North Shore Native Mawicke Finds Perfect Blend Of Real Estate, TV

KENILWORTH, IL — Given her family history, Megan Mawicke always knew real estate was in her blood even if a television news career put her in front of viewers across the greater Chicago area for more than 20 years.

But while many know Mawicke as a news and sports reporter and anchor for CBS 2, the Kenilworth native has held her real estate license for more than 20 years. After leaving CBS 2 three years ago, Mawicke has worked exclusively selling North Shore properties for @properties/Christie’s International Real Estate, teaming up with her brother, John.

Starting in July, though, Mawicke’s two worlds will collide as she will be one of five Chicago-area real estate agents to be featured on "The America Dream TV: Selling Chicago," a new lifestyle television show that will kick off a Chicago edition starting in July. The show, which is not a reality television offering that has become popular with other real-estate shows, but will instead feature original stories from communities across the greater Chicago area, with 80 percent of the show devoted to lifestyle and 20 percent devoted to real estate.

The show is expected to be shown on CBS locally as well as on streaming services such as Apple TV, Roku and FireTV.

Mawicke will focus on the North Shore, providing viewers with a glimpse into the region’s communities, businesses, residents — and of course homes. The program, which will include five Chicago communities per episode, is a return to Mawicke’s roots. Not only does it offer her the opportunity to fall back on her storytelling and on-camera skills but it also allows her to share the stories of a place she knows well — thanks again to her family.

Mawicke’s mother, Barbara, is a North Shore real estate legend and for 30 years, was the lone agent to sell Kenilworth. Mawicke estimates of the nearly 800 homes that can be found in the upscale North Shore community, her mother is responsible for selling around 600 properties. Barbara Mawicke was the first North Shore agent to reach the $1 billion mark in sales, leaving a legacy for her daughter and son to follow in their own real estate careers.

While her work with @properties will remain Mawicke’s main focus, the new TV show will provide the chance for Mawicke to showcase a region of Chicago that she has always loved.

“Every house has a story around here,” said Mawicke, who recently sold a home built by famed architect Daniel Burnham that was built in 1898 that features moldings and apple trees dating back to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.

She added: “But it’s about people. With TV, it was about people — the people and athletes you covered and so this is really about people and their life. So there’s more at stake in this job than there was in TV because you’re dealing with people’s lives and homes and money …it’s all about the people.”

When she left her full-time TV career three years ago, Mawicke noticed that no one in the North Shore market was using video to market properties. So, using her broadcast know-how, Mawicke started to step back in front of the camera to showcase local homes as a means of giving house hunters a face to connect with homes they may be in the market to purchase.

Now, the American Dream TV show will allow Mawicke to build on that by telling the stories of North Shore communities. She will develop her own content and tell her own stories unique to the North Shore before the stories are produced in Los Angeles. But given her expertise of the area of Chicago in which she has lived for much of her life, Mawicke is looking forward to sharing the area with a bigger audience.

“The North Shore is on fire …and you really don’t need to pitch much,” Mawicke said. “We have all of the express trains (to downtown Chicago) and if you want to be close to the lake, the North Shore is it — and close to the city. This is the only place.”

Between the proximity to Lake Michigan, award-winning schools, and homes that boast a wealth of history and architectural brilliance, the North Shore essentially sells itself, Mawicke said. She pitches the North Shore as a beach community (as much as anywhere in Chicago can be considering the weather), but Mawicke said that for families looking for access to both the lake and all that Chicago has to offer, the region is tough to beat.

While many suburban areas become cookie-cutter mirrors of the next town over, the North Shore offers an array of housing styles and downtown business districts that are unique unto their own, Mawicke said. With town histories that date back to the 1890s, each community along the North Shore offers its own distinct personality. That will make the storytelling aspect of the new TV opportunity an easy one for Mawicke.

Although the North Shore can get a bad rap for being unattainable from a price standpoint, Mawicke says that the region offers something in just about every price point for people looking for a new place to call home.

“The North Shore sells itself,” Mawicke told Patch. “There are nice people everywhere, but there are some of the nicest, giving, most philanthropic people on the North Shore who give back in both time and money. It’s just a wonderful, good place to be.

“I want people to see this.”