Every month a few of the people who write to this office are not in a dispute. They are Californians who have decided, or are close to deciding, to move to Las Vegas. The reasons are familiar: cost of living, a job that can be done from anywhere, no state income tax, a house with a yard for the price of a Bay Area condo. What they want to know is how the move actually works when you own a home in one state and are buying in another.
Jimmy Nguyen is a California real estate attorney and a licensed real estate broker in both California and Nevada. He represents Californians on the Nevada side of that move through his Las Vegas brokerage, Vegas VIP Me LLC, and on the California side through this office. This is the checklist he walks through with every relocating household, in the order the questions come up. It is written for the paperwork, not the neighborhoods; Vegas VIP Me’s relocation overview covers where to live.
1. Decide the order of the two transactions first
There are three ways to sequence a two-state move, and each has a cost that should be chosen rather than stumbled into.
- Sell California first, then buy. The cleanest financially: you know your proceeds, you can make a non-contingent Nevada offer, and you carry one mortgage. The cost is a short rental or an extended stay between the two closings, and the possibility of moving twice.
- Buy Nevada with a contingency on the California sale. Fewer sellers accept it, and those who do usually demand a shorter timeline or a higher price. It works best in a slower market or on a home that has been listed for a while.
- Buy first, sell after. Requires qualifying for two mortgages or bridge financing, and it exposes you to the California market moving against you while you carry both. It is the choice of people who have found the Nevada house and will not lose it.
Which one is right depends on your financing, your tolerance for a short rental, and the Las Vegas submarket you are buying into. The relocation guides for Santa Clara County, Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County households put current numbers on the gap between what a California home sells for and what a Las Vegas home costs.
2. The California sale is where the legal risk lives
Most of this office’s litigation practice is suing sellers who did not disclose. When you sell your California home to fund the move, you become the seller, and the same law applies to you. The Transfer Disclosure Statement and the Seller Property Questionnaire ask what you know about the property. Answer them completely and in writing, including the things you fixed years ago, the neighbor issue you learned to live with, and the addition that never got a final permit. A buyer who discovers something you knew and left off has years to bring a claim, and you will be defending it from another state.
The other place a California sale goes wrong is the deposit. If your buyer cancels late, or you cancel, who keeps the earnest money is decided by the contingency dates and the liquidated damages clause, not by who feels wronged. Jimmy’s earnest money page explains the rules; the short version is that you should never sign a cancellation or release you have not read, and never let a Notice to Perform deadline pass without a decision.
3. Nevada’s disclosure form is not California’s
On the Nevada side you become the buyer again, and the first thing Californians notice is how thin the disclosure is. Nevada’s Seller’s Real Property Disclosure form is a single checklist. There is no Seller Property Questionnaire, and no separate visual inspection disclosure from the agents. Nevada law gives a buyer specific remedies when the form is delivered late or is wrong, but the practical protection is your own inspection and your own questions. Read every “no” on the form against the inspection report and the listing photos, and put every follow-up question to the seller in writing during the due-diligence period.
4. The HOA resale package and the five days you get to read it
Most Las Vegas homes are in a homeowners association, and many are in two: a master association and a sub-association. Nevada requires the seller to deliver the association’s resale package, and the buyer may cancel the purchase within five calendar days of receiving it. Those five days are for reading the CC&Rs, the current budget and reserve summary, the rules on rentals, parking, pets and exterior changes, the assessment history, and any violations or pending litigation involving the unit or the association. Guard-gated and master-planned communities tend to have the longest rule books and the most consequential ones.
5. One due-diligence clock, not several contingencies
California buyers are used to separate inspection, appraisal and loan contingencies that are removed one at a time. The Nevada purchase agreement most Las Vegas buyers see works differently: a single due-diligence period during which the buyer can inspect, review documents and cancel for any reason. When it ends, the earnest money is generally at risk. Calendar the end date the day the offer is accepted, order inspections the same week, and do not let a slow HOA or a slow lender run you past it without a written extension.
6. Ask your CPA the tax questions before you sign anything
This office does not give tax advice, and neither does Vegas VIP Me. But these are the questions Jimmy tells every relocating client to put to a CPA early, because the answers affect timing:
- When does California stop treating me as a resident, and what records will the Franchise Tax Board expect to see for the year I moved?
- Does the timing of my California sale fit the primary-residence gain exclusion, and does a gap between selling and moving change that?
- If I keep the California home as a rental instead of selling, what California filings continue after I move?
- Which of my income sources remain California-source income after I become a Nevada resident?
7. Property taxes: claim the cap
Nevada caps the annual increase in property tax on an owner-occupied primary residence at 3%, with a higher cap for other property. The lower cap is not automatic for a new owner. After closing, the county assessor mails a form to claim it. Return it. New owners who do not are billed at the higher cap until they do.
8. The remote closing
You do not need to fly to Las Vegas to close. Nevada purchases are routinely signed in California with a mobile notary and funded by wire. Two rules make that safe. First, every set of wiring instructions is confirmed by phone with the escrow officer at a number you already had, never a number in the email that delivered the instructions. Second, the title commitment is read before closing, not after, for easements, HOA liens and anything recorded against the property that the seller did not mention.
9. What Jimmy does on each side
On the Nevada side, Jimmy acts as your broker through Vegas VIP Me LLC: narrowing the search from California, writing and negotiating the offer on Nevada forms, reading the disclosure and the HOA package the way a litigator would, and running the remote closing. He is not a Nevada attorney and does not give Nevada legal advice; if a Nevada question needs Nevada counsel, he will say so and help you find it.
On the California side, if you are selling, he can represent you as a California broker, and if the sale turns into a dispute over disclosures or the deposit, as your attorney. The full explanation of how the two roles fit together is on the Las Vegas page.