Raw Honesty And Expert Knowledge Set Clients At Ease With Realtor Jody Buck

“Jody will tell you everything – even things you don’t want to hear. She will tell you the nitty gritty.”

A past client of Severna Park-based Realtor Jody Buck shared these words with friends who were house hunting and felt that they weren’t getting the information they needed from their agent.

Buck errs on the side of sharing more than a client cares to know about a property – from details about the roof and electric panel to approximate costs of renovations and contractor recommendations – so that clients can make educated decisions on what is often the biggest purchase of their life, a home.

As for those clients whom a friend referred?

“They felt like the curtain was pulled back. There were no secrets,” Buck recalled. “We talked about every scenario with this house, everything that could go wrong. We looked at all of the situations, and we really did a deep dive where they felt unbelievably comfortable writing an offer. … They felt more relaxed, and they felt like they were making the best financial decision.”

Buck previously worked as an educator but has been a Realtor for nearly 16 years. She is the team leader of the Key Group of Cummings & Co. Realtors and has two agents who serve the Baltimore area and a transaction coordinator on her team.

As a longtime Severna Park resident, she knows the area well and has extensive experience helping buyers and sellers with all property types, from waterfront to luxury to fixer-uppers, and everything in between. But her distinguishing area of knowledge is renovations.

Prior to changing career paths, Buck had bought and sold a couple of investment properties. Her Realtor asked, “Why don’t you jump into real estate?” And that’s how it all started, she said.

What began with fully renovating a foreclosure in Federal Hill has snowballed into buying a home, living in it for a few years while renovating it, and moving on to the next one for roughly the last two decades. On the side, Buck also buys and renovates investment properties.

“I've always enjoyed the renovation, the design, the before and after. And just walking into a space, I can see … how can we move this? How can we change this to make it flow better?” Buck said.

With many renovation projects has come an intimate knowledge of structural issues, major appliances, plumbing, electrical, and the potential pitfalls that come with older homes.

“Obviously my main job is real estate, helping buyers and sellers. So I’ve tried to combine those worlds a little bit,” Buck said. “If I’m showing houses to a buyer … we’re not pointing out ‘this is a kitchen, this is a bathroom.’ We’re looking at the nitty gritty. I’m looking at the roof telling you what kind of roof it is. … We’re looking at mechanical systems. We’re checking ages, serial numbers for appliances. So when we walk out of a house, we have a really good idea of exactly what is probably going to come up in a home inspection.”

Buck will tell you if a home has aluminum wiring, a recalled electrical panel, or the difference between galvanized and copper plumbing.

She won’t hesitate to talk you out of buying a particular house.

“This is the biggest financial decision you’re going to probably make in your life. It’s one of the biggest. And I can’t live with myself knowing that that didn’t go well for you,” she shared. “I just want clients to have that 100% — not just happiness — but that comfort and that feeling of peace when they walk in their front door – they just really love their home. And two, they always look back and know they made the right decision.”

Clients who are selling their homes receive the same transparency from Buck because she doesn’t view it as a sale; she views it as a partnership. If a client is considering renovations prior to listing their home, she will help determine whether they will get their money back, or if they should sell the home as-is.

Whether the concern is an aging HVAC system or a cosmetic upgrade, Buck will run through numbers with clients and help them find contractors. For new builds or full-gut renovations, she has strong connections with builders including Whitehall Building & Company.

Buyer and seller relationships with Buck don’t end when a sale closes. She will tell you she is your “Realtor for life,” and clients take that to heart. Buck gladly fields inquiries from clients years after a sale and can refer them to professionals from her own “rolodex” of contacts.

“They text me, ‘Hey, I need a plumber,’ ‘My garbage disposal isn’t working.’ I get texts and calls all the time – anything from, ‘We want to put a fence in’ to ‘We’re thinking about a pool’ to ‘I have three outlets that don’t work. Who do you have?’ So, I’m always here,” Buck said.

Because she “lives, works and plays” in the greater Severna Park community, Buck also has great knowledge of the unique communities throughout the area. She weighs not only what her clients want in a house, but also what they want in a neighborhood, and shows them specific properties with their desired lifestyles in mind.

Unfiltered honestly and the unique level of service Buck provides through her expertise in renovations are likely two reasons that 97% of her clients turn to her when they are ready to move again.

A resident of West Severna Park, Buck is married to Severna Park High School varsity baseball coach and physical education teacher Pete Buck, and together they have two children. Riley, 16, is a Falcon sophomore, and Ryan, soon to be 15, is a freshman. As a family, they enjoy boating. Being out on the water is Buck’s “happy place.”

And her job – through unique expertise, great familiarity with the area, and a commitment to being one’s Realtor for life – is to help others in the community find their happy places, too.

To learn more about the Key Group of Cummings & Co. Realtors, email jody@keygroupmd.com or call 410-804-9597.