Kathleen Whalen – @Properties

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!

I am a Home Stager in the Chicagoland area and recently had the opportunity to be asked by Kathleen to stage a new listing she’d gotten in the city. Right away I was impressed with Kathleen’s knowledge and expertise of the real estate market. I’ve worked with many realtors and I have to say that this knowledge combined with her professionalism and her warm and sincere personality made working along side her a pleasure. I highly recommend Kathleen to anyone seeking one of the best realtors in our area.

I used Kathleen when looking for a condo in the city. She was great! We spoke before looking to discuss what I was looking for and picked out a few places I was interested in to see over the weekend. Before viewing the places Kathleen send me a packet with all the properties and details for me to review. She also brought me a packet of the details for while we were out. This was great because it allowed me easily see what we were looking at next and be able to compare (and remember) all the details of the properties. I ended up putting an offer on a place that I didn’t want to see. I feel like Kathleen knew what I would like, better than I knew myself. Overall, Kathleen is very knowledgeable, she is always thinking how can she make this process easier for clients, and has a great personality making a stressful process more enjoyable. I have recommended her to my friends to use as well.

Kathleen sold my parents home recently and they had an excellent experience. She provided decorating and staging tips that resulted in them getting far more for the home than they thought possible. Throughout the process, Kathleen was highly attentive, promptly returning calls and answering all questions. We would highly recommend Kathleen to anyone looking for a high quality realtor.

This review is for Kathleen Whalen, a realtor in the Winnetka @Properties office. We tried to purchase a home in which Ms. Whalen was the listing realtor and she was unprofessional and unethical throughout our interaction with her. Ms Whalen offered to show my husband and I the home a day prior to putting it on the MLS so we went there straight from the airport with our toddler (oh, and I am pregnant) to accommodate her schedule, then asked us repeatedly to make an offer that day. We did in fact make an offer that day– FOR FULL PRICE– which she turned down without even consulting with her clients/​sellers (which is illegal). We then modified our offer to meet her requests and she turned down our offer again! She clearly did a bait and switch– listed the home at one price but when she was offered that price she said she wanted to sell it for more. Is that even legal?!
After pressing her and calling her manager, Ms. Whalen asked us to «wait until she had multiple offers to make a decision». After 48 hours we insisted on receiving an acceptance or rejection of our full price offer but she delayed. When she finally sent back the signed rejection letter there was a date that was clearly altered. Hmmm…
Even Ms. Whalen’s manager said she is difficult to work with, but besides that, she is highly unethical and does not accurately represent her clients. STAY AWAY FROM HER! There are hundreds of more qualified and honest real estate professionals throughout Chicago and the North Shore!!!