Nadine Ferrata doesn’t chase after as many multimillion-dollar listings as Chicago’s top overall dealmakers. But she’s real estate royalty reigning over a huge — albeit often maligned — swath of the city.
Head of the NL Ferrata Team at Compass, she claimed the No. 1 spot in a ranking of top brokers on Chicago’s South Side compiled by TRD. Ferrata brought in $28.94 million in total area sales volume across 43 deals last year, according to the analysis.
Ferrata has been in the real estate industry for 28 years and has lived in the South Loop for longer. Clients know her as “the bulldog,” “the queen of the South Side” or just “the lady with the billboards,” Ferrata said. Beyond the South Loop, Ferrata also does business in Bridgeport and Hyde Park.
Despite increasing demand in these and other South Side neighborhoods, many top Chicago brokers have less of a presence on that side of the city or avoid working it altogether.
“I used to say agents got nosebleeds when they went south of Roosevelt Road,” Ferrata said. “It’s underrated. … Some of the best, most iconic views in the city are from the south.”
The top 10 residential brokers and broker teams on Chicago’s South Side pulled in $182.8 million in sales volume across 43 city neighborhoods south of Interstate 55 last year.
The idea that real estate brokers can’t build a successful business working deals on the city’s majority Black South Side is “just purely racism,” said Naja Morris of the MB Team, which came in third.
“Not only do we sell our community, but we are sold on our community,” Morris said. “So, we would prefer the brokers that feel comfortable transacting in our neighborhoods actually be sold on the community as well.”
“I used to say agents got nosebleeds when they went south of Roosevelt Road.”
Mapping sales by community area illustrates the stark economic contrast between Chicago’s North and South sides, driven by decades of redlining and disinvestment from majority Black communities in the latter.
There were $4 billion in transactions across all examined neighborhoods on the South Side during the period analyzed, but that dollar volume was exceeded by just four neighborhoods to the north and just west of the pricey downtown core — Uptown, Lincoln Square, West Town and the Near West Side. The total population of the South Side neighborhoods analyzed is quadruple that of those four neighborhoods combined, according to Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning figures.
Thus, succeeding in brokerage on the South Side is about developing a bigger pipeline of deals rather than chasing and winning the priciest listings.
The top three teams on the South Side all specialize in areas along the southern lakefront with higher demand — neighborhoods such as the South Loop, Bronzeville and Hyde Park — where the average sale price is higher than on the far South or Southwest sides of the city. Ferrata and the Sullivan Rosenberg Team (No. 2), as well as Susan O’Connor Davis (No. 5), closed some deals over $1 million, but many of the other top South Side brokers work in volume.
One example is Frank Montro, No. 4 on the list and the self-styled “King of the South Side,” who does much of his work in the South Chicago, Grand Crossing, Auburn Gresham and West Pullman neighborhoods, where average home prices are lower. His team, Frank Montro Homes, brought in a total of nearly $20.9 million in sales volume across 86 South Side deals, the data shows.
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Montro never moved his business north because he enjoys working with first-time buyers and others who may need more support in the homebuying process, he said. That means referring buyers to resources like credit repair services, title insurance companies, home inspectors and nonprofits or other lenders that offer low down payment loans.
In second place, the Sullivan Rosenberg Team, led by Robert Sullivan and Catherine Rosenberg, reported almost $25.9 million in total area sales volume across 29 deals. Sullivan has been in the industry for 30 years, and he and Rosenberg have been working together for the past three. They both live in the bordering Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods, which is part of the key to their success there, Rosenberg said.
“We know and love living in this community, and this love of community can be infectious when we are showing homes to new buyers,” she said in a statement.
In the No. 3 spot is the MB Team, led by Morris and Michelle Browne. The team pulled in nearly $22.2 million across 50 deals. Morris and Browne work primarily in Bronzeville and other communities on the near South Side.
Low inventory and high interest rates have been the biggest challenge to brokerage on the South Side, as in many other parts of the city, Morris said. Buyers are “still looking at the difference in their monthly payments if they would have purchased three or four years ago, and it’s creating a level of anxiety and trepidation,” she said.
The MB Team partners with Black and brown builders, including Bill Williams of KMW Communities, who want to do “ground-up construction” in their own backyards, Morris said.
Similarly, Ferrata has carved out a niche helping to rehab and sell condos in the South Loop and beyond — or as she likes to call it, “zhuzhing up” the place. A little zhuzhing can get the deal done when there’s low or aging inventory, whether she’s on the buy or sell side, she said.
“I meet a lot of the neighbors because of that, and they see what the final outcome is,” Ferrata said.
Two teams on the list also ranked among the top 20 brokers for all of Cook County last fall. Matt Laricy’s The Laricy Team finished in the top spot countywide and ranked No. 7 for the South Side market. Grigory Pekarsky’s Vesta Team came in at No. 5 in the overall ranking and No. 10 for the South Side.
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