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The daughter of an architect, SARAH ELDER LYONS grew up in a real estate development family. Immersed in all elements of the building process, she was reading Architectural Digest at an early age. Armed with a degree in marketing, and firsthand marketing/advertising/sales experience gleaned at BBDO, Fallon Worldwide, and Dun & Bradstreet, she took on the luxury residential real estate market and never looked back. That was 20 years ago and today—hundreds of successful million dollar-plus transactions later—this broker with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate in Winnetka is still going strong, now selling real estate in Palm Beach, Florida. A highly seasoned professional and a true power broker, she has been nationally ranked among the Top 1,000 real estate professionals by The Wall Street Journal. A marathon runner, Lyons knows all too well the perseverance, patience, pacing, and skill it requires to sell an important property like yours.
How do you give back to your community or industry? This year marks 20 years in real estate—but my roots here run much deeper. I’ve raised my family in this community and proudly served volunteer roles like Chairman of A Joyful Noise Preschool, Greeley PTA President, New Trier Parent Board member, Co-Chairman of Winnetka Public Schools Phone-a-thon, Co-Chairman of Cook’s Tour for the Auxiliary of Woman’s Board of RUSH, Children’s Theatre of Winnetka Board Member, and I sing in my church choir, and more. I’ve helped build playgrounds, lead Greeley and Skokie school auditorium capital campaigns, and supported the arts, education, and health care.
How do you define confidence—and how have you built it? I’ve learned to embrace confidence in being my true, authentic self. I no longer shrink to fit into spaces or relationships where I don’t feel fully accepted. If who I am—my energy, my voice, my passions—is “too much” for someone, then that’s a sign we’re not meant to align.
What legacy do you hope to leave behind? Coming from a family of three girls, being a mom of three girls and two granddaughters, I hope to be an example to my girls as well as other women. “Strong women—may we know, raise, and be them.”
For more information, visit atproperties.com/agents/2460/sarah-elder-lyons or premierestateproperties.com/agents/sarah-elder-lyons. You can also follow her on Instagram @sarahelderlyons.
