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Last year we enjoyed the second-best real estate market in history. And going into 2022, most pundits projected another banner year with 5.9 million sales. In other words, it was supposed to be the fourth-best year ever. Today, mortgage interest rates are up roughly 200 basis points and pending sales are plummeting. The specter of inflation has everyone jumping at shadows. Most prognosticators are now asking whether or not we’ll reach 5 million home sales. Is the sky really falling?

I’ve been playing up my whole life. Growing up in Memphis where my dad had made a name for himself in business, I was “Larry’s son.” I trailed my outgoing sister in high school and teachers often said, “Oh, you’re Jan’s little brother.” My friends growing up were all sports, honor roll, and student government leaders.

In early winter, Gary Keller often shares his calendar for the following year. This is how we sync our writing days. A writing day for us means blocking 10 am to 4 pm. A big block of time to do deep work. So it makes sense to coordinate long before mundane meetings can encroach on our time. Busy people tend to have busy schedules. So we get ahead of it. 

This week I caught up with Tom Wheelwright on his brand new book The Win-Win Wealth Strategy: 7 Investments the Government Will Pay You to Make. The question on my mind was how can equity-rich homeowners avoid capital gains when selling? 

Make no mistake. A recession is coming. It’s just a matter of when. And, now is the time to learn from past mistakes so we can avoid them. 

Remember the story in Winnie-the-Pooh where Winnie and Piglet go Woozle hunting in the snow? Piglet spies Winnie walking around a small grove of trees. He asks what Pooh’s doing. Pooh points to some tracks in the snow he’s following. Piglet asks if the tracks might belong to a Woozle. They decide to find out.

The foundational idea behind the Twenty Percenter is to fight average. Every year, average real estate professionals sell roughly seven homes and earn about $50,000. At the same time, the top 20% sell more than fifteen homes for about $140,000 GCI. And the top 1% sell close to sixty homes for almost $600,000 in GCI. (2021 full-year stats).