Tia Glover has a platform as one of the newer faces on The Real Housewives of Potomac, but she’s quick to point out that being on television doesn’t mean the real estate deals come easy.

Glover says people assume being on TV automatically boosts her business. “It’s not quite the case. You have to kind of work hard for it,” she told AfroTech Culture in a recent interview. “There is a lot of attention from being on a platform such as this, which I’m very grateful for. It’s my responsibility to then funnel that attention into my real estate business. It’s not automatic.”

A late start rooted in family

Glover’s interest in property started at home. Her father was deeply invested in real estate, she says, owning properties around the world. She considered getting licensed while living in Seattle but held off because she knew the move wasn’t permanent.

“I was a little bit apprehensive to grow roots there,” she explained. “But when I moved to DC and I knew that this was absolutely where we would stay, I felt a little bit more motivated to get my license.”

That was three years ago, making her relatively new to the field. She got licensed in Virginia first, where she lives, then added DC. A Maryland license is on her list, though she admits studying for exams as an adult is no small task.

Before real estate, Glover worked as an image consultant, and she sees a thread between the two careers.

“I like offering a service that changes people’s lives,” she said. “Real estate does that because it’s one of the greatest investments you’re going to make. And I love that people trust me to help them make that decision.”

Not just multimillion-dollar listings

The DMV is home to some of the wealthiest Black communities in the country, and Glover works with Sotheby’s International Realty, a brand people associate with luxury. But she says her client list isn’t limited to high-end buyers.

“I’ve sold condos, I’ve sold multimillion-dollar homes, and for each one of those transactions, it’s a huge privilege because that client can go elsewhere,” she said.

Her approach is built around long-term relationships rather than one big sale. A buyer purchasing a multimillion-dollar home is often buying their forever home, she points out, while a first-time buyer may come back again and again as their life changes.

“You watch Selling Sunset and it would be lovely to just sell one house and make millions [in] commission, but that’s not really the heart behind it for me,” she said.

Asked what she’s learned as a Black woman in the industry, Glover says the first lesson is that agents need a clear sense of what makes them different, because the field is crowded.

She frames that challenge in a particular order. Glover, who was raised between Nigerian and English cultures, says she walks into rooms thinking about how to set herself apart, period. Being Black comes second, and being a foreigner comes third.

“What I think about when I enter a room is, what do I, Tia, need to do to set myself apart to earn this person’s business?” she said.

Visibility has brought its own complications. Glover says she gets plenty of calls and emails since joining the show, but many don’t feel like serious buyers, so she’s put measures in place to filter them out.

It’s also changed how she operates day to day.

“If I’m being completely honest, sometimes it does make me a little bit nervous,” she said. Where she once showed properties on her own, that’s changed. “Now I’m often with somebody else, just because you never know.”