Real Estate the Ramsey Way - Real Estate Expert Answers Your Housing Questions

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Real estate expert Brian Buffini answers some of the most common housing questions, covering today’s market, home prices, buying decisions, and what homeowners should know right now. Next steps: ·   🏠 Not sure what to do next when buying or selling your home? Check out our ⁠⁠Real Estate Home Base⁠⁠ for free tools and resources to guide your next steps. ·   🏠 And if you’re ready to buy or sell your home, ⁠⁠connect with a RamseyTrusted® real estate agent⁠⁠. They’re experts who’ll help you confidently navigate homeownership the way we teach. Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Brian Buffini is our guest, America's number one real estate coach to real estate agents, but also a real estate expert, good friend of ours. Should I wait for rates to come down before I buy? I heard in the previous section you were talking about the guy who knew when Jesus was coming back and he was sitting on his boat. Yeah. That's like the buyer waiting for rates to come down. So, you know, if you know when rates are coming down, you give me a call.

You let me know. I don't think anything's going to change for a long time because of the amount of debt the country has. The rates are built off the Treasury bills. The Treasury bills are who the government is borrowing money from, countries, institutions, I have T bills, and they've guaranteed to pay me a certain amount. The 10-year treasury is what sets the market. And so you take the 10-year treasury, you add 2%, and you'll get a 30-year mortgage. So, like, right now it's 4.6, and so you're going to go and get a mortgage, a 30-year mortgage,

be 6.8 and the 15 is, you know, 5-7. So if you wait, I'll say this. I have never had anybody in my real estate career say this, ever. I'm glad I waited. What the typical thing is, man, I could have bought that house down in Cool Springs for 300 grand and a packet of peanuts. And now it's worth a million, you know, and I didn't. And that's all you ever hear. You hear stories of regret. Never have I heard anybody happy they waited. Is renting forever a viable option and can Can I still build wealth without buying a home? I'll jump in on this with you. Okay.

So, of course it is. You know, living in your car is an option, too. So you can rent. It's just when the number says the number one source of wealth in the United States is a private residence. And that the average homeowner has 46 times the net worth of a renter. The numbers are in your favor. Can you go do it on the market? Can you invest in stocks?

For sure, you can. that stuff, it's just a lot harder and not as stable. When we did the largest study of millionaires in America ever done, 89% of them did it on their own without inheritance, nine out of ten. We found over and over and over again two things. One is they'd loaded up their 401k and it had built up to a substantial amount. And the second one is they bought a home, paid it off. Yep. And so we're talking to a guy with a million and a half dollar net worth. They got a $600,000 paid for house, and, you know, they got 7,800,000, 900,000 in their 401k. And that's the typical millionaire in America today.

The first place you get your first $1 to $5 million is investing in your 401k steadily and getting a home and getting it paid off. So they are, and 100% of the time those houses have gone up. Yeah. And 100% of the time the next door neighbor renting, his rent went up. Yeah. Sure. So the math works against you when you're a renter. You have no control.

Yeah. Now, that doesn't mean you don't need to rent until you get yourself out of debt. That's right. And get your emergency fund and get rid of your student loan and all that. You do all of that for rent. But renting for 30 years is a dumb idea. Really mathematically dumb. And rent less than you can afford.

What should I actually prioritize when buying my first home a yard versus square footage versus older versus newer? Home Excel versus the neighborhood. Well, again, it's boring. I wish I had something sexy. location, location, location. I always bought the best home, the worst home on the best street. So I buy as much location as I can afford,

and then I go put in the sweat equity to make it better. To do the upgrades and everything, yeah. Fight it. You know, like I understand the home builders. They do a great job, and it's sexy, and they got muffins in the oven, and then you come through and you drink juice, and they got this, and they got the designers and whatever else.

You want to buy the ugly duckling in the best neighborhood you can afford and fight, bite, and scratch and claw to get it improved. That is, I mean, that's the common sense. I feel like, I don't know a ton about all this, but that is the, you never want to buy, top of the neighborhood, you always want to buy in the low. I mean, that that is the common sense rule. So do not forget that if you are looking.

Yep. I used to have people say, well, I want to have, you know, I want to buy a house on the ocean and I got a budget for the mountain, you know what I mean? And I'd say, well, here's my advice. No, I want, I have to have 5,000 square feet. Well, I would say, just keep driving south until you can afford. something because it's Mexico down there. Okay?

Just keep driving south. You'll be able to afford something soon. From California. So good. That's great. Should I buy or sell by owner to save on commission fees? Oh. Oh, we love this one.

Just toss that one up to the real estate coach. Let's just, both of us could chew on this one. All right. I'll know on the leg. Yeah. Well, I'll start with this. The average number of first of home for sale by owners for 30 years was 12%. and 50% of those were inter-family transfers.

Last year, with all the technology and all the Zillow and all the demand, the average for sale by owner was 4% of all sales, and 80% of those were inter-family transfers. It was an inter-family transfer. You call a lawyer, not a realtor. And the second dynamic is the average real estate agent gets 14% higher sales price than a for-sale by owner. And they cost six. Yeah, yeah.

The average real estate commission in America is six. and the average, and they get an average of 14% more for the house, so you didn't save the commission. No. Here's the thing, I can change the oil on my Mercedes, too. But, you know, it would cost me more in spilling on the driveway and getting it on my clothes than it would be getting it done in jiffy loops. So, yeah, it's better. Let's add to that question, too, because I had this call the other day I'll tell you about. But how should someone analyze when, how should, if they've got three,

different realtors or four different realtors that they're interviewing real estate agents, how should they analyze which one to pick? Well, I always start with a referral, right? That's my basis. Like someone who's a trusted source, right? You have Ramsey trusted is the name of your system. You've got to find a referral, someone who's trusted. The next thing is what's their experience?

Okay, how many homes just out last year? Here's, this will stagger you. This is mine low. Okay, 64% of all real estate agents have not sold a home this year. Now, you know, that is not who you want to be working with. And, you know, this used to be an 80-20 business. It's become 8515. It's heading to a 90-10 business.

We had 1.6 million members of the National Association of Realtors two years ago. And by January of next year, by January of 28, it'll be one million. So 600,000 people are out. And that's because people got in. Oh, real estate. I love houses. I love people. This looks great.

It's so easy. I'm a frustrated decorator. Okay, good look with that. Real estate is hard. It's a hell of a lot of work. If it's an up but dawn, down at dusk siege, you have to fight through everything. You work when others don't. Yeah, evenings and you sell 50 to 300 houses a year, and then you're qualified.

What does a top agent? Like, if you are interviewing, what's a number that they would say, this is how many houses I sold this year that you're like, oh, that's a, okay, that feels like a good. It depends on the average sales price. So if I'm in California, if someone's selling 20 homes a year, their average sales price, two and a half million, right? but I'd say, you know, for me, I think they got to be above the 25 transaction threshold across the board.

You guys haven't even higher threshold for Ramsey trusted, which is fantastic. Bottom lines, they got to be a pro. They got to come with references, and they got to tell you, here's who I work with and here's what I've done. And you get a real pro, like, when you get a real pro, you get to sit in the back of the car

and they drive you to the airport, and it's done for you. And there's no legal afterbite. There's no disclosure problems. when you sell the house, the house is actually sold. You sell the house by yourself. It's not permanently sold. They can come back after you.

If you don't cross the T's and dot the I's, it's a big deal. All the titles for everything. Yep. That's good. I love it. I love it. How about this question? Okay.

How often should I check my homeowner's insurance, the coverage amount? How often would you recheck that? Well, I mean, Dave will go berserk on this because he's right. I mean, it's just all the time. You know, right now, California, for example, yesterday, they have what's called a California Fair Plan, which is like a subsidized government freaking insurance policy, and they just went up 29% one day. Oh my gosh.

Okay. So you've got to be shopping all the time. You've got to be looking. Again, same thing. You've got to look. I would say every 90 days now. So if you live on the coasts. The idea of the California socialized homeowners insurance program just went up 29%

because that's what it is. Yes, sir. Those of us who grew up in Europe and have experienced socialized. don't understand why y'all Americans are playing footsie with that stuff. Wow. I retired last year in March at the age of 63, and my mother passed away in May of that same year. Oh, man. And she wield, she wield her farm to me and my sister.

There are no other names within that will other than my sisters and mine. So now I'm just, just, beginning to get on Social Security. She's been on Social Security for a long time. And with the earnings cap and Irma and everything else, can we secure the farm in a trust so that we don't get hit with capital gain tax? Are you going to sell it? More than likely, yes. Okay. Well, your basis in the property is its market value at the time your mother passed away one year ago. Okay. Okay.

So what was the farm worth a year ago? Okay, so Mr. Potter was recently reappraised by the county. No, the county doesn't count. It's a time she. What do you think the farm's really worth? The county's a tax assessment. That's not an actual value. That's just assessment for Texas.

It's not an appraisal. What do you think if you were going to put it on the market, what would you put it on the market for? Probably around one meal. Okay. Was it worth more than a million last year? when she passed? Probably not. Probably not. It wasn't worth 700,000 and went up 301 year, right? Yeah, actually the appraisal went from 300,000 to 700,000 in one year. That's the tax assessment. That's not the real estate market. That is not a real

appraisal. Hear me. Okay, your tax assessor does not give you accurate values. Zillow does not give you accurate values. You have to get an actual appraisal on the property. And you could do that based on a year ago. So here's the thing. Let's pretend for a second that the farm a year ago was worth a million dollars and the farm today is worth a million dollars and you sell it for a million dollars. You have zero taxes. You've had no gain because your basis in the property for purposes of calculating capital gains and the gain is over the amount over the basis. Your basis is the value, the market value, not the tax assessor, not Zillow, the real appraisal at the time of death.

And it's only been one year and it's a farm in Louisiana. It's probably not gone up in value hardly at all in one year. Maybe a little bit, but not much. And if it did, it's probably going to get eaten up with selling cost anyway. So you need to see your tax professional, and if you don't have one, just go to ramsysolutions.com, and what I would do is sell it, and I would claim that it was sold for market value, and there was zero game. If you're ever audited, you'd have to go back and have an appraisal done at the time of death and compare that to the actual sale price to prove that there was no actual gain.

But I don't think you're having any gain. If you had $100,000 gain, it's only $15,000 worth of taxes. It's not that big a deal. And I, this is news to me. I'm glad you're teaching me this. So if she had sold that farm right before she passed, she would have had to pay taxes, capital gains on all the growth from when she got it. Exactly. But if she held onto it and passed it.

It's a stepped up basis. Okay. So you, you, when you inherit a capital asset, stock, property, anything else, the basis goes from mom's old basis. The zero. Which was all the way up to market value basis. And so if you sell a stock, you know, Grandpa left me a million dollars in Exxon stock and he had only $20,000 in it. You pay zero tax if you sell it within a few months of Grandpa's death. Wow.

A lot of these calls could have been solved by connecting with a Ramsey trusted agent. We don't want you to make the same mistake. To find a trusted agent near you, go to ramsysolutions.com slash agent.