Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Jenner.
Susan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started real estate in 1999. My friend owned her own brokerage and she suggested to me that I get my real estate license. I said NO. She said I could sell ice to eskimos. The rest is history. I stayed with her office for 4 years and then decided I wanted to look at other companies in case the real estate market changed. I looked for a company that had great marketing and services to go along with my high energy – at the smaller company we had to reinvent the wheel on everything we did – I went and chatted with Baird & Warner and have been there for 14 years. Love the way they have so much marketing and services to make our jobs easier. While I work on all my marketing, they do most everything in house which makes life easy – and more time for me to focus on selling my listings. I also chose Baird & Warner because some of the top agents in my market worked for the company. I figured I needed to join them to show what I could do. I am currently the Top Agent in this Region for Baird & Warner and the #1 Agent in the Flossmoor market since 2010 and this year the #1 Agent in Olympia Fields. I sell in many other communities including Homewood – just not #1 there. We also enjoy working in the downtown Chicago market. Our actual BW branch is in Orland Park but we work from our home where we have two offices – my husband has his license and is a great help to the business and we have two assistants that come to our home to work as well – one for marketing and one for day to day processing of deals. We also are lucky to have a good buyer’s agent that likes to work with us and do open houses. The focus of our business is listing and selling vintage homes in the Homewood-Flossmoor-Olympia Fields area. We also represent buyers but we love working with our sellers. More of a manageable business.
Has it been a smooth road?
Real estate started quite well for me early on but that was because the market was HOT in 1999. As we all know when the downturn in real estate came nationally, it was a very hard time. Harder for my sellers. It was not an easy time to go into client’s homes and tell them their NEW prices in the decline. My business never really downturned. We have an ethical responsibility to tell the sellers the truth and not let them dictate pricing. It does not help them at all.
Growth in your business is also a challenge. I feel the need to be involved but to grow you need others to help you. It is always a challenge to keep good assistants. But for now, we are good – status quo is good.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in selling vintage homes in the HF-Olympia Fields market. Of course, we sell newer style homes too- but my passion is vintage homes – I live in a 1920’s home myself. I feel like I am sometimes the voice of Flossmoor real estate. I need to educate the agents coming from different areas with their clients on all the benefits of this great community and the communities surrounding. I grew up in this area, went to the Jr High and the high school and so did my husband and our children. So we are pretty well versed and like to share what we have to offer.
My goal is to provide the ultimate real estate experience to our clients. Being the best begins with knowledgeable, experienced and caring professionals, keen customer service, communication and negotiations, the ability to educate clients on today’s marketplace to help them make sound financial decisions and ends with stress-free closings. Our clear goal and vision is for every client to have a positive experience from the beginning to the end of the transaction and to earn referrals to their family and friends.
I think important things for us is that we communicate – you’d be surprised at how many agents do not. I also think we really care. And that is one of the golden rules. It’s not about getting paid – it’s about taking care of your clients, advising them on selling/buying (huge decision in their lives). I am happiest when I get their reviews and know that they loved the experience.
I am a stats person – very driven in this area. Currently I have closed 41 deals this year and I am #11 in closed transactions (out of about 2000 agents). I am #48 in the company for volume (just over 8 million closed through July). Our average market price is a bit lower than other offices.
Also, unfortunately I am a workaholic. I don’t just work full time – I work time and a half. I bought the best office chair ever because I spend more time in that chair than everywhere including my bed.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Chicago and the suburbs is a great place to sell real estate. If there is one problem in my market, it is the taxes. We are a bedroom community with not many businesses so taxes are a bit higher. We do, however, have excellent schools with great AP classes and offer the IB program as well. We have a fabulous park district with indoor skating rink, indoor tennis club, public golf course too. Parents are so busy and want everything for their kids – we make it easy here – everything is just 5 minutes from each other. There is a great sense of community in the Homewood-Flossmoor area. I love it!
I am also so excited – last week Crain’s business wrote a great article saying that Homewood and Flossmoor are two of the hottest suburban real estate markets. Pricing is up 18.3% in Flossmoor to a median of 205K and up 24% in Homewood. # of sales in Flossmoor up 25% and in Homewood 13%. Days on market for sellers is also going down. I could not be happier about these stats.
Contact Info:
- Address: Office
Baird & Warner Orland Park
9145 W. 151st Street,
Orland Park, IL 60462 - Website: susanjenner.bairdwarner.com
- Phone: 708-829-1820
- Email: susan.jenner@bairdwarner.com
- Facebook: Susan Jenner, Baird & Warner
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