SHOULD PILOTS BUY NOW OR WAIT? RATES, PRICES, AND THE HOUSING MARKET, WITH BEACON RELOCATION

Kevin Walker: [00:00:00] If you’re paying rent, for example, $2,000 a month, $25,000 a year is what it might be costing you. I’m not really so sure that I see a $500,000 house coming down 10% over the next couple of years just based on what we’re seeing. It seems like you might be in the hole waiting. So with that being said, I personally think it’s better to try to get that purchase price where you want it the best you can, and hopefully that interest rate could come down for you a little bit on a refinance.

But because the purchase price is never gonna come down after you buy it, the numbers keep going up just a little bit in some areas, and you gotta go ahead and lock that thing down, ’cause the only thing you can do is write a check to pay it off or to pay that mortgage back down. Where the interest rates, you can do a refinance possibly later, so.

So you guys heard it 

Tim: here, right? So marry the property, date the rate, lock the property in at a purchase price that works for you, your financial plan, your budget, your family’s needs, and then look for opportunities.[00:01:00] 

You’re 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 successes and cautionary tales.

The Pilot’s Portfolio takes off now. Well, folks, we are so excited to have our friends from Beacon Relocation join us today. The team at Beacon has been helping pilots and air traffic controllers all around the country for many years save money on their next real estate transaction, putting those dollars back into your pocket.

So joining us today is Kevin Walker, CEO of Beacon Relocation, and Jade Barnett, COO of Beacon Relocation. Hi, guys. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you for the invitation. Yes, good morning, Tim. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. As a [00:02:00] financial guy, I love forecast, and probably even more than the forecast, I like to follow up and see, like, hey, how did the forecast or the projection match with reality?

So our listeners will recall that earlier this year we had you on the show, and you shared a forecast from the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. To your point, Kevin, there’s been a lot of things that have happened since the forecast. So love to see what you guys are seeing in the marketplace, the buying and selling of, of residential real estate primarily.

Like, what’s going on with that? 

Kevin Walker: It started out with a bang, and right when inflation went up, gas prices go up, everything goes up. It’s a slow roll for sure. They’re looking for interest rates. They’re still anticipating prices to come down just a little bit. From what I see, it’s been a little bit slower than what the forecast was.

Jade Barnett: Yeah, I did a little deep dive in before the call just to kind of see, ’cause as you know, different pockets perform different from kind of the national averages. [00:03:00] So just kind of a broad brush. We are seeing some of the home prices soften just a hair. A lot of that is out of seller necessity at times.

There’s also a pocket of people that can’t afford to take much less than they’re asking already on the market based on when they bought. So a lot of people are waiting for this relief in the market. They’re looking at the interest rates or the home prices to come down. And if you kind of look across the last fifty years, we’re in a pretty stable interest rate market, pretty, quote unquote, “fair,” but we’re all stuck in the late 2000s up to, you know, almost four years ago where we had the, I think the lowest rates in the low twos.

So those days are, I think are behind us. They’re not coming back. So you really have to just reassess your finances, reassess the type of home you can afford, and there still is value in the market. We’re seeing a little softening, but if you’re diligent and patient, I think you can find the right piece of property in today’s market.

So talk to us about that softening. 

Tim: So three to five percent is what you had mentioned before we pressed record. Which markets are we [00:04:00] seeing that those declines? 

Jade Barnett: Florida is a big market where there’s value, and a lot of that has to do with the most recent insurance hikes in the last three years, some of the hurricanes affecting that, some insurance companies over-leveraged, whatever.

I d- I’m not an insurance guy, so I don’t pretend to know. But I know that our coastal properties have almost tripled on the insurance side, and obviously that’s factored into what– the buying power of the people. So there’s a, a saying out there right now, “You marry the house and date the rate,” and, and that’s true.

If you’re, if you’re waiting for the rate to change, I don’t think any of us would really hold our breath. There might be some relief, but over a thirty-year mortgage, you can take advantage of that relief if it’s on the horizon. But you should start shopping for the house that you need, I assume, at this point, or if it’s a second home, the house that you guys want.

There’s still a lot of incentives out there with new construction just because of the market they’re in and some of the rules that they play by. One thing to look in that area, if you do go to new construction and a new development, a lot of thing that’s catching people off guard is the property taxes.

It’s getting assessed as a vacant land at [00:05:00] less than a hundred dollars, and then after they live there a year or two, then you’re realizing taxes in that area are six thousand dollars for property taxes. And that’ll also, it’ll cause the mortgage payment to go up a couple hundred bucks, putting people in a bind.

I have several clients in Florida, 

Tim: and everybody complains. I mean, they just got hit over the head with the insurance piece. So that’s where we’re starting to see some softening in that market. And then you mentioned marry the house, date the rate. So put a little more meat on the bone there. Like, what do you mean when you say that?

Kevin Walker: I can give you an example. This actually is, is happening right now with a client that we’re working with. If you go back and look at the historical data on interest rates, it’s about where it’s gonna be. I mean, the fact in the past ten years we had conditions in this country, those rates I don’t think are gonna be coming back ever.

But what we’re seeing happen, I’ve got a client right now that I sat down with him and I s– he said, “Hey, Kevin, listen, I wanna make sure we’re on the same page before we work together, and we need to agree.” He said, “I want to deal somewhere.” And he said, “I think the market’s gonna come down another ten [00:06:00] percent based on these factors that I’ve checked.”

And he said, “Are you in alignment with me that when we make an offer, we’re gonna go in low?” And I told him, I said, “Hey, listen, I’m here for you. We will certainly go in at whatever p- price that you think, but we’re not finding sellers right now that are willing to cooperate.” If a buyer, for example, is expecting the numbers to go down 10% in the next couple of years, we can’t find a seller right now as we’re putting in offers that’s willing to take a three-year potential price today.

They’re holding tight on these numbers. We’ve got another home that we closed last week. The appraisal came in $3,000 under our contract price. Of course, we went back to the seller and asked them to reduce the price, and they wouldn’t do it. They split the difference with, but they were gonna withdraw, and the buyer was willing to withdraw over that.

So right now, if you’re paying rent, for example, $2,000 a month, $25,000 a year is what it might be costing you. I’m not really so sure that I see a $500,000 [00:07:00] house coming down 10% over the next couple of years just based on what we’re seeing. It seems like you might be in the hole waiting. So with that being said, I personally think it’s better to try to get that purchase price where you want it the best you can, and hopefully that interest rate could come down for you a little bit on a refinance.

But because the purchase price is never gonna come down after you buy it, the numbers keep going up just a little bit in some areas, and you gotta go ahead and lock that thing down, ’cause the only thing you can do is write a check to pay it off or to pay that mortgage back down where the interest rates, you can do a refinance possibly later.

So it’s a hard position to be in right now. 

Tim: So you guys heard it here, right? So marry the property, date the rate. Lock the property in at a purchase price that works for you, your financial plan, your budget, your family’s needs, and then look for opportunities. I mean, you know, I was helping a client evaluate some rates actually for a property overseas here recent, like last month, and we’re going back and forth with the broker And [00:08:00] I’m saying, “Hey, some of these fixed products kind of look attractive.”

And the broker says, “Well, look, you know, if you look over the past twenty years, you can see that the rates were, are, were much lower within this timeframe. We think there’s, there’s some, some more room.” I’m like, “Do you know what happened in the last twenty years?” You’ve got the global financial crisis. You know, you’ve got the European debt crisis, which ac- lasted quite a long time.

You had COVID, then you had Brexit, and there’s all this pain that’s associated with really low interest rates. And even right now, as we sit, you know what, mid sixes or so, like if you look at Freddie Mac data, we’re still like slightly below the super– the really long-term average of thirty-year mortgages.

And so it’s really funny just as, as, as humans, what we choose to remember. We choose to remember the rock bottom rates at COVID, but we don’t really remember, you know, the great financial recession, the, you know, stocks being down and mar- money markets breaking the buck and all that pain, you know, of seven, eight, nine kind of thing.

So, you know, that’s interesting. [00:09:00] So I like that, right? So marry the property and then date the rate. Look for opportunity there. Yeah, and 

Kevin Walker: I too, I purchased a new home in December. Didn’t have to, but it, you know, it was something we wanted, and purchased an investment property last October. So there are still some opportunities out there if you watch for them Yeah.

Tim: You mentioned something I wanna come back on. New construction incentives. What are we seeing with new construction? I just had a client two months ago buy new construction. What kind of incentives are we seeing? 

Jade Barnett: A lot of these guys, if they’re sitting on, and girls, if they’re sitting on inventory, they have a lot of cash incentives, and what they can do with that cash, obviously, is up to the type of buyer that walks in the door.

Most attractive now is when they’re taking that $20,000 incentive cash that they have and buying down the rate, and people are walking out the door with a number in the, the low fours, high threes, and they felt like they won the lottery. So that’s happening in some pockets. I believe Dallas and San Antonio, I’ve seen those kind of incentives come across our desk for some of the [00:10:00] buyers out there shopping.

I mean, they’re just crazy. I’m not in the market now, but if I was, I’d probably look there first because there’s a lot of money on that table, and if you can get that interest rate right and the, and the, the price right, it makes a lot of sense. Those are also the pockets where some of those taxes can be the issue, so you have to factor that in on the front end.

So don’t just go after the shiny penny without doing your homework. But that money there can furnish the house, buy down the rate. There’s a lot of things that cash at the table can do. And you can do that with your own cash as well, if you have it. So once you find the right price, to you guys’ point, go ahead and manipulate the mortgage side of it to work for you, either short term or long term, and you can do that with lumping a bunch of cash or putting very little cash down and wait and seeing if the rate’s gonna drop and hit the refi.

But there’s a lot of different ways to skin that cat, like you mentioned. 

Kevin Walker: We had a buyer last week that we closed, and the builder, it was contingent on using their lender, and their lender and the builder is basically under one umbrella. But, but they bought the rate down, 30-year rate down to [00:11:00] 4.99%. Mm-hmm. So for 30 years.

We are seeing those with new construction. 

Tim: That’s a place to look. One thing with the taxes, I mean, if somebody’s thinking about, just so you’re not surprised w- after you buy the new construction, you know, you can look at your purchase price, look in the area, look at an existing home around a similar purchase price.

Go to Zillow and look and see what they’ve been assessed on taxes, just so you can be aware and not be surprised at, when that tax assessment jumps up. Kevin, wanna ask you this. New construction, do I need a realtor, or just can I go in and say, go to the buyer directly and say, “Hey, look, I’m, you know, I’m interested in buying.

Let’s, let’s, uh, make a deal”? 

Kevin Walker: Yeah, great question. No, you don’t need a real estate agent. There’s an on-site agent there that’s more than happy to talk to you. But keep in mind, they are typically representing the seller, the builder. If you go in without a real estate agent, you have zero representation. So it’s best to have a real estate agent when you go in new construction, in my opinion, absolutely.

I’d agree 

Tim: 100%. I was working with somebody [00:12:00] who, they had started talking to the, to the builder and the builder’s agent. And I’m like, “No, man. Like, I want somebody who works for you at the end of the day.” This dual agency, I know it can happen, but I’m old school, I guess, and I want them working just for you.

And what they uncovered was the agent was able to uncover some of that incentive that you were talking about, Jade. Hey, there was more cash on the bone to be able to drive down that rate versus, you know, the builder’s agent may not have been able to do or willing to do that, right? So I agree. Like, you should, even new construction Help, you know, get yourself a realtor.

I wanna talk about this. Like, it’s not happening as much as it has in the past, you know, COVID days kinda thing, but what should buyers do if they find themselves in a, a multiple offer situation? ‘Cause we’ve had some clients who– Actually, it’s funny. They were in Florida, Jake, and they had multiple offers and, and the property sold very quickly.

[00:13:00] Like, it shocked everybody. So what should buyers do? You got high interest rates. In some markets, the prices have come down a little bit, but we’ve not seen that across the board. And then if they’re up against another buyer, like how should they respond? 

Kevin Walker: Probably should formulate a game plan with their real estate agent, but from my perspective in how I guide buyer clients in a multiple offer scenario, you know, at that point, comps go out the window.

You know, trying to get a deal somewhat goes out the window. And I don’t really like the question, but we do use it, which is, uh, I mean, how bad do you want the house? Do you want it a little bit? Do you want it a lot? Because that’s really gonna drive your number. And I would generally ask a buyer, “If you place your offer, let’s say you even go over asking price just a little bit, will you have buyer’s remorse if you get it?”

And if that answer is, “No, I won’t have buyer’s remorse, I’ll be happy,” then that may be a good way to go. Or if they’re not [00:14:00] willing to put your best foot forward, if that number happens to be five or $10,000 less than asking price, for example, but that’s the best foot forward, will you be upset? Will you come back and say, “Man, if I’d have just gone another 5,000, I could have had it”?

So really is put your best foot forward where you have no regret if you get it, or you have no regret if you don’t. That’s the best advice I could give somebody. 

Tim: That’s really sound advice. When you’re writing an offer, and you’re looking for a house for your family, and it’s, let’s say, you know, this is something that you really desire, those emotions get involved, right?

Like, do you see people leaning over their skis a bit, like, in this kinda thing? Or do those series of questions that you typically ask, does that kinda help folks just recenter and say, like, “All right, cool,” like, “I’m gonna put my best foot forward, but it needs to make sense for my family as well”? 

Kevin Walker: Yeah.

Well, it’s typically not the first conversation we have. If we’re writing an offer, and you place the offer, and the listing agent comes back and advises you that there’s multiple offers on the table, that’s where you then have this conversation. Or if there’s [00:15:00] already a note in the MLS, multiple offers, highest and best offers are due by, for example, tomorrow at noon, then you might have the conversation there too.

But I think folks can make a decision. They typically make the decision, and they’re okay with it. You know, like, “This is my number, and I’m good with it. If I get it, great. If I don’t, great.” That’s the place to be. 

Jade Barnett: I can share a quick story there with you, Tim. Back in 2016, my wife and I flew in from New Mexico into the Charlotte area, and we were looking for a house.

And I would say we were probably working with the best agent in the area at the time, and Went around to about 10 houses, and it was the 10th one that wasn’t… We had nine on the list, and my wife, while we were looking, none of them appealed to us. And this gentleman and his wife kept taking us around, opening doors, opening doors, whatever we asked, and my wife would- kept finding new houses.

“Can we look at this one? Can we look at this one?” We only had two days in the area, ’cause we were still active duty military. And finally, it was the last house. The wife fell in love with it. We started talking the offers. And this [00:16:00] great agent once said, “At the end of it, are you gonna let $5,000 be the difference for the house of your dreams or the house that your wife wants?”

And so fast-forward to today, a few short years later, I went into business with that guy, and I’m still happily married. Happy wife, happy life. 

Kevin Walker: Well, thanks, Jay. But he throws up to me occasionally, “I’m still trying to pay off that extra money I paid for this house, Kevin.” So… 

Jade Barnett: Yeah, he still owes me. 

Tim: Yeah.

That’s great. You heard it here first. If you buy smart, save your marriage.

Now, before we keep going, I’d like to mention this. At 360 Aviation Advisors, we help successful professional pilots who have outgrown DIY investing. We help them coordinate retirement planning, investments, and tax decisions with ease and clarity. Because at a certain point, building and preserving wealth to support the life you enjoy takes a team.

To learn more, [00:17:00] visit 360aviationadvisors.com. That’s 3-6-0 aviationadvisors.com. Now back to the show Let’s talk about this. Heard it several times as, you know, different financial content that I listen to in the news. Guys, the average age of the first-time homebuyer has jumped a lot. We’ve hit 40 now. So number one, I think that’s a big deal.

But number two, I wanna see, have you guys seen, you know, say, first-time home purchases or second-time home purchases, I’ve kind of seen both of these, where parents of these buyers say, “Hey, you know what? Instead of delaying your inheritance, I’d like to see you enjoy some of this money,” and so they might help out, you know, with the down payment on either a primary or a secondary.

Have you guys seen any of that? 

Jade Barnett: We have seen a little bit of that. It was very prominent back when equity was easy to get a hold of and cheap to borrow money against the houses as [00:18:00] the prices were going up. But now just with income in the families and the generations getting older and it being harder for the younger generation to be a first-time homebuyer, like you mentioned, the age is now 40.

Uh, for reference, back in 1981, the age was 29 for the first-time homebuyer, so it’s substantially crept up, and that obviously allows the parental generation to chip in and obviously take the edge off and allow those first-time homebuyers a leg up on the economy and the opportunities that are out there.

So we are seeing it a lot. I think it’s much needed. We’re seeing also the generational, where multiple generations are moving under one roof. So there are a couple different ways right now to attack the economy based on where you guys are rooted, about your family dynamic. Being in the military, being in the aviation world, a lot of us are way spread out, so it’s easier to try to help from afar than it is to help locally.

But it takes a village in today’s economy right now, for sure. So parents helping children is one of the easier things and better things we’ve seen. 

Tim: [00:19:00] Yeah, and I think the fact that the average age has jumped way up to 40 from, what’d you say, 29 in ’81, obviously owning your home certainly helps with your personal wealth creation.

There’s folks delaying that by 11 years. That being said, all is not lost for our listeners, especially if you’re at the major airline, you’re getting the 18% NEC, so, like, that wasn’t happening in 1981 either, so there’s some wealth being built in that retirement account. But that’s a big deal. I’d say so for somebody who’s thinking about buying a home And perhaps your parents had mentioned to you in the past that they’re willing to help or, you know, in some capacity.

That might be an opportunity to, to mention, to see, like, where they are if they’re, they’re willing to help you with the down payment. In The Wall Street Journal, I’ve been seeing where parents are buying homes for their children. Now, I have not seen that yet. There’s an opportunity there. Or on the flip side, not the receiving side, but maybe the gifting side.

So for parents that [00:20:00] are listening and you’re, you’re– maybe you’re kind of trying to think like, “Hey, I have this wealth. I want to be good stewards of this wealth,” and, you know, “How can I help my children? How can I give it to them smartly without spoiling them?” That’s a conversation I have with a lot of clients.

Well, maybe help with the first down payment on a home could be, number one, you get to see them enjoy it. Number two, it’s not just cash, right? I think what’s maybe most important is that you’re helping them at a time in life where possibly they need it most versus when in an inheritance situation, they could be well-established and it’s like, “Hey, thanks, but, you know, I could’ve used this when I was…”

I mean, they’ll be grateful. “I could’ve used this, like, when I was getting started,” right? So I think there’s a lot of ways to come up with the right solution for families today given the prices, the interest rates, and the age of first-time home buyers. 

Jade Barnett: Tim, I’ll share a quick story. It’s not mine. I’d have to give credit to a real estate podcast that I’ve, that I’ve listened to in the past, BiggerPockets, and the gentleman’s [00:21:00] name is Brandon Turner.

But he has a story that he tells where he bought a quadplex for his daughter when she was born and put it on an eighteen-year mortgage, and at the time she was eighteen, that money was there to supplement with college, turn her into her own investor, whatever it was. Obviously, the teaching stuff is gonna happen throughout the years, and you will know your own child, whether eighteen’s the right age or fifty’s the right age.

But planting that seed as a, a parent for a young child, real estate can be a great conduit of wealth and residual income to help offset those. On the contrary to that, we’ve seen younger people even stand up a partnership amongst kids to offset and help take care of their parents through real estate investment.

So there’s a lot of good avenues, especially for your listeners who are financial savvy and looking to do the right things and are in it for the long term. There’s a rule of thumb out there. If you’re not gonna live in it longer than five years, then you should probably sharpen your pencil and see if the numbers work at all.

But if you’re gonna keep it longer than five years, real estate is an amazing vessel [00:22:00] to grow generational wealth amongst the family. 

Kevin Walker: If I, too, could just mention something, Tim, on that gifting, that a buyer may wanna check with a loan officer on that. I think on a government-backed loan, I’m not a loan officer, I’m not a mortgage person, but if it’s a government-backed loan, I think they would be able to receive a gift from parent with a gift letter.

But if it’s a conventional loan, most conventional loans, my understanding is y-you can’t receive any gifting like that. But if it is gonna be a gift, possibly from mom to the child purchasing the home, put that money in there several months in advance into their savings account to where when you do apply for the loan, the money’s already there, you don’t have to account for it, and they may go back two or three months on a statement.

So with that, if someone’s thinking about receiving funds, they may wanna check with a loan officer to see the best way to do that before they make an offer and then are disappointed. Absolutely. 

Tim: We had a recent scenario where parents opted to and were allowed, right, to make– to stroke a check directly to the mortgage [00:23:00] company, right, versus going to kid first.

But then if it’s the conventional, to your point, yeah, if you’re planning this and you know it, if those funds are in the account several months ahead before, you know, the, they’re gonna ask for the last couple of months of statements so they don’t see a big transaction like that, that could work as well.

Jade Barnett: Yeah. We also had a new example in the, kinda with the cryptocurrency. One of our clients came in with cryptocurrency, and then from the lending aspect, as Kevin was alluding to, that money needed to clear the crypto, convert into dollars, and then sit and season in the account for an extended period of time, and I think it was three to six months.

Obviously, it can put a damper on your moving if you don’t know those timelines and when to move it. I think that law and that world is advancing rather rapidly. I don’t know enough to speak on it, but if crypto, if any of your listeners do plan on converting any of that or using some of that in the near future, converting it to US dollars and seasoning, I think is still a requirement, so double-check that if you plan on converting.

Let’s talk about this. I’ve been reading 

Tim: some headlines about legislative [00:24:00] push to stop large corporate investors from owning and renting single-family homes. I think we saw a lot of buy-ups, especially when money was cheap here. Is this gonna have an impact on people? Or what impact, maybe I should ask? 

Jade Barnett: I actually have seen it personally.

As most of you guys know, I, I have some rentals in one of our neighborhoods this was actually happening to. It was a high-level neighborhood. Houses are in the five to eight hundred thousand price point, and a large majority was getting bought up by corporations, and they were renting them out. So there was degradation, and once the, the HOA obviously had a fit because a renter doesn’t care like a homeowner, and not that it’s good, bad, or indifferent.

It’s just different, and based on when people are renting, sometimes they’re in a temporary phase in life, and they’re not a y- green thumb. They don’t care about the yard and all those things, so it kind of brings the quality of the neighborhood down or has the potential to if they own a mass majority in there, and they can afford to lower the rates there.

If they’re making money in [00:25:00] another state, they can afford to lower it in your state or potentially your neighborhood, and then that could be affecting single landlords, the people who have one or two houses here and there, and that can really impact what you can list it for rent. They’ll bring that down.

So quality and price point can largely be affected if they own a mass majority. What I do know is our HOA that I’m referencing abruptly stopped it and didn’t… You had to occupy the home for a year prior to renting it. That’s how they ousted those companies from being able to buy them up sight unseen without moving into them.

So that was one way the local HOAs could fix it is require a year of occupancy. I’m glad to see that legislators stepped in because obviously, as we’re all competing as individuals, if we were competing against corporations, we’d be at a huge disadvantage. 

Kevin Walker: I hate to be the real estate agent guy always talking about the mortgage stuff ’cause I’m not a loan officer or a lender, but if you get some areas like townhomes or condo developments that are majority tenant and they’re not majority owner occupied, I’ve seen in most [00:26:00] cases the lender is unable to fund it for you, 

Tim: so you have to watch for that.

If I wanted to move to a townhome where it was majority tenant occupied, I might have trouble getting a loan. Is that what you’re saying? Correct. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I didn’t know that. Yep. 

Kevin Walker: This is just what I’ve heard in the past, is I’ve asked the questions. If someone is gonna let their home go, it’s more likely that they’re gonna let an investment property go than their own personal home.

So there’s just an inherent risk with more investors owning that development than somebody where it’s their primary residence. But some years ago, we indeed had a buyer that was trying to purchase one, and we just couldn’t get it funded because there were too many tenants in there, too many landlords owing versus an owner-occupant.

So just something to be on the lookout for. 

Tim: I think that’s really interesting. And then going to Jade’s point on this is that he’s seen it really impact the rental market, [00:27:00] not so much the buy/sell market. I think some of this legislation too was gonna try to force– and I haven’t read, like, to see where we are now, but some of it was gonna, you know, say, “Hey, like, if you’re a, a big landlord, you have more than a thousand properties, then you need to offload some of these properties over a certain period of time.”

I think that could potentially… anytime you’re flooding the market with inventory. So I would imagine they would fight to have it structured, so they’re not flooding the market with inventory and losing value on their investment. But at the same time, hey, more inventory never hurts the single-family buyer, right?

So. 

Jade Barnett: Yeah, I believe in today’s market, if something like that happens, then obviously I think there’ll be a little bit of a, a fire sale potentially. If it floods the market and we have over-inventory, then the buyer will have opportunity. But I believe there will probably be a responsible way to drip that in.

So unless it’s done by large, I don’t think it’ll have an impact on the, the buy/sell. 

Tim: So guys, what I heard first from you today is the prices in Florida was the specific market that you referenced, right? So there’s, there were [00:28:00] some declined prices there, but we’re not seeing declines across the board.

We’re seeing the interest rates remain elevated, and we expect this to be the new normal. So if you’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for interest rates to drop, you could be waiting for a while, absent some really big catastrophic event in the marketplace that’s gonna put pain in other areas of your financial life, right?

And then Kevin said, “Marry the property, date the rate.” Make sure the purchase price works for you, and then look for opportunities to lower that cost over time, which could be refi-ing. It could be, you know, putting more money down, right? And recasting the mortgage, right? You name it. There’s a lot of opportunities to, to get the house paid off if that’s what’s part of your financial plan.

Any parting remarks or anything else for our listeners today? 

Kevin Walker: I would just say, say stay diligent if you’re searching for a home. As Jade mentioned earlier, just be patient. The market in most areas seems to be a little flat. It’s not going down that much. It’s not going up that much. You know, but you [00:29:00] might find a seller who’s willing to come off of their price for you quite a bit.

But if you’re just diligent, patient, I haven’t seen a lot of big swings in the market, um, this year myself. You know, I like that 

Tim: bringing that back kind of full circle to how we started it, ’cause the chief economist last year was forecasting about a 5% increase. We’re half the way, year in. It’s about flat.

We got half the game left. There’s still a lot of time on the, on the game clock, so we’ll see what this second half brings. But we’re gonna have to get this Iran war figured out. We’re gonna have to get oil figured out, and the Fed’s gonna have to get inflation figured out to not see things or rates anyways elevate.

So with that, guys, thank you so much. Kevin and Jade, Beacon Relocation, their information’s gonna be in the show notes. Go to their website. Fill out the little card. Send them a note, and you guys get started saving you guys money back in your real estate transaction. Always happy to have you on the show.

Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

Thank you for joining this episode of Pilot’s Portfolio. If you found this information helpful, spread the word [00:30:00] and share it with a pilot buddy. 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.