Don Kanare - Realtor / E-Pro - Your Incline Village Real Estate Agent - www.InsideIncline.com
Lakeshore Realty - 954 Lakeshore Blvd. - Incline Village, NV 89451 - 775-831-7000 / 775-831-6777 (fax)

Incline Village Real Estate - An Overview of the MLS and Our Local Market

The best way to describe the Incline Village real estate market is that it is very unique, since we are a high elevation resort market and not a typical residential market.  As a full-time real estate agent in Incline Village who works all year 'round, I can tell you from experience that our annual sales cycle is characterized by an extremely busy period from late May through late September when approximately 65% to 75% of all transactions occur.  The remaining months of the year there are very few visitors to our community and many buyers do not wish to purchase property in the wintertime when there is snow on the ground and they cannot truly see the lay of the land.  As a result a tremendous amount of activity gets compressed into a very short period of time and that is one reason we have such a large number of real estate firms in Incline Village.  When looking at our local newspaper the Bonanza during the summertime it might seem like everyone and his brother is a real estate agent here in town.

Our real estate market here in Incline Village is arguably the most competitive one in the entire United States.  There are approximately 350 licensed real estate agents who are members of our local Incline Village real estate board and yet our full-time population is less than 7000 people.  A quick math check tells me that approximately 1 out of every 20 people in Incline Village who lives here is a real estate agent.  However, only about 40 to 50 agents actually work full time all year 'round the rest are seasonal or part-time agents who do real estate more as a hobby than as a profession.  You have many small offices with a broker and only one or two agents since the property values are so high here and commercial rents so low that anyone can hang out a sign if they want to.  That does not mean that they know the market place, it simply means if they can make one or two sales a year it's enough income for them to stay in business and spend the rest of their time skiing, playing golf or in some cases hanging out at the casino.

Since we have a seasonal market where the emphasis is on summertime sales, bargain hunters need to come up here in the time period from October through early March.  Very few sellers will discount their properties substantially during the peak summer months.  The expression up here is "the seller is sitting on his number."  Once you get into the off-season we see a much higher level of motivation among sellers who truly need to sell their property.  Since our community is so affluent many sellers can simply wait until the values rise in the marketplace and eventually reach their original asking price.  I believe in pricing properties fairly and selling them so you can reposition your assets rather than waiting for what may turn out to be an unrealistic price that will not appear until many years down the road.  My philosophy is to ignore the asking price and to write an offer based upon what I consider to be fair market value and in the best interests of my clients.  It is the only way to reasonably combat sellers who are in dreamland.

Not everyone you meet up here who has a real estate license is going to be in touch with the Incline Village real estate market since only a small percentage of us actually work all year round.  And we also have some national and regional franchises represented here with a philosophy that seems to be one of quantity over quality. One of the reasons that I work at Lakeshore Realty is that we are a boutique office with all highly experienced and professional agents.  The brokers provide tremendous support and the level of customer service that is expected by the owners of the firm is second to none.

As you drive around town you will see that the For Sale signs are dominated by the major real estate offices.  These include Lakeshore Realty, two different Century 21 firms, (don't ask me how we wound up with two Century 21 franchises in one small village it's a long and convoluted story), Coldwell Banker / Tanager Realty (they merged in 2006), Davisson O'Donnell, and Dickson Incline properties.  McCall Realty used to be a force in the community along with Lake Tahoe Distinctive Properties, but both of those firms were acquired in the past 18 months by Dickson.  There are so many small firms in town that they are too numerous to mention and sometimes it appears that the agents in the Incline Village real estate offices are playing musical chairs.  One of the reasons I like being at Lakeshore Realty is the long-term stability of both the group of agents and the support staff.

Regardless of who you choose to be your real estate agent in Incline Village, the most important concern is that they focus on your best interests and they work hard for you to search the MLS and find the best property for your personal situation.  And when representing a you as a seller, it's the job of an agent to price the property fairly, guide the seller through the staging process and put together a customized marketing campaign that will showcase each property in the best possible light.  When you add it all up, the primary goal of any agent should be to provide the best service possible to every one of their clients and to negotiate hard on their behalf whenever you represent them.

Click Here to See the Daily Entries in Don's Incline Village Real Estate Blog from August 1, 2006 Forward

Click Here to See the Daily Entries in Don's Blog for June and July 2006