Brother and sister, Greg and Kelly Anderson, are continuing a family legacy of concierge client service within the real estate industry. Originally set by their father, who worked as a full-time REALTOR® and college professor, the principles of hard work, integrity, and high-levelcustomer service were embraced by Greg and Kelly from a young age and further developed by each of them separately, both within their pre-real estate careers and after. With the suddenpassing of their father in 2019, Greg and Kelly are proudly carrying the Anderson Team torch forward for all their clients—past, current, and future.

Greg was the first to join the family business in 1993. Having earned his degree in culinary arts and hospitality management, he worked in the restaurant industry for years as both an aspiring chef at a reputable French restaurant and as the food and beverage director at a major conference center. He’d been in hospitality since the age of fourteen and in the workforce since the age of twelve. Inspired by his hard-working father, by age sixteen, Greg was working three jobs over the summers. He met his wife, Donna, while working at a local restaurant in high school. By 1993, Greg was working incredibly long hours, and planning to get married and start a family. Realizing that a career in the hospitality industry wasn’t conducive to the kind of family life he imagined, he sought his father’s good counsel. “He encouraged me to look into a career in real estate,” explains Greg. “He said both career paths required a person who is able to multi-task and work well with people, and has high integrity, strong service skills, etc. He explained that I would be busy, but not nearly as busy as I was in the hospitality industry.”

Like Greg, Kelly started working at a young age. She started babysitting at age eight, then working for a local florist at thirteen. She too entered real estate after a long career in the hospitality industry. Only, much of her experience was in the advertising and marketing arena. After earning a degree in photojournalism, Kelly first worked as an account executive for a small ad agency in downtown Chicago. Wanting to move to large market in a warmer climate, she decided to pack up her car and drive to Los Angeles. She landed a job in the advertising department for the luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises, where she did marketing, public relations, and advertising. Catching the “travel bug,” Kelly transferred from the office to onboard ship. She traveled the world, editing all the onboard printed material and learning the service industry where everything—food, staff, amenities, clientele, etc.—was five-star level. Kelly even met her husband, Nick Nilsson, on board. At the nine-year mark, though, the couple decided to move back to Illinois where Kelly continued her graphic design and writing career producing magazines for LTD Commodities. When company changes impacted Kelly’s career goals, she, too, confided in her father, who suggested she join him and Greg in real estate. “I kind of scoffed at him at the time, as I did not like ‘the sales industry’ from personal experience,” she says. “But my father explained that if you do the job ‘the right way,’ it’s a service industry where you take care of your clients’ needs and [look out for their] best interests. He was right. When I do real estate with service, not sales, it is amazing! My father had a saying I will never forget: ‘People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.’ I hold that close in everything that I do in my career and life. My tag line is ‘I work hard to earn your trust . . . then your business.’” Kelly obtained her license in 2002 and decided to make it her full-time career in 2003. Mentored over the years by their father and others in the industry, Greg and Kelly were ramping up their own referral-based business just as their father was intentionally slowing his down. He planned to retire in 2019 and was all set with the transition when he unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and passed away that same year.

As the Anderson Team today, Greg and Kelly are honored to continue to provide the same high-quality service and care to their, their father’s, and another retired agent’s clientele. “My favorite part of working with my sister is sharing the same set of core values,” Greg says. “We think and do business similarly. Kelly is an excellent listener, communicator, and stager. She truly enjoys hearing and relating to people’s stories, and she makes every client feel as if they are the only client that we’re providing service to.” “My brother is skilled in so many ways,” Kelly says. “He’s a great listener. He’s technologically savvy. He puts his heart into every client. I’m always in awe of his work ethic and dedication. And he completely feels the same way I do about how we [should] treat clients, and how important they and their needs are to us.

When Greg isn’t working, he enjoys taking cross-country road trips or relaxing on the beach in the Gulf of Mexico with Donna and their two kids, Lydia and Luke. Greg is an avid NFL fan and a die-hard Bears fan. Kelly and Nick still love to travel. A huge animal lover, Kelly enjoys volunteering with Adopt a Husky. She is also a rock and geology enthusiast. She loves walking through nature preserves and by the lake with her dog, Moki, where she can look for rocks and minerals, particularly agates, geodes, and Lake Michigan “lightning stones.”

As Greg and Kelly continue to work together and carry their family legacy into the next generation, they remain committed, using everything they have learned, to helping their clients and other agents achieve their dreams. “I’ve gained so much from this business and have had many helpful mentors along the way. I love sharing my insight [with colleagues], as well as teaching some of the strategies toward success that have worked for us,” says Greg. “Any life I can touch or help is so important to me,” says Kelly. “Our [client] relationships are for life, and I want us to always be bringing value to those we value.”