Real Estate Explained
Real Estate Explained is your backstage pass to the world of real estate. Hosted by Nick Bush, a Realtor with over a decade of experience helping hundreds of clients, this show is designed to equip you with the insider knowledge you need to navigate the market with confidence. Whether you're buying, selling, investing, or just curious about the ever-evolving world of real estate, we've got you covered.
Each episode dives into trending topics and offers expert commentary to help you navigate your real estate journey with confidence. We bring in top industry experts who share their expertise so you’re prepared for every step of the journey.
We dive deep into the details that matter, giving you the insights and tools to take real action. Whether you're looking to make your next move or simply want to stay informed, Real Estate Explained is here to help you master the market, one episode at a time. Tune in, take control, and let’s turn your real estate goals into reality!
Host: Nick Bush
Email: Nick@thecobicompany.com
Phone: (202) 255-9560
Instagram: @NickBushTheRealtor
Website: TheCobiCompany.com
Real Estate Explained
Early Equity: How Buying Young Beats Renting Every Time with Saja Elhaj
In this episode of Real Estate Explained, Nick Bush sits down with 22-year-old DMV real estate agent Saja Elhadj, who’s already making serious moves in the investment world. From helping cash-heavy clients secure buy-and-holds to navigating off-market deals through Facebook groups, Saja shares how she built her niche early—and how you can, too.
We talk about why your first home should be an investment, what most young buyers get wrong, and why house hacking might be the smartest play for Gen Z. Plus, they unpack real numbers, real returns, and real talk about Culpeper, Fredericksburg, and other hidden gem markets with major upside.
Whether you're 22 or 42, if you're thinking about buying your first (or next) property, this conversation is packed with strategy, mindset shifts, and tips you won’t find on Zillow.
🎧 Hit play and drop your questions in the comments — let’s get you in the game.
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Welcome to Real Estate Explained, the podcast that gives you a backstage pass to the ever-evolving world of real estate. I'm your host, nick Bush, a realtor with over a decade of experience helping clients buy, sell and invest with confidence. Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, a seasoned investor or just curious about the market, this show is for you. Each week, we'll dive into trending topics, break down the latest real estate news and bring you expert interviews with the pros, so you're prepared for every step of the journey.
Speaker 1:Ready to turn your real estate goals into reality. Keep watching, are we live? All right? Sasha's just trying to get me to use the Lebanese accent. I wish I had an accent so I could just like float into it the way you did. Right, like I'm just like Nick Bush all the time. You're like Sasha and you put the accent sauce on it and it changes the vibe. Go ahead, do it, al Hajj. Thank you. You know it's funny. When I grew up, my babysitter was Kurdish, okay, and she had eight kids, and so I grew up like a little bit Kurdish for the first nine years of my life, you know, but I didn't pick up the accent.
Speaker 2:For nine years. They didn't pick up nothing.
Speaker 1:They didn't pick up nothing. They didn't pick up anything, no words or anything. They didn't teach me the language. I think they're speaking Farsi. I couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, farsi is super easy.
Speaker 1:Farsi is like hard. I could say like a couple words in Farsi, I think jenim is a word that's like sun.
Speaker 2:Wait janim or jan.
Speaker 1:Jenim, it's Turkish, I'm sorry, bachem is the word I'm thinking of Bachem is sun, bachem is the word. I'm thinking of yeah, see, so I know that word, but I know more Arabic words than Farsi words. So you speak Farsi, I speak Arabic, you speak Arabic, but you can speak Farsi a little bit, yeah.
Speaker 2:Or you just know.
Speaker 1:I know some words. I'm not going to use any accents in this pod, so thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. I'm in here with Saja. Introduce yourself to the people, tell them who you are.
Speaker 2:I'm Saja Elhadj. I've been in real estate for a few years now and I specialize in investment properties.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's your niche investment properties.
Speaker 2:Yes, somehow I got into it. And what does?
Speaker 1:that mean Like investment properties. That's a broad term. What is the micro niche inside of investment properties?
Speaker 2:So for me, I help my clients find properties that they can rent out to make passive income in.
Speaker 1:Okay, so buying holds.
Speaker 2:Basically yeah.
Speaker 1:And so in that world?
Speaker 2:are you working with people that are more cash heavy because that's what they need to make the deal work, or what is the what is like the average house look like? How do they determine those numbers? So my clients normally they just have like cash sitting in the bank like liquid cash and they look at me like such, like I don't know what to do with this money, like okay, perfect, because they're all been open to buying investment properties and becoming landlords.
Speaker 2:So the thing they look at most is just having a good return. They like to at least have six percent okay, six percent, that's.
Speaker 1:It's always great when there's like a number. It's like I want x percent of my, my money, and then you could just find the find the deal yeah are you, uh, are you finding those deals on market off market? Are you just like low-balling stuff, that's on the mls like how are you making it work?
Speaker 2:I don't want to admit. But yeah, I mean I do. There are a lot of things I have low balling yeah um, we've been successful with some, but also, I mean, if my friend has something coming soon, things like that you know, but a lot of things have been off the MLS, you know.
Speaker 1:That's good. It's good to know that people can find stuff on the MLS, because I feel like with investors I feel like they're almost coached to just tell you like I'd rather find something off market. You know, if that's on the market I don't want to buy it. I'd rather find something off market. You know, if that's on the market I don't want to buy it, and more so like flippers versus buy and hold investors. But it's good to know that, like you know, you can find something on MLS. You don't have to call around and then, still make the deal work for your clients.
Speaker 2:That's always our goal, though. If we find like something off market, it works out great, but we just look at all of our options.
Speaker 1:Even Facebook always has things You're just like in the group chats.
Speaker 2:In the group chats I'm in all the group chats, all of them. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so that's a very interesting niche to land on. You're 22, right, yeah, so you're just out here and to land and be like yo. I have a lot of clients, I just have a lot of cash in the bank end up in that zone.
Speaker 2:Honestly, because my goal when I first started I did want to work with families to find their dream home and things like that, but somehow clients kept on finding me to find investment properties. My first client that found investment property I landed them in an open house and then they have been with me for years. They bought maybe four or five and they met me when I first started. I think I was like 18 or 19 when they met me.
Speaker 1:So okay. So at 18 and 19, like, how did you end up in real estate?
Speaker 2:I mean, somehow I was working at Starbucks and then I was like you know, I really don't want to do this anymore. I was a shift supervisor, Okay.
Speaker 1:You were leveling up in the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then I ended up quitting and I was like you know, I want to do something bigger, I want to be my own boss, I want to be able to control my income and set my own schedule, which we all know. It's not like that all the time, but you know real estate, that's good and so okay.
Speaker 1:So you're rolling around with these investment clients and and do you feel like at this at this point? Um, well, let's stay. Let's stay on the investments for a little while. So you were, you were getting your first clients at, like open houses, and then they just happened to be investors and you kept working that. And do you feel like birds of a feather flock together and they kind of introduced you to other investor clients.
Speaker 2:So a lot of my people. It's like my family as well.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Like my dad, is one of my clients.
Speaker 1:I have cousins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even from Instagram, people will be like you know, I want to buy investment property because they see me posting about it or saying, like my client's making this much. So, as you said, it kind of is like word of mouth and people just seeing you do it. Yeah as you said, it kind of like word of mouth and people just seeing you do it. Yeah, because when I first started, no one like no one wanted to work with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was this little girl and I looked very, very young like. If you saw me when I first started, compared to now, you'd be like, oh my god, like who even worked with this girl yeah but somehow they did well you made it and then so where are the?
Speaker 1:uh, where's some like hot zones to find like a good buy and hold in dmv now?
Speaker 2:I mean, as of right now, no one really knows about this. It's kind of like a hidden gem, Culpepper.
Speaker 1:Culpepper. We were just talking about this, so tell us about Culpepper.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I never really worked in Culpepper and when I went out there I looked at my client. I'm like are you sure you want to do this? He was like no, I was at Zillow late at night and I found this and I want to go see it. Like I think this is a one. So we didn't even drive out there we put a lowball offer and we put a contingency of a home inspection. We did all cash.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, the first time we saw it, we went under contract and we went to do the home inspection.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Culpeper. It's what I like. It is because it's a good return on investment. The tenants, I mean. I think it's a good pull over there. We got tenants in there in under a week. Okay, so there's demand yeah and no one expects that, because Culpeper is more further out, farther from the city, and people are scared to invest there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what's the price point in Culpeper? What's the entry point for an investor? I mean it can be as low as like the low 300s. Still it's pretty cheap over there. Yeah, and it's single family townhouse, townhouse, just a town townhouse. Is there development happening in cold pepper that you feel like it's going to make it grow?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's a lot of new construction and it's going to be developed so much more, just like fredericksburg. Fredericksburg was not like that yeah but look at you, at you Now. You live there.
Speaker 1:I live there. It's dope, yeah, I think that. So I was totally sleeping on Fredericksburg for a long time. My best friend I should call him my brother, we've known each other for 30 years and he was telling me, like 10 years ago, like, bro, you got to come out to Fredericksburg. But I was a city snob Like the sticks, and I got out there and I'm like this is amazing.
Speaker 1:And what I realized, though, is the upside of buying in Fredericksburg.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, okay, I'll get my, you know, four or 5,000 square foot house out here for 600, maybe $700,000 max, but the upside of that that's going to appreciate to a million, right, and then, over the next 10, 15 years versus getting something in McLean that is going to appreciate a little bit and hold value, but it's not mcclain that is gonna appreciate a little bit and hold value, but it's not there's not gonna be as much like growth, you know, um, and, and so I like fredericksburg, and I'm actually trying to convince people to like invest down there, because I want to have friends out there, and I'm like the market's gonna appreciate, and we're getting the water park like 20 miles south, and so, like everything like fredericksburg and like 30 minutes south is also developing. But this like Western Prince William, like country cold pepper situation, it's just like so random to me. I just like after, like Loudoun County happened, I didn't. I saw the push but I didn't think people would be, you know, so attracted to that area.
Speaker 2:Now people are moving out there Fredericksburg, I mean. A lot of people from Monastas are moving out to Gainesville.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Bristow.
Speaker 1:Gainesville is expensive now, yeah, so what I found is like Gainesville is expensive now and it's not like an entry poor market. Haymarket is kind of like the family, like suburban market.
Speaker 2:And then I've never been to cold pepper in my life. A cold pepper, I mean, I feel like it will get there, just like fredericksburg is getting there and probably is right now. But, for example, like we bought our house like years ago for around 400k, we have a single family house, I think it's like over 4 000 square feet and now it's probably worth above 800k at least I think javier has a story like that about like buying his house for like 500 and now it's close to a milli.
Speaker 1:We're just putting out javier's javier's math like that right. Like javier, you get money, um, okay, so you got the investment lane going. But you also, I'm sure, have a network of friends in in a sphere of people you grew up with, right, and are you working that network at all? Are you? Are they going to become home buyers?
Speaker 2:so you'd be surprised like right now, like I look at my instagram, most my people, like majority of my followers, are under 30, but a lot of them are like 24 okay between like 19 and 24, like that age frame. So I'm kind of growing with them and I trust that, like when those people are ready to buy, they're going to come to me, you know so you're engaging with them right now.
Speaker 1:Right to buy, and what? What are they not? Are they taking action or they sit on the sidelines like what do they think about the real estate market?
Speaker 2:I mean, they all ask me like how to get into it yeah you know, but they always say you know, when I'm ready to buy, I do want to use you, but at the same time, I do need to take that action. Or like make a class to be like this is how you do it, because a lot of people can buy, but they're just not aware of it.
Speaker 1:Or like think they can be pre-approved I think that's the biggest thing to, because if I look back, if I go back, you know 10, 12 years and I'm 22 again.
Speaker 1:Um, and I know what I know now I would I would have like 15 properties, but like 10 by the time I'm 30.
Speaker 1:And I actually talk to Bronson about this all the time because he should totally be executing on this. But you can buy a property every year and only put 3% or 5% down, depending on what the DTI will be, and as long as you're moving laterally or moving up, you can do that and house hack the entire way and build like a real estate portfolio, you know. So basically, it's like and the easy way to think about it is, if you bought a one bedroom condo, right, and you live there for a year and a day, you could buy another one bedroom condo anywhere else and like just put 3% down again, or you could step up to a townhouse, or you could step up to a single family. It's hard, like, once you have a single family, to like convince the underwriter like I'm buying a condo to live in it. But you can do that up to 10 times before you have to like get special financing and so.
Speaker 1:I feel like if I was 22 years old, that's what I would be trying to do do because, like, the alternative is like live at home with your parents or like rent, rent, like with your peoples, like your friends, and like house hack, but it's like you can just become the investor you know I agree, I'm gonna throw some shade right now because a lot of my followers are doing this.
Speaker 2:So instead, like they're investing in, like cars or whatever, yeah, you know, like they're not even they don own it, like they're paying it month by month, whatever. And I'm looking at them and I'm like you could easily use that money to buy a property. You know you're getting at that age where, like you should buy a house. You should look at that because that is a long-term investment. You're going to build equity.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and I feel like we were talking about that earlier, I think- it was like, I think it was like, I think, maybe a few days ago.
Speaker 1:Like somebody bought a car instead of buying it. Or they bought a car, yeah, and they're like, well, if I bought a property, I would have to get rid of my car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm like do you rather care?
Speaker 1:like what people think, or would you rather be like sitting on money? Well, also, let me ask you like is this person a man?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay. So let me ask you is it, would it be doper for someone to say I own my condo in my house or I have like a Benz, what's like?
Speaker 2:the coolest thing, right, like the condo. I'm like okay, like cool, like you own a room.
Speaker 1:You own a door, you have a roof.
Speaker 2:that you like sleep under? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what do you think happens? I mean, what's that conversation like? And and also, that person can still have that car, but they can house hack. So I think that people don't realize it's like well, if you bought I call it like frat housing the crib, right, you hit group home, right. If you buy a three-bed, two-and-a-half-bath townhouse and you just say you know, I'm going to take the basement space for myself or the primary bedroom and you rent all the other rooms out, right, You'll have a bunch of people living in your house, but they would effectively be paying most of the mortgage, and so then you can still have room to.
Speaker 2:You know, buy everything you want yeah, some people have that mindset, like the first house they buy has to be like this really nice house yeah and I'm like no, the first house you buy. It has to be an investment property so explain that a little bit.
Speaker 1:So what do you think? The path like a solid path for somebody okay.
Speaker 2:So like you've gotten to the point where you're making amount money that you can be pre-approved, right, your first house you should look at as an investment, not like, oh, I'm gonna live here forever, this, and that it should be something where it's in a area that you know is gonna grow yeah right, and it's in an area that you know there's demand, or at least you see potential, because things are going around, whatever.
Speaker 2:Whatever. It might not be the prettiest, right, you can do some cosmetic work to it and it might be small, right, but you're only going to live there for a few years and then you're going to make more money advancing your job and you're going to buy something bigger and nicer. But this is how you start you move out, you rent that out and you keep on doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so basically, you feel like your first property should be kind of the stepping stool to the next one. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize that. I'm like you know. I think a lot of people don't realize that, as, like the first one, it's not even realistic in most cases for your first house to be the final house, especially when you're 23, 24, because you may not even have a spouse yet or kids yet, and so you might not even be settled in your career. So it doesn't even make sense to be thinking like this house I'm going to buy, I'm going to live in it for like 10, 15 years, because your life is going to shift so much.
Speaker 1:Um, I have clients right now that the one we just ratified this is their seventh house and I've been working with this uh, these guys since 2018, the husband I knew. First he bought two properties. Then him and his now wife bought a townhouse. They sold all three of those and now they're buying like their. They have a daughter. Now they're buying like their 10-year house, like starting their family house, and it's like, but he's made so much money along the way that, like if he was just like, you know what? I'm gonna wait. I have clients that are like I've had someone tell me like I'm just going to wait until I'm married to like, buy my house and I'm just like she's going to rent and pay $3,000 a month in talent. It doesn't make sense. Yeah, I'm on board with that. We got to get the message out. Right now we're getting the message out to the people.
Speaker 2:By throw and chain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I thought that's how you got to do it. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Let me see. What do you think. So, other than mindset, what do you think the biggest hurdle is for people? Do you think it's like financing credit, or do you think it's all like analysis paralysis?
Speaker 2:Well, I think with a lot of people it's just their thoughts. They overthink so much and they're perfectionist. They don't want to rip the bandaid until it's perfect. Until they have this settled. Until they have this settled, like, oh, like I need to do this first, I need to buy this, and then they just never do it.
Speaker 2:It's an excuse game, right, and I'm not even saying like telling people buy a house because I'm a realtor, I don't care, you know, I'm the type of person I want to help you build that financial freedom, you know. So that's my whole thing. But I feel like it's just an excuse game mainly yeah, so a lot of your business?
Speaker 1:there's a lot of business. Your business come from social media. Like, do you get a lot of business that way? I do, and do you feel like it's because you positioned yourself a certain way on social media?
Speaker 2:I think. So I always think like before I post. I'm like what is this saying to my audience?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I feel like you probably do the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I look at it like how can I be a resource to my network and let them know I have information? So do you think that's important for your realtor to be on social media? Like, what do you think is important? Like, how would you choose a realtor?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love this question. I sometimes think about it. I'm like if I wasn't a realtor, how would I choose my realtor? I would choose someone that I know would be fun to be around, because when you're looking at houses or working with someone, you want someone that you can actually speak to, not someone who's a robot. I want someone who's looking like they're actually doing business. I want someone who has a personality. I want someone who's not just real estate. They have other things going for them. They like going to the gym, they like like animals, they like traveling.
Speaker 1:I want, for me, like if I want to do business with someone, I have to like you yeah, you know you want somebody that you can like, vibe with and hang out with exactly while you see homes what does it mean to look like they do business?
Speaker 2:it. Just it depends, like. I mean, we all know like this looks in different ways, right, but even if I see someone like hustling and putting themselves out there, yeah putting value out there.
Speaker 1:For me, that shows that they're working yeah, you want someone who's like active hustling. You can tell like they're doing deals yeah yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's um, those are all good things and I think it's tough because you know, we were all at the point one time where you just you didn't have a deal right or you did like two deals and you know nothing, but. But I think that the like hustle to be like like to show people, like no, I'm out here, like when people want to get into real estate and they're like, how do I get started? I'm like you have to do video and you have to be talking about real estate, because right now, your whole network knows you as like a certain thing. So you have to make them believe that you're a real estate agent and that they should trust you to make this purchase. And the easiest way to do that is by like doing video and talking about this and after like three to six months, they're going to. They're going to you're going to change your image, basically, and they'll start reaching out to you about doing deals.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, like no one, like my own family, like the day, like like I started, everyone was either buying houses or whatever. Like the first year I started, some of them bought without me yeah you know and sold. They would buy and sell without me.
Speaker 1:This isn't my own family, yeah I can tell this comes up at events. You're like, yeah, you remember when you bought the house yeah, it's like my own family.
Speaker 2:But then when they saw my first client, I actually my first deal was a listing- okay I got it from the gym. It was a fizzbow for sale by owner. Once they saw me do that, like oh, she's actually doing it and I would that one sale. I think I made like 20 post of it okay, and then it's like milking it like 20 milking it. Even my listing sign.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, this is such a like nice listing sign yeah and then my everyone was watching like, oh wait, she's actually doing it. So I definitely agree. But like, what about you? What would you look for?
Speaker 1:that's a really good question, you know. I think for me it would be more of like the technical aspect, right, like I don't. It'd be cool to not be like to hang out with somebody. That's cool, um, and I'm a salesperson that can be sold right. But I think that I just need someone who's like, responsive and can answer my questions, and I trust that they have the information.
Speaker 1:So, even when I'm doing my buyer's presentation, I tell people I'm like, look like we're doing this, because you need to understand all of the moving parts in the process and you need to know what to expect when we're out in the market. But also you need to know that I know what I'm doing as well. Um, because there's going to be certain points, uh, along the process where I'm telling you to do something, or I'm advising you on doing something, or we're constructing an offer and I'm, you know, moving around the contingencies and the dates, and you need to understand the way I think about that. Um, because, like, you have to trust me as your expert, right, kind of like you got to know your lawyer knows the law. You can't just cause they're like we're going to go to court today, sit down, be quiet. That's like what you're supposed to do in court.
Speaker 1:Right, and they like get you out of trouble or whatever, and it's like you need to trust that they can do that. So I think it would be, um, I think I would. I would definitely want somebody with a social media presence that's showed me that they like know what to do, um, and that they're passionate about it, right like I know that they care about their business and can just like answer my questions. I'm all about, like, I ask you a question, like can you find me the answer?
Speaker 2:it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:I'm big on asking questions, so what do you think is um so like, so like? For you, it was like I want to hang out with someone okay, okay, no, it's not, no, no no, like somebody like cool, but like from like a technical aspect. Like what do you think is important? Like the knowledge network, like ability to find off-market deals, like what are the?
Speaker 2:what is like that tangible thing, like from a technical standpoint for me, responsiveness is like number one, okay, even like my loan officer, like the reason why, like I always go back is because of how responsive okay same thing with any like. I mean, my girls know, like your nail lady, like your laser lady, like whatever it is.
Speaker 1:If they're not responsive you, you're gonna find the next so that's like saja sends a message and she wants to get it back right away. Right, you are actually pretty good in the dms, like you like respond right away, like yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Um, I think that's important too, because it's like why are you not communicating you?
Speaker 1:I know you have your phone business yeah it's like I know you have your phone in your hand. Yeah, I'm calling you to like give you money right, or like you're calling me to like. Why would I not answer my phone, you know?
Speaker 2:and you'd be surprised, like there's, like some realtors that have their phone on dnd, for example yeah and I'm like, yeah, I'm like what?
Speaker 1:I just like how do you like, how does that?
Speaker 2:even dnd never answer your phone like like screening calls yeah and even some of the old school like realtors, like they don't pick up their damn phone, and I'm like, for what do you have it?
Speaker 1:you know, there's an agent that, like, doesn't like to talk on the phone and they text only.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm like how can I? I was like I don't even want to make an offer on this property because this would be horrible to communicate throughout. I think that's important. You got to communicate and I think it's tough because our business is kind of like 24 seven and I but I'm always like if I'm sitting on, you know, you have some agents that have like more experience in the business or have big teams and they're like nobody calls me after like 8.30, 9 o'clock pm, whatever, and I'm just like I feel that. But also if I'm just like sitting on my couch or like not doing something, it's 9 pm. I don't mind picking up the phone. So when would you fire a realtor? What's like a? What's like what are red flags? Realtor red flags?
Speaker 2:I mean we're going to go back to the first one, like, let's say, like I, I'm trying to talk to them, right, and then they don't answer me for like hours at end.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's so. Like for me, for example, like, even if I'm across the world, I'm going to communicate with you. I'm not going get back to you at this time as if it's not urgent Right, or I'm going to tell my colleague to take care of it. It's all about communicating and everything, so I would fire them at that point. Or like, for example I mean the agents just like came and opened the lockbox.
Speaker 1:Now you can't. You got to respect the lockbox, bro, because I know you've been at lockboxes and you're like what's happening here but if it happens like several times in a row all day. The agent can't open lockboxes. Yo, sometimes, agents, we need to set ourselves up. We need to set each other up for success. I know because I've definitely been at lockboxes and combo boxes and I'm like, oh, I look so stupid right here.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, like under the rain, oh the rain, yeah, that's happened to me. I told my cousin like go back in the car, I'm going to take care of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to figure it out, I've had like keys that wouldn't turn right and I'm just like yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I've thrown my shoulder out a door before have you.
Speaker 1:You're like 100 pounds, right. I did it, though, and it worked Okay. Yeah, it was like owner occupied.
Speaker 2:It was owner occupied and I was trying so hard to get in the door.
Speaker 1:And thankfully I got there early, so you basically did a break and an enter right.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I went up and the owner was just laying on the couch and her dog.
Speaker 1:That's awkward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but she didn't care, that's good. She was like oh, what are you doing here? I was like oh, like, what are you doing here? I was like oh, my gosh, like I'm here for a show, you're breaking in. And I was like did your agent not tell you? And she's like no, I wasn't aware. And I was like, oh, my clients are here. Are we still able to see?
Speaker 1:you.
Speaker 2:And like this was, like this was an investment property, Like the roof was like coming down, yeah was having the best time ever yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I know you wanted to talk about gainesville also yeah tell me about gainesville okay.
Speaker 2:So all my friends who like live in the city and think they're so cool like they live in like tyson's or like mclean or vienna they always like crap on gainesville. They're like gainesville's not even nice, it's so far from everything. Like who even lives out there. Like, are you tripping over hay on your way to Tyson's?
Speaker 1:I would be one of your friends, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm honestly, which I think everyone knows, we literally have a lifetime in Gainesville. We have the newest lifetime.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So that's how everyone now knows Gainesville, but not only that. We're 30 minutes from Tyson's, we're 30 minutes from Dola's and we're 30 minutes from Dola's and we're still cheaper than like McLean, alexandria, vienna, and we have great school ratings and it's a very clean area and it's still like on the newer side. So I think it's a great area to live. I've been living there for years on end, and so has so many other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bronson's out there. I think I've been to Gainesville three times in my life. You should go more, but now there's a Lifetime there. So it might be that she said put us on the map the Lifetime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the nicest gym in all of Virginia.
Speaker 1:Lifetime is legit.
Speaker 2:I mean, equinox is also you know, okay, we're talking about Lifetime, the nicest Lifetime.
Speaker 1:Lifetime is cool. The Fairfax Lifetime was legit, I think. In the Herndon lifetime they're taking out some of the basketball courts and putting in a pickleball situation. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They did. I thought we have, like, the basketball courts still. Well, we got one. They used to have two basketball courts, so they got rid of one basketball. Now it's three basketball, which was smart With. Sterling, they got rid of all basketball. I'm down for that.
Speaker 1:New demographic in there. You know, I think it's interesting because you're 22. I'm 34. And Bronson's a country bumpkin anyway, so he's kind of excluded from this. But when I was 22, 23, 24, it was like DC Arlington, like that was the vibe right, like kind of being in the city. It's still the vibe Close to the city. But I feel like almost like what you're explaining is people are like settling into like tyson's and mosaic and even you're comfortable in gainesville and like people don't mind, like younger people don't mind being like further away from the city, like what like? Why like? Why do you think that's the case? Do you feel like covid had had like played a part in that?
Speaker 2:I was even giving turn on covid. I feel like that was like that set us back so much what do you? Mean like people were so social before covid and now I feel like people don't know how to speak to each other okay like even me, like I feel like I speak to my phone more than like other people yeah so, but for that I feel like I mean one of my friends like she's moving to fairfax and she's sad about it.
Speaker 2:She she's like I don't want to leave Gainesville. I love Gainesville and it's because it's the peace and quiet before the city. It's so easy to drive there, there's no loud noises, there's not a lot going on and I can go into the city whenever I want. It's 30 minutes out. I have the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1:The best of both Both worlds living out in Gainesville.
Speaker 2:That's how I feel about Fredericksburg right now, okay, no, no, no, no, no, it's not the same.
Speaker 1:I'm going to take y'all on a tour, because Fredericksburg, I'm an hour to the sea, I'm an hour to the mountains.
Speaker 2:An hour.
Speaker 1:An hour to the beach.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I'm chilling, you know. So it's like more centralized actually, even though it's kind of like Central Virginia. Oh, this is what I think. Okay, so let's do some real estate myth busters. This is what the segment calls.
Speaker 2:Chat, gpt named it. All right, good to go.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's do a real estate myth buster a few of them. You must put 20% down on an investment property.
Speaker 2:No, no, oh, investment yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's actually change the question, because it is correct.
Speaker 2:You must put 20% down to buy a home.
Speaker 1:No, okay, tell the people how much you actually have to put down. Like 3% 3% right and on some programs you only have to put 1% If you're doing like VHDA DC Open.
Speaker 2:Doors, or VA loan, or VA put zero down.
Speaker 1:Okay, starter homes are dead money if you move in three years.
Speaker 2:What do you mean by that? What do you mean by dead money? Chad.
Speaker 1:GPT made this question.
Speaker 2:I didn't edit it.
Speaker 1:Oh, Chad GPT is stuck in right now. They're not dope. I can redo these questions. We're going to Grace, we're going to re-edit, we're going to edit these. Okay, so go with the 20% down one, okay, and just like a lab, just be like no, you can put down blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
Speaker 2:Okay, answer it like that Give me an easy one. Give me an easy one.
Speaker 1:You got the juice, so all right, so real estate myth busters, these are true or false, and then elaborate Okay, when buying a home, you have to put 20% down.
Speaker 2:It depends what type of home.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Regular home or investment.
Speaker 1:Say it's like a primary residence.
Speaker 2:Primary no.
Speaker 1:How much do you have to put down?
Speaker 2:It can be 3%, it can even be as low as 1% or 0% for like a VA loan.
Speaker 1:And then when do you absolutely have to bring 20%?
Speaker 2:If it's an investment loan. And that's because it's an investment property, so it's like, not on our occupied. Exactly so you're smooth.
Speaker 1:I think what this next question is asking is like if you're buying a starter home. So I guess what they figured out is, like most people are. You know, obviously the average first time homebuyer is moving every seven to 10 years right, but if you buy a home and you live in it for only three years, was it a good purchase and how can you determine if it will be a good purchase or not before you buy it?
Speaker 2:If that's your plan, like three years, Okay, you buy it if that's your plan, like three years, okay. So let's say, a buyer came to me. He's like I want to live in this house for three years. I mean that's still. I mean a lot of people live in, as you said, like five to eight years. I mean I still think it's a good purchase if you can leave it and like make profit off of it or rent it out and get a good return on profit.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's a bad deal okay um, is your interest rate the most important thing you should consider when you're buying a house? Absolutely not. What is the most important thing?
Speaker 2:The most important thing is the actual investment that you're making. Is it in an up and coming area? How does the interior of it look? What is the actual price of the house? If you have a high interest rate, there's probably not a lot of competition, right? But if it's a low interest rate, there's probably not a lot of competition, right? But if it's a low interest rate, there's gonna be a lot of bidding wars and you're probably putting 30 to 50k above asking price in some situations yeah, what do you think, um?
Speaker 1:is that what you think is gonna happen? Like, if and when the rates go down to five percent, it's gonna get crazy again. Yeah, yeah, um, like it was, it'll be like the covet market all over again. You, you were in high school during the COVID market, huh 2021?. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was a realtor at that time.
Speaker 1:You were a realtor at that time. Let me put some respect on your age.
Speaker 2:My bad that was my best year. I feel like that was like such a great year for all realtors.
Speaker 1:That's great. Yeah, I've crushed it that year. I think everyone did. People were like it was so easy to be a realtor that year. And I'm like it was so hard to be a realtor that year because I had to go from competing against like maybe two or three people to 20 people, going 150K over. Now it was easier to write an offer that was ridiculous and maybe come out on top. But like having to compete against people constantly and keep those clients in the pipeline who would have been closed was a little more difficult. It was a little more exhausting. I think it was more tiring to be a real estate, but it was lucrative.
Speaker 2:For the clients too. I mean, I had clients in that year that would be with another realtor right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, after missing out on deals, they'll be done with that realtor.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then find me, and probably the same thing happened to me then find me and probably the same thing happened to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually it did happen to me, but you were more fun to hang out with. That's funny, um dang. I was gonna ask you, oh, um, so what's your? What's your like real estate plan personally? Are you gonna like buy, buy and holds, like what's your? How are you operating in this space?
Speaker 2:my goal probably, you know, by even next year I want to flip a property. I know that's like aiming big, but that's something I really want to do. Like that would be so cool for me to buy a property, find it off market, wherever it is you know, and then flip it and make you know at least like 30, 50k profit and watch the progress of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I wanted to buy investment property at first. But I kind of already went through that process already and I feel like now it's like I want to flip. I think that would be super cool.
Speaker 1:Okay, as we wrap up, what is one piece of actionable advice you can offer home buyers and home sellers?
Speaker 2:Actional advice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, stop overthinking it and actually talk to a loan officer to see how much you can be pre-approved for. The interest rate is not the most important thing. It's the value you're getting from the house. It's the actual price point it's at, because it's not going to be like that when interest rates go lower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. And what about for home sellers?
Speaker 2:Home sellers, don't be cheap. Paint the walls, fix the little things. It's going to make you a lot more money in the long run. Even professional cleaning is going to go a long way.
Speaker 1:I just actually said this on the last podcast is like during COVID sellers could just throw their house on the market but you need to invest in your property before you list it so you can become the cream of the crop property and get those competitive offers that don't have contingencies and sell for the highest price point. I tell sellers now they're like what's the market like? I'm like it's great when you're the cream of the crop. I'm like all the homes that are beautiful and priced well, they're selling over list price with multiple offers. And the homes that people come into, walk into and they have to do $40,000, $50,000 worth of work for it to be livable they're not really selling that quickly. So you definitely have to invest.
Speaker 2:And those are usually the overpriced properties, the ones that need so much work, and that's like the audacity.
Speaker 1:You know that's. One thing I do notice about Fredericksburg and maybe I don't know how it is in Gainesville, Haymarket is people are not upgrading their their day, like we don't need to upgrade our house, like they're just like not done, yeah, yeah so you can get it. You can get a steal out there, um all right. Well, where can the people find you? How do they get in contact with you?
Speaker 2:instagram is the quickest way.
Speaker 1:Honestly, sajah s-a-j-a-a-e-l-h-a-j you gotta say it with accent sajah yeah all right. Thanks for joining me, sajah. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me all right. All right, we out.
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