Valerie Winebrenner | Vice President |
Associate Buyer’s Broker
valerie@buyersagent.com
301-657-1475 (o) 301-775-6737 (c)
Valerie is a licensed broker in Maryland and a graduate of the Real Estate Institute. She has been with the Buyer's Edge for 27 years.
Prior to a career in real estate, Valerie was a registered nurse and is retired from the Army Nurse Corps. She has a master's degree in psychiatric nursing and practiced as a nurse psychotherapist.
Due to her love of architecture, neighborhoods and houses, Valerie chose real estate as her second career. She actively listens to each client's needs and begins an avid, yet patient, pursuit of finding the right home for each client. She combines her skills in interpersonal relations with her knowledge of real estate to assure a smooth, successful home-buying process.
Valerie has lived in the Washington, DC area for 45 years after growing up in Boston. She and her husband live in Howard County, Maryland.
TESTIMONIALS
“We worked with Valerie from the Buyer's Edge for about two months and secured our dream house, thanks to her. Being first-time home buyers, Valerie answered our many questions. Valerie asked great questions to understand our must-haves versus desires in a home. From then, she only sent listings that fit our needs. During open houses and visits, Valerie pointed out many valuable observations to consider (ex., potential problems down the road). Her contract experience was very helpful as she walked us through what each section of the offer meant in layman's terms. In today's competitive market, Valerie used her extensive experience to provide recommendations that solidified our offer as the most competitive offer while staying within our comfort levels. We were able to secure our home due to her advice. Up to closing, Valerie communicated with us continuously to ensure we completed all the documents and other steps in preparation for settlement. What started as a complex, hard-to-understand, and scary process ended with us closing on a house within 30 days, a smooth settlement day, and a home that met all must-haves and desires. Valerie was with us every step of the process. Valerie has astounding professionalism, excellent communication skills, is detail-oriented, and has extensive experience. We would not have gotten the home of our dreams without Valerie, and we could not recommend Valerie and the Buyer's Edge enough. Thank you for all of your hard work!”
Client: Josh and Mia
“When we began our search for the right house that would give us the space to combine our two families, we knew we would need a Buyer’s Agent with the experience to help us navigate the very competitive housing market of 2021. We knew Valerie Winebrenner from a previous homebuying experience. Once again, she was exactly the right agent for us, and we would not have been able to move into the house that we did without her help. We were working within a limited geographical area that further reduced the number of homes we could consider. Valerie helped us prioritize the “must haves” over the “nice to haves” and kept us updated with a list of candidate houses as soon as they hit the market. Valerie kept us focused on our priorities as we visited the homes on our list. We were worried when we found a home that we loved that was at the top of our price range, but Valerie connected us with a lender who sourced a fixed rate loan that easily met our budget. We knew that the house that we were bidding on would receive multiple offers, and Valerie worked with us on coming up with terms that she felt would best meet the needs of the sellers. We were thrilled when our offer was accepted and later found out that while we weren’t the highest offer, we had the best terms for the very opinionated sellers.
Valerie came through again with a set of inspectors who found some issues that would have prevented us from moving forward with the purchase. Valerie negotiated with the sellers and they fixed some of the issues and gave us credit so that we could arrange contractors to address our other concerns.
Even after closing, Valerie helped us through the challenge of keeping the sellers motivated to remove all their belongings from the property. There were a significant number of machines, tools, and vehicles stored in the barn on the property that needed to be moved, and we gave the sellers 45 days after closing to clear everything out. As the day approached and it was evident that the sellers weren’t going to meet the deadline, Valerie worked with us and the sellers on a daily schedule of what needed to be accomplished. Once the sellers’ remaining possessions were finally gone, Valerie ensured that we received the rent back fees that we were entitled to from the settlement agreement.
Valerie is an extremely knowledgeable agent and is a joy to work with. She is an exceptional communicator and always made sure that we knew what we had to do every step of the way. She recommended excellent lenders, inspectors, and contractors to help us through a very complicated home purchase. We give her our highest recommendation and will refer friends and family to use her if they are buying homes in Howard or Montgomery Counties in Maryland.
With happy greetings from our new home,”
Clients: Nat and Alex
“Valerie knocked it out of the park for us. From the start of the process, all the way to closing, and beyond, Valerie made buying our first home as painless as possible. She was incredibly kind and patient with us and went above and beyond the call of duty several times. Most notably when she made calls on our behalf to speed along our credit union who wasn't keeping pace with our closing schedule.
Top-notch communication and a savvy sense of the market were key in navigating a tricky buy. We weren't clueless going into the home buying process, but there were a ton of details that we overlooked or weren't prepared for. Valerie helped us through all of them. The negotiating process in particular is an area we'd have misstepped if not for Valerie. She got us a good price despite competition and negotiated with the sellers to cover our closing costs, which is extra cash on hand we wouldn't have otherwise.
If this is your first time buying a home, you owe it to yourself to hire an exclusive broker. My partner started out our search asking "Why do we need an exclusive buyer broker?" After working with Valerie, she was saying instead: "I'm so glad we hired her. I don't think we could have done this without her."
Clients: Mickey and Megan
“Valerie Winebrenner truly represents what it means to be a buyer's agent. She guided us through each step of the way in buying our first house and protected our interests when dealing with other agents, inspectors, and companies. Valerie's years of experience, practical and compassionate nature, and follow-through made our big decision into a smooth and peaceful process. She gave us great advice that only comes from experience, and helped us to see our purchase as long-term investing. Valerie really got to know us throughout our time together and this personal touch helped us when we got discouraged in our search. She was very easy to work with and talk to, and was always available and attentive to our needs.”
Client: Ann and Robert B.
“I've hired at least six real estate agents in the past and Valerie is by far the best. I have yet to meet an agent that I liked and trusted as much."
Client: Mia
"We hired Valerie Winebrenner as our Real Estate agent to assist us in finding and buying a house in suburban Maryland. This was a very challenging undertaking given our many criteria (price, schools, commutes, etc). The process took several months. Valerie's patience, professionalism, and knowledge of the real estate market in this area helped to make our house search ultimately successfully. We would recommend her without reservation and would use her again if we once again needed to relocate."
Client: Steve and Ann
"My wife and I hired Valerie to help us with the daunting task of finding and purchasing a house. We didn't have a good idea about the type or location of our ideal home, yet Valerie was very accommodating about showing us houses all over Montgomery and Howard County. She gave very honest assessments of each house's strengths and weaknesses and helped us evaluate the best choice for our growing family. Valerie is an excellent negotiator and helped us buy our new home for $30K less than the original asking price. In her role as an exclusive buyer's agent, Valerie represented our interests and made sure we were happy with the outcome of every part of the transaction. We give Valerie our strongest recommendation. Working with her was a true pleasure.”
Client: Nat
”Buyer’s Edge helped us every step of the way in buying our first house. Our agent, Valerie, took the time to understand our needs and walk us through the process. She was very available to us and made buying a house much less overwhelming. Valerie was professional, very knowledgeable of her field, and was able to help us get the house for $14,000 less than the listed price. We’ve even kept in touch after moving in. We would definitely recommend Buyer’s Edge to anyone looking to buy a house in the area.”
Client: Kevin and Allison