Life is truly so very bittersweet, as Realtor Alice McMahon well knows.
Alice McMahon, a real estate agent at the Oak Park Weichert Realtors-Nickel Group, was recently named the 2017 Realtor of the Year by the Oak Park Area Association of Realtors. She was presented with the award during the Illinois Association of Realtors recent annual awards banquet at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield.
“I was very surprised,” said McMahon, whose career in real estate spans more than four decades.
“My first reaction was ‘Boy, they really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel,'” she joked.
The prestigious honor is supposed to be first announced at a business after hours get-together in the spring and until then, no one knows who will be receiving it. But the morning of the meeting, McMahon’s beloved sister died. As she gathered with family members at the hospital, her son-in-law Dale Anderson, who is also her business partner, informed her that she would be named that night as the recipient of the award.
“My sister-in-law then said, ‘You have to go to the meeting,'” said McMahon, who was co-chair of the event. “I had to go and act surprised.”
“My sister was a hard worker. She was a teacher for 37 years, and I’ve been a Realtor for 43 years,” added McMahon, an Oak Park resident. “My family is the beneficiaries of a very strong work ethic. My sister would want me to go.”
McMahon, a member of her local association’s board of directors since 2013, received the award for her ongoing efforts to improve the professional reputation and quality of service provided by real estate agents in the Oak Park area. She has served on the association’s pro standards committee since 2013 and also chairs the group’s special events task force.
McMahon was chosen to receive the award — the highest honor presented to a member of the association — by a panel of her peers, said John Lawrence, the president of OPAAR who also happens to be owner/broker at Weichert Realtors-Nickel Group, where McMahon has worked since 2009.
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Lawrence said he was “extremely proud,” of McMahon’s accomplishments as a real estate agent and of her recognition as the local association’s Realtor of the Year. The award underscores McMahon’s years of commitment to do whatever she can to provide the best real estate service in the area, said Lawrence.
“They recognized Alice’s longtime commitment to the Realtor community and to the local community as well,” said Lawrence. “Alice has served our association on numerous committees, the board of directors and (she) is now the treasurer elect of the Oak Park Area Association of Realtors.
“Alice has also represented OPAAR during the last two re-writes of the purchase contract that is used in the majority of real estate transactions in northern part of Illinois,” said Lawrence. “This was an arduous task, but an extremely important one and she was able to represent the interests of our association, as well of those of home buyers and sellers. On top of her service to the real estate world, Alice has also served the Oak Park and River Forest communities for years as an avid volunteer for many organizations.”
As McMahon’s broker, Lawrence said he appreciates the time and dedication that she has put into “being one of the best in the business.”
“Oftentimes, agents with her experience rest on their laurels, but Alice is constantly learning and staying on top of what is happening in the industry,” said Lawrence. “She is an extraordinarily hard-working Realtor who knows the business inside and out.”
“At Weichert, we benefit from her expertise and her willingness to share it with others,” said Lawrence. “She is great friend and colleague, and I’m thrilled to have her as part of our team.”
Felicia Dechter is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.