Her Story
About Alicia
I developed an interest in real estate in my mid-20s through late night infomercials, back before the internet and social media were a thing. I became an early house hacker before it was even called that, buying a two-family property that my first husband and I occupied. I wanted to understand how mortgages worked, so I got into the mortgage business in the early 2000s and brokered loans for about 3 years. While doing that, I started getting referrals from a flipper and began flipping properties full-time for several years until the market crashed in late 2007. I got my real estate license in 2008 when many people were leaving the business, and I chose to pursue investors rather than retail clients. I ended up working with a lot of cash buyers, both individual and institutional, who were purchasing foreclosures. I sold over 60 homes my first year and earned Rookie of the Year for Coldwell Banker nationally, though the commissions were very low on those distressed properties. I developed a reputation as an investor agent, which was rare at the time. Now I lead a small team at eXp Realty that focuses on investor-friendly transactions, house hacking, midterm rentals, and helping non-traditional sellers like estates, downsizing clients, and distressed homeowners maximize their equity. I have close to 1,500 recorded sales and work with two agents, two admins, and my husband who got his license to help fill in the gaps. I maintain a boutique team approach so I can ensure quality control and provide strategic support on every transaction.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alicia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to tenacity. When I started in the business, I was a new single mom with 3 young kids, so sometimes when you have no other choice, that helps - there's no place to put the energy but into work. But I also actually love real estate, and I think anybody with a long career in anything probably has to remind themselves why they got into it in the first place sometimes. There's never a dull moment, and just when you think you've seen it all, there's always a new and surprising issue or character in your life for a short period of time. It challenges my mind to come up with solutions. I love that it's not the same over and over. Whether it's a creative solution in a flip that my client might need help with, or negotiation tactics to help us get what we need from the other side, I love that about it. The market, especially on the investor side, there's always a strategy that's going to work, it just changes with the market. It's just never dull, and I can't imagine ever not doing it at all.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think real estate is a wonderful career for women because you can arrange your lifestyle around the career, and it flexes with different phases of your life, whether that's travel, family, or whatever that might be. I think it allows for that more, especially when women want to figure out how to be a mom and have a career. Most people think traditional real estate means working all weekends and doing open houses, but I had small children, 7 and under at the time, and I was able to choose an aspect of the business that enabled me to make all of that work a lot better. Now, even more so with technology, you can work remote, have flexible days, use showing agents, or whatever it is - you can creatively maintain that. I love all the entry points. Some people can start as leasing agents, or be a showing agent for a team, and then transition into different aspects of the business. There's no real ceiling on how much you can make, and if you want to build a team or expand in different areas, you can. If somebody travels back and forth a lot, you can get your license in that other state. It's very flexible, even for retirement - somebody could be a showing agent. I just love that about this business, and you don't lose the utility of any knowledge that you've accumulated.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think transparency is the first thing that comes to mind. You can't make honest decisions based on information if you don't have real information. Both personally and professionally, it's not a good idea to conceal things. For example, with our out-of-town investors, I'm not going to hide what's around the house - I'm going to show them honestly. Honesty and transparency are probably the number one thing. And then to be reliable, both professionally and personally - that's one of the reasons I put a small team in place. I see a lot of situations on the other side where somebody's not able to reach their agent, and sometimes I get a call from somebody because they're taking matters into their own hands because they haven't been able to get information. I think it's important just to be reliable, to know that there's somebody else they can reach if I'm going to be out or the other agent's going to be out. That all hands on deck approach is very important to me. It's important that the client knows that their goal and their transaction doesn't stop because somebody has a situation personally, whether it's illness or a personal situation or vacation. So I would put those two at the top - honesty slash transparency and reliability.
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