Lily and Rory O'Dare PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

Real estate is very much a family affair for Lily O’Dare. Most people around town know the stylish 32-year-old as a successful Realtor who is the daughter and business partner of Cindy O’Dare, one of the star agents on the barrier island.

But she also works on real estate deals with her father, Rory O’Dare, currently representing a mid-century modern house in Central Beach that her dad bought last year, renovated in consultation with her, and put on the market in June.

It is the fourth real estate project the two have worked on together and they seem delighted with their collaboration.

“Lily has a tremendous work ethic and excellent taste, which is critical,” said Rory O’Dare, when asked why he listed his latest flip with his daughter. “She works with you, has a sense of what is fair and just, and has great resources behind her at Sotheby’s and with her mom’s team.”

“Both of my parents [who are divorced] have always been very generous and empowering with my sister and I,” said Lily O’Dare. “They are very different people, but as soon as I got interested in real estate, they were both so supportive in their own ways. My dad actually gave me my first listing when I started in the business a couple of years ago.

“His temperament in life is similar to his temperament in business. He is very easy-going but knows how to get things done. He is patient and confident.”

Rory O’Dare, who says “bird-dogging” is one of his best skills, spotted the house at 610 Flamevine last year, when it was a run-down rental. The owner put it on the market in early November, asking $899,000. There was immediate interest at that price in Central Beach, but the property fell out of escrow twice, possibly because of its condition, which opened the door for bargaining.

“It was lucky timing,” said Rory O’Dare, who bought the property with a partner for $800,000, closing on Dec. 7 and commencing a month-long, four-dumpster renovation the next day, acting as managing partner on the project.

“When I walked in the door, the house was crying out for a complete rehab,” said Rory O’Dare. “We took it down to the studs. Changed the wiring and panels, replaced the copper pipe, put in all new impact windows and doors and new metal roof. We upgraded and modernized the ductwork and put in a new pump and valves for the pool. It has a brand-new kitchen with all new appliances and quartz counters.

“It is basically a new 2023 house.”

Built in 1963, the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath, 2,075-square-foot house is a split-level – a popular style in the 1960s and 1970s that fell out of favor for a while but now is coming into vogue again.

“It’s an architectural style that’s poised for a comeback,” according to Alexandriastylebook.com, and Apartment Therapy reports “that some homebuyers are specifically seeking out split-level homes, with Google searches using those terms steadily increasing” over the past decade.

In addition to their retro Mid-mod appeal, split-levels attract buyers because they maximize living space on the lot compared to a ranch house while keeping the virtues of a ranch and creating more privacy within the house.

Typically they have main living spaces – including living, dining, kitchen and sometimes a den – on the entry level, with a half-flight of stairs leading up to bedrooms and another half-flight leading down to a rec room or additional bedroom and the garage.

Original terrazzo floors on the main level that Rory O’Dare discovered beneath worn out vinyl are one of the home’s most compelling features. O’Dare had the stone ground down by a marble company to renew the finish and the floors are as smooth and gleaming white today as when they were laid down during the Kennedy administration. Bedroom floors are bamboo.

“People flip over the terrazzo,” said Lily O’Dare. “We have had several interested buyers from Miami who were like, ‘Wow, these are beautiful floors!’

“I think more people today are attracted to charm rather than just something that is new and modern,” said Lily O’Dare. “So many people walk in here and say they are reminded in a good way of some other place and time, a home they were in years ago.”

The charm extends to the lushly landscaped yard, which Lilly O’Dare said was inspired by Coconut Grove.

“My dad did all the landscape design,” she says proudly. “He is from Miami and used to have a nursery and landscape design business there, and he brought that look of old Coconut Grove to this house. Landscaping is a huge hobby of his.”

Lily’s contributions to the house included staging it, a task her father invited her to undertake.

“I love interior design, so I jumped at the chance,” Lily O’Dare said. “I wanted to do lots of neutrals and whites and greens.” The surfing photo she put in the living room is a nod to her father’s favorite pastime, which he likes even more than landscaping.

He calls her staging design “perfect! It is understated and elegant and just right for the house.”

The house is listed for $1,775,000.

Lily O’Dare jumped into real estate in October 2020, after a 10-year career in the hospitality industry that included a stint as manager of Global Social Media for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and other gigs creating and managing social media accounts and content for other hotel companies – not to mention worldwide travel to some of the world’s great cities.

“A lot of people don’t know how strong her social media background is,” said Rory O’Dare.

“When it comes to marketing a property, no one else can really measure up to her expertise.”

When COVID-19 briefly crushed the travel industry, Lily decided to come back home to Vero, where she was born and raised, and give real estate a try.

Much as she valued her parents’ encouragement and advice, she wanted to make her bones on her own and hung her license at ONE Sotheby’s as a single agent. That worked out and she sold $12 million during her first year.

About a year and a half after she joined ONE Sotheby’s, Cindy O’Dare and her partner Richard Boga moved their team to the brokerage and Lily signed on with them.

Her dad gave her that first listing in early 2021, which was his own condo in Vero’s South Beach section. Not too long afterward, he invited her to look at another unit he was interested in at the Sterling Bay Condo in Central Beach.

“She is the next wave, the new thing, so I wanted to see what she thought of the place,” Rory O’Dare told Vero Beach 32963. “As soon as we walked in the door, she turned around and said, ‘Get me the keys. I will take it!’”

That led to a father/daughter renovation with Lilly managing the project and Rory putting in lots of sweat equity.

“My dad and I did it together. He was so great. He helped me fix it up and find renters.”

Next came a flip at 1615 Coral Ave. in Vero’s South Beach section. Rory O’Dare and two partners bought the property two blocks from the ocean just south of the 17th Street Causeway for $880,000 last June, renovated it and listed it with his daughter, who sold it for $1,325,000 in March.

That sale helped bolster her strong numbers for 2023 to date – $9.5 million sold or pending and another $9 million in listings – but it’s clear when speaking with her and her father that their real estate collaborations are at least as much about being together and strengthening their karmic bond as it about playing with buildings and making money.

Lily talks about how her father comes unasked to take care of the yard at the house where she lives on the mainland, indulging his love of plants and landscape design while helping his daughter, and about how much trust he has placed in her to sell his projects for him.

“Lily has great integrity, generosity and spirit,” says Rory. “She is a beautiful person.”

Photos by Joshua Kodis