When Natalie Smith and her family found their home in Lynbrook more than a decade ago, they found a community that brought together many of the things that mattered most to them: room for their blended family, proximity to relatives and convenient access to Manhattan.
The move would become about much more than finding the right house. Lynbrook became the place where Smith and her husband built their life together, where her daughter attended middle and high school and where Smith, a licensed real estate salesperson with The Colombos-Dooley Team, is now finding new ways to become more involved in the community she has called home for more than 10 years.
“We wanted to have family support. We wanted to have a distance to work and commute to the city and walking distance to the train station,” Smith said. “Those were the things that we felt strongly about.”
There was another important consideration for a blended family trying to find a place everyone could call home. The house they found in Lynbrook was, Smith recalled, “probably the only house that all five of us agreed on.”
Today, that personal experience is helping shape the way Smith thinks about her work in real estate and her role in the community. Rather than limiting that role to the moment someone is ready to buy or sell, she wants to build relationships with residents and local businesses and become someone neighbors can turn to when questions about homeownership arise.
Smith’s own experience is a reminder that a home search doesn’t always end where buyers initially expect it to.
“Growing up in Manhattan, Lynbrook wasn’t really on my radar,” Smith said. “But when I moved to Long Island, I discovered a community that felt welcoming, connected and very much like home.”
For her family, the location offered a balance that made sense. Her husband’s daughters were in Baldwin, his father lived in Queens and Smith needed access to Manhattan. They also wanted to be within walking distance of the train station, while finding a house large enough to accommodate their blended family.
Lynbrook eventually provided that combination. Smith’s daughter attended the local schools before going on to St. John’s University, and over the years, a town Smith initially knew little about became the place where her family put down roots.
After living in Lynbrook for more than a decade, Smith recently began looking for ways to become more connected to the business community and the residents around her. Earlier this year, she joined the Lynbrook Chamber of Commerce, something she sees as an opportunity to learn more about what is available locally while developing stronger relationships with other businesses and professionals.
“I think it’s important for us as residents to understand what the resources are, what assistance is there for us,” Smith said.
For Smith, those resources extend beyond the moment someone decides to buy or sell a home. Homeowners and prospective buyers can encounter questions about financing, insurance, property improvements and other issues, sometimes without knowing who they should approach first.
“I want to be a trusted resource for the community and not just when someone is ready to buy or sell a home, but whenever they need guidance, information or insight about the local real estate market,” Smith said.
Smith doesn’t expect to personally have the answer to every question.
Instead, she wants to tap into the people who do, building a local network that can help her connect someone with the appropriate resource when a need comes up.
That emphasis on relationships was also behind a community gathering Smith organized in Lynbrook in October with participation from local businesses and professionals in fields including mortgage lending and insurance.
For Smith, the gathering wasn’t intended to be a traditional real estate event or an opportunity to pitch residents on buying or selling a home. She wanted to create a more informal setting where people could meet one another, ask questions and begin making connections that could prove useful in the future.
“I never wanted it to feel like I was just trying to sell someone something,” Smith said. “For me, it’s about being a resource, building trust and giving people the information they need to make the right decision for themselves.”
That distinction matters to Smith because many of the conversations surrounding homeownership happen long before a property is listed or an offer is made. Someone might have questions about financing before beginning a search, while another homeowner may be trying to understand insurance or what improvements could make sense for a property.
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