How A $200B Bond Push Could Shift Mortgage Rates

Housing finally feels like it’s drifting toward balance, and we’re digging into what’s actually moving the needle. We start with the headline everyone’s talking about: a proposed $200 billion purchase of mortgage bonds and Treasuries through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and what a phased buy could realistically do to mortgage rates. Instead of hype, we map the likely impact range—think an eighth to half a point—why investor momentum matters more than a single purchase, and how long-term rates respond to demand, not just Fed chatter.

From there, we layer in practical affordability levers that rarely make the splashy headlines but change real payments: a potential cut to FHA’s upfront mortgage insurance, evolving credit assessments beyond tri-merge, and reduced loan-level pricing adjustments that currently add cost for certain credit bands and lower down payments. We connect those dots to what buyers and sellers will actually feel on the ground—more options, less whiplash, and a market where great listings draw multiple offers but the frenzy stays in check.

If you’re buying, we break down how to run clean payment scenarios across rate steps, when a temporary or permanent buy-down makes sense, and why early 2026 could be your window before competition heats up. If you’re selling, we explain how to get in front of the spring surge, price to demand, and use flexible terms to land stronger contracts. We also get candid about lender selection: program fit, total-cost clarity, and service quality often beat teaser rates, especially when timing and underwriting can make or break a deal.

Ready to navigate with confidence? Follow the show, share this episode with a friend who’s weighing a move, and leave a quick review with your biggest question about buying or selling in 2026. Your feedback helps us shape future deep dives and keep you one step ahead.

Transcript

New Rules, Names, And Disclosures

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Hey guys, we're back with another episode of Venture with Joe and Cody. That's Cody. This is Joe. You're with Residential Mortgage. I'm with EXP Realty. Yeah. I have to say that uh I have to start like the the whole lawsuit, the NAR lawsuit, all this, you know, everything's still continuing to kind of come down of like allowing people to not be deceived by different tactics agents used in the past and things like that. So I have to be much better about I'm getting a little very mortgagey about who my actual broker is, you know, EXP Realty, because I don't want anyone to be fooled that it's Skipper Realty Group. Right. Still still undetermined if I can use Skipper Realty Group in the future. I think there's a short session in the legislation Oregon legislator that's going to maybe talk about deleting that like a clause that basically doesn't allow Realty or Realtor or whatever. There's a bunch of different terms that you can't use. So it's up in the air. So we may be thinking of if I don't get it, if they don't change this law, you and I may be thinking of a new name for my company. So that'll be that's it. That'll be fun because that'll that changes all the marketing and everything and all the materials just get chucked and wasted. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

All that time and money and energy. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Uh and and so like, do you know it can't be because you currently have it skip a realty group powered by exp or with exp, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Yeah, and in right now it has to be immediately visible. So in all our marketing, it used to be like all of them are vague terms and they've been vague terms forever. But basically, like someone has to be able to immediately see who your brokerage is. So they still don't define what that is, but you can't like put skipper realty group and then like in a bottom footnote where you need a magnifying glass, put exp realty. Sure. We we do a good job of like just putting it under our name so that people can see it right when they see our name, they see exp. So I don't think we're too worried about that. It's more of our turn, our team is skipper realty group, and so realty in and of itself is a term that's no longer gonna be allowed if we can't get it changed in the sort short session in Oregon. And so my whole that will all have to change. So I don't know what that'll change to. So we're hoping that it gets addressed. I'm not the only one that has to deal with this. As you know, most real estate agents have some sort of realty or realty group or some sort of thing, so it's gonna affect a lot of people. Yeah. Anyways, we're going going through that. But S T Gipper skipper team group. Skipper team group. We were like, what could SRG mean other than that? And so we were trying to figure out different terms, but it's just none of it works. Skipper's rule group. Uh yeah, you could do that. Yeah. But then you have to explain to clients that that's your name. And so that doesn't work either.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

So you're like, listen, there were some rules that change. We didn't want to change our branding, so we just put a different name in there for the art.

Trump’s $200B Bond Plan Explained

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Exactly. No, we'll figure it out somehow. Hopefully, it just is a non-issue in the next month or so. But yeah. So today, wanted to chat about uh first we'll start talking about the Trump stuff and President Trump's uh decisions to the real estate market. Yeah, whether you hate him or not, he's a real estate investor and knows the real estate market more than probably most um politicians or presidents. But whether you uh again, not stating a claim on you know whether he's right or wrong, just like he knows the real estate industry and trying to make it more affordable for people. So he made it, he came up with some decisions over the last couple days. Um so we're gonna talk about those and then we'll talk about kind of the new year and what uh buyers should ask their lender what they should be looking for in a lender and what some of the different programs or offers that may serve them uh in 2026. And then finally, if we get there, because you and I blab a lot, we will go to uh kind of the same thing on the real estate side. What as a buyer, how do you, once you're pre-approved, you know what you got, what what should we ask for to kind of improve your position as a buyer in today's market? So yeah, let's start it off. Like you, you know a lot more than I do about the Trump thing and what he's saying. So what kind of went on and and what are we dealing with right now?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, so it was last week, I don't remember exactly what day it was, but Trump had had put out there that he was ordering his people, his officials within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who are who essentially run the conventional loan um market, if you will, to purchase$200 billion worth of mortgage treasuries bonds, which will in turn lower the mortgage interest rates. Because as we've talked about before, when the Fed's been dropping rates, that's been good, but that is not necessarily directly related to mortgage rates. That is overall, that's a little more of the short-term rates. Mortgage rates are long-term rates. So yeah, different market tend to go in the same direction, but there has been a big focus over the last, you know, I don't know, call it six months or so, of calling out the Fed for bringing rates down, bringing rates down, bringing rates down. And this to me feels like a way where he is saying, Hey, let's if this isn't gonna happen at the pace that I want it to happen, I'm gonna try to find another avenue. And the 200 billion number was an interesting, it wasn't just a randomly thrown out number there. I was reading an article and it was talking about that. That the 200 billion is essentially the max on what could be done without any type of congressional approval. So it is a sort of a strategic number of like, hey, let's do this and let's get this ball rolling, and you just need to go do it. We don't have to run this through everything and get approval. And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have that ability to do so. So looking into that, there was a quick reaction. Mortgage rates came down quickly for like 20 minutes while everybody was sleeping, and then the market did what it tends to do, which was just kind of like it's a knee jerk reaction, and then the and then the market kind of leveled back out to where it was. Yeah. I think the the message was sent, obviously, and they have not, from what I have seen, and I looked up just right before we got on here, to see nothing has been activated yet. Nothing has been purchased from them yet. So as of right now, you haven't seen any market move that has been due to the 200 billion in purchasing. We also don't know if that is going to be, I don't imagine it's gonna be a one-time purchase of 200 billion. I got to imagine it's gonna, they're gonna phase it, you know. It might be 10 billion at a time. I don't really know what that looks like to where they can kind of ease into it. But my first thought was, all right, well, what does 200 billion do to the market? Because I don't know if that's a big number or if that's a small number. So I started looking, and the best answer that I could find, or the most common best answer that I could find, was that it would change the interest rates on average anywhere from about an eighth of a percent up to a half of a percent. So could be a very small mover, or it could change the rates by a half a percent. And what everything was talking about was it is not necessarily directly based on that 200 billion, it's also the reaction of other investors because as those bonds and treasuries get bought up, then it's going to increase the price for those. You think of it as a stock, right? The more people start to buy it, you're like, holy smokes, this stock is going nuts. I better get in now before I'm left behind and wishing I would have bought it. So same kind of thing applies to where if there's enough momentum, if the price of those bonds and treasuries start to go up enough, then other investors are going to kind of pile on and and it'll just snowball a little bit more. But if not, then it looks like the potential could be an eighth to a quarter of a percent drop.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

And that would be long term then.

Will It Move Mortgage Rates

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah, yeah, and I don't know. That's there's a lot of unknown with it because nothing has really been specified of here's here's the plan on what is going to happen, here's how long they're gonna hold it for, here's this. Let's it's just been like, let's do this, and and so we're all kind of left to speculate and try to gather as much information as we can. So that part is unknown if that's gonna be a temporary thing, um, or if it's like, hey, let's hold on to this until things really start to improve, and then they can kind of gradually back their way out. But while I'm ranting, I started to look because I'm like, all right, again, 200 billion, I don't know what kind of impact that has. Where was the Fed sitting? You know, when when COVID happened and they started to bring rates down, what did that look like? And keep in mind before COVID, the official COVID rate drop, mortgage rates were like they were in the low fours. So obviously better than where we're at right now. Yeah. But in tw in 2020, before everything really started to shift, the Fed was holding about$1.4 trillion in treasury notes. By middle of 22, they had increased up to 2.7 trillion. So they'd almost doubled what they had put into their portfolio, if you will. A$1.3 trillion increase. So that to me kind of showed me, all right, if we went from 4% rates down to just call it 2.5 for a while. You know, that was$1.3 trillion that did that. So$200 billion, it does make sense. It's not gonna be this major like holy smokes, we're going back into the COVID rates. This really probably will be a quarter of a percent, maybe three eighths of a percent. I don't know what that could look like. But as of right now, not today, but as of January 26, the Fed currently holds 2.04 trillion in treasuries. So more than what they had in 2020, which is kind of crazy, right? Because we're seeing that our mortgage rates are not where they were at in 2020. So I think it's not all just as simple as the more they buy, the lower they get. I think it takes the buy-in of all of these other investors and people that are like, I'm jumping on this. This is the only safe thing right now. Let's do this. So I think that's kind of the hope is that maybe there are more of these investors that jump on and pile on and start to really bring things down by purchasing more of these treasuries. So who knows?

SPEAKER_02 11:05

But that was I always get hesitant because it's like the government just throws money at things, you know, yeah, that's imaginary money that um have the feds have they always been buying into this? It sounds like they've always bought into this, it's just a matter of how much during what time, correct?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, yeah. And and I don't know for how long it's even been around. I I should probably do some research on that. But yeah, as far as I know, that's just kind of their way of controlling the environment. So when things are going great, they they sell off, and when things are going bad, they buy to try to keep things more affordable.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

So it's not necessarily uncommon what he's doing. No. You know, no, it's just yeah, it's just a a step.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

I think just just in the kind of traditional Trump fashion, he's like, Look, I'm gonna get this done. And yeah, and if the Fed's not gonna do it, then I'm gonna find other ways to get it. I'm gonna put enough pressure to try to make this work, which I will say again, housing affordability has been a hot topic, at least in our world, yeah, right, for a while. Because ever since rates started to go up, it's like, okay, that puts a lot of pressure, and then and then rental prices go up because now mortgage prices have gone up. So it's been a thing for a while, and I'm liking what I'm seeing as of late, that it's like inflation, inflation, inflation, let's get that under control. Okay, that's under control now, or at least better than it was. Now let's really start to hone in on the housing affordability. So it's exciting for me and I think for all of us to think, okay, this is the next thing that is going to hopefully start to make some changes because lately, you know, we've been seeing some improvements, but I think we're still to a point where it's I don't know that there's a lot of people that would say housing is affordable right now.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

So I uh I'm assuming this is probably a safe assumption that this 200 billion is is not something that they had in their savings account and they're gonna use it. This is just is this eventually gonna trickle down to basically more debt for the US economy or US?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

No, from what I have seen, it is surplus that Fanny and Freddie have.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Yeah. And and I had seen that not necessarily that question, but that information was put out there that you know there was a lot of pressure to close down Fanny and Freddie a little while ago. Yeah. And they didn't, and now this is part of their surplus. So they can directly do this based on extra funding that they have to help.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

And it sounds like there's no, you said there's no there's no other approval. So this could theoretically happen tomorrow because he doesn't need the approval to do it. It just it can be done.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah. And I don't know what the red tape looks like from from their side and who needs to be involved, but from what it sounds like, it's ready to be applied. It's just probably figuring out how quickly do we do this, how much do we do, how long do we hold for what is realistic?

SPEAKER_02 14:05

So if this goes, do you see a direct correlation? Is this still a guessing game, or do you see like if they put 200 billion into this, whether it's eventually or whether it's over time, will rates drop? Is there a direct correlation, or is it like one of those things where when the feds like we talk about all the time, feds say something, we think it's gonna drop, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Or it goes the opposite. Is this something that has a direct effect on the rates long term in in a good way, or is this another one of those we'll see how it goes?

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah. I really think that it will have a direct impact.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Mainly just because the the money is going to move the market.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah.

Context From Fed Purchases Since 2020

SPEAKER_00 14:43

And so whether it's just them and nobody else does any additional buying, I still think it's gonna be enough to move the rates. Maybe not, maybe not by a lot, but even an eighth of a percent in rate, you know, then yeah, we're gonna we're gonna see some type of movement from it. Okay. But I also think it kind of I'm not a big investor person. Not that I'm not for it. I just don't have crazy investor money. Um, but if I was, I would think that those are those are kind of like signals that as an investor, you're kind of looking at at where you're wanting to put your money and where's a safe place and where's your money gonna grow. And I know that that was where it always seemed to be over the last handful of years prior to prior to COVID, kind of throwing a wrench in everything, but it was always just kind of like that was a safe place to put your money. So the stock market's looking ugly, people would dump their money into the into the treasuries and the bonds because it's like not a lot of return, but it's also very safe. You're not dealing with the volatility of the stock market.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So for sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Well, the stock market's going all crazy, I'm just gonna put my money over here. And once the stock market seems to stabilize, I'm gonna pull it out. And that's why we always seem to see like that the fluctuation between the stock markets looking good. That means that the the rates are probably gonna get a little bit worse because the money is just train it's just transferring from here to here, and then the stock market starts to go down the toilet a little bit, and they they pull it out, which then makes the stock market even worse because people are now pulling their money out of there. Yeah. But yeah, I do think that there'll be a direct correlation.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Um, do you I know that you know you were saying an eighth to a half, and those are kind of the range of predictions, but has Trump indicated his thoughts on that? I know he normally has high, high hopes for the things that he puts in place, but has has he said specifically or is he just more putting it out there to just saying that it will improve rates? Like has he made bold predictions on what this would do to rates, specific numbers, or just kind of more generically?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

It's been more generic. It's just been more of a we're gonna do this and we're gonna bring mortgage rates down so that people can start to refinance and people can find more affordable housing. Okay. So I think that's good news for the lending world. It is, yeah. I think so. Um and and you know, I don't know if you saw recently too, and it's hard to know. I'm I'm not a I don't know the laws very well or like the process of everything, so it's hard to know what is like like when he says something, it's it's hard to know like will this be able to happen, or is this gonna get, you know, does this have to get voted on and everything? But I did see recently that he was he was banning big corporations from buying. Yeah, buying buying residential and investment properties, and you know, that was a big thing, and whether it's speculation or real, I I gotta imagine it's probably got some realness to it of you know, big time investors just swooping up properties because cheap, cheap, cheap rates, right? Like now's the time to do it, let's do this. So I think that's a good thing as well, just starting to kind of see more of like, all right, let's let's get back to making it to where people that are gonna live in their homes and just provide a home for their families, like give them more opportunities to do so. And I think that's a good good stepping stone. And I've also seen, too, not to overdo it too much here, but projections for this year for what could potentially happen in the mortgage world, a possible reduction in the FHA mortgage insurance premium. Um, a lot of people that that do an FHA loan don't really realize, or maybe it doesn't, it doesn't really impact them much. But there is an upfront mortgage insurance cost on an FHA loan as well as your monthly. So they're looking at potentially reducing that upfront cost, which gets rolled into your loan. So that's why most people are like, oh, okay, yeah, sure. If I don't have to pay for it, I don't really care. But yeah, it gets rolled into their loan. Um, so that's good. That could be a just another slight reduction. Possible end to try merge credit reports. This has been kind of going around for a while, but trying to find different ways and different avenues for assessing credit, which who knows where that will go. Um and then the other one that I saw was reducing loan level pricing adjustments. And so what that is, is that is for essentially like little categories that are that are built into how rates are priced out. Like say you're at a 720 credit score. Um, the pricing adjustment might be that you're you're paying an extra quarter of a percent in fee because you're in that credit bracket. Okay. Instead of being up at a 780. Um, or you're you're only putting down 5% versus 10%. And so each little each little bracket has its own pricing adjustment. So they're talking about potentially reducing those costs, which it in layman's terms just means that the rates would get better. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

So well, do you see this like you know, I've I see anecdotally and kind of research wise that I've done is like the it's looking positive in 2026 for the real estate market relative, especially relative to 2025-2024. Are you thinking the same thing or seeing the same sort of stuff trajectory besides barring anything that Trump did is doing, but like just in general as well? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Yeah. Everything I've seen has has projected that it's going to be better than 26, or excuse me, better than 25. Yeah. But not necessarily like this booming. Like smoking.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

It's not gonna be like COVID world.

Affordability, Investors, And Policy Signals

SPEAKER_00 20:11

No, no. I've seen this year 26 being labeled as kind of the rebound year. So not that it's necessarily gonna just take off and go crazy, but it's kind of like, okay, we're everything seems to be stabilizing and and and we're in at this point now of like, okay, there's not a lot of chaos going on. You know, we're we're getting more used to homes staying on the market longer. Rates are stabilizing, everything's kind of feeling like all right, the dust is settling a little bit here.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

From a mortgage projection side of it, like Mortgage Bankers Association, Fannie May. Freddie Mac, Wells Fargo, some of these big entities that will put out their projections for this this coming year. Or it's so weird because I don't know if I say this year, because it still doesn't feel like 26. But um It is. Yeah, their projections are essentially that we're gonna stay about right where we're at.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

For from for interest rates. For interest rates. And this is their projection that probably they probably put this out months ago, right? I don't know I don't know when they put it out exactly. But from their side of it, they're looking at this thinking, all right, we'll probably just kind of hover in this general range, you know, low six, maybe, maybe upper five, somewhere in there. But uh that's just a projection. We've seen projections over the years where it's like they're going to increase or they're gonna decrease by a lot, and we go through the year and it's like, wow, but nothing changed from January to February or January to December.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

We're still yeah, that's why you kind of have to look at the research, but then kind of look at your own kind of pulse on what you have on your market, you know, and see is it reacting like the national news or the national people say it is? Because uh even in 2025, like you had a national saying it was a pretty bad time, but you know, depending on the area that you were in, you didn't notice anything, you know. Right. And people were still buying, people still selling. So yeah, it's just an interesting time. But I do think that uh we're seeing at least again research and anecdotally, these rates are kind of the people that were in the sevens and purchased and and or were thinking about purchasing in the sevens, now seeing things in in the si low sixes and potentially into the fives. I think you're gonna see not a surge like a COVID surge, but I think you will see, especially in spring, if things continue down a better path, that you may see a lot more competition than you thought that you were gonna see. It's not 2025 anymore, in my opinion. Right. So with that being said, what do you what are you, you know, there's a lot that lenders offer. Different lenders, residential mortgage, different plate people offer different programs. As a buyer coming into 2026, what are you suggesting to them when they call? What should they be looking for in a lender? What kind of things that they should be prepped for for 2026 that they may not know about? You know, because most people don't know what goes on in lending. You talk to me about lending sometimes, and I'm in the industry, and I'm like, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Uh, what do you uh what do the consumers need to know going in to make the smartest financial decision, you know, um going forward this year? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Well, um, I mean, for starters, I'll I'll talk to them and just kind of try to figure out what their plan is going to be, like what would their ideal situation be. And then a lot of it just comes down to what they're thinking and what they're hoping is going to happen with the housing market and the mortgage rates. And so it ends up being kind of like what we've talked about a lot of if it feels like the right time for you, like then I don't I don't know what's going to happen with the rates, and I don't know what's going to happen with the the home prices. So I'll give you all the the information that I see and know and give you my best prediction, I guess, if if you will. Like if I was in the market right now to be buying, this is what I would be doing, which is just finding the right house because yeah, the rates are going to change, and we all assume that they're going to get better. I don't know how much better, but at least a little bit better. There is the potential that you could refinance down the road, but at the same time, we've seen the rates come down about 1% this year. So it's hard to really know what that's going to look like. So a lot of it is on my end. I'm I'm walking them through just what their options are. And one thing that really tends to help people when it comes to I want to wait till things till rates come down. That one is like a I just show them here's what your price, here's what your payment looks like right now with the rates. Here's what the here's what it looks like if we come down a half a percent. Here's what it looks like if we come down a full percent. And then they see that and they go, it's really not that I mean, yeah, it's better, right? But we're talking about a couple hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

And they're like, okay. So then it becomes a situation of can you can you afford this now? Because if you can, you know, waiting for six to twelve months to try to get that half a percent decrease in rate, we don't know what home prices are going to do at that point.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Yeah.

FHA, Credit, And Pricing Adjustments

SPEAKER_00 25:05

You know, you're you're just kind of putting things on hold. So a lot of it ends up being, I try not to give too much of like my sales pitch on what I think they should do. And I'm really just trying to kind of like provide them with information on on what things look like. And usually, again, that rate comparison and showing here's what a half percent does to your payment. It's awesome. But is that enough to deter you from buying for another year or two when in that time you gotta know that home prices are more than likely going to increase when the rates come down like that, millions more people are jumping into the market to buy. So um, yeah, and and I'll I'll walk them through too, just to kind of wrap up your point there of going through different like quarterly grant programs that we receive and down payment assistance options and kind of mortgage planning for what they can do and what they can't do, and and just going through their options.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Do you have uh, you know, I know obviously lenders are different, they compete in different ways. Is there a trend that's going on now that someone as a buyer should look to to lenders to ask about and whether that's an individual program through your company or whether that's whatever that lenders, you know, because you guys have to stay competitive in some way or another. And so what should a buyer? I personally think I have reasons why you should pick a lender, but what should a buyer kind of look to in that realm, in the financial realm of like what lender is offering X, you know, or is that not a thing?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, no, I think so. I think it really comes down to looking to make sure that what you're being offered is the best option for you. If if you're in a really unique situation, you're gonna want to make sure that you have a lender that can that can satisfy that need for you because not every lender is going to be able to offer every option. We all have things that are that we're good at and that we kind of specialize in, and then we have other things that it's like our company is not participating in that. So I don't have an option for that. So finding that part out first is is really important. And I mean I will tell people too like find someone that you that you like that you want to work with, because the rates and fees are obviously important, but finding somebody that you feel like you can work with, that you uh can trust, and that you get what you need out of it. Like we were talking the other day of I think a lot of people in their mind when they go to get a mortgage, they have a certain expectation, and our job is to uh meet and beat that expectation. But the expectation is I want to get a mortgage and I want to get the best deal that I can, and I hope to not just get beat up through the process.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

So those those three things, those four things are are really important for all of us. But I think as a as a consumer, as somebody that's that's getting that, you really do want to check all those boxes because you might be able to get the cheapest online deal, but you're just gonna get beat up with your the quality of product and service and experience. So you leave there going, Man, I'm glad I glad I went to the dollar store, but now my experience was kind of rough. For sure. Or you get the other side of it, probably similar to like what what your experience would be or if somebody was coming to you can always go cheaper.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

We've talked about this before. And you can get an agent, you can get a lender with better rates, and you can get an agent that offers uh better commission to you. But more often than not, it's what it's the quality of service that you get and the the benefits that you get out of that when you do and if you're willing to sacrifice that, then and you're open and you're like you said, you go over their goals. If they're like bottom line is all we care about, we don't care if that person never calls us again. Yeah, like yeah, then that may be for you. What we see more often than not is most deals can go wrong very easily and head that way very easily. And it takes a good lender and a good real estate agent to kind of guide it right back in. You know, you may not even notice as a buyer or a seller that it's going that way, and we notice it and kind of because of the communication, the in the knowledge and the expertise, you can kind of guide it right back into the path to close. Yeah. But I would say, like, as an agent to you, to my buyers, to lenders, I tell them to shop around. You know, sometimes you guys have, you know, again, it's their goals, so it's like, hey, Cody can't offer this. So I would not give you Cody because his his company can't do that, or Cody can do this, so let go to Cody, or this person is best with this unique thing that you need. Um, and I think that's what's good about the lenders that I use, which are very small, a number of lenders, is that you guys are all good with like you get on the phone with people, find out their goals, and determine if you're going to be the help to them. And if you're not, you're more than happy to send them to someone that can. And I think that's important too, is that someone's not, you know, promising you the world just to get your business because it normally doesn't work out very well. And that's the same in real estate world.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Usually backfires.

2026 Outlook For Rates And Demand

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Yeah, the real estate world's the same. Be be leery of the agent that can promise you everything and and for the lowest cost and uh give you the services that they need because it's not realistic in a lot of ways, or their business structure is set up to where they need to get quantity over quality and and you're just a cog in the wheels. Anyways, but you guys do have rates and programs and different things throughout the year that come up that you didn't know were gonna come up, so it's worth a shot to kind of call call around and see if there are some incentives like you guys had in January. It's coming up. Well, we only got a couple weeks left, but you guys had that promo for January of uh buying down the rate for a year. So there's things that you know you guys all offer, and uh, I think it's really good to kind of just chat it over with someone uh versus look online and kind of fill out fill out some random thing on Zillow or whatever that may be. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah. So on on that, like kind of the planning from our side, what is it, what are you seeing for this coming year, or what are you telling people if they're coming to you like, hey, should we sell? When should we sell? I need to buy. Should I wait? You know, I know it's most people think spring and summer is like that's the hot time to to buy and sell, but for sure. What are you what do you tell people?

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Yeah, as the selling side, uh, you know, yeah, you could, you know, ultimately it sounds super dumb and no one wants to hear this, but it's ultimately when you want to sell or when you want to buy is the time to do it. I can I can tell you what it the better times are in spring and summer, spring more than summer, and oddly enough, I don't think summer is as good as people think it is, but a spring is kind of the prime time to sell. But if you take into account all the things that are happening, it's not just people tend to think very superficially about real estate and like spring, that's the best time to sell. That's it. And that may be the case in a general sense of the term, but as we've talked about, there's a lot more happening in the background with rates and things like that. And if you don't know strategically what's happening, you may think that this turn this is the best time, but there may be another time because of you know, maybe President Trump's pro policies or things like that, that you're like, oh, well, it turned out fall was better because of these things that that occurred through the years. Yes, I always say generally spring is better. But what I'm suggesting to some of my uh sellers that are ready to go whenever I say to go is to get on the front end of spring. I think already the rates are at a good rate than we've seen in what a long, long time. Just without buy downs. Yeah, with buy downs. Amazing. So I personally think that there'll be a lot of sellers in spring or more than we expected, or more than we got from 2025. I think there'll be more sellers in the market in 2025. The sellers that are in the 3% range, 4% range of their home are now like, well, five, if we could buy down to five, it's not that, you know, there's a there's a closer gap, and the gap is closing between what they what they have on their current house and what they can get on a new house. And so we will see, I think, more sellers in the market in the spring. So I say if you're ready to go, let's plan now. This is what I tell my sellers now is like, let's just get on the end of February, early March, like kind of get on that front end so it's like people you you have less competition because even like the home that we just that I was pitching the other week is like we it's in January and it's sold, it's pending within a couple days. So people are out there, buyers are out there and they're serious. Winter buyers are definitely serious buyers. They're ones they're like, we're going for it. So sellers, I say on the front end, ultimately it's when you want to do it. I would say on the front end of spring and this year particularly. So it's kind of preparing now and getting on the front end of that kind of. I think again, not a COVID influx, but an influx of of homes that'll be on the market in the spring. Uh, for buyers, I say that like I think the inventory is low-ish right now, but you have way less competition. So I encourage buyers to look now because we've have we've had a few buyers that have waited till spring because spring is when the most inventory is there, and then they're like, gosh, I can't afford it. I'm getting outbid by everyone. And so, and I do think that we'll start to see that a little bit more than 2025, that we'll start seeing um that because of that competition, we're gonna end the rates being low and buyers being able to either buy down their own rate or use seller credit to buy down that rate. I think we're gonna see a lot more competition um in the market for buyers. And so again, I'm thinking, I'm telling them, start looking now, like see what's out there in the inventory. If there's nothing there, there's nothing there. But yeah, you have less competition right now, and you're gonna have some more buyers coming into the market in the spring. So you'll just have more competition with the houses, especially houses that are priced right, priced reasonably. You're gonna have more buyers than just you looking at them. So it's all about kind of, you know, we set up their goals and what they want. But you know, if you wanted my personal advice, I think, you know, with how the trajectory of things right now, as we've talked about in our podcast and the live streams and all that, things are looking good in the real estate market in 2026. They're at least gonna theoretically stay the same. So if you like what it is now, it's not gonna fluctuate a ton, maybe fluctuate down into the fives, you know. So that's my thoughts. That's my two cents that I tell buyers. Um I don't know if you agree or disagree with that, but I I do agree.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

I no, I I agree. I think that we've we've beat this drum a lot, but it's like if the time works for you now, now's the time.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

I I I think that there's probably plenty of people that have waited through whether it was the the COVID time because it was just nuts, or after COVID and they waited too long because now rates are up, or they waited to sell and now it's sitting on the market. Like there's so many times where I feel like waiting never really pays off, even though it feels like the right thing to do. It's like, how many, how many times do you always wait for something and then you go, Man, like as somebody who is very good at procrastinating, waiting doesn't typically pay off for me. Yeah. And it doesn't seem to pay off in the in the uh real estate side of things either. Unless you just happen to not buy in 2008, right before everything crashed. Like in general, you're you're you're losing money one way or the other.

How To Choose And Use A Lender

SPEAKER_02 36:00

For sure. If you're financially ready, a waiting doesn't help. If you're financially waiting because you have to financially wait, great, that's you should don't push yourself into it. But if you're you're financially ready to go at these rates and things could only get better because what we're seeing is sellers offering credits to the buyers to buy down the rates. So if you can afford now, as is, and then you can get credit from the buyer or seller, there's no reason not to. If the house isn't there, then the house isn't there and you keep looking. But um, don't force yourself. But yeah, there's no reason that if you can afford right now, that you're gonna be like, yeah, let's wait till spring, unless the inventory is not there that you want to see. Yeah, exactly. But if it's there and you're just like, no, I'm just gonna sit on my thumbs until, you know, until the till spring because things look prettier, I just think you're gonna you're gonna be you may not be like hugely disappointed, but whereas sellers right now during the winter are willing to offer credits, maybe they're gonna have two or three offers and they don't have to offer credit to you anymore. So my suggestion is get in now as a buyer. Yeah, things change quickly too. They do. They do for sure in our market. Excuse me. Sorry. Yeah. Get up brought out. Well, that was a good talk. We had a long talk about all that stuff that I think, you know, I honestly do think 2026, unless something is gonna happen tragically, uh, I think we're kind of on a good track to either stabilize or be stable right now or kind of see a little bit of dip, but we do see a a lot more balance in the market as sellers and buyers work with each other versus being very lopsided.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So I agree. I feel like things are they're the sun is starting to come out and it's starting to kind of feel like maybe everybody in the everybody in the industry is kind of looking at it like, did we make it? Like are things actually finally starting to improve and stabilize? Because it's been a long time coming, so it's exciting to look at the prospect of this year and go, hey, you know what? Everything seems to be pointing in a better direction, even even like you said, even if we just stayed put, I still think it's better than what 24 was, and it's better than what 23 was. So, you know, if that's the worst thing that happens, then that's still a better situation.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

So interesting to think about, like we've had this podcast for a while now and remember talking about that, like, okay, we just make it through. Yeah. Make it through, you know, like talking to people and being like, I know this is hard. This is hard. And sellers being like, This sucks. And you know, it just it was a hard time, and I do see some some light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully, with this. And I and I start to see that, you know, with people even in the market now that are you know getting prepped to sell soon and prepping to buy, so that's good. So good for the market. Gotta love it. Okay, man. Well, till next time. Uh, if you haven't already like and subscribe to our YouTube page or my YouTube page, do you have a big YouTube page? I don't know if you do.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

I do, but I haven't done much with it.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

So like and subscribe to mine. I get on Adventure Adventure with Joe and Cody on all the uh Apple, Spotify, and all those ones, and subscribe and help us out um with that. But yeah, until next time, my man, we'll uh chat with you soon. Love it. Let's do it. See ya. All right, bye.