Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/109603
HAUTE PROPERTY Australian Jeannie Neill owns three units at Panorama. continued from page 119 came from and returned to Canada, followed by Western Europe at 27 percent. Next were Latin America and the Caribbean at 19 percent and Asia at 7.4 percent. Among cities, Toronto led with 470,478 passengers, a 110.7 percent increase since 2003. One visitor from Toronto was Roni Aharon, who came to Las Vegas in 2009 to attend a convention. Once here, however, he decided to rent a car and drive around, on- and off-Strip, to find out if the stories he had heard of the American real estate crash were true. He now owns or co-owns dozens of rental properties in the city, including high-rise units at Newport Lofts, Turnberry, and Panorama. ���When I was in town for the convention, I started snooping around and was intrigued about what was happening in the real estate market,��� says Aharon, a general manager of an event presentation company. ���Some of what I spent on one property in Vegas couldn���t buy you a garage in Toronto.��� That���s because he focused on foreclosed properties: Some condos that had once sold for $500,000, he bought for $100,000. Meanwhile, Korean Air���s nonstop route between Seoul and Las Vegas contributed to one of the largest ever increases in our international tourism. Currently the 12th most popular international city of origin and return for visitors here, Seoul delivered 9,971 travelers in 2003 and 78,414 last year, an impressive 686.4 percent increase. Another interesting fact from the Brookings report: S��o Paulo comes in at number 14, with a 456.8 percent increase in visitors since 2003���despite having no direct flights to Las Vegas. Shari Sanderson, a real estate agent with Award Realty (awardrealty.tumblr.com), says more than half of her business comes from customers from Canada, Israel, China, and Australia. They have bought property at Mandarin Oriental, Trump Towers, Panorama, and other high-rises. ���Everybody wants to own a place in Vegas, and they can���t believe the prices are so low,��� Sanderson says. ���They start off buying for themselves, and then start buying to rent them out.��� That���s what happened to Jeannie Neill and her husband, Tom Lanny, who live in Sydney, Australia, but also have a home in Santa Monica, California. Neill says she learned about the real estate opportunities in Las Vegas from a TV program in Australia. So, after ringing in 2009 on the Strip, the couple looked at foreclosed high-rise properties and ended up buying a unit for themselves at Panorama Towers and later two more as rental units. Their 2,400-square-foot Las Vegas residence, which once sold for $1.2 million, cost them $250,000. It has a view of both the mountains and the Strip. ���We came in to celebrate New Year���s and to see The Beatles LOVE, and we ended up buying that day,��� Neill says. ���It was an amazing opportunity.��� V ���They start o��� buying for themselves, and then start buying to rent them out.������SHARI SANDERSON HERE AND RIGHT: A Mandarin Oriental apartment owned by a savvy couple from London. 120 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 119-120_V_BOB_HP_RealEstate_Spring13.indd 120 2/11/13 12:40 PM