Forget the Oscars, People’s Choice Awards and Golden Globes – with our readers, the Agents’ Choice Awards seem to be everyone’s favorite awards ceremony.

From Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, real estate professionals throughout Chicagoland voted for their favorites and who they thought deserved to win our industry awards. We had over 12,000 votes this year, the most votes we’ve had for the Agents’ Choice Awards by far!

Though this is my first Agents’ Choice Awards issue, I can already tell that this is my favorite awards issue, too. All the winners are chosen by members of the real estate industry – lenders, developers, managing brokers and agents – and if anyone knows who’s been working the hardest, who’s been giving back to the community the most, who’s been supporting fellow agents the most, and who’s the most deserving of our awards, it’s the people in the industry.

I’d like to give a special thanks to PNC for sponsoring our awards ceremony, and Snaidero Kitchens + Design for hosting the ceremony in their beautiful showroom. Everyone who attended had a great time (see the photos on page 14), and while unfortunately not everyone could go home a winner, all the nominees are winners in my eyes. (if that means anything to you), and they should feel like winners, too – they made it into the top three, after all, out of all the people in Chicagoland’s real estate industry!

Flip through our cover story on page 18 and get to know the winners of each award. Want to see your face in those pages? Let this issue motivate you so that your peers will nominate you next year.