Angela Swift loves Greenwich, Connecticut. “It’s where I live. It’s what I know,” she says of the place she spent the past 30 years building her business and life. Her enthusiasm for Greenwich, a town of over 60,000 people in Southern Connecticut, is contagious—even over a Zoom call. “I love that we are a beach community. I love the people here…They say that I’m like the mayor because I know everybody. They think I grew up here, but I really didn’t,” Angela, who grew up in nearby Sleepy Hollow, NY, says.

Even if you’re not from the Connecticut area, chances are you’ve heard of Greenwich, which continually ranks amongst the wealthiest cities in the country. Despite its “perception of being an uber wealthy community…people that live here are on all areas of the socio-economic spectrum,” Angela says of her town. “I love how diverse we are…Especially in times like now, with COVID, this town has come together in amazing ways.”

“We offer something for everybody,” Angela says. Ask her about the public schools, and she’ll tell you how they’re ranked top ten in the country; that there’s never a class over 25 students; that they offer Mandarin as an elective! Want to know about arts and culture? Angela will be happy to let you know about her town’s renowned shops and restaurants, or about the winners of the Westinghouse science contest, or the film festival—complete with its very own red carpet. If nature is more of your thing, this triathloner can tell you how she’s at the beach all week long—running, swimming, and taking clients on boat rides across the Long Island Sound.

And taxes? “We have the lowest taxes in the tri-state area!” Angela boasts. “Taxes on a $2 million home are approximately $14,000 a year, compared to our neighbors in Westchester, where taxes can be three times that amount.” You can tell, with Angela, this is a point of great pride.

Listening to Angela talk about Greenwich, with such passion and joy, you can’t help be reminded of the old adage ‘do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ And Angela, well… she loooves selling her town, which is why her business is exclusive to the Greenwich market. She takes each sale very personally, “I treat everybody as if they’re my kid,” the mother of three says. “If I’m not going to put my kid in that house, you’re not getting that house.”

Angela has been a realtor with Compass since July 2019, and this year, after more than 40 closings and $67 million in sales, she hit a new career high after ranking 12th out of 1200 realtors in Greenwich. But real estate was a second calling for Angela, who started out her career in technology during the “beginning of the internet,” working for such companies as IBM.

Like Greenwich, Angela also loooves technology. Twenty years ago, after taking a short hiatus from the workplace to raise her kids, a fidgety Angela was ready to get back to work. It was then that a top Greenwich realtor asked Angela to help organize and digitize her databases. “At the time, we weren’t even using cell phones with the MLS on it.”

During this time, Angela was inspired to get her real estate license, and when she did, she focused on the two things that are most important to her: Greenwich and technology. After her previous brokerage continuously fell through on promises to update their CRM and technology systems, Compass came calling. “Everything was just so laborious that I knew technology could help. So Compass came at me…and I did my research. And I’m like, you know what? The future of real estate, much like Uber, much like Expedia, is going to be Compass,” Angela says of her decision to join the Compass team. “The way we market [homes online], the way people come to see that house, [and the] evangelization of the product that is accomplished [on the Compass platform] is second to none. And that will only continue to be the way to sell homes.”

While she knows nothing will ever replace the one-on-one interactions a realtor has with their client, Angela is “constantly staying in touch with clients, using all the tools that Compass gives us.” By using the Compass platform, Angela is able to schedule messages to her clients and sphere of influence without interrupting her day. She calls it a “crockpot kind of mentality—set it and forget it.”

When talking about the obstacles she’s encountered throughout her real estate career Angela says, “My biggest challenge is myself. I have so many things I want to do—so many ideas I want to do, and it is finding the time and the place and the energy to do it.” After working with her CSC coach to grow and organize her team (she just hired another admin), and cementing the foundation of her business on the Compass platform, Angela says she now has the time to focus on what she does best: “selling the town that I love so much, selling this lifestyle, selling what it means to raise a family here, or to retire here, or to downsize here, and then let my team do all the rest of the stuff.” Afterall, for Angela, the greatest reward of her job “is when I’m selling somebody a home, and they are so overjoyed. It really is an amazing feeling.”

If Angela could impart any piece of wisdom to her rookie-self she would say, “Don’t worry what everybody else is doing. Learn from them, but compete with anybody other than myself.” Angela strives to learn what other people in the industry are doing well, “and make it Angela-ized.” If you’re wondering what the future has in store for this Greenwich agent, she says she wants to “Stay in my lane. Win more than I lose, [and] if I make a mistake [ask] ‘why did I make it and how can I fix it?’ And let’s move on.”

One thing is for certain: Greenwich real estate has forever been Angela-ized.

If you want to learn more about Angela (and fall in love with Greenwich) follow her on Instagram @greenwichlifestyle.