August 2022 Newsletter | Team Member Spotlight: Alona Pivovarevich
Alona Pivovarevich is one of Firefly's "veteran" agents, as she joined Katie in the early stages of the team's formation. After nearly five years as a Firefly, Alona is still committed to her decision to work for Katie.
"I always admired Katie as a mom and a colleague. I saw her vision, and it matched my goals for personal and professional development. I became part of something that would truly shape my business and allow me to have a voice. I couldn't be happier with our small and big successes. The shenanigans and laughs make this fast-paced business light, and the team never feels like 'work.'"
Alona is known by her clients and teammates as being incredibly caring and nurturing. Prior to real estate, she worked in health care in the nursing field, and realized that she could take a path to fill her need to care for people in a different kind of way. Her passion for being able to support people during a significant life event brings a lot of joy, and her clients benefit from it as well.
"Learning about the life goals of my clients and supporting them along the way is truly fulfilling to me. Most people only have a handful of real estate transactions in their lifetime, and my wealth of experience helps me to guide my clients and take a load off of them during some of their biggest financial decisions."
With integrity as her primary focus, Alona always uses her knowledge as well as her gut instincts when advising clients along the way.
And the support and care Alona provides doesn't end once their transaction is over.
"I always want my clients to know that I enter our working relationship as if they were family. My goal is to build lasting relationships and for them to know that they have a real estate partner for life."
Like any lifelong partnership, Alona wants clients to be sure that they are the right fit for one another. She encourages all clients to interview more than one agent for the job of being their real estate advocate. She advises to look beyond the accolades and sales data; be sure that there is trust, connection and a symbiotic relationship.
As the Firefly team grows, Alona has her sights set on increasing community outreach within the team, particularly with the unhoused and below-poverty level population. She does not want to see that branch of real estate be overlooked, and wants to make a positive impact on that community through her work.
Outside of work, family is a huge part of Alona's life. She is one of eight children, and in addition to her own three kids (Felix, Mabel and Nora), she has 22 nieces and nephews, who all live within 20 minutes of her house. Her family moved to the U.S. in 1990 from Russia, when she was just four years old. There, her parents had mastered the trade of cucumber farming (despite her last name meaning "Beer Brewer" in Russian).
Now, Alona's kids drive everything that she does, from sun up to sun down (especially the midnight kicks to the face). When she's not wrangling kids or helping her real estate clients, she enjoys eating her way through Asheville, spending quality time with her amazing group of girlfriends, golfing, and sneaking in a bit of outdoor climbing, as she says, to remind her of her humanity. Her favorite climb has been Table Rock in the Linville Gorge. "Don't question it," she says, "Just get there immediately."