GLENNDA'S REAL ESTATE RECOVERY PLAN

WELCOME

Hey, everyone! Welcome! I am just back from Boston where I had the most incredible time at the Accelerate 2025 Summit. I came back so energized and my head is brimming with ideas to share with y’all over the next few weeks.

Since I am writing this on Inauguration Day, I came up with a short list of what our government can do to help us get our industry on track. Think about it—the housing market isn’t just the housing market. Instead, it’s kind of the hub of our whole existence. So today I’m either presenting my wish list… or saying exactly what would happen if I were to consider running the show.

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

The Short List

A new term is always time for introspection, so I’ve been thinking about what we need right now, not just as agents, but as Americans.

Now, no one minds a bull market, but it’s a fact that when stocks are up, the interest rates tend to be higher. When there’s strong economic growth, the interest rates are higher because the central banks don’t need to stimulate the economy since businesses are earning and consumers are spending.

Great for Wall Street, not always great for Banana Street.

Granted, the President doesn’t have direct control over interest rates, but he can certainly wield influence via fiscal policy, appointments to the Federal Reserve Board, and the platform of public opinion. So even though no one has a magic wand, if one existed, I sure would like to see it waved to bring those rates down a tad. If we could see a rate that begins with a 5, that would loosen up so much inventory. There needs to be some incentive for people to give up their 3% rate to go to something bigger and better, freeing up the place they’ve been busting out of while waiting for more favorable rates.

What I would really love to see—and what is in the President’s purview—is an incentive for homeowners to sell their homes to people and not corporations. I’d love to see some sort of first look program for homebuyers where certain people have a seven to ten day head-start on homes priced from $0-$500K, particularly favoring those who served in the military, those who work in public safety, and those who educate our children. Right now, they’re the ones who’ve sacrificed the most, yet they’re most often shut out of the buying process when an all-cash, no contingency corporation swoops in.

If Bobby and Susie could come in, buy their $350,000 home, and put in some of the sweat equity themselves, everyone would benefit, from all the small businesses they hire to help them with the process to the money they spend at hardware and home stores.

And a quick caveat about veteran homebuyers, especially? The game is rigged against them. While they do have access to VA loans, that process is more onerous than a traditional mortgage. They have their own appraisers and inspectors and generally their budgets do not accommodate the brand new construction, so their inspectors are going to ding the home when the siding isn’t perfect, when the roof needs work, etc. The seller is far more hesitant to take their offer over a conventional mortgage because there are so many more hoops to jump through. If I were in charge, I’d want to prioritize those who put their lives on the line defending this country.

I’d also like to see lending guidelines for first-time home buyers make more sense. There’s so much that makes home buying incomprehensible for the everyday person. Certainly that’s our job to educate the first-timers, but so many are so confused by the process that they never even have a conversation with us. They just sign another rent check, sigh, and think, Maybe someday.

For example, let’s say Bobby and Susie want to buy that $350K house but the seller refuses to pay the buyer’s commission, meaning Bobby and Susie are now on the hook for the commission under the new rules. How does this rule make it easier for anyone outside of the top 1% to buy a home? Bobby and Susie are living paycheck to paycheck buying their first home and they put all their extra cash into the downpayment. They don’t have the funds to cut their agent a check. So if their seller doesn’t compensate Bobby and Susie’s agent, they have two choices. They go unrepresented or they use the listing agent. Either way, they get bent over.

I truly believe home ownership makes the world go around. There’s so much money to be spread around when Bobby and Susie can buy a home, and it’s not just the purchase price. It’s the home improvement stores and Tim the tile guy and Frank the flooring guy and Larry the landscaper and Inez the interior decorator. Those small businesses pump money into the economy and small businesses are the backbone of this country.

In fact, I’d say that small businesses are what make America great. So let’s figure this out now, because I don’t want to have to move to Washington, D.C. and do it myself. (But I will if I have to. I mean, we already know I look good in stars and stripes.)

glenndabaker

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GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

How to Turn $150K into $3M in a Lifetime

We’re not looking at a flashy luxury home today. Instead, I want to show you this cute little house that’s for rent. This ranch home is solid as can be, built in the 1950s and likely to last until Gabriel blows his horn.

Guess what? I own this place. I bought it for $150K, and then put in about another $55K. If I sold it today, I could get $400K. I’ve used this home as a short-term rental, and now I’m opening up the market for it to be a long-term rental. I am going to hold onto this place for the rest of my life, because instead of more than doubling my money right now—which no one is mad at—I have the potential to earn a lifetime net of about $3M on it.

If I were to have taken that same amount of money and put it in the stock market, there’s no guarantee I’d even make money, and there’s always the possibility of losing it. (Enron, anyone? And don’t even start me on crypto.)

The value in this home is the rental income. Every year, I make about $25K on it after my expenses, taxes, and insurance. Oh, my stars, there’s no more secure an investment than a brick grandma house. Imagine buying a $150,000 and recouping millions over a lifetime.

And that is why I want to make it easier for Bobby and Susie to buy their own $350K place so they live it in and can fix it up and sell it for $600K a few years down the line. But instead of upgrading to $600K house, they could buy two $350K places, live in one and rent the other, and rinse and repeat all the way to financial freedom. Because that is the American dream realized.