Real Estate and Housing When Your Starting Over

After a big life shift—divorce, loss, relocation, or starting over—housing is often one of the first and biggest decisions we face. Buying or selling a home can feel intimidating because it’s not just emotional… it’s financial. In this episode, we’re talking through the basics of real estate so you can walk into conversations with agents and lenders informed, grounded, and confident. I’m not here to give you real estate advice—but I am here to help you understand what to expect and what questions to ask.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast, Working on Amazing. This is a podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

Now, in today's episode, we're gonna be talking about housing and real estate, because those can be really big and intimidating topics, especially if you are starting over.

So if you're going through a divorce, if you're dealing with death, oftentimes, you end up within just a very short season of that traumatic event dealing with a move, too.

Sometimes right in the middle of it, sometimes it waits, but many people that are dealing with a major life transition end up dealing with a move. And you're already emotionally overwhelmed, right? You've got so much on you.

And then figuring out what to do just adds to that stress. So I want to talk about it today. I want to talk about just some of the simple nuts and bolts parts of real estate.

I am not a licensed real estate agent. I'm not a lender or anything like that. And that's part of the reason why I want to talk about it, because I really love real estate.

I worked in real estate for several years, not as an agent. I was a marketing director for a company that had several offices. And so I worked with a lot of agents, and I got to know it.

I also have bought and sold a good number of homes myself throughout my life. And I have always found real estate very fascinating.

And as I entered a season in my life where I was starting over, and I started talking to other women who are starting over, I realized a lot of people had things in common. They were looking for a place to stay.

You know, I either need to rent a place, I need to buy a place. The thought of where to live next feels overwhelming. And I was surprised at how many women didn't always understand the basics.

So I'm not coming to you from the perspective of trying to sell you something. I make no commission of what your choice is.

I'm just trying to give you a little bit of information so that when you do talk to a real estate agent or a lender about a mortgage, you'll just have a better understanding going into it. Okay?

Those are the people that you will need to contact to advise you if you choose to buy a home. But I realized that a lot of people are told, buy a home, buy a home, real estate, real estate, that's the way to go.

And trust me, I'm a huge fan of buying real estate. I think it's a great opportunity and investment, but it is not right for everybody. And I want to be really clear about that.

And this decision about where you should go next, if you're in the middle of a life-changing situation, and housing is now a factor in the middle of this whole emotional storm you're going through, please understand there is not a one-size-fits-all

approach. I've heard so many people push women into buying a home. And yes, buying a home may work for you and may be a good investment, but it might not.

And so I just want to talk about it outside of a sales pitch, outside of trying to kind of steer you one way or another, because there are a lot of people out there who are kind of trying to get you to gravitate one way or another.

And I have no worse in that race. I just enjoy real estate. I find it fascinating.

And I think a lot of people aren't really familiar with some of the terms about real estate, don't understand the nuts and bolts of it. So I thought, let's break that down.

This is a huge component when we talk about, you know, getting our spiritual health in order, our mental health in order, our physical health, and then our financial health, right? That's a huge, housing is a huge component of your financial health.

I think it's important to talk about, and it can be intimidating to talk about because it is such a big piece of our financial health. Generally, housing ends up being one of the largest financial decisions that you make.

When you look at your monthly bills, even if it's rent, if it's rent or if it's a mortgage, the biggest chunk generally that you spend in one fell swoop ends up being on housing. There are exceptions to that rule, I get it.

But for most people, your biggest expense is housing. So it's intimidating to think about, I've got to make this huge financial commitment, whether I sign a lease or get a mortgage.

It feels overwhelming, especially when you are already dealing with so much.

If you are starting over in the middle of your life, which this whole podcast is designed for women who feel like they're starting over, adding more stress on top of what you're already going through feels just overwhelming.

Like, hold on, I don't know what to do. And the more overwhelmed we feel, the more it spirals that feeling of being overwhelmed. So, that's why I do want to talk about it.

I want to break it down. Housing is so important. So much of our idea of safety and stability, and even our identity and what we think about the future can be wrapped up in just the concept of home and where we live.

And so we want that to be a safe and stable place, right? So there is a lot of emotion involved in it, but let's cut through the clutter and talk about the nuts and bolts.

6:30

Budgeting for Housing

The first thing you've got to talk about when it comes to housing is how much can you really afford. What really bothers me is there are some financial calculators online that will tell you you can afford up to 50% of your income.

And that's horrible. That's wrong. I firmly disagree with that.

You do not need to spend 50% of your take home pay on housing. You need to spend maybe 25 to 30% of your take home pay on housing.

So the financial calculators that generally push it to 50% are trying to help you qualify for a loan that they will benefit off the commission of. Well, they'll make money if they sell you that loan, right? But that's not realistic.

If you think about it, if you have the opportunity to decide your housing situation right now, I would say really think about it. Just because you can make ends meet, I've heard people say, well, I want to buy this.

It's going to be tight, but I can afford it. Please don't do that with housing. Please don't do that in general.

Don't get a car loan or anything like that where you're saying, well, it's going to be tight, but I can do it. You've got to understand, emergencies come up. You need to have savings.

You'll want still to travel, right? And give. We need to have margin in our budget.

We need to have room, because we do know that life happens. Emergencies come up. We may not know what the emergency is going to be, but we can be fairly certain that an emergency will happen.

At some point down the road, whether it's a car, whether, who knows, the kids fall and break their leg, all kinds of things happen that cost more money.

And if you are living so tight that there is no margin, no room in your budget, that emergency becomes a nightmare. You need to have room. So if you have the opportunity now, I want you to really, really think about it.

When I got divorced, I moved into a much smaller house. I took a huge step down. I was living in a pretty nice house in the suburbs.

I mean, it felt nice to me. It was a newer home. The granite countertops, the cabinets with the glass front doors that were backlit.

It was a beautiful home. Four bathrooms. I mean, it was nice.

I liked it. I was proud to live there. But when I got divorced, I could not afford the mortgage payment on my salary alone.

So I had to move. I had to find a new home for me and my children. And because I was concerned about the budget and being able to make payments and take care of everything, I moved into a much smaller, much older home.

And it wasn't a bad neighborhood, and it wasn't a good neighborhood. It was very middle of the road kind of neighborhood. I did not feel unsafe, and that was important, but it wasn't a nice, one of the really nice neighborhoods.

I took a step down, and I did that consciously, because I wanted to have margin in my budget.

I wanted, instead of the kids living in a nice place that I could quickly one day not afford if anything came up, I wanted to live in a smaller place, in a less nice place, but be able to take them to the movies and out to eat and do different things

with the leftover money. That was my choice. Your choice might be different, but please understand you don't want to be house poor. Really look at what you can afford if you're looking into signing a lease or buying a home, okay?

10:48

Rent Versus Buy

The next thing I really want to talk about is whether or not you should rent or buy. So many voices out there are going to tell you to buy. Buying is a great option.

Real estate is a great investment. I agree with that. But there are situations where it would be better for you to rent.

And once again, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach. So let's talk about it. If you are newly divorced or widowed or relocating, it might be better to rent.

If you're unsure about how long you'll stay in the area, it might be better to rent. If your income is changing or unstable, it might be better to rent. If you need flexibility more than permanence, it might be better to rent.

Think about it like this. Renting equals breathing room. If you're not really sure, if you're not positive, this is where you're gonna stay.

When I got divorced, I really thought I was gonna move. Then I had a conversation with my kids. They wanted to stay in the same schools, be in the same area, same friends.

So I decided to stay in the area. You might not have made that choice yet. You may not be sure.

When life throws you a curve ball, all kinds of things can change. It could be that you were in a situation where renting, catching your breath, might be the best option. How do you know maybe if it's time to buy versus rent?

Well, if you're emotionally and financially stable, then maybe it could be a good time to buy.

If you plan on staying put for three to five years, generally in real estate, you don't want to buy a home unless you're going to be in it for three to five years.

You've got to have a chance to kind of make back some of that money, and the way real estate appreciates and value the cost it takes to actually get in the home and all these things, it's good to stay put for three to five years at least, okay?

So if you're gonna stay put for a while, real estate might be the way to go. It might be worth buying a home. If you have savings and a steady income, it might be time to buy.

If you're ready, and this is important, for the maintenance and responsibility, it might be time to buy a home.

So when my sister, her husband passed away, and she moved within six to nine months of when he passed away, when she wasn't really anticipating that, and then things happened and she needed to move. And a lot of people did push her to buy a home.

But she chose to rent, and she said, I just don't want to have to deal with the maintenance. If a toilet clogs, if the refrigerator mess up, if the AC messes up, I don't want to have lawn maintenance and all that stuff.

I'm just not emotionally at the place to deal with all that. And that is valid. So if you're thinking about what to do next, you have the grace to make the decision that's right for you.

A lot of people are going to say to try to buy. But if you can't afford to buy, it's not going to be good. It's just going to bring more stress, more pressure.

That's not going to help to feel the weight of a monthly payment. If you can afford to buy, if it's in your price range, that's great.

But if the maintenance is going to cause you stress, if the payment is going to cause you stress, it might just be better to rent for a little while. Both options are valid. That's all I'm saying.

And I'm giving you the grace to pick what's right for you, not what a pundit says, not what your cousin is telling you to do, but just to say, hey, you know what? For me, I think it's a good thing to buy. For me, I think it's a good thing to rent.

We don't all have to be the same. You need to choose what's right for you.

15:14

Real Estate Terminology

Now, I want to go over a few terms. If you do decide to buy a home, I feel like there are a couple terms that have come up in conversations with other women.

I'm familiar with these terms that are associated with real estate, but I have come to understand that not everybody knows these terms.

So if you're looking in to actually buying a home, I want to go over a few basic terms and kind of explain them as best I can in plain English, so that as you talk to a real estate agent or a lender, you will have a better understanding about what

they're saying back to you and what questions to ask to them. So the first thing is a mortgage. I think all know what a mortgage is, but that's the loan you use to buy a house.

Most people don't have stacks of hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around. They have to get a loan for that, and the loan to buy a house is called a mortgage.

All right, the second one, and this one I feel like is really important, and not everybody understands this, and that's escrow. So when you get a mortgage to buy a house, a loan to buy a house, part of your payment is principal and interest, right?

So when you repay a loan, you're familiar with that, you pay back the principal, and you pay back the interest. But a mortgage also has an escrow payment. Your overall payment is divided out.

You've got principal, you've got interest, and then you've got escrow. So your mortgage company has an escrow account. What is this and what does it mean?

Well, first of all, it means if you go to a loan calculator online and you type in how much you can afford, and it spits out a number, you can afford, you know, $2,000 a month, that may not include the escrow payment.

And the escrow, it's all one, you're going to write the mortgage company one check, but part of it will be principal, part of it will be interest, and part of it is your escrow payment. Think about it like this.

The loan company is loaning you money to buy a house. They want to protect that investment. They want to make sure they can get their money back if something were to happen.

So what are the most common things that would happen? Well, people lose their home to not paying taxes. So the mortgage company says, we're going to take care of that.

We'll pay your taxes on your behalf. Of course, we'll charge you what the taxes are exactly. So they take what they feel like your tax payment is going to be.

They look at the property tax history for your county, your exact piece of property, and they divide that out by 12 and add that on to your payment.

And that every month when you pay your mortgage payment, part of it goes to principal, part of it goes to interest, and part of it goes to escrow.

So they say, okay, we're taking $200, and that's going to go into the escrow account that will pay your taxes once a year. Because the mortgage company doesn't trust you to pay your taxes, and this is universal. You are not unique, I am not unique.

This is just what mortgage companies do. It's how they protect their investment. They pay your property taxes on your behalf.

And that's called your escrow account. The other thing that is paid out of your escrow account is your homeowner's insurance. So you get to choose your homeowner's insurance.

You can shop around for the best rate, but then you send that information, your policy number and all that good stuff to your mortgage company, and they pay your insurance on your behalf. So you could lose your home to just not paying taxes, right?

And the county could take it back for failure to pay taxes. Or you could have something catastrophic or devastating happen like a house fire that insurance would cover, okay?

So the mortgage company, in order to protect their investment, says, you know what? We will pay your property taxes on your behalf. We will pay your home owner's insurance on your behalf.

So when you pay your mortgage payment, part of it goes to interest, part of it goes to principal. Then the escrow, part of it goes to property taxes, and part of your escrow goes to pay your home owner's insurance.

And when that bill comes to, the mortgage company pays that out of your escrow account. Okay?

So if you feel like you qualify for a house based on a monthly payment, so you say, I feel like I could pay $2,000 a month, and the mortgage calculator you find online runs the numbers and says, well, you can afford this size house, this much money,

this many hundred thousand dollars based on a $2,000 a month payment because this much will go to interest and this much will go to principal, you know, if you get 6% loan, 5.99. That's what it is now. They're higher than they used to be, right?

But if you're not factoring in your escrow, that's going to throw you off. Your escrow payment can be higher than you think. It just depends.

I live in a part of the country that has a very, very low cost of living. Property taxes where I live are fairly low. California, places in Florida, some property taxes are through the roof, okay?

And so that is part of your escrow payment, which ends up making what your mortgage payment is. Some people pay way more in just homeowners' insurance. You might get away with $2,000 a year, that's pretty low.

But if you live in a state like Florida or California, a state that's had hurricanes or wildfires, and they've paid out lots of insurance premiums because of so many natural disasters, their rates go up really high. Everybody, it just depends.

I don't know what your escrow payment would be, I would have no way of knowing that. But your escrow payment is a combination of your homeowners' insurance and your property taxes. And that's what makes up your mortgage payment.

So you can't forget about that escrow, okay? That's really important. And they just hold it in an account for you because generally you only pay your property taxes once a year.

Sometimes homeowners' insurances do twice a year, sometimes once a year. So they just hold that in an account, and they divide out your mortgage payment. And then when those bills are due, they pay them on your behalf.

But that can significantly raise your overall mortgage payment. So you need to be aware of that. Okay, next term for real estate is earnest money.

What is earnest money? Well, let's say you spend the day looking at houses with your real estate agent. You find a house you love, and you want to put an offer in on it.

When your real estate agent writes up the offer to send to the seller, you generally include that you will put down X amount of earnest money, $5,000, something like that.

Your real estate agent will advise every area is different in what they expect. But you generally put down enough money that says, hey, I'm serious. And that money will go towards the purchase price.

And either the agent's broker will hold that money, the closing attorney may hold that money. Somebody is going to hold that money, and it will go towards the purchase price of the home.

So if it's a $100,000 home, you put $5,000 down, that money is just being held, but it will go to the price of your home.

But somebody else is holding it, and it's just in good faith saying, I am so serious about buying this home, I'm gonna put this earnest money down as a sign of good faith.

Because from the time you go under contract with a house, and when you go under contract, that just means that you have made an offer to buy a home, and the seller has accepted that offer.

So it's not just you making the offer, it's also the seller accepting the offer. And sometimes there's a little bit of back and forth in that process. So you might say, I wanna buy this house for this amount of money.

And the seller comes back and says, no, I want this amount of money or whatever. Sometimes there's a little bit of negotiation in that initial offer, it just depends. But once both sides have agreed, then you are what they call under contract.

From the time you are under contract to buy a house, till you close, the best average somebody can tell you, it takes about 30 days, okay?

It takes about a month from the time you'll both agree, hey, I wanna buy your home, hey, I wanna, you know, I'm willing to sell my home to you, both parties agree, takes about 30 days.

Because mortgages just take that much time to get all the paperwork.

There's a lot of money that's gotta move, they've gotta verify it 10 ways from Sunday, they need to do a title search, and yes, you do want title insurance, that's just making sure nobody else has a claim, it's insurance, in case somebody's great,

great, great grandchild comes along and says, this is actually my inheritance, or something like that. They're just searching to make sure that your title is the full, clear title to that piece of property, you're buying. So that's important.

So all that takes time, and it generally, it can take more, it could take less. If you had cash, if you had $100,000 in the bank, you didn't have to worry about a mortgage, it could take less time.

But generally, it takes about 30 days, just on average, okay? The next term, once you are under contract, one of the things that you've put in your offer or that the seller has decided that they want to accept is a due diligence period.

What is due diligence? Generally, if it's an existing home, oftentimes, now this can vary, it's not set in stone, but oftentimes, due diligence is around seven days, it's around a week.

If you are out of town, or if something else is going on, sometimes you can push it out a little bit more. It just depends, sometimes the seller says they want a shorter due diligence period.

But generally speaking, it's very common for due diligence to be seven days. What is due diligence? Well, that's where you do your due diligence to make sure you want to buy the house, okay?

So you've put down some earnest money, you put $5,000 down, you have a week.

So you get a home inspector, and that home inspector crawls under the house, goes up on the roof, in the attic, they do everything to find out anything they can about that house.

If that home inspector were to come back and say, the foundation is this, or there's this problem, or that problem, it is going to be really expensive to get fixed, you can walk away during due diligence and get your earnest money back, okay?

So you've got seven days to look at it from top to bottom, to research it, to do everything that you know to do, whatever your due diligence period is, it may or may not be seven days, that will be in your offer.

But you've got that period of time to make your choice. After due diligence is over, if you did walk away from the contract, you would leave your earnest money on the table, the seller would get that, okay? That's what due diligence is.

What's a down payment? I think most people know what a down payment is, that's the money you put down towards the purchase of a house. A lot of people try to aim for 20%.

That gets kind of hard with the prices of houses going up. So when a home was $100,000 and you put $20,000 down, that was 20%. That was a stretch.

But now with homes being $500,000, it's really hard to get 20%. Why do people want to get 20% down? Well, that's a good amount to have down.

Also, that means that you won't pay mortgage insurance. They call that PMI. And it's the mortgage company kind of insuring themselves against you going into default on your loan.

Okay, so they have kind of insurance against that. So it's just for the mortgage company, but you can't opt out of it. The only way you avoid paying that is if you put 20% down, you want 20% equity in your home.

So if you've lived in your home for a period of time, the value has gone up, then you can ask for that to be dropped because you clearly have 20% equity. What's the 20% equity rule?

I don't fully know, but the way it was explained to me is once you have 20% equity in a home, then the mortgage company feels like they could truly get their investment back out of it. There's enough extra left over. It's not all mortgaged up.

There's enough left over that they could actually make something off of. So they carry insurance as long as you didn't put 20% down.

Okay, so if you could only put 10% down, or there's even loan packages now that are almost 100% loans, where you could roll everything into your mortgage, closing costs, the whole nine yards. So then you've got 100% mortgage and no equity.

So you would pay mortgage insurance. It's just one of those sayings. It's very, very difficult to get 20% down.

You can do it, people do it. I don't know that that's necessarily the be-all, end-all goal to achieve. It's nice, it's good.

But that's what the deal is with a down payment. That's how much you put down. And what your earnest money was, whatever that is, and it's a smaller amount, but that goes towards the purchase price.

So it could be part of your down payment. Closing costs. Closing costs feel like they're so ambiguous.

And does the seller pay them or does the buyer pay them? And that's definitely something that is negotiated. Closing costs generally are the fees that the attorney incurs.

So it's the processing fee, it's the filing fee, it's the title fee, it's the title insurance, it's the title search, it's all these different things. Some of them are fees like that for filing. Some of them are just the attorney's time and hours.

So all that together makes up the closing cost. You can ask your real estate agent for an estimate on what they think. The closing cost will be, obviously, this varies widely from location to location in different areas, in different states.

Handle this very differently, but it is a factor. And right now, it's very much something that can be negotiated. Sometimes the seller covers the closing cost with the attorney, and sometimes the buyer says, hey, I'll cover the closing cost.

And it's one of those things that's negotiated a lot of times in that initial offer.

When you start the process to go under contract, when you write your offer that has the due diligence and the earnest money, you often will say, then, I will pay closing cost or you will pay closing cost.

And that can be part of that back and forth negotiation. All right, the last term, and I feel like most people know this, but I have run into somebody who didn't, and that's equity. So even when I was talking about PMI, I talked about equity.

What is equity? Equity is the value of your home minus what you owe on it. So, if my home is worth $250,000, but my mortgage remaining on this home, I've lived here for 10 years, I have a mortgage of $100,000.

That's what it would take to pay off my mortgage. Then I have $150,000 in equity in my home. So it's whatever the value of the home is minus what you owe on it.

Whatever remains is your equity. So a lot of people talk about equity. You have a lot of baby boomers that have tremendous amount of equity right now.

But please understand, equity is not a liquid asset. You cannot go to the store and spend it.

So if somebody bought a home in the 70s, and it's now an up and coming location, and that home is paid off, it is probably worth a million dollars now, let's say. And I've seen people who have literally done this, okay?

They got a home in the 70s, it's paid off. But yeah, now it's worth a million dollars. But they can't go buy groceries on that, right?

It's not a liquid asset. Right now, they do have that money, but it's all tied up in the value of their home.

And in order to access that equity, you either have to sell your home, so that means you have to find somewhere else to live, or you have to get something like a HELOC, which is a home equity line of credit. Okay?

And that's a whole topic for a different day. Just understand equity is the value of your home minus what you owe on it. And that is how so many people are doing good, especially older generations, are doing really good right now.

If they bought a home years and years and decades ago, right? And they've just paid it off and set on it, they have a high net worth because most of that money is wrapped up in the equity of their home.

So that's a very good thing, but you also have to sell that home in order to access that equity.

So I want you to understand that even though it's a good thing, and real estate is a good investment, and part of the reason it's a good investment is exactly that.

You can't easily spend the equity, you can't do it, you can't go to the store and buy a new pair of shoes. It's wrapped up in your home, and you're less likely to sell it because that's where you live, right?

So it can accumulate value over time without you spending it.

It's kind of a built-in safety net, and that's why so many people consider real estate such a great investment, because you're not going to spend the extra money when it increases in value, because it's really hard to do.

You have to sell the whole home to do it. Okay, so that's just a quick breakdown of a few real estate terms. I hope I explained them.

I'm sure you knew what most of them were, but I hope I explained anything you didn't know in a way that just makes it relatable and understandable. I, like I said, am not a licensed real estate agent or lender.

I just want you to talk to a real estate agent, a lender, and I want you to feel confident when you do. I want you to get a better understanding of what you qualify for. I want you to talk to somebody who can walk you through the options.

But sometimes, we just need a little bit of a bridge from point A to point B, right? And point B is actually talking to a real estate agent or a lender. And point A is, I think, I'm thinking about this, I don't know.

And sometimes, just getting a little bit more information, making it feel a little bit more relatable, helps move you to the next step, you know, helps you feel more confident to go ahead and say, you know what, I need to rent, that's the right

choice for me. Or, you know what, yeah, I think I am ready to buy. That's a good choice for me. The more we understand something, the less intimidating it feels.

That's how I think at least, okay? So that's all I want to do.

36:38

Questions for Experts

If you do talk to a real estate agent or a lender, I would encourage you to ask some really, like some good questions to ask would be, what price range is comfortable for me, not just approved. I would ask that to the lender.

The real estate agent could give you some ballpark, but a lender is going to hone in much more. They're going to tell you what you're approved for, but ask what would be comfortable for me, not just what I'm approved for, okay?

Also ask what your total monthly payment really will be, because you're asking about that escrow. Remember that's added on. It's not just principal and interest that you're paying.

You're also paying escrow, and you might be paying mortgage insurance. So you need to ask what is as close as they can tell. I mean, it's going to depend on a lot of factors.

They can't give you to the penny what your projected payment will be, but they can ballpark it for you, okay? So ask that. Ask how much cash do you need up front?

There are loans where they can roll everything in. There are all kinds of different products out there. Ask how much you are going to need.

If you go this route, you're going to need more up front. If you go this route, you're going to need less up front. Really kind of get an idea, do I have enough say that I could actually make this next step?

Ask what happens, and this would be to me a real estate agent question, but it would also be a lender question as well. What happens if you need to sell sooner than you planned? All right?

So, you know, you've looked at it, you think you'll be there definitely three to five years, but life happens, right? Life has happened. That's what we're in the place we're in.

We know curve balls come up. So would your agent think you've really got to be here longer than that to make this worthwhile? Like, it's going to be hard to turn around and sell it that fast.

The market is pretty flatline, you know, every place is different. Some people will say, yeah, it's going to sell in a heartbeat.

Some people are going to say, you know, the cost that it takes between closing and all these other things, get a good idea, just so you're prepared.

And I would ask both the lender and your real estate agent what you should look out for in this market. I think the lender is going to talk about things like interest rates, right?

But your real estate agent is going to talk about maybe days on market or locations or different areas, what to avoid and what to watch out for.

And just asking the open-ended kind of question of what should I look out for in this market is going to give you a good feel of what kind of real estate agent you're working with and how knowledgeable they are.

And if they don't have a good answer, if you don't feel like that was confident, that might be a red flag. But every agent I've worked with could answer that question competently.

And every area is different, and each season in the market is different. Where we are today versus where we were a year ago, very different, right? So the market changes, it's kind of like the stock market.

There are ups and downs, highs and lows. And then every location is different. So California, Texas, New York City, Georgia, Florida, all very, very different markets.

And even in a state, there's so many different markets. So your agent should be able to tell you what to look out for, or whether you're looking at school zones, or whether you're looking at this or that.

And there's certain things they cannot say legally under the Fair Housing Act, but they should be able to say, well, we're looking at days on market right now.

If a house has been on the market too long, this is a hot market, so that could be an indicator. Or we're looking at this or that.

They're going to be able to explain to you, and then you will feel more confident in their ability when you hear the answer, because everybody's going to give a different answer, especially in different locations, okay?

I hope that was a somewhat understandable breakdown of real estate and housing. It's such an intimidating thing to think about.

I remember going through my divorce and knowing I'd get ready to be a single mom, and I don't know where me and my kids are going to stay. Like, it really was upsetting for me.

Housing is such a big deal, and I watched my sister move, and it was such a huge undertaking, because now you're doing it alone. I didn't do it with my husband. I got divorced.

She didn't do it with her husband. He had passed away. There's emotion involved, there's finance involved, there's heavy lifting and labor involved.

There's so much wrapped up into this housing situation, and generally so many people who go through the death of a spouse, who go through the divorce a lot of times. And there are many exceptions, but I would say 80% of people end up moving.

It's just really, really common. So we face this major, major situation of housing, and it's a big financial situation. It's a big emotional situation.

So I just felt like we needed to talk about it, and try to make it a little more relatable. Take some of the mystique out of it, and just talk about some of the nuts and bolts. Keeping it in an affordable price range is really, really important.

All these things matter. And I know you're going to make the decision that's right for you. What's right for me may not be right for you.

But when you have understanding, when you kind of know the way it works, then you have the confidence to make what is best for you in your situation. And that's what I hope we can get to.

If you would like to reach out to me and talk about housing, because I absolutely love all things real estate, I find it fascinating. You can reach out to me online. I have a website, www.workingonamazing.com.

You can also find me on social media. I have a page on most platforms, but I do hang out on Facebook the most, and that's just a business page, Working on Amazing. Drop me a line.

Tell me how you're doing. Tell me about your housing dilemma. I can't promise I have a solution, but I have moved a lot of times in my life so many times.

I've had so many addresses as a kid and as an adult. So if you just need somebody to talk about it with, I'm here. Thank you so much for joining me today.

I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.