The only job that ever intimidated agent Millie Rosenbloom was the idea of trading on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where she once thought about yelling out orders for buying and selling commodities.
A friend, Leo Melamed, who also happened to run the exchange, suggested that Rosenbloom look to another less male-dominated career.
“There were very few women that were really active 40 years ago,” said Rosenbloom.
Decades later she thrives in a similar fast-paced environment and leads with her intuition, but with a different set of skills she’s used to sell some of Chicago’s priciest luxury homes. She is currently representing the second-most expensive home in the city.
At Baird & Warner, Rosenbloom is one of the top 15 Chicago-area agents by volume, according to rankings from real estate data tracker RealTrends. She’s held titles such as the third female president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and is also a hall of famer with that trade group.
All she admired about the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ultimately applied to her other love, real estate.
“I know what my gut tells me, and my gut is really good, so I knew I could get in there and buy and sell. And I’m a good listener,” said Rosenbloom. “I don’t get intimidated easily. I wasn’t afraid, I’m a gutsy person.”
Rosenbloom follows her gut as much as she’s strategic. She describes herself as a great negotiator and recommends simply listening when making deals. The opposite side always reveals its wants, she said, but she maintains what she calls a “step-ahead mindset” at the same time.
After several years of selling homes, Rosenbloom grew bored and needed a change. So, she began investing in apartment buildings and eventually sold the former Augustana Hospital in Chicago in what she called the most significant deal of her career.
“How I sold that hospital was a fluke,” said Rosenbloom. She spoke with a property manager of a neighboring building in passing, who expressed frustration over the hospital's upcoming closure and how the eventual sale would include the parking garage that their residents used. "The antenna went off in Millie's head."
Rosenbloom contacted the property's head attorney and ended up selling it to a developer. The 19th-century hospital building was torn down, and the 5-acre site was turned into a collection of townhouses called The Pointe.
Though Rosenbloom’s real estate career includes homes, hospitals, apartments, golf clubs, deconversions and condo buildings, there’s always been one constant: a Labrador by her side.
Her first dogs were Maggie and Molly, then Mavis and Mabel, and now, Midge.
“I live on Magnolia, I’m an M, so I needed another M,” said Rosenbloom.
Four questions
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What trends are you seeing in your market?
"We’re in an aggressive market. It’s been a lack of inventory and the lack of inventory has a lot to do with rates. People have low threes and really need to be motivated in order to want to move. Maybe it’s the growth of the family or it’s too big and they want to scale down.
"The current buyers are getting in at a higher interest rate than the people selling, but they’ve started to accept the rate. You have to be able to show them why interest rates are not going back there."
Who was/is your mentor?
"I met a banker that was at LaSalle that introduced me to a woman named Terri Folks, and [Terri] became my mentor. She owned apartment buildings, was a Wharton College graduate, was a banker, and was bored out of her mind being a banker. She decided ... she’d buy apartment buildings.
"She put what I call lipstick on [the apartments] and I would be the one that sold them. She was smart, direct, not tough with me but there was no fluff. I wound up partnering on a building with her. The first building I ever owned in my name was 40 units."
What are your hobbies?
"I take Midge to a social club three times a week, we walk a lot, we go to parks, and I enjoy fine dining with friends. I am also on the PAWS Development Board and a member of the River North Design District."
What’s your favorite part of your home?
"Out of selling an apartment building, I was able to have the cash to build a house. I wanted to build a house because I wanted to create what Millie wanted. I bought two lots on Magnolia Street. I built one for myself and did a spec for the one next door.
"There isn’t anything today in that floor plan, location, or light that I would change.
"I put this incredible huge round skylight in the middle of the house, and it’s over my dining room and next to my big winding staircase. Every morning I walk down, I still look around and say, “Oh my gosh, this is my house. And it’s light and it’s beautiful.”