Winning Combo - Lower Rates And Higher Wages

Guest: Pete Heim

Rates slip into the High 5s as the “rate flip” loosens lock-in sellers, while cash buyers surge and affordability shifts across regions. We share practical buying strategies, explain the new FinCEN rule for entity cash deals, and outline spring selling moves that actually pay off.

• New show cadence and focus on bigger real estate shifts
• Mortgage rate dip and first “rate flip” in five years
• Low inventory dynamics and millions re-entering the market
• Why cash offers win and how to compete without cash
• FinCEN reporting for LLC and Entity Purchases
• Renting versus Buying by region and affordability data
• Down payment assistance options including PHFA trade-offs
• Spring prep that boosts ROI and pricing discipline
• Wages rising faster than prices!!

Thanks for watching the show every Thursday at 7 p.m

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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife 

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller. 

Transcript

Cold Open And Banter

SPEAKER_02 0:30

This is gonna be a good one, Hugo. The Brad Wiseman Show. Real people, real life, and everything in between. So, what do your kids think of this?

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Oh, they are so embarrassed.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

In order to be unstoppable, you simply don't give up. You get knocked down, you get back up again. Where curiosity opens the door to genuine connection. Men really struggle with their emotions. They really struggle with even understanding what's going on. Unfiltered conversations with the people shaping our world. What kind of show is this? And there's red quilted leather all over the walls. There's a swing hanging from the ceiling. I don't sweat you. And now your host, Brad Wiseman.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

All right. Yeah. Now there's there's a lot going on in that intro. You know it? There's a lot going on. A lot going on in that intro. What do you think? It's the first time Pete Pete has heard that. So he's he's not used to it. We gotta talk about that then. I have something to say we can't have on. Was it about the swings? Yeah, yeah, was it about the swing? Yeah. I was thinking of a place where that might be. It's in it was in California. Okay. Yeah, it's a realtor in California. He talked about the went into a room. Remember that room he went into? And it was red velvet. Oh, it was ward swinging. He said, Oh, yeah, it was all kinds of stuff. And actually, I think it was it was an intervention that day. Yeah. At the am I right?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Oh, I probably was a famous person. And you know, he was showing the house, I think, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the showing, an innervation happened.

New Show Format And Focus

SPEAKER_04 2:02

An intervention happens in community because he was a drug out of alcoholics. Yes, yes. Pete gets trapped in this room with all this stuff, and he's thinking, what the hell am I gonna do in here? Oh, yeah. It's a true story. It's a true story. Yeah, yeah. It was Adam Brouwer. Brouwer, yeah. Adam Brouwer. He's a cool guy, really cool guy. He's from Beverly Hills. Oh my god. Tell some big houses. That's funny. Yeah, so we got Pete back here. Hey, hey, hey. Yeah. Hey. Oh, I think so. Okay. Making sure you. I hear me. Okay, I hear you too. You hear me? I hear you. Yeah. Just making sure. Can you hear me? I hear you. I hear you. Okay. So yeah, we brought Pete back. We're going to change things up a little bit. You heard the intro is a little different. I did. We are not thinking. We're real people, real life, and everything in between. So we're real people. We're the in-between. We have a real life. We're the in-between. That's exactly right. And and basically, you know, we're going to do we we decided that we're going to do real estate every other month because it was getting the point where real estate wasn't changing enough in a 30-day period. And we wanted to do it every other month. So we have more material, more things to talk about, and we don't bore the shit out of everybody.

SPEAKER_05 3:07

And everybody knows that the only thing I know is real estate, and Brad is never going to bring me in on another topic.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Well, we might with the swings and stuff. I don't know. Well that sounded like you're pretty well versed.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

There's a club here. I don't want to ruin it, ruin the owner right now. So I don't want to I don't want to talk about it. We'll talk about it later.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Wow. Maybe we should start doing this every 30 days again. We can talk about other things if it's like real estate. You're right. You're okay with it. But no, we we have things going on in real estate. I mean the the rates are down since last time we talked. They have finally they call it it hit the high fives, and I always think of like high fives. High five that, yeah. But it hit the high fives. It did. And it's kind of teetering around that. I think it's somewhere high fives to sixes in a little bit going on. So it'll be interesting to see if that becomes a a trend or just a blip. Or a blip, right? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Tough call.

Rates Dip And The “Rate Flip”

SPEAKER_04 4:02

Yeah, but you know, well, one thing you and I were just talking about before we actually went on here was the fact that it's the first time we are now where did I have that at here? Oh, it's right here. It's called the rate flip. It's the first time in five years that more U.S. homeowners now hold a mortgage rate above 6% than below 3%. And that is a shift in the lock-in that had previously frozen the market. So we talked about this a lot, the lock-in. Yep. Where basically we all think that the reason we don't have inventory is because people just don't want to sell. No, they feel locked in because they do. Their rates are low. Yeah. Right? Yeah. They're at what? 3%? Who wants to move? If you if your rate is 3% or below, why you know it it's tough to move.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Yep. And we were talking about how fast it came. Yeah. Because we and it was 2022 when it was. Which we were doing this, right? Yep. Yep. And we were they was like, oh, you know, it's gonna stay at 3% all year, and it went shot to seven, you know, that year. Because I remember Michelle and I bought a property, it was actually climbing. As we were like, can we lock, lock, lock? Yeah. We by the time we started, it was three percent and went to four and a quarter. Boom, we locked it. That's how fast it went so long within within a month. And by the end of that year, it was seven. So what is that? Three, that was April. So April of 22. So three, almost four years now. It is almost four years.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

But folks, that's a fast it is because I keep thinking how many houses sold in that amount of time to get it that now more people own a house over six percent. Well, you bought during that time.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

Well, it's in the millions, and obviously a lot of people did. I mean, in the millions, it's millions of people.

SPEAKER_05 5:41

We average five million in the United States. So what is that? 25 or so million.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

It's a lot of houses. It's a lot of houses.

SPEAKER_05 5:47

And that's enough to do that.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

And then what we forget too is that you know, people people pass. Yep. People get divorced. So it's not like they're just doing it to want to do it, it's because life things happen. Yep. Well, yes, it's wild. Dude, that was but that's good. It's classic, fast though, man.

SPEAKER_05 6:00

Yeah, so fast, but that's but it's good.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

It is good, it's good for inventory. It'll actually help stabilize the market.

SPEAKER_05 6:06

It's gonna stabilize it, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Yeah, definitely. Which we're starting to see a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 6:09

Yep, so and don't worry if you're an owner because the prices are still going up, they're just going up slower. Yeah, exactly. So, what do you got? Anything uh you want to go over? Price is going up. It's it was slight increases in 2025. The only negative was the West. Okay. The West went down by like, I don't know, it was like six percent or something. It was really yeah, but everybody else was up 0.2 or we were the highest.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

So the northeast is still the northeast. The northeast is still highest the country. Yep. We are wow, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 6:40

Yeah, so uh but prices, but don't don't fret, you know. And also in November of 25, three out of 10 homes sold cash in in the United States. And Brad, you and I were like well, you you could be on a listing point appointment maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, and you know, you bring up cash and it's like, well, it's like it's gonna be like less than one percent of the buyers are gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Absolutely. That's that used to be a statistic.

SPEAKER_05 7:03

30 now. 30 percent and it's all because of equity. Yeah, it's everyone's equity rich. So they're tapping their equity to buy to the next one, and then they and then they sell their current home, and then guess what? There's there's still cash. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's amazing. That's really the lenders are probably hating that right now, but well, yeah, because think about it.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

They're losing they're losing like 29% of what they used to get.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Yeah, yeah. So it's it's a that's a tough one. That's the reason. But you know, the people the the people should know that the the beauty of of using your equity and going with a cash deal is your uh your offer is gonna be very attractive to the seller. You might even get a better deal. Actually, cash deals last year got eight and a half percent better price than that's so true, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:45

And I and I and I agree with that 100%. I mean it's not everything. No, because at the at the settlement table, the the seller's getting money regardless. Right, right. So whether the the buyer brought cash, which they don't really bring a suitcase of cash, no, which it'd be kind of funny if they did. We've seen that before. We've seen that years ago we used to see them actually bring cash. Yeah, but you know, it it to the seller it's it it's money. Yeah, it doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

It is, but whether but it's a buyer, you don't have a clo you don't have a mortgage payment. It's it's limited risk. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

It's limiting that risk of no mortgage, no house sale, no no uh appraisal, no inspections. You know, you start eliminating all those contingencies, yeah, yes, then cash is king.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

Yeah, that's what it is.

Cash Buyers Surge And Pricing Power

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Contingency reduction is king. Yep, exactly. That's really what it is. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot harder to say. Contingency reduction is king as opposed to cash is cash is king. Contingency reduction. Yeah, I think we just stick with cash as king. I think that's fine. I think it's totally fine. But yeah, so but what's funny though, going back to what you said before, let's just say there was 25 million homes that sold over the past three years. Yeah, if 30% of them were cash, there was no mortgage. There was no mortgage. So that brings you back to plays into it. Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty wild. That is wild. Yeah, I love it. I love it. So, do you want to talk anything about this is the the topic that I make fun of, FinCEN? FinCEN. Lorena would be very proud if we talked about that.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

Well, go ahead, guys.

Why Cash Wins: Fewer Contingencies

SPEAKER_04 9:09

So basically, there's there's a new rule. This is a big deal. It is a big deal. It's a huge deal. Yeah, Hugo, listen up now. This is a huge deal. Okay, okay. I'm making sure you are because I know you're gonna be bored out of your mind when I start talking about this. No, it's called FinCEN. It's the the Financial Crimes Enforcement Enforcement Network went into effect. Do you know that? March 1st. Yep. March 1st. I can tell you're really interested. Very well. What changes is the closing agents, the title companies, now report, they have to report that the beneficial owners behind an LLC, a trust, or any other entity used in all cash residential purchases, they have to now file, like if you have an LLC and you're using another LLC to give and you're giving cash from one LC LLC to another to buy the property, the government needs to know about all the LLCs that are involved. Yeah. Because what was happening is people were laundering money, they were bringing money in and out without it being taxed. Okay. So now the government's saying, look, we need to put a put a little bit of a damper on that, and now all that has to be recorded, has to be has to be done. So what it says says impact is it's designed to crack down on illicit funds in the housing market and will likely add a layer of paperwork and disclosure for high-end investors and corporate buyers. So listen, regular residential purchases and those kind of things, we don't have to really worry about it. Okay. If you're buying with a corporation or you're buying with an LLC, you might have a little bit more paperwork to do to get the transaction through. So it's not, it's not a huge deal. They've made a huge deal about it. Just because I think people, the investors tend to be the people that are like, what's this paperwork about? Why am I filling out that? You know, so we have to know that it's federal law. Right. And if the title of a company doesn't do it, they get fined. A lot of money.

SPEAKER_05 11:03

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

A lot of money. Lose their license, all these different things.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

So you know, it's not just LLC to LLC either. You know, it's personal. In other words, if you're just an LLC, they want to know where that money's coming from from the purchasing funding it. Absolutely. And they're that's why they need to see the operating agreement and all the members who they are, and then they got to investigate all that stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

And I think I mean they say it's for like making sure we don't have terrorisms and things like that kind of money coming in. I think it's also here's what my this is my take on. And I have there's no fact about what I'm saying. Just gonna make this shit up. This is this is all right. This is this disclaimer that I did I did not research this. I have no idea. I'm gonna pull it out of my butt. All right. Okay, let's go. So what I think it is, is the IRS is starting to get a little pissed that they're not seeing all the money that the LLCs are moving back and forth. Yeah, and people are saving on taxes. So the IRS can't just say we're gonna be mean and we're gonna start doing this. They have to say, go to homeland security and say, hey, make it that this is about security. Yeah. And then that way people will be a little bit more apt to go, oh, it's about keeping me secure. Yep. All right, fine, I'll do it then. They closing a loophole. Yeah, exactly. One that many of the people. So, like I say, there's no fact about that at all. Yeah, I'm pulling it out, and I'll probably be audited tomorrow. So when you see, when you see the IRS pull up, well, there goes Brad. That's right. That's right. Q goes like, I'm getting the hell out of here. Oh my god, man. So yeah, so that's that's my take on it. So whether it's right or not. Well, Lorena loves you now. Yeah, she does. She does. That's good. That's good. So what else you got?

FinCEN Rule On LLC Cash Deals

SPEAKER_05 12:38

Affordability. I mean, you you we were talking up in the hallway that it's such a hot topic right now, and it is a hot topic. And it's rent renting versus buying. Like, when's the good time to rent? When's a good time to buy? And there's always obviously good for both, right? Good time, both times, right? Yep. But here's an interesting statistic, because that's what I do. Math. Good. Yeah. 57.7% of all the counties in the United States that owning a house is more affordable than renting. That's amazing. Isn't that crazy? And in the Midwest, 81.5% of the counties in the Midwest. It's a good thing. So my thing is Well the homes are more is usually cheaper. They're they're a little bit more than that.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

Yeah, but at a certain point, those rents gotta come down or they won't get renters.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

I mean, who wants to if 81% are higher. Yeah. Or it's more affordable. Why would you rent? Why would you rent? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:32

So then who's renting? I mean, how dumb are they? The people that can't feel feel that they can't get an affordable, you know, a down payment or whatever. So the northeast is 48%.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 13:42

48% Northeast, exactly. Which is like a that's like a happy little middle. Yeah, it's 50-50, right? Yeah. South is 66 and the West, there's the West. That's crazy, right? Because it's so expensive. Well, it's expensive.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yeah, everything's expensive.

SPEAKER_05 13:55

It's but the renting's even more expensive. Yep, yep. Or no, the buying is more expensive. The buying's more expensive, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:01

But the biggest hurdle for people is their down payment. And listen, guys, there's all kinds of programs to get a down payment, man. We were just talking PHFA, and we're talking about I mean the average, the average assistance is$18,000.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

That's PHFA. So PHFA is Pennsylvania, what is it? How's it going to say? Financial Housing Administration or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Something.

SPEAKER_04 14:21

Not a fact at all. We're just making it up, okay? We never said that this was fact.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

Now the PHFA people can't.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

PHFA. No, it's Pennsylvania Housing Finance authority. Let's go with authority. Let's go with authority. Yeah. So those guys there, they're going to rip us apart. No, those guys there, they they do have a great program for Pennsylvania. They do. If you ask about it, there are income limits. I do know that. Because I have a buyer right now that was looking into it. There are income limits. So if you make too much, you can't take over this, you can't use this program. But I'll tell you what, the the limits are actually higher than what you think. Oh, they are. They really are. So, well, what it does, they were going to get up to$25,000 towards closing costs. Now the rate is about a point higher. Yeah. Okay. So that's the trade-off. That's the trade-off, point higher. But here's my thing. You buy it, you use the money. Yep. You re-fi. Now the thing is, if you refi, you got to pay, you're going to have to pay that back. There's a time limit. Oh no. It's 10. So if you don't re fine, you stay in the house. It's 10 years. Is it 10? It's 10 years. And it reduces your liability by 10% each year. So if you move in five years, you need to pay 50% of it back. Got it. Which is not bad. Well, that's fun to go. Here's my thing. You got in the house. Yeah. And my thing is this you're probably going to gain enough equity in that five years that's going to pay that 50% that you owe back. Exactly. You know, so it it here's the way I think. If you don't, if you're cash poor, that's the way to do it. It's great.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

Yeah. It is a good program.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

And it is a conventional program.

SPEAKER_05 15:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:42

So you a lot of times when you hear PHFA, you think of FHA. Yeah. It's not, it's not the same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Yeah. You don't need 20% down. No, you don't need 20% down. A lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

There's a lot of conventional 97% now. Yeah, they're really loaded.

SPEAKER_05 15:54

I've seen that. There's some 100% programs out there too. Gotta look around. A couple of banks uh warehouse them. Yep. They keep them.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Local banks like Fulton Bank, stuff like that, does that.

SPEAKER_05 16:03

Don't let that be a stumbling block for you. How was that?

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Somebody just fall and die? I heard that. If you heard that, nobody, nobody, nobody fell over. I thought that was in my head. No, I don't know what that was. I I just heard something. I was like something. Scary place. Yeah. I'm just glad it wasn't just in my head. Yeah, they're concerned. They have meds for that, though. Meds for that. Yeah. So I think it's a great program. If you're in Pennsylvania and you're listening to the show and you have, and I hate to say cash poor. You're low on cash. Cash low. Cash low. Cash low. Then you'd want to look into that program. Yeah. Or talk to us and we'll we'll tell you about it. Agreed. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, man. So what else you got over there, Brian? Um it says here naturally a 1% point drop in mortgage rates can expand the pool of households who can qualify to buy by about 5.5 million households. Yeah, one percentage drop.

SPEAKER_05 16:53

That's how tight it is.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

And it says 1.6 million renters who could possibly become first-time buyers because of that 1% drop. So when we went from 7% to 6%, that is now bringing a lot of people back into the market. 5 million is a lot of people. Which is why we're down to 348 homes again. Exactly. That's exactly why we're down in the market. Inventory is so low. So low.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Did I hear anything about the precedents or intent to build more homes to alleviate that or a million-something homes or something like that?

Renting Vs Buying And Regional Gaps

SPEAKER_04 17:22

That's been tossed around, but the thing when I hear a federal comment like that, how do you manage that at the federal level? You know what I'm saying? Like now, if it's a program that the federal government's going to say, okay, we're going to go to the areas like ourselves who have the least have the worst inventory issues, and we're going to give grants or we're going to give money to builders, developers at a very low interest rate. Let's just say you go to developers in in Berks County and you say, look, if you develop in Berks County, we're going to give you a million dollars, you pay it back in 20 years, and we're going to charge you 2%. You know, whatever it would be. That's the way it has to funnel down to local. So, yes, I did hear that stuff. I just wonder how does it get implemented on a local level? That's the thing I can that I wonder about.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Well, there you go. You just gave them the answer. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 18:11

Time to be. It's not fact, though. It's not fact. Boy, you've got government agencies. I'll tell you what. If I make it to my car without being arrested today, I'll be surprised. He's got HUD coming. He's got the IRS coming.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Now it's spring. Do you say you have some tips for spring?

SPEAKER_05 18:32

Oh, yeah. Spring tips. Spring tips. Give us some spring tips. You have a boy. I don't know where anything is anymore. Okay, the number one. So a lot of people always think they're going to be putting their home on the market for the spring market. And I think we're getting back into the seasonality of things again.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

If it would stop raining, it'd be great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:52

Right. But the number one thing as a seller, you can still overprice your home. Okay. It's even though the market's really doing well, uh, pricing your home is probably the most important thing when you get your house ready to put on the market. That's the number one thing. And there's also other things to do, like replace your garage doors and get 283% back.

SPEAKER_04 19:12

That's to me is the first thing. Which is the funniest thing.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

You spend you spend three grand on a garage door and then what? What is that? 283% is what, six, seven grand? Is that right?

SPEAKER_04 19:22

In value. You know what's funny about it. How do you even calculate that? I mean I gotta tell you what's funny about that though, is when you drive up to a house and you're showing it to somebody and you see a garage door, it's like cockey or bent, you go, oh, this is gonna be a good one. This is gonna be a bad house. It's so true because it it is such a weird. It's a it's a first impression. It is that'll make you go, oh, for Christ. I mean, seriously, this is gonna suck.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

But the one that really cracked me up. It is so true, though. So 283% back on a garage door, but you only get 76% back on a fully renovated bathroom.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

How much? 76. That's crazy. What if you put you get 7600 billion? I think I have a solvent. I have a solvent. Yeah. Instead of using a shower door, use a garage door on the shower. Oh my god, million it. Now you get 276%. And now you get HGTV coming to your door now. And what's nice is I don't have to move the shower door anymore. I just push the garage door button. I think I'm on the stuff. I think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_06 20:21

You're gonna find it. I'll tell you what, man.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

I ate my Wheaties this morning. Oh my goodness. No, but I that is to me, it just cracks me up. That that, you know, kitchens, they still say. I mean, kitchens is definitely You can get a cheap refresh on a kitchen. Because I've seen it goes a long way houses that the whole house is amazing. Yeah. And then you look at the kitchen, you're like, it's just it's one of those things where it doesn't matter how nice the rest of the house is. If the cat, if the kitchen is too small, if it if it's just doesn't work for the house, it's it's tough. Yeah, it really is tough. Just paint.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I was just gonna say, just she has to like it.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

She has to like it. That's exactly right. She has to like the paint that's exactly right. That's right. Julie learned a lot. Yeah, I'll tell you what. He's always selling houses. Which will suck because then I gotta find a new producer. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 21:10

But just uh but just clean it up though, in in general. Just clean the house up the best you can. You know, if there's gnarly paint, paint it. And that's becoming more and more important now.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Yeah with with the fact that everybody everybody's trying to get when we give a price range, as a realtors, we give a price range. Yeah. So let's just say the price range ranges in fifteen thousand dollars of a range. You know, everybody looks at that top number of that range and goes, Well, that's what my house should be worth.

SPEAKER_06 21:33

Yeah.

Down Payment Help And PHFA Details

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Well, no, not if you're not an A plus condition. Yeah. If you're an A plus condition, then yes, that's you get that top part. But if you have painting to be done, doors to be replaced, you know, woodwork that's maybe it's all scanned up, holes in the wall, you're not getting that top price. So we now during that one part of our market, it didn't matter what you had going on, as long as it didn't leak, the roof didn't leak, you could sell the house. You could sell the house. Yeah, it's not like that anymore. No, things are changing. So if you want to get top dollar, yeah, you better you better have top condition.

SPEAKER_05 22:05

But be careful though. Don't you don't want to spend money uh stupid necessarily. Like I just recently had a client, they spent eight grand. We got 30 grand in price more. We got more. Yeah, that's great. But it was strategic, you know? It has to be bathroom vanity, it's a really good deal. Uh countertops, yeah, new vanities in the bathrooms. Yep, makes a big difference. Patched paint, one room, new carpet. That was it. Paint goes a long way. It really goes a long way.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Yes, yes, it does. So even so, yeah, so you're right. You you have to talk to your agent to find out what is what is worth it and what's not. Because I've already gone into houses and they were gonna spend, you know, all kinds of money, and I'm like, no, no, no, don't. Don't do that, don't do that because you're not gonna get it back. That's right. You know, gotta be careful, it's just not you're not gonna get back. Flooring is a tough one because you know, there's so many different types of flooring today. If you have carpets and you're place thinking about replacing with other carpets, what if they don't want carpets? You just wasted your money. Yeah, so it's it's tough. You gotta talk to talk to a realtor, yeah. Talk to one of us and find out what's the best thing to do. Yep. That's definitely a good thing to do. Yeah, so the reason that you know, one of the things about home home affordability, which you we were talking about, how homes are now more affordable than they've been in a long time. We did talk about that, right? Already? Yeah. Oh, yeah, a little bit. Yeah. But the thing is about that is the the wages are growing faster than home prices. Oh, see, that's that's a good so in if you look at there's a graph here, I don't know if you can see this or not, but this graph here, if you look at the graph, you can see I believe it's wages are blue. This side here. Yeah, wages are blue. You can see that the the blue is now going up higher than the increase, which is green in the houses. Yeah, look at that. But look at the middle ones. Look at the middle ones with the green.

SPEAKER_05 23:42

20. That wasn't that crazy.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

The wages were not even close to keeping up. Yeah, that was unicorn. Thank God people had cash.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, people had cash. Because if you don't have wages, you gotta have cash somewhere. You gotta do something. Yeah. That's that's a that's an amazing graph.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

It is, it's incredible. It's a really it's it it blows my mind when you look at income compared to the housing. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_05 24:02

I love it. Yeah, I love that graph. I'm gonna steal it.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

Anything else? Anything else you have? That's all I have today. I think we're good. I don't think there was anything else. For two months, I was like, There was one thing I actually screenshot today. Let me just make sure I I remember screenshotting something today, and I'm glad I'm really prepared with it.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

In the meantime, any updates on the on the Berkshire Mall or the or the that building that is uh they're building.

SPEAKER_05 24:26

They're all they're over the well.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

No, yeah, that right there either.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Broadcasting's gone broadcasting high. They're so fast. Yeah. I mean, that thing's gonna go up faster than I've ever seen anything. Yep. They're blasting a lot. A lot of blasting in there. Yeah. That's moving pretty quick. Yeah. They're working like weekends, they're working all the time. They're working in the snow.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

They're working right now. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Oh, you know, it was the same thing. You had the same thing. It was the uh, for the first time in five years, above six percent mortgages, outnumber sub 3% loans. There it is. There it is. Yeah. There's the so that's that's what it was. So it wasn't anything groundbreaking. I just did a screenshot on it. I think that is it for this show. We will be back. We're in March right now. We are. So we're gonna be back, April. We'll be back in May.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Warmer weather.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

With marriage advice segment.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

We're gonna be talking about the leather, the uh velvety ropes, the swing. This is no longer a children's show. That's about it. Thanks for coming in, Pete. We'll see you in a couple months. All right, that's about it. Pete, be with us back in May. Okay, thanks for watching the show every Thursday at 7 p.m. We'll see you later.