In this interview, Sydney Kohler of Marker Real Estate talks with CPA, attorney, and author Mark Kohler about navigating the real‑estate market during the COVID‑19 pandemic. They acknowledge the market’s volatility but argue that uncertainty creates buying opportunities, citing the 2007‑2009 crash and Warren Buffett’s large‑scale purchases as precedent. While low interest rates are attractive, they stress that rates are only one factor; buyers should seek a "perfect storm" of favorable price, reasonable rates, and timing. Success depends on assembling a coordinated team—realtor, lender, CPA/attorney—and maintaining clear communication to avoid last‑minute surprises. They discuss flexible deal structures such as longer contingencies, seller financing, post‑closing agreements, and COVID‑19 specific addendums that can protect buyers in a shifting market. Overall, the advice is cautiously optimistic: buyers should stay informed, be prepared, and leverage available tools to secure a good deal despite market uncertainty.
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My name's Sydney Kohler. I'm with Marker Real Estate in Orange county and I'd hope to be your source of information on what's going on in the market. Right now. I'm here with Mark Kohler, cpa, attorney, best selling author, radio show host.
I don't know what else related to you. Your dad.
Right, I forgot that one.
But thanks for having me. No one else can book me right now, but you can for some reason, I don't know why.
So this year, in all seriousness, has been really hard. Nobody saw stuff like this coming. Inevitably, the market will always go up and down low. So in general, I wanted to talk about what to do during uncertain times. There's some people that have some big questions in the air right now. Should I buy this home? Should I think about buying or should I continue closing? I think people found themselves in a situation just this last week that they didn't think they'd be in. So what's your advice on buying right now at this uncertain point?
Well, I think there's a lot of deals out there, a lot of bargains, and we don't know where the bottom is going to be. But if you can get the perfect storm and don't stop what you're doing. This uncertainty, of course, is uneasy, but this is when there's deals. We think back to 2007, 8, 9, when there was a lot of uncertainty with the real estate crash across America. And what did Warren Buffett do? He came in and bought. He came and bought a million. A billion dollars, sorry, a billion dollars worth of real estate because he saw bargains. And so there's gonna be bargains out there, people that have to sell because of their financial problems with this. Covid19 so if you've been looking to buy, don't stop.
Right. I had someone this morning who might be looking at the perfect storm. He might find himself at the right point. He wasn't planning on buying until two years from now. And then he saw low interest rates and that obviously sparked something in him. He saw a low interest rate and he wants to buy now. What's your advice on just interest rates?
Yeah, I think that's good, but we don't want to hyper focus on interest rates because it's only part of the equation. And so if people are going to go make a dumb decision and buy something because it's low interest rates, that doesn't make sense. But then it also doesn't make sense to buy something with terrible interest rates. So I think again, the bargains are going to be out there. We want that perfect storm of the price point we've been looking for and lower interest rates. And there's going to be a lot of deals for buyers right now that they wouldn't have envisioned six months ago.
The buyers now kind of finally have the ball in their court. For the longest time, it just kind of, kind of hasn't been. So it does kind of spin things around for them. So part of having something you said is that perfect storm. Part of having a perfect storm, I think, is working with the right team and making sure your realtor and your lender are in good communication with one another. If they are, I think that it can make a more extensive transaction go more smoothly.
And you don't want to call it the last minute.
No.
Those buyers, if you're out there looking for a deal you don't want to
be on, you want to be prepared, right?
You want to be like, hey, I found a deal. And then blindside your lender and realtor. Don't do that. I think talk to your cpa, your attorney, your lender, your realtor and let them know what you're looking for.
And you know, you should have peace of mind that they're going to take care of you. There are longer contingencies. You can maybe do seller financing, a post closing agreement. You have COVID 19 addendums that are finally out now. So I think it's just feeling like you, you're working with the right team and in that everything's aligning for you. So I think there's always a way to structure a deal within a market, whether it's up or down. So thank you for your advice and
