real estate

It didn’t take long after the merger of two high-profile Realty firms into one powerhouse brokerage to become a dominating force in regional — particularly Arlington — real estate.

Last year Rosslyn-based Optimé Realty sold more volume in Northern Virginia — more than $220 million — than any other realty team combined, says Dan Lesniak, founder of Orange Line Living. That accounts for 369 homes bought and sold in the market with the Keri Shull Team, headed by prominent realtor Shull.

A home inspector needs to be knowledgeable in everything between the foundation of a house and the roof. They need to be willing to cram into creepy, dark crawl spaces looking for compromising cracks, and they often need to climb onto dangerously high roofs to check chimney masonry at the topmost point, something many home inspectors decline to do.

Ed Snope, the sole proprietor of Arlington’s Atlas Home Inspection, has been doing all those things, and everything in between, for three years. His business is the culmination of more than 30 years in all aspects of home building, beginning when he was a teenager learning the fine points of landscape construction with a contractor.