Friday Pulse · August 21, 2026
Happy Friday! Here’s your 4-minute realtor rundown to win big this weekend. 😊
Loan Tip from Uncle Kip
The Stalled Listing Rescue Plan.
Homes are taking longer to sell than agents got used to, which means every agent now faces the awkward day 30 conversation with a seller.
Most improvise it.
This is a KEEP-FOREVER tool: a 21-day reset I made for your listing that is sitting. Diagnose what’s wrong in the first 3 days, refresh the marketing by day 10, relaunch with a real incentive by day 21. The seller update script is included so that conversation stops being awkward.
One of the strongest relaunch moves in there is offering buyers a seller funded rate buydown instead of another price cut. I’ll build that scenario for any listing you’ve got. 😊
What’s inside:
- Diagnose – days 1-3
- Refresh – days 4-10
- Relaunch – days 11-21
- Seller update script
Open House Tips
Set the thermostat like you’re hosting, not living there.
Here’s a detail that gets overlooked constantly: the temperature.
A house that’s too cold feels uninviting. Too warm, and buyers start eyeing the exit instead of the walk in closet. The fix is simple — a few degrees cooler in summer, a few degrees warmer in winter than you’d normally set it at home. You want buyers comfortable enough to slow down and actually look, not rush through just to get back to their car.
It sounds minor. It’s not. Comfort keeps people in the house longer, and more time in the house means more time falling for it.
Small tweak, real impact.
Kip’s Bend Pick
MOVIE NIGHT – August 28th “How to Train Your Dragon” 6-10pm @ Al Moody Park (movie starts at 7pm) – Bring the kids or grandkids and come hang out with me and the girls! bendparksandrec.org
SUMMER HIKING @ MT BACHELOR TRAILS = Hiking, Dinner and a View. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to explore the hiking trails at Bachelor, you only have a few more opportunities while the weather is still terrific. Great hike, better views. 😊 mtbachelor.com
Rate Read
The 30-year fixed is sitting around 6.76% this week, up a hair from 6.69% last Friday. This one wasn’t about the Fed or a jobs number. It was oil. Crude prices jumped, that nudged bonds higher, and mortgage rates ride along with bonds, so they drifted up too. We’re still near the highest rates in about a year.
What this means for you: on a $625K loan, that move is roughly $29 more a month. Nothing dramatic, but for any buyer sitting right at the top of their pre-approval, it’s worth a quick call to re-run their number before they write an offer this weekend.
Market Analysis
Bend single-family inventory is holding around 527 active listings, about 3.5 months of supply, with the median steady at $780K. Well-priced homes are still going under contract in about 33 days. Read it as balanced but firm: buyers finally have enough choice to negotiate, so anything overpriced gets punished with a price cut.
What to do with it: at your next listing appointment, when a seller asks what their home is worth, anchor to the $780K median and that 3.5-month supply. Homes priced to today go pending in about a month. Homes chasing last year’s frenzy pricing are the ones sitting.
Kip’s CE Summer Camp — Last Free Class of the Summer
One free CE class left this summer, live on Zoom at 10:30 AM PST. Register once and hop on:
- Aug 26: Top 5 IG Reels & ‘B’ Roll
On Call This Weekend
I’m around this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Text or call 202-329-9187 to get a buyer pre-approved. Big down payment but messy income? That’s my specialty. Send them over.
On Instagram → @mortgageswithkip
Real talk on buying, owning, and building wealth in Bend.
Best of Luck this Weekend!
— Kip