Evanston’s Claire Sucsy: From Teacher to Top-Class Realtor

By Jennifer Martin

Claire Sucsy’s life has taken her on many adventures. Originally from Texas, she married a man in the Navy, and soon, the young couple moved to Iceland. Sucsy taught school while her husband performed his military duties at a Navy base in Keflavik. “We lived in Reykjavik and commuted every day,” she said. “There were few paved streets there at that time. We would climb through lava fields and natural geysers. It was fun.”
Eventually, the couple moved to Boston, then to Chicago. It was here that Sucsy, a former schoolteacher, found her interest piqued by real estate. “A friend of mine in a real estate office said, ‘You’d be so good at this because teachers are always explaining processes and procedures,’” Sucsy remembered. “She gave my resume to the manager, and after one interview, I was hired. The rest is history.”
That office eventually became Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Evanston. In terms of its number of property sales, Sucsy’s office ranks number one among all real estate offices in the North Shore. And Sucsy, since 1985, has been the top-selling agent in her office. “I have been really blessed to be working with really wonderful people,” she said. “We work like a team here. We’re a family.”
Among sales of homes over $1 million, Coldwell Banker has 40 percent of the market share in the North Shore, and Sucsy has played no small part in that success. She has represented an array of beautiful and interesting homes, from the historic to the ultra-modern. And she loves her home base.
“Evanston has the most unique homes with so much character and charm,” she said. “And there’s great energy downtown with so many new shops and wonderful restaurants and theaters. We attract a lot of people from the city. It’s not every metropolitan suburb in America that can make that claim.”
Sucsy specializes in tailoring her services to the client. Her online and offline marketing programs give sellers the edge they need to get top dollar for their homes as quickly as possible. For buyers, she takes the time to listen to their needs and desires, and she even has a property request form on her website where a prospective buyer can list the details they want.
“You just fill in what you’re looking for, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible,” she said. “I am privy to some of the best homes before they go on the market, and I’m always happy to make a connection.” Sucsy also offers relocating services, connecting buyers quickly with information about the Evanston area.
As a result of her detailed service, Sucsy has represented buyers and sellers in major transactions. She was once hired to sell one of the most unique homes in Evanston, an enormous yellow residence that was a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s home in Cambridge, Mass. In another case, Sucsy sold a home that was subdivided from the old Cove School Estate, the first school in the nation founded exclusively for children with learning disabilities.
Sucsy said the market has been picking up in Evanston this spring, and she’s busy selling many more residences. Among them are a six-bedroom, two-story Colonial home in Evanston with an eggshell-white stucco exterior and gracefully manicured landscaping ($1.5 million), and a three-story, sun-filled Colonial home in Evanston only a block from the lake with intricate moldings, spacious and elegant rooms, and a tin ceiling in the kitchen ($1.5 million).
Sucsy also represents a magnificent 19-room home in the Lakeshore Historic District that lists for $4.5 million. It contains a breathtaking, spacious living room that faces Lake Michigan and lies beneath an exquisite oval decorative ceiling. The story goes that when President Coolidge was in office from 1925 thru 1929, Vice President Dawes visited this house and was so impressed with the unusual ceiling he went back to the President and told him how exquisite it was. President Coolidge duplicated the beautiful ceiling in the White House.
The three-story, English Tudor home also includes eight fireplaces, leaded glass, a tile roof, a porte cochere and a three-bedroom coach house. “I truly feel privileged to represent this beautiful home,” Sucsy said.
With elegant and architecturally interesting homes like these in her portfolio, Sucsy finds her career a joy to pursue. “I took time to learn the business, but once I did, I never looked back,” she said. “I really enjoy my clients and the challenge of finding them the best arrangement possible. I absolutely love my business. I cannot imagine not doing it.”


Claire Sucsy
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
2929 Central Street
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 866-8200
(847) 866-9863 (fax)
www.clairesucsy.com
claire@clairesucsy.com