Be the Solution with Maria Quattrone

Housing Market Reality Check: Mortgage Rates, Inventory, and the Mindset Buyers Need in 2026 (with Fobby Naghmi)

• Maria Quattrone • Season 1 • Episode 355

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In this episode of the Be The Solution Podcast, host Maria Quattrone is joined by Fobby Naghmi, a 30+ year mortgage industry veteran and senior leader in lending. Together, they unpack the real story behind mortgage rates, housing inventory shortages, buyer psychology, and what’s actually coming in 2026.

This is not surface-level market commentary. Maria and Fobby dive into:

  • Why rates are moving (and why it’s not the Fed)
  • How inventory shortages are the real housing problem
  • Why waiting for lower rates may cost buyers more
  • The mindset shift buyers, agents, and lenders must make
  • Why execution, certainty, and fearlessness matter more than forecasts

If you’re a homebuyer, seller, real estate professional, or mortgage professional, this episode delivers clarity in a market full of noise. 


What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Why Mortgage Rates Are Falling (and What Most People Get Wrong)
  • Why “Shopping for the Lowest Rate” Is a Mistake
  • The Real Housing Crisis: Inventory, Not Rates
  • Why Buying Now Can Be a Strategic Advantage
  • Front-Loading the Process Removes Friction
  • Why Mindset Is the Ultimate Asset
  • America Still Offers Unmatched Opportunity


Words for 2026: Certainty & Fearless

  • Fobby’s word: Certainty — controlling mindset and perception
  • Maria’s word: Fearless — feeling the fear and doing it anyway

Growth requires discomfort. Staying small is the real risk. 


Best Quotes 

Fobby Naghmi:

“What got you here will not get you there.”


Maria Quattrone:

“The most expensive real estate you’ll ever own is the space between your ears.”


Guest Information

Fobby Naghmi
Senior Mortgage Executive | Lending Leader
📍 Washington, DC Metro Area
30+ years in the mortgage industry

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Maria Quattrone:

Hi, I'm Maria Quattrone and this is the Be the Solution podcast. And I'm so excited this morning and honor that Bobby Nagami. Did I say that right?

Fobby Naghmi:

I think so, yes. Naghmi, kind of like Naghmi. Naghmi, Naghmi. There you go.

Maria Quattrone:

Joining us. And Fobby is was introduced to me by uh a friend of ours, Jay Doran. And we have been trying to do this podcast for a while. So I'm glad that it is finally happening. I'm excited to talk with you this morning, Bobby. Um, we actually just spent in the half hour in the green room.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, getting warmed up.

Maria Quattrone:

Getting warmed up. So we're ready to rock and roll this morning. So welcome.

Fobby Naghmi:

Thank you, Maria. I mean, look, I mean, I I love I love the conversation we just had for 30 minutes. And uh it's it's the thing, those are the kind of things that make the morning so much better, right? When you can spend a morning having these stimulating conversations instead of just staring at the screen.

Maria Quattrone:

Absolutely. That's why I start the day with podcasts. I like to do them, you know, at 7:30 so that start the morning on a positive note. Most of the podcasts, I think all of them are pretty positive. So it's a great way to start the morning and have a connection with somebody.

Fobby Naghmi:

I love your title, Be the Solution. That's that's a that's a hell of a name for a podcast.

Maria Quattrone:

Be the solution. So be the solution came because of the pandemic. And it you may or may not be aware of this, but in Pennsylvania, we were one of the very few places where you could not actually meet with clients. Um real estate was shut down for 10 weeks. Wow by the governor.

Fobby Naghmi:

Really? I don't I don't think we had that in Virginia.

Maria Quattrone:

No, you didn't. No, Michigan, that terrible place. Uh New York City, and that terrible place, and uh Pennsylvania.

Fobby Naghmi:

Wow.

Maria Quattrone:

So we couldn't go out and meet people. I spent 10 weeks in my house in my upstairs office closet. And Jenna, Jay's wife, actually, they weren't married, she was working with me on marketing, and she said, You're gonna go live on Facebook. And I'm like, I I never did this in my life. I don't okay, sure. So I started bringing on friends, and we talked about how we were helping clients and what we were doing to be safe and all this stuff. So about 10 days in, she's like, Well, I think this should be a podcast. And I'm like, Well, if it's gonna be a podcast, we have to have a name. She's like, Well, what do you do? So, well, we saw problems. I said, you know, we specialize in expired listings, so we saw problems, we bring the solution, and then um this guy I know he had a podcast at the time called Be Generous, and I was like, I like that, be generous. I'm like, Well, be I like be the solution, that's how it came.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, I'm always the antagonist, so I'm in my head. I was like, I should have a call be the problem podcast.

Maria Quattrone:

Be the problem, I could be the problem too.

Fobby Naghmi:

Just find just interview people who are like causing problems in everyone else's lives.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, there would there would be an un there'd be a very, very, very long line of people. Right.

Fobby Naghmi:

I mean, wouldn't that be cool? Like, why do you do and let literally break them down? Like, why do you have to always be an asshole?

Maria Quattrone:

It's just in some people's DNA, I suppose.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, anyway, let's get back here.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, in regards to today and what's going on, you know. Uh if you listen to Lawrence Young from uh an economist and housing authority, he's predicting 14% increase um in sales, which would put us somewhere in the range of 4.6 million sales. Um, with we were at about 4 million sales this year. Um, there's a lot of things going on, not even like behind the scenes anymore, but as we were just talking about, Trump announced you know, his representatives are gonna buy 200 billion with a B billion in mortgage bonds and what what that will do to the rate.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah. Well, there's there's a back backup story, also thing we got to take one step back. And I don't know if some of your listeners may or may not know this, but there's a thing called the spread between the T bills and the and the uh and the mortgage-backed securities, right? And during the last several years, the spread has been about 200 basis points to 225. We're down to 150, so that means that the banks are willing to make less profit when they make give mortgages. So that's why we're seeing rates have been coming lower and lower in the past few months. It's not because of what the Federal Reserve has been doing, which is a misunderstanding, right?

Maria Quattrone:

Right, no, no, we talk about this all the time, Fab, because people don't they don't think people in the industry understand it. I don't think that the consumers still don't understand it.

Fobby Naghmi:

No, I and but this is something that we can just keep repeating over and over again. So, what happens is the spread has been coming down, you know, 50 to 75 basis points, right? We're about 150 spread right now, which is opt really good. Um now you throw in this 200 billion dollar of the IMB buying from the treasury. I'm saying you you could probably have another 50, I mean, another half percent reduction in rate, which is gonna be one of those things that's gonna be absolutely incredible. Because look, I mean, people are already getting comfortable. The reason we're seeing the spike in the real estate is because people are comfortable with the six at six and a half percent mortgage rates now. They're that mindset of I need a three percent rate has been gone.

Maria Quattrone:

So we we I mean it takes, yeah, and that's the thing that it takes time for consumers to absorb that and to understand that this is a new reality. Because, in fact, you know, I know you've been in the business a long time, as as I have, over two decades, and I bought my first house condo actually, in oh gosh, what year 26 years ago. I think my rate was just under seven.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, I got in the mortgage business, I just celebrated 32 years on January 4th.

Maria Quattrone:

Oh, God bless. Beautiful.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, so 32 years I've been doing mortgages, and you know, like I got in in 94 right after the 93 refi boom, and I had been six years in the in the in the insurance industry, and obviously as a bass player, I'd been traveling a lot as a as a musician. Um, got married, and and the wife said I can't do travel music music anymore. And so I don't know what happened. I was like, all of a sudden, the insurance industry didn't seem like such a smart idea. And uh, my brother had a mortgage company, so I went to work over there. And um, it was like, what are you doing? Like the refi boom just ended, you know what I mean? Because the rates had dipped down to six percent and blah blah blah, they're back up to seven and a half. I I just never worried about rates. Like, I knew I could sell. Like, give me a product and I'll go sell it. I don't care what the rates are.

Maria Quattrone:

It's all about it's all about service, it's all about people, it's all about how can you be the solution? Right, and and you know, I always tell people don't buy work with somebody because of a rate. Actually, you know, a lot of times what they say the rate is isn't even the rate because the way that they're showing it, it's buried and this and that. And I even had it happening myself. I show up at a closing a refi, and the rate isn't it's not even well. I fired that guy after that. Like he never got my business again, which is very short-sighted from that person, but nonetheless, anyway.

Fobby Naghmi:

You know that the problem, Maria, is that too many pi too many times people will call us say, Hey Fob, I have this rate. Can you match it? Like, well, how'd you get that rate? Well, the guy told me over the phone or the or the internet or whatever. I said, Oh, did he pull your credit report? Did he ask you how much your down payment is? Did you do all these different things, these steps you have to take today in 2026? In 94, I could quote you a rate, I didn't care. I mean, there was no credit scores in 94. Like, just what I mean. There was it was so it was a free fault for all. But now we have to look at the credit score band, we have to look at the down payment band, we have to look at the DTI band. All these different things are going to fluctuate and give you the rate. And so when people come in, they just shop rate only. I think they're making a big mistake because it's not like you're you're shopping until until trying to get the best deal on a car. Uh, this is way a little bit different than getting a car. I mean, but you should still be able to get the rate, and once you lock it in, that should be the rate throughout, unless you get notified that something changes.

Maria Quattrone:

Exactly. You know, I'm glad that you say that. It's a little bit different than buying a car. So when you go to buy a car, you're gonna go in and you you're gonna you're not buying a new car. You're gonna you in this case, you're buying a car that was already owned by somebody else. We call that a pre-owned car. Just like you're buying a pre-owned house. Now, when we go to sell houses, when do we do inspections?

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, right the day of the closing, normally, right?

Maria Quattrone:

Well, inspections are done after the agreement of sale is done, but we have a new we have a new solution at our company where inspections are done before we go to market.

Fobby Naghmi:

Oh, nice.

Maria Quattrone:

Yes, that's all part of my my program too. My okay program I told you about listing boxes.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Smart.

Maria Quattrone:

So we put together just like you were, you're gonna buy a pre-owned car, we're selling you a pre-owned home. Because if that home is not brand new construction, and like for example, you're you live here in Philadelphia or your area, you then you have old houses, some houses are 200 years old.

Fobby Naghmi:

But you know, even on even on new home constructions doesn't mean that the builder is giving you a quality product. So I think uh I mean I I'm a victim of that. I'm a victim of that, by the way. I mean, when when we had our house built 21 years ago, you know, you get kind of buddy buddy during the building of the house, blah blah blah. And the guy's like, hey, five, would you just sign this? And I'll be sure I'll I'll I promise I'll come back and fix this. They never came back to fix it.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah, I had the same thing. My house, they didn't come back to fix it. So, what the the one difference in our state, Pennsylvania, with new construction is the deal isn't contingent on an inspection. You do you can have one, but once you're in, you're in, you're locked in with pre-owned homes, resale, they're mostly all contingent on expense inspection. We saw last year between inspections, title issues, financial issues, 30% of 30% of deals fell apart.

Fobby Naghmi:

Wow.

Maria Quattrone:

Now ours was not 30%. I looked at it yesterday, it was more like uh 10, 12. So we were better, but still, even with that, you know, sellers were canceling listings left and right because they weren't getting their prices, and they aren't getting their prices because their inventory, that inventory didn't match what the consumer wants.

Fobby Naghmi:

Well, and we talked about the same thing though as the buyers, though, Maria, where the buyers like, well, my cousin Ed got you know 4.7 percent rate. Why are you giving me you know 6.5? It was like, well, your brother, your cousin Ed did that 18 months ago or 24, whatever that year was, 2021 or whatever, right? It's I think a lot of times when people list their house, they're like, Well, the guy down the street, he got sixty thousand dollars more. Why are you? I mean, they don't understand that the market has changed, and interest rates affect pricing. Everything is connected, everything is I do I do love the fact when people say when I bought my first house, the rate was 13. I'm like, Yeah, dude, but you bought the house for like sixty-two thousand dollars. Like, let's put this in context, right? Like, if you had a 13% rate today and a $450,000 purchase, no one could buy a house.

Maria Quattrone:

No one can buy a house, yeah.

Fobby Naghmi:

So, I mean, everything is in context, it has to be in context, and people have to understand that. That yes, we can talk about the good old days and all that stuff, or the bad old days, but the reality is it comes down to can you afford that mortgage payment every month? Is that percentage of your income? Are you gonna be okay with it? Or are you gonna come home and your kid wants to order a pizza and you got to think about spending $20 that day? Because you don't want to buy a house where you got to stop and think about buying your kid a pizza for 20 bucks.

Maria Quattrone:

House poor.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, it's just not worth it.

Maria Quattrone:

House poor, you know, I think that part of it is the mindset too of more and more and more. Um it's something here in the US that we do as humans. And in setting of like thinking of more life, people think more cons consumption, yeah. More consumption.

Fobby Naghmi:

When you study Buddhism, the the philosophies of Buddha actually came about because 2500 years ago, they were going through the same thing in China, or or not China, excuse me, Nepal, India, you know, that Asian continent, right? They were going through the same thing of materialism. And the current religion at that time was not working for the common man because the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer, and that's where the Buddhist philosophies actually rooted from was trying to find inner peace and not getting caught up in this materialistic cycle. Now, there's nothing wrong with being having material goods and having you know, I mean, but at some point we have to get past this desire to always want more, bitter, faster, bigger, brighter, whatever. You know what I mean? It's just we have to be start feeling content with what we actually are have. Otherwise, you can't find contentment no matter where we are. I love the fact that you go on these educational vacations, you know what I mean? Because you're like you're like actually learning here and expanding your brain and your knowledge instead of just like going to some restaurant and eating the most greasyest french fries because somebody on a on a TV station said they had the best fries.

Maria Quattrone:

Exactly. That's one of the things that you know we talk about a lot is my husband and I is you know experiencing life. You know, when when I looked at my skip, my calendar for 2026 and 2025, I outlined how many weeks I was working, like working meaning in the office, taking client appointments in the office work versus our travel schedule. And then, of course, you know, the standard federal holidays and whatever. And then I work the numbers backwards. I said, okay, well, here's how many weeks I'm working, here's how many listings I'm gonna take this year. 200 listings at minimum, it's five listings a week, 40 weeks. That's how you get the numbers. But a lot of times people, and then you know how many appointments you need to have to have that. You know, and I always say, you know, selling anything, I don't care if you're selling mortgages, insurance, title, math is the path. What's the math? Yeah, you know, and looking at the math. I mean, and and you never had a closing that didn't start with a conversation. Whether you're helping that person get into the home, get out of the home, get a mortgage, we all have to have title insurance. So that's another thing that we started to do. When I have a listing contract sign, I send it to my title company, and they order title immediately. So instead of working the file once it's under contract with an agreement of sale, we work we have the file worked at the time of the listing contract.

Fobby Naghmi:

So you're like really just shaving down time and and any aggravation that could come up. Correct. Yeah, it's pretty smart. I mean, I think look if if if you can get more efficient, um, yeah, I was telling some of this the other day, and I think it's probably true in any any sales business, but but but let's talk about mortgages and real estate. The people who can remove friction are gonna acquire more business.

Maria Quattrone:

Because, right, think about this. Is a seller going to or are we gonna are we gonna have a deeper connection with them by doing all these things up front with them? Because usually they don't happen to the middle to the end of the transaction, yeah, but we're front loading all the work, yeah. So it's more work up front, but now we are developing a deeper relationship, which which is gonna take away friction from if the deal in the middle of it starts to go sideways, yeah. So we're developing a stronger bond. If we have a stronger bond, then we have happier clients. If we have happier clients, we get better Google, more Google reviews, we get more referrals all organically.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, so I mean, I listen, I don't know too many other listing agents who are doing front loading stuff, so that's pretty smart. Definitely it's gonna it's gonna give you that differential that I'm sure Sorry has, uh, where people are gonna feel more comfortable giving you a listing. Has to be.

Maria Quattrone:

We just we started the process um at the end of November. And so now we're having our first one, like several that are under contract and starting to go to closing. Because you have to remember there's a longer runway because now we're meeting with them, they're signing, they're ordering an inspection. The inspection has to happen, the report comes back. We look at the report with them, we know what's wrong with the house. If there's any safety issues, fix it. If you can afford to fix it, sell or fix the safety issues. You've got electrical problems here.

Fobby Naghmi:

It's the it's the funniest thing. We tell the same to our our loan officers of like, look, we have a department dedicated to TBD approvals. I'm like, look, get everything while they're out there shopping for a house. If it takes them two to three weeks to go find a house, you could have everything pre-approved by an underwriter, and all you gotta do now is stick in an address with a contract. Correct. I mean, like, who wouldn't do that? Like, why would you sit here drinking coffee and playing and going on Facebook, hoping your your client finds a house? Why not just go ahead and get you know, I mean, get out all the paperwork now, and if there's a problem, the underwriter is gonna tell you there's a problem and go work on it. Well, then the lock starts with the contract, it's over. Now you got a deadline to meet.

Maria Quattrone:

So that's that's the other part linking up with strong mortgage and loan officers. You know, and and asking, we even say to the listing broker to the buyer's agent, look, there's this program with XYZ Bank or XYZ Mortgage Company. You should talk to your client about it for this house because it's going to save them. Because at the end of the day, right, they're just buying a payment. You're buying a $500,000 house. You're unless you're paying cash, you're not it's not $500,000. It's whatever you're paying right now.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

And people make it to be something else. You know, it's not. Unless you're paying.

Fobby Naghmi:

When rates start improving, I always crack up with the fact that people say, Should I lock now, Fob? I'm like, well, hold on. The rate was six and a half. We're down to six. How much more are you going to say between six and five point eight seven five? Normally it's about maybe twenty-eight dollars. I mean, give or take on the on a, but I mean, like, if it's hot higher, obviously it can go more, right? Is it worth saving $28 or the for the risk that it could possibly go back up to six and a quarter or six and a half? And once you become that educator for consumers, then they understand, like, okay, you know what? I'll be fine with six. Because the difference between six and five, like, it sounds good at a barbecue party that I got 5.875, and the guy's like, oh, I only got six. But an actual payment, like what you're talking about, is it's it's insignificant compared to that to that ease and comfort you feel that I'm closing on this date.

Maria Quattrone:

It's it's very insignificant. It's the same thing, you know, when we look at pricing adjustments in properties. If I look at that and say, okay, well, instead of reducing it $10,000, let's give them $10,000 towards closing costs. So we're even we're even packaging that up from the beginning, offering based on the price, $5,000 towards closing, $10,000 towards closing, is a lot more money than us taking a listing at $10,000 less.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah, that's brilliant. Uh once again, I thought that's what's smart. I do want to talk about one thing, Maria, that we were talking about beforehand, and I think this is important that we discuss this, especially with this segue going into it, is the affordability issue along with the with the unit of uh that's units available, right? Because I think there's an affordability issue that's going on in America that while the rates get lower and that housing becomes more affordable for everybody, but it also makes that compet competition happen again on multiple offers going into one unit. And that that's gonna be an issue as we continue because there's not new units coming on the market, and there's not not new construction. No, I mean there's a from what I heard, and this was a few weeks ago, we're short about four million units to actually fit to fit the demand uh of potential buyers right now. And I saw this chart, Maria, that was really fascinating, and it said at 7%, you know, uh on a four thousand hour sale price, seven percent, 28 million people would qualify for that, right? At six percent, that number goes up to 32 million, and at 5%, that number goes up to 38 million. So when your buyers are out there looking for these houses, and they're like, Well, Maria, the rate is too high. The question is, well, do you want to wait and compete against 10 other people for the house and pay 80,000 more for it? Or do you want to go ahead and just take the six percent rate now?

Maria Quattrone:

I mean, I would say right now, today, and and I'm glad that you brought this up. If somebody is thinking of wants to buy right now, January, February, is the time to do it. It's the time to do it because you know, if they if we do think rates are going to come down, right, you can get a better deal right now. You can negotiate with sellers because they are giving concessions. You can go in with a lower offer if a house is on the market, you know, more than 30 days. You can get, I'm like even talking myself into this. Maybe I'll buy a house. Bobby, you just talked to me into buying a house.

Fobby Naghmi:

I'm telling you, man, look, I I've been looking at Bonita Springs myself. If you want to be my neighbor, come on down to Bonita Springs.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah, Bonita Springs. That's near, that's on the West Coast, right? Near Naples.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah. It's about 30 minutes north of Jay.

Maria Quattrone:

I have two other friends that live in Naples that also live in Naples that are from here. That just one just bought and then one bought two years ago, and the one that just bought two years ago, her they and Jay settled within a week of each other. Um, and live three miles from each other.

Fobby Naghmi:

Oh, there you go. Yeah, it's perfect.

Maria Quattrone:

But they're our friends, they're they don't they met each other from us, you know, a couple times, but yeah, it's funny. There's a lot of people from up north, you know, who have migrated down south.

Fobby Naghmi:

I mean, the thing is, is like it's it's you know you're gonna go there, so might as well get make the investment now. I mean, especially with with the way the market is. Trust me, I wish I had invested in in Fort Myers back in 2014. I there was these guys selling condominiums at that time, and he wanted me to give him 60,000 for a unit. Oh, I was like, yeah, I don't know. I don't trust the Florida market because I'd lost my ass in in 2008 in Miami, you know what I mean? And so I was like, I'm not going back to the Florida market again.

Maria Quattrone:

Right. And now Yeah.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

You're you're looking there again.

Fobby Naghmi:

I mean, I think you you we look everywhere, right? I mean, you have to look for investments. DC Metro is is is it is what it is. It's it's a it's it's a very high market, just like Philadelphia market would be the New Jersey market. You know what I mean? And the Northeast is extremely expensive, and you know, obviously as you just got to look where the better ROI is gonna come from.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, there's a lot of opportunity in Florida right now, you know, with the amount of inventory that's been on the market in the last uh, I guess, year or so.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, and the builders are are way more negotiable right now. The builders are like, you know, I mean, they're they'll do anything to get you the house, get you into that side of that house now.

Maria Quattrone:

Buying down the rates, giving you their seller concessions, upgrades on um the you know the products that they're offering. It's pretty cool, actually.

Fobby Naghmi:

Just think about it, Maria. I mean, uh, if the rates get down to like let's just say let's just say five and a half percent, and all of a sudden people are buying again, and there's a tightening of the inventory again. What happens to the seller's mindset?

Maria Quattrone:

That goes away.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're like, what, Maria? What what do you mean? Why why do I got to pay ten thousand dollars to this guy? I mean, he should pay me ten thousand dollars more, and then all of a sudden we can start getting cash offers, right? Don't even give me started by cash offers, right? Cash offers starts coming in, and this happens and that happens. By the way, the other thing that President Trump was talking about is eliminating institutional buyers. I don't know if you saw that the other day, I did, I did, but I it's all over the internet. I think while I applaud that, I think that's only a micro fraction of the invest because you it's not going to limit the the individual people who own five or six houses. And so I think it's I think it was like maybe one and a half percent of actual investment properties in America, or maybe two percent at max. And what I propose is this, Maria, think about this. And I've had this, I've I've heard this idea for years, but no one's done it. Is why not suspend capital gain taxes on on investment properties for say 12 months, right? And now, if you sell your investment properties, you're not gonna be taxed on that on that additional money, right? How many more properties would be willing to be sold if they're if they could avoid capital gains for 12 months?

Maria Quattrone:

Tons, because I have I have old, I call it old timers, people that have been in the investment business 20, 30 years who want to exit their portfolios, but they really don't know about they don't know what to do about this capital gain situation, so they they still have them.

Fobby Naghmi:

And I can there are some other and I don't know why the government, like if if if a if a music major dropout like me could have this idea, why can't why can't smarter minds prevail and say, look, this is a like this could unleash a lot of inventory to help out the first-time home buyer because that's where the log jam is starting from. Like in order in where I live in Fairfax County, Virginia, if you don't make $125,000, you can't even buy a house here anymore. My daughter, who's a high school counselor in Fairfax, she can't buy a house next to us or anywhere near us, our house. Yeah, that's a problem. That's a problem, and so we have to have really revolutionary ideas, and they can just be temporary, but we need to have something more than just I'm gonna stop into institutional people from buying. Like, okay, that's one or two percent, but there's still so much more inventory out there that we could tap into with much more bolder ideas, and I hope the administration does something like that.

Maria Quattrone:

I know I did hear something about the capital gains sometime last year. I thought that that was something that they were thinking about or working on. Yeah, they really haven't heard anything else about it.

Fobby Naghmi:

The thing is that is, you know, and look, I I don't know. They go back both sides of the party are guilty for this, but it's like an ATM machine. Why do you gonna you're gonna you're you're gonna basically say turn the ATM machine off? And but unfortunately, we're gonna have to do that if we're gonna we we're gonna get inventory back into the housing market.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, they have some other ways to make some money now, you know, they got tariffs and other stuff, yeah. There's a lot of money, yeah, and there's a lot of other stuff happening, you know. And uh that I don't know if I should, I don't think I should go down that rabbit hole right now, but I mean, you know, there's it's a deep one, it's a deep rabbit hole, lots of other stuff.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, but look, there's there's plenty of opportunity I mean, the the but they the problem is that the the when you really think about how much tax gets paid by the purchase of a house, it really is astronomical when you enter and when you exit, and we need to find a better way when we exit. That's all I'm saying.

Maria Quattrone:

It's a ton of money, it's a ton of money, and you know, then they go back and they say, Well, what about the 50-year mortgage? Well, I think that's squashed. What about keeping the rate?

Fobby Naghmi:

See, the problem with the 50-year mortgage, though, is you actually when you go into the legal part of it, right? Is in 2010 when the Dodd-Frank bill was passed, they said anything over 30 years was a non-qualified mortgage, and Fannie and Freddie could not purchase that. So when you do a 50-year amortization, it would be a non-qualified mortgage, and Fannie and Freddie could not purchase that paper. Hence, that would be a private note that the independent mortgage bankers would have to decide if you wanted right. So now you're talking about a rate, if if the market rate is six and a half for 50 years, you probably look at about 7.75.

Maria Quattrone:

Doesn't make any sense, right?

Fobby Naghmi:

So then the actual difference between a 30 and a 50 on a four thousand dollar purchase was actually about maybe 142 dollars savings, which still a lot for some people, but is it significant enough to tie you up for 50 years on a mortgage that you got to pass on to your son?

Maria Quattrone:

And it's it's not it's yeah, it's not enough to do any real.

Fobby Naghmi:

Listen, I applaud this administration for actually talking about ideas. I think talking about even if they're bad without no, at least they're talking about them. And I haven't heard any other administration talk about them as much as this current administration.

Maria Quattrone:

You know, like it or not, this administration is lots. I've I've never in my 55 years seen anything, people move so fast, and it it's it's it's it's uh it'll it'll break your neck.

Fobby Naghmi:

You know, I mean, and look, I I'm I'm 20 minutes from the White House where I live, right? And so we experience DC at a at a at a very intense level. Um, you can't go out to dinner without hearings over talking about this, you know, both sides of the aisle, by the way, right? And you learn, like, you know, that things are happening at a very rapid pace. I just want the housing market to figure out how we can fix this inventory issue because that's not going away at any time soon. And I don't want to turn into Europe where only 40% of the people own a house.

Maria Quattrone:

That's correct, and they keep them for generations upon generations, right? So, you know, my 40-year-old cousins still live at home with their one of them lives at home with her her mom, her well, her father pissed her mom, and with her son. Yeah, you know, and and you know, that's the thing. Europe is wonderful. I mean, I told we I we love Europe, like, but I wouldn't want to make an income there. I wouldn't be able to make an income there, you know. That's why we have yeah, United States is a we're blessed. We're blessed with the opportunity in our industry, Bobby. You could bring a brand new person into this business, an MLO, could bring a brand new real estate agent into this business. We can teach if they are humble and coachable, you can teach them, and within two years, they could be making uh in two years the business.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yes, it's not even a theory. I mean, I'm sure you've seen it, I've seen it.

Maria Quattrone:

You know, no, it's not theory, this is real.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, I mean, one of the my biggest uh uh uh uh loved this guy to pieces. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us, and he passed on. But he was living in a in a two-bedroom apartment, his wife had walked out on him, and he has two, he had two children. He was driving a cab so he could be home at in the morning to drop his kids off to school and then sleep while they were in school, then go back to work. He becomes a loan officer within three years, Maria. He's driving a Mercedes S500 and bought a house on seven acres outside of Leesburg, Virginia. He was that hungry, he just followed the formula, just followed the formula. That's all he did. And I loved him dearly. He was he became one of my best friends until the very end, you know what I mean? And and but just it was one of those things. Like I love watching his success. Because this guy was was was was built from heart, he was doing it for his children, he was sacrificing for his children, and he was doing it for all for the right reasons, and you just don't forget people like that. And and that's what this America does for us, you know. I mean, uh, and being a first generation Pakistanian coming from the immigrant community, you see this hunger. Like we come here, and all of a sudden these guys are like, Oh my god, you can make money doing this, you can make money doing that, and they save and say, and then they buy a house, and then like they couldn't even buy a house in Pakistan, much less get financing, and then next thing you know, you're a homeowner, you're a business owner, you got all these things happening, and it's an amazing thing. The American dream.

Maria Quattrone:

It is an amazing thing. Yeah, I talk about it all the time with my people. I talk about it online. I said, you know, we don't have if you have your health, like if you don't have your health, that's the only problem you have is getting your health. Outside of that, let's say you have your health, you have everything, everything. We have this little thing right here. This little thing, it's called a phone, computer. You can do anything with this thing. You you can you your CRM is here, your videos are here, everything. We didn't even have this 20 years.

Fobby Naghmi:

Your AI, your AI is there.

Maria Quattrone:

Everything is here, yeah. Your artificial intelligence is in there, and you know what the thing is, I see the biggest problem is people do not well, well, there's many things. People lack emotional maturity, people are lazy, they they they don't like being uncomfortable, and that's the thing, is like when you're uncomfortable is when you grow.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah. I think I think the fear uh holds people back so much, you know. I mean, and so funny. I just made a video about this last week, Marie. About if no, if you don't do one thing in 2002, 2026, just do one thing, which is execute an idea. Just take one idea and execute it, and don't worry what happens. And people just don't know the power of executing an idea. You could fail miserably, but you'll figure out how not to do something. You can always modify the idea, you can always build on the idea, you can always restart the idea. But if you don't ever leave the house and execute the idea, you can't ever go anywhere.

Maria Quattrone:

What if it worked?

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah. What if it worked? Yeah, I mean, amazing, right?

Maria Quattrone:

Amazing. What's your word for this year? Do you have one?

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah. It's certainty.

Maria Quattrone:

Certainty.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, why certainty? So it's a lot of things involved in that word, right? I thought about it because Jay made us really think about it. It was like a homework, I feel like with Jay. Where I but I wanted to have a word that I could really hold on to that I felt that I could control. And certainty meant that as long as I control my mindset and my perception, I could always be in certainty, no matter what. Because those are the two things that I absolutely have control over is the way I perceive things and the way I my mindset.

Maria Quattrone:

100%. So good. We the most expensive real estate we own is right here.

Fobby Naghmi:

Say that again. Say it loud.

Maria Quattrone:

Expensive real estate we own.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, that is right between our ears. My my uh my golf teacher said that the hardest hole, the longest hole you'll ever play is the is the one between your two ears. It's the same concept. Yes, once you get out of there, the golf game is that not not a problem, unless you screw up your left shoulder, then it's a whole different well.

Maria Quattrone:

That's a that's another health issue, right?

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, it is.

Maria Quattrone:

It's uh my word this year is fearless. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Fearless, being honest with the people, being meaning not so much for me, the sellers and buyers, but for the aging community. Yeah, people don't want to tell people the truth. I said, you know, you make 20 conversations a day, things will take care of themselves. People will not make these 20 conversations. I I keep and I'm jumping up and down about it.

Fobby Naghmi:

But think about this why don't people want to uh ask the tough questions or tell the truth, right? And it comes down to fear, fear, right? Like when you look when you read Miguel uh Diaz uh Miguel Ruiz's four agreements, right? And it says be impeccable, right? Yes, fear holds us. Back from being impeccable. Fear holds us back from I mean, asking the question, so we assume, right? So all these things is rooted in fear. Like if I said, Hey, Maria, XYZ, and you're like, Well, I don't want to tell Fabio the truth because I'll hurt his feelings. You're assuming you're gonna hurt my feelings.

Maria Quattrone:

And if you don't ask for whatever it is that you want, you won't get it.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

So from my my standpoint, I've been in sales for 33 years. I sold radio advertising before this for 11. I'm mentoring year 23 in real estate. So I'm going to 34 years in sales. I have a lot to give outside of being a listing broker and a team leader. So mine is about me being um having a massive aim uh greater impact on people through my private coaching, through my listing boss course, right? Those that's and and that's because it's like I explain it to people all the time. I said, there was a day I never had a listing, there was a day I never sold a house. But now, right? I have a I did 192 listings last year. Okay, why want 192 coaching clients? So there's a different level, you know, and there's a dev there's there's a devil in every level. Yeah, it's it's a mindset of being fearless and going after it. I'm the best person to help somebody.

Fobby Naghmi:

I didn't know last year in 2024. I was having a my father passed away in 2022, December. And my father was my entire like I didn't even realize how huge he was till he passed, right? Like I had no idea. And I was literally suspended for 18 months. I was paralyzed, emotionally unavailable. Like I was going through the motions, but I wasn't really there.

Maria Quattrone:

Wow.

Fobby Naghmi:

And it's you don't even realize it until you actually get out of it, right? And then all of a sudden you look back, like, oh my god, like and uh the owner of Annimac, Joe Panabianko, says to me, Um, fall of 2024, when I was like starting to wake up, and I was like, Okay, I gotta get my you know me, I gotta I gotta figure out what's going on. And Joe's been very gracious and just literally allowed me to just coast for like almost 20 months, right? And he says to me, he says, Fabi, what got here will not get you there. And dude, it was just so powerful. Like, yes, you've been in the business at that point 30 years, and you've been great, people love you, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do you really want to crack the ceiling and get to the next level of your of what you can attain? And I literally went back and I and I like retooled my entire self for 90 days. And I came out the door on January 2025, just like totally like like hungry, like I had like I was like absolutely broke, like I had nothing to lose. Yes, yes, and you know, and I think that is how we need to approach. I mean, you can't approach it every single day because you'll burn out, but you do have to have that mindset of what got me here is not gonna get me there. And if you have a new goal this year, you got to figure out new new tools, right?

Maria Quattrone:

Exactly. That's why my word's fearless.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was it was uh Brad Lee kept on changing his word on our podcast with Jay that that night. I was like, you can't change your word, like you came out with one word and I'm changing it.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, that's not how it works, but I guess what was his word? Do you remember?

Fobby Naghmi:

I think he ended up with unrecognizable, unrecognizable, yeah. But on December 31st, 2026, he wants to be unrecognizable from um um what you gonna call it.

Maria Quattrone:

Um, so from okay, I kind of like that, yeah.

Fobby Naghmi:

So Maria here see you can switch yours now too because Brad did it, so you can switch yours. I mean, hell, I'm the only one. I'm gonna hold on to mine because I'm gonna stick with certainty.

Maria Quattrone:

I like your word. I have everybody, everybody uh in the company. Their word is I wrote them yesterday all on the I have this humongous now whiteboard taking up a whole wall, and I wrote everybody's word up there, so I I know everybody's word. Yeah, and it's all on the board, and everybody can see it every single day.

Fobby Naghmi:

You just gave me an idea for our Monday Sales meeting on for our managers. Ah, Maria, awesome. That's so cool. You don't see me.

Maria Quattrone:

I'm doing a happy dance if you're listening to this podcast.

Fobby Naghmi:

That's so cool. I love that. I'm gonna do that. That's awesome. Love it, love it, love it.

Maria Quattrone:

All right, always there's always some idea, always some idea out there. You've been great. This has been so much fun.

Fobby Naghmi:

I've got my nugget for the day. So, by the way, but when I logged on to this podcast, I looked up there and said Fabi one slash nine. I'm like, what is she gonna have nine episodes with me? What are we doing here? And I realized, no, no, date date is January 9th.

Maria Quattrone:

I probably frightened you.

Fobby Naghmi:

Did I did I agree to nine episodes with her?

Maria Quattrone:

I wouldn't torture you that way.

Fobby Naghmi:

No, no, no, no.

Maria Quattrone:

Nine hours with me. Ay, ay, yay. You definitely know me then. Yeah, yeah, and I owe you a cheesesteak when you come to Philly. Um, still want to take you to Angeles.

Fobby Naghmi:

You know, you're the second or third person that's mentioned Angelose. So here's a funny thing. So I've been up to Philadelphia four times in the last six months because we do um uh for new candidates, we bring them to the union league hall, whatever that is. Yes, that's my do our discovery day. And so we'd have a dinner the first night, a big dinner, a formal dinner, like the Lincoln room or whatever that room is.

Maria Quattrone:

The Lincoln room, yeah.

Fobby Naghmi:

And then the next day we'll do a whole you know thing. So candidates can open up the hood and see anything about Animac that they want.

Maria Quattrone:

That's amazing.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, they can talk to the CEO, the CFO, whoever, like, and ask during like, and is there any daylight between what Fabi was telling me and what you're telling me? Um, and if everything aligns, then we're all good to go. Four times I've been there, four times Angeles has come up, and every time when the thing ends, I gotta run or I gotta do something. So this time I said to myself, I'm gonna plan one extra day in Philadelphia. Like I'm gonna literally block out 24 hours after Discovery Day so I can hang out in Philadelphia and try this famous Angelo's sub.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, I'll I can take you there. I would love to do that. And uh I'm a member of the Union League for 18 years. Wow, okay, yeah. Yeah, so I hope that's a good one.

Fobby Naghmi:

We have a great cigar room. I love that. There's oh yeah. I don't I don't drink, but I'm cigars. Yeah, I don't drink, but I I I I I sit in there and I well, they have uh water, coffee, yeah. The guy thing gave me like a grand cranberry juice with some lime or something, and I was like, that's fine, I don't care. You know what I mean? Just and it was but the cigars were just uh just sitting inside and having a cigar just just it feels good because you're not sitting outside in in the cold weather.

Maria Quattrone:

No, it's great, and it's a great place, and yeah, I'd be honored to uh spend some time with you here in Philadelphia.

Fobby Naghmi:

So do it, Maria.

Maria Quattrone:

You let me know when you're coming, and I've met your um your CEO before. He's a great guy.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, Joe's a good guy, man. He's just an amazing uh Joe and I were friends actually through Christine Beckwith.

Maria Quattrone:

Uh right, I know Christine.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, through Jay and all that.

Maria Quattrone:

And uh, did you uh my friend used to work there and I used to do a lot of business with him when he was in the business when he had had his own shop, Steve Grandizia?

Fobby Naghmi:

I don't know Steve, no. No, I I've only been with Anymac uh only three years now. But we just became their first division that funded over 100 million dollars in one month. So November, we funded a hundred yeah, we funded 105 million in November. First division ever amazing.

Maria Quattrone:

Congratulations, thank you, thank you. Awesome. Yeah, well, it was it was amazing to have you on. I'm definitely gonna have you back this year to hear what's going on with you and your group.

Fobby Naghmi:

Absolutely, and then and then we owe each other a cheesesteak when I come up there next time. Yes, yes, or hey, if you ever come down to DC, you know, please let me know. I mean, uh, whatever, whatever there's so much. I mean, just like Philadelphia, there's so much food here, but I think the only thing that we're really known for in DC is New York City steakhouses and Ben's Chili Bowl.

Maria Quattrone:

Oh, okay. Well, I like steak, so I haven't been to DC in a while, but I get down there sometime soon.

Fobby Naghmi:

You're not missing anything right now. Uh it's it's it's it's if my wife and I were just there. I hate to say this. We were just there uh last weekend or two weekends ago. It was like a ghost town, it was weird. Yeah, it was like there was nobody around, there was no traffic jam. I was like, where is everyone? Yeah, I was like, Where because the monument was they just decorated for the 250th anniversary, so we want to go see it. You know what I mean? Sure, it's like where is everybody? Huh? It was weird, man. It was really weird. It was it was uh unusual for DC.

Maria Quattrone:

I wonder if it maybe end of year, beginning of year, people just not out and about.

Fobby Naghmi:

Yeah, that's probably just I'm sure. Look, I'm sure as soon as it warms up, the tourists will all be back.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah, exactly. Cold weather in the northeast.

Fobby Naghmi:

All right, Maria. Thank you so much for having me on here, buddy.

Maria Quattrone:

Thank you. It's been awesome.

Fobby Naghmi:

All right, talk to you.