Chris garvey
Title: Proud founder of Garvey Residential Team and GrtHomes.com, and manager of EXP Realty, located at 1010 Lake St. in downtown Oak Park, IL.
I was born and raised in Oak Park and along with my wife Nancy, raised our three children in River Forest, before moving back again to Oak Park. With my clients, I live and breathe real estate, home renovation, and living an HGTV like world as I guide them through their real estate journey.
We bought our first home in 1986. It was a beautiful Victorian on Ridgeland that we fixed up. We went on to do that with four other homes in Oak Park and one in River Forest. At the time I would never have guessed that fixing up 100-year-old homes would lead to the fantastic HGTV lifestyle that I live now as a realtor.
During my journey through life here, I have seen the amazing evolution of a quaint small town feel village progress into these beautiful, vibrant and full of life villages that rival the hot urban neighborhoods of Chicago, but retain that original small town feel. It is an Urban/Suburban mix and never before have I seen them so attractive for raising a family or just enjoying life then they are today.
Oak Park and River Forest have been a dream come true as we watched our three boys experience these beautifully diverse and multicultural schools and then go on to be wonderfully successful young men.
Nancy and I met at Marquette University where she was studying to be a nurse, while I was studying business. After we graduated we went on to get married and started looking for our first home. While I was pretty sure we were destined to stay in Oak Park, Nancy grew up in Wheeling Illinois and wanted to live close to her family, so I was keeping an open mind as to where we would eventually be raising our children.
It was around this time that my father offered me a little advice. He said to me “Chris, there is no better place to raise your children or just live your life than right here in Oak Park and River Forest.” Now I am not saying that he may not have had ulterior motives, but when he said it I sensed that he really meant it and that maybe even his father had said that to him. My children are the fourth-generation of Garvey’s to live here.
My father said to us, “Whether you are raising a family or just living your life, your ability to grow in this world, your social interaction with the community, the relationships that you will form at the bandstand’s in the parks or a local sporting events, will not only be your greatest times in life, they will become your steppingstones life.”
Now, as I grow older, I see how this fabric of life, this mixing of people throughout the village, its businesses, parks and many activities, and I see the success of my children and their friends and their friend’s families and I have come to understand what my father meant by these steppingstones in life. I am truly just beginning to learn of the great value this community brings to those who embrace it.
It is been a long, happy, and sometimes adventurous life here, as I worked my way through college painting these beautiful Oak Park Victorian homes, taught chemistry and earth science at Oak Park River Forest high school, started a number of businesses and now manage eXp Realty and my Garvey Residential Team in downtown Oak Park.
For me, and now for the hundreds of families I have helped move into our villages, surrounding ourselves with a community that embraces diversity and multiculturalism along with a happy and active community spirit, I am feeling more than ever the energy contained within what my father called the steppingstones of life.
I will leave you with one last quote from my father’s father (the first Garvey to move to Oak Park). He said to my dad that “if you place yourself in the place of most potential, and you are open-minded enough to recognize an opportunity when you see it, success will always come to you.“ Ever since I have lived here, I’ve always found this to be true.
Post Script:
Chris Garvey invites you to get to know the people, businesses, the parks and activities of Oak Park, River Forest and the Greater Chicago area with an interactive experience that will reward you in your adventure to find your home.
When you are ready, I invite you to tour homes for sale with me while you experience your own HGTV style of exploring homes. How can you make a decision on a home to buy, if you have not seen enough homes to know what a good value is?
Find out everything you need to know about our neighborhoods and buying these beautiful, but often times 100+ year old homes and condos. Explore the new kitchens and baths or let me share my experience on what it takes and cost to update a home to make it your own HGTV style!
Get out and walk through/Facetime homes to experience the wide variety of styles and archecture. It is not enough to view homes over the internet, you have to walk through them to truly get to know what you need in your future. Schedule a no obligation tour with me or one of our Garvey Residential Team (GRT) agents now and begin your journey.
Client Testimonials
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