• Lending Letter
  • Posts
  • Dec 27: 🎯 Don't Wait for 2026 — The Year-End Action Menu

Dec 27: 🎯 Don't Wait for 2026 — The Year-End Action Menu

From real estate professional status to 0% STR funding—how to maximize the final 120 hours of 2025.

Author

Alex Veytsman
December 27, 2025

☕ The Lending Letter 🏡

Saturday, December 27th: Post-Christmas Clarity—Your 5-Day Action Plan

Happy Saturday! 🎄 Welcome to that weird limbo week between Christmas and New Year's where nobody knows what day it is and wearing pajamas until noon is socially acceptable. If you're reading this with leftover pie for breakfast, we don't judge. We've all been there. 🥧

But here's the thing: while everyone else is in full couch-potato mode rewatching holiday movies, smart money is making moves. Because you've got exactly 5 days left in 2025, and what you do (or don't do) this week could literally impact your taxes, your investments, and your entire 2026 financial picture. No pressure. 😅

📊 TODAY'S 30-YEAR FIXED RATE
6.20%
According to Mortgage News Daily | Unchanged from Friday (Markets Closed)

🤔 Why Didn't Rates Change Today?

Great question! Markets are closed on Saturdays (and Sundays), which means mortgage rates stay exactly where they were on Friday. Think of it like your favorite coffee shop being closed—the prices don't change, they're just... not open for business. ☕

So we're sitting at 6.20%, which is honestly not terrible considering where we've been. According to Mortgage News Daily's historical data, this is significantly better than the 7%+ rates we saw earlier in 2024, and it's workable for buyers who know how to structure deals properly.

The real question isn't "what are rates today?"—it's "what are you going to do with the next 5 days?" Let's talk strategy. 🎯

💰 Lender Promos: Your Year-End Urgency Edition

⏰ REALITY CHECK: You Have 5 Days.

We're not trying to be dramatic, but December 31st is a real deadline. Close before year-end? You get 2025 tax deductions. Miss it by one day? Those deductions vanish into thin air. Here's how we can help:

🏠 Need Any Type of Property Loan? Whether it's your primary home, vacation house, or your 10th rental property, start here and we'll connect you with lenders who actually understand calendar pressure.

💼 Investment Property Calling Your Name? Year-end is prime time for investors who get it. Connect with investment specialists who can help you structure deals for maximum 2025 tax benefits.

🏖️ Short-Term Rental Investment? STRs purchased in December can start generating income in January AND give you tax deductions for all of 2025. Talk to STR financing specialists who know how to make this work. Like, now. ⚡

🎯 Your 5-Day Year-End Playbook

Okay, let's get tactical. Here's what actually matters between now and December 31st:

📅 Day-by-Day Breakdown:

Saturday/Sunday (That's Today/Tomorrow):
Time to get organized. Pull your financial statements, review your 2025 transactions, and identify any last-minute moves that could reduce your tax bill. Yes, it's the weekend. Yes, it matters. 📊

Monday-Tuesday (Dec 30-31):
Final execution days. If you're closing on a property, making a major purchase for a rental, or executing any financial strategy that needs to hit 2025, these are your last 48 hours. No extensions. No mulligans. ⚠️

🧠 Educational Corner: Year-End Tax Loss Harvesting for Real Estate Investors

Most people think tax loss harvesting is just for stock portfolios. Wrong. Real estate investors can play this game too, and it's criminally underutilized. Let's fix that. 💡

📚 The Strategy: Real Estate Edition

Traditional Stock Tax Loss Harvesting: Sell losers before year-end, use those losses to offset capital gains. According to Investopedia, you can then offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income and carry forward excess losses indefinitely.

Real Estate Version (The Sneaky One): You can't exactly sell rental property #3 and buy it back 31 days later to avoid wash-sale rules. BUT you can get creative with passive activity losses. Here's how:

1. Maximize Passive Losses This Year
If you have rental properties showing losses (thanks depreciation! 🙌), you might not be able to deduct them currently if your income is over $150,000. But those losses don't disappear—they accumulate as suspended passive losses and can be used when you sell the property OR when you have passive income to offset.

2. The Real Estate Professional Status Play
If you or your spouse can qualify as a real estate professional for tax purposes (750+ hours of real estate work annually, more than any other job), you can deduct rental losses against ordinary income IMMEDIATELY. According to IRS Publication 527, this is one of the most powerful tax strategies available. The catch? You need to prove it with meticulous records. 📝

3. The Material Participation Test
Even if you're not a real estate professional, if you "materially participate" in a rental activity AND your adjusted gross income is under $150,000, you can deduct up to $25,000 in rental losses against ordinary income. Material participation means you're actively involved—not just collecting rent checks. 🔧

Year-End Action Items (Do This Weekend!):

  • 📊 Calculate your 2025 passive losses across all rental properties
  • ⏱️ If going for real estate professional status, document your hours NOW (not in April when your CPA asks)
  • 🧾 Make sure you've captured all deductible expenses for 2025 (repairs, maintenance, travel to properties)
  • 💰 Consider accelerating deductible expenses into 2025 if it makes sense (repairs, property management fees, etc.)

Pro Move: If you have big capital gains from stock sales in 2025, consider doing a 1031 exchange on a rental property to defer those gains while upgrading your real estate portfolio. It's like a tax-free trade-up. Just note you typically need to start this process before selling, so this is more of a "plan for 2026" move unless you're already mid-transaction. 🔄

🏘️ Why Smart Investors Love This Dead Week

Everyone thinks real estate shuts down between Christmas and New Year's. That's exactly WHY it's a power-move week. Here's what's happening behind the scenes:

Desperate Sellers Are More Desperate
If someone's property is still on the market on December 27th, they're feeling the pain. Maybe they need to close before year-end for their own tax reasons. Maybe they've been trying to sell for months and their carrying costs are killing them. Maybe they're just tired. Either way, late December sellers are often very negotiable. 🤝

Less Competition = More Leverage
Your competition is literally sleeping off Christmas dinner right now. They're not touring properties, they're not making offers, they're not thinking about real estate at all. According to Zillow research, December has the lowest buyer activity of any month. That's your edge. 🎯

Lenders Want to Close Deals
Loan officers have year-end quotas too. They want to finish 2025 strong, which means they might be more willing to work with you on terms, move faster, or make exceptions they wouldn't normally make. It's not guaranteed, but leverage is leverage. 💪

💡 Personal Finance Hack: The December 31st Roth Conversion Window

🎓 Advanced Move: Strategic Roth Conversions

Here's a strategy most people don't know about: Roth IRA conversions done in 2025 count for your 2025 taxes, and you have until December 31st to execute them. This isn't a standard "max out your 401k" tip—this is tactical. 🎯

The Setup: You have money in a Traditional IRA (or old 401k). You want it in a Roth IRA where it grows tax-free forever. But converting means paying taxes on the converted amount THIS year. Here's where it gets interesting...

Why This Year Might Be Perfect:

1. Fill Up Your Tax Bracket
Let's say you're in the 24% federal tax bracket, which for 2025 goes up to $201,050 for married filing jointly (according to IRS 2025 tables). If you made $180,000 this year, you have $21,050 of "room" before you hit the next bracket. Converting $21,050 from Traditional to Roth means you pay 24% tax on it now, but it NEVER gets taxed again—not when it grows, not when you withdraw. 📈

2. Low Income Year Strategy
Did you have a lower income year in 2025? Between jobs? Took time off? Started a business that hasn't ramped up yet? This is your GOLDEN window. Converting when you're in a lower tax bracket (like 12% or 22%) is like getting a permanent discount on future growth. High earners literally plan for low-income years just to do massive Roth conversions. 🧠

3. The Tax Rate Bet
Think tax rates are going up in the future? Many people do. Converting now locks in today's rates. According to Tax Policy Center data, current tax rates are historically low. If rates increase, you just won the conversion lottery. 🎰

The Action Plan (This Weekend):

  • 📊 Calculate your estimated 2025 taxable income
  • 🧮 Determine how much "room" you have before the next tax bracket
  • 📞 Call your financial institution Monday morning (Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc.)
  • ⚡ Execute the conversion by December 31st (it's literally that simple—just a phone call or online form)
  • 💰 Make sure you have cash available to pay the tax bill in April 2026 (don't use IRA funds to pay the tax—that's a costly mistake)

The Math Example:
Convert $50,000 from Traditional to Roth. Pay $12,000 in taxes now (24% bracket). That $50,000 grows to $250,000 over 25 years (conservative 7% return). You just saved $60,000 in future taxes (assuming same bracket). That's a 5x return on your tax payment. Show me another investment that guaranteed. 🚀

Warning: This strategy requires actual analysis of YOUR specific situation. Conversion mistakes can be costly, and you can't undo them anymore (they removed that rule). Talk to a CPA or tax professional before executing large conversions. But if done right? This is one of the most powerful moves in personal finance. 💪

🎯 The Investment Property Year-End Checklist

If you own rental properties, here's your Saturday homework (yes, homework on Saturday, sorry not sorry):

✅ Expense Maximization: Any repairs or maintenance you've been putting off? Do them NOW (before Tuesday). These are 2025 deductions. That leaky faucet, the chipped paint, the HVAC tune-up—get them done and documented.

✅ Property Tax Prepayment: If your 2026 property taxes are due soon and you're in a position to pay them before December 31st, you might be able to deduct them in 2025. Check with your tax advisor—this doesn't work for everyone.

✅ Cost Segregation Studies: Have you heard about these? They're like finding money in your couch cushions, except it's usually five or six figures. Get an estimate from our cost segregation partner and you could accelerate depreciation deductions worth more than your car. 🚗

✅ STR Upgrades: If you're running short-term rentals and need to upgrade furnishings, add amenities, or renovate to increase nightly rates, we have a partner offering 0% interest funding. Yes, zero percent. Yes, it's real. Yes, you should look into it. 🛋️

📊 Market Reality Check: What's Actually Happening

Let's cut through the noise with some actual data from this week:

Inventory Situation: According to Realtor.com's latest data, active listings are up about 18% year-over-year nationally. That's good news for buyers—more options, more negotiating power. The "there's nothing on the market" excuse is getting weaker. 📈

Price Dynamics:Zillow's Home Value Index shows prices up about 3-4% year-over-year in most markets. That's healthy appreciation—not bubble territory, not crash territory, just steady growth. Boring is good in real estate. 😌

The Rate Reality: At 6.20%, we're nowhere near the 3% rates of 2021, but we're also significantly below the 7%+ peaks of 2023-2024. Freddie Mac historical data shows the long-term average mortgage rate is actually around 7.7%. So 6.20% is... statistically below average? Yeah, wrap your head around that. 🤯

🎯 Should You Make Your Move Before Year-End?

The honest answer: it depends what you're trying to accomplish.

✅ Close Before December 31st If:

  • You need 2025 tax deductions (mortgage interest, property taxes, depreciation)
  • You're buying an investment property and want to start building equity immediately
  • You found a great deal that won't be there in January
  • You can negotiate better terms because of year-end pressure

❌ Wait Until 2026 If:

  • You're rushing and might make a poor decision
  • You haven't done proper due diligence
  • You're just trying to beat an arbitrary deadline
  • The numbers don't actually work for your situation

Never let a calendar drive bad decisions. But also don't ignore legitimate strategic opportunities just because it's inconvenient timing. That's what separates builders from watchers. 🏗️

🎯 Your Year-End Resource Hub:

Ready to make strategic moves? Here's everything you need in one place:

🌟 The Bottom Line

It's Saturday after Christmas. You probably have family in town, leftovers in the fridge, and a strong urge to do absolutely nothing. We respect that. 🛋️

But if you're serious about building wealth, this week matters. Not because the calendar says so, but because opportunity doesn't wait for convenient timing. The deals happening right now are happening because other people are checked out. The tax strategies available right now expire in 5 days. The competitive advantage of being awake and active while others nap is very, very real. 😴

Rates at 6.20% aren't a gift, but they're workable. Markets being quiet isn't a problem, it's an advantage. Having 5 days left in 2025 isn't pressure, it's clarity—you know exactly what you need to do and how much time you have to do it. ⏰

So here's the play: finish reading this newsletter. Pour another coffee (or wine, no judgment on timing). Pull out your laptop. Review your financial situation. Identify opportunities. Make moves. 💪

Because on January 1st, you want to wake up thinking "I'm glad I did that" not "I wish I had done that." And the difference between those two sentences? What you do this weekend. 🎯

Stay sharp, stay proactive, and remember: wealth is built during weeks like this when others aren't paying attention. We'll be here Monday with your next briefing. But between now and then? You've got work to do. 🚀

The Lending Letter
📬 Delivered daily to your inbox (except Sundays)
🚀 Because mortgage rates move fast, and so do we

Next newsletter: Monday, December 29th! Make this weekend count. 💪

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Rates and terms vary by lender and borrower qualifications. Tax strategies discussed should be reviewed with a licensed tax professional or CPA for your specific situation. Roth conversion strategies require careful analysis and may not be suitable for everyone. Always consult with qualified financial and legal advisors before making investment or tax decisions.