Lauren Dillon has a dream.  Calling on her experience in the medical field, her longtime love of stately houses, and her drive to empower others like her, she’s on her way to making that dream a reality.

The Dayton native’s path to becoming a Rising Star with Home Experts Realty in Beavercreek took a couple of turns.  As a high school sophomore, she was diagnosed with a congenital condition in which her spine was missing a vertebra – which caused her to have headaches and difficulty maintaining posture.  She underwent an operation.  It didn’t solve the problem.  She underwent a second one, which worked.

The overall experience, plus the fact that her mother was a medical assistant, led her to her first line of work.  “Everyone talks about doctors and nurses,” Lauren says, “but there are other people in the medical field who make an impact on lives.”  As her way of paying forward the compassion and care she received in her surgeries, Lauren enrolled in respiratory therapy at Sinclair Community College.  Later she switched to business administration.

After graduation, she entered the Kettering Health Network, where she worked for 10 years, eventually becoming an executive assistant to the head of the Kettering Physician Network. 

While she found satisfaction that in her own way, she was helping people through health care, the demands of the administrative job grew heavy.  At the time she and her husband, Tyson, wanted to start a family.  To lessen the strain, “I transitioned out of that and worked for Montgomery County Child Support, where I assisted the director.  I loved it.  It was rewarding.”

Fast forward to when she was expecting her first daughter.  “When I was pregnant, my mom and I would drive through neighborhoods, imagining what the inside of those houses were like, and how we would change them. My mom and I love old homes and their history.”

Lauren and Tyson followed through on that affection, buying a house that was in foreclosure, renovating it, and selling it.  “That was dipping our toe in the water,” she says.  “We started to love real estate.”

During that first pregnancy, Lauren broached the subject of her pursuing a real estate career to have the freedom to spend time with their child.  “My husband was supportive.”  She enrolled in online Hondros College real estate classes, earning her license in February 2019, and working part-time with Home Experts Realty.

Four months later, she left her county job to be a full-time REALTOR®.  “It was a huge decision, a leap of faith, going from a paycheck every two weeks to only getting paid through a sale,” she recalls. 

But that leap paid off.  Lauren said in her first year she received the Rising Star Award from Home Experts Realty’s Beavercreek office. In the second year, she received an Award for Distinction from the Dayton Area Board of Realtors.  “Things have just kind of taken off – I received the same award this year,” Lauren says.

Things have taken off indeed.  Lauren and Tyson have two daughters: Wren, 3, and Layla, who will be 2 in August.  “Once they’re in school,” Lauren says, “I’ll have more time to really start achieving my dreams.”

Her first dream already is fulfilled.  “My first goal is to help provide for my family and spend time with my children.  I’ve achieved that.”

Next, she says, “I want to empower young real estate agents, to give them the tools to run a successful business.  I want to inspire other moms that they can do this.  I’m not the type of person who tries to downplay anyone else’s business.  There’s a seat at the table for everyone, and I want to encourage others to pursue their dreams.”

That empowerment extends to her clients.  She says that in health care she wanted to help people.  That feeling is the same now that she’s in real estate.  “I like helping first-time home buyers.  They sometimes say they feel terrible asking so many questions, but I tell them that’s why I’m here.”

By the way, she still has that love of stately homes.  The Dillons live in a restored 1919 home in Germantown.

While she has an affinity for the past, she looks to the future.  “I want to be one of the top agents in the Dayton area,” Lauren says.  “I’m just getting started.  The sky’s the limit.”