Get This Loan *Before* You Start House Hunting

The Sell for 1 Percent team digs into the numbers behind today’s mortgage rates. Mortgage pro Rich Sircone notes that since February, the 10-year treasury has jumped about three-quarters of a percent, and mortgage rates have followed suit from around 6% to 6.75%, with some quotes even hitting 7%. His top advice for homeowners with equity is to secure a home equity line of credit now—before you even start shopping—so you have cash on hand for a down payment. For Columbus-area buyers, having a HELOC in place can transform a tough contingent offer into a powerful non-contingent one, giving you a huge advantage in this market.

#SellFor1Percent #ColumbusRealEstate #MortgageRates #HomeBuying #OhioRealEstate

Full Transcript

Hey there, everyone. Jaime with Sell for 1 Percent Realtors, joined as usual by the gang. My brother, Jaysen, there.

He’s wound up this morning. Dave Barlow, head broker, and Rich Cercone at Highlands Mortgage here on this August 19th, 2026, beautiful Wednesday morning to give you guys a market update about Central Ohio. I don’t know who wants to take it away.

Do we want to throw it right to Rich, or do you guys have something to say? I’ve got a lot to say. I’ve got a whole lot to say, guys. Go for it.

No, Rich, go ahead, man. None of the rain has stopped, and the skies have cleared. The rain has stopped going down, but interest rates are still up, so that’s the way that goes.

I was looking back on time this morning, and on February 27th, the day before this war in Iran started, the 10-year treasury bond was at 3.96. That was kind of a low watermark. We were all optimistic, the good old days, and today or yesterday, it’s bobbing around today a but it was in the 474 range yesterday, four sevens, and so essentially a three-quarter of a percent increase in the 10-year treasury, and ironically, we’ve seen interest rates go from around six to about six and three-quarters, around a three-quarter percent increase.

I don’t know if anybody out there thinks that there’s any impetus for the treasury bills to drop in the near future. Let me know what you’re smoking. I’d like some of it, because I don’t see treasury bills going down anytime soon.

Our treasuries are not popular around the world. People don’t trust the Japanese and the Chinese have pulled back on buying our treasuries, so we have a situation where we have persistent interest rates in the sixes, and let’s just hope we can keep the high sixes. I have been quoting a couple of seven percent rates here recently, so if you have the wrong scenario, you might have a seven in front of your rate right now.

Well, it could be worse. I had a memory pop up the other day on TikTok or Instagram of a post I made. This time in 2023, interest rates on Google were eight percent, 8.0 something, so it could be worse.

Yeah, we did have the rates go into the eights at that point, right in that period of time, you are correct. Something could bring rates down, Rich. We could have a pandemic.

We could have a global attack of some sort. Oh boy, now we’re going to get into conspiracy theories. No, I’m just saying that could bring rates down.

That could cause a recession. Yeah, yeah. Did I see something about the treasury department is going to buy some securities back? I have not seen that, Dave, but they do that occasionally just to keep demand at a steady pace.

I don’t think there’s a big bond buying program, though, or anything like that. That’s called the free market. I can’t speak because I didn’t see that.

Yeah. That’s the free and open market that creates that demand. Yeah.

Well, obviously, there’s a lot of goofy things going on in the world, and like Jay said, it could be worse. That’s my attitude. Yeah.

I mean, it could be close to 8%. Was that way, what, just a couple of years ago? Yeah. If mortgage spreads were what they were a couple of years ago, we would be up around there.

I choose happiness. I tell people all the time, my clients laugh at me. I think they think I’m kidding.

It’s like I used to love politics, used to read the news. Now, I don’t. I just stay in my little bubble where I sell the crap out of real estate, hang out with my children, make fun of my brother, give him a hard time on remedy lists, and then life’s pretty good.

Fight with your dad. Yeah. Argue with the old man.

Why are you so dark over there, Dave? What’s going on? Well, I’ve been- You’re googling electric went out, had flooding, and so now my little ring light up here isn’t working correctly, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that. I’m hoping that just my remote’s low on a battery. Anyways, such is life.

It’s always something. Yeah. Yeah.

You have all this technology, and then it doesn’t want to work right, so what are you going to do? What are you guys seeing in the old real estate market right now? Well, Rich, I’m glad you asked. I am seeing inventory still, and yes, dad, this includes the coming soons, the 5,931 this morning. Last Wednesday, I had somebody ask me, how many homes are for sale? I was like, 5,962.

I think they were amazed I knew the exact number, but it’s because of these videos that I absorb all this information. 5,931 listings on the market right now in the central Ohio region. Then in Franklin County, the median days on market is up to 42.

The average is 72 days. About 50% of listings are dropping price, and got about 5% of these listings are ones that have been canceled and then relisted. What we talked about before with Jaime on the buyer side, it’s relatively balanced even though fundamentally still a market, but it’s been cooling a little bit over time.

Prices seem to have plateaued a little bit, but I put four listings on last Thursday, and as of today, three of those four are in contract. That hasn’t happened in a while. Typically, it takes a few weeks for these to pop, but they came on price pretty well.

I think that’s the one thing I’m noticing with my sellers is, again, I don’t watch the news. I don’t know exactly what’s out there, but the attitude that the sellers have that I’m dealing with, they think things are worse than they really are. I’m walking into appointments, and they think, oh, the market’s not great.

Whereas two years ago, you’d walk in, homes in my neighborhood selling three days, and it’s like, well, no, not really. They used to, and you have to educate them. Now I’m coming in, and the media is carrying the water for me.

They’re making people think the market’s terrible, and that I’m having to convince them, no, it’s really not that bad. Look at my belly. I’m not starving.

I’m still able to eat a little bit. That’s what I see out there. Jay Marunski? Ski? That’s Jay Marunski, not Runski.

What are you seeing, dude, on the buyer side? Yeah. I think a perfect inflection of what you’re saying. The houses that multiple people walk through, and this is something I tell buyers, when you’re walking through a house, if you’re really vibing with the house, you go in through, the curb appeal is great.

You pull up to the house. You walk through the front door. It’s laid out really nice.

It’s really well taken care of. Smells of vanilla and lather. Right.

Updated bathrooms, updated kitchen. You’re like, wow, this is a great house. Well, the other buyers walking through it are having the same thoughts you are.

Then lo and behold, you call the listing agent, and yep, we got two offers. Seller wants all offers in by tomorrow at noon, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you’re in a multiple offer situation.

On the flip side, there’ll be some houses that you walk through, and maybe the paint hasn’t been updated, and it’s not as bright, and doesn’t smell as nice, and doesn’t have all the updates and upgrades you want. Then that house sits on the market for three or four weeks or longer. It’s a tale of two markets where if you’re done up, and you’re upgraded, updated, yeah, you’re going to end up against multiple offers where if not as updated, needs a little work, you might have a little bit of time to think about it and some negotiating power.

It becomes more of a negotiation market where buyers have a little more power. It is pretty well balanced, I’d say, in that market, in that distinction. And I imagine that’s kind of what you’re seeing as well.

Yeah, and Dan, I want to know what you’re seeing. What’s interesting, Jaime, is out of those four listings, the one that’s not sold yet, it’s beautiful, very well updated. She updated everything in this property.

It’s a repeat client. She does a really good job, and she lives there a couple of years, fixes things up, and then sells them. We’re just probably a little bit overpriced.

And I think that right now, and I’m curious what you think, Dad, is that pricing, I think, is of the utmost importance. You don’t want to be chasing the market down. You want to come on priced where you ought to be, and you’ve got the best chance to sell quickly then versus being out over your skis and then having to drop price, drop price, and go hunting for that buyer.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, price is always important. The ebbs and the flows is during COVID, there obviously was a lot more flexibility.

We were still pricing things where they should be priced, and then you had people coming in for $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 over the price. Because the competition was so crazy, interest rates were so low. Yeah.

And then you go back to 2010, 11, as we were headed towards the bottom of the foreclosure crisis, and you could price the house correctly, and it still would sit for 180 days because you had 12,000 listings on the market, and buyers just weren’t motivated. But the house was still priced where it should be. So, your example, you’ve got a very well done home, it’s priced where it needs to be.

The market is simply telling you, we don’t agree with the valuation. And it’s always a difficult thing, and it’s one of those things that experience does help in getting these things priced right. And then, Jay, you’ve gone through this, and part of your conversation with sellers is, yeah, you don’t need to reduce the price, we just need to find the right buyer.

And instead of three, four days over a weekend, it may take us 30, 40 days to find the right buyer to come into the market that’s willing to pay your price, because your house is worth it. And we’ve all had sellers on the opposite extreme, that they’re priced right for the neighborhood, but the house needs $30,000 of work. And it’s going to sit, no matter how long, because buyers just aren’t going to come in and do the work.

So, it’s a very interesting market. But like I said, in the very beginning of my diatribe here is, the market’s ebb and flow. We’re kind of giving you what we believe, based on our experience.

And Jay’s been doing this for 20 years now. I’ve been doing it 27. Jaime, what are you, seven, eight years into it now? And so, there’s a tremendous amount of experience.

We’re doing market analysis. I’m doing one a day, two a day. Jay, you’re probably doing two or three right now.

So, we see a lot of different things. And it’s just based on experiences to where we price this. So, I think that if, and I’ve said this before, if it is the Pottery Barn style home, where everything’s super clean, it’s all updated, that house is going to sell.

And it normally is going to sell for a little bit of a premium. I’ve got a client that, beautiful home, they’ve got $100,000 worth of upgrades. And it sits for 80 days.

And it’s like, doesn’t make any sense. Then I got another one that’s halfway done. And we’re priced for what it is.

We’re under value for the neighborhood and the house is in contract. So, I think price point also, what’s the price on the one that’s sitting? Just over 300,000. Yeah.

See, that seems like a point where there’s a lot of buyers. Are you getting good showings? Not one showing. Really? That’s super.

Something else is going on there. That’s weird. It’s overpriced.

What are you guys seeing in terms of buyers being able to make a contingent offer? Does it have to be non-contingent to get your offer accepted these days to case by case? What are you guys seeing on that? Depends on days on market. So, if you see a house that’s got 40, 50 days on market, they might be willing to take a contingent offer. But wouldn’t they be more so wanting a quick close because they’ve been sitting so long? Once you sit that long, I think desperation starts to set in a little bit.

Now, if you send me the contingent offer and you’re like 40,000 under asking price, that’s a real problem. Then you get the old double whammy. But I think what Dad just said, I agree with.

If I’m brand new on the market, my sellers are typically willing to wait a little bit versus you’ve been on the market over a month and you’ve had no offers and all of a sudden, this one comes in, you want to try and make it work. And also, there’s a totem pole of contingent offers. And I try and tell my buyers this when they want to send over a contingent offer.

It’s like, well, there’s different degrees here. The number one offer being I’m in contract, I’m set to close next week. The next one down is I’m in contract, but I’m not yet through inspections.

Then the next layer down is I’m on the market. And then the lowest one is I’m not on the market yet. So, I think that also factors in when you send a contingent offer over- Well, there’s one even lower than that.

There’s one even lower than that. What’s that? I’m not on the market and I’m going to be $50,000 overpriced and I’m never going to sell. That’s the whole point.

That’s like the bottom of the barrel. It’s like, well, what’s your list price going to be? We’re going to be about whatever. And then it’s like, oh, I did the quick market analysis and you’re $50,000 over the value of the house.

It’s never going to sell. Hey, even the blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Once in a great while.

You never know. Don’t disagree with that, but I’m not- No, I hear you. ..

going to advise my seller to jump into bed with that buy. To take their house off the market, right? Yeah. Let’s get married to this person that- Unless my guy is $50,000 overpriced.

Yes. And that’s the other thing. Exactly.

How are we priced too? Yeah. There’s a lot of different variables, but in general, Rich, you got to be on the market a little bit before you’re willing to take it off for that. Right.

Speaking of contingent, non-contingent, can I just make a announcement to everybody out there that’s watching this that is considering buying a home in the next six months, year, two years, at any time in the future, if you have a bunch of equity in your house, you need to go and get a home equity line of credit on your house for as much money as the bank will allow you to borrow. You need to do that now. If you take this advice and say, oh, I’ll get to it, and then you find a perfect house and you want to make an offer and you need approved, you aren’t getting that home equity line of credit anymore because then the bank can see that, hey, you’re buying a new house.

You’re going to be selling this house. We don’t want to give you a line of credit. And so then that ends you up in a situation where you need a bridge loan.

Bridge loans are more expensive than home equity lines of credit. I do bridge loans, so I’m telling you to do something that takes business away from me. But the home equity line of credit would be the right thing to have in place before you start to really get serious about buying.

If you don’t know what a home equity line does, it’s just like a credit card. The money is available to you to use at any time. If you don’t use it, you aren’t charged any interest on it.

So it’s just an available line of credit that you have in the event of some emergency or if you need to use it for a down payment on your house. The home equity line of credit is money that can be used as down payment. So go get a home equity line if you’re sitting on a bunch of equity and be ready when these guys find you that perfect house.

Be ready to make a non-contingent offer because here’s my down payment. It’s my home equity line. So that’s my free advice today.

That’s good advice. The other one I had heard too is by doing that, that also it can protect you from title fraud. That if you have a line of credit sitting there on your house and somebody tries to borrow against it by stealing your identity, they can’t because nobody wants to be in second, third position.

Right. Yeah. They’re going to do a title search and they’re going to find.

Yeah. Well, this guy has. Yep.

And not to get too far out into the weeds, but take us there anyways. Take us to the weeds. If you are one of those that are fortunate enough to have a ton of equity in your home.

And let’s say you’re single and you own a $500,000 house and you own it free and clear. So when you go to sell it as a single person, you have a $250,000 capital gains, a deduction automatic. But if you take a home equity line out or refinance and you bump that number up to say 300,000, then when you close, then your equity is only 200,000 and you fall back below your threshold.

I know that’s a little, like I say, into the weeds, but it is a way to kind of protect your capital gains as well. Jay Marinski on the buyer’s side. Yeah, that’s not a great idea.

Well, I have investors that do that. Had an investor a long time ago that did that and he was really playing the edges very much so. But if it’s done correctly, you should be okay.

Jay Marinski on the buyer’s side, what are you seeing? Well, I don’t know how to respond right now. We went through the buyer’s side. I’m not sure.

Do it again. Do it again, Jaime. We wanted to see if you had the same answer the second time.

Yeah. You’re messing with your ring light. Exactly.

All right. Well then, is that the end of the day after all that excitement? Why don’t you take us home, Dave? End of the day. If you guys like the video, okay.

Want me to take you home? Yeah, wrap it all up here. Well, we’ve shared a bunch of information here with you today. If you’re looking to buy a home, call Jaime.

If you’re looking to sell a home, call Jaysen. If you’re looking to do either one of those two things, Dave is the man. He will get you taken care of.

He’s got 30 plus years experience. If you need advice on a mortgage, I don’t just schlep mortgages out for nothing. If you don’t need a mortgage, I’m going to give you good advice.

If it’s not the right time to refi, I’m going to give you that advice. So, give me a call and we’ll just talk about the situation. The other thing is go get a home equity line of credit today.

Call your bank and get the equity line of credit. That’s the final takeaway. Yeah, especially before rates go to 9%.

Well, they’re variable. The HELOCs are variable anyway, so it’ll go up with that. There you go.

Like and subscribe if you like the information. That does it for me. Richard, you just brought us home.

You’re bringing us home again. Jaime, tell us about the buyers. Yeah, I was just going to ask, Jaime, can you give us your insight on the buyers? Like and subscribe, leave a comment.

This is the show that never ends. We need a Looney Tunes guy hanging out with us. There you go.

Have a good day, guys. The best thing, boys, is it’s almost football season.