Embark on an emotional and enlightening odyssey with Lilia, a real estate virtuoso from Northern Virginia, as she unveils the tapestry of her life, interwoven with the threads of authentic client connections and an unshakeable commitment to service. Throughout our conversation, you'll discover the transformative power of treating business transactions like burgeoning friendships, and how Lilia's unexpected detour from nutrition to the nexus of real estate has shaped her philosophy on life and work. Her anecdotes of community engagement, the juggle of motherhood and entrepreneurship, and the pearls of wisdom she imparts to fellow business owners struggling with marketing, are bound to inspire and resonate with anyone looking to forge deeper, more meaningful professional relationships.
Amidst the narrative of her career, Lilia doesn't shy away from the darker shades that color the real estate canvas, notably the importance of realtor safety and the pragmatic measures she takes to protect herself. You'll gain insight into the supportive scaffolding of family that underpins Lilia's success and her aspirations for her children's future, enveloped in a zest for travel and shared adventures that transcend the ordinary. And as we navigate the contours of staying kind in the face of adversity, Lilia stands as a beacon of positivity, offering her contact details for those eager to connect and learn from her real estate acumen and life experiences.
Embark on an emotional and enlightening odyssey with Lilia, a real estate virtuoso from Northern Virginia, as she unveils the tapestry of her life, interwoven with the threads of authentic client connections and an unshakeable commitment to service. Throughout our conversation, you'll discover the transformative power of treating business transactions like burgeoning friendships, and how Lilia's unexpected detour from nutrition to the nexus of real estate has shaped her philosophy on life and work. Her anecdotes of community engagement, the juggle of motherhood and entrepreneurship, and the pearls of wisdom she imparts to fellow business owners struggling with marketing, are bound to inspire and resonate with anyone looking to forge deeper, more meaningful professional relationships.
Amidst the narrative of her career, Lilia doesn't shy away from the darker shades that color the real estate canvas, notably the importance of realtor safety and the pragmatic measures she takes to protect herself. You'll gain insight into the supportive scaffolding of family that underpins Lilia's success and her aspirations for her children's future, enveloped in a zest for travel and shared adventures that transcend the ordinary. And as we navigate the contours of staying kind in the face of adversity, Lilia stands as a beacon of positivity, offering her contact details for those eager to connect and learn from her real estate acumen and life experiences.
I'm a real estate agent and I've been with Wigert Röhlter since 2009. I reside in Haymarket. However, I'm a longtime Northern Virginia native. I grew up here. My family moved out here in 1982. They still live really close by. I live really close by to them. Raised kids here, love Northern Virginia Awesome.
Speaker 2:I see you brought some of your little marketing base here. They look very clever. Tell me about them.
Speaker 1:So every real estate transaction that I do, I'm very vested and it is as though I'm in a relationship with you. So I have the little heart relationship status. You just listed with Ilya or you just bought with Ilya. By the end of this, we mainly become friends. I don't want to say that word or use that loosely, but that's actually how I feel throughout the transaction that I've created a friendship and a nice dynamic with the people that I work with.
Speaker 2:I love that. Why is that so important for you that it's not just a transaction?
Speaker 1:I just really want to help people and make sure that they feel cared for. I'm a very customer service oriented type person and I really appreciate when I feel the love and respect from people that I work with, so I just want to pass that on as well. And that also speaks to the people that I align myself with, because I'm not on an island by myself. None of us can do our jobs just by ourselves. So people that I align myself with also are very high customer service as well, and so then at the end of this, everybody feels like they had a really great experience. I love that. Yeah, can you tell?
Speaker 2:me your story a little bit about you as a child and how you got here to this point.
Speaker 1:Oh god, I was born by a C-section. Oh wow. Ok, thanks for that. We'll start from the very beginning. No, I actually just grew up in Northern Virginia. I went to Virginia Tech to study actually Human Nutrition, foods and Exercise, wow. And then I decided junior year that I hated it and I wasn't going to swerve. I hated it why? Because you have to keep people alive.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a big responsibility there.
Speaker 1:I worked in a hospital and I was like, oh no, if I feed this person sodium, they're not going to make it, yeah. So I didn't love that whole. I don't know, it was too much, it wasn't my thing. Also, I'm really bad at science, so I don't know why I selected something that was not really going to suit my brain. So, anyway, I graduated, I got my first sales job at USA Today I was selling advertising space, so that was my first job. And then I got married, got pregnant, stayed at home and I was a stay-at-home mom for five years.
Speaker 1:Ok, and a huge priority for me is my kids and making sure that they are cared for, and I was always present for them. So I knew that one day I would have to support myself. I saw things weren't going in a direction that was positive, so I did get my real estate license and it turned out to be such a great fit for me. I'm a very people person kind of oriented, and community service is very important to me as well. So through my community outreach and projects that I was involved in, I developed a large network and which, in turn, helped my business. Awesome, I love that. What?
Speaker 2:kind of charities or nonprofits do you like to help out?
Speaker 1:Well, actually for my community. I served on the board of directors for Dominion Valley, which is located in Haymarket. I did that for five years. I was in elementary school, a Girl Scout troop leader, soccer coach, baseball team manager, created community cleanup project things for our neighborhood. Yeah, so I worked for the Haymarket, well, volunteered for the Haymarket food pantry. I just really Girl Scouts.
Speaker 2:I think I heard somewhere about it. Yeah, girl Scouts, I love that.
Speaker 1:Girl Scout troop leader. Yep, that was something, I love it. It was actually really cool.
Speaker 2:My daughter still talks about things that we Was she in it while you were the leader? Oh yeah, she was. I'm sure she has special memories with you on that she does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she actually developed a big set of life skills. Just from the experiences that she was involved in by way of seeing how I operated and things that we put her in, I'm sure she was also like that's my mom. Well, she was there. No, oh, my god, she actually like that. Now I think that she appreciates me. She sees how hard I worked. I support the kids on my own. I don't get assistance. I'm paying for Ava's college. At this point I'm prepared to pay for my son's schooling, so they see what I've accomplished. So I think that Ava at this point does appreciate it. But that's a slow build up for that, because kids don't. I mean, it's just stuff is there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff is there for them. You're totally right about that. Now, since you're a marketing queen, do you have any tips or advice for any business owners listening who are struggling on that end, whether it's with social media? Or just things in general with marketing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm actually, at this point, having a hard time keeping up with what's going on, like the Instagram Reels and all the other stuff.
Speaker 1:Like I'm sorry, but I don't think it's fun to point at a screen at nothing and then words I can't, I can't. So I think what I will say if that works for some people, hit it, do it, do it, yeah. But I'm very authentic to my personality and how I like to portray myself. So you know, just find what works for your own personality. And in regards to social media, you know, don't get too spun up in what everyone else is doing, because we all fall into that vortex. You know? Just, yeah, yeah, we built it.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, you're like what is everyone else doing? So don't get too wrapped up in that and just find what works for you and then do what you need to do.
Speaker 2:That's great advice. Yeah, do you do any dancing yet, like dancing in people's houses or like showing stuff? Okay, and then you go to the pointing stuff, but dancing so silly that you asked that because five years ago, do you remember that song?
Speaker 1:Well, of course you do, kiki, do you love? Me no, no no, okay, you remember that trend where people I don't remember what it was, but something inspired me to. This is before, like Instagram reels and all this stuff. Like way before, like five years, something inspired me to dance in the yards of every house, like in a certain proximity, that I had listed or sold. Yeah, it was see, I did that whole thing and it was a music video and it went like crazy views on Before it even caught on like reels and all yeah.
Speaker 1:So and I got my inspo from I have, my best friend is my cousin and she's 16 years younger than me, okay. So like I don't know what we were doing, but something that happened, like I was like, oh, what is that? Oh, I'm going to do something with that. So, yeah, so I have. I mean, I have danced in people's yards, but no, I haven't really like done TikTok dances, or I'm not even on TikTok. Okay, that's choppy.
Speaker 1:It's going to get banned today. Really, yeah, I just missed it's going to get banned, I think it's Really Yep what.
Speaker 2:I have not looked at my phone in regards to this.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't look at my phone Either. My daughter came in and she says she's on spring break right now from James Madison. She said do you think TikTok is getting banned today? I said, sure, yes, it's getting banned today. How does she feel, and how do you feel about that? She's going to be sad. She's going to be sad. Is she on there? Oh, yeah, she's on there. She definitely like, you know, but that's what we do, what the old people do with Instagram, so, but yeah, that's just what she does with TikTok.
Speaker 2:But since you're not on it, you don't have any like I don't have an attachment at all.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've never done a.
Speaker 2:TikTok. Wow, this is something that I'm going to look up on that after this. Yeah, they're voting.
Speaker 1:I think we're getting spied on major. Oh right, that's what I've heard, but I was like is that true? I mean, we're all getting spied on anyway.
Speaker 2:Spied on any of our phones right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean like think about how many advertisements have popped up, just my way of like, like or even dream about it.
Speaker 2:Oh stop, Isn't that weird? No, that's creepy.
Speaker 1:That's creepy, I think I think, unless I like sleep, talk like I feel like I have a dream and then like a day later you see that ad yeah.
Speaker 2:That is weird. Okay, it is too much, though I feel like I'm in control in a way. Yeah, when you think about that which I don't want to think about, because I'm like no, I'm not mind-control, I totally have like control of my life, and then I'm just like, oh, you're like girl app news for you.
Speaker 1:No, that's okay. I mean, we're not like harboring secrets. No, we're not like-. No, we're not like but it's still weird.
Speaker 2:Yes, the fact that you don't have that privacy is kind of weird. Right, it's not like we're not doing anything crazy.
Speaker 1:So realtors, there's companies out there that yeah, you can hire to. I haven't participated in this, but essentially it's like big brother. So they are monitoring what households are searching for, so like if they've opened a Home Depot credit card or if they've oh my gosh, if they've. There's other examples I can't think of, but there's like big brother, monitoring houses in a certain demographic that you specify and they can say, oh, this one had a spike in, they bought carpet from whatever they might be getting prepared to sell their house.
Speaker 2:Oh wow.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of like how crazy it's gotten that you can hone in on specific household trends for real estate agents to even fish for business that way. So majority of my business is based on referral, and that's another reason why it's so important for me to have this good dynamic throughout our relationship. I don't participate in lead capture, from which, thankfully, I've been at a point where I haven't had to do that like pay for ads or not ads, but pay for leads. But every majority of business that I do have is from that warm hey, I've worked with Lilia. She's awesome, definitely reach out to her, and so that's kind of how I've built everything.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you must be doing something right. Yeah, Because I saw online that you have like 500 or more satisfied people.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like a secret spot, so that one is out of 22,000 agents in Northern Virginia, I'm in the top 500. Look at that, which is amazing because I'm not on a team. Again, I just said I don't lead capture, I don't pay for the leads, it's all referral based and repeat client. So for me that's super important to have that relationship and just keep building upon that year over year.
Speaker 2:No absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you know what I'm a single mother. I know it's like a single mother, whatever, but I mean it's been quite something To be able to manage everything. I definitely relied a lot on my mom and dad Like I said, I live close to them still so they helped out a lot with watching the kids when they were smaller or having dinner ready on the table when the kids would get home. But now, at this point that they're older, they understand mom's job and it's just I kind of manage everything, time management around their schedules.
Speaker 2:How was that period when you were a stay at home mom and then going into the job market with real estate?
Speaker 1:So actually again, I relied on my parents to help me out with watching kids, and actually my friends too. They would help me out, because kids were so small, they would just have play date. Hey, you're going to San Francisco for play date, and they'd be hanging out for hours and then I'd show up and then everything's normal again. So I mean, I've just been so fortunate to have such a good network of people around me and in turn, those people help me throughout my life and I can help them too. I love that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you had any bizarre requests from any clients of yours for it when it comes to houses, or have you experienced anything haunted?
Speaker 1:Haunted is interesting. I've been okay. I actually feel like there are supernatural things out there.
Speaker 2:But I just haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it personally. I have seen some videos online that like, oh, someone's doing yeah. I don't know if that's real, but there was one house where I walked into the kitchen and the hair on the back of my neck set up.
Speaker 1:It was a vacant house and it was older and I was like I gotta get out, like I just got out of here. So I went on on the deck and I was like what in the heck? And I didn't want to go back in. But only one house that I've had that happen. Okay, but no, a weird request I've had, like weirdos, oh Like super weirdos.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're so beautiful too, like I'm sure that's like I'm calling her.
Speaker 1:Well, I always well, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I always worry about, you know, that kind of realtor safety thing. So if it is a call off, a sign or something like that, because my face is on the sign, I'll definitely ask them to send me their ID. And if they don't feel comfortable with that, then I'm not going to go, I'm just not.
Speaker 2:That's really smart, that's actually good advice. So if anybody's listening they're alone and they're a female. Yeah, that's actually good advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I'll just give it, give the idea either to my broker or to my mom. I'll be like mom, this guy, I'm meeting him, like here's his ID, and I let them know, like I'm going to let my broker have this as well. You know, just to make sure that you know realtor safety. And if people aren't offended by that, then great, I'll definitely come meet you. But if they are, then again it's like the red flag.
Speaker 2:It's a crazy world out there. I would hope that they understand what that means.
Speaker 1:Yeah and open houses, too, are scary too, because you're essentially like putting signs directing anyone hey, come to this spot, we know.
Speaker 2:We think about that actually, that's actually mind blowing yeah, first thing come to the spot I'll be right there.
Speaker 1:This person's face is going to be there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is yeah, have you thought about like maybe having somebody like there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so usually I will have another realtor with me and then we'll kind of split talking to the people as they come in. So usually that's how to work, or sometimes my mom or dad will come in and sit with me.
Speaker 2:I love that close knit relationship that you really have with your parents. I know they helped you out a lot, but tell me what's something that you've learned yourself as a parent being a single mother from them helping you out or being there for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess that I know that I seem very fear driven as well. So I'm a fear driven. I guess a lot of entrepreneurs are. But I always feel scared on January 1 because I'm like, oh, can I do it all over again? But I guess, just knowing that I'll never be in a free fall, essentially they'll always be that net, a safety net for me, which is really nice, and I always I want my children to feel that as well, and that's how I'm setting up my life with them.
Speaker 1:And I think they know that, and my parents did that for me. I always will have that support, so that's really nice too. So I just want to convey that to my kids and then hopefully they'll convey that to their kids. And again no one's alone and you're not on a private island. We all need support along the way at some time over another.
Speaker 2:And who are you outside of real estate?
Speaker 1:I am a good friend. I actually like to have a good routine throughout my day. I enjoy going to my exercise class in the morning, socializing with my friends. I love to travel, like next level obsession anywhere, like places I haven't been, if I don't have an actively booked plane ticket, like I actually have, like I love that.
Speaker 2:I'm so serious.
Speaker 1:I'm so serious, though, so I'm constantly like trying to figure out where I'm going to go next. When the kids turned I guess, early teens I started taking them along with me to these more elaborate trips, and I think they've provided them some really awesome experiences, so that's been really fun. What's?
Speaker 2:been really fun.
Speaker 1:Where do you go, girl? You name it. Give me three, all right, with the kids. I took them to Lake Tahoe. I've taken them to Hawaii. I took them to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. I took them to a Mediterranean cruise. That was really fun. We went to Italy and Spain and France, a couple of points in France and a really cool country called Malta that I had no idea even existed. That was awesome. You know I have my eyes on a trip to London and Paris with me and my daughter.
Speaker 1:My son can excuse himself from that one. He's just such. He's 16 now and he's just like the teen years, he's just a freaking game and I'm like dude. I took my daughter to Aruba for Christmas. He didn't want to go yeah, that age, okay, what I don't want to go to but he just wanted a game. So fine.
Speaker 2:I think that when you get older, especially for boys, it's like that sometimes. But I was like that too. My parents were like, let's go here. I was like, no, stay home. And then I looked back and I'm like what, what are you thinking?
Speaker 1:Did I do. And you're young, you're not too far away from that. So I guess the realization hits like pretty quickly. But I'm trying to like entice him to be like hey, we can like stand in front of the guards you know the London guards and we can like try to make them laugh. And I mean, I'm trying to like think of an idea that would make him feel like he wants to hang out with us.
Speaker 2:Okay, if he likes games maybe go somewhere where a game is based and be like look that's a bad idea.
Speaker 1:This happens.
Speaker 2:You could say you went there and you're like, yeah, that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, does like the legend of Zelda, world exist somewhere. Because if that doesn't work out, you can pretend and say it's fine.
Speaker 2:This is based on this Perfect. I'm sure he won't do research on that.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, but so anyway, he'll be fine. Yeah, he'll be fine, but Ava's, she has the travel bug like I do now, which is nice.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Where do? I sign up to be like your child. You can come along anytime, I promise I'll help. Oh yeah, the dishes come along anytime.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Yeah, it's fun. We definitely have a good time Awesome.
Speaker 2:What are some qualities that you think are important for realtors to have?
Speaker 1:I think it's. I think to be not like, not rigid, not stuck in a box and a chameleon of sorts. I think that the best agents are essentially able to adapt and feel out a personality in order to maximize on their experience with that agent. So, yeah, I really think that's important. Yeah, okay, sorry, I just got like no, you're good, You're good.
Speaker 2:Sorry, yeah. And then it's like my brain just like tapped out.
Speaker 1:Well, you were talking about like what's the best quality, like a good quality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the good quality of a realtor, yes, thank you, yeah.
Speaker 1:So for me it's just being the chameleon and trying to not be fake, but just kind of like figure out how well, yes, but like figure out how to have things make sense to the client you're working with. Like are they very just bottom line numbers, people, or do they like the dance around, look at all the pictures, smell the roses and then get to the bottom line, you know, so navigating. That, I think, makes it a good experience for me.
Speaker 2:I haven't bought like a house or haven't looked into it yet, but I definitely feel that like since talking to people and talking to some realtors, that I definitely want. Yes, I want somebody knowledgeable, but I definitely want someone like you that has personality and is funny and can take like a little joke, like we can joke around and be like oh, france is out there, like I just love those little human connections.
Speaker 2:I think that's important and, again, I'm not like a home buyer right now looking, but if I were to pick based on like all these personalities and everything, I definitely want someone like you. Yeah, that's really sweet of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think you appreciate that. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I feel like I'm at an age now to where I'm hitting with the younger pretty well and I'm hitting with the older pretty well. So, like I actually have many clients that are over the age of 65 because I'm 46. I'm not sad to say it, so I'm 46. I mean you, let's hang out. I mean little injection connection doesn't hurt anyone, it's all my wish list when I get there, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh my god. But yeah, so you know, majority of my friends are in my age bracket and their parents need assistance selling the child at home, right? So that's kind of the ground, the people I'm working with on that higher end of the spectrum. And then I have, you know, the young first time home buyers just moving to the area. They've looked at my Zillow reviews, they have Google searched me and they can see, you know, I'm highly ranked in the area that they're looking in. So you know, those new, fresh faces and, of course, the referrals all in between.
Speaker 2:So that's a good spot to be actually with your clientele.
Speaker 1:I thought that's hard.
Speaker 2:Some people are just like very catered to one particular niche, but I like that you have a spectrum here going on.
Speaker 1:Exactly I mean, that's really the best way to optimize and thrive on. You know what we can do for other people, no matter where they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Experienced, not experienced, so yeah, what advice would you give to first time home buyers who don't know where to even like? What am I supposed to be looking for? What do I do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's. I do a very thorough buyer consultation with all of my buyers, but particularly first time home buyers, because it is scary. And then you're hearing the news, I don't know. You're looking at the TikTok reels or whatever and you're seeing over the interest rates are this, that and the other, and home prices are this. And you know, don't be scared, because if you don't get into the market then you're just going to keep falling behind. It's just what it is. So you have to start somewhere and the best place to start is taking a good look at your finances with a lender and I actually personality match, like after my buyer consultation, I personality match the buyer set with the best lender that I think will suit their needs, based on personality.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:It's based on your freaking personality, because then you're going to again, when you align in the way that's going to make the best sense for you, then you feel even that much greater about how it ended at the completion of it. So yeah, I mean, take a good look at your finances. If you're not quite in a position to be able to buy at that point, at least you'll know the direction you need to go. A lot of buyers have lips on their credit that they're not even aware of, and that's actually something really to be aware of, because then you can take measures to make sure that you've corrected that, increased your score or like got it knocked off or like figured out why it was on there to begin with. So that's really important. Credit is actually very important.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that's something that's actually emphasized so much. Yeah, you got to make sure your credit is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it is I mean even for renters anymore because housing is so competitive. Yes, but yeah, so that's where I would start with first time home buyers is making sure their financial picture they're comfortable with, where they're going to start looking, what price point they're going to look at. Make sure that they have the best program mapped out for them for purchasing. And then that also helps me because then I know what I need to be showing them.
Speaker 1:Condo fees you have to think about those HOA dues. Can they afford that wrapped into a mortgage? And then just knowing that? Again to the point of the interest rates if the interest rates don't go down, then they know what their payment is, but if the interest rates do go down, they can refinance and recapture that moving forward. So it just to me buying 100%. If you can do it, do it Okay yeah, you heard it here. First, don't you? And then that property will help you build wealth later. Either you sell it to buy something that you want to move up to, or you can hang on to that and now you're having generational wealth, or you have your rental property and then you have another home. So that's how you do it.
Speaker 2:That's great advice. Thank you so much. You're welcome and just to wrap things up here, if you could leave us with one message for our listeners or anybody in the world here, what advice or what message would you like to give?
Speaker 1:Anything that's in your Harkiny family, yeah, treat people with kindness and respect, because we do not know what anybody is working with or dealing with on any given day that they wake up. I just feel like people discredit that we're all just human and we are really supposed to be working together to make the world go round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Make everything better. Thank you so much. That's actually really good advice that you gave. Even sometimes I find myself when I'm going through a hard time. Maybe my husband is like hey, how's it going, he's super happy. I'm just like not right now. It was so easy to just be like oh, it's okay, I was here today but sometimes I'm so wrapped up in my own head and what's going on with me that Just be kind?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And how can we make someone else's day brighter? Yeah. What can you do that might make it a more positive experience than I get with its experience?
Speaker 2:And where can people find you? What's your Instagram and website, sure?
Speaker 1:My website is dominionvalleygirlcom, or Lilia and company real estate, and then my Instagram is Lilia DeWald real estate you know little app, whatever the asterisk, but I'm always available. Phone number 703-582-8368. And you can just Google me Lilia DeWald, d-e-w-a-l-d, and I'll pop up Perfect.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:Thanks.