In early 1977, Della Lively kicked off her real estate career by selling the first property she ever showed, to the first client she ever had, on the first day she went out of the office. This was a 2.25-acre tract in the prestigious Strait Lane estate area of North Dallas, one block West of Ross Perot's large estate.

The property had been listed by two of the biggest firms in Dallas for about two years, had gone unsold and had weeds surrounding an empty house. It was no longer listed, so Della looked up the owner and had the deal signed within a few hours.

She sold it because she saw no weeds and no obsolescent house -- only the potential for a magnificent new home on a rare large lot. "Buy for the land, not the house" became her frequent advice to more and more buyers in the next few years, as she spearheaded the renewal of the close-in neighborhoods of Strait Lane, Preston Hollow, and Bluffview, and she gained a reputation as the Lot Queen.

Della's annual sales volume rose rapidly and, in 1985, she was the top producer in the Dallas market. And Dallas was then, by far, the hottest market in the nation -- which probably made her number one in America. For over a decade in that period, the Greater Dallas Board of Realtors ran an annual sales contest, the Summit Awards, with sales certified by the Multiple Listing Service, and Della was Number One several times and always in the top bracket, setting the record for the Summit Awards.

If it were an empty lot today, that first property, which she sold well under the market at $105,000, would now be worth about $2 million.