What makes us different from the gazillions of other agents you can choose from?

Here’s the deal.  Buying a home will likely be the most expensive single investment you will ever make.  It’s important to get it right.  Yes, the Internet and fancy real estate web sites make poking around easier, but do they really get you closer to finding a great home in a great area for a terrific price?  Do you really know all the ins and outs of navigating the real estate buying and selling process, start to finish?  It can get complicated!

This is where we come in.  I grew up here and have lived and worked around the area much of my entire life, both in Virginia and Maryland.  I LOVE Washington and spend a great deal of time there.  I’ve lived in town homes, single-family homes, and even a on a yacht on the bay for eight years.  I know the area, the commuting routes, what to do and where to go.  Over the many years I’ve been doing this, I’ve been in thousands of homes with clients and have completed a great many successful transactions.

Blah, blah, blah.  Every realtor on every website will tell you nearly the same.  What makes us different?  LOTS!  I’ll explain...

Architecture

My background is in architecture.  I design and build custom homes and additions.  I’ve done ‘down-to-bare-concrete’ renovations of condos in the District of Columbia.  I don’t just manage contractors – I put on a tool belt and often do the work myself.  I know design, structure, plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems.  I know buildings and homes and, when we shop together, I look at every home from an architectural and structural perspective (sometimes I confess, I’m a bit TOO forthcoming with my thoughts and opinions).  Any home you’re serious about, we will have done our own mini-home inspection before we ever put in an offer.  We want you to be as knowledgeable as possible about the home you want to buy BEFORE you buy it.

Commitment

We live and breathe this stuff seven days a week.  Ask any of our current and previous clients.  We love it and it shows.  You feel like dropping me an email with a question at noon from Japan (midnight my time)?  Don’t be surprised if I answer right back and we end up chatting by phone in the middle of the night.  I’m a relocation specialist for military and government personnel transferring into the area.  My clients often fly in from bases around the world for a few intense days of shopping before heading back home to gather belongings and family.  We have typically three or four days to find a home.  We get it done, putting in 18 hour days as necessary, 6 a.m. to midnight every day, 25 homes a day if needed (my record is 27).  Why?  At the end of those three or four days and 75 to 100 homes, you MUST be able to say you’ve considered EVERY home that could possibly meet your criteria and your budget in your desired area.  Only then can you feel comfortable about writing a contract on your favorite property.  Before we ink the offer, we will have exhaustively researched every aspect of the home, the community, and the area, looking at nearby current listings, homes under contract, and sold homes to make sure we begin our negotiation from a position of knowledge and strength.

Looking for a retirement spot to lay your final nest egg and want it to be perfect?  I believe a realtor should never push you to compromise to make an easy sale.  A home purchase is a huge purchase and you need to know that when you sign on the dotted line you can feel confident about what you are getting.  I have worked with clients over long, long, long periods of time to sift through all of the options on the market as they come and go until the right house comes along.  I recently found a home for a man who I had been working with for three years.  We won't push you into any deals until the right one for you comes along.

We treat your money as if it were our money

We work really hard to help you spend your hard earned money extremely carefully.  We bring an objective perspective to the home shopping and selling process.  We won’t rubber stamp your likes and dislikes.   We’ll honestly evaluate your selections and decisions and give the best possible advise based on our experience and knowledge through the entire process.  With buyers, we’ll constantly advise you on resale potential so you can maximize your return down the road when it’s time to sell.  For sellers, we’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to get the highest possible price for your home.  As large a transaction as this is, you must expect nothing less.

As listing agents, we are sometimes but one candidate among several being interviewed by a client who wants to list their home.  You want to know what your home is worth and how we’ll get it sold for the highest possible price in the shortest possible time.  Interestingly (and sadly), the agent who often gets the job is the agent who gave the highest estimate of value, hoping you’ll ‘smell the money.’  They can always beat you down later after the property has remained on the market at the wrong price for too long.  That’s the wrong approach!  You’re hiring us based on our professional assessment of your home and the market in your area.  There’s a great deal of money at stake and you need a thorough and unbiased evaluation of how things really are.  We will do a complete market analysis of all homes currently for sale, under contract and sold recently so that, together, we can devise a logical and proactive approach to reaching our mutual goal – selling your house. Working together with you as a team, we want to DO the job, not just GET the job.  Make sense?

We go EVERYWHERE

Most agents know only their back yards and local area.  We go everywhere:  twenty-seven counties around our region so far.  We cover DC to Frederick to Fredericksburg to Baltimore to southern Maryland to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, basically anywhere you could want to go within a couple hours of DC in any direction.  Do I need to live in your immediate town to sell your home?  NO.  Can I take you shopping in any county in VA or MD?  YES.  Funny story.  We had a client from an Army base in Germany.  We did one county per day for seven straight days.  We did research every night at their hotel, breakfast at six the next morning then we were off and running.  We drove and drove and drove.  They had NO idea where they wanted to live so we saw it all – everything.  350+ miles a day and we found our home of choice in Fredericksburg, VA when all was said and done.  We saw or considered close to 175 homes that week.  It was exhausting but we had a blast and it led to a great result.  Having taken this approach for so many years, we really know the ins and outs of investing everywhere in the DC/Baltimore and surrounding areas.

We’re with you long after the sale is done

Yeah, that's right.  You're stuck with us long term.  We'll keep you posted on the market in your area years into the future.  We'll keep you in the loop on interest rates, real estate trends, refinancing opportunities, contractors we like and don't like, anything we can do to help you continue to enjoy your home while you're  here.  We want to be your go-to resource for everything home-related.