“Real estate is such a part of who I am that while it does take hard work, it isn’t a job to me,” says Chicago agent Haley Levine Wills. “I feel most successful when my work, friendships and family coexist.”

The Chicago native has lived in the city her whole life in many different neighborhoods, from Wicker Park to Lincoln Square to her current home in Ravenswood Manor. “I always loved apartment hunting with my friends, so I got my start as a summer leasing agent in my early 20s when all my friends started looking for apartments in the city,” Levine says. After realizing she was feeling unfulfilled at her 9-to-5 job almost a decade ago, she took a leap of faith and got her license to start working full time as a real estate agent. “Real estate seemed a good combination of my skill set and interests,” she says. “It was a good mesh of sales and entrepreneurship and marketing.”

Levine says she’s all about setting expectations with her clients and educating them on the process to come, but her clients also think of her as someone who has their best interests at heart, listens to them and is a strong negotiator on their behalf.

In the past year when inventory was tight, Levine took to finding off-market homes for her clients. “I literally cold-called the neighborhoods my buyers were looking in and showed up at strangers’ doors until I found the right opportunities for my buyers,” she says. “I’m proud that I went above and beyond to ensure my clients got the best home for them.”

Levine was recognized by the Chicago Association of Realtors as a top producer from 2019 through 2021, and currently leads the Haley Levine & Partners group at Compass. She is proud to be a working mother, and says her daughter gave her a “why.”