No realtor works harder than Kathleen Whalen. She is tireless and her service is impeccable. She honestly makes you feel like you are her only care in the world. She is warm, friendly, professional, fun, and SOOOO smart! She makes the potentially stressful real estate process fun! I have to say the one odd review on here is seriously questionable. It's like she's talking about a completely different person. Maybe she got the name wrong??
I've worked with Kathleen on several different deals and am currently working with her to sell my home and find me a new one. You could not pay me to work with any other realtor in the area. She is the very picture of professionalism. Her extensive knowledge of the real estate market, really in all corners of Chicagoland and way beyond, is SOOOO impressive. She knows the city, and it seems like ALL of the suburbs, north, south, west! AND all the neighborhoods! She's seriously amazing.
She has spent countless hours talking with me, teaching me everything I need to know to make the right choices about everything from how to get a house ready to sell, how to figure out our priorities or must-haves in buying each property, where to buy, when to buy, financials, and what to look for in every different type of property. And I still have so much to learn from her! We have worked with Kathleen on investment and personal properties. We have made a great deal of money, based solely on her advice. Even after doing several deals, we would NEVER make a real estate decision without consulting Kathleen. NE. VER.
One thing you will instantly figure out about Kathleen is she has vision like nobody you will ever know. She can see things in a house that most people would miss, both problems and potential. She notices things I would never see. Little things that make big differences! She reminds me of that show with the brothers about seeing the potential in a house on HGTV. She knows SOOOO much about renovating that she's easily able to tell me if a property is worth the expense and effort it would take to make it what I want. If it's not, she'll figure out another approach or she'll just find another one.
Here's an example. We were looking for an investment property in the city. She found a good deal on a house in Lincoln Park for us. We thought we might knock it and build a new one to sell, which would have been a first for us. She saw the big picture and suggested we buy it because it was a great deal, but she thought we would be better off to rent it out and revisit the building idea in a year. We followed her advice and decided in the year it was not a good time for us to build as we had too much else going on. Our renter re-signed and we had it paid for for another year. We were so grateful we followed her advice! She was 100% correct! In the end, we sold it to a developer for a sizable profit. Her advice throughout the entire process of this property from finding it for us through the final resale was just beyond belief.
Also, in addition to the local properties, when I was having trouble selling a house in another state, she worked hard to find the best realtor for us there. He turned out to be fantastic, so she actually helped us sell that house too! There's nothing she can't do!
You absolutely cannot go wrong with Kathleen, but don't take my word for it. One phone conversation with her will confirm everything I've written here. Call her. See for yourself. Thank you, Kathleen for all of your hard work on our behalf! We are so grateful we have you in our corner on every deal! read more