How to Buy and Sell Your Seattle Home at the Same Time (Without Losing Sleep)

Christian: [0:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host Christian Nossum with the Awesome Awesome Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. And today I have a very special guest the one, the only The super famous.

Dan: [0:13] The super famous.

Christian: [0:14] Mr. Dan Keller of New American Funding.

Dan: [0:16] There we go. I don't know if I'm a guest, 'cause this is like my eighth time or 20th time being on this- 300th time … on your… Yeah. This is a killer podcast though, so I'm stoked to be back.

Christian: [0:24] Yeah. So today we are talking about all the different strategies that you could use if you are looking to sell and buy at the same time, and there are a lot of different strategies. We're gonna go pretty in-depth on some of these that are kinda next level, so make sure you listen to the end. But let's just kinda get right into it. Anything you need to say compliance-wise, Dan?

Dan: [0:47] Yeah, before we get going, I'll just give you… And it's probably on the screen if you're watching this on YouTube. But if you're listening to it, I gotta say it. Yes, you do. So, uh, I am a licensed Washington State mortgage loan originator. Uh, Christian could probably say the rest of it for me since we've done radio shows together. Oh, moments. Yeah,

Christian: [1:01] exactly.

Dan: [1:02] My, my MLO number is 11534

Christian: [1:05] Niner … Dan: niner. Yeah. Knew that was coming.

Dan: [1:07] Yeah. So, um, we are gonna talk a, a lot about mortgages today, but this is almost, as a professional, this is gonna… Believe it or not, this is going to be my 19th year in finance. Mm-hmm. And the last couple of years is almost when you go into different markets, you have to adapt, and this is, this is an episode today that in a hot market it's not even needed. No. It's not relevant. Yeah. In a market that we've been in the last three years- Um, or a market like we saw in 2017, '18, and '19. Mm-hmm. Definitely much leveraged. So- Yeah … it's gonna be a lot of, there's gonna be a lot of information here. I'm not gonna try to, I'm gonna try not to go too deep because we were talking about this earlier. There's a dozen bridge loan-

Christian: [1:51] Mm-hmm … Dan: transition loan type programs out there for all different loan amounts, all different scenarios. And so it's just more important that you're working with a professional that has access to those. Yeah. Number one, and then knows how to strategically pick the right one for you. Mm-hmm. Based on your specific situation.

Dan: [2:06] Yep.

Christian: [2:06] Which I think that's the biggest thing. Yep. It's like, how do you know? There's so many different options. How do you know which one actually makes the most sense for you? Right,

Dan: [2:13] right.

Christian: [2:13] So that's kinda what we're gonna go into a little bit. At the end of the day, you wanna talk to someone like us to help you figure out and, and determine which one actually makes the most sense for you. Right. So the reason this podcast even came about is because I literally, in the last month, I've had three different couples reach out saying- Mm-hmm … "Hey, we wanna buy. We have to sell. We think that this is a perfect time window to do it." Right. And I agreed with them.

Dan: [2:38] Yep.

Christian: [2:38] One of them have already successfully done this, the other one is in the process, and the other one, due to other things going on, they're like, "Eh, we might have to wait six more months." Mm. So I was like, "Okay, whatever." So it's, it's really determining why we're talking about this is because it's coming up so much all of a sudden. And so I wanted to have a podcast just to refer people back to. Right. That's why we're doing this today.

Dan: [3:01] Right. Should I start with talking about who this is not for? Sure.

Christian: [3:06] Why not? ' Dan: Cause this, much like you having your clients reach out to you going, "Hey, we have a house." Mm-hmm. "We actually have outgrown it, or we're thinking about relocating, but we're equity rich- Mm … and, you know, cash in the bank poor." In comes a bridge loan, where you can actually go out and purchase your next house without having to list and sell your house first. But I get a lot of calls, like you do, the opposite. Yeah. And a lot of realtors calling me going, "Hey, I got a client that's in a situation. They, they need your help 'cause they need some bridge money." Mm-hmm. Who this program is not for is someone who lives in a home that's got a lot of equity, who might be downsizing and using this program to get into a home, and then when their house sells, completely being mortgage debt-free. Yeah.

Dan: [3:49] A, a bridge loan is bridging financing from one home to another. So I wanna preface that right away, that if that is your intent, we'll find that out and, and unfortunately- Yeah … you're gonna have to go with, like, a HELOC, a home equity line of credit in those scenarios. And we'll go

Christian: [4:03] over all those things. Yeah. So I'd say kind of the, the three, maybe four different options that you have if you are looking to sell and buy. Mm-hmm. First, the easiest way, and this is the most ideal way, is to buy first and then sell.

Dan: [4:19] Yeah.

Christian: [4:19] The reason why is because when you do that, obviously you only have to move once. Right. You get to buy first, you move out, you move into the new place, then you put your place on the market. The reason that's the easiest, obviously for like I just said, but also once you're out of there, it's very simple- Mm-hmm … to then do some updates, or do some new painting, or put new flooring in, or whatever you gotta do update-wise, to get the most that you can get for your house. Now, that's where I come in. I do this for every client when they're thinking about selling. Literally just did this yesterday for someone, where I went over to their house and just gave them kind of a laundry list items, or list of items that they could do, they don't have to do- Hmm … in order to maximize their sale price. A lot of these things are just very simple, basic things. They don't cost a lot of money. Right. It's just simple stuff, and that's, that's where you gotta really lean on me for that. Yeah. You don't want to just go out and do all this work on your house, because not everything is necessary. Right. And this is what's so nice about working with an agent that helps both buyers and sellers. I know what buyers are looking at right now. Right. I know what their mindset is. I know what they're okay looking over and what they're willing to do in general.

Dan: [5:34] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [5:35] Um, and what things are, like, a deal-breaker. "Hey, if you don't do that they're not gonna… They're just gonna take your house off the potential list." Yep. So definitely lean on your agent to help you determine what is actually necessary- Mm … 'cause not everything is. So that's ideal option number two, or number one. Number two is you make a contingent offer, and then you close simultaneously. So what that means is you're still in your home. You make an offer to buy the next house. It is contingent, meaning you don't have to actually close and buy that new house until, and only if, your current house sells.

Dan: [6:15] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [6:16] That's what a contingent offer is. In a non-competitive situation, this could potentially work. Some sellers aren't gonna wanna do this if they think that they're gonna get an offer that isn't contingent upon the sale of your home. Right. Um, so it really just depends on the situation, the market. This is where, again, buyers that we're working with, we help them really get a good idea because we build them a sold search, which is something we created, that helps you as a buyer fully get calibrated to your specific market. So you'll know, hey, are homes in my- Mm-hmm target buy range, are they selling in three days, seven days, three months, six months? Like, what is it? Yeah. And are they selling for above the asking price, below, or right at? Mm. So you have a really clear idea as a buyer if it's gonna be competitive or not, and if you can get away with doing a contingent offer. So that's kinda number two. Number three is sell first and then buy. This is a little bit tougher because you gotta live somewhere.

Dan: [7:17] Right. Yeah.

Christian: [7:18] So- … unless you're able to take a month or two off and- Yeah … go vacation for a while- Yeah … and not have to rent something- Yeah … which I don't, not a lot of people can do that.

Dan: [7:26] Right.

Christian: [7:27] You gotta live somewhere, so then you gotta do, like, a short-term rental, or you could potentially get a rent-back. A rent-back means you sell the house, you get to live in it even though you're no longer the owner- Yep … for up to 60 days.

Dan: [7:41] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [7:42] You just are a tenant. The new buyer of your home now owns it. You're their tenant. You have to move out within 60 days. That's kinda the rule. That could potentially work depending, again, on the market, and if you can realistically assume that you're gonna be able to close in time. Right, right. So there's a little more risk in that. And then the fourth option is to use something like a bridge loan or something similar to that, and that's where Dan comes in- Yeah to help because there's so many different programs-

Dan: [8:11] Yeah … Speaker: based on your specific situation that could work, and that's where you could get maybe a home equity line of credit- Mm-hmm … or a bridge loan or these, all these different options. Yeah. Um, so we're gonna go into depth about those. That's kinda why we're gonna do this. So Dan, let's kinda talk about what some- Yeah … of these options are. Yeah,

Christian: [8:33] kind of the pros and cons just in general. Yeah.

Dan: [8:35] In general, yeah. I mean, and just like you, when you go out and you meet with a client, whether it's to list their home or to help them purchase a home, you know, you're learning a lot about their situation. Mm-hmm. You're learning a lot also about their goals. Yes. And then because you've been in real estate for, what? 20-plus years?

Christian: [8:49] 21 years

Dan: [8:50] now, yeah. Yeah, 21 years. You've got a lot of experience. You've, you've got a lot of experience in the trenches, and so things just come natural to you in regards to, "Oh, yeah, this should probably work best for you, but let's look at all the options." Yep. I do the same thing because… Now, I know this podcast is all about bridge loans, but I wanna make this, you know, just very, very clear. A bridge loan does come at a higher cost compared to a normal scenario where you don't have to bridge your- Mm-hmm … equity between one purchase and another.

Christian: [9:19] Which if you think about it, it makes sense. Mm-hmm. You're getting a loan. You gotta pay for that loan.

Dan: [9:23] Yeah.

Christian: [9:24] It's-

Dan: [9:24] It's

Christian: [9:24] risky … a little more risky. Yeah, for the

Dan: [9:26] bank.

Christian: [9:27] And it's- and there is a cost to that risk- Yeah … which, I mean, that makes sense.

Dan: [9:30] That's 100%. Yeah. And banks assess risk via interest. Mm-hmm. The rate or the- Mm-hmm … fees. And so not to scare you, but I'm- I've ran my business for 18 years being very, very transparent. It's- I think that's one of the reasons why you like-

Christian: [9:44] Exactly.

Dan: [9:44] Yeah.

Christian: [9:44] I mean, it's by far the best way to go. There's no point in-

Dan: [9:47] Yep … Speaker: not being transparent 'cause that's when people are upset. Right. That's when they have regret. That's when they leave bad reviews. That's all of the bad things happen. Like, you don't get r- That's when they don't come back and use us again.

Christian: [9:58] Exactly. Yeah. Which we have so many- Yeah … repeat clients- Yeah … over and over and over again. Some, some of them on their third, fourth transaction with us. Yeah.

Dan: [10:05] Yep.

Christian: [10:05] So.

Dan: [10:06] So a lot of the times, Christian, what we'll do is when I get a client that is in a scenario where they own a home and they want, for whatever reasons, to go buy another home- I will go over all the options, non-bridge loan options first. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about those real quick. Very simple. Can they qualify for their next home purchase without having to sell their home? So can they qualify for it with- Yeah … mult- you know, both payments for a short period of time? Mm-hmm. A- and on under, you know, whatever loan program guidelines, does that work? Number one. If that works, that's one of the best options, okay? Yeah, exactly.

Christian: [10:40] It's gonna be the least expensive option.

Dan: [10:42] It's gonna be the least expensive. Now, sometimes, um, r- you know, and it works best for real estate agents too. I think in a perfect world, I think you'd agree with me, you can market the sale of someone's house best when they're not there. Yeah. When it's cleaned up. Totally. Maybe you get your contractor in there to tighten a few things up.

Christian: [10:58] Yep.

Dan: [10:58] And so- And

Christian: [10:59] it's also way less stressful- Right … as the owner-

Dan: [11:02] Yeah … Speaker: to not be living in it, and, you know, at the drop of a hat, two hours- Yeah … you gotta let… The house has to be show ready- Yeah … and you gotta get out. Yeah. Like, that's not a fun way to live. Yeah. So if you can be out of there, that is ideal. Yeah. I tell that to every client. I can remember when you guys listed our, our farmhouse a few years back. You'd have an open house, and 100-plus people came through. Yes. And Jenny would be like, "I left this morning with a really clean house."

Christian: [11:28] Yeah.

Dan: [11:28] And now it's g- it's been gone through, and it's- Yeah … I, so- Literally 100

Christian: [11:31] people walk through- Yeah … in a couple hours.

Dan: [11:33] Yeah. Yeah. And so that's just one of the price that you have to pay to, you know, sell a home, or one of the things you have to deal with. But in a perfect world, um, you would like to buy without having to sell your home. That would save you the most amount of money. Now, there's other two, two other things. You mentioned it earlier, a home equity line of credit. If you have equity, that might be a really great option-

Christian: [11:51] Totally … Dan: in lieu of a bridge loan. Yeah. So I'll go with that. Another thing that Varun, and you, and I talk about at our home buyer class is a lot of securities-based lines of credit. Yep. So if you have money, not necessarily in your bank account, but maybe in investments- Yeah … Dan: taking a, a lower interest loan against your investments- Mm-hmm … to bridge that gap. So these are three or four things that we'll look at up front before we get into bridge loans. Now- And we have a whole podcast about S block loans. Yep. So, yes.

Dan: [12:19] And highly, highly recommend that because being able to borrow your own money - It's way cheaper … it's way cheaper than borrowing- Yeah … the bank's money.

Christian: [12:27] Yeah.

Dan: [12:27] Yeah.

Christian: [12:27] And this is why I like working with Dan, is because he's going to give you all the options even if that means he makes nothing.

Dan: [12:32] Right. Yep.

Christian: [12:33] Because it's the best option for you. So- Yeah … make sure that whoever you're talking with, if it's not us, that they're- Yeah … actually helping you, not just selling you on something.

Dan: [12:43] Yes. And that's the idea of this podcast, is that if you're listening, you're gonna know all of the options, and you're gonna know h- the steps that you need to vet- Mm-hmm um, to go through all of the, all of these options. All right. So once we've kinda gone through that, and you know what? That, those really don't work. We really need to look into a bridge loan scenario. We could spend an hour and a half here today, or longer, which we're not, talking about all the different types of bridge loans. Yeah. We're not- You

Christian: [13:06] don't need to learn all of those. No. You just need to explain your situation

Dan: [13:10] Yep … Speaker: and then Dan will narrow that list down to you so that you can make an informed decision- Right … which one makes the most sense. Well, you know, every client's different. So some clients, um, bridge loans were originally designed, believe it or not, for people downsizing- Oh right? Not necessarily upsizing. Interesting. A- and so in this particular case, we're seeing a lot of people making lateral to, you know, sizing up moves. Okay? Yep. So it all depends on their existing loan balance and equity situation- Mm-hmm … number one. Number two, it all depends on the price point. Now, we're up here in the Seattle market. Yeah. There is a lot of higher end level homes. Mm-hmm. So we just had a recent update by the FHFA, where they've raised the conforming loan limits in King, Pier- well, across the board, but King, Pierce, and Snohomish County are considered high cost areas. Yes. So

Christian: [14:03] y- Every year they readjust this loan- Yeah balance limit.

Dan: [14:07] Yeah.

Christian: [14:08] It's usually in November, December when this is announced. Yeah. So as of right now, it is just got updated for 2026, but at the end of 2026 it's gonna be updated again. Yep. Potentially staying the same, going down, or going up. Yeah. Generally in our area it goes up.

Dan: [14:21] And the government, the FHFA, which, uh, think of it this way, oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when they raise the loan limits it's a good thing because the government believes that home values are gonna continue to rise, and so they need to expand the loan limits in which they'll insure. All right, so right now I'm just gonna use a broa- you know, an s- it's a number of about 1.229 is the maximum loan limit. Mm-hmm. Which it's gone up from 1.037, which is- Yeah … a darn good increase. Yeah, like

Christian: [14:46] 200 grand increase.

Dan: [14:47] Right. And so but that's a loan balance, not- The

Christian: [14:50] purchase

Dan: [14:50] price … purchase price, right? Yeah. So let's say you wanna buy a $2 million home, and you know, the 20% down on a $200 million home is $400,000. $200 million home. S-

Christian: [14:58] $200

Dan: [15:01] million. Wow. Wow, we're going big. Yeah, geez. $2 million home. We're helping

Christian: [15:03] all the athletes. Every CEO.

Dan: [15:06] Bill Gates. Yeah exactly. $2 million home. That would be $400,000 down, okay? So now we gotta go back to your current situation. Do you have the $400,000 in equity? That's the bridge, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So what I'll try to do, I'm trying to give you kind of an overview of that. Let's say you do have the equity, what a bridge loan does is, and think of it this way, is it's kind of almost like a refinance. We're gonna take your existing loan balance- Plus the 400 in the scen- in the scenario, the $400,000. So let's say you owe 400,000- Yeah … on your current existing home, but you got a bunch of equity. Mm-hmm. And you need a bridge for $400,000 to buy the new home- Mm … with 20% down. So now you have a total of $800,000. That's your bridge. So we're gonna take your- Got it … existing loan balance, plus the bridge of 400 grand, and we're gonna merge those together so now we own that debt. Mm. New American Funding now owns that debt. How they own that debt and how they assess it to you, be a risk, is through an interest-only short-term loan. Huh. So the interest-only loans on bridge, bridge loans right now are about 8 to 10%. Yeah. It's short-term money.

Christian: [16:17] Yeah.

Dan: [16:17] Now, let me- So- Yeah … Speaker: I'll, I'll jump in. Yeah. So a hard money loan- Yeah … like f- when I'm doing an investment property, like a flip or something like that, I'm getting hard money loans. Those are generally 10 to 12% interest. So this is a little bit less, but that's another short-term- Yep … Speaker: high interest, 'cause it's expensive to get these. Yeah,

Christian: [16:35] yeah. But that's a pretty common interest rate for this type of product. Yeah.

Dan: [16:38] And then the fees that you'd pay for that private money is also what?

Christian: [16:41] Probably 1 to 2%.

Dan: [16:43] There you go. Of-

Christian: [16:44] Of the loan amount … Dan: of the loan amount. Upfront-

Dan: [16:46] Yep … Speaker: in cash. So very, very similar with bridge loans. Short-term, most of the time our clients are in a bridge for, you know, anywhere between one day, so sometimes we'll, we'll structure and it'll all work out where they only need it for a day or a week. Mm-hmm. Um, sometimes it's 30 days to 60 days for you to sell the home. Mm-hmm. Um, one of the bridge loans requires the home to be listed prior to you getting an offer on a home too. So there's a lot of scenarios. Some of them don't require. Another parameter is that you have to have lived in the home for the… You had the mortgage or lived in the home for three years. Got it. So, you know, that's kind of a big deal wi- with that aspect of it. So now that you know how a bridge loan is structured, you've got this bridge. How do you pay for that interest? The good news is, is you pay for that- From the s- the net proceeds from the sale of your house. So you're not paying for that upfront. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go out and you're gonna go find your clients, you're gonna buy that $2 million home, for example. Mm-hmm. And we're gonna close on that thing- Mm-hmm … in 20 or 30 days. So now you've got this beautiful new home and you've got a 20% down mortgage on it a- with today's 30-year fixed rates, for example. Got it. And then you're not paying on your bridge that those fees and that interest for however long it takes comes out of the sale of your home.

Christian: [18:03] Got it. So- Mm … you don't have to have any extra cash up front. When you sell the home, those costs come out at closing.

Dan: [18:11] Exactly. Yeah.

Christian: [18:12] So it never comes out of your pocket, it just comes out of your profit.

Dan: [18:15] That's it. Got it. Yeah. Same thing with the purchase, right?

Christian: [18:18] Yeah.

Dan: [18:18] So yeah.

Christian: [18:19] Yeah.

Dan: [18:19] Yeah.

Christian: [18:19] Now, do you have to have 20% down payment for these types of programs? Can you do a 5% down? Are those options?

Dan: [18:25] Absolutely. Okay. So the reason why I use that scenario is because of us being in King County, and, and that's a- actually, that's a very common right around the, you know, the one six to two-plus million- Yep … price point. But no, yeah, it's just, it needs to meet some sort of, of, of loan program guideline criteria. Totally. Yeah. So, you know, a 10% down conventional loan, a VA loan, an FHA loan. Yeah.

Christian: [18:48] So- So you can do it kind of with all the different loan options-ish.

Dan: [18:51] Ish. Mm-hmm.

Christian: [18:52] Ish.

Dan: [18:52] Yeah. Most of the time we're not, you know, we're not even looking at VA or, or, or FHA. A lot of these there's because there's an equity position there. Yeah. Okay.

Christian: [19:00] So one situation, we just helped someone do this. Mm-hmm. Uh, they just closed a week ago. They are going to take the proceeds from the sale of their house, which is gonna be a big chunk 'cause they have it… I think they only owe, like, 150- Mm-hmm … and it's worth, like, 800. Okay. So they're gonna take the proceeds from the sale, and they're going to put it towards their loan on the new house- Mm-hmm to decrease what they owe and recast the mortgage.

Dan: [19:28] Yep.

Christian: [19:29] How does that work, and what is a recast?

Dan: [19:31] Yeah, so that's a great question. Mm-hmm. So a lot… There's a lot of confusion about recast- Mm-hmm … versus refinance, okay? Mm-hmm. So that's another situation where for, for a lot of our clients, let's say, let's go back to that original scenario where because they only owe, I'll use your example- Yeah because they only owe $150,000, their mortgage payment most likely isn't that high. Pretty

Christian: [19:51] minimal, yeah.

Dan: [19:52] Pretty minimal. And so they've got about $600,000 in equity. Let's say they're gonna go buy a million dollar home, for example. That would qualify under the county conforming loan limits, and let's say they have, you know, $100,000 extra laying around for a down payment. Okay? Okay. So they go and put 10% down on a million dollar home, and when they sell their house, they've got 600 coming from the sale of that. Mm-hmm. Let's say they buy the house, they qualify for their new purchase without having to sell. They move into that beautiful new home. 90 day la- 90 days later, whatever, um, they close on the sell, they sell their home- Yep and they've got 600K. They come to me and they say, "Dan, we just sold our home with Christian and, um, you know, we owe 900. We'd like to put the additional $600,000 down- Mm-hmm … and so we'll only have a 300K loan balance." Yeah. No problem. I loop in our servicing department, they send wiring instructions, done, w- we rework the loan. Now, with a recast, we would also look at that point in time. Did rates go down? Mm. If they went down or if there's PMI- Mm-hmm … I'd like to do a refinance- Got it … and then we'll waive the fees a- and everything associated with that. But let's- Other

Christian: [21:00] than the third-party fees that you

Dan: [21:01] can't control. Other than the third party, like the title and escrow. Yeah. We'll waive the lender, the processing- Which is still gonna

Christian: [21:05] be pretty minimal.

Dan: [21:05] Yeah.

Christian: [21:06] A coup- like two grand, three grand-

Dan: [21:07] Yeah, a couple grand … maybe at the most, yeah. On a million dollar home, title, escrow, county recording fees, you're probably looking about three grand. Mm-hmm. But what we'll do at that point in time is then we would refinance you because we could, if we could lower the rate, for example, by a quarter or a half and remove PMI- Yeah because you put- It's gonna save a lot more … down 600… Yeah, it would make a lot of sense. Let's say we didn't need to do that, you just needed to put the 600K down. It's a recast. You pay about a $300 processing fee for that- Mm … 'cause we are gonna rework the loan. Yep. The rate stays the same, but we're reworking your payment and, and your loan balance.

Christian: [21:37] Yeah. So then your payment's gonna jump from whatever it was, and now you are recasting- Mm-hmm … the loan balance. So let's say it was, whatever, 800 grand, now you're taking 600 off of that- Yep … 'cause you're putting that down towards the loan. Mm-hmm. Um, now you only have a mortgage of 200,000.

Dan: [21:54] Yeah, so your payment just went way down.

Christian: [21:56] Way down.

Dan: [21:56] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [21:57] Way down. And so it's, it- So that's, that's another way that some people are going about this, and it's an option that could work for you, depending on your situation. Again, there's so many- So many … different Yeah, yeah … options out there. You just gotta talk to someone like us to help you figure out what all those options are. Yeah. And the cool thing, again, about working with Dan, as a broker, in addition to helping you use all the programs that New American Funding has, you can broker out to find the best possible deal for- Yeah … their situation. So y- I mean, you probably have endless number of different banks that you can go to- Yeah and search all their different programs and, I mean-

Dan: [22:33] Yeah. That's what I was saying. Like- We have about, I've got about a dozen that we've investigated, and so we have a really, really good idea. And quite frankly, there's been a couple of really unique scenarios. It's really weird when you get in there and you start looking at stuff, and then you, "Okay, this is gonna work," and then all of a sudden, "Ah, crud, the debt ratio's too high," or- Mm-hmm there's not enough equity. And you're like, "How do we make this work?" I'm in the, I'm in the solutions business, and we gotta sometimes figure it out, figure out a way. And so, yeah, because of those options, most of the time we're able to find a solution.

Christian: [23:02] Yep. I would say as some next level things to think about- Mm-hmm after you figure out kinda your basic scenario and your basic strategy, depending on what it is you are buying, you need to figure that out as well, and you need to come up with that timing. So if you're buying something that's move-in ready, this is simple. If you're buying something that maybe you wanna do some remodel work to before you move in- Mm-hmm after you take ownership, you're gonna need to factor that into your timeframe. Yeah. Because that could take another three to six months or something like that. Right. If you're redoing a lot of things inside the house, putting new kitchen, bathrooms, whatever it is you're gonna do, factor that in upfront. And that's, again, let us help you figure that out.

Dan: [23:43] Yeah.

Christian: [23:44] You also need to be conservative when you are figuring out or projecting what your sale price is gonna be on your current home. You don't want to guess high. Mm-hmm. And this is where when we're sitting down and we're figuring all this stuff out together, I am showing you all the data. We are working together as a team, meaning you and I are working together as a team to understand what the market is right now- Mm-hmm … what we're projecting it to be when we come on to sell. Worst case, best case, these are the time or the- Yeah … price points that we think we could sell in. Right. Are you okay selling at the worst case scenario price? And you need to be in order to move forward. It might not be ideal, but you don't want to not think about that and then be screwed- Right … potentially if the market takes a slow turn or something like that, if you're taking a long time to, to sell. Right. I guess the next thing too is understanding based on your situation how we can best write a competitive offer, and this is where we are going to work together with Dan on your financing side to figure out what exactly, what tools I can bring to the table when we are making an offer for you on that next purchase. Because that's going to determine, hey, are we able to go not contingent on really anything? Mm-hmm. Like, if it's a super compe- competitive market, are we able to do that? Are we not able to do that? What are we able to do? And these are all things we have to figure out up front before we ever make an offer. You gotta have all of this dialed in. So there is some work that goes into this. That preparation is gonna set you up for success, though. So again, just lean on us. We will help you with that. Timing-wise- This is really dependent on you and your situation- Mm … because this can be super quick. This can also be really drawn out based on what makes the most sense for you. Um, we've had clients where, you know, they wanna buy as soon as they can right now. Mm. Like for instance, it is turning into winter right now. This is where the least number of homes are coming on the market. So as a seller, this is not an ideal time to sell. That said, as a buyer, specifically in November 2025, this is a great time to buy.

Dan: [26:04] Yeah,

Christian: [26:04] yeah. There are some deals out there. Mm. Some homes that have been sitting that maybe they're just a little cosmetically outdated, and buyers just don't wanna do that because there's other homes that are on the market, 'cause there's a little more inventory.

Dan: [26:16] Yeah.

Christian: [26:17] Those other homes on the market are m- move-in ready. They're asking a higher price point, but they're move-in ready. So those might be a little more competitive, maybe, based on your neighborhood and price point and all that stuff. But there's things that are sitting, and so if you can get a deal on a price or on a property right now to purchase in, you know, maybe you close mid to end of December, and then you don't put your house on the market until the market starts to heat up, which it does- Mm-hmm every single mid to end of January, February, March, the market picks up quite a bit. Right. Buyers come out of the woodwork. They all made their New Year's resolution to buy a house. Um, and this is what happens every single year. You can look, we show this in our Beginners in Home Buying class. Yeah. You can look at the data. Like the number of homes that close, the number of sellers that come on the market, the number of buyers that flood the market after the new year, it increases a ton. So you can kinda get the best of both worlds depending on your situation and your timeframe, um, if you time it out correctly, so.

Dan: [27:17] Yeah.

Christian: [27:17] Yeah.

Dan: [27:18] Yeah, flexibility is key. Flexibility allows for timing. And we always say never try to time the market, but a professional like Christian understands the, the, the importance of phases and timing. Totally. Economic phases- Yeah, the cycle … housing phases and cycles. Mm-hmm. And so timing is critical. We, we were talking about a scenario before where you can leverage both of these, the, uh, buy now, sell later, and get the best of both worlds- Totally versus in a traditional market, um, you might take a bath on the sell to get a really good deal. You may be able to, uh, reap the benefits of both. Mm-hmm. So it's, um, really important. And I think the, the other thing, too, getting your options and talking to a pro like us- Up front.

Christian: [28:00] Yeah.

Dan: [28:00] Before you wanna do this versus- Yeah oh my gosh, this house four doors down just

Christian: [28:04] came- We, we found the perfect house.

Dan: [28:05] Yeah.

Christian: [28:06] Don't- Yeah … that's not the ideal way to go about it. Yeah. Talk to us sooner. Yeah. Like, even if you think you're a year out-

Dan: [28:11] Yeah … Speaker: start the conversation now. Yeah.

Christian: [28:13] Because there's certain things we can do to your house in the perfect time of year-

Dan: [28:17] Yeah

Christian: [28:17] where maybe you can get a little bi- little bit better deal on the work- Yeah … that needs to be done, because a painter doesn't wanna paint, um, in the winter. Mm-hmm. But you're doing the interior, so it's okay. But they're gonna be slammed in the summer 'cause they're doing all the exterior jobs, so they're gonna charge you more- Right to paint the interior of your home. Like, all these little things that we can help you with, um, yeah, just chat with us. Talk to us sooner than later. Uh, it doesn't matter how far out you are.

Dan: [28:41] Yeah.

Christian: [28:42] talk with us. It's not hard. Yeah, just reach out. All of our contact info is on the website. So any last things that you wanna talk about, Dan?

Dan: [28:51] You know, I, this is one of those markets, someone said the other day, "Oh my gosh, are you getting burned out with these high interest rates?" And, and, uh, I said, "Actually, no." I, I, I, for my first-time home buyers, for, you know, we teach beers and home buying. For that group of people, I think kind of where we're at right now, or a little bit less, in the, in the mid, upper fives would be ideal. I absolutely love the market that we're in right now. It's n- it's the, it's been the least volatile- Mm-hmm … market that I've seen in probably 10 years. It re- really reminds me back to 2017, 2018- Yeah … where the market was just, it was improving. We didn't have a ton of inventory, but there wasn't, rates were in the m- upper fours, low fives, maybe mid fives. It, but it wasn't volatile. We didn't see these massive peaks and these massive valleys. Yeah. This is a healthy market- Yeah … believe it or not, you guys. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. So understanding that, number one. Number two, working with a professional, someone that's been in the game f- like, like, I'm just, not tooting my own horn, but guys, when you've worked with someone who's been around the block for 18, 19 years at a high level-

Christian: [29:53] Mm-hmm

Dan: [29:54] it's like going in and, and, and having to have a surgery. I r- I'm sorry, man, I'd rather have a physician working on me that's done thousands of these surgeries- Yeah … versus some, you know, nice-looking kid out of, uh, medical school and, and residency, right? I mean, good for them. They gotta start somewhere. But you know, it's, there's something to be said with someone with a lot of experience, and this market favors experience. I agree. That's all I'll say.

Christian: [30:16] I agree.

Dan: [30:17] Yeah.

Christian: [30:17] All right. Well, that's it for this episode of The Awesome Nossum Group podcast. If you wanna reach out to Dan Keller, what is the best way?

Dan: [30:23] Yeah. Uh, Instagram's a great way. I create a lot of content- Mm-hmm … behind-the-scenes mortgage info. There's a lot going on right now. Yep. You've probably seen the 50-year mortgage talks- All these things … and affordable mortgages and- Affordable

Christian: [30:34] mortgages, all these things,

Dan: [30:35] yeah … whoo. And a lot of it's just a tweet at this point, and it's nothing crazy. But, uh, the second it starts getting m- gaining more and more traction, that's what my job is, is to, to educate you guys. So @mymortgageguydan on, um, on Instagram. Or again, you can Google me, and I'm all over the internet.

Christian: [30:51] Yeah. And if you wanna reach out to me, it's just the Awesome Nossum Group, or Awesome Nossum Group, not the Awesome Nossum Group. Uh, no the, it's, uh- I'm not that egotistical. The Christian Nossum Group. You

Dan: [31:02] wouldn't know me.

Christian: [31:04] Um, or you can reach out at our website, AwesomeNossumGroup.com. That is it for this episode. If you found this helpful, if you know anyone else that's kinda in this situation- Mm … that this might be helpful for- Yeah … please pass this on to them. Um, always please subscribe. That is super helpful for us, making the podcast even more popular. And like this episode too, if you can. So thank you very much. We'll see you on the next one. Bye.