“Nothing is impossible to they that try.” - Alexander the Great

It was going to be a long shot...

The year is 2021 and the real estate market is hotter than an empty blacktop parking lot in July. Mortgage rates are bargain-bin low and every house on the market is a potential gem – and I mean every house.

It was my first year as a full-time real estate agent and it was a thrilling time to be getting in the business. Like many new agents, I hit the ground running and began connecting with house hunters, showing homes and slinging contracts like there was no tomorrow, because, for most homes on the market then, there WAS no tomorrow. Under contract signs were popping up like daisies in May, and if you didn’t want to do highest and best on your first offer then you had to be prepared to bid on a lot of houses. If you were house hunting at that time, then you know exactly what I am saying. If you were watching from the sidelines, you probably still know. Real estate was a hot item in the news, around water coolers, social media threads and endless, endless…endless Reels and Tiktoks. What a time to be alive it was.

As a newbie agent, I was out there searching every nook and cranny for client leads. And there was a lot to be had. You couldn’t throw a rock into a crowded room and not hit someone in the dome that wasn’t potentially interested in buying a house. It really came down to if they were capable of buying a house. Because of rates being historically low, housing affordability was also as low as it had been in decades. That was great news for many people who might have be years away from being ready to buy their first or next home. On the other hand, it also flooded the market with every man, woman, and gender-neutral person that was not living under a rock.

Buyers, buyers everywhere. For everything, and anything.

So, that’s where we were in the world when I met a client that would frame my personal worldview about being a real estate agent. We’ll call her Miss Julie.

Miss Julie came down the lead pipeline like most do. She called in on a property online, and I was just the next agent in line to give her a call. I quickly found out that I was by no means the first agent she had spoken to. She was immediately stand-offish, explaining to me that she had talked to plenty of agents, and she was just interested in the property she called in about. During our initial conversation, I remember her saying that she was looking for a property that maybe needed ‘some work’, or was a foreclosure, or maybe just across the NC border where home values were cheaper. You don’t need to be an seasoned agent to know where this is heading. I asked if she had been pre-qualified for a loan. She had. (the exact amount escapes my memory, but it was for sure less than 200k). I asked if she had an agent sending her properties already. She did. But no contract or commitment to the other agent.

So, how can I help you, Miss Julie?

“Just send me anything that you think may work.”

“Ok, I can do that.” So, I did.

Weeks pass with the usual song and dance of a new potential client. Sending properties, touching base but nothing concrete was coming out of it. It was about the time that you start thinking of moving on and focusing on other leads, but I decided to give her a call again and see how things were going.

Not good, it turns out.

She tells me that she is just thinking about giving up and waiting it out. She tells me the same objection statements that were common at that time. The housing market is crazy. Prices are ridiculous. There are too many bidding wars. There aren’t any homes available. A Crash may be coming, I’ll just wait until then. I am thinking, well you should be able to find SOMETHING for under 200k. So, I start my due diligence over again. This time I ask her if she is willing to talk to one of my preferred lenders (shout out to Cam McKeeby with Cardinal Financial here) just to confirm that her buying power is correct. You never know? She says, unenthusiastically, “sure.”

So, Cam runs her through the system aaaaand…. Prequalifies her for $130,000. Uh-oh.

It was actually worse than I thought. Worse than Miss Julie thought. In this market, the pickings were going to be slim at best.

What could I tell her at this point? At the very least, I had to call her back and talk it over.

That’s the conversation that opened things up. She told me that she had lost her original home years ago, was recovering financially from that, and that the other agents she had been in contact with had basically put her on the back burner. I could see why. She would be a tough case to work on, and the reality is that the payoff would not be that big on a $130,000 loan. Plus any HOA or Condo fees would lower that amount even more, and those types of properties would be our best shots. She was in a tough spot, but there were some things that gave me hope.

She had enough, just enough, cash on hand to pay for her own closing costs. She didn’t need or want anything big. It was just her and she was fine with something small and low maintenance. She was also open to almost anywhere in Hampton Roads. And she was okay with fixer uppers.

As we are talking, I think to myself that Realtor cliche, “everybody deserves a home." Alright, let's do this.

We start seeing homes. A lot of them are places I would never put my own grandma in, but, bless her, she does consider all her options. After about the third fixer-upper, dumpster fire that we walk through (which she is admirably looking at and saying, “this isn’t too bad”), I tell her that we are absolutely not considering anymore of these ‘handyman specials’. At her price range they were total rehabs, water damaged and in unsafe conditions. I wasn’t going to let her talk herself into buying one and living in a nightmare house that would drain her of every last penny before it was even livable. She didn’t have the money or ability to do the work required. Fixer uppers were off the table.

Now the options were REALLY limited. We are chasing every foreclosure, short sale or tiny home that fit her criteria, and there aren’t many. We bid on one foreclosure and crossed our fingers. No dice.

Through this whole painful process, never once did she give up hope. She honestly was inspiring ME, as I started having my own doubts about this being possible.

Then it came. The email with the listing. I saw it and immediately knew it could be the one.

And it was. It was a one-bedroom townhome in Virginia Beach (her preferred city because of work). The neighborhood was good. The house was in good condition. No HOA. It was perfect.

And it was a price reduction. As happened occasionally back then, an ambitious owner got over their skis about how much their property was actually worth. In fact, when I called the listing agent and asked why they had priced it the way they did when it was first listed, she literally told me, “Delusion.” 😂 😂😂

I knew right then; we could win this house and we could win it NOW.

I called Miss Julie, we walked it, made the offer and in less than an hour the listing agent called me and said, “You got the house, I am looking forward to working with you.”

BOOM. My mind was blown.

Everything was smooth from there. The appraisal even came in a little high and we got the instant equity put towards Miss Julie’s closing costs to save her a few grand.

After closing I parted ways with Miss Julie. Everyone was happy-shocked. As I drove home, I was still in disbelief that we pulled it off.

It’s a cliché that every agent says, “Everyone deserves a home.”

But that was the day that I really began to believe it.

See you out there!

Ryan