We are excited to work with you on your home-buying journey!

This page provides a brief introduction to our team and how we work.

Josh Beall, Principal Broker for WV & MD, Associate Broker for VA & DC

As the broker and team leader, Josh helps develop the marketing strategy for listings and negotiation strategy for all offers and counter-offers. Josh is also a Ramsey Solutions Master Financial Coach, an active real estate investor, and a strategic planning consultant for small to medium-sized businesses—but what he’s most proud to be is a husband and father to his six children.

Jess Derr, Licensed WV, VA & MD Salesperson, Director of Operations

Jess is a client advocate that pours her heart into turning the complex process of buying or selling a home into a simple, straightforward affair for you and your family. Growing up in the country, as the oldest of eight kids in a tight-knit family, Jess has come to appreciate the intangible draw of the places we live in, and her work enables you to focus on your home, while our team focuses on the buying and selling process.

Together, we’ve closed hundreds of transactions, and we’ve developed a process that helps us negotiate the process smoothly. Here’s a brief overview of the initial steps:

First, we’ll work through a buyer needs analysis with you. As your trusted fiduciary in this transaction, we want to thoroughly understand your goals, including your timeframe, the property type and location, the price parameters, and so forth, all of which will help us prepare the Right to Represent Agreement.

This document establishes our relationship as your real estate professional, and states we are required to put your interests first. It does not obligate you to work with us indefinitely. We specifically added a clause to our representation agreements that give you the right to withdraw at any time.

We want to work with clients that are excited to work with us, so if at any time you feel we are not serving you well, you may withdraw consent for us to represent you.

Second, we want you to have a lender who is highly professional and trustworthy. Many of our clients come to us after they’ve already spoken with a lender, and we never force our clients to use a particular lender. However, we also know a professional lender can mean the difference between closing the sale and losing the home. We’ve seen it happen, and we don’t want it to happen to you—which is why we recommend that even if you’ve already talked to a lender, contact one of our preferred lenders for a second opinion. There’s a real chance they can save you money, in addition to being reliable, honest, and professional!

Third, we’ll set up your home search. Using all the information we’ve gathered so far, we’ll set you up with a search tool that will notify you when properties that match your criteria hit the market—including Coming Soon listings that are not publicly available!

 Finally, take a look at some of the things to be aware of as we’re on your home search! All of these come from experiences we’ve had working on hundreds of transactions.

• Don’t fall in love right away. There are lots of houses out there! Sometimes, we won’t get the first one we write an offer on—that’s ok! We’ll find a home that is a good fit for you.
• Route all scheduling and communications with the sellers through us. If we find ourselves in a situation where the seller is present, be professional but don’t reveal any unnecessary information. We have seen multiple situations where a client unintentionally revealed something that was later used as negotiating leverage against them. For instance, do you feel pressure to get moved before school starts? Because of a job change? Have you been looking for a long time and this is the first house that’s a great fit? The seller doesn’t need to know! Help us negotiate for you from a position of strength.
• Don’t reach out directly to For-Sale-By-Owner listings or New Home Sales Centers. For the reasons mentioned above, it’s essential that you let us initiate contact with these two types of sellers. Sometimes, these sellers will refuse to cooperate with a buyer’s agent if the buyer’s agent did not initiate the first contact—leaving you unrepresented for what may be a challenging negotiation.
• Getting under contract is the first of many milestones. We’ll guide you through the process to get to closing as smoothly as possible—or, if a red flag is raised, discuss what options we may have to void the contract.
• Buyer broker commission is typically paid for by the seller, and the only cost you are responsible for is a $350 administrative fee. Sometimes, however, a seller refuses to pay some or all of the buyer broker commission—in this case, we will discuss with you ahead of time, so we can craft an offer that provides a way for us to collect the buyer broker commission.
• Ask us questions—about anything! We’re here to serve you and guide you through the process, so your questions are always welcome.