Welcome to a rare offering of space, privacy, and craftsmanship on nearly 8 flat, treed acres, positioned on the DC side of Warrenton for an easy commute without sacrificing the countryside's space and serenity. With underbrush cleared throughout the wooded lot, this property offers usability alongside its natural beauty — including ATV trails, abundant wildlife, and privacy — all just minutes from town. Spanning 8,083 total finished square feet across three levels, this custom home offers 6 bedrooms, 6 full baths, and 1 half bath, with effortless flow between formal and everyday living spaces.

A referral is one thing. Trust is another. When a dear past client asked if I'd talk to her good friend about selling a home in Chantilly, I said yes without hesitation, but I also knew this wasn't a done deal. This seller was interviewing multiple agents, and she had every right to be picky about who she let into one of the biggest financial decisions of her life.

9826 Burke Pond Lane, Burke, VA 22015

I have been selling homes in Northern Virginia for over two decades, and every once in a while a listing comes along that genuinely surprises me. Not because it's flashy or over the top, but because it solves a problem that a lot of buyers don't even know they have until they're standing in the middle of it going, "oh — this is exactly what I needed."

9826 Burke Pond Lane is that home.

A few weeks ago, I was going through my sales records for a year-end report, and I stopped cold at one number. 158. That's how many homes I've sold in Herndon alone. Not Northern Virginia broadly. Not the DMV in general. Herndon, the town I've called home since 2001, the town where I walk my dog past houses I've helped buy and sell more times than I can count.

I want to tell you why that number means more to me than any award or ranking ever could.

If you want to know what a neighborhood is really like, don't ask the listing agent who sold one house there. Ask the one who's sold thirty.

I've personally handled more than 30 closings in Hastings Hunt over the years, and at this point I could probably walk you through the floor plan differences between a Rock Ridge Road colonial and a Powells Tavern Place model with my eyes closed. That kind of repetition isn't an accident. Hastings Hunt is one of the most consistently active neighborhoods I work in, and once you understand why, it makes sense that buyers keep circling back to it.

Here's a question I get from almost every seller in Herndon and Reston at some point during our listing prep: "Do I really need to pay for an inspection before I even have a buyer?" My answer is almost always yes, and I want to explain why, because it's not the answer sellers expect to hear from their agent.

People ask me all the time how a real estate agent in Northern Virginia ends up owning four vacation homes on the Outer Banks. The honest answer is my family fell in love with this stretch of coastline years ago and never really left. What started as one property grew into a small portfolio, and now I get to share these homes with families making their own memories, just as we made ours.

A buyer's agent calls you two days before closing and asks if you'll cover $12,000 in closing costs. Do you say yes because you're scared the deal will fall apart, or do you know enough about seller concessions to negotiate from a place of strength instead of panic?

That phone call is happening more often in Northern Virginia right now than it did three or four years ago, and I want you to understand exactly what's going on before it happens to you.

If you've looked at Zillow lately and seen Herndon's median home price down 7% from last year, I want you to hang on before you panic or celebrate, because that number is telling you way less than it looks.

If you're waiting for the "right time" to sell, I have some news. Fall isn't the consolation prize you might think it is.

I've been selling homes in this market since 2012, and every year I hear the same thing from sellers who almost missed their window: "I thought spring was the only time to list." It's not. What I'm seeing right now, heading into fall 2026, tells a different story. If you're thinking about selling your home this fall, the conditions are genuinely worth paying attention to.

I get this question almost every week from a buyer who's narrowed things down to two spots on a map and can't figure out why they're so different in price for what looks like the same house. Loudoun County vs Fairfax County isn't really a question with one right answer. It's a question about what kind of life you want to build, and the numbers only tell part of the story.

I've sold homes in both counties for over a decade, and I still tell clients the same thing. These aren't competing versions of the same place. They're genuinely different counties with different personalities, and the right one depends entirely on what you're optimizing for.

Standing on the front porch of a Herndon colonial last week, our buyer turned and said, "I love it, but I want to sleep on it." Three other offers were rumored. Her hands were shaking a little.

We told her what we tell every client in moments like this: you do not have to decide today.

Here's something I hear more often than you'd think: someone moves to Northern Virginia, buys a house with the agent their company's relocation program assigned them, and six months later they're calling me to ask why they ended up in a neighborhood that doesn't work for their commute, their kids' school situation, or their lifestyle. They didn't get bad service, necessarily. They just didn't get local knowledge.

There's a real difference between a relocation agent and a local agent, and if you're moving to the NoVA area, it's worth understanding before you sign a buyer's agreement.

I've lived in Herndon since 2001, which means I've had more than two decades of Northern Virginia summers under my belt. And every year without fail, I hear some version of the same thing from people who are new to the area or thinking about moving here: "Is there actually stuff to do out there?" Yes. There is so much stuff to do out there.

A lot of people who own beach rentals on the Outer Banks are asking the same question heading into this summer: is the market still worth it? After a record-breaking run in 2022 and 2023, and two quieter years since, investors want to know whether short-term rental revenue is coming back or still finding its floor. I've got four properties down here and a front-row seat to how this is playing out. Here's what I'm actually seeing, and what the data says.

If you've been waiting for the market to "calm down" before making a move, here's what I need you to hear: the Northern Virginia real estate market in 2026 is not what most people think it is. It's not a buyer's market. It's not a seller's market. It's a split market, and understanding that distinction could save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.

Everyone wants a beach house. That part is easy. The harder part is figuring out whether the beach house you're dreaming about is actually a sound investment or just an expensive way to fund someone else's vacation.

People keep asking me if it's still a good time to sell. My honest answer: yes, but it's not the market we had three years ago, and sellers who walk in thinking it is are the ones getting a rude awakening at the closing table.

The Zestimate is Zillow's automated estimate of what your home is worth, and on paper, it sounds pretty solid. It pulls from tax records, public sales data, square footage, and whatever Zillow can scrape together about your neighborhood. Zillow itself reports a nationwide median error rate for homes that are on the market and 7.22% for off-market homes. Translation: for homes currently listed for sale, the Zestimate lands close to the final price about half the time, and is off by 7.22% or more for off-market homes the other half.

People ask me about my Outer Banks rentals more than almost anything else in my business, and I get it. The idea of owning a beach house that pays for itself sounds like a dream. What nobody tells you upfront is what the actual numbers look like once you're past the Instagram photos and into the spreadsheet.

I own four properties on the Outer Banks managed by Salt Coast by Sojourn, and I've been doing this long enough to know where the real costs hide. So let's talk about what owning a beach rental property actually costs, what it actually earns, and where the math gets uncomfortable if you're not prepared for it.