After 25 Years in Chicago Real Estate, Amy Sunshine Still Treats Every Move Like Her Own

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — This year, Amy Sunshine marks 25 years as a Chicago real estate broker, a milestone that almost never happened. In 2001, after a year at an established firm, she left to join a small and largely unknown startup called @properties. Nearly everyone she knew thought she had lost her mind.

The reason she took the leap was pure kismet. Thad Wong, one of the company’s founders, was recruiting her, and he and his wife Emily were expecting their first child. Wong mentioned that if the baby was a girl, they planned to name her Ella Sunshine Wong. Sunshine had just welcomed a niece named Ella Sunshine.

“I figured it was kismet,” Sunshine said. “Everyone I worked with thought I was out of my mind to make the change. I think all of them eventually made the same move many years later.”

The brand was so new that clients often misheard it. “When I told people who I worked for, they assumed I was saying ABT, as in the appliance store,” she recalled. “It took some convincing to move my clients to an unknown brokerage, but they trusted me, and I am grateful to those first clients who had the faith to do so.”

That early bet became part of Chicago real estate history. @properties grew into one of the region’s largest brokerages and later joined Christie’s International Real Estate, with Sunshine there from the start. “Being an integral part of something from the beginning fills me with pride,” she said.

A career built on relationships

Sunshine came to real estate from an unlikely place. After college she spent years in fashion, and she grew up watching her mother work as an agent. “I had the fashion and sales background and loved following my mother around on appointments,” she said. That instinct for design and for people became the foundation of a business that runs almost entirely on referrals and repeat clients.

Over 25 years, she has guided the same clients through milestone after milestone. “I have sold past clients their first bachelor pads all the way up to their million dollar family homes, and everything in between,” she said. One client came to her more than two decades ago as a single first-time buyer, later bought a multi-unit home in Lincoln Square before the neighborhood became what it is today, then a single-family home after she married, and recently a condo in Lincoln Park as the family downsized, sending many referrals along the way.

Her approach has held steady through every market cycle, including the 2008 downturn and the pandemic. “I truly treat my clients the way I would have wanted to be treated when I made my own purchases,” she said. “My clients become friends, and some are now like family to me.”

One story captures that commitment. Sunshine had helped a couple sell their condo and buy a single-family home just as they were expecting a baby. Days before closing, an incident left the new home uninhabitable and the couple with nowhere to go. She arranged for them to stay at the Four Seasons until it was ready. “I think it meant a tremendous amount to the client during a difficult time,” she said.

Steadiness, listening, and a personal cause

Ask Sunshine what keeps clients coming back for a quarter century, and her answer has little to do with sales tactics. “It is my calmness and my ability to make the process not just educational but fun and less nerve wracking,” she said. “I listen more than I speak, so I really understand what a client wants and how they are feeling.” Long after closing, she stays in touch through birthdays and new arrivals, and serves as a resource for everything from contractors to doctors.

Her steadiness has been tested off the job as well. Sunshine stepped back from her business for a time to help care for her father, who had Alzheimer’s disease. The experience deepened a commitment that continues today. A past board member of the Alzheimer’s Association, she stays active through its Women’s Group and Purple Circle and serves as a host member for its annual Power of Purple, Reason to Hope luncheon.

The same perseverance shows up in her pursuits outside work, from running marathons to climbing the Inca Trail and Mont Blanc. “My climbs and marathons taught me how to commit to my goals and how to persevere when the going gets tough,” she said.

Still going strong

Among many honors, Sunshine has been named a Top Producer and, in 2019, earned @properties’ Rolex award after surpassing $10 million in sales the prior year. She is an Accredited Buyer’s Representative, a Real Estate Negotiation Expert, and a member of the invitation-only Top Agent Network. Yet after 25 years, what drives her has not changed.

“The people and the challenge still excite me every day. There is never a day that I do not want to work,” she said. Her role model is close to home. “My mother is 89 and still selling real estate. That is my plan, if I am so lucky.”

For Sunshine, the philosophy behind 25 years comes down to a single line: “Your Chicago move, handled as if it was my own.”

About Amy Sunshine

Amy Sunshine is a broker with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, based in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. A founding member of the firm, she has spent 25 years serving buyers and sellers across the North Side and downtown, including Lincoln Park, Lakeview, North Center, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Roscoe Village, Gold Coast, River North, and the Loop. Her business is built on referrals and long-term relationships with clients ranging from first-time buyers to luxury homeowners.

Amy Sunshine, Broker
@properties Christie’s International Real Estate
312.404.1994
amysunshine@atproperties.com
https://amy-sunshine.com/

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