Looking back on her career, Risa Weiss-Kallis realizes that real estate found her.

“I had broken my ankle, and after surgery and at the start of the six-month recovery, my husband asked me what I wanted to do with my time,” recalls Weiss-Kallis, designated managing broker of Kale Realty. “I looked out the window and saw a ‘For Sale’ sign. On a total whim, I told him, ‘I want to get my real estate license.’ I have no idea why and knew little about real estate.” Before then, she had a lengthy career as a schoolteacher, as well as having been on faculty in the department of education at the University of Las Vegas, teaching future teachers how to teach. Once doctors cleared her to walk after the ankle healed, the first thing she did was take her licensing exam.

Weiss-Kallis flourished in the industry, quickly becoming a top producer in the Chicago and northern Lake County markets. She’s got a talent for explaining the buying and selling process in an easy-to-understand way and partnering with clients in decision-making. Weiss-Kallis has been teaching pre-licensing and continuing education for several years and enjoys facilitating workshops and coaching. To better inform agents on how to deal with divorce situations, she authored the class “Divorce and Real Estate,” which she co-teaches with a divorce attorney. On Saturdays, she can be found teaching pre-licensing classes for the Chicago Association of Realtors’ RRES.

Throughout her 20 years in real estate, Weiss-Kallis has worked with clients in Lake County and northern Cook County, and has closed more than 500 transactions and over $250M in volume. Currently she’s a licensed broker in Indiana as well as Illinois. She gives back to the industry by working as Kale Realty’s designated managing broker, building a culture of real estate producers and providing agents with tools to help them have impeccable marketing and amazing results.