Christie Carmody – Realty Chicago

Christie is knowledgeable, professional and most importantly a reliable real estate agent. She brings her expertise to the table, she guides you through the buying process, prepares you for any wrinkles you may run into and most of all will give you an unbiased opinion on what is likely one of the most important investments of your life.
We are very pleased to have worked with her and recommend her to anyone.

Christie is a miracle worker! We had a small two-​bedroom condo that I thought we were going to have a hard time selling for the price that we wanted. Neighborhood was nice, but we thought the comps in the area might hurt us. When she came by our condo for our first meeting, I was very impressed by her professionalism and organization. She then carefully went over everything that needed to be addressed in our unit. Once we were ready to go about a month later, she listed our place on a Tuesday night and had an offer for us by Thursday afternoon. We were absolutely blown away. Because she is great at what she does and came highly recommended, I knew she would be very busy. But regardless of how busy she was, she never made us seem like we were just a number. Whenever I had a question, she was always available either via her cell or email. Christie put in the work, has great communication and the personality to sell. She also found us a great place within just a few weeks. I cannot say enough!

Christie is the best!!!
I contacted Christie in early 2014 and even though I wasn’t planning to purchase for several months, she treated me like I was her number one client from the very beginning. As a first-​time buyer, I felt a little overwhelmed at times. She’s incredibly knowledgeable and was always willing to answer questions.
Christie was always very organized, on-​time, easily accessible, and quick to return calls/​emails. If anything, I probably kept her waiting. (Sorry, Christie) Although Unilocal says she’s in Edgewater/​Andersonville, she was more than willing to help me search other areas. I ultimately closed on a place in Oak Park. (Hopefully, I’m not setting her up for a lot of extra driving.)
Christie has great energy and enthusiasm. It’s obvious that her goal isn’t to make a sale but rather to find the right home for you.
Look no further… call Christie!

We worked with Christie when buying a condo this past February in the Andersonville area. As first time buyers, Christie’s knowledge of the area, excellent communication skills, sharp eye, and candid observations were invaluable. She took time initially to show us a lot of places to get a sense of what we were looking for, and then was able to narrow down the field for us substantially, often getting us in to view promising options the same day or next day. To boot, Christie is a fabulous person with a great sense of humor. I would highly recommend Christie to anyone looking for a realtor.

We recently enlisted Christie to help us sell a condo and purchase a single family home, both in the Andersonville neighborhood. After struggling to make this happen with another realtor in spring 2013, we took the advice of multiple friends and worked with Christie this time around — and the results were far more successful. In the span of one month’s time, we put an offer in on our dream home, closed on it, moved in and accepted an offer (close to asking) on our condo. Now settled into our new house, we couldn’t be happier with Christie’s work and sound advice.
What we really liked about working with Christie:
Communication
She was always accessible and also sent us helpful weekly reports that kept us aware of what was happening in the neighborhood with listings, closings and comps. Unlike in our past, she also listened closely to what we wanted and didn’t want — and didn’t try to pressure us into looking at something that wasn’t exactly what we wanted. As another Unilocaler noted, she never sugar coated anything for the sake of a sale. When it came time to show our condo, she sent detailed summaries of how it went and what the feedback was. She is extremely personable and I feel this came in handy when it came time for showings and dealing with our potential buyers. During our home inspection, she was also great about highlighting things we should actually worry about and request a credit for versus fix ourselves.
Andersonville Expertise
Living and working in the Andersonville/​Edgewater area, Christie knows it like the back of her hand. (In addition to other neighborhoods, of course.) She excelled at identifying comps, helping us negotiate with our home and even composing a compelling listing for our condo that focused on the best attributes. She knows what buyers are looking for. Even when we were ready to make price changes in an effort to get the condo off our hands, she pushed us to stay with it because she knew we could get the price we initially wanted — and we did.
Financial Expertise
Christie has a background in finance, which made her even more valuable. We thought we knew what we needed to sell for and how much house we could actually afford, but we were humbled when she helped us double check our numbers. She even mapped out the anticipated closing/​selling costs against what we still owed on the property into a worksheet. Thanks to this extra mile service, we ended up comfortable instead of stretched and had a much clearer picture of our financial situation with regards to buying and selling.

Simply put, Christie is INCREDIBLE! We sat down and talked before ever going to see a place. From there, she would line up 6 – 8 showings at a time. I could always depend on her being on time and in a chipper mood. Even though I knew she was busy, she was focused on me and the property we were looking at. She responded promptly to every text or email I would send her. When I finally decided on one, she gave me the name of mortgage broker, inspector, and lawyer. Because she had developed the trust, I went with the people she suggested with no reservation. She came to the inspection and to the closing. She also helped a friend of mine through the whole short sale process.
She is a joy to work with!

Why this woman isn’t on HGTV is beyond me. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better realtor to be found. Period! We used Christie for buying two places and for selling one. Each experience was exhaustive due to the market, unreasonable sellers/​buyers, and the number of showings. But I would not have changed a single thing. Home buying/​selling is an emotional process, yet her patience and perseverance helped us stay grounded and focused on the end goal: Our happiness.
Christie’s integrity, honesty, negotiating skills and concern for her clients are her biggest strengths. She not only wants you to find the home of your dreams, she will also let you know if that home could turn into a potential nightmare down the road when you want or need to sell it. Unlike a lot of realtors, she won’t sugar coat a property to make a quick buck. She genuinely wants you to be happy and secure with your purchase.
Our last purchase and current home came about by such a twist of fate. I won’t bore you with the details. However, I know for a fact we would not be in our beautiful new home in an awesome neighborhood if it wasn’t for the extremely intuitive mind and quick maneuvering of this woman. She’s not afraid to ask the hard questions and be upfront and open with listing agents and developers. She is grounded in reality.
I cannot recommend a realtor more than Christie Carmody. I honestly think if I were buying or listing a house in another part of the globe, I would strongly consider flying her out to help with the process. I’m not kidding.

Christie Rocks! We started our home search with little information on where to start. We received Christie’s contact from a neighbor who highly recommended her. When we first met Christie, she had a packet of information prepared. We spent three Saturdays with her, viewing about 8 places each time. She gave us a list ahead of time, and of course had a packet prepared for the day off. Christie showed us properties in a price range, and the few that were over our budget we only viewed because she felt there was room to negotiate. We fell in love with the place we ultimately ended up buying on the first Saturday, but Christie made us keep looking to ensure it was the right place for us. She learned our personalities well and was able to navigate through the housing process satisfying each of us. We joked that Christie became the marriage referee /​counselor throughout the process!
After a lot of thinking we decided to see the place we ultimately bought for a second (and third) time. Christie’s flexible schedule helped make the process easier. She was worked well with the seller’s agent making the process smooth. Placing the offer was a breeze. Christie handled all of the negotiation and kept us up-​to-​date on the status of the offer. Things were very crazy at the end, but Christie kept us calm all they way through the end of the closing.
We are so happy with Christie and would highly recommend her. When we eventually go to sell our place– Christie will be the ONLY person we call!

In the spirit of full disclosure, Christie and her husband are friends of mine. She also helped me find a beautiful cost-​effective condo in the West Loop.
Having said that, I referred newlyweds I know to Christie to help them find their first home in the U. S, in Ravenswood. It was such a great experience for them, they have since referred her to several other people, including another couple we know – whose home in Lincoln Square is now their pride and joy.
Both of those couples have now referred her to other friends – and to their FAMILIES. Now you know Christie must be good if people are referring her to their family members – ’cause you know how crazy your family will make you if she wasn’t amazing :-).
Christie is the perfect combination of knowledge – about neighborhoods, builders, structure, buying/​selling process and finance (she is a Certified Financial Planner too); communication skills – listening and negotiating, in addition to describing in easy-​to-​understand English about how everything works; and networked professional – plugged into the best inspectors and mortgage sources.
You couldn’t be in better hands!

Looking for a house without Christie is like trying to find a hotel in a sketchy foreign city without a map when you don’t speak the language and are dressed like a ho. DON’T DO IT.
I have to outline the ways that I am grateful for this woman, because there are just too many to put into one review:
1) Viewing homes
Christie was brutally honest and extremely knowledgable when it came to touring properties. She noticed things that my partner and I never would of thought of, and she had amazing insight regarding resale value and the current worth of the property. She read our preferences extremely well, and very quickly got a sense for what we were looking for. (Which is impressive, considering we were all over the place with locations at first.)
2) Sense of humor
Christie is hilarious. I’ve never once felt stressed about the entire process. (OK, once, but she quickly calmed me down.) It was actually fun! Partially because I knew I was in great hands and that she would alert me if I really had anything to worry about. But also because Christie approached everything with a «we can do it» attitude and a funny-because-it’s-true comment when a place was obviously not for us.
3) Negotiation MASTER
We found our dream place. I couldn’t live without it. I still didn’t want to pay the asking price. Christie was amazing at advising us to what first offer we should put out, what second offer to set, and what we’d finally need to compromise at. I suck at bargaining, so this alone made her worth hiring.
4) Responsive
I’m impatient. As in, «I e-​mailed you five minutes ago, why haven’t I heard back?!» impatient. So for me to call someone responsive is to mean that the person reads my mind. Christie’s pretty darn responsive. I never had to wait more than a few hours for a response. Holy cow that’s good. Honestly, I worry about her personal life considering she regularly answered my calls late at night and on weekends.
5) Guidance after the process.
After you find a place you want, there are innumerable processes that make you want to gouge your eyes out and scream «Can’t I just give you my life savings and be done with it!!!» Christie guided us through every single step. The inspector she referred was meticulously thorough and accurate. She made sure the attorney review period, inspection negotiation, etc., was all done on time and fairly – giving us her opinion when she knew we were inexperienced. I never once had to ask, «OK, what’s next?» She always let me know in advance what to expect and what I had to do.
Bottom line: Christie = perfect home, painless process.