“I recently had a client in Glencoe who took two years to find their dream home, and that was just fine with me,” Maisel says during an interview with Sheridan Road magazine. “I think that’s a good thing about me. I’m willing to take as much time as my clients need to find what they are looking for.”

And taking this time to build personal and professional relationships in the real estate world has resulted in Maisel being one of the area’s most successful real estate brokers. From high-end suburban residences to multi-unit dwellings in the city, Maisel has been able to serve hundreds of buyers and sellers, selling more $200 million dollars worth of real estate. These kinds of stats land Maisel consistently in the top 1 percent of all real estate brokers in Chicago.

He loves the area in which he works. He always has. “I grew up in Northbrook,” says Maisel, who now calls Glencoe home. “I loved growing up so close to the lake. I guess you could just say I have loved being a part of the hardy stock of the Midwest.”

As he got older, Maisel began to fall in love with real estate.

“I always had an interest in real estate,” he explains. “My mom was an interior decorator, and I loved photography. Plus, I really loved working with people so real estate brought that all together for me.”

To this day, his love for the area and his interest in real estate continues to propel Maisel to work serving the areas of Glencoe, Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Northbrook, Highland Park, Glenview, Deerfield, and Evanston.

“I love helping people find their dream home,” he explains. “It’s one of the most important decisions that people could make. The key is identifying the needs of the customer.”

And once you meet those needs, Maisel says you can see it almost immediately. “It’s all about the twinkle you see in their eye, you just know they have found the space that is going to work.”

But finding yourself in that dream space can come with its share of challenges, especially within a marketplace that seems to get more complicated with every passing year. Therefore, it’s of vital importance that buyers and sellers are thoroughly educated about the entire process.

That’s where Maisel comes in.

“Being honest and transparent with your clients is the most important thing I can do as an agent,” says Maisel, who routinely has a hand in 50 to 60 real estate transactions a year. “You have to have a trust in your realtor. There are so many people that discount what we do, but the fact is that you need to know the market and you need to know the economics of the market.”

Harry Maisel is a broker associate with Harry Maisel Group, Inc. and @Properties, with offices in both Winnetka and Chicago, 773-502-7622, thechicagohome.com.