The Job Market Isn’t Crashing in 2026 - Something Bigger Is Changing

The job market has been stuck in a slow to hire, slow to fire phase all through twenty twenty five, and now we're going to dive into what will happen in twenty twenty six. I don't actually see it getting any better, how about you. Yeah, there's really two different narratives going on. You know, they're kind of diverging as some people think. Some economists think it's going to rev up with Trump trying to stimulate the economy, and others think due to AI and also just a slow down of the economy. Well clear, Trump will for sure try to stimulate the economy. Yeah. Yeah, that is the number one thing on his mind right home affordability. He's trying to get their rates down, He's trying to get people to borrow. You know, he wants he wants that momentum. He also really really understands real estate, which is extremely, really important, I think because CPI represents what anywhere from thirty to forty percent of the inflation, right, so that owner's equivalent a rent or oeer what they call that is inflationary or not, and we're not going to have that. It's not going to be an inflationary component in twenty six because of the concessions and the flat rants and all the stuff that we're all experiencing right now from the overbuilding. So he's going to have he understands that, you know, he's a real estate guy, right, So I think it's going to be a very very interesting time. Yeah. I think why the data is so confusing is you do have layoffs that have been ramping up, like later into twenty twenty five. January is always a big layoff time because you know, employers don't want to do it during the holidays, so we're going to have more this month. But then at the same time we have GDP growth, So it's like the economy isn't doing like terrible, but at the same time we're seeing hiring and unemployment. Yeah, but I here's the one thing, just like it's happening at an individual level, Like we all know, like when we go to the store and the prices are more, and you know, we are filling the pain of inflation, right, and each administration keeps pointing at the other one. But the end of the day, at the consumer does really care, Right, at the end of the day, it's just inflationary. It's also hitting the employer. Yeah, I think this is the most important piece. So the employer is actually feeling the pain too, you know, and all kinds of stuff. So you know, if if you have a commercial office building, you've that CPI is tied to your lease. So so there are things that are that are trickling through that are that are hitting employers and including labor costs and all that stuff. So why is that important? Because I think certainly wasn't my company. You know, we're we're people are really looking at all the where are the nickels and dimes and dollars being spent right now? They're looking at contracts, they're they're looking at renewals, they're looking at ai they're they're looking at all these pieces. Because when the money is flowing in, uh, they those things oftentimes get overlooked. It's it's like it's like when you buy a piece of real estate in a rising market, like you're not too concerned with all the expenses. Now when it's flat or negative, you start to really dig in. It's the same thing personally, right, like if you lose your job, you start to look at all these things that you know that you could oh you know what I can get rid of my Netflix and uh a subscription, I can get rid of my gym like those those are things that people start to do and pull back. That's what's happening with employers right now. And they're starting to take a look at their operational costs and if and that's why would they do that? They're they do they're doing that because their income's down and or they're concerned about their income for next year. And AI is a piece, right they're saying, okay, if even in my own company, you know, we have customer service, right and and you know, we had we had somebody leave they they got poached by somebody else, and so internally we're like, well, I think we can actually have a lot of this done, that stuff done through AI. So so it wasn't that we let that person go, It's just that we're we have now another I guess something on the shelf that we can look at to still accomplish the customer service role, but not with a full time person. Yeah, and I think it really does go back to this soft landing that we've been hearing about for years now versus a recession, you know, are we're going to have a soft landing or we're gonna have a recession. And the data points are really just so mixed on this that it's really hard to know. I don't see a recession anywhere in the cards, like at all, Like you know, we have to Everybody keeps talking about these crash These crash bowl videos drive me nuts. You know, these guys are on YouTube doing all this clickbait stuff. Listen, I've been through a couple, right, the most recent being the two thousand and eight crash. There's one thing missing that nobody used to bring up. It's because it doesn't exist. And those are bankruptcies in defaults. Like defaults are not that high, you know, they're not, and so you have to have people default for there to be a crash period like there isn't you know, and yes you can. You know, people are making these minute little things. Oh you know, the market clicked upwards, you know, one one hundredth of a tenth of a point or something like that. It's ridiculous. So you back in two thousand and eight, there were so many properties that were going back to the bank. It was obvious, right, Okay, there's gonna be a huge repricing and that's exactly what happened. We're not having that now, you know next year. I do think well, first of all, this first quarter, we all know we're going to see a bunch of homes hit the market right on the residential side. But I think we always kind of do in January because nobody wants to list their home during the holidays. Yes, agreed, Yeah, So whether it's been historical or whatever, we could agree that it's going to happen. Okay, so point is yes and so so so that's going to happen. So that's going to increase the number of supply, that's going to create some price softness, and it's going to give the buyer more options period and so what you know, so that if you want to consider that a reprice and knock yourself out, But to me, it's historically what has been happening is that people typically don't like to list during the holidays and they you know, there's all these new listings. It's the same with the commercial side too. We have a huge conference that we go to called the National multor Housing Council Animate Seeds in Las Vegas and it's this month, and what will happen is these brokers will come with all these projects that they've been working on since let's say September or August the last year, and and they're going to be presenting them and they're going to call them off market or you know whatever. They're going to create this frenzy and there's going to be a tremendous amount of stuff that's going to be listed in January, February, March, very very common for my business. And what does that do. It gives the buyers more options. That's a good thing. Yeah, And I you know, when you go back to the unemployment, you know, a lot of economists are saying, no economist thinks there's going to be massive job grossed in twenty twenty six, just like you don't believe there's going to be massive real estate price growth in twenty twenty six. So it's interesting to me because the unemployment is following the predictions for real estate very similarly, where a lot of people either think that it's going to be slow economic growth, meaning you know, a little bit of hiring, not a ton and then you know, similar housing prices, no real growth, but hopefully buyers, you know, start to come back into the market. But then the naysayers that are saying, you know, this is going to be a recession, are saying that unemployment could hit all the way to six percent. You know, they're they're kind of doom and gloom there, and that is high. You know, that would be like recessionary. But at the same time, if you had that, you're definitely going to see lowering of rate to stimulate the economy. Yeah. Again, I think if somebody's where we're at four and a half right now, but it is taking off, yeah, not much. It Actually the job supports coming out this Friday and and uh, you know it's expected to be positive. But you know, here's the thing for for somebody to say, I think it's gonna be six there's a reason for that, Like, you's got to look at her. What are they trying to accomplish by saying it's gonna be one and a half points higher? They're trying to create fear, That's what it is, because you know what will happen. First it'll go to four six, then it'll go to four seven, then it'll go to four eight. You know, it's gonna be like a frog in the pot. It's gonna slowly cook higher, and there'll be plenty of time to you know, adjust, figure stuff out. It's not gonna go from four and a half to six. That is a crash row mindset. Well, I think they mean through all of twenty twenty six, not like this job's are. It's not gonna go up one and a half points. AI. You know how many millions and millions and millions of people that is. But you're the one that always argues with AI. So I you know, AI could accelerate this job. Well, this situation will accelerate it. Not could it will one thousand percent, you know. But but people are just starting to figure it out, right, They don't they don't know exactly where to apply. Now. Some people have really embraced this obviously, but I would say the majority of employers are are starting to roll this out. I know people now that have appointed people in their company they're in charge of AI, and they're just now, this is all new, you know. I would say this is in the first few innings. That's that's where we are. This is going to be a very very different next year and the year after. I think you're going to start to see absolute certain functions are going to be very very commonly AI instead of you know, like like like customer service is a great example. That's a really really really good example of a doubt. You can easily replace that job with an AI function, right or a virtual there. How many customer service and virtual assistant positions are right, I mean that would take it up probably right there. Actually, that's a really good analogy. So let's take a look at when you and I started using virtual assistance? Was it five six years ago? Okay, before the curve, right, like you and I were. We have some people from the Philippines, we have some people from London, we have some people from Thailand, some people from Mexico. We've had them do different things, certainly with our YouTube channel and the stuff we do here. We have editors and thumbnail people and you know, people that are doing all kinds of graphics and things like that, and we get banged every day. Okay, that was not the case three or four years ago. Five years ago, we actually have to seek this out, remember, m hm. Okay, now it's more commonplace. Now it's commonplace. I'm getting stuff in my LinkedIn for VAS all the time, and before we were having to look for it. So now that's become a crowded space. Now that's becoming more commonplace, AI is going to roll out the same way. That's my belief. It's gonna These are slow moving things that eventually, you know, and when I went to that HITEPO conference in LA recently, it was all there were. There were several companies that were saying, you know, we'll come into your company and teach you how to how to apply AI to your business. And we're looking at that. You know, we hired a consultant for that. So you know, the thing is, you got these these old people, call them hold anybody that's over forty, uh that don't know how right, and they're they're they're you know, they're they're busy. They're at capacity, a lot of them. Certainly my accounting department is at capacity. Right. The last thing they're gonna do is you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna figure out how AI can uh, you know, make us more efficient and reduce my staff. That's just not going to happen. Has to come from leadership. Leadership's busy, and it just what it does is it rolls out slowly, and so yes, it will affect unemployment. But it's not going to be a correction like from four and a half to six at all. So let's talk about if unemployment were to go up, like how that would affect essentially the economy because I think a lot of people, you know, haven't really been through any kind of slowing down or recessionary time. Even if we don't go into a recession, you know, we are in as much slower economy than we have been since twenty twenty one. Oh yeah, yeah, things are things are very very different, of course. You know, I think you're gonna well, the first thing is wage growth slows way down, right, And what happens, you know, the people go on some kind of assistance hopefully they have they can get those kinds of things. So you're going to start to see that, and you know, the spending, the discretionary spend stops, right, So all the low hanging fruit stuff stops. What doesn't stop is rent, transportation, you know, the food, those those basic things, right, and those don't stop, but a lot of other things stopped. I mean, think about when you've been personally through some kind of hard time, what did you cut back on, right? Yeah, I mean you cut down all the different things that. You yeah, that's what happened. But at the same time, though a lot of people argue that with rents, you know, people have to you can't do rent increases if people are on a tight budget, Like there is. A trust me. If the tenant could command what they wanted to pay in rent, they would They can't. It doesn't it's not in their hands. What. Rents are governed by supply and choices, not by a tenant. The tenant moves where they need to, but rents a roommate thing you to. Tenant loses a job. The landlord doesn't go, oh, I'm going to lower our rent for you. That's not how that works. So you know, it's if if if if the market, if the property is full and it's experiencing rent growth, it's a result of the supply in the market, it's a result of its low interest rates, perhaps it's whatever. And as you start to add more supply, like right now, like right now is a renter's market. And why is that? It's because we added over five hundred thousand units last year in twenty twenty five. That hit all over the country, and that added supply gave tenants more choices and so rents are flat, and there's also concessions, but unemployment and by the way, it one hundred percent effects where an investor should buy, right, Well, it will affect airbnb. Yeah, it will affect high end for sure, Class A, right, so all that stuff. So you know, if it, if it persists, if it goes up to six, you know, a developer that's going to build Class A apartments might look a second time and go, you know, maybe not such a good time right now, because people are having an affordability issue, right And what will happen is there'll be a spotlight on rent control, uh and and you know, rent subsidies and and you know those kinds of things. But it will affect home buying for sure. Oh of course, yeah, yeah, I mean, of course, you know, because people can't get mortages without without you know, W two income. You know, like you and I both experienced that. Neither of us take paychecks from our companies, however, and the banks will. Like that, yeah, yeah, they really don't. And you know, but it'll be interesting, you know, with you know, because part of the real estate market going into twenty six is obviously that demand rates have been better, so demands going up, but if there is a high spike in unemployment. But I guess my question though, is it depends on who's unemployed, right, because if it's people that couldn't afford to buy homes anyways, like say it's a lower wage worker that home buying wasn't on the radar, then it's not going to affect it the same way as if you know, people that are making more money that are buying homes in the first place are losing their jobs. Yeah, I think, well, there's a couple of things. One, I think this is going to be the year where AI is going to creep into the white collar right. And you know, if you really want to rip the band aid off, you can take a look at blue collar like blue collar like trades like plumbing, electrical. You know that in those industries are crushing it right now because you you know, obviously I don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole. But the colleges preyed on the high schools. They look at those kids as customer. They all went into school and they got into student debt, and then what happened was, you know, but when I when I was growing up, my dad was a journeyman. He was in the shirt sheep, sheet metal business, HVAC contractor and and uh there was a whole regiment system behind him, right he was as he was getting older, he was training younger guys. Well that's gone. And so what you have is you have these trades or these people are getting older and older and older, and there's nobody coming up behind them, but they're crushing it, like you know, this is the industry. I understand me. I do understand the hvac and the plumbing electrical business. And you know, even our what our handyman's like. We're up to seventy five one hundred dollars an hour for people come and just come to your house, right, and what four or five years ago it was thirty forty right, Okay, So why is that? It's because they can command that price. There's a shortage, so you know, So so I think, you know, back to your point of who can buy houses, that's a sneaky industry, you know, you know there that's the rising industry. White collars in trouble. The middle you know, two three, four layers of mind management, they're in trouble. What's going to continue to rise, and what's going to be the star of this next decade are going to be the blue collars, don't you agree? Yeah, I totally agree. I mean I think that that's where all the money because AI can't replace that. No, No, that's the thing, and high. Level white collar too, because you're always going to need a humor at least for a long time, a human to kind of. Yeah, but you don't know that going to tell you. Like my friends that are in the law business, they're they're they're freaking out. Yeah, legal is legals think about this. Guys like I got a term sheet. I think I may have mentioned this. I got a term sheet from a very big company and I ran it through Chat and I said, you know, how would you renegotiate this and boe make it? You know, before I would have sent that to my attorney, I would have waited for a response. I would have a phone call. Uh you know, it would have been a let's say a week whatever. It was immediate right and now now granted I still said it to my attorney and said what do you think of this? He got back to me, He's like, these are really really interesting, good points, and so we still discussed it. But the point is, you know, we have friends that sold have sold their practices and you know, anything like Will's Estates PPMS. Uh. You know, these kinds of businesses are they're they're they're in trouble uh with with Chat. And you know, because you can literally have documents created, uh insert your stuff and then just have it reviewed. To your point. I'm not saying you don't need somebody to rubber stamp and review it, but you're not paying these big numbers. And so so that's what I mean by white collar, and it. Is affecting things because I had a legal document I was looking at last week and I normally would have to call an attorney, but I just ran it through Chat and that probably saved me three hundred and some dollars. Right, So yeah, and it's the same things happening with tax planning and you know, but here's where it's not happening. My AC went out like you know, like that I will tell. You I chat. Sheput why the washer in my. Tent ye photo? Tell the stories? Yeah, Like so I had my my tenant had a washer and it was stopping and you know, I was debating do I bring out a plumber or do I need a new like washing machine? Because like, is it the plumbing? So I literally sent the video to chat and based on the video, Chat told me that it's not the plumbing because X, Y, and Z and that it's a washer. That's just blew my mind. And it would even told me what part of the washer that needed looked at. It probably replaced, but as you guys all know, it's just cheaper to buy a new washer than to get somebody out there. We'll fix it out. The best part is is that you now are you came armed with the handyman. You actually are saying you know what about this? What about that? That is the beauty of it? Well, I was going to call it a plumber, So like that really saved me money because it saved me a two hundred dollars plumber visit to tell me that the line was okay, right, and so you know that. But but to your point, you still need someone to fix it. If you're going to say, you still need an appliance guy to sell it, but. You're going to be armed a little more educated. Same thing on legal right, So so this is kind of the point. But at the end of the day. Uh, you know, electricians, plumbers, HVA say, you guys, don't. There's a whole bunch of other stuff, landscaping like that stuff. Those those folks are going to be just fine, and this is their time, man Like. It's really kind of exciting because you know, I grew up around that. I grew up around the blue collar stuff, and at that time, it was a it was a well recognized kind of honored profession. You know, they were craftsmen, and and that got all replaced with with as college just picked those people off and said hey, you can go get a college education. And I'm not saying that was wrong. I'm not, you know, but but the point is that that is what happened, and just it just gutted that industry and now it's come roaring back yep. And then another thing I think with unemployment that can happen is your monetary policy, right. I mean, that's a big one where the Feds involved and they drop rates and you know, the government starts printing again if needed when you have high levels of unemployment. And we saw this in nine. True that that's been going on forever. You know, I don't like I think sometimes people are just like starting to be conscious about it. Well, I'll just kind of go back and look, it's it's we've been printing for since since the eighties. But I do think it's important to note that we haven't had a real, like real slowdown since eight So you know, those of us that are younger haven't really experienced it. That's true. Well i'll tell you because I'm older, but I will. When I first bought my car, I think the interest rate was eighteen percent my first car eighteen Now that was in the eighties. Just go, look, right, okay, so you know everybody's bitch it at six like, so they. Just created one hundred or one hundred month car loan two. I saw that. Oh my gosh. That what that really means is they're just trying to keep your payment the same. Yeah, So there you have to go back, and I think you know what happened in the eighties and the nineties, In two thousand and twenty ten, two thousand and eight, let's call it. To your point, there really hasn't been a big correction, and times are a little bit different right now. But one thing is for sure, real estate is not going to create. Real estate will not create this problem because we will not see a big default here and the issue is going to befordability. That's going to be And I've said this, I think we're moving back to a renter nation. Right now is a great time to buy because the renter has the upper hand. And so if you're trying to purchase, you're purchasing on fundamentals, on real numbers right sobers today, flat rants, concessions, high expenses, those are real higher interest rates. So if you can buy today and weather the storm, uh, then then you're going to be in a good position. Now. Of course, you want to make sure it cash flows today. If it doesn't cash flow today, then pass. And so most of the deals that we look at, we pass because the seller is typically looking still in the rearview mirror where you want to look out the windshield and say, you know, what's the future have in store? So they're they're they're trying to they still believe in old pricing and you have to buy on on tomorrow's numbers. With most of the US being in a buyer's market, sellers are left wondering what they can do to sell their house most efficiently. Yeah, and so here's where we are. This is the best part. This is what's going on, is that this is the time for you to really get that experience realtor. Yeah, like seriously, Like Daniel just switched brokerages recently, and and we went to a party the other night and this woman I chatted with her. I'm like, she is sharp, She's how long have you been in this? She's I've been doing this for twenty two years. That is what you need next, you know, you guys gotta really be careful of those brokerages that are just popping up. It's the same thing happening with property management companies. The people who started companies in the last few years of the property management they're getting tested right now, right because the operating expenses are going up, the occupancies are going down, and there's concessions hitting the market, and they just don't have that experience. They haven't been through it, right. And so when we were talking to your broker the other day, I was I was fascinated, you know, And I was saying, I was saying to her, you know, what are you gonna do as we move into this next phase? And you know, she said, and which you and I agree with we're just heading into what what in her lifetime is normal? Ye right, like what she just it's the same as us, like you know, and so what's gonna happen it is if you're under forty, you're going to get rocked, right because all you've ever seen is up and all you're just not used to. You haven't had that. You don't have the tools in your tool belt to understand and even really talk to somebody that is going to list with you because you just don't know. Yeah, And that's the other thing too, is you have to also if you hire someone with experience that knows what they're doing, you also have to listen to them because I think sellers are sellers are stuck in, especially sellers that have bought in the last few years. So they bought something and they want to sell the same thing. They want to sell it for more, They want to sell it quickly, they want to not do any kind of inspection on it because they bought it a few years ago. And you have to remember a lot of these people that bought in the last few years, they waived an inspection or they did a really quick inspection with a quick close and they don't really know any issues with the property, and they look at themselves as the buyer, like, well, when I was a buyer, I wave the inspection, or when I was a buyer, I didn't ask for any concessions. It's a different market. It's such a different market. So you definitely need to listen to what your realtor says to do. If you hire someone experience. That's another really good point. Yeah, you also have inexperienced buyers. Yes, so you have yearn experience realtors. Now when I say inexperience, i'm talking to you. I'm saying if you have under ten years, you're inexperience, you know. And the same thing with a buyer. And you know, Danil just had somebody approach her the other day that bought something as an airbnb, and of course it didn't work out. We've been talking about airbnbs for well over a year. But that's fine. And now they're stuck in this position of how abouts they paid what their debt is, et cetera, And so. That is going to be tough for you, right, Yeah, it's going to be a hard sale because they have to sell it for a certain amount that they bought it for a couple of years ago. And it's a slower market, and you know, the sellers have to wrap their head around you know some things too, because what I've seen too is I had some buyers and they offered a good price on this house. It was like ten grand less than what they wanted. They declined it. They didn't want it, declined it. Guess what, it's sad, and it's sad, and it's sad. And now it's way less than ten grand less than what they originally listed it for. So they're probably kicking themselves that they didn't take that offer. And I would actually venture to say that it was the listing broker's fault. And now it could have been that they had a really tough seller too, But the listing broker is the one that said, listen, like this is what's happening with market. They nobody really had to look at that before. They never had to look at again. Out through out the windshield, guys like everybody's looking back, Oh there'll be another buyer, there'll be somebody else coming through. All rates are coming down, the market is going to get better. They're not looking at the whole picture. The one thing I have realized, especially from that party the other night where we're at. You know, your industry is pretty opinionated. Oh yeah, very opinionated. People are pretty high on themselves. Yeah, and you you have to make sure that your beliefs align with your realtor's beliefs because you know you're going to be taking advice from them or you know, listening to them. You just want to make sure that you're on the same page and you have a selling plan. Like you never had to have a selling plan before. You just listed it and it would just sell. Well, now you know what I'm seeing is okay, well list it at the price you want. But if we don't have any tours in two weeks, then we need to lower the price. Yea. Like you know, there has to be some give and take between the realtor and the seller as long as you have to sell. Now, some of you are sitting in your houses. You're like, if I don't sell this thing for seven point fifty, like, I'm not moving. That's a different conversation. You're not urgently trying to sell. You just would like to sell. But a lot of people selling need to sell because you know it's vacant or they want to move or they need to move, and that's a different conversation too. Yeah, and again, guys, this is this is the difference here is do you have it in you to actually ask for help because you know and and you got to lean on like like like the broker that you have now, Holy moly, is she's smart. So you need to listen. And by the way, we have this exact issue right, Like I remember one time, uh, we had a we had a guy call me like a day before his property was closing, literally a day before, and he's like, I need property management and I'm like, okay. So and then I went met with him and he had a property in San Diego that he was one hundred percent full and he was out on his boat fishing and it was cash flowing like crazy and he was just having live in the living the life of Riley. Then he moved it to an air he moved it to a bigger property twice the size in Phoenix and called me. And the first thing, I'm like, oh no, this is not necessarily a good area. But what did you do? He bought it off the brochure. So I sat down with him I'm like, dude, this is a rough area. And by the way, you've got some rough tenants in there, and this is gonna be a it's gonna be a very different experience from you. He's like, wow, whatever, whatever. So in the first thirty sixty days, I have to evict I don't know ten twenty people because they're not paying rent in the places, you know, And I'm like, I need money for this, I need money for that. And he fired me after ninety days, right, And I was like, I told you so, but you know, he bought whatever. And the point is is that you know, again a broker, broker, you saying he was doing no work personally, right, He's like, had this property full in San Diego. Then he rolled in some crappy area of Mesa, Arizona, and and very different market. And eventually he ended up selling that thing for a loss. But we got we got fired because all again, I'm like, dude, the issue was you you bought wrong and and so now you got to pay the price. And I think that's so You've got both sides. You know, what you have is you have the hands are on the table, right, you have what the the listing brokers. Now, if you're not really, really, really experienced it, you need to arm your your sellers with really good strategy and really good information, and you need to recognize when there's a good buyer. And the problem is is that when you're closing transactions really fast, there's no learning. Yeah, there's no learning. Learning happens during stress. And that's where we're heading now. And and you know there's going to be the people that are going to rise up. The smart thing to do is grab like what d Nail's done. She jumped over to a brokerage that has more seasoned ownership, more seasoned people to help her navigate this period of time, because it is going to be it's actually, by the way, it's just moving back to normal. Like people are just freaking out. It's moving back to normal, but people don't really remember what normal is. So point number one comes down to the price, right, you need to price for reality, not for what you think that it's worth or that you bought it for specifically, especially if you've bought it in the last few years, right. Right, And that's the thing, like, you know, I just just sell it. I'm actually closing on a house this week and I priced it. I overpriced it intentionally. We got no, we got nobody look at checking it out right, And then what we did was I like, okay, I had to laugh because you go on to Zillo and there's like five ten thousand dollars price adjustments, Like, oh, well, that's just an annoyance, right, Like who does that? So I repriced it significantly, and then I did it. And then I told the broker I was going to delist it. I was going to delist it in December and take it off the market until next year, and you know, just kind of relok at it because it's not a house that I that I live in. So and sure enough that strategy worked right, cut once, cut deep, yep. Yeah, And I think too you you went over a few good points there. So for one, like I think people get stuck on what they bought it for or what they think it's worth, and sellers have to wrap. Now, you didn't lose money because you've owned this property a long time. Well, I have no doubt on it. But even so you've owned this property a long time. People that have bought in the last you know, two three five years, it's different. You know, you could be losing money. And I think a lot of sellers they they And I'm not talking about people like I said, that might want to sell. I'm talking to people that have to sell. You have to wrap your mind are on the fact it may sell less for than it may be worth less than you bought it for. Yeah, nobody wants to write a check, but that's the reality. That is the reality. And then the other thing that you brought up is part of that selling plan is if it's not selling, you need to lower the price. And what drives me nuts when I see houses is when people lower the price a thousand dollars or five thousand dollars on a million dollar house, right like, that doesn't really do anything. It sends everybody a notification there's been a price adjustment, but that's all it does. And then when people see one thousand dollars, it doesn't move the needle. You know, you want to move it enough if it's still overpriced, so you're you know, falling in line, and that's what you did. You were overpriced, so you moved it, so you weren't. It also took you eight months to sell it, so not everybody wants to wait that long because a lot of sellers still have it in their mind it's this is a thirty sixty ninety day issue, and it's a lot of times it's not unless you really want to be aggressive with the pricing. H Yeah. The other thing I would be careful of doing is is negotiating with your broker to try to squeeze them down on our commissions, right like like the best people. Now, by the way, I I know this goes both ways, but the point is if it's a really expensive home, then of course you're probably fine. But you get what you pay for. I can't stress that enough, right you guys, I'm serious. You get what you pay for. So if you want somebody to represent you, stop negotiating on their price because they're there, you're going to personally move to just like you would. You're going to move to the bottom of the pile, right, no matter what. Just pay them full market, find the best person you can and let them do their thing and listen. Yeah. So the second one is a big one, and this one has changed so much in the last five years, and that is controlling the inspection narrative. So in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, sellers had control. Sellers had control, and buyers were literally waiving inspections, or if a buyer found stuff on the inspection, it's like, do you want it? Because if not, I have seven other people, so I'm not discounting you at all. Well, now that the buyers have control, they're taking the price and they're looking at the inspection, and they're taking a bunch of money off of the inspection or they're requesting it, and then you as the seller, can either decide to pay that or walk away. But you don't have any other buyers, So you A you have to be ready for that, but B you have to control that narrative. Like you should be doing an inspection of your home with an inspector before you list it, and you should find out all the issues with your home and then you should either fix them or disclose them. And when you disclose something, you're removing that buyer's leverage. So say you have, you know, cabinet doors that are broken, right, if you disclose that, there's less leverage for them to ask for money off because they know when they went in that this was an issue. And that's why you want to have your HVAC looked at. That's why you want to have your plumbing looked at. That's why you want to have your roof looked at. Because buyers, the way they're treating an inspection right now is list all the things that I can request that they're going to pay me money for, because I want all the money for all the things that need fixed. And you know, in what I'm seeing a lot of sellers still doing is disclosing nothing on the disclosure report, like there's nothing wrong with this, Okay, great, Now you're just opening up a can of worms for a buyer to go in and ding ding ding ding ding everything. That's a heck of a good point, Like I don't have a ton to add there. It's just it's smart guys, Like the market has shifted, you know, when the buyer is the buyer is now in control and so they're going to be able to negotiate these kinds of things and so be super thorough if you're going to list something. You know, what's funny is like I have a lot of sellers I work with, and I'm like, you really should do a pre inspection inspection. It's like five hundred bucks they don't want to pay it. They just don't want to pay it. But the problem is is it comes back on the concessions like tenfold, you know what I mean. So it's I get it, but you have to understand this is what's happening. This is the reality of what's happening in the market. It's the same with a commercial. You know, we call it due diligence. You call an inspection. It's the same. It's just just an inspection. It is your time to because you're stepping into the shoes of the property, like you know, just because it transfers and there's money that it's exchanged. You literally step in there. There are those the seller's issues are your issues. Yeah, and that's that's the way to look at it. And so if you disclose all those things and now everybody's everybody knows about it as they start negotiating, you can go fall back to say, listen, this is all disclosed. Uh, and it was Considering d to the price doesn't mean you'll win, but you kind of get the point. You have a better argument. But also this is where you're experienced broker or a realtor that's representing you is also going to help you, because they might say, at least I would uh, let's get to sing an escrow and then let's chip away at all the little things. Right and now, now, of course you as a seller, you're like, oh, I'm in good shape, and then all of a sudden, chip chip chip chip chip right, yep, Now there is a way to handle that. I get that. You know, if they ask for something, I always like to ask for something back, So whatever that might be. You know, maybe maybe you say, okay, then you release this money to me. If you know, we go, we go hard on the money and then the only contingency left is to financing or there's things that you could do on the other side of that, just to continue to lock it up so it doesn't have to be a one way hit is kind of the point. Well, but also too, you have to look at twenty percent of deals are falling out right now, which is extremely high for you know, even higher than normal, and a lot of that comes down to what's found on the inspection report and also these nickel and diming from the buyers. The last thing you want as a seller is to go under contract and then fall out because you know you're going to at least be under contract for ten days, and that counts against your days on market, right, so they're like, Okay, you were at ten days on market. Now you're at twenty days on market. So you really And also a lot of people that were interested, they see you're under contract, they assume you're closed. They don't go back and check and look right, So it really affects you negatively. So I would rather have an issue and disclose it and say, hey, you know the HVAC, this is what's wrong with it. It's a two thousand dollars fix. We're not fixing it. Then for them to come to us say there's a two thousand dollars fix and decide the buyer to decide, you know what, I'm not even sure I want this now because there's this issue with the AC. I feel like this is going to be a bigger issue for me later. And then it fall out and buyers are doing that they're skittish right now. That's a really good point. It's you know, think about if you're buying something and you get this thirty or forty page Inspectrum report with all these photos, with all these issues, right, like like if you're not serious in this business. Let's say that's going to freak you out. You're like, all you see is katen kachin Kating's going to cost me so much money. So that is the mindset of these people, especially, you know, like like people that just don't know better, right, like they're you know, like my mom, Like my mom was buying something, she got a report like that, she would first she said it to me and my brother if you go, ha, you know, like so so not everyone you know has the stomach for this stuff. Guys like you know, so so the Neil's right, make sure that's disclosed, make sure it's addressed. And usually at some point this just boils down to some kind of dollar number, right it does. It does, yep, And it even happened to me. And finally I go, listen, let's just I low bald, of course, and and the my realtor is like, I think that's a little low. I go, it is low, but let's let's start there. And then they high bald, and then we met in the middle, which is really below the number I thought it would be. So it was a win. And the other thing, too, is when you're when you have a home and you have a neighbor that has a very unsightly, you know, yard or whatever it is, you know, that's something you want to look at too. And it was funny because I posted this on my Instagram because Tara and I talked about this on our podcast and we were saying that, you know, you could ask the neighbor, you know, if you can clean up their yard for them for free. And I had somebody email in and say, well, actually I went farther than that. I created fake postcards of a landscaping company that was going to do free work for reviews online and I only put it in my neighbor's mailbox and they called and they bit and so he hired three landscaping guys off the internet and they came and cleaned up the whole yard for them because it was a mess. And he knew listing his home it was going to be detrimental because that is one of those red flags you drive up and the neighbor's yard looks a mess, like, I don't know, seventy five percent of your buyers are out. Yeah, that's extremely creative and very smart, because, by the way, that's where this market is headed. Is that kind of stuff. You guys need to be next level and trust me, you know, getting a listing and selling it quickly. Those days are over. Yeah, yeah, they really are. And you know, I think being flexible on the terms that your buyer wants. So I've seen a lot of this too, where we want to buy, but we want a sixty day close, or we want you know, a quick close, or we want you know, these are all the different things that we want. I think you need to be open minded to that. You know, I've even seen, you know, people that have VA loans and FHA loans. They're assumable, and I've seen my clients who want to assume them and I can't get through to the realtor for them to even present to their seller that we want to assume the loan. Like they won't even tell they won't want to do that. They don't want to do that, and it's like, how do you know that they don't want to do that? And you, as the seller, don't know what your realtor is saying, because if they're saying that they want to sue, you know, they don't want to deal with that because the realtor is inexperience with that and doesn't want to deal with that. You may lose that buyer and for you them, assuming your loan is no problem to you, it just takes a little longer. Yep. Tough times creates strong realtors. I'm telling you that. That's where we're head. Yep. Yeah. And the biggest thing is you have to accept the negotiation is back Like properties, unless listed for a very good price, they're not selling for listing right. So you might list it for six hundred and get an offer for five eighty and or five ninety, and you don't want to dismiss the offer. Like I just had a seller. We got an offer for six grand, less than the list price, and she was considering not taking sense. That's insane. Yeah, And I'm like and I told her, I said, I said, listen, your house is vacant. This thing could sit for three or six months. How much is that going to cost you an expense? Guys, like, listen, when somebody says something like that, it's an offer to have a conversation. That's what it is. Like, you know, you don't get offended, like you know what I mean? Yeah, Like think about yourself, like you wanted to everyone wants to feel like they're getting a deal. So six grand I would have just had done because now the seller and the buyer, you know, they've felt like they both got something. Yeah, and that's exactly what it was. And if we told them don't nickel and diamus on the inspection and they didn't, and that is what it it was. Because you can get a full price offer and they nickel and dime you and you're at the same praise. Yeah, right, it's just gonna happen. Death of a thousand cuts or or or something like that. But again, just think about if you're you know, everybody wants a deal, whether it's a TV or a car or a house, and so you know, coming off a list a little bit means you're you're having a meaningful conversation. You know. Don't don't lose a deal for something that insignificant. Now, if it's a big number, of course, then you could say f. Off, like I don't you always counter in this market. Yeah, Like somebody gives you a fifty thousand dollars discount on your house, that's you know, six hundred grand. Don't don't tell them to f off, just negotiate back. Okay, well we'll give you a ten rand and that's free. Yeah, I'm talking about a big, big number. But to your point, you should always counter back, you know, and and and also don't get emotional about it. You don't get offended. You know, buyers just want a good deal. You just want a good deal. It just you gotta you gotta figure it out. But also know, when you price your house, you're probably not going to get listing unless you're pricing it aggressively. So if you're going to price it above that, then you have to know you're going to be taking some kind of hit. And if you're not comfortable taking that hit, then price it a little higher, so then when you take the hit, you're landing around that spot.