The Jon Sanchez Show

The market is sold off today.

Technology stocks are lead the decline, the Nasdaq is took the brunt of the damage, and investors are once again being reminded that markets do not travel in a straight line.

But I don’t want to spend today predicting whether Monday will be green or red.

I want to ask a much more important question.

What would you do if the market fell 20%?

Opening Monologue

Imagine spending months preparing to buy a home.

You improve your credit.

You save the down payment.

You provide tax returns, bank statements and pay stubs.

The lender reviews everything and gives you a preapproval.

Then you find the house.

It has the right location, the right floor plan and enough room for your family. You write the offer, the seller accepts it and you begin imagining your life in the home.

Then the telephone rings.

There is a problem with the financing.

Your income hasn’t changed.

Your credit score hasn’t fallen.

You haven’t purchased a new truck or opened another credit card.

The problem isn’t you.

The problem is the house.

This is something many homebuyers do not understand. A mortgage lender does not simply approve a borrower. The lender must approve the borrower, the loan program and the property securing the loan.

A preapproval primarily tells you that your income, assets, debts and credit appear to satisfy certain requirements based upon the information reviewed at that time.

It does not guarantee that every property you select will qualify for financing.

The appraisal might come in below the purchase price.

The appraiser may identify repairs required by the loan program.

The property may have an unpermitted addition that cannot be included in the value.

An accessory dwelling unit may not be a legally permitted rental.

A solar lease may add another monthly obligation to the buyer’s qualification.

The homeowners association may have inadequate insurance, pending litigation, excessive delinquencies or a large special assessment.

The roof may be too old for an insurance company to accept.

The property may sit in a wildfire or flood-risk area where adequate insurance is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

The buyer can be perfectly qualified—and the property can still fail.

That possibility is especially important today. Mortgage rates are approximately 7.4%, meaning many buyers are already near the limit of what they can comfortably afford. An unexpected $300 HOA payment or a homeowners-insurance premium substantially higher than estimated can change the monthly payment enough to destroy the buyer’s qualification.

Today, I am joined by Realtor Aaron Clark and mortgage professional Dwight Millard.

Aaron is going to explain how buyers and agents can investigate properties before becoming emotionally and financially committed.

Dwight will explain what the lender must know about the house, how the loan program affects property eligibility and which problems can be repaired, documented or negotiated—and which problems may kill the transaction.

We will cover appraisals, insurance, solar agreements, condominiums, homeowners associations, unpermitted additions, wells, septic systems and property condition.

Most importantly, we will give buyers a checklist they can use before submitting an offer.

Because getting preapproved is only the first approval.

The second approval belongs to the house.

Good afternoon, Northern Nevada. Today we’re talking about a part of estate planning that too many families overlook until they’re under pressure.

“Imagine you’re in an accident, you’re unconscious, or you’re dealing with an illness that makes it hard to understand information or communicate a decision. Your spouse or children are at the hospital. Bills still need to be paid. The bank may need instructions. The doctors need to know what you want.

“Who has the authority to step in? And even if you named somebody, do they know what you want them to do?

“Today, we’re going to make this simple. We’ll talk about the financial power of attorney, the health care power of attorney, and the instructions that can help your family make decisions in line with your wishes. These documents do different jobs, and a trust by itself may not answer every question.”

Rental real estate can create wealth in more ways than most investors realize. Cory Edge, Dwight Millard and Jon Sanchez examine the five potential profit centers of a rental property: cash flow, mortgage principal reduction, appreciation, tax benefits and future rent growth. They also analyze a hypothetical property and explain why a good wealth-building investment may still be a poor source of retirement income.

Stocks are celebrating.

Bonds are screaming.

Oil is boiling.

And the American labor market may be running out of gas.

Welcome to one of the strangest economic environments we have experienced in decades.

This week, the stock market once again approached record highs. Investors appear optimistic. Technology companies are rising. Artificial intelligence continues attracting enormous amounts of capital. Corporate earnings expectations remain strong.

If you looked only at the stock market, you might conclude that the American economy is doing beautifully.

But then you look across the street at the bond market.

The yield on the 10-year United States Treasury is approximately 5.25%—near its highest level since 2002.

That yield influences mortgage rates, business loans, government borrowing costs and the value investors place on practically every financial asset in America.

Then we have oil.

Brent crude is above $100 per barrel, threatening to push gasoline, transportation and production costs higher.

Then we have the labor market.

Last Friday, the government reported that America created only 29,000 jobs in September. That was not simply a disappointing number. Over the previous 12 months, monthly job growth averaged only 45,000.

And yet the stock market rallied.

How can all of these things be happening at the same time?

The answer begins with understanding that the stock market is not the economy.

Stocks primarily measure what investors believe publicly traded companies will earn in the future.

The bond market measures something different. It reflects expectations for inflation, interest rates, government borrowing and the value of money over time.

Stocks are voting on profits.

Bonds are voting on the cost of money.

And right now, they are delivering very different messages.

The stock market believes that large American companies—particularly technology and artificial-intelligence companies—can continue growing their profits.

The bond market is warning that inflation may remain stubborn, the government must borrow enormous amounts of money, and investors are demanding substantially more compensation to lend that money for ten or thirty years.

Both markets could be correct—at least temporarily.

The most important showing of your home may happen at 11:30 at night, on a buyer’s phone, while you are asleep.

That buyer is sitting on the couch, scrolling through listings. Your home appears on the screen for a few seconds alongside dozens of competitors.

They see the price.

They see the lead photograph.

They swipe through the first few images.

And then they make a decision: save it, share it, schedule a showing—or eliminate it.

The seller never meets that buyer. The listing agent may never hear from them. But the showing still happened—and the house may already have been rejected.

That is why selling a home today is not simply about putting a sign in the yard and uploading photographs. It is a digital product launch.

The price determines whether buyers discover the property. The first photograph determines whether they stop scrolling. The remaining photographs, video, floor plan and description determine whether they become curious enough to take the next step.

And in today’s higher-rate housing market, buyers can afford to be selective. Mortgage rates are once again above 7%, and more than one out of every five active sellers recently reduced their asking price.

That means sellers cannot assume that simply being on the market will create demand.

A listing can receive thousands of online views and still fail to generate a single meaningful showing.

So, what does the technology tell us?

If buyers see the listing but do not click, is the lead photo failing?

If they click but do not save it, is the price wrong?

If they save it but never schedule a showing, is there uncertainty about the property?

And if they tour the home but do not write an offer, did the online marketing create expectations that the house could not fulfill?

Today, I am joined by Realtor Aaron Clark, one of the most technologically sophisticated agents I know.

Welcome to The Jon Sanchez Show and Estate Planning Wednesday.

Nearly every parent who creates an estate plan tells me the same thing:

“I don’t want my children fighting after I’m gone.”

So, they make what appears to be the safest possible decision. They divide everything equally.

Three children receive one-third each. Four children receive 25% each. Nobody can accuse Mom and Dad of playing favorites because everybody receives exactly the same percentage.

But is equal always fair?

What if one daughter spent ten years caring for her parents while her siblings lived in other states?

What if one child received $200,000 during the parents’ lifetime to start a business, while the other children received nothing?

What if one son worked on the family ranch for 20 years, helped build its value and wants to continue operating it—but his siblings want their inheritance in cash?

What if one child is financially responsible while another is facing addiction, divorce, creditors or an inability to manage money?

And what happens when parents leave the family home equally to three children—but one wants to live in it, one wants to rent it and the third wants to sell it immediately?

The trust may divide everything equally, yet the result can still feel profoundly unfair.

This is how an estate plan that looks perfectly balanced on paper can fracture a family in real life.

An inheritance dispute is rarely about money alone. It is usually money mixed with grief, childhood memories, sibling rivalries, perceived favoritism and decades of unresolved family history.

The old argument about who Mom loved most suddenly becomes an argument about the house, jewelry, firearms, family photographs or who was chosen to serve as trustee.

And when parents leave no explanation, their children create one.

“She received more because Mom loved her more.”

“He was named trustee because Dad trusted him more.”

“I did everything for our parents, and they treated me exactly like the children who never showed up.”

The reading of a trust should not be the first time a child discovers how their parents viewed the family.

Today, we are going to discuss the difference between equal and equitable, how to plan for a caregiver child, what to do with a family home or business, how to select the right trustee and why sentimental possessions can create larger fights than financial assets.

We will also discuss one of the most important pieces of estate planning: communicating the plan while the family can still ask questions.

Because a successful estate plan does more than transfer property.

It should also protect the family relationships that remain after you are gone.

The final gift you leave your children should not be a lawsuit against each other.

This is The Jon Sanchez Show.

When buyers tour a home, they usually evaluate the kitchen, bedrooms, neighborhood, backyard and asking price.

But today, the most valuable feature of a home may be something you cannot see.

It may be the seller’s mortgage.

The national average for a new 30-year fixed mortgage is approximately 7.5%. But millions of homeowners purchased or refinanced when rates were between 2% and 4%.

What if a buyer could purchase the house and take over that existing low-rate mortgage?

That is called a mortgage assumption.

Instead of obtaining an entirely new loan at today’s rate, a qualified buyer may be able to assume the seller’s remaining loan balance, interest rate, monthly payment and repayment term.

Not every mortgage can be assumed. Most conventional mortgages generally cannot. But FHA-insured mortgages are assumable, and certain VA and USDA loans may also be assumed, subject to their individual requirements.

At first glance, this sounds like a homebuyer’s dream.

Why borrow money at 7.5% when you may be able to borrow it at 3%?

But—as always—the details matter.

The buyer must generally qualify. The loan servicer must approve the assumption. The buyer receives only the seller’s remaining mortgage balance, not enough money to automatically purchase the entire house.

If the home is worth $600,000 and the seller owes only $350,000, the buyer must still cover the $250,000 equity gap—plus applicable closing costs.

That money may come from cash, the sale of another home, a second mortgage or some combination of those sources.

A 3% first mortgage combined with an expensive second loan may still be a good transaction—but the decision must be based upon the blended cost of the entire purchase, not simply the beautiful 3% headline.

VA assumptions introduce another important issue: the seller’s release from liability and restoration of the veteran’s entitlement. A transaction can close, yet the seller’s VA entitlement may remain connected to that mortgage if the assumption is not properly structured.

We also need to distinguish a legitimate mortgage assumption from purchasing a property “subject to” an existing mortgage.

With a formal assumption, the lender or loan servicer approves the qualified buyer and transfers responsibility under the established process.

In a subject-to transaction, the title may transfer while the mortgage remains in the seller’s name. That can leave the seller liable for the debt and potentially create serious contractual and legal problems.

Today, Cory Edge will explain how buyers and agents can identify homes with assumable loans—and how a seller can turn an existing low mortgage rate into a powerful marketing advantage.

Dwight Millard will explain the qualification process, monthly-payment savings, the equity-gap problem and the special considerations surrounding FHA and VA assumptions.

And I want to answer the ultimate financial question:

Is the buyer getting a tremendous mortgage—or using so much cash to capture that mortgage that the rest of the financial plan is placed at risk?

The next great real-estate bargain may not be hidden in the price of the house.

It may be hiding inside the mortgage.

This is The Jon Sanchez Show.

Welcome to The Jon Sanchez Show.

I want you to imagine opening your retirement-account statement and seeing a balance of $1 million.

You probably think, “I have $1 million saved for retirement.”

But if that money is sitting inside a traditional IRA or 401(k), you may not really have $1 million available to spend.

You have $1 million before taxes.

The IRS has been patiently waiting for its share.

For decades, Americans have been encouraged to contribute money to tax-deferred retirement accounts. You received a tax deduction, the investments grew without annual taxation, and you postponed paying the income tax until retirement.

That can be a very powerful strategy.

But tax-deferred never meant tax-free.

Eventually, the government wants its money. Under current law, required minimum distributions generally force money out of traditional retirement accounts beginning at age 73 for many retirees—and at age 75 for younger individuals covered by the later SECURE 2.0 timetable.

Those distributions can create a chain reaction.

They can increase your taxable income. They can cause more of your Social Security benefits to become taxable. They can increase your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums. They can push investment income into a higher tax bracket, and after one spouse dies, the survivor may face many of those same income sources while filing as a single taxpayer.

That is the retirement tax bomb.

The most frustrating part is that many retirees have a window of opportunity to reduce this problem—but they fail to use it.

That window may occur after they retire and their paycheck ends, but before required minimum distributions begin. It may also occur before Social Security, pensions and other income sources are fully activated.

During those years, the retiree may have more control over taxable income than at any other point in retirement.

They may be able to take strategic IRA withdrawals, complete partial Roth conversions, realize capital gains, make qualified charitable distributions or coordinate the timing of Social Security.

But if they do nothing, the IRS may eventually begin determining how much money must leave the retirement account each year.

Today, we are going to examine the four fuses attached to the retirement tax bomb: required minimum distributions, Social Security taxation, Medicare surcharges and the surviving-spouse tax trap.

Then we will discuss strategies that may allow retirees to defuse that bomb before it explodes.

Because a successful retirement plan should not merely ask, “How much money have you accumulated?”

It should ask, “How much of that money will you actually be allowed to keep?”

This is The Jon Sanchez Show.

There are days when the stock market appears to have completely lost its mind—and today may be one of them.

This morning, we learned that the United States created only 29,000 jobs during September. Economists were expecting approximately 90,000.

The unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 4.2%. Average hourly earnings increased by only one-tenth of 1% for the month.

And then we received the revisions.

July’s previously reported gain of 21,000 jobs was revised all the way down to a loss of 10,000 jobs. August was revised from 162,000 jobs to 133,000. Altogether, 60,000 previously reported jobs disappeared from the books.

This wasn’t merely one disappointing month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics now says the economy has created an average of only 45,000 jobs per month during the past year.

So, naturally, the stock market rallied.

The Nasdaq reached a record high. Technology stocks surged, Treasury yields initially fell, and investors reduced their expectations for another Federal Reserve interest-rate increase in October.