The Realtor

My experience as a realtor began in Chicago as one of the first buyer’s brokers. In 1992, I co-founded one of Chicago’s first buyer brokerage companies, Bottom Line Realty & Investments, which worked exclusively with buyers. This is noteworthy because at that time the concept of the buyer having an agent who owed a duty of loyalty only to them, which is now universally accepted, was generally not accepted within the real estate industry. At that the time, both the agent for the seller and the agent for the buyer were treated as agents of the seller, with a duty of fairness to the buyer, but a legal fiduciary duty only to the seller.

From my experiences as an attorney involved in the adversarial process, it only made sense to me that if he was working with a buyer to find a property, he would be the buyer’s agent and his duty of loyalty would be to his buyer client only. These were difficult times at first since the traditional real estate community had yet to embrace the concept of sharing commissions with agents who refused to be a sub-agent of the seller and who worked solely for the benefit of the prospective buyer.

Slowly, that position changed as real estate professionals and lawmakers recognized the importance and common sense of allowing each party in a real estate transaction to have their own representation. Following the changes in the agency law and the gradual acceptance of buyer brokerage by the greater real estate community, I allowed my practice to grow into the listing side and over the years I have listed, marketed and successfully sold hundreds of homes and investment properties.

THE CHARLES REINHART COMPANY, Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan,
Associate Broker, 2008 to present.

SUSSEX & REILLY, L.L.C., Chicago, Illinois, Co-Founder and Executive Officer, 1999-2004.

In 1999, I co-founded a start-up real estate brokerage company. While most real estate companies were busy consolidating under national brands, my partners, Sean Conlon and Tim O’Neil, and I launched an independent brokerage company whose goal it was to offer a “Smarter Approach to Real Estate.” The mission of our new company was to become an innovative leader in real estate by creating a powerful platform of consumer services. What began with the goal of providing a unique “high tech, high touch” alternative to the traditional real estate brokerage model quickly developed into one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the country closing over $ 400 million in sales by the end of its second year of operations. The company’s innovative, technology-based approach and rapid growth attracted a number of suitors and we sold our business to a national real estate chain in 2002.

BOTTOM LINE REALTY & INVESTMENTS, Chicago, Illinois, Co-Founder and Partner, 1992-1999.

In 1992, my partner, Tim O’Neil, and I formed a new company that provided real estate brokerage services and specialized real estate investment advisory services.