After losing an accounting job in New York during the 2008 crash, Temi Akojie entered real estate in Prince George’s County, where short sales, foreclosures and distressed homes shaped the way she now advises buyers across Maryland, D.C. and Virginia.
The 2008 Crash Became Temie Akojie’s Training Ground
Temi Akojie did not become a Prince George’s County real estate agent in an easy market. She entered the business in October 2008, after losing her job as an auditor in New York, moving to Maryland within a month and starting real estate school two days after she arrived. Her real estate career began while homeowners, lenders and agents were still trying to understand how far the housing market had fallen.
“I got in during the 2008 market crash,” Akojie said.
Before real estate, Akojie had chosen accounting because her school did not offer a real estate degree. Even then, she stayed close to the industry by auditing real estate companies. When the accounting job disappeared, she did not treat real estate as a fallback. She moved toward the field she had already wanted to enter.
The timing made that start difficult. Prince George’s County, Maryland, was not dealing with a normal slowdown. Akojie said local economic development leaders told her the county was No. 1 in Maryland for short sales and foreclosures at the time, ahead of Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
“Yeah, it was really hard. There’s no other way to describe it,” Akojie said. “It was super hard, really, really hard.”
That period still shapes how she works. Her advice to buyers today does not come from a smooth market cycle. It comes from distressed homes, delayed closings, uncertain paychecks and deals that could fall apart at the last moment.
Prince George’s County Taught Her Real Estate the Hard Way
Akojie’s early real estate education happened in a county under pressure. Short sales were not quick transactions. They could take three months, six months or nine months, and even then, some never closed.
“If you’re doing a short sale, it could take six months to get paid if you get paid at all,” Akojie said.
For a new agent, that meant uncertainty was part of the job. A bank could delay approval. A loan servicer could change. A title issue could slow the transaction. A property condition problem could change the buyer’s risk overnight. In foreclosure deals, Akojie said an agent could be close to settlement and still see the transaction thrown into question.
That kind of market trained her to look beyond the visible parts of a real estate deal. The showing, the offer and the closing table mattered, but they were never the whole story. The deeper work involved lender timelines, property condition, contract protections, insurance issues and whether the buyer truly understood the cost of moving forward.
Prince George’s County also gave Akojie a long view of local change. She lives there now, but her ties to the county go back further. She attended middle school, high school and part of elementary school there before working in New York and later returning to Maryland.
When she came back in 2008, she became involved in economic development conversations that shaped how she understood the county’s future. She remembers local leaders speaking bluntly about where Prince George’s County stood.
“They said we are #1 in basically all the wrong ways,” Akojie said.
That honesty mattered to her. She saw a county trying to move from distress toward stronger infrastructure, better planning and more useful amenities. She remembers when Prince George’s County did not have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. She watched those additions arrive in areas such as Hyattsville and College Park, and she points to Wegmans near Glenarden, Upper Marlboro and the Largo Metro area as another sign of long-planned growth.
Distressed Properties Built Her Eye for Risk
The clearest image from Akojie’s early career is not a closing table. It is a pair of boots in her car.
One of her first clients was close to buying a vacant home when a pipe burst in the basement on the day of closing. At first, the buyer thought insurance might resolve the damage. Then they learned the home’s vacancy created coverage issues, and the property eventually went to foreclosure. Akojie still remembers how close the buyer came to inheriting a costly problem.
The experience changed what she looked for in homes. In a market full of distressed and vacant properties, she could not evaluate a house only by its layout, finishes or price. A home could look like an opportunity and still carry expensive problems beneath the surface.
“I had to have boots in my car,” Akojie said.
The boots were practical, not metaphorical. Akojie said she would walk into homes during showings and find that a property was actively flooding, sometimes before the listing agent knew what was happening. In one case, she went into the basement in high boots to turn off the water because it had risen so far.
That history shows up in how she evaluates homes today. When buyers walk into a property, they may focus on how the home feels. Akojie looks at the systems and signals buyers often miss: the HVAC system, the hot water system, the crawl space, cracks in the walls and other signs that may need to be addressed before an offer is written.
Her approach is not fear-based. It is risk-aware. Distressed properties taught her that a buyer needs more than enthusiasm to make a sound decision. They need someone willing to look at the parts of the home that do not photograph well.
Strategic Service Areas Protect the Client Experience
Akojie is licensed in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, but she does not use that as permission to chase every deal across the region. She chose where to live in Prince George’s County because she wanted access to all three jurisdictions. From her location, she said she can reach Washington, D.C., in about 18 minutes and Virginia in less than 30 minutes.
“I was strategic,” Akojie said.
Her practical service area is about an hour from where she lives. In Maryland, that includes Prince George’s, Howard, Montgomery, Anne Arundel and northern Charles County. In Virginia, it includes areas such as Fairfax County and Woodbridge. She also serves Washington, D.C., while recognizing that not every neighborhood or submarket should be handled the same way.
That boundary matters in the DMV. A license may allow an agent to work across broad geography, but that does not mean the agent can properly advise a buyer in every pocket of Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. Akojie is direct when a search moves into an area where she needs support from her team or another local expert.
“I asked the question, do you want it the best that I can do it or do you want it the best it can be done?” Akojie said.
That line captures her operating philosophy. She remains the center of the client relationship, but she does not pretend that trust requires pretending to know everything. In a region where buyers may compare a Washington, D.C., condo, a Prince George’s County single-family home and a Northern Virginia property, that honesty protects the buyer from a false sense of coverage.
It also reflects the skill she believes matters now. Buyers can find neighborhood information online, but online research does not replace transaction judgment. Akojie uses her team, lender relationships, estimate sheets and contract review to fill the gaps a search result cannot solve.
Buyer Preparation Starts Before the First Showing
Akojie’s process with first-time homebuyers starts before the buyer walks through a home. She begins with questions, then connects buyers with lenders early so they can understand what they can afford before they build expectations around the wrong price point.
For Maryland first-time homebuyer clients, that early financing work matters because the cost of buying can change by county. Akojie said closing costs in Prince George’s County can differ from Montgomery County or Anne Arundel County because taxes vary. That is why she wants estimate sheets before buyers make offers, especially when they need closing cost assistance.
Her lender recommendations also depend on the buyer’s goal. Some buyers need lender-based down payment assistance or first-time homebuyer products available in Maryland. Some want the lowest interest rate possible. Some need to compare banks that offer different grant or loan-based assistance options. Akojie does not treat every buyer as if the same lender or product fits.
That distinction is especially important with assistance products. Akojie explains that some first-time buyer products are loans, and some may come with higher interest rates or repayment terms. Buyers need to know whether the money reduces their upfront cost, changes their monthly payment or creates an obligation later.
The same preparation carries into the offer. Akojie wants buyers pre-approved, through the buyer consultation and signed to a buyer agency agreement before they tour seriously. Once a buyer likes a property, she gathers facts before writing: a call with the listing agent, a review of comparable sales and an estimate sheet from the lender so the buyer can see taxes, monthly payment and cash needed.
She also teaches buyers what protects them in the contract. That may include the HOA addendum, home inspection contingency, appraisal contingency and financing contingency. For Akojie, those are not paperwork details. They are the tools that help a buyer understand when they can move forward, renegotiate or walk away.
Hard Markets Create the Skills Easy Markets Hide
Akojie’s career began with short sales, foreclosures, vacant homes and uncertain closings. Today, the market looks different, but the habits from that period remain central to how she advises buyers across Prince George’s County, Washington, D.C., and nearby Virginia markets.
She still focuses on preparation before speed. She still looks for risk before a buyer becomes attached. She still explains financing and closing costs before the offer. She still limits her service area intentionally, even while holding licenses across three jurisdictions. And she still sees Prince George’s County not only as a housing market, but as a place whose growth, infrastructure and buyer behavior must be understood in context.
For newer agents, the lesson is not to avoid hard transactions. It is to learn from them carefully, because difficult deals expose the parts of real estate that easy markets can hide: property condition, lender timing, client expectations, contract protection and the discipline to say when another expert should be involved.
That is the thread from 2008 to now. Akojie’s expertise was not inherited or handed to her in a clean market. It was built through hard deals, distressed properties and a county that forced her to learn what can go wrong before she could advise clients on how to move forward.
Her rule for buyers comes directly from that experience.
“If you rush in real estate, you tend to make mistakes and if you make a mistake in real estate, it tends to cost you money,” Akojie said.
For buyers in Prince George’s County and across the DMV, that is the practical value of an agent shaped by a hard market. Akojie does not just know how to open the door. She knows why the basement, the lender, the contract, the county taxes and the service area can matter just as much as the house itself.
Want to connect with Temi? You can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn, or send her an email directly.
