Kim Kerbis, a broker with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, cannot believe 2022 marks 25 years in real estate.

It seems natural that the daughter of an architect and native Chicagoan would go into the business. Kerbis even remembers helping show her mother’s properties to potential buyers when she was only 13-years-old.

But Kerbis pursued a career in educational administration before answering the real estate call in 1997, when flip phones were the height of style; PDAs were the iPhones of their day; something called the internet was beginning to transform the industry; newspapers were still critical to marketing; and her beloved future home, @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, was still three years away from inception.

Despite so many business and technologic changes, Kerbis believes the most important element is the intimate relationship between agent and client. “I’m honored so many of my friends have become clients and that many clients have become dear friends,” she says. “These relationships are built on honest, friendly professionalism, hard data and years of experience. That allows me to deliver the most authentic advice possible.”

That advice and preparation is what wins Kerbis clients and peer admiration. As she explains, “Listing agents know my reputation for representing clients who are ready, willing and able to purchase. And buyers’ agents know my listings are priced for the market and properly prepped and ready to sell,” she says. That reputation helped Kerbis win Managing Broker of the Year in Chicago Agent magazine’s 2019 Agents’ Choice Awards, one of her most cherished accolades.

Kerbis loves the industry back, too, serving on numerous Chicago Association of Realtors committees, including Professional Standards, Finance, and Forms & Contracts; as well as the Illinois Realtors Professional Standards Committee; the Board of Directors for the Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation; and the Board of Trustees for the Francis W Parker School.

“I love what I do,” she says. “It makes me happy to see my clients happy. Their happiness is my success. And their success is my happiness.”