The WOW Experience
Our Mission: To empower clients with a WOW experience by providing the highest level of friendly, professional service, counsel and real estate market expertise with the most effective and proven marketing & negotiating strategies, using the latest technology to have the most powerful raving fan experience possible...guaranteed! Our goal is to raise the bar for real estate agents and be on the leading edge of innovation in the real estate industry. We are that unexpected breath of fresh air for our clients when they realize they can trust their home buying or selling experience to Upham Real Estate and know that we will help them maximize the return on their largest investment!
Our Vision: We're making Alexandria, Virginia the best place in the world to live, work and play...one house at a time! We're creating a legacy with a lasting, positive impact in the Alexandria community, satisfying thousands of clients and enriching countless lives by delivering the absolute best real estate service available!
We Believe: That home buyers and sellers will make the real estate decisions that are best for their needs, when the timing is right and when they have carefully reviewed all their options.
These Seller & Buyer pitfalls cost people tens of thousands of dollars...don't fall into the same traps!
Top 5 Most Costly Seller Mistakes
Top 5 Most Costly Buyer Mistakes
Awards: Top 1% of Real Estate Agents Worldwide
2010 - International President's Circle
2009 - International President's Elite
2008 - International President's Club
2007 - President's Club
Chris' Background: My professional career started with 12 years in the military as an architect/engineer and financial manager. I use this background to help home buyers and sellers achieve their real estate goals by ensuring their purchase or sale stays on track, focused on their criteria and honors their comfortable budget.
As the Chief Administrative Officer for the 2-star admiral in charge of an $825 million dollar annual operating budget and over $21 billion in capital assets, I gained the management skills necessary to excel in a fast paced environment. Later, serving as a White House Military Social Aide, I had the amazing opportunity to work with all the top names in the public and private sectors.
My passion for real estate really began to grow during the two years the military sent me to graduate school. I earned my real estate license and started helping buyers and sellers on Capitol Hill. Since then I've helped hundreds of buyers and sellers with their real estate needs.
With a Masters of Engineering Management concentrating on Economics and Finance from The George Washington University, I am a true professional who takes pride in being responsive to your needs. A licensed REALTOR in DC, MD & VA dedicated to continual improvement, I have been named in the top 1% of all agents in the United States. My goal is to help expertly guide you through the process of selling or buying your home.
Long time Alexandria residents, my wife Julie and I had our first date at a restaurant on King Street in Old Town followed by a stroll down to the waterfront under a full moon - Old Town is the ultimate destination for a romantic evening! Connor, our 100lb pup is excited for his new adventure as big brother to our new son, Daniel.
Our Philosophy: FOR HOME BUYERS - I believe that buyers will make the right decision for themselves, when the time is right and when they believe they have seen all their options. This allows me to create a no-pressure environment where I serve as your credible advisor guiding you through each step of the process. Some agents want to speed through the process and pressure you to buy one of the first few homes you see. My buyers often see 40-60 homes before making an offer, though I've recently had a buyer that saw over 110 homes before finding the right home. I believe that this is part of the education phase where a buyer really narrows in on the "must have" and "nice-to-have" features of their home while learning what the market has to offer in their price range.
Some buyers still think that the value of the Realtor is in being the first to locate their next dream home, a throw back to the days when the only source of listings was booklets the agents held that were updated monthly. My buyers are tech savvy professionals and I've provided you all the tools and full access to all the MLS listing data necessary for you to drink straight from the source yourself. When you search for homes on my website, you are searching tens of thousands of listings from every brokerage firm (Prudential, Re/Max, Weichert, McEnearney, etc...) as well as bank owned foreclosures and For Sale By Owners. One of the biggest complaints buyers have about their agents is that the Realtor took them to homes they didn't want to see - with my system, you tell me exactly which homes you want to see when you click the "schedule showing appointment" button on a listing.
The single most important reason why buyers should have a Buyer's Agent is so that they have a professional representing their interests and guiding them through all the hoops and hurdles of the process. Every single transaction can and does have things that go wrong. You need an expert on your side that walks through the home buying process numerous times each month and knows the right tactical and strategic move for every situation.
If you're ready to move forward on with buying a home, please give me a call at (202) 359-1308 or email cupham@cbmove.com and we'll schedule a time to sit down to discuss the home buying process and develop a strategy tailored for your needs.
Our Philosophy: FOR SELLERS - I keep hearing about the "slow market" but really I think the problem is with "slow agents" and sellers that don't use the best strategy to get the highest price for their home. Most agents have an approach to listing a home where they place it on the market, post it in the MLS and put a sign out front, then slowly ramp up the marketing on an "as needed" basis. They expect the house will take months to sell, so they plan and act accordingly.
I have a different approach. I work with the seller to get the house into the best condition possible paying for a consultation with a professional home staging expert, price the home correctly and then create a marketing blitz to drive traffic through the home. The single best strategy for getting the highest possible price for your home is to create a marketing scenario where the buyers believe your house is a good value for the price, location, size and amenities, create a sense of urgency with the buyers and create a multiple bid situation. If you have more than 2-3 buyers bidding on your property, they will make their highest and best offers, not some low ball offer. When a house has been on the market much over 30 days, buyers start to smell blood and will make lowball offers.
Although there are many strategies for pricing a home, I believe the single best strategy for achieving the highest possible sales price is by using the "action" price - which is the price where the buyer pool becomes energized and will do whatever it takes to get the property. If the seller has priced the home at the correct "action" price I will often receive several phone calls from buyers before the first weekend asking if they can submit an offer immediately before the deadline. I tell them that they are welcome to submit the offer, but that the seller is going to wait until the property has had full exposure to the market over the weekend. Then, with each subsequent buyer that calls I can tell them that we already have offers registered on the property and that if they plan to submit an offer it had better be their best and highest!
It is not unusual, even in this "slow market", for the best properties to receive multiples offers and sell in the first couple weeks on the market. But this only happens when a the seller employs the "action" pricing strategy. As the seller, when you have received multiple competing offers on your home, you can feel confident that your home is selling for the highest possible sales price. Sure, you could leave your home on the market for several more months like all the other sellers and agents do, but you will never receive a better offer than the highest and best offer made in a bidding war within the first couple weeks the home is on the market.
Every seller wants to get the highest price for their home, and so do I. Most sellers think that the best way to do that is to price their home a little on the high side and be ready to accept a lower offer. The problem with this is that they get less traffic through their home, which means the property sits on the market longer, which always yields low ball offers. The single best strategy for getting the highest price for your home is to create excitement within the buyer pool where they compete to get your home.
I specialize in creating competitive bidding situations for homes and selling them for the highest possible price. But, I can only do this for sellers that trust my experience about setting the list price for the home. If you only want to put your home on the market and let it sit for months, please call any other agent. If you actually want to sell your home for the highest possible price, then contact me at (202) 359-1308 or via email cupham@cbmove.com.
