and I'm right, you won't need me to tell you what makes the most sense.