Sen. Bill Brady’s legislative path has taken him from the Illinois House of Representatives to the Illinois Senate and his current leadership role as Senate Republican Leader.

But Brady first started his career as a REALTOR® and has found that experience has given him a unique perspective when it comes to the issues and policies that come before him in Springfield.

“It’s important that we have legislators who understand the challenges that face the people that we represent every day,” he said. “I bring a perspective, others bring different perspectives, that hopefully give us the background we need to make the right decisions.”

“REALTORS® really get to know everybody (in a community) and bring that perspective and knowledge,” he said.

For Brady, some aspect of real estate has always been the family business. 

His father was a homebuilder, developer, property manager and lumber yard owner in the Bloomington area. When Brady graduated from college, the economy had slowed so he stayed in his hometown to help rebuild the family business.

Brady decided an important part of the business plan would be starting a real estate brokerage company. So, in his early 20s, he opened a brokerage and hired his mother as one of his first agents.

Today, he is the owner of RE/MAX Choice with offices in Bloomington and Champaign and RE/MAX First Choice with two locations in Florida. 

In Springfield, Brady says one of his key priorities is protecting private property rights. 

“I believe the private property rights of our citizens are paramount to our development and prosperity,” he said. 

“We worry about overburdensome regulations such as rent controls and other issues that may sound good to people on paper, but the implications of them actually end up reducing the availability of affordable housing to people in need as an unintended consequence.”

It was Rep. Mark Batinick’s work as a commercial REALTOR® with RE/MAX Professionals Select in the Plainfield area that prompted him to run for political office.

He works with a variety of commercial clients on everything from office, land, retail and industrial properties. It was his role as a REALTOR® which brought an awareness of how property taxes and regulations could have a dramatic impact on business growth.

“When you’re dealing with people making major decisions for their businesses, you learn a lot about what is going on in your community – the good and the bad,” Batinick said. 

Now that Batinick is in Springfield as a lawmaker, two issues are top of mind: pension debt and property taxes.

During the November veto session, Batinick was the Republican point person during House floor debate on a bill that allowed consolidation of hundreds of suburban and downstate fire and police pension systems. The legislation passed and is expected to be signed into law.

“There is direct property tax pressure that will be relieved because of the bill,” Batinick said.

Batinick has found that being a REALTOR® has given him a well-rounded background to understand the implications of issues in Springfield.

“It’s good to have somebody in there who understands the industry because sometimes something may seem innocuous, but when you talk to somebody in the industry, you understand how it affects them greatly, either negatively or positively,” Batinick said.

“Real estate touches everyone’s life one way or another.”

Sen. Jason Barickman’s background in the real estate industry is two-fold.

He’s a partner specializing in commercial real estate transactions with the Champaign-Urbana law firm, Meyer Capel, and he is a partner with the central Illinois real estate development company, Fairlawn Capital.

“Real estate to me tells a great story of the importance of supply and demand,” he said.

Barickman sees that dynamic play out in his investment company’s efforts to provide more affordable rental housing options. The company buys apartment complexes and rental properties that need improvements and turns them around into sought-after, but still affordable rental units.

Creating a larger supply of affordable rental housing is a better solution than recent efforts by some to push for Rent Control, he said.

“There’s a shortage of supply available to people on the lower- and middle-income end of the spectrum,” he said. “I believe the answer to that is to create more supply; it’s not to try to manipulate the market and what the rent might be in certain locations.”