OUR LISTENERS HAVE SAVED NEARLY $40,000 – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS THIS YEAR

Kevin: The real estate industry is all about relationships, who you know, like, and trust and who you’re working with, and you should expect your agent to work for you as well. But communication is key. So find somebody that you like working with. I would highly recommend you give a, a beacon agent, a try and a beacon, lender a try.

But if you already have somebody you know, like, and trust, communication is key and you can make most things work as long as you’re willing to communicate.

Tim: You are listening to the Pilot’s portfolio, the show dedicated to guiding professional pilots towards a future of financial success and stability. Fly along with your host Timothy P. Pope, as he provides financial planning insights and answers to your burning questions and dives into real life stories from fellow pilots who share their success.

And cautionary tales, the pilot’s portfolio takes off now.[00:01:00] 

Well guys, I’m so excited to welcome back. To the show, our friends at Beacon Relocation, and this time we’ve got a two for one. In the past you’ve heard Kevin on the show and then Jade on the show independently, and now we’re brought together. So Kevin and Jade, welcome to Pilot’s Portfolio. Thank you, Tim.

Kevin: Thanks Tim. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. So just for any new listeners out there who are not familiar with Beacon and what you guys do. Can you share how you help controllers and pilots specifically with their real estate transactions? Sure. When a pilot or a, an air traffic controller is interested in buying or selling a home, we pair them with one of our 15 or 1600 agents nationwide and will assist them in either the purchase or the sale of their home.

Jade: There’s a financial benefit for them to do that. So you guys have a [00:02:00] network all across the country, all 50 states, between 1500 and 1600 agents that have been vetted that understand Beacon’s philosophy and process. So with One Call, it sounds like a client can get access to all of these agents all across the country.

Yes, that’s true. They would actually submit it on our website, the request for it. But yeah, basically one call would do it. Wow, that’s incredible. That’s a lot of reach and a lot of resources there Before we hit. Record, you guys were telling me that you have saved pilot to portfolio listeners. So that’s our listeners who’ve listened to this show.

Tim: You’ve saved them almost $40,000 in real estate transactions. So can you walk through, how have you saved our listeners so much money? Yeah, Tim, I’d be glad to fill you in on that since you had us on a couple times last year. It seems like we were really able to get some traction. And your listeners took us up on our offer at the end of the year to save an additional 5% on top of the 20.

Kevin: They were already gonna save by using our program. [00:03:00] And to date, we have closed 39,000 in cash back to your listeners alone. So we’re excited just at such a short time to give back such a large chunk of money to your population. And Jade, how does that work when it $39,000? How exactly is the pilot at home receiving?

Tim: That money back? Yeah, great question. They’re gonna get this monetary compensation both on the buy side and on the sales side of their home. Albeit, there’s eight states that we can’t do it on the buy side, but the agents are still standing by to do it on the list side. But so far to date, we were able to give 21,000 back just in last year.

Kevin: And that was through the buy and the sell, and that’s 20% of the real estate’s commission on average. Coming back to the, the buyer, and I say on average because for your listeners we did a little bit more than that, but 20% of our real estate’s commission is coming back to the buyer and the seller in the form of a monetary compensation on the closing disclosure.

Tim: Okay. Just to break it down. For the pie home, you list your home, you agree to pay your the listing agent and pay the [00:04:00] buyer’s agent, and then the beacon agent that is representing you, they will give a portion of their commission back to you for selling your home for using them. As for selling your home.

Now, is that a check that they, do you write out straight to them? Is it towards their closing? Like in what form does it happen? Yeah, that is correct. The agent is sharing their commission and all this is done at the closing table, inside the transaction, and on the cd. So based on how much escrow money you might have down, how much your closing costs end up being, you will get that monetary compensation back in the form of a check at the closing table, or applied to closing costs that you already had due.

Kevin: So typically it will all depend on how much money is due at closing, whether or not you receive that in the form of a actual cash check or it supplies toward other. Expenses that you already had on the closing disclosure. So it could be either one. It could be a check that I deposit my bank account. It could be a credit going towards closing.

Tim: But this happens if I’m buying a home. The Beacon agent shares or, or gives [00:05:00] back a part of their commission. Or if I’m selling a home, the Beacon agent gives back part of their commissions. I think that’s important to know. Yes. A few years ago there were some changes in. How folks sign up with a realtor.

You know, if I, if I want to go buy a house, I have to be represented now, it sounds like by realtors. So you know, when somebody reaches out to Beacon, are they locked in and they have to use a Beacon agent or is there flexibility? I’d like to hear how that works. Sure the buyer would submit their information on our website as a pilot’s portfolio listener.

Jade: And we’ve got, especially in larger cities, we have multiple agents that cover a Citi, but we typically would connect them with who we think may be the closest and has the best reviews. Uh, of course, once we connect them with that real estate agent, an email goes out. Introducing the team that’s gonna work them.

Now, does a buyer have to use a Beacon agent? Well, if they want the Beacon agent, the [00:06:00] 20% credit back from us, and we’ve also got a lender that we work with, a national lender that provides. A discount on their fees as well. So if they’re anticipating that saving, yes, they would need to work with a beacon agent.

Tim: Alright. And so maybe Kevin, could you speak about any flexibility that A would-be buyer or seller would have as they approach Beacon and say, Hey, I’d like to work with an agent of beacons. Sure. After we’ve placed the buyer with the real estate agent, they should be presented with a couple of documents that that come from the State’s Real Estate Commission, and this is on the heels of the National of the nar, the National Association of Realtors settlement in 2024.

Jade: And what came out of that? Settlement is a, a real estate agent shall have a buyer broker or buyer agency agreement, a contract with that buyer prior to touring the first home. So while a buyer may be resistant. To [00:07:00] sign a document like that before they get to know the agent, the agent has to have it, but know that inside that document, everything in real estate’s negotiable, all the terms inside that agreement are negotiable.

So for example, if an agent sends it out to you and it says the term is three months, you know, know that you can go back to that agent and say, Hey, listen, I don’t feel comfortable with three months. Why don’t we do it for a week or two weeks until we get to know each other? Then we can extend it at that point.

So that is negotiable between the buyer and the firm. But no, just because they send it out to you as a buyer doesn’t necessarily mean it, it’s locked in stone. I love that because real estate’s a, a really big. Transaction and moving. Either way, you’re moving locally or you’re moving across the country.

Tim: It can be daunting. It’s stressful. I think moves are when you look at like the amount of stress that they generate in somebody’s life. Research that I’ve seen, marks moves right up there with divorce and [00:08:00] other just major life events, right when a family’s moving. So I like the fact that they can come to you guys and say, Hey.

I heard you on the show. I’ve looked at the website and all of this, and I’d like to give this a shot, but it’s not locked in forever and ever. All men, right? That you can, you can negoti sit down to a week, you could do 30 days or what have you, and to give it a test drive before you, you really lock in. I like that.

Jade: And hey, listen, this program, it’s not an. Our way or the highway type of program. So it’s there just to be used. A pilot or a controller would like to use it. And what I mean by that is if you have a home to sell, but you don’t have a home to buy, if you wanna use the the buyer’s agent, but not use the recommended lender, use whatever you like, use whatever’s helpful to you, but you’re not bound to use at all.

Kevin: One thing we like to point out is just at large, we have vetted our agents and know, like, and trust us and they. Really appreciate working our clientele. So be it from the pilot side, the controller side, the veteran [00:09:00] side, we have a large population that the agents really like to work for us, so they buy into the beacon process and they really take good care of our clients.

So when our clients land someplace for the first time, so. Personalities can obviously be hard and tricky, you know, person to person. We’re all human. But statistically speaking, over the last six years, if a client uses one of our agents, we have an 80% close rate. The relationships have been, I mean, you could check our reviews.

We’ve moved people from Guam to the states seamlessly. Just by using our system because everybody is standing by to make the client the first priority. And that’s not always the case in every, everywhere you go. The other thing, and this is just speaking from personal experience, you know, I’ve been able to use you guys personally and say, Hey, we’ve got this property in Florida.

Tim: We’re selling it. We need X, Y, Z, and. In this case, it was Kevin who said, okay, cool, and look to see who you had in Florida, who you had at that area, who you thought would be best, and then [00:10:00] place this. And then also just on behalf of clients, like, Hey, we need agents in such and such city, but we also need them to be well-versed in say, short-term rentals or some kind of sub market like that.

And, you know, you guys would do the due diligence, come up with somebody who was in that city who was also familiar with investment properties, right? And, and say, Hey, we’re gonna pair you with, with so and so. So, you know, that’s been, that’s been a good experience here. So what I’d like to do is. I, I wanna ask you guys how, when you think about making these large transactions, I just reference, you know, in the past, hey, some research has really put moves as high up there.

I imagine, hey, if you’re in the military, they may not be as stressful just because you’re so used to ’em every two and a half years kind of thing. But for those who, you know, don’t move that often, do you guys work with clients to make sure that they get it right on the first time? I can think about some clients that are moving.

Just [00:11:00] cross country essentially. It’s a big deal. A lot of times they don’t wanna have to move a couple more times. Once they get into the city, they just kind of wanna settle down, so how do you guys make sure that they get it right? Yeah. Tim, I think that’s a, a great question and I’m probably a pretty good candidate to, to answer that firsthand.

Kevin: Both, as you know, the. One of the owners of Beacon, but also one of the big users of Beacon, as most of the listeners know, the 21 years active duty, and my wife is still active duty. So the amount of moves that we have already done and still have to do, you know, our, our countless, we probably have about 15 under our belt, and we probably have three or four more to go.

So. With all that being said, the joy of being able to use this program is that we already have people in places that are set up to help you make that smooth transition. They know exactly what you’re going through. A lot of, especially around our military installations, we have people that understand the ba.

We have specialties, you know the the MRE certifications that exist for some of our agents. A lot of our military people [00:12:00] like to know that those people are trained and understand their problems. The big issue with the military as opposed to other moves where the military gives you roughly about 10 house hunting days, and we all know, and especially from a financial advisor standpoint, you may not advise somebody to buy under those terms of pressure sometimes.

So sometimes a military member needs to go in and ramp for six to 12 months to understand the area. Before they have a pressure buy. A lot of times we’re moving with families and we want to get enrolled in the school system. So renting a place in the right school district or buying a place in the right school district, sometimes that timing when you’re moving on the military, timing doesn’t also work up with the timing of the market.

So from the military to civilian side, we find that our civilian people can be a lot more calculated and they’re, they’re a lot less moving on the flyer on the man, they’re moving on their terms. Although with the aviation industry sometimes that that is a little abrupt and people have to, you know, do things out of the norm, live in one place to work in another.

So basically what Beacon offers you is that warm landing spot where [00:13:00] you can connect with the people that have already been vetted. And again, if you don’t like ’em or you, you have a personality conflict, we are happy to, to reassign and get you connected with somebody that is, that does meet your needs.

Jade: I’ll say too, Tim, that as, as far as the stress level in moving, I had a controller that I spoke with last week and he’s getting ready to buy a home in Pennsylvania. He said, Kevin, I’ve been watching the market and I’m getting, I’m really getting stressed out that I looked at homes a couple of years ago during the COVID, and all of a sudden the same home is, is.

Quite a bit higher, and I recognize now I need some help. I’m not gonna be able to do this on my own. So I think just having the agent there on your side, if you’re selling in one location, purchasing in another location, I think you will find that team of people that you have are really going to eliminate a lot of weight.

That might ordinarily be on your shoulders? Yeah. I mean, there’s some things that we do. DIY, right. [00:14:00] But for me, I’d stick with what I’m really good at and hire the professionals to do the things that I’m not good at, which would be market research in an unfamiliar city and probably doing it part-time because I have a day job.

Yeah. And on the buy side here in those states, the 41 states that allow the credit, I mean, gosh, there’s a credit back to you. There are a couple of one-offs here and there. But you know, that credit is, is pretty important too. And you’ve got the assistant. Let’s talk about, so you just mentioned you’ve been working with somebody who, he’s been looking at the market for the last couple of years.

Tim: He’s talking to you, so it sounds like he’s ready to buy. What can buyers and sellers expect from 2026 in the real estate market? I read a lot of articles and one of the articles that I read came from the chief economist, from the National Association of Realtors back November, 2025. He made a prediction and their estimation is that 2026 is gonna pop off to a, a pretty good start now.

Jade: And I think Jade and I have [00:15:00] have seen that just in the past couple of months. We saw January start out with a, a lot of pilots and controllers. There’s buyers reaching out to us and we’re beginning to see. Closings now happen. They’ve gone under contract now closing on their home here in February, and we’ve seen that his estimation was that the market was gonna have 14% more activity in 2026 and 2025.

And not only were we gonna have a little bit of a price dip, but home prices in their prediction was gonna be up 4% for 2026, and its reasoning for that was due to the job market. The lack of unemployment and also the interest rates on average dropping from 6.7% and they’re estimating the interest rates to average 6% in 2026.

So all those combined to make a little bit stronger market in their estimation. So thinking about stronger market in 2026, which means more [00:16:00] transactions, I would expect. And as an investor, when I hear more transactions, I think about. More. Price stability or at least better price discovery just because there’s more participants in a market, there’s more things going back and forth, and so I do believe that the market will get things right and so there’s gonna be, you know, more price stability there.

Tim: Now are all parts of the market moving in the same direction, if you will, or is there a natural price point which above this price point, we’re gonna see more transactions below this price point we’re gonna see less? Or, or is it kind of across the board? Jade, correct me if I’m wrong, but I, I think the $500,000 price point below is the most active and that’s still where there is a lack of inventory.

Jade: When you start getting over that price point, it seems like there’s already a healthy amount of inventory. Yes, that’s correct. So, and when there’s low inventory, what does that do? I mean, is that just things aren’t moving, prices are high, [00:17:00] or they’re not declining, that kind of thing. What does that mean for the buyer or seller at home?

With lower inventory, then we’ve got a more competitive market there. We’ve got a lot of first time home buyers that are trying to enter the market, and unfortunately for a buyer, you’re probably gonna be in a multiple offer situation in some areas of the country, and you may not get much of a discount in that price point as well too, you are competing with investors that are cash offers as well too.

So we have to keep that in mind. So then as we go up the scale, say seven 50. To, you know, maybe 1.5 million or so. Like what are things looking like in that kind of range? If you’re a buyer, there are more homes on the market in that price range, so you shouldn’t have too hard of a time finding a home above seven 50.

Tim: Now, in this, with the chief economists from the National Association of Realtors and his forecast for 2026, as you think about. Buyers and sellers entering the market [00:18:00] right now. What is the one thing that you. Would want any sellers listening to this program to know as they think about preparing to list their home for sale.

Jade: I think we’re seeing some of it here too. I’m still an active realtor in the Charlotte market and, and work the pilots and controllers as well. And what I’m seeing is even though we’re expecting a little bit better market. I think as a seller, you still have to be well prepared. I think the best that you can, you need to have the shiny penny, and you need to be priced reasonably.

And right now, nationally, the average days on the market is 44 days on the market, so that went up quite a bit from the COVID days. So just know that the longer that you’re on the market, you may start experiencing. Price reduction. So if you can price it right to begin with, if, if you can be the, the shiny penny, the best that you can be, you should be well prepared to enter the market.

Tim: And when you say shiny penny, what do you mean when you say shiny renny? There [00:19:00] are certain things that, first impressions mean a lot. Here’s an example of that. If you have colorful flowers and they’re not that expensive to put in colorful flowers, as you walk up and, and your front lawn is nice and tidy, and maybe you’ve put some pine straw down or mulch down or bark, you know, wherever you’re at in the country to where that first impression, they roll up and the buyer says, wow, you know.

Jade: Then maybe your front door freshly painted your doorbell is not broken and, and, and hanging off, you know, there’s no wood rod around the front that looks nice when they walk in the front door. If a buyer says, wow, then know that that buyer’s agent. Or the seller does not have to impress the buyer and the buyer’s agent as much walking through the remainder of the house, there’s almost an expectation that the remainder of the house looks like that.

But if you don’t make that good impression, curb appeal, walking up to the front door, opening the door, try your best to create a a wow moment there if you can. I think that’s an example of that. Okay, [00:20:00] first impressions matter. Folks. Spend the time, spend a little money to make a good first impression so you can move the property.

Kevin: From the buyer standpoint, those people who know me know I like to set expectations. I like to have a strategy, and I think from a buyer standpoint, buyers can, can arm themselves, right? There’s a lot of tools out there where they can do a lot of their own homework ahead of time so that their expectations are in line with the market.

And, and a little bit of what I mean by that is based on the prices that that are moving and the. You know the speed at which they’re moving. You can kind of look at the history and find out when somebody bought, when somebody’s selling, how long they’ve owned the home, the errors of the COVID and the, and the what the market has done over the last 10 years.

You can kind of draw, surmise your own, you know, some, summarize what is happening with the, the home you’re going to look at, and maybe there will be room for negotiation. [00:21:00] If, if the person’s owned it for 20 years and they’re just holding on to a a price point that they thought they were gonna get during the COVID area, and now prices are starting to soften a little bit, so there’ll be a little room for negotiation.

On the flip side of that, if you’re walking into a home that was purchased in the last three or four years, there’s just no way, unless they put cash down, they are strapped in that house and there is not a lot of room for negotiation whether they wanted to or not. So knowing what you’re walking into and looking at it from that.

Perspective will again, align your expectations and then you and your family can strategize when going out in the market and actually shopping instead of just spinning your wheels and getting frustrated with what you’re finding. So there you’re saying, Hey, use the tools. When you say tools, I’m thinking Zillow or realtor.com or whatever other apps that you might have to go check out real estate and check out the information that’s available.

Tim: Is that what you mean? Absolutely. Yeah, the internet is a very powerful tool. One thing I would caution you when you’re on those apps, obviously there’s a call to action and there [00:22:00] there’s a button to click to get 15 people to make your phone ring immediately. I would kind of stay away from those unless you’re looking for something specifically or in a hurry.

Kevin: But you’ll, you’ll get a lot of spam calls if, if you do click on one of those links. However, from the surface, you, there’s mortgage calculators there, you know, through Zillow and Realtor. You can see there’s public records. You can see what people purchase that you can see how long home ownership so you can do your homework.

Long before walking into a property, and again, your agent will also have this information, so if you’re asking specific questions, direct questions, that information’s all available. It’s not a secret. So I have a strategy prior to to walking around, and I think your success level will be a lot higher.

Jade: Also, when you’re working with your agent, you know, your agent has a bunch of tools as well, and one thing that I like to do as an agent that I would recommend. Any listener, regardless of who their agent is, ask ’em to pull the data on the listing agent. I was pulling the data last week on land here in Charlotte and recognize that the listing agent’s sales were about [00:23:00] 85% of the list price.

So that lets me know that, hey, listen, we have an opportunity here for this listing agent. We can chirp in their ear with our offer and, and maybe. I hate to say rolling over at 15%, but we may look at this and, and think to ourself, we have an opportunity here to possibly get this thing, you know, down 10, 15% based on what the listing agent, how they’re guiding their seller, and how these things are closing.

And you can go back and look at his transactions for a whole year and see that, you know, I love both of those points, right? Because that mirrors my own experience working with you guys as team in terms of. Hey, you encourage the, the buyers go use the tools that are really available. You know, develop a strategy like Jay said, but the agents are also gonna be bringing additional tools, like checking out.

Tim: What is the average closing price compared to list price of an agent, right? So that tells you what kind of built-in flexibility or margin you might [00:24:00] have, but then also research. There’s more research that you can do and you certainly want your agent to be doing that on the listing agent, on the property itself, on everything that you can uncover and use for your advantage.

You want your agents to be doing. Sometimes you hear like, Hey, like why do I need a realtor because I’ve got Zillow. Well, okay, Zillow’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole lot more that goes underneath, at least what I’ve seen in my experience, and I imagine you guys. Would say something similar. Yeah, exactly.

Kevin: I think Zillow just scratches the surface realtor. Just, all of them are great tools, but no one tool is gonna get the job done then in this game. It’s relationships in this business. So the real estate industry is all about relationships, who you know, like, and trust and who you’re working with, and you should expect your agent to work for you as well.

But communication is key. So find somebody that you like working with. Again, I would highly recommend you give a a beacon agent a try and a beacon lender a try. But if you already have somebody you know I can trust. Communication is key and you can make most things [00:25:00] work as long as you’re willing to communicate.

Tim: Yeah, I think that the conversation today has been really helpful. I love the fact that you guys have saved pilot’s, portfolio listeners, so much money almost. $40,000 since you guys started mering the show. That’s awesome. That’s money. Going back to our listeners’ pocket, going back towards their closing costs, it sounds like 2026 is gonna shape up to be a better year for, for real estate transactions than 2025.

And we, you know, I heard you mention earlier, Kevin, that mortgage rates are going to, you know, kind of settle they’re, they’re down from early 2025 and being the low sixes. So for folks that have been on the sidelines. Waiting for rates to go down. That’s, that’s positive news. I’d love to hear any final messages to buyers and sellers guys as the activity picks up here in 2026 and as they’re preparing to reach out to you.

Jade: If I could say one other thing about that buyer broker agreement, and I find myself on one-on-one [00:26:00] calls with a lot of buyers as we’re placing them discussing this and, and let me just say that everything in real estate is negotiable. And I’m gonna give you an example of something that, that, and I have to be very careful here in, in talking about fees, other firms fees, there’s policy against talking about that.

But, so I’m gonna say, just generally speaking, under a general umbrella, and I’m gonna use an example, these percentages are example, only just a heads up on, on something to watch whomever that buyer agent is. If, for example, in this document they give you, if for example, that they say our firm’s fee is 3%, that’s the maximum amount of money that they are allowed to collect without the buyer’s permission.

So for example, if there’s gonna be a bonus involved, I threw that there, maybe it’s new construction, that agent is not allowed to accept that bonus without your permission. Well, on the other side of it. What happens if, for example, the seller [00:27:00] or the listing agent is only offering 2.5%, for example, and, and there’s a a half a percent between what they’re willing to pay the buyer’s agent versus what the your buyer’s brokerage firm fee is?

Well, you’re gonna be expected to pay that half a percent. So my recommendation is. Regardless of what those numbers are, if you find out, and you should know this before you submit an offer for sure on, on how much your buyer’s agent is making, regardless who the agent is, regardless of the state, you may want to ask them, Hey, in the event, for example, you’re only getting paid 2.5% from the seller.

Will you change this contract, our buyer brokerage agreement from, for example, from 3% to two and a half to where they match, because I’d prefer not to pay you outta my pocket of closing this other half percent. So that’s just something thing there to watch. We’re seeing a lot of. Admin fees out there too, that buyers are paying and, and just know that those are negotiable.

Everything is negotiable in these [00:28:00] contracts. That’s a good point for buyers to, to take a look at that and ask the question, Hey, if the seller is only willing to pay, you know, two and a half percent, where’s the extra half a percent going to come from? I think that’s a, that’s a great question. So thank you Kevin and Jade for joining the show.

Tim: It’s always a great time for you guys to come out. Provide, hey, the latest update on the real estate market, and then remind listeners how they can save more money on their next real estate transaction. Where can folks go to learn more and to express interest? If people wanna find us, they can go to our website@beaconrelocation.com, and you can also find us on all the social platforms as well at Deacon Relocation.

Kevin: So our Lycos follow us and. Show up on our website, put an application, and we’ll call you right away. Awesome. Perfect. Well, thanks guys, and we’ll make sure to have your information in the show notes. Thanks for joining Pilot’s Portfolio. Thank you, Tim. We really appreciate it. Yes, much appreciated. Tim.[00:29:00] 

Tim: Thank you for joining this episode of Pilot’s Portfolio. If you found this information helpful, spread the word and share it with a pilot button, or if you have questions. And there’s something that you would like to hear discussed on the show, send us an email. You can find the address in the show notes.

For those of you who are ready to learn how we help professional pilots with their financial planning needs, schedule an appointment. Until next time, keep the shiny side up and we’ll see you on the next episode.

Pilot’s Portfolio is hosted by Timothy P. Pope. Timothy P. Pope is principal owner of 360 Aviation Advisors. 360 Aviation Advisors is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the state of North Carolina in accordance and compliance to the securities laws and regulations. 360 Aviation Advisors does not render or offered to [00:30:00] render personalized investment or tax advice through pilot’s portfolio.