Steve and Alex Dorsa always knew they were meant to be life partners but business partners were never part of the plan.
Originally from New Orleans, Steve followed his retired parents to the Chattanooga area after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. The Dorsas were familiar with Chattanooga from frequent family vacations and sports tournaments and grew fond of the region, deciding this is where they would eventually settle.
Mother Nature gave Steve’s parents the push to make the move sooner than they planned in 2005. “After Katrina hit, they decided to just go ahead and move then,” Steve, who was in college at this time, said. “I was about four years behind my parents moving up here.”
Chattanooga is also special because it is where Steve met Alex nearly 14 years ago. They have been married for a little over 10 years and are the proud parents of two boys, Wyatt and Emmett, and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their third child and first daughter this winter.
Neither Steve or Alex had plans to pursue a career in real estate. “I moved here after I graduated from architecture school, didn’t really know what to do and kind of fell into real estate,” recalled Steve. He joined a realty team in 2012 and has kept his foot on the gas since, opening his own business, The Lookout Living Team, and receiving his Broker’s License in 2024.
Alex had been in nursing for six years when she began experiencing burnout from working long days and missing out on holidays with the family. When business began taking off for Steve and they started their family, Alex began phasing out of nursing, going from full-time to part-time to eventually retiring altogether.
Initially, “I went down to one day a week,” Alex shared, noting that Steve was getting so busy he needed assistance. “My last day at the hospital was Christmas Eve 2021.” The holiday was their youngest son’s first Christmas and what Steve calls the ‘final straw’ for Alex in deciding to leave nursing.
Four years later, the Dorsas are working full-time together as the husband and wife team behind Lookout Living and couldn’t be happier.
“We work really well together and have our own individual roles on our team,” said Steve. Where he is crunching data and ensuring deadlines are met, Alex is making connections and “bringing people in to work with us.” Planning client parties throughout the year and gifting are her speciality–”I’m the networking, party-planner, love-on-everybody role. I got the good end of the stick,” she joked.
There were some adjustments in the beginning. “It definitely took time to figure out how to do mom life, keep the house running, work and figure out my schedule when nothing was scheduled for me,” she admitted. Now, those initial challenges are far outweighed by what they have gained by working together.
Open communication, “which is so important,” Steve noted, has been instrumental not only for the success of Lookout Living but for the overall health of their marriage.
“It’s made our relationship stronger,” added Alex. “We’re together so much more. I feel very fortunate."
“We work really well together and have our own individual roles on our team,” said Steve. Where he is crunching data and ensuring deadlines are met, Alex is making connections and “bringing people in to work with us.”