insideABODE

Part 1 of 5 of our conversation with Jeremy "Dash" Dashiell, who bought his home through Habitat for Humanity. The full episode is out now on the insideABODE feed.

What does it take to come back after being told no? Dash has been in Tacoma since 1990. He and his brother were adopted by their grandmother, and he's spent years as a counselor in schools across the city. The first time he tried the Habitat for Humanity program, his credit and income verification weren't there yet. So he spent the next three to four years building his credit until he knew the answer would be yes. He talks about why he wanted to own in the first place: to pass down to his kids what his grandmother gave him, "but with more." And Dave on why that part of the story can't get skipped.

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi sit down together and walk through Shelbi's first home purchase, start to close. It took three accepted offers.

Shelbi grew up in Tacoma. She'd been renting, moving more than she wanted to, and dealing with housing costs she couldn't predict. She wanted something solid that was hers, in the place she's from. She took the first-time homebuyer class through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and posted in a private Facebook group that she needed a Realtor. Victoria's business is almost all referrals, but she took a chance and reached out. Shelbi picked her for her energy and how fast she responded.

Then came the hard part. The first house they got under contract needed close to $30,000 of work right away, and the seller's side said no to all of it. The second looked like the one until the inspection found something major under the house. On the offers that didn't get accepted, she was up against buyers with more cash upfront and investors buying to rent or build. That was the part that hurt most: competing for homes in her own city against people who weren't planning to live there.

Victoria walks through her first-time buyer game plan: the pre-approval, why the inspection and sewer scope matter, and why first-time and grant buyers need a house where the major systems won't all need replacing in year one. Her client tells you what it felt like from the other side, including the day two months in when she told Victoria she felt like she was wasting her time. The third accepted offer is the house she owns now. It needed paint and new floors, not a new roof, and she started ripping up carpet the day she got the keys.

And Shelbi's advice for anyone where she was a year ago: it's the person you do it with. "I did not feel like I was a client. I felt like we were in a partnership and we were on a mission together."

For first-time buyers, renters wondering if it's possible, and anyone buying in Tacoma or Pierce County.

MEET THE GUESTS

Victoria Stoughton — Realtor, Windermere Abode
📸 Instagram → @victoriatakestacoma
📞 253-677-1909
✉️ [email protected]

Shelbi Virgil — first-time buyer, Tacoma

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:24 Why Victoria brought this story
2:19 Meet Shelbi: ready to buy
3:52 How they met on Facebook
5:53 Homebuyer class & feeling overwhelmed
6:50 Victoria's first-time buyer process
8:52 Losing out on house after house
11:43 The emotional rollercoaster
14:33 Competing with investors
16:16 Advice for first-time buyers
17:41 What Victoria learned
18:53 Shelbi's DIY remodel
20:42 Best burger in Tacoma
22:44 Wrap-up & how to reach Victoria

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Part 5 of our client story with Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi. The full episode drops tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct 27.

One year after closing, Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton's client Shelbi has advice for first-time buyers: it's the person you do it with. "I did not feel like I was a client. I felt like we were in a partnership and we were on a mission together." Victoria on why first-time buyers are her favorite clients and the grit she respects in them. Then the house itself: good systems, a well-kept former rental that needed paint and new floors, and a new owner sending pictures of what was under the carpet within an hour of closing.

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Part 4 of 4 of our client story with Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi. The full episode drops Tuesday, Oct 27.

Two months of offers, and one day Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton's client Shelbi broke down and told Victoria she felt like she was wasting her time. Victoria told her she'd end up where she was supposed to, a lesson from buying her own home in 2020. Shelbi says the logistics were never the hard part. The hard part was losing houses in the city she grew up in to buyers with more resources, including investors who wanted rentals or land to build on. Victoria on what that's like from the agent's side: "These people aren't even gonna live in this house. I have someone who wants to live in this house and make a life here."

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

From the insideABODE archive: Troy St. George, Executive Vice President at CW Title, on seller impersonation and deed fraud (recorded June 2026).

Can someone sell a property out from under you? Troy explains how fraudsters comb county records for paid-off, non-owner-occupied homes and vacant land, then pose as the owner and try to list them. He covers why the county has to record a deed that's presented in the right format, why a forged deed doesn't actually transfer ownership, and the free alert King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties offer: enter your email and parcel number, and the county notifies you when something records on your property.

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Part 3 of 4 of our client story with Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi. The full episode drops Tuesday, Oct 27.

Getting an offer accepted isn't the finish line. Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton's client Shelbi had three accepted offers go to inspection. On the first, the walkthrough looked fine, and then the inspection found close to $30,000 of work the house needed right away. The other side wouldn't do anything. The second looked like the one until they found something major under the house. Victoria on what a walkthrough can't show you, why that's the whole point of an inspection, and the hardest call an agent has to make: "They're just not willing to do anything. What do you want to do?"

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Part 2 of 4 of our client story with Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi. The full episode drops Tuesday, Oct 27.

What should a first-time buyer know before the first showing? Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton walks through the game plan she used with her client Shelbi, who took the homebuyer class through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and came in pre-approved, and still found it a big life change. The plan covers the pre-approval, why the inspection and the sewer scope matter, who title and escrow are, and the ways a deal can go terribly right or wrong. For first-time and grant buyers she adds the part people miss: look for sweat-equity projects, not a house where every major system needs replacing in year one. Your budget also decides who you're competing against.

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

Part 1 of 4 of our client story with Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi. The full episode drops Tuesday, Oct 27.

How do you pick a Realtor when you post "I need one" and the messages start pouring in? Windermere Abode agent Victoria Stoughton and her client Shelbi on how they found each other. Shelbi grew up in Tacoma, got tired of an unpredictable rental market, and asked a private Facebook group for help. Victoria's business is almost all referrals, but she took a chance and reached out. Shelbi talked to a few agents and went with the one who had the best energy and was actually part of the conversation. Plus Victoria on why first-time buyers are her favorite clients, and Dave on why people who grow up here should be able to buy here.

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

What are the top five things you need to know about living in East Tacoma? Abode broker Melo Hogan lives there, and she answers like a neighbor, not a brochure.

She starts with the people — the kind of neighbors who'll strike up a conversation with someone they just met. Then the small businesses around McKinley Hill: Dusty's Hideaway, the Filipino-Latin fusion spot El Lechon Loco, and a Mexican market pop-up off East 72nd where she went for elotes and came home with a puppy. Reason four is the one commuters care about: 38th Street gets you downtown, Portland Avenue gets you onto I-5 north, and the Amtrak and Sounder at the Tacoma Dome are about five minutes away, depending on where you live. Reason five is how her family spends its time — volunteering at Eloise's Cooking Pot food bank and the community center off Portland Avenue, something they've done since 2015.

Then the story underneath it. Melo came to the US from the Philippines, landed in California, and found her way to East Tacoma — and after most of her adult life there, it's home. Dave and Melo get into why Tacoma still feels like a small town even as it grows, and the episode closes with a rapid-fire round: Practical Magic 2, empanadas from El Parche, a hot take about puppies, and the finger rule for perfect rice.

For anyone moving to Tacoma or Pierce County, buyers comparing neighborhoods, and locals who already know.

MEET THE GUEST

Melo Hogan — Broker, Windermere Abode
📸 Instagram → @melohogan.realtor
🌐 melohogan.com
📞 253-304-8058

CHAPTERS
0:00 Top 5 things to know about East Tacoma
1:31 #1 The people
1:54 #2 Small businesses on McKinley Hill
3:04 #3 The Mexican market pop-up off East 72nd
3:36 #4 Getting around: 38th St, I-5, Sounder & Amtrak
4:34 #5 Volunteering and community
5:15 From the Philippines to East Tacoma
6:20 Tacoma's small-town feel
7:53 Moving here? Who to call
8:36 Rapid fire: movie, food, hot take
10:07 Rice with every meal
10:47 The finger rule for perfect rice
13:06 How to reach Melo

#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #EastTacoma #EastsideTacoma #McKinleyHill #MovingToTacoma #TacomaNeighborhoods

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode
🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com
😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com
🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com
🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms

In this episode of insideABODE, host Dave Jones revisits a conversation from the archive.

🔁 A Throwback Thursday re-release. Originally recorded August 2019.

Jessica Knicely talks candidly about being pregnant while running a real estate business — and the systems she and Ryan put in place to make the transition survivable.

This one is less strategy and more honesty: what the trimesters actually did to her working life, which hacks were worth it, and where she decided to just let things go. Real estate doesn't pause for anyone, and agents rarely talk out loud about how they manage that.

If you're in it now, you'll pick up something practical. If you're past it, it's a trip down memory lane. And if you manage agents, it's a useful window into what your people are navigating while still answering their phone on a Saturday.

For working parents, agents building a business around a family, and anyone curious what the balancing act actually looks like.

🏡 Looking to buy, sell, or just talk Pierce County real estate?

Visit Windermere Abode at www.windermereabode.com — Tacoma's local brokerage with agents who actually know this market.

#InsideAbode #Tacoma #TacomaRealEstate #PierceCounty #WindermereAbode #PNW #RealEstatePodcast #WorkingMom #RealEstateAgent #WorkLifeBalance #TacomaRealEstate #AgentLife

📲 FOLLOW & CONNECT:

📸 Follow us on Instagram → @windermereabode

🌐 Visit us online → windermereabode.com

😍 Go crush on a house → abodecrush.com

🏠 Read more on fair housing → tacomafairhousing.com

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🎙️ Listen to the insideABODE Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms