Forty-five years ago, Carol Lee Cikanek found a home she loved in Hinsdale. She's made a career of helping others to find their own dream homes in and around the village she still calls home. (Jim Slonoff photo)
Carol Lee Cikanek learned the basics of the real estate business long before she even dreamed of selling her first house.
Jobs selling floral arrangements, fine china and crystal, and photography equipment and products preceded Cikanek's real estate career. She said all prepared her for success as a real estate broker.
"To me, real estate is incredibly simple," said Cikanek. "To be in sales, you have to know what you're selling."
Cikanek is a broker with Coldwell Banker's downtown Hinsdale office. Throughout her 30-year career, the longtime Hinsdale resident has sold more than 750 homes near the downtown area alone.
"There's nothing I don't know about Hinsdale," Cikanek said - a knowledge base built through years of not only living in the village, but serving as a soccer coach, a school room mom, a church volunteer and a member of the Hinsdale Plan Commission.
After taking time to raise her three sons, Cikanek turned to real estate as a way to re-enter the workforce while still having time for her family and her community.
After taking a couple of real estate law classes at College of DuPage and earning her real estate license, she sold her first home in 1989.
Through the last three decades Cikanek has seen the market through peaks and valleys. She's watched interest rates rise and markets change.
But one thing that has never wavered is the appeal of Hinsdale to the prospective homeowner.
Another constant is the tagline Cikanek adopted more than 30 years ago and still uses today.
"Your Village Realtor," she said, speaks to her focus on the Hinsdale community.
Different buyers want different things, Cikanek said.
It's her job to listen to that list of wants and to help the buyer prioritize.
"You have to help them get their needs, wants and desires as close to their list as you possibly can," she said.
Cikanek bought her first Hinsdale home in 1974 for $25,000. While she can't come near that price today, Cikanek said she always advocates for the best price for her client, whether she's selling a home or helping someone to buy one.
"I'm here to tell you that Hinsdale is affordable," said Cikanek, who is seeing the current market beckon young adults back to the village where they grew up.
Along with the market, the job of a real estate broker also has changed in the years since Cikanek entered the business. The internet has made more information immediately available not only to her, but to buyers and other agents, as well.
"You have to be looking at the internet every day and analyzing the data that comes from it," Cikanek said.
Cikanek said her goal is to use the abundance of information available, and her years of experience, to turn every client into an informed, confident buyer or seller who knows they've made the right choice for themselves and their family.
