Interview with LivingRoom Broker Susannah Ribstein

March 10th, 2020 Tell us about yourself  I live in a Chicago Bungalow in South Shore with my husband Brian, my baby son, and pit-mix Georgia (courtesy of Chicago Animal Care & Control!). Before buying our first home in South Shore in 2013, I lived in Hyde Park and then McKinley Park. I grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and moved to Chicago in 2001 to go to college at the University of Chicago, where I studied Art History with a special focus on architectural history. After college I worked in the art world for 10 years, including several years at the wonderful Corbett vs Dempsey gallery. In 2013 I completed my master's degree in Historic Preservation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I wrote my master's thesis about Brutalism, the universally-beloved (sarcasm!) mid-century architectural style. I made the leap to real estate full-time in 2016. Why did you decide to become a real estate broker I have always been interested in architecture, cities, history, and how buildings are put together. And like most Chicagoans, I love exploring different neighborhoods. When I decided to transition away from the art world, real estate seemed like the perfect way to combine those interests with my academic background as a preservationist and the people skills I developed working in galleries. Plus the independence and flexibility really sounded appealing after years of daily office commutes!  I'm happy to say that being a broker has met and exceeded my expectations. I truly think it was the job I was always meant to do. Getting to go all over the city every day poking around in buildings and talking to people about how to take care of them is certainly fun. But building relationships with my clients and colleagues is an even more important part of doing this job well, and that's what I find truly rewarding. It's a real privilege to get to know my clients as whole people with unique needs, and to be able to help them find joy, confidence, and security in what can also be a very stressful and confusing process. Tell me about someone who has influenced your work as a realtor  LivingRoom Realty's fearless leader and managing broker Annie Coleman! We had many friends and interests in common before I got into this line of work, so when I got my license I invited her out to lunch to pick her brain. We hit it right off and I feel so lucky to work with her and the community she has created around the LivingRoom office. Annie's integrity, confidence, civic-minded business philosophy, and tireless client advocacy have been such an inspiration to me. What do you do when you aren't working One reason I love being a real estate agent is I know how transformative finding & settling in to a neighborhood long-term can be because it happened to me. Moving to South Shore has had such a positive impact on my life because of the community I am a part of here. I'm a member of the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council - a diverse, multi-generational group that has been around for almost 40 years and includes several members who were part of the original coalition that save the South Shore Country Club building from demolition & advocated for its re-use as a free cultural center.  I'm also a volunteer Community Steward for the South Shore Nature Sanctuary, a magical 5-acre peninsula of land which was previously a dumping ground and, thanks to the advocacy of community members in the late-1990s, is now a gorgeous lakefront natural area with 6 different native eco-systems including dunes, wetland, prairie, and woodland. People come from all over the south side to gather at its council rings by the water and enjoy Lake views from downtown Chicago to Indiana. Every spring, summer, and fall we hold monthly stewardship days & other events where people of all ages & abilities can come out to pick up trash, pull weeds, plant native species, and just hang out in nature together. Beyond that, at the moment I have an infant, so you can also find me dragging the family around to breweries (pro tip: perfect places for babies. There's white noise, open early, and beer! Whiner Tap Room at The Plant and One Trick Pony in Lansing, IL are two current favorites) and managing my sleep-deprivation How do people find you I'm always available by email at susannah@livingroomrealty.com and call/text at 708-207-6590 Online you can mainly find me on Twitter these days @susannahribs! I tweet about real estate & events at LivingRoom, but also my other interests in historic preservation, urban planning, and neighborhood news in South Shore. IRL, I also host a monthly Real Estate Movie Night at the LivingRoom office in West Town which is free and all are welcome! At 7pm on the third Thursday of every month I screen a movie with a real estate theme or story line. Being married to a filmmaker, movies are a big part of my life, and I think films also really shape people's understanding of their own world. It's fun to watch these movies and think about how they do and don't reflect the reality of the real estate world. We have two months left in our first 6-month series (Barefoot in the Park on March 19th) but will be doing another series coming up after that, so stay tuned! Finally, I'm proud to say that almost all of my business comes from referrals. It's incredibly satisfying to know that my clients are happy enough with our work together to recommend me to their friends and family. (And if you're one of my great clients reading this, I also love reviews! ) 

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