Real estate agents are one of those things that you don't need very often, but when you do they…read moreneed to be chosen very, very carefully. They're controlling one of the biggest purchases of your entire life. For me, that means I'm not looking for some megalomaniacal white dude who's gonna bully me into moving fast or who's juggling a bazillion "very important and elite" clients. I don't need high-octane brobro energy in ANYYYY arena of my life but most definitely not when I'm signing away my next 30 years of earnings. I need someone guiding me through the home buying process who's competent, thoughtful, experienced, and curious. And for us, that was- every day of our process- Cassandra Yarbrough. Y'alllllll. We bought our first house on April 1st. You do the pandemic math. This was not a simple or straightforward process, and Cassandra helped us navigate it on a near-daily basis in a calm, organized way. At the start of our process, the housing market was tight. There were tons of buyers and not many houses which meant that we had to make our decisions very quickly. Cassandra was great about saying, "Well... this house is at the top of your price range. And I want to point out these couple of problem areas on the disclosure form. So just know that as you consider." She was never pushy and she never really gave me- a very intuitive people-pleasing empath- much of a sense of her opinion. WHICH I LOVED. She just gave us a lot of space to talk things out and guidance when she sensed there were things we weren't considering. When we did find the home we loved, she made sure we were the first appointment of the day when it went on the market. In the scary, pukey, anxiety-ridden process of putting in an offer, she helped us set the right offer based on her deep experience and our budget. She was in constant touch with the seller's realtor which helped us know what to expect. And y'all, so much of home buying is paperwork and processes that are way beyond my capabilities to understand or track, and Cassandra was really, really good at keeping things organized for us and explaining things when we got confused. It takes a very detail-oriented person to do this job well, and she nailed it. So now we live in this totes adorbs house. There's no way we'd be here without Cassandra. HIRE HER.

Thank you Linda for helping us sell our duplex late in the season. I appreciated the speed in which…read moreyou prepared the duplex for showing, inspection, fixing and showing.  Your experience and creativity were clearly demonstrated during the negotiation with the buyer's agent to minimize requests for discounts and out of pocket expenses. As opposed to other realtors we spoke to, Linda: 1) Proposed and delivered a well defined sales strategy with timeline and a higher selling price, 2) Adapted to remote COVID working style by effectively using emails, collaboration apps, texting to minimize physical meetings, 3) Maintains quick access to a network of repair shops and handymen, 4) Demonstrated leadership by taking on working directly with rental management agent and tenants to plan showings and repairs. 5) among many other advantages...

Working with Kevin to buy my home was without a doubt perfect. I had had a couple of other realtors…read moreprior to Kevin and the experience was truly night and day. Kevin is knowledgeable and persistent and it showed by his work. He crawled under houses and went up in attics to really check out the property. This was critical to me as a first-time home buyer, without his knowledge and experience I would have likely been bamboozled into purchasing a house with lots of flaws I or a standard realtor would not find. To pair with his experience and dedication Kevin and his team understood exactly what I was looking for and were able to find an amazing option for me that checked all my boxes within my price range. They went out of their way to understand what I wanted and made it a reality. After I had an offer on a house his team was able to connect me with a lender, title company, and home inspector. Kevin even managed to secure me a new coffee table and side table for my living room, for free! Ultimately, I believe the most important trait about Kevin is I could trust him. At no point did I feel pressured to purchase and he was comfortable with my pace. Kevin was able to explain in layman's terms to me what he was looking at and was able to steer me away from properties that would not have been a good fit for me. By the end of my time working with Kevin, he had become a friend to me. Because of this, I will be using him again when the time comes!

Kevin Sutton was an awesome realtor to work with from start to finish! From listing our home to the…read moresearch of finding our dream home, he was always there for us whenever we needed a question answered or had an issue that needed to be resolved, he was there! The Home Solutions Team are a great group of people too! They do an amazing job of "behind the scenes work" that you don't even know is being done, they make the sale of your home go smoothly! I highly recommend Kevin Sutton and The Home Solutions Team!

Living in St Paul for sometime, I was familiar with the Odd Couple Team and appreciated all of the…read morecommunity involvement that their team embodies. When I decided to make the move to purchase my own place, I knew that I wanted to work with them. I was matched with Austen Kordosky from their team and he was eager to help me get started. Austen was super friendly, very flexible and always kept my "Must Haves" in mind when showing me properties. He also didn't push back when I sent him listings that I wanted to check out, despite them not being a best fit for me; he allowed me to go through the process and grow through the process. Mid-way through my search I pivoted from wanting a condo to exploring a single family home and Austen eagerly pivoted with me showing me three properties the following morning. He was great about reaching out to me with a regular cadence and suggesting properties for me to tour. One property in particular was one where he was representing the seller and it was not yet on the market officially. When I walked in I was super impressed with the beautiful light of the south facing windows, the gorgeous hardwood floors and 100-year-old woodwork. Despite touring several houses after that, I kept thinking back to the property that would eventually become mine. By having a sneak peak into a pre-listing I was able to take more time with my choice to purchase and avoided the craziness of the spring real estate market. This was something that had plagued me on several prior offer submissions. Had I not been working with Austen I would have never found this gem. The whole Odd Couple Team in general was awesome to work with. The co-owner of the team called me when I started working with Austen and after I purchased my home to congratulate me. Additionally, I received a fun welcome gift from them at my closing that was an awesome surprise! That type of all star service is why you should work with their team. They take great pride in the work that they do and I am so grateful! Thanks Austen and team!

SOLD! That was the…read moremost important word that we wanted to see during our time spent with the Odd Couple Team. My only regret? Not partnering with them sooner. These guys deliver and go above and beyond the typical level of customer service. We ended up feeling like family. Such a great feeling to know we were with people that would get the job done. At times our selling journey felt like a long, epic, arduous journey, but hiccups happen and the ones that did were beyond everyone's control. We wouldn't change a thing. We have to thank my parents for referring Jason to us. What an excellent referral it was. Jason Koenig and his entire team were amazing from start to finish. Pros: -Marketing and communication. Amy M- what a bright, cheerful, encouraging communicator. -Picturesque photos- Nina- fabulous photos that say, " I want to live here". We received many compliments on the photos. -Transaction and Closing- Molly and Marjorie- excellent and helpful communications, helpful info. -Real Estate Agent- Jason Koenig- reliable, caring, excellent communications, friendly, charming, fun, professional and an overall great guy! -ShowTime App- to confirm or deny showings -E- Signatures- convenient and reliable for signing documents Closing Title Company- Brittany- what a sweet, thorough and lovely person. - Real Estate Agent (Buying) - Ryan. Always there ready to show us what we might be interested. -Clean, tasteful branding. Cons: Can't think of any... These guys do so much for their clients and make everyone feel like more than a client. I would and have recommended them to family and friends who want to list, buy or receive guidance. Okay, I'll wrap it up- this isn't the Oscars..... Oh, but wait.... Fabulous client events and parties thrown by Jason and Shane Client Appreciation Halloween Events Santa Events and so much more..... These guys are truly the real deal. Smart, perceptive, class acts. We have nothing but praise and thanks to this entire team. Thank you so much to the entire team! You guys and gals are the best in St. Paul and that's why you made the list..

Thomas & Sergio were totally professional. my house is 114 yrs old so walls aren't plumb, counters…read morenot level & cutout for sink wasn't large enough. they handled everything swiftly & id hire them again.

I worked with angela a few years back when I was about to buy my first home. She was professional,…read morevery caring and helpful! We looked at a handful of houses and she was wonderful about keeping in my budget and still finding great places to look at. Unfortunately, I had some things happen in my own life that kept me from purchasing a home of my own at that time. I would trust her 1000%. She works hard for her clients!

Angela Larson provided a market analysis on our home. Despite owning our home for 5 years and…read moresinking more than $700k into renovations (including an expensive kitchen renovation, repainting the exterior, adding drain tile to the basement, gutting and renovating almost every square inch of the interior, and adding 3 bathrooms that didn't exist when we purchased the home), her market analysis valued our home at about $20k less than we purchased it for in early (precovid) 2020. She either has no ethics and intentionally undervalued our home on behalf of the bank or she is just not a good realtor. if you are selling your home, stay far, far away from her.

A big shoutout to Mark Sletten and Sletten Interior Solutions. They replaced my awful cracked…read moreacrylic tub and surround with a new tub and tile. On time (1.5 weeks), on budget, and incredible workmanship. If you have any projects you've been putting off, highly recommend! I've been telling my friends & coworkers about how great the experience has been, and they have been jokingly asking if he'll travel out of state lol. But seriously, we're lucky to have such an awesome contractor right here in St. Paul.

Services were sub par, high priced, and work was incredibly slow. Poor communication…read more Mark came out and quoted a project for $17k on a remodel of our only small bathroom that was broke (and needed a remodel anyway). I had remodeled the bathroom at our previous house, so I have a good handle on what is involved, but we were too busy to take it on ourselves. I solicited 5 or 6 bids and Mark's seemed the most professional but also the highest cost. I highlighted that this was our ONLY bathroom and speed was the utmost priority and that ideally I would like the project done in like weeks not months. Mark didn't express much concern over timeline. Now there were some materials shortages, and COVID and whatever, but it was just excuse after excuse, with sometimes no one showing up for a month at a time. And the strong impression was this project just wasn't organized or a priority. They didn't start for over 5 weeks, and when called on it, I was told that the timeline we discussed was for starting the project, not finishing it. I wish I had recorded our initial conversation, because it seemed he took crummy notes and then later reinterpreted them to suit his needs. Nearly 2 months into the project he expressed surprise this was our only bathroom and sort of sheepishly asked what we had been doing in the meantime (going to neighbors houses we are friends with). How that CORE piece of information I had stressed repeatedly during our first few meetings had slipped his mind, I have no idea. He the said he would hurry to finish. Then no one showed up for 3 straight weeks. We nearly fired him about three different times, including in mid JAN promising to have the shower done by Valentine's day (we hired him first week of OCT). Needless to say that deadline was totally missed by a month or more. Moreover key elements discussed during the planning stage were simply forgotten by him (tile wainscoting), and then when asked about them several months in he had to scramble. Early on in late OCT he had stressed the need for us to drop everything and go pick out tile so he could order it and have it there by mid NOV. Then MONTHS later when he was actually ready to install the tile (JAN), the project again had to go on hold because he had not ordered it yet... This is despite repeatedly asking him if he needed us to order tile, or front cash for materials to speed things along (not sure if he was having cashflow issues or what). Anyway, once the project was 95% done, they just had to install a glass divider (another element he had forgotten about). So that was another several weeks, then when they came to install it, they had cut it for the wrong side of the room, the side away from the shower...so more weeks to completion. By this point I couldn't even talk to him because I was so angry, but firing him when we were 98% seemed pointless. Anyway, I left it in my wife's hands, who he then took advantage of. Telling her he was giving us a "$1000 discount" for all the hassle, while charging her $300 more than the estimate and payment plan we had agreed on. This is despite us generally picking cheaper materials than were in his estimate and giving him wide latitude on specific choice just to try and speed things along. Hiring Mark was one of the 3-5 biggest mistakes I have made in my entire life. Worse than some car accidents I got into in my teens or that time I bought a super expensive bike right before we had a kid and I mostly stopped biking. The stress related to this has probably literally taken 6 months off of my life expectancy. I am serious.