Frank Montro

Broker
Oak Realty

For going on three decades, Oak Realty broker Frank Montro has built an enviable career in real estate by recognizing untapped potential and seizing opportunities others dismissed. It started in the late 1980s, when he intervened on behalf of a single woman who’d been denied a home loan only because she wasn’t married.

“It was my defining moment in business,” Montro says. “I helped her, and I knew I could help others reach the dream of homeownership.”

That motive remains as strong today as when he started. In a way, it even extends beyond helping homebuyers; houses sometimes need a revitalizing touch, Montro says, and part of his business is aimed at finding such properties for rehabbers.

In addition to his Type A work ethic, a broad network of contacts with loan officers and comprehensive knowledge of programs and grants, Montro’s success is also due to the proprietary financial/business models he developed for himself, which he constantly updates and improves. Embracing change and searching for better ways of navigating transactions have enabled him to maintain a high level of customer service.

It must be working. Even though more than 75 percent of his business is referral, Montro has made the rehab niche his own. He sells more investor-rehabbed homes than anyone else.

“My goal is to revitalize Chicagoland one home at a time,” he says.