Speaker 1 0:00

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 0:17

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 0:25

I wish I could say so . Actually , I started off in engineering , did

Meet Bob Waddell: Multi-State Realtor

Speaker 1 0:30

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 1:25

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 1:37

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

From Engineer to Real Estate Expert

Speaker 1 1:54

, 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 2:27

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 2:39

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 3:21

Yeah , I love that .

Speaker 1 3:22

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

Speaker 2 3:27

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

Speaker 1 3:35

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

Team Support at Samson Properties

Speaker 1 3:48

. 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 4:16

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 4:25

Yes , exactly .

Speaker 2 4:26

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 4:38

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 5:24

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 5:34

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 5:50

Congratulations

Honesty and Client Communication

Speaker 2 5:51

.

Speaker 1 5:51

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 6:15

Absolutely .

Speaker 1 6:16

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 6:26

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 6:37

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 7:02

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 7:11

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

Speaker 2 7:14

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

Speaker 1 7:19

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 8:29

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 8:41

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 8:56

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

Current Market Trends and Buying Advice

Speaker 1 9:15

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 9:42

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 10:10

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 10:30

It was actually 1988 . Yeah .

Speaker 2 10:32

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 11:03

So see that that's incredible and it's doing that , and I enjoy setting people at ease because

Transforming Homes for Sale Success

Speaker 1 11:07

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 11:36

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 11:46

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 12:20

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

Speaker 1 12:23

I don't have it listed anywhere yet .

Speaker 2 12:25

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

Speaker 1 12:29

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 13:14

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 13:24

I hope so .

Speaker 2 13:24

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

Speaker 1 13:33

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 13:42

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 .

Career Growth and Mentorship Goals

Speaker 2 14:11

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

Speaker 1 14:17

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 15:06

Yeah , oh my gosh , what am I doing ?

Speaker 1 15:08

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 15:51

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 16:19

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

Speaker 1 16:22

It did .

Speaker 2 16:23

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 16:30

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 16:41

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 16:53

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 17:42

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 17:48

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 17:58

Wow Okay .

Speaker 1 17:59

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 18:06

Yes , absolutely .

Speaker 1 18:07

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 18:16

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 18:26

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 18:41

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

Speaker 1 18:44

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

Special Program: Free LED Upgrades

Speaker 1 18:57

And I could schedule that .

Speaker 2 18:58

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 19:10

Thank you , I sure appreciate it .