First-time home buyers find their special place even in tough times

Despite bleak housing reports and Las Vegas leading the nation in foreclosures, many valley real estate agents would say this is definitely a buyer's market.

And plenty of people are listening. We talked to three new homeowners and they all say they feel they bought at the right time and are optimistic their homes will hold their value.

We asked them to share their stories with us.

• • •

Name: Lori Klabacha, 36. Originally from Chicago, she moved to Las Vegas 16 years ago.

Bio: Works in food and beverage at Wynn Las Vegas.

Her home: Built in 2005, it's 1,300 square feet and has three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms in the southeast part of the valley. It was turnkey, ready for immediate move-in, which appealed to her. "I didn't want a fixer-up," she said .

Three years ago, Klabacha decided to take the homebuyer's plunge. The housing bubble had burst and home values dropped, making her feel comfortable about buying for the first time.

"I started looking at townhouses and they were about $200,000," Klabacha said. "When I went to do financing, my goal was not to spend more than $1,000 for my mortgage payment. Then reality set in and I was thinking, 'maybe not a $1,000 a month house.' I decided to wait."

Klabacha was living at home with her parents at the time, saving money, so she knew she didn't have to move at a specific time. She said that enabled her to take her time finding the right house for a price she knew she could afford.

Still, the search wasn't easy. Homeowners were flooding the market with short sales, trying to prevent foreclosure. Over the years, she found several homes she liked and bid on them. Each time, she lost the house to a buyer with cash.

"When that happened, at first it was kind of hard on me," Klabacha said. "I was really upset. But now, I realize if I had gotten those houses, I would have already been upside down. And I would have been house poor."

She first saw the house she ended up buying in July 2009. Klabacha immediately liked it.

"I walked in and said, 'Oh my, I love this house.' We did a bid, got an OK from the seller and then we went into short sale process."

The owners were asking for $99,000. Klabacha had learned during her house hunt that, if you really liked a house, you had to be aggressive, otherwise someone else could steal it out from under you. She bid $110,000, it was appraised at $105,000 and the owners accepted.

Getting the house from the bank was another matter. After nearly five months of paperwork and waiting, she closed on the house in November.

Though banks had tightened lending, Klabacha had no problem getting financed. She had no debt; the car was paid off; and she never carried a balance on credit cards. Her credit score was excellent, she said, and she was able to make a traditional down payment, something that lenders weren't requiring during the housing boom.

"I always said I was going to put down 20 percent because I didn't want to pay PMIs," or mortgage insurance, Klabacha said.

Home ownership has given her a newfound feeling of personal strength and pride.

"I kind of feel empowered owning this house," she explained. "I did the down payment all by myself. It's just knowing I wanted this and I paid for this, it makes me feel good."

Still, she has had to work out a few bumps in the homeowner's road.

"I got my recent power bill and it was $171," she said. "I'm learning the ins and outs of where to set my thermostat."

• • •

Names: Alex Mayfield, 25, has lived in Las Vegas for 20 years. His fiancee, Stephanie Hanes, 27, moved here from Missouri five years ago.

Bio: Engaged to be married. The two met at work in the kitchen of Nero's at Caesars Palace.

Their home: A two-story, 2,300-square-foot house in the southwest. It has four bedrooms and 2½ baths. The kitchen is large, a feature they both wanted because they're both chef s.

The couple started looking for a house in March 2009, almost a year after Mayfield suffered two broken legs in a serious motorcycle accident.

He has had too many surgeries to count, he said, and just got off crutches in April. After watching the market explode and then implode, both thought the conditions were right for buying their first home.

Even though Mayfield was in a wheelchair at the time and on disability, the couple started looking at houses. It proved to be a physical challenge, having to get out of the car, get the wheelchair out and then reverse the process when they left. They visited at least 30 houses a week until buying their home in August 2009.

"I would go in with the Realtor and check out the house and if I liked it, we called Alex in," Hanes said.

They looked at a lot of foreclosures and saw the destruction left behind by angry or negligent homeowners. Toilets were ripped out of some homes, walls damaged, garbage and debris left behind. Any buyer would be responsible for fixing those things.

"Half the time, the banks don't even see these homes and the damage," Hanes said.

Several times, they found houses they liked and submitted bids. Like Klabacha, they lost those bids to buyers with cash, often investors.

"I don't really think it's fair," Hanes said. "They're taking houses that people could own. We never knew that much about who took the houses from us, but we ran into several investors who were looking at houses. They're going to go and buy 20 houses and probably let about 10 go."

It was hard not to be discouraged, but the couple kept in mind that there was something out there for them.

When it came time to finance the house, Mayfield was preapproved. However, by the time they got around to doing a loan, he had lost his job and was on disability so they had to use Hanes' income to qualify.

"It really wasn't a concern because we both had excellent credit," Mayfield said.

They wanted to spend as much as $150,000, but Hanes was approved for a bigger loan, something that made them uncomfortable. They ended up paying $175,000 for their house.

While the housing market remains depressed and unemployment reports are discouraging, neither Mayfield nor Hanes is worried about losing value in their home.

• • •

Name: Catherine Lu, 28

Bio: Lu was born and raised in Las Vegas, moving away only to attend college. After graduating, she returned home to work for the public relations firm Ferraro Group.

Her house: The three-bedroom, two-bath house in Mountain's Edge in the southwest part of the valley is two stories and has a loft and courtyard, major selling points for Lu.

The government's first-time homebuyer tax credit lured Lu into the housing market a year ago. She had no personal debt and had saved for a down payment so she felt like she was in a great position.

"Keeping up with the news, my gut feeling was that the market had bottomed out," Lu said of her decision to buy.

At first, she looked at short sales, which had flooded the market. The moment she found a house with the features she wanted, Lu jumped on it.

"But the bank didn't respond quickly," Lu remembered. "The sale was in flux for a while, and all I needed was for the bank to say yes."

The bank wanted too much money for the house in Lu's estimation and although she was willing to negotiate, the bank refused to lower the price. After a couple of months, she decided to look at new homes and was willing to spend as much as $185,000.

The perfect house turned out to be a Pardee home, newly constructed, but the price was more than $200,000, Lu noted.

"I asked the Pardee agent if the company would laugh at me if I bid $180,000 and she said, 'yes,' " Lu recalled.

Just down the road, Lu found her future house in a Beazer home development. It was in the middle of construction but had recently been discounted.

Financing wasn't a problem; in fact, Lu had been approved for a bigger loan than she was comfortable with spending. Still, she stuck to her budget and paid about $193,000. With the tax credit, that brought her close to her initial goal. An FHA loan enabled her to put a 15 percent down payment on the house, and she moved in over the July 4 weekend.

Lu made a few changes to give the house her personal touch, changing the downstairs flooring from carpet and vinyl to a laminate. Her first major purchases were a refrigerator and a sofa. She has plans to put a medallion and new tile in the hallway floor.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.