Real estate was originally supposed to be the way I paid off my student loans from chiropractic school: four years of anatomy, radiology, clinic hours and board exams. I bought a house, renovated it, sold it and did it again. Somewhere along the way, the side project became the career.

What hooked me was the strategy: seeing a home's potential, understanding what it would take to get there and making sure the numbers made sense. I've renovated houses, managed contractors, made decisions with real money on the line and learned that even the best-laid plans can change. A budget gets tested. A project takes longer than expected. A number doesn't turn out quite the way you thought it would.

So when I walk through a house with a client, I'm not looking at it only as a real estate agent. I'm thinking about what I would do if it were my money. What is worth changing? What isn't? Where is the opportunity, and where is the risk? I've been in enough of those situations myself to know the difference.

I've also done all of this around a full house of my own. My husband and I have four kids and a dog named Huck, which means I have a pretty good understanding of what actually happens to a house once the listing photos are over. Six people and a dog have a way of exposing things a floor plan doesn't show you. It's changed the way I look at homes. Not just what a wall costs to move, but whether the room actually works on a Tuesday morning.

More than $100 million in personal sales across Indianapolis and the surrounding communities (Fishers, Geist, Carmel, Zionsville, Westfield and the city's near-downtown neighborhoods) has given me a deep understanding of the local market and what it takes to navigate a transaction well. But the number I care about most is the number of clients who came to me because someone they trusted sent them my way. Nearly all of my business comes from referrals, and I don't take that trust lightly.

I don't think experience is about knowing everything. It's about knowing what to look for, knowing when to ask better questions and knowing what to do when something doesn't go according to plan. Real estate will eventually give you an inspection issue, a low appraisal, a contractor who misses a deadline or a Sunday-night problem that needs an answer. I'm pretty comfortable with those moments.

If you're buying, selling, investing or relocating in Indianapolis, whether for a new job or to be closer to family, I'll bring experience, straight answers and a perspective shaped by both sides of the transaction, professionally and personally. And probably a few stories from houses that did not go exactly according to plan.