Tucson Realtor Madeline Friedman has a passion for matchmaking – finding the right home for the right family. When working with a buyer, Madeline says, “I listen very, very carefully. Then if I do my job well, I turn the key, open the door and let the home sell itself. You can’t sell a home, all you can do is listen carefully and open the right door.”
She must be opening a lot of the right doors, because for more than a decade Madeline has been one of the top five Realtors in Tucson, where she specializes in residential, vacation, resort communities and luxury homes – from condos to castles. She uses a similar mindset when she lists homes. “I try to think what kind person would like the home, then I target my advertising to the person who I think would really enjoy living there.”
Madeline says being Jewish plays a role in both her business and her life. “I do not work on Shabbat, a true blessing,” she says, adding “I always strive to do the right thing.” She has been involved in the Tucson Jewish community since moving there when her daughter, Gabrielle, was just 1. Now Gabrielle and her husband, Andy Burgess, whom she met on JDate, have a nearly 3-yea-rold son, Jonathan. Jonathan attends Anshei Israel’s preschool, the same synagogue preschool his mother attended, which Madeline says would be any grandmother’s dream come true.
Her son, Zev, also lives in Tucson and comes over for Shabbat dinner regularly, as does Madeline’s 98-year-old father, Murray Rosenbaum, who “lives independently, drives … and can still play a wicked game of poker.” Madeline is immediate past president of Congregation Anshei Israel, a vice president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and a member of Hadassah. Her husband, Barry Friedman, is a retired physician and president of the Jewish History Museum and the new Holocaust History Center, the first in Arizona. Madeline says she volunteers in the Jewish community because “I want to be sure it is there for my kids and because the Jewish community has been very supportive of me and I love giving back.”
She also gives back to the real estate community. A Realtor since 1980, she twice served on the board of directors of the Tucson Association of Realtors, chaired the association’s Professional Standards Committee and served on the Rules and Regulations Committee.
