From Broadcaster to Real Estate Agent to HGTV Spot

Peachtree Corners’ Tonia Luster overcame tough obstacles to fulfill a dream.

If you’d have told Tonia Luster while she was in her 20s that she’d appear in a nationally viewed TV show, she’d probably believe the prediction, but she’d have no idea that her time to shine would involve real estate. Through a circuitous journey that included an on-air radio career, Luster was recently featured on the HGTV series “House Hunters.”

As a licensed real estate agent based in Peachtree Corners, Luster helps her clients upsize, downsize, move into metro Atlanta or even find their first home. That was the case with her HGTV client.

The episode is called “From Homelessness to Queen of Her Castle” and follows an Atlanta woman who overcame major hurdles, including homelessness. The single mom and her daughter are ready to buy a home, but she doesn’t want to compromise on what she wants. Given the area’s hot real estate market, finding the right place proves to be a challenge.

“House Hunters” takes viewers behind the scenes as individuals, couples and families learn what to look for and decide whether or not a home is meant for them. Focusing on the emotional experience of finding and purchasing a new home, each episode shows the process as buyers search for a home.

Luster’s episode originally aired Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, but is available on-demand through streaming services.

Believe in yourself

Luster always had big ambitions. While she was growing up in a tiny east Texas town, her mother always pointed out that Luster’s dreams where bigger than her residence. The family later moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to get closer to fulfilling those dreams.

As a kid, Luster would see young Black performers like Michael Jackson and his sister Janet and realize that she, too, could end up on TV.

“I didn’t want to do [the singing and dancing] but I wanted to be on television and radio, or both,” Luster said.

In college, her instructors cautioned her about reaching for something so far out of her grasp.

“They’d tell me to get something that I could fall back on,” she said. “It happened so many times, but I wanted to believe in myself, not in their discouragement.”

Through her own determination, Luster landed an interview with the local Fox TV affiliate and got the internship. She used that opportunity to get a paid gig at a local radio station — all before she completed her sophomore year.

“That was the wheel that started everything,” said Luster. “There were so many people telling me not to hope for the best; these days we’d call them haters. My mom called them Dream Dashers and told me not to let those people detour me. …My mom would always say to me, ‘If you want it, you can do anything. Put your mind to it.’”

Texas-Georgia connection

Dallas/Fort Worth was the fifth largest media market in the country, and Luster’s detractors warned her that, even with her foot already in the door, she’d have to go to a much smaller market to launch a radio career.

Luster stayed in Dallas and supplemented her income with apartment management. Some of her coworkers questioned why she was hosting her own gospel radio show and working at an apartment complex.

“There was just something about it that I enjoyed — the commission checks,” she said.

Luster soon saw that the people making the real money were the leasing agents. And that made her realize that Realtors were the biggest winners. They worked with clients buying and selling properties.

In the meantime, Luster’s husband took a job in metro Atlanta. Although she had been splitting her time between the two markets for a while, she was ready to pull up stakes and make the Peach State her permanent home.

Obstacles slow progress, but don’t stop the dream

Soon after moving to Georgia, Luster’s husband’s job fell through. To make matters worse, she began having problems with her voice.

“I started going to specialist and it got so bad that I had to take myself off the air,” said Luster. “We had a little savings, but not enough to support us.”

She went back to what she knew — real estate. And she relied on God to see her through.

Her husband took a lower-level job and met someone who introduced her to another specialist. This one diagnosed her with a condition called spasmodic dysphonia and recommended surgery.

The more common name for the disorder is “shaky voice.” Spasmodic dysphonia affects the voice muscles in the larynx, or voice box. When a person speaks, air from the lungs is pushed between two elastic structures — called vocal folds — causing them to vibrate and produce a voice. In spasmodic dysphonia, the muscles inside the vocal folds spasm and interfere with vocal fold vibrations.

“The procedure hurt like heck, because we’re dealing with long needles going into your vocal cords and your throat and you have to be awake,” she said.

Despite the pain, the operation worked.

“I can’t explain how good it was to have my voice back!” Luster exclaimed.

Although she was significantly better, she wasn’t back to 100%. Her radio career was pretty much over. The spasms still come and go to this day, though they aren’t often detected in everyday speech.

Radio, however, magnifies everything – especially that kind of disorder. While there are treatments that work in many cases, there is currently no cure. Scientists haven’t discovered why spasmodic dysphonia occurs. Many believe that it could be hereditary.

Another direction

With radio off the table, Luster hadn’t given up on her dream of being on TV. She already knew real estate. She worked to become even better at it and obtained her Georgia real estate license.

“I did a lot of working in the multifamily residential area and I also work with Realtors helping them to find …an apartment or temporary living,” said Luster.

She kept up with her sources in Texas and helped two players for the Dallas Mavericks find housing. Luster eventually decided to branch out on her own and start her own real estate office.

“And from there, I haven’t looked back,” she said. It was right before the pandemic and her timing couldn’t have been better. People were looking to move from small urban spaces to single family homes in places like Peachtree Corners.

To the world, Luster is a confident businesswoman, but inside was scared that she wouldn’t succeed. It was her mother’s strength and support that helped her through. Then the unthinkable happened. Her mother died during COVID.

“I was starting to see the fruits of my labor, but my number one support wasn’t there to share it,” Luster said.

Don’t stop dreaming

Through referrals and word-of-mouth, HGTV became interested in Luster for an edition of “House Hunters.” She was so right for the job that she was told at the audition that she’d gotten the job.

What aired on “House Hunters” was a made-for-TV version of how Luster handles clients. It was 100% who she is. The same advice and tough love she gives to her client on the TV episode is the same kind of treatment and advice she gives everyone.

Luster said she keeps up with trends and counsels her clients based on that knowledge. But there’s one piece of advice she never compromises on.

“I always tell clients, whatever you do, no matter how badly you want it, never waive your home inspection,” said Luster. “What looks good on the outside isn’t necessarily good on the inside. So, you can be going in with a dream and end up with a nightmare.”

With any luck, this first experience with HGTV won’t be Luster’s last. “I can see myself on a show where I work with a contractor that’s building and I’m the realtor for the show,” she said.

Luster admits that her own TV show is a big dream, but she doesn’t know how to do it any other way.

“I don’t ask God for small things. I always ask God for things that are big because just knowing where I came from, pushing myself and praying and meditating constantly, [I know] I’m looking for more great things in my life.”