In 2013, I could see that there were houses for sale in Vegas that cost less than a car payment. By 2015 I'd worked up the courage to buy one. I paid $143K. The

In 2013, I could see that there were houses for sale in Vegas that cost less than a car payment. By 2015 I'd worked up the courage to buy one. I paid $143K. The previous owner had paid $85K. One of the reasons I was able to get it for $142K was because I made a TON of offers. I basically walked around a housing complex and picked out a handful of identical homes, then made lowball offers on all of them. Basically there was a TON of supply. The home was so cheap, it created some bizarre challenges: 1) It was hard to find a lender. Banks don't want to deal with tiny loans. 2) It was hard to find a realtor. Nobody wants to do a deal where they're going to make peanuts on the commission. I managed to get it all sorted out. After just 25 months, I sold it. I liked the home, but I just wasn't using it. I'd pictured that my family and I would go to Vegas every few weeks, but we wound up going about once or twice a year. (This was a second home.) When I put it up for sale, I had two offers the first day it was listed. In my situation, I think some things that helped a lot were: 1) inventory in Vegas became tighter and tighter, as people are priced out of California. If you're moving from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas, $143K seems like a bargain. 2) Builders in Vegas seem uninterested in smaller homes. The one that I sold was just 1200 square feet. Most homes in the neighborhood were at least as twice as big. In summary: a classic case of "inexpensive home in nice neighborhood", plus a big helping of luck.