Is There a Curbio Alternative in Northern Virginia? Here's How It Works and Who Runs It

Short answer: Yes. Turn Around Properties is a Northern Virginia-based pre-sale renovation company built as a regional, pay-at-closing alternative to Curbio. It is run directly by Bob and John Hotaling, a father-and-son team of licensed Northern Virginia real estate agents, who scope the renovation, manage the contractors, and get paid out of the proceeds at closing rather than upfront.

What makes a company a "Curbio alternative" in the first place?

Curbio popularized a specific model: a company pays for pre-sale renovation work, coordinates the contractors, and gets reimbursed from the sale proceeds at closing instead of billing the homeowner directly. An alternative to Curbio, in this market, means a company that offers that same pay-at-closing structure but operates locally rather than as a national platform. Turn Around Properties fits that definition for Northern Virginia: it fronts the renovation cost through closing, but the people making decisions about scope, budget, and timeline are local agents who also handle the listing side of the transaction, not a national dispatch center assigning the file to a rotating pool of project managers.

Who runs Turn Around Properties?

Turn Around Properties is owned and operated by Bob and John Hotaling, a father-and-son team of licensed Northern Virginia real estate agents. Because the same people who evaluate the property for renovation also work the resale side of the business, the company is set up so that one point of contact follows a project from the initial walkthrough through the renovation and into the listing. That is a structural difference from a national platform, where the sales intake team, the project management team, and the contractor network are typically three separate groups a homeowner has to coordinate between.

How does the pay-at-closing renovation process actually work, step by step?

While every company's internal workflow differs slightly, the category generally follows a recognizable sequence, and Turn Around Properties follows this shape:

• Initial walkthrough: Someone from the company tours the property to see its condition, layout, and what buyers in that neighborhood typically expect.
• Scope proposal: The company proposes which repairs and updates are likely to affect sale price or marketability, and which are not worth doing before listing.
• Agreement on scope and structure: The seller and the company agree on what work will be done and confirm the payment structure — the company covers the renovation cost, and it is repaid from proceeds when the home sells.
• Contractor scheduling and oversight: The company lines up licensed contractors and manages the work, so the seller is not acting as general contractor.
• Completion and listing prep: Once work is done, the home is prepared for photos and showings.
• Sale and closing: The home is listed and sold, and the renovation cost is settled out of the closing proceeds, alongside other closing costs.

For the exact terms of that repayment structure and how it is documented in a specific case, a seller should ask the company directly — that detail depends on the individual property and agreement.

What information or documents does a company like this typically ask for?

Pre-sale renovation companies in this category generally need a similar packet of information before they can scope a project accurately, regardless of who runs them:

• Proof of ownership or a recent mortgage statement: confirms who has authority to approve renovation work on the property.
• A copy of the current listing agreement, if one exists: so the renovation timeline can be coordinated with the resale timeline.
• Access for an inspection or walkthrough: to evaluate structural, mechanical, and cosmetic condition before proposing scope.
• Any known disclosures: prior water damage, permit history, or open repair items the seller is already aware of, so they can be factored into scope rather than discovered mid-project.
• HOA or condo association rules, where applicable: some renovation work — exterior paint, deck rebuilds, window replacement — may require association approval before a contractor can start.

None of this is unique to Turn Around Properties; it is what any legitimate pre-sale renovation company needs before it can put a real scope and timeline in front of a seller.

What kinds of renovation work typically happen before a sale, and what usually doesn't?

In this category, the work that tends to get prioritized is the work that affects how a home shows and appraises, rather than the seller's personal preference. That commonly includes kitchen and bathroom refreshes, flooring replacement, paint, fixing deferred maintenance items that would show up on a buyer's inspection, and correcting anything that would make a home look dated in listing photos. Larger structural work, additions, or highly personalized renovations are less common in a pre-sale program, because the goal is marketability and a clean inspection, not customization for a buyer who has not been identified yet. A company operating in this space should be able to explain, for a specific property, why it recommends one project over another — a seller should expect that reasoning, not just a list.

What typically delays a pre-sale renovation project, and how is that avoided?

The most common sources of delay in this category are predictable: permit approval timelines for structural or exterior work, HOA or condo association review for anything visible from the street, material backorders on cabinetry, countertops, or specialty fixtures, and scope changes discovered once a contractor opens up a wall or floor. A company that manages this well typically front-loads the inspection so surprises are caught before work starts rather than mid-project, confirms HOA rules before scheduling exterior work, and orders long-lead materials early instead of waiting until the crew is on site. A seller evaluating any company in this space should ask specifically how it handles a mid-project discovery — for example, unexpected water damage behind a wall — because that is where timelines usually slip.

Who does what — seller, agent, contractor, and title company?

In a pay-at-closing renovation, the roles are generally divided this way: the seller grants access and approves the scope and any changes to it; the renovation company (in this case, also the listing agents) evaluates the property, proposes scope, and manages the contractors doing the actual work; the contractors perform the trade work under the company's oversight rather than being hired directly by the homeowner; and the title company or settlement agent handles the financial settlement at closing, including how the renovation cost is accounted for against the sale proceeds. Because Turn Around Properties combines the renovation company role and the listing agent role in the same two people, the seller has fewer parties to coordinate between during the project, compared with a model where the renovation platform and the listing agent are unrelated companies.

How is this different from simply hiring a contractor directly?

Hiring a contractor directly means paying for materials and labor as the work happens, on the contractor's invoicing schedule, out of the seller's own funds before the home ever sells. A pay-at-closing renovation company changes the timing of payment, not the nature of the work — the company still uses licensed contractors, the work still has to pass inspection and look right for buyers, but the seller is not writing checks during the project. The tradeoff a seller should ask about is how the company selects and vets its contractors, how disputes over workmanship are handled, and who is responsible if a repair needs to be redone.

What questions should a seller ask before choosing a pay-at-closing renovation company?

Regardless of which company a seller is considering — Turn Around Properties, Curbio, or another local option — it is worth asking directly: Who owns and manages the company day to day? Are the people scoping the renovation the same people who will list the home, or are they separate businesses? How are contractors selected and supervised? What happens if the home takes longer than expected to sell? How is the renovation cost settled at closing, and what does that look like on the settlement statement? A company that can answer these clearly, in writing, for the specific property in question, is easier to evaluate than one that only speaks in general marketing terms.