I was just named 2025 Rookie of the Year by Side, the national brokerage platform behind Anvil Real Estate. The thing that means the most to me about it is how the vote actually worked.
Side is a national network of top-performing boutique brokerages. The first cut is performance — the community nominates the strongest first-year agents from across the country. From that pool, three finalists are selected. The winner is then chosen by community-wide vote of agents in the network.
That last step is where the meaning is. The line in my finalist bio that the community voted me on was this: that I prioritize transparency and long-term client wealth over short-term wins — and that I do it while pursuing my Juris Doctorate full-time, closing $14 million in sales in my first calendar year alongside the academic load.
A peer vote is a different kind of credential. Numbers get you nominated. But the agents who actually do this work at a high level chose me on the basis of how the work gets done — preparation, honest advocacy, and the long view. That's the practice. The award is a marker that other people doing the work at a high standard saw it and stood behind it.
What this means for clients
If you're a homeowner thinking about selling, downsizing, or sorting out an inherited property in coastal Orange County, here's what a peer-voted award signals about how I work.
It means I built a first-year practice on the kind of decisions other top agents recognized. It means I'll tell you when the timing isn't right, even when signing the listing would have helped my year. The recommendation you'd get from me on pricing, prep, or strategy is the one I'd give a family member — not the one that closes the fastest deal.
In practice, the legal training shows up in three places. Real estate contracts are dense, and most buyers and sellers sign them without fully understanding the leverage built into specific clauses — contingencies, timelines, credits, disclosure language. I read those documents the way law school taught me to: line by line, with an eye for what's protecting the client and what isn't. Then I translate the parts that matter into plain English, so my clients actually know what they're agreeing to before they sign. The same training shapes negotiation. I prepare positions, anticipate counters, and build leverage into the deal before we're at the table — not improvise once we're sitting at it. None of this is legal advice. It's strategic advocacy informed by a legal lens.
Credit where it belongs
This kind of recognition doesn't happen alone. The biggest piece of credit goes to Dan Smith, the Captain of Culture at Anvil Real Estate, who coached me through my first year and connected me with a top-shelf internal mentor program. The mentors he put me in front of shaped how I read deals, prepare listings, and show up for clients under pressure. I'm grateful, and I don't take any of it for granted.
Anvil Real Estate and the broader Side platform also deserve credit. Boutique on the front end, serious tools and standards on the back end — with a national peer group that holds each other to a high bar.
Where this goes next
More of the same, sharper. More listings prepared with strategy and care. More buyers represented with patience. More homeowners walked through Prop 19 questions, trust sales, and downsizing decisions without pressure.
If you're somewhere in a real estate decision and want a steady, strategic conversation about your options across Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, or anywhere along the coast, I'd be glad to be a resource. No timeline pressure, no pitch — just a real conversation about whether a move makes sense, and if it does, how to do it well.
