Jane O’Reilly has been a licensed Realtor in Minnesota since 2002 and still never tires of unlocking doors. “It’s amazing what people can do with a rectangle,” she quips.

Since growing up in Fort Snelling on Officer’s Row in a yellow brick house built in 1905, Jane has loved old houses, and she loves sharing her garnered knowledge of original windows, woodwork, old-fashioned gutter systems, the Arts & Crafts period and more. 

But she took a roundabout way of owning an old house, first raising her family in mid-century Edina, where she claims to have spent 14 consecutive summers in the kiddie pool at the Edina Aquatic Center.

She works with everyone everywhere, helping her clients buy and sell condos and ramblers and four squares and multi-family and new construction properties, but she especially enjoys helping first-time homebuyers and right-sizing seniors. And she has a knack for explaining the whole process, from finding a Realtor to inspecting possible homes to moving in—keeping every step fun and informative. 

When Jane isn’t working, she’s usually at her desk, typing away on another children’s novel, or playing with one of her nine grandchildren, or tinkering with her “modernized” 1925 St. Paul bungalow, trying to make it old again.

With patience, knowledge and a good sense of humor, you can brave it all.