Cadey O’Leary Joins @Properties Christie’s from Sotheby’s

Cadey O’Leary, a top Chicago luxury residential agent, is joining @Properties Christie’s International Real Estate after more than eight years with Sotheby’s International Realty.

The veteran agent specializes in luxury new construction in Lincoln Park, where she is a top 10 agent in the neighborhood, according to @properties. In her last two years at Sotheby’s she notched more than $88 million in total closed sales volume. She had recently finished work as the listing agent and developer consultant for The Orchard Private Residences, a 32-unit boutique condo building at 2350 North Orchard Street.

O’Leary said that after finishing work on The Orchard, she started to evaluate what was next for her career. She’s a solo agent and will not be joining a team at @properties. She said she was interested in joining @properties because of both the technology and marketing resources offered by the brokerage.

“I’m an entrepreneur, and I asked what do I need to do to really recharge myself and charge my business going into 2024 after a more challenging 2023,” she said. “I was at Sotheby’s, which is an incredible brand, obviously, for eight-and-a-half years, and I felt that I needed a change in environments, and perhaps some new and different resources, both technology as well as human at my disposal.”

The move comes after a busy year for Chicago-based @properties, the biggest brokerage by sales volume in Cook County. That included having its recent acquisition of the Christie’s International Real Estate brand return to the New York City residential market this September. Christie’s previously had a Manhattan presence before the Chicago-based brokerage @properties purchased its real estate segment in 2021. O’Leary said that the Christie’s acquisition was one part of what drew her to @properties.

“Christie’s is an impressive brand as well and the fact that the owners of @properties now own Christie’s and that is headquartered in Chicago, I think provides some very exciting, compelling opportunities as I look at expanding some consulting opportunities for my business in Florida and other markets,” she said.

The firm continues to be dominant in its hometown of Chicago, as well. @properties took the top spot in The Real Deal’s annual residential brokerage rankings last year, doing over $7.55 billion in total sales volume and 12,800 in transactions.

Much of the focus of @properties’ continued expansion is increasing the firm’s average home sale price, a metric that requires beefing up its luxury sector.

“We’ve really focused a lot on pushing and growing into the luxury markets and using the strength of @properties brands throughout Chicago, the Chicagoland area, along with the strength of Christie’s to kind of put ourselves at a different level,” @properties co-founder and Co-CEO Mike Golden said previously.