One of the smartest moves Darlene Umina made was to focus on the buy/sell transaction. While some agents can say they’ve sold hundreds of homes, it’s not common to say you’ve sold hundreds of this particular type of transaction. “There is an art to it, a proven process to be successful,” explains Umina, of Darlene & Company. “While this is the most-challenging transaction in real estate, it has been where my passion lies.” 

2022 certainly presented its own challenges. Coming out of 2021, everyone settled into the new normal and many had big real estate goals to achieve. With the market having a mind of its own, Umina settled in to make the best of it and rose to the challenge to help her clients stand by her tagline, “Love Where You Live.” The success showed true as Umina scored the top spot of No. 1 agent for Lamacchia Realty’s Waltham office by both transactions and sales volume and placed Top 10 overall in the company of 500 agents. She continued to rank in Real Trends top 1.5% of the country, achieved Lamacchia President’s Club Elite status, and placed as a Top Producer in Boston Magazine. She also added broker to her resume this year. 

Umina specializes in greater Boston and MetroWest, areas in which she’s spent her entire life. This year, her husband, Andy, joined her as a licensed agent and operations coordinator. There is no one better to work alongside her than Andy, who knows Darlene’s work ethic better than anyone, she says. Together, they are in an excellent position to be able to serve clients and it shows: Umina’s business is almost 100% referral based. 

A cornerstone of Darlene & Company is giving back. One of her favorite drives is her Giving Tree Drive for single moms in MetroWest. “To give where you live is of the utmost importance to me,” Umina notes. So, this year, she continued to grow her charitable foundation, the Give Where You Live Foundation, to give back to the communities she serves.