EP #193 What Would Change If You Treated Home Buying Like A High-Stakes Case

Most people think real estate is a few showings and some paperwork, until the first surprise hits. We’re sitting down with Lisa Wright Holmes, primarily a seniors and probate realtor, specialize in the needs of 55+ and probate (loss of family member/wills/trusts etc) and an associate broker serving the Greater Fredericksburg area under Samson Properties, to talk about what really happens behind the scenes when you buy or sell a home and why the details matter so much.

Lisa’s story is a rare one: she spent 30 years in law enforcement, including investigative work, then stepped into real estate full time with a mission that goes beyond transactions. We talk about the skills that carry over from detective work, like clear communication, reading people, staying organized, and negotiating under pressure. Lisa also shares why she’s so passionate about mentoring new agents and teaching, from hands-on guidance through early deals to community education through monthly seminars and practical classes on tools like Canva and AI.

We also get concrete about the moments listeners care about most. If you’re selling, Lisa explains how to take your concerns seriously, why timing and sequence can make or break a move, and what risks people underestimate when they try to go it alone. If you’re a first-time homebuyer, she pushes you to explore your options instead of assuming you can’t afford it, and she calls out credit and spending mistakes that can derail a deal. She even breaks down the rent-versus-equity math that makes many renters stop and rethink their plan.

If you enjoy hearing local pros tell the truth and share real steps you can use, subscribe, share this with a friend in Fredericksburg, and leave us a quick review. Who should we feature next?

Lisa Wright

Lisa Wright Homes

lisawrighthomes.com

lisawrighthomes@gmail.com

+1 540-847-3319

YT: youtube.com/@lisawrighthomes

FB: facebook.com/lisawrighthomes

LI: linkedin.com/in/lisawrighthomes/

Book I authored on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Over-Hill-Loving-View-Homeowners/dp/B0F2WB7SYH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3OB2SZMI0YUND&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.L1I7ymXVOkGXKXPWoEmctw.MV8ejj7GSALT3rXcQx_qOBl9mNacNEOtlX7Z4RiRafQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=over+the+hill+and+loving+the+view+lisa+wright&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1782240766&s=books&sprefix=over+the+hill+and+loving+the+view+lisa+wright%2Cstripbooks%2C108&sr=1-1

Lisa Wright Homes of Samson Properties - Fredericksburg,  VA office

Transcript

Welcome To FXBG Neighbors

Speaker 1 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 0:13

Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We've got Lisa Wright joining me, and she is with Lisa Wright Homes. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 0:30

Thank you so much. This is exciting.

Speaker 0:32

I'm excited too. I'm excited to learn more about you and your business. So let's

A Realtor Who Teaches And Mentors

Speaker 0:38

start there. Share with us a little bit about Lisa Wright Homes.

Speaker 2 0:42

Okay, well, I am obviously I'm a realtor and an associate broker in the Greater Fredericksburg area. I am umbrellaed under my parent company, which is Samson Properties, seven states big, over 6,000 agents big. Fantastic place to work, but my business is, I want to say, more than just a realtor. I love what I do. I love selling homes, I love listing homes and helping buyers engage with their first or last home. But my business model is a little different. I mentor new agents, I coach agents, I do a lot of teaching, a lot of public speaking and seminars because way, way back many years ago, I was a teacher and I am a firm believer that education and knowledge is super powerful. So in addition to just handling transactions, I love to teach and share with the community and new agents and watch their light bulbs go off as they learn how to navigate the real estate world. So it's it's it's a bigger enterprise than just the average real estate.

Speaker 1:46

I love that. I love that. So much fun though, getting to help new realtors kind of get their footing. I love that. That's awesome. Congratulations on that. I want to learn more about you. How did you get into real estate? Tell me a little bit about your background.

From Law Enforcement To Real Estate

Speaker 2 2:04

This is an interesting path. So for 30 years, I was in law enforcement. That was my chosen career. Um, and I retired from that after 30 years, even went back part-time as an investigator, a detective for two to three years. But when that career was over, I was definitely not done working. And I had had my real estate license since 1995, but could only commit myself part-time during that career path. But uh I really felt like it was time to take it over. And from the day I was just a little thing running around, my mother was a realtor, she was also a mortgage branch um manager. So I went on a lot of appointments with her. I was kind of like her dog whisperer in my younger days, and you'd see a vicious dog, and I would let her and her clients go do her thing, and I would occupy the dog. But I got to see a lot of what she did. And I mean, who doesn't love looking at beautiful homes? Um, so it kind of was a fever that caught, but I had this other career that I was committed to as well. Um, but when I retired, I just decided it was time to follow in her footsteps, and I'm ever so glad I did. And I certainly can't say I wish I had not done the prior career, but I wish I had started in real estate earlier because I I just it I don't go to work every day. I go and engage with people and help them with what I call is I mean, it's their biggest asset, it's their biggest thing in life, is their home. And it's a it's a privilege and a pleasure to do that.

Speaker 3:32

So I love that. I can tell that you love what you do when you talk about it. It comes, it comes through.

Speaker 2 3:39

I don't know if I'll ever quit. I don't think my other half is convinced I will ever quit. Um, because when you're enjoying what you do that much and you do know that you're making differences in people's lives, it's just not something you want to set aside. You just want to keep growing in it and doing more of it.

Speaker 3:54

Yeah, yeah.

Negotiation And Communication Skills

Speaker 3:56

I wonder what skills translated from your previous career as a detective. I imagine quite a few.

Speaker 2 4:04

They they did actually. Um, both situations you're dealing with people, and actually, even in law enforcement, there's a lot of times, and I was in a situation many times where I was helping the victim. So you were you were giving and providing to people, but obviously law enforcement has another side of it, and it wasn't always the best of people. Um, but one thing you had to do well as a police officer and as well as a real estate agent is communication. So a lot of skills were honed from those days of how to engage and communicate, and probably the big buzzword that translates to real estate is how to negotiate. So the organizational skills, the um the putting the puzzle together, if you will, and most important, learning how to talk to people and how not to talk to them, um, 100% has translated into real estate.

Speaker 4:57

Yeah, that's so interesting.

The Myth Of Easy Real Estate

Speaker 5:00

I love that. I love that. So, do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions that you hear that you would just love to set the record straight?

Speaker 2 5:10

Absolutely. Um, and I think it's probably true with any career path. We don't do it, we don't understand it. But a lot of people I think sit back and think that real estate is about opening doors, writing a contract, going to a settlement table, and there is just so, so much more. As a matter of fact, there's a favorite publication of mine that I work with with all my mentees, and it was produced by the National Association with Realtors. And they basically have identified about 179 different tasks and skills and methodologies involved in getting transactions from start to finish. So there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and hours and everything behind each of those transactions. Um, and each one, they're very, very few that you could say is just like the last one. They're all unique people, their needs, their situations. Um, so I think that's probably um one of the big ones. I mean, real estate is considered one of the top five, not real estate, I'm sorry, moving is considered one of the top five stressors in life. Um to be able to help people navigate that with ease is pretty, pretty cool.

Speaker 6:20

Yeah. 179. Yes.

Speaker 2 6:23

Now you may not actually have 179 in every single transaction, but 100 is a task that you've got to at least in part try to master and try to adapt to each situation. Um, so there's just uh it's it's a lot, and we're we're our own entrepreneur. We're not, even though we work for brokerages, we're responsible for our marketing, our advertising, and our creativity and our blogs and our social media. So you're doing so much more than just opening houses and writing papers.

Speaker 6:54

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for setting us straight on that.

Speaker 2 6:59

All the more neat, all the more reason people need a good realtor in their life.

Speaker 7:03

Right, right. So if someone is listening to this and thinks, you know, I've got the right stuff, I could do that, and they're thinking about a

Advice For New Real Estate Agents

Speaker 7:12

career in real estate. What advice would you give them?

Speaker 2 7:15

I think first and foremost is please don't come into it thinking it's easy, and please don't come into it thinking that it's like a part-time, I can pick it up one day, drop it for a week or two, come back to it. There's it, it requires a lot of application and just consistency and what they call what rinse repeat, just keep doing it over and over. Um, but just if you apply yourself and you've got a heart for it and you like people, that's half the battle. The next one is you know, a lot of brokerages don't offer this. Samson actually requires it, and that is that mentorship. If I had had that 30 years ago in real estate, I may have had a different career path. I don't know. But it's one thing to go sit for the state exam, and it is of course another thing to apply it on a daily basis. So get a good mentor, a good senior agent, and just work hard at it.

Speaker 8:10

Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:10

Yeah.

Speaker 8:11

Great advice. And and you mentioned that you're involved in the education

Mentorship And Community Seminars

Speaker 8:16

side of things. So walk me through what that looks like. What do you do on the education side?

Speaker 2 8:22

Well, for new agents, um, they are required to work closely with a mentor in all phases: open houses, paperwork, legalities, um, listing appointments, buyer appointments, and then sitting down and negotiating the deal, uh, what happens on the home inspection. So we are there to see, we're not there to help them build their business, we're there to help make sure that their first few transactions are I's are dotted, T's are crossed, no legalities left unturned, and that they're taking good care of their clients. So they learn both by watching us, and then we of course help them by attending all of those different types of appointments with them. So they kind of get a little bit of everything. Again, it's not just the book knowledge. So yeah. Um, but then you know, there's a community education, and I think that's probably one of my favorite points because I love to do seminars, and I have been actively doing seminars every single month for the last five to seven years. Umas, and sometimes the topics are real estate, sometimes they're half real estate, half something else, and I have a professional partnership team that goes out and teaches with me, and then I do a lot of classes for fun. I teach Canva, I teach AI, and um, it's it's just a different way to contribute and keep your face out there.

Speaker 9:47

Yeah, yeah, providing value to the community. I love it.

Speaker 2 9:51

Correct.

Speaker 9:52

What is something that you wish

Selling Fears And FSBO Risks

Speaker 9:56

maybe a homeowner who is thinking about selling their their home and they're they're a little bit nervous about the process? What would you like to say to them?

Speaker 2 10:06

I would like to tell them to definitely not brush off nor uh neglect their concerns because chances are some of them are valid. Uh, real estate is a very big process. There's a lot of moving parts in it. And for those that want to do it on their own, the the FSBO, um, you know, if that's your choice, we certainly wish you the best. But just like anything else, um we hire doctors for medical concerns, we hire lawyers for legal concerns, and real estate is a big, moving, very important transaction. Our our lead instructor and a close friend of mine at Samson Properties teaches all 6,000 of us one thing, and that is we have the ability, if we don't do things well and right, to actually bankrupt somebody. We're talking about their biggest asset when they're selling and buying. Uh, it's a responsibility that is huge. I take it very seriously. Um, so in my counsel, I guess, to someone considering a move is to identify all your concerns and moving parts and sit down with a good realtor who knows their community, their area. Uh, there's a million branches of real estate that we can get into. We can't specialize in all of them, but if they will sit down and at least allow us that conversation before, and that's the key point, before they start making big decisions like going and going under contract in another state with a new home, but not even knowing what their home here is worth or how long it's gonna take to sell. So just like um, you know, there's always an order to things, and if they talk to us first, um, hopefully we can set them on a much smoother course.

Speaker 11:47

Yeah, it's better to start out right than to go back and correct.

Speaker 2 11:53

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker 11:56

And what advice would you give someone listening who maybe has never bought a home and they've been renting,

First-Time Buyer Money Mistakes

Speaker 12:04

maybe they're kind of thinking, is this the right time? I don't know. What advice would you give them?

Speaker 2 12:10

I would tell them to, you know, when I was growing up, fortunately, my mother as a realtor encouraged me at a very early age in college to try to get my first um home purchase under my belt, which I did, and it's trickled down through life and but one of the best things I did. I would encourage them highly to explore it, not to assume they cannot do it, not to assume they can't afford it. Um, and this is where a professional team comes into place. And I pride myself in partnering, I think, with some of the very best in the lending field, settlement, contractors, all the different players in the real estate arena. But that first-time buyer really needs to sit down with the lender and find out what their options are. It's also a great time for them to learn about their credit, what they should do, what they shouldn't do. Like, please don't go buy a new card during the middle of the transaction process. Don't open a new credit card. Um, there's a lot of learning to it, and we have people in place at no cost to them other than time that will help them through that curve. But the average renter in our area, let's just say they're paying $2,000 a month in rent, which is average, and the average home sale in Fredericksburg area is what $400 to $500. If they stop renting or during a course of one year of renting, they're actually losing about $40K between equity and rent that can go towards the purchase of the house. And when you look at it in numbers terms, that's an average, obviously, but when you look at it in numbers, it's it's like, wow, I that's 20K towards rent a year, I'll never see again. That's 20K in equity. I maybe could have had. Um, we, you know, a let a good lender and a good realtor will get them where they need to be.

Speaker 13:59

Wow. Those are big numbers.

Speaker 2 14:02

They are. They are. That's real money. Absolutely. Yeah.

Care, Values, And How To Reach Her

Speaker 14:08

So what is something that you wish the listeners knew about Lisa Wright Homes?

Speaker 2 14:16

That I care. Um I'm I'm genuinely I care. And when I said I used to watch my mother do her business, the one thing that I will never forget is how she did it. I may not remember all the steps that she used to get somebody to purchase or sale, but I remember her always treating everyone in that engagement equally, handing a husband and a wife a business card, talking to a parent and a child, giving them advice and never ever letting the transactions supersede whether they really should do it or not. If it wasn't the right time, the right place, or the right product. She was very frank and honest with them. And she always, in my opinion, at least, treated clients like family. And that's what I've tried to carry forward. I do care about my clients very, very much. Uh, there's nothing that warms my heart more when I get a great feedback after a transaction of what a difference it made doing it that way. Um so just the the genuine care, I'm doing this for all the right reasons, and I truly, truly care about my clients. They become, they become friends and family for life.

Speaker 15:28

I I can feel that from you. I can feel it. Yeah, I love it. So if the listeners are inspired and they want to learn more from you, if they want to connect with you, where can they find you?

Speaker 2 15:40

Well, first and foremost, of course, they can go to my website, which is LisaWrightHomes.com. Uh, every single blog I've written, which is one a week for years, is there. There's a lot of great information. I've got custom pages on my website to engage them with more knowledge. But my email is there, lisawrighthomes @gmail.com. My cell phone is out there. I again I do these seminars. If you're if they're interested in that as well, they can reach out to me and try to get me in their communities. I'm happy to do that. But uh yeah, just reach out. I do answer my calls, I do answer my texts and emails, and I do answer them beyond most hours that some people might consider normal for that. All you gotta do is ask my husband about that. But um, I I am responsive and I will get back to you and I will take care of you.

Speaker 16:29

So amazing. Lisa, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast and sharing all this wisdom with us.

Speaker 2 16:37

My pleasure, and thanks for all you do for our community with letting people know what a magical place this is.

Speaker 1 16:44

Thank you.

Wrap-Up And Local Business Nominations

Speaker 1 16:47

Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.