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Betty Toroyan-Tashakorian |Luxury Realtor |Developer |Designer

@thetashteam

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Luxury isn’t what you buy, it’s what you build.
📍La Jolla local for 30+ years combining elevated design & strategic real estate investing
DRE#01403832

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I've wanted to do this for a long time...

Not because I wanted to become someone who shares every part of her life.

Honestly...that has never really been me. For most of my career, I've been too busy building it.

There was always another client to take care of.
Another house to walk through.
Another project to design.
Another idea I couldn't wait to bring to life.

And before I knew it, thirty years had gone by.

And somewhere along the way, I realized something that caught me by surprise.

I've built a life I'm incredibly proud of...

...and I've shared almost none of it.

Not the stories.
Not the lessons.
Not the people.
Not the moments that changed everything.

If you know me, you know I don't spend much time looking in the rearview mirror.

I'm always thinking about what's next.

That's how I've always been.

But life has a funny way of reminding you that what's behind you matters too.

Not because you should live there. But because there are stories worth carrying forward.

Stories about building a business.
About raising two incredible daughters.
About creating homes that people build their lives inside of.
About taking chances.
Starting over.
Losing people you love.
Finding joy again.

And discovering that every chapter somehow prepared you for the next one.

So this is me doing something I've put off for years.

Not because I finally have more time.
I don't.
Not because life suddenly became easier.
It didn't.

But because I've realized the story isn't in the finished house...

It's in everything that happened before it.

So I'm opening the door a little wider.

And sharing more of the behind the scenes of the projects I'm working on, the homes that inspire me, the design, the travel, the investments, the people I meet, and the moments in between that make this life so meaningful.

It's about time.

And if you're still reading this...I'm so glad you're here.

And if you're new here, I'll hope you'll come along for the ride. by @thetashteam

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2 months ago

Yes, it's true. But not in the way most people think. Let me explain ⤵️

La Jolla is competitive.

The properties are exceptional, the clients are discerning, and many of the opportunities never make it very far outside the relationships already established here.

But competition is only half the story.

The part people miss is how much this market runs on professional trust.

In a community this connected, your reputation is not built on one transaction. It is built over years of showing people how you operate when there is no audience watching.

Do you respect another agent’s relationship with their client? Do you communicate clearly when a deal gets complicated? Do you share insight when someone needs a second opinion on a difficult property? Do people trust that bringing you into a conversation will help move things forward rather than create unnecessary friction?

Those things matter because real estate here is not a series of isolated deals.

The same agents cross paths again and again. We know the neighborhoods deeply. We know who has experience with certain streets, architectural styles, sellers, and price points. Sometimes the smartest thing I can do for my own client is pick up the phone and ask another respected agent what they are seeing.

That collaboration does not make anyone less competitive. It makes the market stronger.

And strategically, relationships become part of your ability to serve a client well.

Access, context, credibility, and cooperation are often built long before the property your client wants ever becomes available.

If you look at La Jolla and only see luxury homes and competition, you are missing the heart of how this community actually works.

The strongest people here understand that protecting relationships is not separate from doing good business.

It is part of it. by @thetashteam

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2 months ago

Most people think staging is about making a property prettier.

But really...

It is about removing every moment of uncertainty between a buyer and the life you want them to imagine there.

That distinction matters, especially at the luxury level.

I have a very particular eye.

I notice when the scale of a room feels slightly wrong. When one corner feels unfinished. When a piece of art is missing. When furniture technically fits, but does nothing to explain how the space should actually live.

Those details may seem insignificant individually, but buyers experience them collectively.

A beautifully staged room answers questions before a buyer has to ask them.

Where would we sit?
Does this room feel intimate or expansive?
Can we actually entertain here?
What belongs in this awkward corner?
Will our furniture overwhelm the space?
The goal is to make the answers feel effortless.

That is also why I have never believed in staging only the rooms you think “matter.” An empty bedroom, forgotten landing, or unresolved outdoor space can interrupt the entire story of a home.

And once someone starts noticing what feels unfinished, they start looking for more of it.

Design works in the opposite direction.

When every room feels considered, the buyer stops mentally solving the property and starts emotionally experiencing it.

That is the difference I care about.

I do not want someone walking through a home trying to figure out what it could become.

I want them walking through already seeing it. by @thetashteam

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a month ago

There’s a reason two homes on the same street can hit the market at the same time and have completely different outcomes.

One gets multiple offers in days.
The other sits.
And a lot of the time, the difference starts before the first buyer ever walks through the door.

I’m a big believer in using price as a strategy, not just a number.

Sometimes that means listing a property hundreds of thousands of dollars below where I believe it can ultimately sell.

Yes, that is controversial.

There are agents who will tell you that you should always list as close as possible to the number you actually want. I understand the logic. But in the right situation, I’m looking at something different: how do we create enough urgency, attention and competition to let the market push the property up?

Because buyers don’t react to a home in isolation. They react to what they believe everyone else wants too.

A compelling list price can widen the buyer pool, increase showing traffic, create more conversations, generate multiple offers and change the psychology around the property from “Should I buy this?” to “How do I make sure I don’t lose this?”

That shift matters.

But this is not about underpricing every house and hoping for a bidding war. The property, market, buyer demand, timing and seller’s goals all have to support the strategy. If those pieces aren’t there, pricing low for the sake of pricing low can absolutely work against you.

This is why I don’t believe pricing should start with, “What number do you want?”

It should start with:
What will make buyers move?
Where does demand actually sit?
What price creates the strongest first week?
And what strategy gives the seller the best chance at the highest net result?

That’s the part of listing strategy I think gets oversimplified.

🚨🚨🚨 So I’m curious where you stand on this one: would you rather list at the number you want, or list strategically below it to create competition and let the market drive it up? by @thetashteam

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a day ago

Turnkey is often where the last owner made their money.

If I am looking at a luxury property for upside, I am not asking, “Is it finished?” I am underwriting the spread between what I can buy today and what I can create tomorrow.

1️⃣ Basis versus stabilized value

Purchase price is only line one. I want total basis: acquisition + construction + design + financing + carry + selling costs.

Example: buy at $8M, invest $1M, spend $500K carrying and exiting, then sell at $11M. That is a $1.5M spread on a $9.5M basis. Buy that same vision already finished at $10.5M and most of the upside is gone.

2️⃣ Cost to cure versus price discount

An ugly kitchen is not automatically opportunity. If a $400K correction can create $900K in market value, I am interested. If it costs $700K to create $750K, I am not.

3️⃣ Replacement cost disconnect

Sometimes the better buy is a property trading below what it would cost to recreate the land, structure, finishes and approvals today. That gap matters more to me than whether it photographs well.

4️⃣ Yield per square foot

I care less about raw square footage than how much of it earns its keep. Dead hallways, oversized formal rooms, poor bedroom placement and weak indoor outdoor flow are places design can manufacture value.

5️⃣ Embedded optionality

Can I reconfigure?
Add a bedroom?
Improve the primary?
Create privacy?
Expand legally?

The best acquisitions give me multiple paths to value, not one renovation plan.

6️⃣ Time adjusted return

A $2M profit over four years is not the same investment as $1.5M over eighteen months. Carry, financing and opportunity cost matter.

This is how developers think:

What is my basis?
What can I create?
How long is my capital tied up?
What is my conservative exit? by @thetashteam

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3 days ago

The first two units taught me something before the last two were even finished.

Once buyers started walking through our newest Pacific Beach project, we could see who was actually interested in the property and that gave us an opportunity to be even more intentional with the back units.

Here are 5 decisions we made while staging these units with the actual buyer in mind:

1️⃣ Show buyers what really fits.

We’ve noticed families with kids coming through, so I specifically asked for a real bed instead of a daybed. I don’t want them wondering if the room works for their family. I want them to see that it does.

2️⃣ Let buyer behavior inform the staging.

Once people start walking through, pay attention. What are they questioning? What are they trying to visualize? Where are they hesitating? Those are clues for how you present the next space.

3️⃣ Turn a limitation into a design moment.

There’s no window behind the kitchen sink, so we ran the stone all the way up and over the fold. Rather than treating the blank wall as something missing, we gave it a focal point.

4️⃣ Treat fixtures like jewelry.

We used more brass here because stainless or brushed steel wouldn’t have completed the look in the same way. Small finishes can completely change how cohesive a room feels.

5️⃣ Don’t copy and paste, even within the same development.

Something about these back units called for darker, more dramatic staging, so we leaned into it.

The goal of staging isn’t just a beautiful room.

It’s removing the buyer’s questions, helping them understand the space, and making it easier for them to see themselves in it. by @thetashteam

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3 days ago

The older I get, the more I realize how much of who we become starts at home.

I grew up with two sisters who are still some of my best friends. We’re completely different women, but there’s a bond underneath all of it that has never changed. Every year, we still make a point to take a trip together, because no matter how busy life gets, family has always been the constant.

I see pieces of both of my parents in all of us.

My mom taught us how to love people by showing up for them. She made being present feel non-negotiable.

And my dad was my person. My best friend. In so many ways, my twin flame internally. I got so much of my drive, work ethic and intensity from him.

Now, when I look at my own daughters, I understand even more clearly what my parents gave me.

You can build a career, create businesses, chase every goal you have... but the values your children remember are usually much simpler:

Were you there?
Did they know they came first?
Did they feel loved, supported and safe enough to become exactly who they were meant to be?

That’s the legacy I care about most.

And I hope one day my girls look at each other the way I look at my sisters and know they have best friends for life. by @thetashteam

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7 days ago

The real reason your zestimate is unpredictable in La Jolla is because comps and luxury don't always speak the same language...

Tell me which one of these hits home for you?

6 things about La Jolla real estate you’d never learn from scrolling listings online:

1️⃣ You’re buying into a town with a memory.

La Jolla has that rare old-town feeling where history still lives underneath everything new. Families remember the original shops on Prospect, restaurants that disappeared decades ago, and the stories attached to buildings you might otherwise walk right past.

It reminds me of places like Palm Springs, where part of the value is the mythology of the place itself.

2️⃣ The inconvenience is almost part of the appeal.

People complain about the drive in and out of La Jolla. Locals know the funny part is that once you live here, you avoid leaving whenever possible.

Coffee, dinner, errands, the beach, friends—you build your little ecosystem here.

3️⃣ A few blocks can completely change your lifestyle.

The Village, Shores, Bird Rock, Muirlands, hillside, walkable, tucked away…

The address might still say La Jolla, but the way you live can be entirely different.

4️⃣ Privacy can be more valuable than the biggest view.

I’m always studying elevation, orientation, landscaping and sightlines. A spectacular house loses something when every window makes you feel exposed.

5️⃣ Dogs become part of the neighborhood culture. 😂

Morning walks, patios, neighborhood loops—you start recognizing the dogs before you know their owners.

6️⃣ The most valuable part can’t be photographed.

Knowing your table. Your route. Your neighbors. What used to be on that corner. Running into three people during one errand.

That’s the part listings can’t sell you.

Luxury in La Jolla isn’t only the property. It’s eventually feeling like this tiny coastal town belongs to you a little bit—and you belong to it. by @thetashteam

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10 days ago

Do you think homes carry energy?

I know people have very different opinions on this, but after walking through thousands of homes, I’ve learned not to ignore what I feel when I first walk through the door.

Some homes immediately feel warm. You can feel that people loved living there. Others have a heaviness you can’t quite explain... and every once in a while, you learn the history afterward and suddenly that feeling makes a lot more sense.

For me, intuition has always been part of how I experience real estate. It doesn’t replace the facts, the disclosures, the inspection or the numbers. But I absolutely pay attention to it.

Because buying a home isn’t only about whether everything looks right on paper. You’re choosing the place where you’re going to wake up every morning, build memories and live your life. How you feel inside it matters.

I’m curious where everyone lands on this one…

Do you think a home can carry the energy of what happened there before you?

🚨🚨🚨 And agents: Have you ever walked into a property, felt something immediately, and then found out later there was a story behind it? by @thetashteam

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11 days ago

The highest offer isn’t always the one that wins and I wish more people understood that part.

What everyone wants to know is how you make a winning offer without having to pay more.

A lot of it comes down to the work you do before the offer is ever written. Understanding the property is one part. Understanding the people, the leverage and what actually matters on the other side is another.

Here’s where I start:

1️⃣ Find out what the seller actually values.

Price is one term. Timing, certainty, contingencies, flexibility and the seller’s next move can all carry weight. You can’t structure the right offer if you don’t know what problem they’re trying to solve.

2️⃣ Get on the phone before putting numbers on paper.

I want to understand the listing agent, how they communicate, what they’re emphasizing and what they aren’t saying. Those conversations can tell you more than the listing ever will.

3️⃣ Remove friction where it makes sense.

Clean terms matter. Have financing organized. Know your timelines. Don’t create unnecessary uncertainty. Sometimes the easiest offer to confidently close is more attractive than the offer with the biggest number.

4️⃣ Give context to the offer.

There’s strategy in how you present a buyer, their position and why the offer is structured the way it is. People make decisions, not spreadsheets. Make the offer easy to understand and easy to advocate for.

5️⃣ Know your walk-away number before emotions enter the room.

I run the numbers before we’re competing. Purchase price + improvements + realistic resale or long-term value. If winning the bidding war destroys the opportunity, you didn’t win.

6️⃣ Protect your reputation between deals.

How you communicate, negotiate and close becomes part of your track record. In a competitive market, credibility can walk into the room before your offer does.

The negotiation doesn’t begin when I send the contract.

By then, I want most of my homework already done.

That front-end work is where you find the leverage that can pay dividends on the back end. by @thetashteam

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15 days ago

It’s funny how some of the things people assume would be your worst nightmare can become the things you miss the most.

Working with my husband was never my worst nightmare. I loved it.

He was the other side of my brain.

Where I lacked, he filled in. Where he lacked, I filled in. We challenged each other, trusted each other, and somehow the combination made both of us better at what we did.

I’m thankful I knew that while I was living it.

I didn’t wish those years away. Because now, when I look back, building with him, expanding with him, growing with him, raising our girls alongside him...that was one of my absolute favorite chapters of my life.

And we brought our girls into all of it.

We never treated our ambition like something they needed to be protected from. They got to see what building something actually looked like. But they also got to see us turn it off. Work mattered deeply to us, and so did being fully present as a family.

Now I watch my girls in college, studying real estate and finance, building their own ambitions side by side, and I see pieces of those years everywhere.

They’re mirror-image twins, a term sometimes used when identical twins have certain physical traits that appear on opposite sides of their bodies, almost like reflections of each other.

And there’s something about that idea that gets me.

Their dad and I weren’t mirrors in the literal sense, but professionally, we were. Different strengths. Different instincts. Two sides that complemented each other and made the whole stronger.

And now I get to watch our girls build in their own version of that same dynamic.

Side by side, deeply connected, but still entirely themselves.

I don’t know exactly what they’ll build yet.

But I know they grew up watching what’s possible when the person beside you doesn’t need to be exactly like you to make you better. by @thetashteam

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16 days ago

San Diego SEPTEMBER 2026 Real Estate Market Report 🏘📈
Contact us for your personalized Market Report.

The Tash Team • Betty T. Tashakorian • 619.481.4600 • DRE#01403832 • eXp Realty Luxury
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#sandiego #sdrealestate #sdmarket #realestatenews by @thetashteam

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17 days ago