As first-time homebuyers, we were naturally nervous about the process, but Lance made it an…read moreabsolute breeze. From our first meeting, he was incredibly patient and took the time to explain the end-to-end process in detail, ensuring we knew exactly what to expect and when. What we appreciated most was how he truly listened to our 'wants vs. needs' and remained extremely attentive throughout the entire search. He wasn't just trying to make a sale; he consistently gave his honest, expert opinion on every home we toured. If you want a realtor who is transparent, knowledgeable, and genuinely has your best interests at heart, look no further than Lance!

Lauren did a great job guiding through the process of finding an apartment! Most importantly, she…read morewent above and beyond and would often make tour requests and answer my questions outside of work hours, putting 100% effort in at all times!

Overall, primarily influenced by the outcome of our search / purchase (the most important measure),…read morewe were very dissatisfied with the overall service from Pam and Wendy. Pam and Wendy did give us a significant amount of their time and energy over the months it took us to complete the purchase of our new home, which was greatly appreciated. That being said, due to circumstances that could and should have been avoided, we now find ourselves in a discouraging and extremely costly situation as we work through several issues that should have been identified through the home search, due diligence and inspection. We trusted the inspector Pam and Wendy recommended to us would be thorough with a critical focus on protecting us from major issues - this was clearly not the case, and the shortcomings of the inspection and related negotiations have left us having to pay tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to remedy. On a related note, the 'experts' Pam and Wendy recommended during the inspection/attorney review period were equally poor, particularly a roofer that gave us an estimate for repairs that we now know was 95%+ underestimated (as proven by four subsequent estimates for the same work), and gave us a false sense of security in terms of what we had ahead of us. Maybe the most unsettling part of the experience in hindsight (which should have raised our flags in the moment) was when Pam and Wendy clearly put the best interest of the sellers ahead of ours (their client) in the context of pressuring us to sign the deal on a condensed timeline so the sellers would not have to relist the property. Finally, neither Pam nor Wendy made themselves or a legal representative available to represent us in person during our closing, and did not give us a heads up that we would be there alone, leaving us with a fairly sour taste on what should have been a celebratory day. Overall, as we continue to work through issues daily and try to recoup our losses, we do not feel our best interests were prioritized and feel the advice from Pam, Wendy and their recommended subject experts was critically underwhelming and insufficient.

From the moment we met with Pam and Wendy we knew we were in great hands. My husband and I were in…read morethe process of trying to decipher whether or not we wanted to take on a big project, or something more turnkey. Pam and Wendy differentiated themselves from the beginning because they knew the estimated costs of various projects, and where we would get a significant return on investment should we decide to sell our home in the future. We truly felt that they had our best interests in mind, and were always available to consult on various ideas. When we heard about a home coming on the market in Evanston, Pam did not hesitate to reach out to her contacts and ensure that we were the first people to get into see. Once we knew this was the home for us, Pam and Wendy knew how to navigate the negotiations with multiple offers, and her competitive yet sensible drive kept us calm and focused throughout the stressful process of buying a home in a pandemic. After the house was ours, Pam and Wendy's work did not end. They connected us with their favorite vendors for roofing, carpeting, lighting and more. They ensured we were connected with the best lawyer and loan-officer and were on-call to help us navigate several unforeseen circumstances throughout the process. We truly feel that our "forever home" today, would not have been ours without this incredible team of professionals assisting us throughout the process. We can't recommend them enough!

I've been working with Jane Ehlert for several years now, and she continues to exceed my…read moreexpectations every time. Most recently, she helped me secure amazing new tenants in just one weekend! Jane provided great recommendations on what to fix and update to get faster results, and she was right on point. She's incredibly professional, responsive, and an absolute pleasure to work with. I trust her judgment completely and truly appreciate her dedication. If you're looking for someone who knows the market and gets results quickly, Jane is the one!

Jane and her team are what you want when you are buying or selling a home. They make the whole…read moreprocess, which is usually really stressful, feel totally easy and calm. From the very first phone call, they treat you like you are their only client. Their communication is outstanding; they promptly respond to texts and calls, explaining complex paperwork in clear terms so you comprehend what you are signing. Working with them feels less like a transaction and more like getting help from a super-smart friend. Their service exemplifies what it means to be 5-star.

They really understand the Chicago market and know what strategies work best in every situation,…read morewhether selling, buying, or renting. We were guided through the selling process with great advice on updates and connections to get them done quickly. They also handled negotiations on our new home with our best interests in mind. The whole team was knowledgeable, supportive, and truly client-focused.

Kit and Ashley were absolutely amazing in helping us to purchase an apartment for our son. We are…read morefrom Texas and were not able to attend much in person. From start to finish they helped us through the process. They did virtual tours with us, walked us through every step of the process (which differs from state to state), helped with recommendations for each step, were available for inspections and basically anything we needed. I would highly recommended them for your needs in the Chicago area as you will not be disappointed.

Location: 5 stars. Downtown Evanston. Close to the train…read morestation, NU campus, and groceries. Maintenance: 5 stars. Shout out of George who is exceptionally professional and nice. Apartment condition: 1 star Don't believe their over photoshopped pictures on Zillow if you are renting from out of town. Persistent rat problem (see images of maintenance work orders in winters 2022 and 2023). Our unit is on the 1st floor but the building has a pretty tall basement level. George tried to help by putting rat trap but couldn't really fix it without real effort from the company. Leaking radiators (see images of damaged floor). Triggered my mold allergies. They also appear to be painted with lead paint and are chipping. Also they turn on and off randomly regardless of the actual temperature. Old and super squeaky doors and floors, which might be okay to some people but annoying to light sleepers - you might wake up in the middle of the night when your roommate opens the bedroom door and walks to the bathroom. Dirty/broken windows I don't know when was the last time they cleaned the windows... I tried to do it myself when I just moved in but had to give up cuz the dirt is just too thick and disgusting. Some of the windows/screens must be broken cuz we kept finding huge flies getting inside the apartment while all windows were closed. Managers: 0 stars Unethical and irresponsible liars: BJB agreed to let us sublease our apartment when moving out, we even found tenants to replace us. They then ignored our emails about this to tell us "we have found someone to move in at the end of your lease" - forcing us to pay for the remainder of our lease despite us finding a replacement (which is possibly a lie because that new person conveniently "lives abroad" and signed the lease within a day without even taking a video tour). This is highly indicative of this company. According to Illinois law, landlords are legally required to make a significant effort to find a new tenant as quickly as possible to reduce the amount of rent they lose when current tenants leave early. The BJB team did not market the unit at all, but made a convenient lie so that they can get a month of rent for free, rather than letting me find someone to take over the lease. This is what people call unethical and toxic landlord behavior. When we first moved in, they rented us an indoor parking spot without telling us how challenging it is to park there - the garage is extremely narrow and every car parking there had bad scratches. We had to cancel it immediately and informed them within our first week - but the manager insisted we didn't inform them fast enough and had us pay for an additional month of parking fee. BJB Evanston. I had to confront the upstairs neighbors myself to get a quiet night, many times, because the manager did nothing after promising that they would take action. The upstairs neighbors would play soccer in the living room... There were also unclaimed big packages stuffed in the tiny entrance/mail area for months. I honestly don't know what the managers are up to. I've never met them in person my entire time here (2+ years)...... Rent: Increases at least 4% every year and reaches almost $2000 now for a 2b1b.

When we planned to move from Honolulu, HI to Chicago, we searched for apartments ready to move in…read more BJB Evanston popped up in the search. We moved in on April 2022 to 6701 N Glenwood Ave. (Mailing address 1347 W Columbia) Decent area. Decent apartment. However, sometimes during the night, we heard someone using our buzzer to get in the building. The scary thing centers around this person aggressively pounding on the main entrance door. We felt the pounding all the way up the 3rd floor. The walls shook. Needless to say, no wonder the person living there prior to us moved out. At times, we could smell the cigarette smoke around the stairs. Granted, we're not supposed to smoke in the building. Once my dog and I heard someone trying to push in the door. Luckily my dog started to bark defensively. That person left. I wonder at times. Management likes to receive money. They hardly return our calls. Nor does management really care about security or safety of their residents.

If there was a question that Julie Jensen can't answer about the North Shore Real Estate, the…read morecommunities, the schools, or even "could we dig out this basement", my wife and I couldn't come up with it. Julie worked with us in our recent home purchase where we looked in Glenview, Wilmette, Winnetka and and Evanston, and she was a tremendous resource throughout the whole process. As a native (and current resident) of the north shore, Julie knows the north shore from all perspectives, and has hands on knowledge of the schools and neighboorhoods, restaurants, and most importantly the homes. Not only did she give us the inside scoop on the schools, the feel of each neighboorhood, but, she also helped us understand the relative value of each home, and the innate Strengths and Weaknesses of the construction, layout and all that. Finally, after being patient with my wife and I throughout our process, Julie was a great resource from the time we decided to bid, through inspection and all the way to close. In fact, I think her local knowledge really came into play in the last stage, as she helped us determine a fair price, and then knew all the questions to ask at inspection, and made sure we got everything all buttoned up for the close. Julie was great, not only was she personable and easy to deal with, she was attentive and very savvy about the area and the homes.

We met Julie in August of last year when we had visited Chicago to scout out neighborhoods to live…read morein. We were moving to Chicagoland and didn't know anyone. We found her on Yelp where she had great reviews. Julie was great from the word go, helped us get a feel of the North-shore area of Chicago and had great helpful insights. Having grown up here she lends a deeper perspective to the North-shore area and a good feel for the place. She kept us regularly updated on all the listings that were appearing in the market. We went to many of the houses that were listed and judging from our reston she quickly understood what we were looking for. She also had some very good recommendations on Mortgage Brokers and home inspector. Lastly she helped us negotiate a fair price for the house and very soon we were able to move into our beautiful house. Thanks!!

!!!Beware!!! They're now posting their apartments and…read morerentals under Southbranch Investments LLC. Presumably trying to dodge people from looking them up and finding the yelp reviews. Shame on you, Schermerhorn & Co! Jose (711 Dobson) is a really cool guy, but this is extremely shady practices and they need to be shut down! Listen to the 1 star reviews and stay away. The building is ran down and it smells weird. Dont waste your time and money.

I tried to rent an apartment through them (specifically through William (Bill) Cannon) and found…read morethe process impersonal, out-of-touch, and shady as heck. Bill seems to think himself above human decency and refused to respond to any emails or inquiries and I felt my application with 800+ credit score was rejected due to either the listing being a scheme to collect application fees or for Bill already having an applicant in mind and not doing his job in good faith. I also heard from someone while visiting the property that he wasn't pushing needed repairs for one of the current tenants because he wanted them out, so I probably dodged a bullet. I guess I am a fool for expecting more from humanity than this, but I would avoid Schermerhorn and Bill Cannon especially. Housing isn't something you should be so blasé about.

This review is specifically about deceptive marketing practices by @properties more than it is…read moreabout the @properties agent I hired to sell my home, although she too is culpable for this behavior. Frankly, I am upset and feel deceived by the whole process and can only hope future homeowners will not be put in the same position as me. TL;DR: If you are listing your home with @properties, INSIST that the commission split between the buyer's and seller's agents be written into your listing agreement. Buried in the very fine print of the @properties standard listing agreement it says that @properties can decide the commission split between the agents. Even I missed it, and it was only at the closing table that I even caught wind of the consequences of this. My property sat on the market for 10 weeks accruing market time with a below average number of showings. For those who may not be aware: When a property is listed on the MLS, the listing agent inputs what the commission to the buyer's agent will be. This information is absolutely secret to the general public and not viewable to anyone without MLS access, so you are completely putting your faith in the listing agent and trusting they are holding your best interests. As we all know, agent commissions drive showings and ultimately sales. Whether it would be considered ethical or not, a property listed with a lower commission to a buyer's agent (e.g., 1%) will result in fewer showings. (Please tell any agent who disagrees with this statement to switch to a flat fee structure instead). As I found out the hard way, my property was listed with a full 1% commission in my agent's favor (i.e., not an equal commission split). In other words, a lower commission to the buyer's agent, and plausibly responsible for the longer market time and lower sale price. While the "net" commission to me as the seller was the same, had this been *disclosed* upfront, I would never have hired @properties to represent me. To my dismay, this is a widespread practice with @properties. After speaking with Don Shea the @properties managing broker, he encourages "all of his agents" to list properties in this manner with this type of split commission in a 1% favor to his agents. While this practice puts more money in the @properties pockets (and may be even justifiable in some instances), the homeowner has zero visibility or knowledge of this practice. The commission split should be disclosed upfront because it is both the ethical thing to do as well as consequential to the homeowner with their sale.

Shelley Shelly in the Winnetka office was fantastic to work with. She was so helpful. She steered…read moreus away from Glencoe telling us about how it is the "Jewish suburb." We are thrilled with our home in Wilmette. Shelley let us know which blocks more African-American families are moving into so we would be at lower risk of our property value going down. I'm sorry, but this is a big investment and these things make a difference. We are investing a lot in the New Trier High School district. We moved here from Dallas so we just wouldn't have known about these things without Shelley's help. We are so happy with our new home!

I am moving to Chicago and blanketed a ton of realtors and Yelp Requests for a rental. Even though…read moreI didn't use Catherine because she doesn't do rentals, she took the time to answer my request, give me some general info on the market, and welcome me to town with great detail and care. True professionalism!

I've known Catherine for years, and after I worked with a relative on a previous home purchase and…read moreit did not go well, I knew I would ask Catherine to be my realtor the next time. And I'm SO GLAD I did! She recently handled both my home sale and new home purchase and I was wow'd by her patience, deep knowledge of the Chicago real estate landscape, and her relationships. Between knowing the listing agents when I was looking and the buyer's agent when I was selling, negotiations and closings were a breeze. I will not work with another realtor again!

Buying a real estate is an exciting yet tolling task. Buying a real estate in Evanston, requires…read moreknowledge of specific parts of town, as well as many nuances that one can not easily retrieve by searching the web. We were blessed to have Natasha Katz as our realtor! We cannot thank her enough for all of her help! We are so grateful for all of the hard work she had done to not only help us buy a home, but to find a dream-home. Natasha speared no effort to show us as many houses as we wanted, her knowledge of each street and part of Evanston saved us a lot of time, and helped us focus on properties within our budget and that will fit our needs. She was always there to answer questions, guide and provide her un biased opinion. We are endlessly grateful to have Natasha as our agent and couldn't be happier with the way everything worked out.