2017 Women in Professional Services: Valeria Kozhich of Holm & O’Hara LLP

Name: Valeria Kozhich

Title: Partner

Company Name: Holm & O’Hara LLP

Years in real estate: 11

What real estate associations or organizations are you a member of? Commercial Real Estate Women of New York

How have you navigated obstacles to achieve success in your career? I try to use a combination of being persistent and being nice to persuade people to help me accomplish my aims. I also noted early in my career that it is hard to be taken seriously when you are just starting out, so I worked to ensure that I had facts and well thought-out arguments at my fingertips.

How do you play your strengths to your advantage in your career? Aside from my technical knowledge, my two biggest strengths are practicality and flexibility. There are plenty of lawyers who will nitpick every last detail in order to get the exact terms they want. But that takes time and costs the client money. Most of my clients are more concerned with getting an agreement in place quickly so they can move forward. This means I have to know when to push and when to let something go. I also am always ready to switch tactics when my original approach doesn’t seem to be working.

What trends are you seeing so far this year? After years of going very strong, the real estate market is showing signs of slowing. This means that there is increased pressure to get into contract as quickly as possible. It also means that sellers are a bit more flexible in terms of what they are willing to do to get the deal done and the concessions they are willing to make. R.E. investors are still trading into NNN lease properties, however, their financial vetting of retail tenants has become more thorough.

What do you do for fun? I read a lot and love to bake – especially with Nutella. And we’re still having fun decorating our first house.