Riya

My family and friends used to joke that I was the mayor of New York, because I loved it so much and genuinely never thought I would leave. Then COVID happened.

I came down to Miami thinking it was temporary, with absolutely no plan of building a life here. But somewhere along the way, temporary stopped feeling temporary.

I was happier. I felt lighter. I loved the way I was living here, and I started realizing how much where you live shapes everything else. The people around you. Where you spend your time. What you do on a random Tuesday.

I had always thought of moving as changing your address. I did not expect it to change my life.

Why I created By Riya

That experience is a huge part of why I work the way I do now, and eventually why I created By Riya.

Real estate tends to focus so much on the house itself. But when someone is deciding where to live, the house is only one part of what they are really choosing.

I want to help people figure out the rest of it too. Which neighborhood actually feels like them. Where they will eat. What is opening around them, and whether they can picture a life there.

Sometimes that means finding someone the right home, and sometimes it means telling them not to buy one.

By Riya came from wanting to build what I wish I had when I first came to Miami: a way to understand not just where I could live, but what my life here could actually look like.