Former KHOU anchor turns layoff into actual property profession
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After former KHOU 11 morning anchor and reporter Lily Jang was let go from the Houston TV news station in 2016, she turned to real estate to make use of her past experience buying and selling homes. Looking back, she said it’s the “best thing that has ever happened” to her. Today, Jang is thriving in the market, closing nearly $28 million in deals in 2022.
In an interview with Business Insider, Jang opened up about her career transition and how her broadcast journalism skills helped her build a successful business. The Houston native explained she has a unique approach to real estate, making referrals entirely through organic searches from sellers, buyers, investors, renters, and real-estate agents. On Instagram, where she boasts over 35,000 followers, Jang attracts clients by providing videos and home staging for her customers.
“I’ve never made a single cold call, and I’ve never knocked on any doors,” Jang told Insider. “My business is 70% referral from day one and 30% social media. My TV background gave me an organic platform of people who felt they knew me, trusted me, and wanted to work with me.” Jang also uses the platform to give advice to prospective home buyers and provides an inside look at her life outside of her job, including her travel and dining experiences.
“It shows people all the layers of who I am, how I travel, what my hobbies are, and what real estate looks like in other parts of the world,” Jang told Insider. “People work with people they like and feel most connected to.” She’s also made use of her broadcasting background with her own KPRC segment called Lily’s List. After that was canceled, she had her own 30-minute real-estate show called House 2 Home with Lily Jang.
After KHOU went through a management change in 2016, Jang was part of subsequent layoffs that ensued. “You always know in the back of your head this could happen: New management comes in, and they’re going to clean house, and you could be a casualty—and that’s exactly what happened to me,” she told Insider. Calling it the “most devastating time in my life,” Jang added she could not move to another state at the time because she needed to remain in Houston to care for her aging parents. “I sat in a corner and cried for two weeks, but I said to myself, ‘I’m going to have to pivot,” Jang told Insider. “I have to figure this out.”
Per Insider, by the end of her first year at Keller Williams, Jang closed $8 million in real-estate transactions and even surpassed her salary as a news anchor. In 2021, she made nearly $900,000 in gross earnings. “I took my profession as a news anchor, my marking skills, and leveraged everything I had and who I was, and I used that in real estate,” she told Insider. “I built my journalism career on relationships, communication, and integrity, and I parlayed all that into my new career seamlessly.”
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