Selling real estate in Chicago for 29 years, Pam Rueve has achieved unstoppable momentum, consistently selling $20 million to $30 million a year for the past two decades. Rueve, a broker associate with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, experienced her best year in 2002, when she sold $34 million. “My sales ranged from a $25,000 parking space to a $6 million raw-space penthouse,” she says.

While Rueve has a diverse history, having worked with developers, built a home in Old Town and renovated condos, she primarily works with buyers and sellers now. “Working all these years means repeat clients,” she says. “As life goes on, I help their children.” She focuses on the city and utilizes an extensive network of agent colleagues in the suburbs to facilitate referrals.

While Rueve has seen many teams created in the industry of late, she is an individual agent — the only one her clients interact with from start to finish. “The drive and enthusiasm I have for real estate is obvious the minute you meet me,” she says.

Organized and an excellent communicator, the energy she brings to the process is palpable. “We as agents work for free until we get to the finish line,” she says. “You have to keep working and keep paying attention. I am assertive but not pushy and respect the combination of emotional and financial decisions throughout the process.”

Real estate is the only career Rueve has ever known. She studied design, art and architectural planning at the University of Cincinnati, through a five-year co-op program that puts students in the national workforce every other quarter. “My elective courses were real estate because it came natural to me, growing up in a real estate family in Ohio,” she says. “Through high school, I worked at real estate firms.”

Her husband, Joe, a hair stylist, recognized her talent for design and drive to be successful and guided her into the career she has today. Now they are the proud parents of Phillip and Jack, recent college graduates.