Real Estate Explained

Building Wealth, Avoiding Pitfalls, & Buying Smart in 2025 with Matthew Abregu

• Nick Bush

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In this episode of Real Estate Explained, host Nick Bush sits down with Matthew Abregu, a driven real estate agent with Keller Williams, to talk about market shifts, mindset, and what it really takes to build wealth through real estate. Mateo shares his journey from buying his first home in 2016—long before he became a licensed agent—to learning firsthand the impacts of foreclosure during the 2008 crash. With deep family roots in the industry and a background that includes everything from house hacking to navigating difficult rental experiences, Mateo brings a unique perspective on what it means to grow in this business with both heart and strategy.

We also dive into why this market is more of a transaction crash than a price crash, how FHA and VA buyers are winning again, and why West Virginia is a hidden gem for buyers. Whether you’re buying, selling, or investing, this episode is full of real talk and practical strategy.

🎧 Hit play, take notes, and send this to someone who's ready to buy smart in 2025.

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Speaker 1:

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 home buyer, 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, ready to turn your real estate goals into reality. Keep watching. So uh, so no, so uh, yes, I'm gonna come out, bro. Let me know when the next fight is bro. I've been trying to like come get to a boxing match, yeah, and like bring the wife and just like make it like a vibe.

Speaker 2:

I'm telling you, man, you have a good time. If you've never been to a boxing fight, it's nothing like it, especially when you know the people involved. There's emotional attachment. You're rooting for them. There's people you love, you care about, and it's a good time. Man. Eric Hernandez will be going for his 13th professional victory and we feel very confident that we're going to keep climbing up the ranks.

Speaker 1:

Man that's good man, good luck. Good luck, I hope you do, man so I can say like he becomes Freddie Roach, and I'm like, I know those guys. What would you call your boxing promotion company? Well, what is it called? Do you have a?

Speaker 2:

company. So no, I'm just his trainer. Okay, I'm not you know. Okay, I'm not what.

Speaker 1:

I'm doing he's 13.

Speaker 2:

I'm sorry, he's 12-1 as a professional. Yeah, is he doing anything? Have you been around for all 13 of those fights? No, I actually took over his career for his last three fights. He had a bit of a layoff, if you will. We made a return back in 2022 and we've been rocking and rolling.

Speaker 1:

Okay, cool, I have three boys. I also have three kids. I have a 14-year-old. He's already six feet Six feet tall, 200. He's a football player. But I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and I had my five-year-old in jujitsu for a little while. Then he just kind of like burnt out, he didn't want to do it anymore. But my two-year-old is like the rough rider, even though in jiu-jitsu. But I'm more interested in boxing, yeah. So you know, if you end up creating some boxing gym, whatever, I'm going to send my kids over there, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's the long-term vision, man. I always tell my wife, I tell my brother hey, I'm going to be involved in boxing. Whether it's me training, whether it's opening my own gym, it'll always be a part of my life. My daughter's actually. It's funny, you, my oldest is six, my middle is five. They both wrestle, they're both, yeah, but we take it seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know we, they're going in there, uh, three times a week and we don't miss, and I make sure they're, they're eating right and, of course, they're enjoying. They do enjoy it and I make sure it's fun for them. But yeah, man, they're, they're wrestling, that's great man.

Speaker 1:

so we got we got matthew abregu on the podcast today. Appreciate um funny story, his story. His Instagram is Mateo Abregu and I knew that wasn't his name because he always references Matthew and I was like yo like, so I had his. You know, I had Diego in here earlier, your brother and I was. I asked him. I was like yo like, is your brother's name Matthew or Mateo? And he's like it's Matthew, bro, like. Everyone calls him Matthew and so I'm thinking that, okay, mateo is your legal name and you just tell me your legal name is also Matthew. So it's hilarious that your IG doesn't match up with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's funny. Yeah, so it's a nickname of mine. Like I said, a lot of my wife's family, all of my wife's family. They call me Mateo, but, yeah, my legal name is Matthew. Yeah, that's hilarious. So introduce yourself to the people. Yeah, so my name is Matthew Abrego. You know, I'm a realtor with Keller Williams, first and foremost. Hey, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a businessman, I'm in real estate, I have a driving school as well, and I like to consider myself in a way of a responsible renaissance man, if you will.

Speaker 1:

OK, what does that?

Speaker 2:

mean you got to elaborate on that a little bit, yeah, so you know I have a lot of I guess you can say on my plate. Right, I also have a fighter. I trained that we were just discussing. But I enjoy the grind, man, I enjoy, I enjoy working hard. It comes natural to me. My saying is easy, but I do enjoy the grind. And I again, running a real estate business, running a driving school, trying to be the best husband, the best father I can be, I still got a fighter. I'm training. I wear a lot of hats but I enjoy every single one of them and I take every single one of them. I'm dedicated 100% to every single one of them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you and your brother. You guys own a. You have a real estate team together.

Speaker 2:

Correct. So you know he'll have clients that he works, I'll have clients that I work, we'll have clients that we both work mutually. And he services Maryland, virginia. I service Virginia and West Virginia. There's times where we'll take on a Virginia client together. There's times where I, hey, I have a client here that was looking at Virginia, west Virginia, but now they're exploring Maryland. I'll pass them over to my brother, diego. So we have a very good chemistry. We've done everything together. We grew up together. We've actually. My wife got him his first job. He worked at the restaurant. We worked at the restaurant together. We were working at LA Boxing together before LA Boxing is no longer around, but we've done everything together.

Speaker 1:

So it's no surprise.

Speaker 2:

We've always worked very well together. We've never had an issue where I know there's. The saying goes that in some cases families can't work well together. They're bump heads. That's never been the case for us. I think it helps when both people are like look bro.

Speaker 1:

I know you're like look bro, I can fight too bro. Both people are like look bro. I know y'all are like look bro, I can fight too bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you guys sparred each other before? Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And it's funny because we would. Anytime people see a spar, they would make the joke. Man, I would never believe you guys are brother the way you guys are hitting each other.

Speaker 2:

But it was always love. Afterwards, right, we'd always make sure we're trying to help one another get better. You know, I push him, he push me, but that's all it was. Man, we're always very competitive, though, growing up, you know, sometimes we would put hands on each other when we're playing basketball and it'd get very physical, but nevertheless, I love my brother. Of course Ain't no secret there.

Speaker 1:

So did you get into real estate? Did you guys get into real estate around the same time?

Speaker 2:

Actually no into business, for I'm going to say eight years. Now I'm going on my fifth year. It's funny, actually, we make this joke every once in a while. I bought my first home back in 2016. And at the time I remember my brother telling me hey, he wasn't an agent at this time. He said hey, you sure this is a good idea, man? Are you sure you can handle it? I said, hey, you know I can do it.

Speaker 1:

I got this bro.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and nevertheless, I bought my first property in 2016. So I was. We come from a family of real estate, right? My grandpa he was actually a broker. My uncle was a real estate agent. Diego he's a realtor as well. My mother, actually, she was a loan officer. You know, we've been through the ups and downs of real estate. My mother bought and sold before We've been through the ups and downs 2008. Fortunately, during that time, we did get foreclosed on. So when people talk about 2008, I understand Even though I was young at the time you?

Speaker 1:

experienced it though.

Speaker 2:

Of course, firsthand. So I'm a homeowner right now. We're all homeowners in our family, thank God. I truly believe in homeownership and so I definitely am very passionate about real estate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, okay. So you actually have a lot of experience growing up. Do you feel like you have some of that you know? Is it in you? Like some of the nuance of real estate is in you, because of that experience, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I always say I joke around, but I really mean it, it's in my blood. I'm passionate about real estate. I love being, I love what I do, I love the. I believe in home ownership. So to me, I don't feel like I'm a salesman, because I'm really, even though you know it is. We're in the business of sales, of course, but I do believe in my product.

Speaker 1:

I do believe home ownership at the end of the day, the stats are there, right, that's how true wealth is built through home ownership. Yeah, so when buyers come to me home buyers that are kind of on the fence, or generational renters, people who don't have a lot of home ownership in their family maybe they're the first one or just cautious people, right, and they're like, well, what if I buy and the market crashes, right, and I tell them, I say hey, at some point the market is going to crash. And I and the reason I say that is because the stock market always crashes, right, it's going to crash. The housing market has crashed more than once in America. We kind of our country's kind of set up that these corrections are going to happen, right, and I let them know.

Speaker 1:

I say hey, like if the market crashes, one is going to come back. We know that's going to happen. If you don't have to sell, you're going to be in good shape. And if you can, because you can just wait it out, and if you can rent it out for more than it's worth or just manage that, then you're going to be set. But you've dealt with foreclosure personally in your family and you've had your uncle's a realtor, your mom's a loan officer. So what is the reality of the comeback when you deal with a foreclosure in a market crash?

Speaker 2:

So to clarify my mother was a loan officer. My grandpa was a broker, right, you know you can't worry about those kind of things, right, you know? I do think the real question is are you personally ready to buy? Right, because the market will correct? I do think we're going through a crash right now. Actually, you know, I've been talking about being in a crash in 2022. However, it's not in prices, it's in transactions. We have seen I mean, transactions are at a historic low Right. You have homeowners that are willing to sell because they don't want to give up their low monthly mortgage. Right, and you got, I mean, that's just what we're experiencing. We're experiencing a real estate transaction crash right now. You just can't worry about these things. At the end of the day, if you're comfortable with that monthly mortgage payment long term, as you just mentioned, real estate, at the end of the day, you're still 10 years from now. You're going to be fine.

Speaker 2:

Now, when I have buyers telling me, if you're going to come up to me and tell me hey, matthew, I want to buy and potentially sell in two years, I'm going to be transparent with you. Hey, in most cases, that does not work, right. Real estate takes time. Work right. Real estate takes time. Everything takes time. Stock market true wealth is built with time. So if you're going to tell me, hey, matthew, I want to buy, but I'm thinking of selling in two years, hey, it may not make sense right now to buy at this very moment, because what we saw during the pandemic 2020, big run-up of appreciation People were selling in two years, three years, making a lot of money. But it's very important as an agent that I'm setting expectations that's not reality. In order to really benefit from selling your home and gaining a pretty substantial amount from the sale, you need time At least. I would say anywhere from at least five to seven years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's the average first-time homebuyer, standing there for five to seven years, for sure. So when you first got into the business five years ago, did you already have a clientele base? Did you decide to niche down somewhere Like how did you build your business?

Speaker 2:

So that's a great question. As I mentioned, you know, we have a driver's school and with this driver's school we have a pretty big following. I have people think it's just teaching people how to drive, but we have driver's education classroom where we have students that come in here to take driver's ed. We have driving improvement clinics every weekend, right, classes of 20 to 30. We have re-exam courses. We have about maybe 100 people flowing through our school every month.

Speaker 2:

So that, right there, I targeted that niche. I said, hey, you know what, let me help on my community. I'm already helping them out with the license procedure. How else can I add value in just having conversations? Like I said, I believe in home ownership. I truly believe it could change people's lives. It changed my life personally and I believe in it and I touched. I really focused on the driving school and I and I believe in it and I touch. I really focused on the driving school and I got a lot of business from that. Actually, I got a lot of referrals and yeah, yeah, it worked well for me. And, of course, my my sphere of my close fear. You know I grew up here in Long County, so I'm a pretty well known here, if you will, and it worked out well for me. A lot of our clients is is is organic, if you will. Yeah, and it worked out well for me. A lot of our clients is is is organic, if you will.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and and when we were talking before the podcast on the gram, you were saying that you feel like the buyers have a lot of opportunity in today's market.

Speaker 2:

Right, I do I do, which is, which is contrary to what what you hear on the news. Right, they say that right now, buyers buyers are struggling, which is true, I understand. Mortgage rates are high and making it affordability is an issue. But if you are in a position where you can afford that monthly mortgage, well, you have opportunities because there's just less competition. Right, you're in a position where you can submit an offer with an FHA loan and get that offer entertained during the pandemic.

Speaker 2:

If you're submitting an offer with an FHA loan and get that offer entertained during the pandemic. If you're submitting an offer in the FHA loan, in most cases the seller wasn't entertaining it right, you can include your contingencies home inspection, appraisal, financing. You can buy a home the right way, which every buyer should be able to get their home inspected, if you're able to. I understand, in some cases, if the home gets competitive, you may not be able to include a home inspection contingency, but hey, we're in a market where, hey, I mean it's slowing down, there's less competition and I think buyers can potentially win, include their contingencies, potentially sell their credit, things of that sort.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think it's interesting that we still have to frame the market like this to clients, and obviously you know it's our job to explain what's going on. But I feel like COVID has such a long lasting impact on our market and every market around the country where sellers feel like they don't necessarily need to get their home as ready for the market as we might feel, or where they feel like they'll still have a ton of competition every single time at bat, and then where buyers are almost just like and thinking that they don't realize that you don't have to be so competitive anymore. Right, and I think rates going up right after the pandemic was almost the worst thing that could happen, because you know you had the buyers on the sideline that were just not going to pay one hundred thousand dollars over list price when they were able to buy. When the market corrected itself, rates went up to 7%, and so I agree with you that right now is a great time to buy, because you can get all your contingencies in the contract.

Speaker 1:

Va wins again, fha wins again and we're getting closing costs in most cases also, and then you kind of have to sit in the refinance seat. But as long as you can afford your mortgage payment. Right now. You're still in good shape, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And I would say even sellers. Most of the time, sellers turn out to be buyers, so you're in a position where you can sell your home and purchase a home as well, and you can still walk away with a good amount of money.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly, yeah. So I'm really interested. So you're from Virginia. How did you end up?

Speaker 1:

I'm really interested in the West Virginia market because I so I, my wife and I own our house.

Speaker 1:

We have one house and we I told you we were going to sell we rented it, so now it's an investment property and we're preparing to buy our family home forever home out in Fredericksburg, and after that I'm like, okay, it's time to build retirement, which for me is going to be real estate, for us it's going to be real estate. And I think that I'm first focusing on cash flow and then maybe I'll get some more multifamily or equity properties. And so I'm interested in Ohio as a market. The market in Ohio is similar to Baltimore, where you can get a house $50,000 to $100,000, put 20% down $700, $800 cash flow right, but it's more landlord-friendly in Ohio. But someone mentioned West Virginia to me and I've been kind of considering it for a long time, and then a second person told me yeah, west Virginia is going to look like Montgomery County in 10 years and you do a lot of business there. So can you break down what's happening in West Virginia right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm actually I've been licensed now in West Virginia. I want to say I'm just about about two years being licensed in West Virginia, but I have been doing a lot of business in West Virginia and I grew up here in Fairfax County. I lived there until I was about 12. I ended up moving to Long County and I've been in Long County for the last 20 years and I've seen as you yourself you're here from Northern Virginia. You've seen the growth. You've seen Arlington. The demographics of Arlington have changed. It's a city. It pushed all the way to Long County, long County.

Speaker 2:

Now in Ashburn you have the metro on Ashburn and what's happening is the demographics in Ashburn are changing. It's becoming more expensive. People are getting pushed out further out west. Leesburg started off with Leesburg. Leesburg is changing as well. Percival's change is becoming more expensive. And what's happening? You have a lot of first time homebuyers are now looking in Charlestown, in Ransom, right Ransom. Charlestown is about 30 minutes, 35 minutes from Western Lyme County. It's now you're right off of nine. You can. You got people even from Maryland moving out to Charlestown Ransom because right off of nine it's not too bad. I mean, all things considered, right If you're going out there purchasing your primary residence property taxes are cheaper. Your money goes a long way, even the cost of living, right. Even going to, I was actually at a grocery store. I stopped by at a farmer's market. I'm starting at a grocery store, a farmer's market, and I'm starting to loan up this cart and I'm thinking, oh man, this was not the plan. I'm about to spend 70 bucks here, right, I just came here to grab.

Speaker 2:

And then 35 bucks. I said 35. I said, hey, did you get that? They said, no, yeah, we got it. It's 35 bucks, right, the cost of living is just cheaper. So people are willing to consider that right. And you're seeing first-time homebuyers now starting to entertain Charlestown Ransom. They're sacrificing that drive but for the life that appeals them, right, having that nice yard, having that garage, having that square footage in your home. Them, right, having that nice yard, having that garage, having that square footage in your home. Even homeowners that are looking to downsize, right? Hey, you know what? I have a lot of cash. I don't want a mortgage.

Speaker 2:

Let's see how it's looking out there in Charlestown Ranson, right, harper's Ferry, and there's a lot to do out there. You got the Shenandoah River, you have the casinos, you have all these big companies moving out there. You got Starbucks, walmart. People have a misconception when you hear West Virginia. There's nothing around. Now it's growing, it's growing. I do believe it's going to become similar to Long County. You said Frederick, maryland. I'm not too familiar with that market, my County as an appreciation play. However, you asked me how do I feel as an investment, something to keep in note for all investors or anyone considering West Virginia when you are purchasing an investment property in West Virginia, those cheap property taxes that I mentioned they double, they're twice as much For an investment property and rents aren't as high as they are in Loudon County, fairfax County.

Speaker 1:

So wait, let me understand because maybe I'm missing something. Are you saying in general, when you buy an investment property?

Speaker 2:

your taxes are higher.

Speaker 1:

Or just in West Virginia, that's the case.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. If you're buying a property in West Virginia as an investment, the property tax are going to be twice as much. If it's your primary residence, you'll get that nice cheap property tax that I've been talking about. That you'll get that nice cheap property tax that I've been talking about. That's crazy. Do you know why that is?

Speaker 1:

I do not know why that is what a policy to put in. I mean, it's interesting because they're kind of, you know you're pushing investors, you're keeping investors somewhat out of the market when you're doubling property taxes, but I guess if they're low you know whatever. So I'm kind of putting you on the spot here. But I know in Virginia it's around 1%, right DC it's like a little under 1%. So a $400,000 house in West Virginia, where are taxes typically?

Speaker 2:

You know what, like I said, it's a newer market. I want to say .7.

Speaker 1:

So a little bit cheaper, yeah, yeah. So we'll double up.

Speaker 2:

Don't hold me to that though.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, don't hold me to that. Do your due diligence Actually look it up and tell us what it was right. Do your due diligence Comment.

Speaker 2:

But they are much lower. They are much lower in West Virginia again. If it's your primary residence and I found this, how, actually? Because property taxes are extremely high I can eyeball and tell they're higher than what it should be for the square footage of that home and the location. And I reach out to the agent hey, what's going on here with the property taxes? Yeah, it was an investment property, so your client will have to pay the property taxes at this amount for the first year. However, after the second year, there will be half of that amount.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay. So it's kind of like an entry fee, Like that first year it doubles and then after that they kind of-. This is for primary buyers. Oh, for primary buyers. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So the primary buyer will have to eat up those higher taxes for the first year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so do you feel like West Virginia is a good market to invest in? Like, as an investor, would you suggest people invest in that market?

Speaker 2:

I think if you're able to. Everyone's situation is different. Everyone has different goals, right, when people are talking about investing. Well, it depends you have investors that are simply looking at cash flow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so let me ask you a question different, right.

Speaker 2:

Is it a cash flow market? It's not a cash flow market, because rents are just not where they are. Here in Flounder County, fairfax, right, it's just, you're not going to get what you're looking at. You're not going to get the same kind of rents that you're getting in more expensive homes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but again you got cheaper price points. So if you're able to buy some of these cheaper homes, cash right. You got cash. Investors, because there are investors investing in ransom right in certain communities I know there, but they're paying cash for them. Okay, but it's more of an appreciation market, it's an appreciation play. I do think it's an appreciation market.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so you definitely need to get out there soon. Yeah, look, there's those investors that don't believe in investing in appreciation, and I understand right, because you can say, in a way, it is a gamble. But, with that being said, you don't gain true wealth by just cashflow, right. Even 400 bucks a month, I mean that's great.

Speaker 1:

You need to have a lot of those to change the lifestyle. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but if you get one property that pays well, right, you did your due diligence. You're looking at where all these other companies are like, for example, starbucks. Right when you see Starbucks moving into an area in Charlestown?

Speaker 1:

that's a good news, right?

Speaker 2:

That's a good sign because they have their guys right, their analytics that are doing their due diligence, and they know where. Where the next city is is, uh, going to grow right where the next boom is, if you will starbucks whole foods trader, joe's, you got it.

Speaker 1:

I even think target if target is going somewhere, there's gonna be, there's gonna be vibes there, definitely. Um, so you, so you have three prop, you own three properties.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like so, actually, actually, I had two properties. I have two. I had two properties I just sold, you know we could talk about. Actually we had. We bought our first primary back in 2016. That's the one in stafford, right, yeah, that actually. No, that, that one is in leesburg.

Speaker 2:

I bought that with my wife and, um, it's, it's funny because when we bought it, we weren't really aware of what we were doing at the time, but when we bought it, we we were able to get our closing costs paid for, right, right, we were first-time homebuyers. This was at the time where I wasn't in a financial state like I am now. I'm doing much better financially, of course, right, we're talking about nine years ago. Right, so I came a long way since then. So we purchased this home. We rented out the rooms. Actually, right, one of them was my brother. Another one is actually the fighter I trained that we were talking about earlier. Right, now, it's very well known house hack. I was house hacking. Before it was a thing I didn't, you know. Now, everyone, we've all heard of the word house hacking. You're buying a property, you're renting out the rooms for cash, essentially lowering your monthly expenses. So we were house hacking without realizing it, and we did this for quite some time.

Speaker 2:

Eventually, we ended up purchasing another property here in Percival. We've been in Percival now for three years. We ended up having that as a rental and and it did well as a rental for the first year and a half. We did our, we did our due diligence, we screened our tenants. Unfortunately, tenants stopped paying, so Property got destroyed, you know. So we learned a lot through that process. Right, we had to put a lot of money to get the property back in shape. We ended up. We did end up selling the property, which I'm still happy about, even though it was bittersweet because it was our first home. Again, we bought it back in 2016, appreciated a ton, paid off a ton. We were able to take advantage of the primary capital gains exclusion, right? Yeah, really, that's not talked about enough, right? The fact that you don't pay? So mention it. Yeah, elaborate on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah let's talk about that. So when you are assigned your primary residence, you're excluded from paying $250,000 if you're a single owner, right? In my case I was married with my wife, so $500,000 of profit that you're making from the sale tax-free, that's huge If you've lived in it for two or five years, if it was your primary residence for the last two out of five years. So the reason why we decided to sell was because we were approaching that mark. Right, we had it as an investment property.

Speaker 1:

And we said, hey, we have to. You know, if we want to sell, it's probably best we sell now. So we still within this exclusion and and that's why we ended up selling. So you know what I'm struggling with my house in dc. Yeah, so we bought it, um for 490 in 2021, okay, and if you look at the comps, it's 615 625. Yeah, I even had a couple I. I was like I was like really, and so I had a couple agents run comps for me and they were like, yeah, you're like 615, 625.

Speaker 1:

But we're in DC, our house is in DC, and Southeast, in the Hillcrest neighborhood and the Southeast side of DC well, I would say everywhere in DC but a lot of buyers that are buying East of the River are taking advantage of HPAP. Hpap is the Home Purchasers Assistance Program and they give up to $202,000 for down payment assistance and a lot of people used to deliver take advantage of that program and so we put our house on the market. I think I put it on for $625,000 at first, $615,000. It just didn't sell. We didn't get any showings, it just wasn't selling. We have like updated kitchen, like it's a vibe in there. You know selling. We have like updated kitchen, like it's a vibe in there. You know, and I think, because at that time HPAP had ran out of money so they weren't funding, so maybe it was like bad market timing. But you know, we bought for 490 and our balance is lower right now, but we could sell in the 600s ideally.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like you know this is going to turn. We're renting it right now. We're getting like a few hundred dollars cashflow, but we rent it for like 3,200. And so I'm like well, if you kept this property. So what I'm struggling with personally is like okay, we can keep this property forever, 25 years, hold it Right. And here's our first. You know $4,000 a month. You know for retirement, like rent for retirement, like that's going to come in. You know for retirement, like rent for retirement, like that's going to come in, right, okay. But then I'm like, okay, we, we, we lived in it from 2021 to 2024. So we have a window in which we we can avoid capital gains taxes, but if I sell it and we can net a hundred, I feel like I can do so much more with that hundred that that is more valuable than holding it for 25 years to make $4,000 later.

Speaker 1:

And so that's the conversation I'm constantly battling in my head. My wife's like let's sell it. I don't want the house anymore and I'm like but we have to buy something if we sell it. So when you sold that property, did you feel like you netted enough money to buy? I mean, you own this since 2016, so you were able to get that COVID market appreciation too. Are you going to make a play with that money or is it just in the cut? Like what are you so? How did you guys come to that decision? Because it sound like the uh, the bad tenant experience kind of exhausts you a little bit. You're like let's sell that, you know, but what are you guys making a play with?

Speaker 2:

that. So let me let me first I'm going to go ahead and say I was having those same conversations as you were having, right, same conversations. We had a substantial amount of equity. Even during when my tenants weren't paying, we were still paying. We had enough in reserves, which is very important. Guys, if you are considering turning your property into a primary residence, you want to make sure you have enough in reserves to handle those rainy days. So we were fine. We're in Virginia. It's a landlord-friendly state.

Speaker 2:

We went through the process. It was very clean, very clean for what it was, right, it's still no one likes to have an eviction, right, no one likes to have their property thrashed, but it was a very clean process. And but I was having those same conversations and we had enough where I said, hey, listen, we actually bought. We already purchased a property, by the way, so we purchased the property we still had. We had a property in Percival, while we were dealing with this rental right, where we were trying to navigate and see how we can do with this rental. So we ended up selling it and now we're considering our.

Speaker 2:

We have now just the same conversation you're having now. Well, now we have a home here in Percival and our next thought is well, you know, we can now purchase another primary residence, use some of that proceeds, keep some leftover right, because it was still a substantial amount that you got from the sale. And now we have our current property that we will have for retirement, whatever the case may, or whatever we do, maybe 15 years later down the road we decide to sell it and we keep those. We, we, uh, we we pay those taxes. No big deal, but we have options now.

Speaker 2:

So we're actually just like yourself. We went through something similar right, um, and, and we're happy with our decision, so we're going to end up possibly looking to purchase. We have a current home right now in Percival. We are looking to purchase another one, maybe this year, if we find the right property right now. It's really coming down to finding the right one. We're still kind of back and forth of where exactly it is that we want to purchase. But, yeah, we ended up selling because we felt that we can benefit more from the cash.

Speaker 2:

We can buy two properties if we like right. So that's kind of where we're at Invest some in the stock market, things of that sort.

Speaker 1:

Okay. What I always like to ask people, though, is, like do you niche down somewhere? Like, do you niche down? Are you like buyer heavy, listing heavy? Are you certain lead gen source? I mean, it sounds like you're in your sphere. Do you niche down in the marketplace at all?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question. So I consider myself a hybrid agent where we work with we service all price points. We work with sellers, we work with buyers, we work with first-time home buyers, we work with investors. We've done 1031 tax change. We sold properties in the millions. I've sold a manufactured home right. So I consider myself a hybrid agent and I take pride in that right that I'm able to touch certain different niches and I have the resources right. I don't pretend to know what I don't know. If there's something or an obstacle that presents itself, I do have the resources to find those answers.

Speaker 1:

Okay, cool, and so what do you think homebuyers and home sellers need to know in the marketplace right now?

Speaker 2:

I'd say that you have to know your market right. You have to know the market that you're looking to purchase in, whether that is in Prince William County, whether that's in Fairfax, whether it's in Lyme County. Start to know your market. Start to understand your market right. If there's certain neighborhoods, well, start to. Maybe you have plans to buy in six months from now or plans to sell six months from now. Start to learn that market. See, check out inventory, because that will give you a good gauge of how you can approach that particular market, because every market is different. Right in charlestown, ransom.

Speaker 2:

Going back to west virginia, you have a lot more options. There's more inventory. There's new construction. There's there's lenders paying your closing costs right, there's, uh, west, it's called the west virginia housing development fund. Whether whether give you an eight thousand dollars, eight thousand five hundred dollar, second, with and that it is a second, you do got to pay that, that back, but it's 2%, 2% interest rate, right, so it's a great product. My point is understand your market. There's certain there's certain markets that are still hot right, there's. It just is what it is. If a house is priced well and and it's marketed well, it's still could very well receive multiple offers, so every market is different, every market is different. So, very well, received multiple offers, so every market is different, every market is different.

Speaker 2:

So, know your market, yeah, and then what about sellers? Sellers? Again, I'd say the same thing right, sellers, if you are, well, that's actually. Let me tweak that If you are a seller, it's not the pandemic, right, it's not the pandemic. We're not going through that pandemic phase anymore. Right, you do have to market your property, you do have to make sure that you're getting professional photography, not with your iPhone.

Speaker 2:

You want to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to get the property market ready. Show it the best you possibly can, because you have to work to sell around this time. It's not what it once was, but again it's what we want to see. We want to see a normal market. We want to see the market normalized. We don't want you know, it sounds good in theory, you know, oh yeah, my house got into contract after just a couple of days on the market. But we want a healthier market. So and I think that's what we're seeing we're seeing a healthier market.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree. Thanks for joining me man. Yeah, absolutely bro. This was great. Where can the people find you?

Speaker 2:

How do they get in contact? Hey, you can reach out to me on Instagram. My Instagram is I hope I don't throw you off there, but it's Mateo underscore Abrego. You know, so I do, I do. I do post videos on my stories on YouTube as well, you can.

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Nick Bush

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