Speaker 1: 0:30

My name's Bob Waddell. I'm a residential realtor with Samson Properties. I'm licensed in Virginia, maryland and West Virginia so I work with buyers and sellers looking to move in that area in the Northern Virginia area, the West Virginia, panhandle and Southern Maryland.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Beautiful. Let's go back a little bit and tell us what made you want to go into real estate. Was that always the dream?

Speaker 1: 0:56

I wish I could say so. Actually, I started off in engineering, did a few other things, but I was always interested in real estate. I grew up in Northern Virginia, so I've experienced kind of the ups and downs of the Northern Virginia market and I often well in the houses I owned myself. I bought and sold the houses myself, without a realtor, and I had to educate myself to do it and I realized how much knowledge and information was required to do that and I would talk to friends and I would help other people with it. And you know I realized that that was something that I had a knack for, I had an interest in. So at one point I took the class. I took the real estate class in 2003, just kind of on a whim. I passed the test, I didn't do a thing with it and it just went away and lapsed. And then, 10 years later, I did it again for real and took the test in 2013. I got my license and started working in real estate.

Speaker 2: 1:56

Okay, very nice. Yeah, it sounds like you did have a knack for it, huh. I think so we do, and now you often thank your team. What does teamwork look like behind the scenes at your brokerage?

Speaker 1: 2:08

That's a great question. Samson has a tremendous team when it comes to our brokers, our staff behind the scenes. We have an on-site print shop. We do a lot of the work and a lot of the marketing and advertising for homes in-house, so we don't have to rely on outside vendors, outside contractors. Our team is phenomenal. They're based here in Virginia so our headquarters is in Chantilly, so we're not looking to a national company or international company headquarters states away. You know, I can go talk to the CEO, I can go walk in his office and talk to him directly. We work with Cardinal Title, which is a subsidiary of Samson that we own, so that's an option to be able to use a title company that's also based here as well.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Yeah, wonderful. And then how do you empower your team to deliver the kind of service you'd proudly put your own family's name behind?

Speaker 1: 3:09

What I strive to do is help people where their knowledge is short. The reason people use realtors isn't because they don't know how to sell a house. Necessarily. It's because they don't want to be, they don't want to open themselves up to the liability. There's a tremendous amount of legal preparation, of contract reading, of just general knowledge, and we can supply that. I don't know everything about real estate, but I know that I can find the answer and I know that I have a team that does know the answer. Even if I don't, we've got many years of experience and much wisdom behind the team that we can use to help a client to not step on a landmine.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I love that the landmine kind of a scary picture, but I love it. Indeed.

Speaker 2: 3:58

What's one small tradition or ritual your team practices that keeps moral high, especially during stressful seasons.

Speaker 1: 4:06

The thing that we've been able to do you know that I do specifically is work with my clients and keep the lines of communication open. And keep the lines of communication open so people aren't wondering what's going on or what's happening. Or you know why did my house sell in two weeks, like my next door neighbor did? You know, I want to communicate with them and let them know. Let them know what what they're going to need to do. I don't want to give somebody a story and give them false hope of a price that they're not going to realize. You know it's. You know, well, the last realtor told me my house is going to do, you know, 1.5 million. Well, I don't think it is. You know, I'd rather prepare them and give them a realistic expectation than give them false hope and fall on their face.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Absolutely. I just being transparent with them and I'm sure they appreciate that, because you don't want to oversell something, and then they're just totally let down and they're like you told me this, right. That's kind of like breaking that trust.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: 4:57

Thank you for touching on that. Now let's talk about core values and philosophy. You mentioned working diligently for your clients. What deeper values drive that commitment each day for you?

Speaker 1: 5:09

Well, first and foremost is honesty and trustworthiness. If you can't, you know, trust the people that you're dealing with, well, what's the point? You know, I want to make sure that you know, everybody knows where things stand and there's, you know, constant training about ethics in real estate so that people know and understand what's going on and that they, you know, they're aware and they're aware of a realtor's responsibility. Virginia has specific laws surrounding who represents who. If I'm a buyer's agent, then I'm representing that buyer, so I can't represent a buyer and a seller at the same time, because that would be a conflict of interest. Yeah, so you know, we make sure to you know, make people aware of that and educate people through the process.

Speaker 2: 5:55

Absolutely, you know, make people aware of that and educate people through the process. Absolutely. And now, how do your relationships as a husband and a father to four?

Speaker 1: 6:05

inform your approach to serving families in real estate? Ooh, great question. What I do is I try to treat people as I want to be treated. I made a move recently. I've been a Loudoun County resident for a very long time and I just moved to Western Loudoun for a little bit more land, a little less HOA.

Speaker 2: 6:21

Congratulations.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Thank you, you're welcome. Thank you. So when people want to do that and want to make that move, you know I love working with them. You know being able to find the right house for the right family, the right family. You know I know what. What was perfect for me isn't necessarily right for everyone else, but it's important for people to be able to realize their own goals and to be able to get the right home but also be able to afford it too.

Speaker 2: 6:45

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:46

And Loudon, that's. That's a big deal. You know, I remember when I bought my first house in the nineties, you know I I had to scrimp and save. Prices have gone up quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 6:57

Oh, I'm sure first house in the 90s you know I had to scrimp and save. Prices have gone up quite a bit. Oh, I'm sure, especially from the 90s, my goodness. And then integrity is crucial in real estate. How do you build trust?

Speaker 1: 7:07

from your very first conversation with the clients? That's a great question. I, what I like to do is ask questions, make sure that I know what people want and what people need, and then you know as we talked about before is give them the straight answer. You know, even if, even if it's not the answer they want to hear, I'm going to give them the honest answer, at least as far as I know, and as far as I believe you know is accurate, especially when it comes to pricing a home to sell.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Yeah, and now let's talk market expertise and service. As a local Livingston-Lovettsville expert hopefully you're still living there, or did you?

Speaker 1: 7:42

Yes, that's where you moved. Okay, in Lovettsville. Yes, Beautiful.

Speaker 2: 7:45

What trends are you seeing in your market that buyers and sellers should be aware of?

Speaker 1: 7:50

As always I should say as always as of the last few years there's fewer houses available than there is. Whatever trends are going on in the rest of the country. Here in Loudoun County and in Northern Virginia there's a shortage of homes. There's not enough to meet the demand, hence prices go up. However, on the other hand, they're not going up as much as they would if rates were lower down. Before they buy, and I understand that. But what they don't realize is that once rates go down, prices will go up even more. So you can always refinance to a better rate. If you get into a house you can afford and you're in a good price range. You can refinance in a year or two or three years when the rates come down, but you can't get a lower price later. Whatever the prices you pay, that's the price that you paid. My advice to people is as long as it's reasonable, affordable and possible, buy now or buy sooner rather than later. Don't wait for the rates to go down.

Speaker 2: 8:59

Yeah, no, that was a great way to put it actually. So thank you. And then walk us through a recent listing. Your team turned around. What were the key choices that led to that success?

Speaker 1: 9:12

I had a. I actually have a listing. Right now. It's a townhouse that's for sale in Ashburn Village. It was bought new in 1988. So it was and it hasn't been sold since. So it's the first time it's been on the market since then.

Speaker 1: 9:27

It's a great house, it's a, it's a good starter home and since it hadn't been, you know, changed hands, not a lot had been done with the house. So it's in good condition but it needed a lot of work. So the thing that I was able to do with the client there was I was able to go through, tell him the things it needed, and he just handed me the keys and said, hey, can you do this? And I said yes, I went through the house, did some minor work inside, had all the light bulbs changed out to LED, work done outside, and actually the HOA came back with a list for the sales package and added a few more items that we didn't have originally. But now we do.

Speaker 1: 10:13

So I have somebody there right now, actually, who's working on it. So we're painting it, doing paperwork on the outside, painting the deck, painting the front door, all those things. But I'm able to handle that for the client, manage the project myself, get the work done and also have it paid at closing, which is something that's a big deal to a lot of people, because they don't necessarily have five or 10 or $20,000 to lay out, you know, before the house is sold. So so we'll get that paid at closing and get it done. Make it, make it a seamless process.

Speaker 2: 10:41

Yeah, absolutely. And that just goes back to like the honesty and integrity, because look at how some clients are just like here. I trust you, you you'll get the job done, I know, and they give you that, so to speak, I guess permission or authority to like do that to that to a home, and then let alone one that hasn't been sold since what was it? The nineties?

Speaker 1: 11:00

It was actually 1988. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:03

Yeah, so like eighties, late eighties, but anyway like that. That trust is incredible, that people like, especially it comes with the territory and your reputation that you have Right, whereas if they didn't maybe do their research or their homework on you, maybe they'd be like I don't know if I want to trust, but because you've probably built that and have a great team, they're just like yeah, you know what Bob's going to get it done and sure, have at it here you go, by the way, here's HOA's thing too. I know you'll get it done. Thank you so much for this curve ball that you're taking up here.

Speaker 1: 11:34

So see that that's incredible and it's doing that, and I enjoy setting people at ease because I remember what it was like when I was selling my own house and of course you know I was doing it all myself and I was. I was a little nervous. But then, once, once I got it done, I realized oh okay, you know I can do that. So once you've done it a few times you know it makes sense. And when somebody hasn't been there themselves, I can set them at ease and I can hold their hand through the process.

Speaker 2: 12:07

That's awesome, so to speak. Yeah, you're doing a great job, then. And then, how have your goals evolved since you started? What motivates you to keep raising the bar?

Speaker 1: 12:17

Ooh, my, uh. You know my goal has been to, to expand into, expand into multiple states. I started with Virginia. I got my Maryland license a few years in and then I just got West Virginia a few years ago. My latest goal was to get my broker's license. I'm not looking to leave Sampson or go anywhere else or start my own brokerage, but I would like to potentially manage an office you know, one of the branch offices. So I actually just passed the broker's exam in Virginia two weeks ago.

Speaker 2: 12:51

Well, that's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I don't have it listed anywhere yet.

Speaker 2: 12:56

Oh, we get the first inside scoop. Then yeah, there you go. Cool, how about that? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 13:00

So that was my goal for this year was to do that, and then I'd like to get my broker's license for Maryland and West Virginia as well. They have reciprocity but there's more stipulation, so it might take me a year or two. I need to look into it more. But I also enjoy mentoring other realtors. I had a mentor when I started, who's a great guy still work with. I had a mentor when I started who was a great guy still work with, and I want to do that for other agencies as they come along, as the opportunities presents itself. Samson has a mentoring program. It's actually required. If somebody starts with Samson who's never done real estate before at all, they have to go through the mentor program or they can opt for it if they're an experienced agent but just want to learn how it works at Samson.

Speaker 2: 13:45

Yeah, that's awesome Just passing the torch, like now that you know everything, like you pass it along to other people so they can also be great in their career, so that's great.

Speaker 1: 13:55

I hope so.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Yeah, and now, what role does mentorship play in your business, both for newer agents and and for your own growth?

Speaker 1: 14:04

I um well, as I said. As I said, I've recently joined the mentor program, so I haven't started yet. I haven't had anybody come through for me.

Speaker 1: 14:13

I only recently started and joined, so I expect that to come through. I've encouraged a lot of people to become agents to get their license. You know, when I talk to somebody who's really sharp, who has an interest, you know the biggest thing that keeps most people from becoming a realtor is the exam itself, is the training and the exam. I think it's a 90-hour course to get your real estate license. I know it's a 180-hour course to get your broker's license because I just finished it.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Can you share a moment when stepping outside of your comfort zone led to a big breakthrough in your business?

Speaker 1: 14:47

Thinking about repairing homes. The first time I did that was a home. It was another townhouse, it was in Sterling Park and it was a good friend of mine's father's home and he had lived there for a long time. Gosh, he'd been in the house at least 30 years. Nothing had ever been done and he had a habit. I don't know if it was a habit, maybe it was a vocation he liked to recycle metal in his house. Think of you know, I don't know quarter house meets meth lab. You know that's what it looked like. It was rough. So, yes, so he obviously wanted to sell it. He didn't want to sell it as is. So he said, well, he said can you help me? Can we get this fixed up? And of course I said I said yeah, let's do it. You know thinking I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I think I can.

Speaker 2: 15:37

Yeah, oh my gosh, what am I doing?

Speaker 1: 15:39

Yeah, and we spent gosh. We spent about a good. We redid every visible surface of that house on the inside and most of the outside too. We painted it, painted the ceilings, redid all the flooring, changed out the electrical outlets, changed out the light switches, changed out the vents, most light fixtures, pretty much anything that you could see or touch. We changed on the house and by the time we were done it looked like a model home. It looked good and it came out and I was a little shocked.

Speaker 1: 16:22

I did some of the work myself, but most of the work, obviously, I contracted and that was the start of it and I realized, wow, that's pretty neat that we could do that, that we could sell it. So when we sold the house, it sold for you know, the appropriate price. It sold for a good price. We weren't discounting it for anything, we weren't apologizing for anything. It's like you know, here's this house, but you know it's got this, it's got this issue. There was no apologies for it and uh, and it sold. I think it sold within the first week it was listed.

Speaker 2: 16:50

Nice Couldn't all that work, and it paid off, huh.

Speaker 1: 16:53

It did.

Speaker 2: 16:54

I kind of wish, like you did, a before and after video. I don't know if that was like available at the time where you could be like, look at this and I'll look at it now.

Speaker 1: 17:00

We should have, and I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but, yes, I wish I had it would have been. Yeah, it would have been stark. Yeah, yeah, it would have been one like that's not the same house.

Speaker 2: 17:12

Maybe next time, you know Exactly, next time there's like a crazy house and then it's like so beautiful, I think that would be great Is there anything?

Speaker 1: 17:24

I have not touched on that. Perhaps you would like to get out there. I think that's it. There's another thing that I've been able to do. So, yes, there is something that I can do for clients that if they're not moving today and they're not ready to move right now, that I can help clients with. It's something I use when I list a house here in Loudoun. Most people are on Dominion Energy for their electric and there's a program Dominion has that they'll pay to have your light bulbs changed to LED If you haven't done that already. If you have incandescent bulbs or CFL bulbs, they'll pay to change out your bulbs to brand new LEDs at no cost to you. So I obviously do that with any house I list, but if somebody has a home that they need that done, I can do that. I can do that program now. So even if they want to stay you know, obviously they're not selling, but they can do that just for their, for their own sake.

Speaker 2: 18:12

That's awesome. That's good to know. I didn't even know that. I used to have Dominion, I think. What do I have now? I have Novec, novec, yes, yeah, do they do that? Probably not.

Speaker 1: 18:19

I wish Novec doesn't have a program like that, because Novec doesn't own the infrastructure, the cables, so it doesn't really behoove them to do it.

Speaker 2: 18:29

Wow Okay.

Speaker 1: 18:29

They're using Dominion's infrastructure. But I mean, I could always change somebody's bulbs but I'd have to charge for the bulbs.

Speaker 2: 18:37

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 18:38

But the free program is only for if you have Dominion and it's for single family homes or townhomes either one. I could do that.

Speaker 2: 18:47

Awesome, good to know. Thank you for sharing that insight. Hopefully, a lot of that will hit somebody's ears and be like, wow, let me call Dominion right now. I did not know that. Hopefully, a lot of that will hit somebody's ears and be like, wow, let me call Dominion right now. I did not know this. How dare they not tell me?

Speaker 1: 18:57

Well they could reach out to me. It's done. Dominion subcontracts the work through Honeywell and Honeywell uses contractors and I have a contractor that I use specifically, so I can, I could do that for anybody who'd be interested.

Speaker 2: 19:11

Okay, beautiful. So just reach out to Bob. Where's the best place to do that?

Speaker 1: 19:15

Sure, you could send me an email. My email is bobwaddell at verizonnet, or you could call me. My number is 703-431-0696. And I could schedule that.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate you taking time to be here and telling us a little bit about your journey, your values, your team and just everything about your career. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 19:41

Thank you, I sure appreciate it.