MAX IMPACT 

After four decades, Janice Corley is expanding her real estate network to the North Shore, opening RE/MAX Premier branches in Winnetka, Glencoe, and Lake Forest.

It’s no secret that the lakeside communities of the North Shore are shining jewels in the Windy City’s crown. With proximity to the natural beauty of Lake Michigan and fast rail lines to the city, the area has been coveted for well over a century. For prospective buyers, it can be a daunting place to break into—with limited inventory and frequent bidding wars. Sellers, meanwhile, confront discerning buyers with high expectations and the means to wait for just the right home. It is—and always has been—a dynamic market that commands both attention and respect.

Janice Corley, the founder and CEO of RE/MAX Premier, knows this better than most. As an agent for 40 years, she has sold more than $1 billion in residential property in the greater Chicago area. With four offices in Chicago and one in the Western Suburbs, she’s long been attracted to the North Shore market. Since last December, Corley has added new RE/MAX Premier bases in Lake Forest, Glencoe, and Winnetka—further expanding her reach along the North Shore.

“There are RE/MAX offices in Northbrook, Deerfield, Libertyville, and Gurnee,” Corley says, “but there have been none in the communities right along the lake—other than Lake Bluff. It was something that I wanted to do since COVID. So many people work out of their homes now. So many people travel, and it’s near the airport. Empty nesters are going to a suburb so they can be near the grandkids instead of going to Lake Geneva or some of these other places.”

Indeed, since the pandemic, the North Shore market has grown significantly in value. According to the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, suburban Cook County prices are up more than 47 percent in the period from early 2020 to early 2025 with Winnetka/Glenview showing more than a 30 percent increase (the study found growth moderated in higher-cost markets). There have been some peaks and valleys, but demand has driven a notable upward trajectory.

For its part, RE/MAX is a legendary name in real estate dating back to its founding in Denver in 1973. The company went international in 1994 and has 145,000 agents in 110 countries marketing properties in each location’s native language and currency. RE/MAX (an abbreviation for “Real Estate Maximums”) was founded on a principle of maximum commissions, bucking trends by allowing agents to keep most of their commissions with payment to the broker of a portion of rent expenses. According to Corley, they still do things differently.

“It’s two things, actually,” she says. “From the agent perspective, many [non-RE/MAX] agents on the North Shore are in some type of structure where they were recruited with a signing bonus. That’s something I’ve never done, and RE/MAX has never done. [RE/MAX co-founders] Dave Liniger and Gail Liniger wanted to attract an entrepreneur-mindset agent who wanted to basically run their business as they saw fit. Our goal is to keep the authenticity, the organic part of recruiting agents, and work with agents so they can develop their business and make their own money. We don’t want agents to work for us who have to sign a five-year contract to pay back because we gave them a signing bonus.”

Corley also emphasizes the experience level of their talent. “We’ve always believed in hiring talent. Most RE/MAX agents are experienced. And ‘experienced’ in my opinion is 25-plus years. They have their own book of business. They know how to develop business. They just want to work. And they do not delegate important agent activities to a team member that is new to the business.”

On the client side of the equation, Corley emphasizes that RE/MAX markets properties as broadly as possible as quickly as possible.

“As far as the client is concerned,” she says, “we don’t believe in marketing properties privately.” She’s referring to a practice in the luxury sector where properties are sometimes marketed exclusively to an agency’s network. In Corley’s case, she says, “Your property is exposed, not just to the city you’re in, but to the world, and RE/MAX is in 110 countries.” The logic of private networks is counter to her philosophy of selling. “They’re saying to the seller ‘this is better for you, because we’re going to market it internally, we’re going to get you a price, and we’re going to get it sold right away.’ It’s really a small group of people, compared to the rest of the world, and it’s not the best way to market a property for a seller.”

Of course, a plan is only a plan, and Corley knows that she’ll need to execute exceptionally well in order to be successful in this competitive market. She is quick to point out that she’s no stranger to naysayers. She’s studiously ignored their opinions and cautionary tales for decades now, including their thoughts about which Chicago real estate markets are open to whom.

“When I moved from Houston to Chicago [in 1988], I didn’t know the segregated piece about Chicago,” Corley recalls. “Most people say I’m naive, but I didn’t know that there’s a certain nationality that lives on this side of town and that side of town.” She also notes that because she’s half African American, perhaps she was able to fly under the radar of these sentiments. “My first real estate office that I managed was in Lincoln Park, and maybe the people didn’t realize that I was an African American, so I never really had the problems that I was told African Americans were supposed to have. I never thought that I wasn’t supposed to be in a certain place. ‘You’re really not supposed to be in the Gold Coast or Lincoln Park.’ ‘What are you doing here?’ I mean, it just didn’t register to me. I was reminded of that as my career grew. I’ve never bought into the segregation mentality.”

Corley says some of the same opinions have sprung up again with respect to moving to the North Shore, reminding her of those days on the Gold Coast, but it doesn’t faze her. “I never bothered to think that I could not accomplish something because of race. It never registered in my mind that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. [When they say] ‘there’s no way you’ll make it,’ that’s a motivating factor for me.”

With a tailwind born of such confidence, Corley is focused on the future more than any obstacles in her path. Specifically, she is focused on talent, and the type of agent that she believes succeeds in the model that she has developed over the years.

“[When it comes to recruiting], you explain to the agent how you are going to work with them to help them be successful,” she says. “In other words, you teach them how to fish so they’re successful for life.”

“A great agent,” Corley says, “is someone with passion, discipline, focus, and commitment. A good agent could never be bought.”

Not surprisingly, that sounds a little like Corley herself.

For more information, call Corley at 773-230-8700, email [email protected], or visit remaxpremierchicago.com.