Rob Hanson – Keller Williams Realty

Complete disaster in this agent Robert Hanson with keller williams realty in Larchmont Village, Los Angeles, California. He was initially eager to write my offer, which was for a property in Malibu, he failed to present offer, which is a big no no, and when I questioned him two weeks later after finally getting him on phone, to make sure he received offer and sellers response, he replied there simply wasn’t enough commission in it for him and it wasn’t worth his time. Now I’m learning other brokers won’t touch it because what he did was illegal and there is liability issues with it, should I chose to file a complaint with the real estate commission, which I have been advised to do. So I am now trying to find another agent, which is proving difficult. I don’t wish to file a complaint, just have my offer presented, as he originally agreed, when he took the agency relationship.
What a mess. I went with keller williams because it is an outstanding professional company with an impeccable reputation, and I have bought several properties with them before and never had an issue. I honestly feel this agent is not a typical example of the company and his arrogance and greed is not the norm. At any rate, avoid this agent at all costs but I would still highly recommend keller williams, just not this person at all.

Results. We interviewed a few local «hot shot» agents to list our home and Rob came incredibly prepared and was by far the most impressive. His knowledge of the market is unsurpassed. We came up with a gameplan, he brought in a contractor and a couple months later we sold for a record high for a sub 800 sq/​ft home in our area. Boo yaa! It wasn’t always easy and there were times I was frustrated, but that’s just the nature of selling your home and Rob did an excellent job putting the deal together from beginning to close. I learned a lot from the experience and thank Rob and his assistant Denise for their guidance and professionalism. They even found us a rental during escrow and did an amazing job guiding us through the process, which isn’t easy in Los Angeles. At the end of the day my wife and I are happy and financially, our family has a much brighter future as a result of Rob’s hard work (which he made look easy). He was extremely intrepid and we can’t thank him enough. Thanks a million Rob & Denise!

Rob is so much more than a realtor — he is a saint!
My husband and I have known. Rob for a number of years having seen him at open houses in our area and we were always so impressed by him and the amazing work he does at refurbishing and returning the charm to the historic homes of Highland Park and surrounding areas. So when it came time for us to buy a new home, we knew where to go.
Rob was amazing in our home search — he really listened to our needs and spent SO much time with us looking for the perfect place. One thing that stood out to me is that he is not just trying to sell you a house — in fact, he actually encouraged us NOT to buy one particular house that we liked because he was concerned about the resale value since it did not have a driveway or garage. He was more concerned about our future financial security than just making a commission on a sale.
During our search we had the unfortunately circumstance that I was laid off my job and we were no longer able to purchase a property. And Rob had already spent SO much time and work with us. Yet he cheerfully continued working with us to find a new option for us accommodate our coming baby and helped us to find a way to get a loan to renovate and add on to our existing home. Now keep in mind, since we were no longer buying or selling a property, at this point there was nothing in it financially for Rob, yet he was just so concerned about us having space for the baby and being happy and comfortable that he did it all out of the goodness of his heart! Truly, if angels exist on earth Rob is one of them.
Now our renovations are well under way and Rob is still working with us using his EXCEPTIONAL design expertise and knowledge of what improvements will best increase our home value. He did the complete design plan for our remodel and has even been present and the numerous meetings with our contractor — all just because he cares so much!
On top of all that, he is an exceptional wealth of knowledge about literally ALL things related to buying and selling homes, what to look for in a home, vendors in the housing business including inspectors, mortgage agents, etc… He is absolutely the BEST resource and the person you want on your team.
I could go on and on for pages, but the bottom line is I simply cannot recommend him highly enough. Work with Rob — you will not regret it.

We have worked with rob a number of times and i can’t recommend him enough. he helped us purchase our first home in highland park in 2005, then was instrumental in getting us an incredible offer when we sold it in june 2013. Then, he helped us get into our dream home in the extremely competitive market in eagle rock. what rob brings to the table is years of experience with negotiating and a deep understanding of the NELA housing market. he knows all sorts of excellent service providers, from plumbers to house stagers, and believes in building community. he also has a keen design sense which is really helpful if you are looking at fixer-​uppers. now, we consider him family and would absolutely work with him again should we ever be back in the market!

I cannot recommend Rob highly enough.
He guided my wife and I through a year long home search process. We were looking for a fixer upper, so given the rising market, limited inventory, intense competition from cash buyers, and all the incompetence, indifference, and contempt coming from sellers agents, it was quite a challenge. At no time did Rob lose patience with us, or try to steer us into a deal. In fact he talked us out of overbidding for properties that were not quite right.
If you are interested in NELA Rob is definitely your man, he seems to know every nook and cranny of Highland Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. And if you are interested in finding the next Highland Park, even better. Rob has a great instinct for what makes an up and coming neighborhood.
Rob has great recommendations for mortgage agents, inspectors, contractors, etc. He did not force his recommendations on us, but in our experience, everyone we have met through him has turned out fantastic.
Rob works a lot with home renovators, and is a talented designer. His projects are always outstanding.
Whether you are buying or selling you’re in good hands with Rob.

My husband and I hired Rob Hanson to help us find our first home. Rob was very patient as we took our time in finding the right place. Rob was extremely professional and thorough in all in his interactions. When the right home came along, Rob pushed the process along and made sure we had all our questions answered and that everyone involved was on the same page. We are so grateful to have found such a great Realtor. I cannot recommend Rob enough to anyone serious about buying. Los Angeles is a tough market and you need someone who will find the right listings to show you and advocate on your behalf. You can trust Rob to help you navigate the process and to always have your best interest at heart.

Rob Hanson was strongly recommended to me through a mutual friend. I was searching for a home in north-​east LA and I had browsed listings online for a while, but didn’t have a very good idea of what (or where) I could afford.
Over the course of seven months, Rob e-​mailed me countless listings, took me on several 3-​hour-​long property tours and responded quickly to my rambling e-​mails. Being a resident of Highland Park, he’s quite familiar with the neighborhood and the surrounding cities. On our first tour, we drove around and viewed a few properties in University Hills, Montecito Heights, El Sereno, Monterey Hills, Hermon, City Terrace, and Highland Park. This gave me a great visual overview combined with Rob’s knowledge about the price ranges, local restaurants and safety.
Rob used to be an appraiser, which turned out to be helpful in quickly assessing if a home was overpriced or not. He has also worked closely with contractors, so was able to bring items such as foundation bolting, sloping stairs, and improper venting to my attention on the initial tour (obviously this is not a replacement for a complete home inspection).
We were eventually able to find a few homes that fit my picky criteria for neighborhood, price, size, seclusion and view. I narrowed the candidates down to one home that was a short-​sale (after *almost* putting offers on 3 others) and Rob put in an offer slightly above asking price. Rob was with me throughout the entire process, recommending a loan agent, and all inspectors (general, pest, and foundation) — he even set up all the required appointments and sat with me through the grueling 4-​hour home inspection. Due to some major problems with my chosen home (entire sewer line needed replacement, foundation issues, etc.), he submitted a request for price reduction. He was able to convincingly convey our position to the seller’s agent and ended up getting me a $ 19,000 reduction, which happens very rarely in short sales. After a harrowing few weeks (no fault of Rob’s), escrow finally closed!
Unlike other horror stories I’ve heard, Rob did not pressure me into buying on the first go-​round, although he did impress on me that the market was very hot, and flippers often scoop up the good deals early. He was very perceptive of my individual tastes and therefore, didn’t waste my time showing me homes that were not a good fit.
In short, Rob’s professionalism and knowledge were invaluable and I’m confident I made the right decision in the home I purchased. His follow-​up was excellent — he has checked up on me during my home renovation process, and even sent me a few comps 3 months after I purchased my home to show me that real estate values in my neighborhood are on the rise. I would recommend Rob to anyone who is serious about finding their perfect home.

I absolutely couldn’t recommend Rob more highly. Seriously, I can’t.
After a few months of checking out open houses, I hadn’t met a single realtor who I had any desire to get into their car and spend the afternoon driving around. Then a friend highly recommended that my wife and I get in touch with Rob (he had worked his ass off to help her find the perfect place after more than a year of looking and dozens of offers in a pretty challenging price range).
We instantly took a liking to Rob. He really knows his stuff when it comes to pretty much everything (deep knowledge of all sorts of neighborhoods, both popular and up and coming, the ins and outs of complicated loan programs, the costs of such-​and-​such renovation, design ideas, etc., etc.). He has a real knack for helping first-​time home-​buyers figure out what’s right for them and then helping them find it. He gets bonus points for being so helpful and understanding when we got cold feet while meeting up to sign our first offer – a lesser realtor might have downplayed the issues we had with the place (no closets!) to try to get an offer written; he agreed that it was a problem and basically talked us down from making an offer on a place that wasn’t right and told us we’d something great that we weren’t so hesitant about (he was right).
He also has a totally unique ability for thinking outside the box. For us that meant, when the areas we were most interested in were so competitive for our price range for turnkey places (we went through several multiple-​offer bidding wars on beautifully-​updated places), opening our eyes to the possibility of buying place that needed a ton of work with a 203(k) loan (a loan that covers both the purchase price and the cost of planned renovations) and transforming it into what we were looking for. In the end, we wound up getting a fantastic bargain on a place that, even after MAJOR renovations to update it and bring it exactly to our taste, will end up costing us much, much less than if we bought one of the already-​updated places that everyone was getting into bidding wars over in the neighborhood. And not only that, but Rob has spent many hours working with us to draw up the new floor plan, creating a design plan (helping us figure out what light fixtures, door knobs, tiles, etc., etc. will look the best), accompanied us to flea markets to find things for the house, etc. This is serious «above and beyond» stuff, and this is the sort of treatment and attention that he gives to all his clients (our friend with the dozens of offers, the other clients that we met up with at flea markets…)
We couldn’t be happier with our experience with Rob or the place the he helped us find. Since we bough our place, we’ve been recommending him to all of our friends who are in the market, and they’ve had equally great experiences (a couple of our friends just switched over to Rob after months of looking with another agent, and
Rob works with a great team as well (Edie, the mortgage broker, Jim, the inspector, David, the contractor). We’ve had really great experiences with all of them.

Rob is by far the best realtor out there. He goes above and beyond a realtors job description. My wife and I met him at an open house and before I knew it we were arranging a meeting at a house the next day. We gave him a description of the type of house we were looking for and he delivered. He is a great listener and truly wants to match the buyer with a home. We are in love with our home and he made that possible. Rob is not only an outstanding realtor but has become a good friend.

I sampled a couple other realtors before finding Rob. In short, Rob is just plain awesome. He helped my wife and I buy our first home after showing us dozens of properties over the course of five months. Here are the highlights:
1. Rob is suuuper knowledgeable about LA neighborhoods, and even blocks/​streets of a given neighborhood — very important when it comes to a home’s true value. And this is true for a good chunk of LA — not just the neighborhoods surrounding Larchmont where his office is.
2. As a former appraiser he knows in intricate detail what a home is worth and if its a good buy. If you’re looking to get the best bang for your buck then Rob’s your guy.
3. If you’re interested in buying a run down home and fixing it up yourself then you’re in luck, Rob has immense experience with these types of properties and can help guide you through the process.
4. If you’re looking into buying a multi-​unit property to live in and rent out the extra units he also has a lot of experience with that.
As some other reviewers have said, not only is he an excellent realtor, he’s also a great guy, extremely friendly, and will not push you to buy something you don’t want.

Rob is the best. A year ago he was my Realtor when I went through the process of buying my first house. He was referred to me by some friends who had used him and I have since referred him to two friends who have also used him to buy their first homes.
He is a good alternative to the usual Realtor. He doesn’t try to convince you to buy a place you aren’t into. Plus he will show you as many places as needed, until you find one to call home. He must have showed my wife and me at least 30 – 40 places over the course of a year. Yet he never got impatient with us, even when we drug our restless two year old along with us.
Thanks Rob.

Here’s a sign of how good an agent Rob Hanson is. My husband and I are still friends with him. We are first-​time homeowners and as issues arise, Rob is always there with words of advice, recommendations and referrals. He doesn’t just drop off the face of the earth once the contract has been signed.
The home buying process was long and drawn out for us. We saw a LOT of houses and Rob was patient throughout. We never felt pressure from him to just buy something that you get with a lot of agents. They get very impatient and start saying thing like, «I don’t think you’re ready to buy,» if you don’t make an offer on one of the few properties they show you. We looked for over a year and finally found a short-​sale property in a great neighborhood. He held our hands through that complicated transaction and even got us a very substantial credit for repairs which is unheard of in short-​sales.
We have recommended him to friends and family. He in fact was my sister’s agent in her recent purchase of an REO condo. He has a lot of experience and knowledge about real estate, renovations, appraisals, neighborhoods, etc.
With Rob as your buyers agent, you do not feel as if he is trying to SELL you something. You feel like he is on YOUR side. He is patient, knowledgeable and trustworthy. Highly recommended!

My brother and I were first time home buyers when we met Rob at an open house. After failing to find anything that fit our needs in other areas, we asked Rob to help us find a place.
Where other realtors tried to get us to raise our budget by showing us overpriced, poor quality homes, Rob showed us exactly what we were looking for. Rob knew we were first time buyers and rather than take advantage of our naïveté as some might, Rob went out of his way to explain things to us and guided us through the difficult process.
Rob is an expert not only on the homes themselves, but the neighborhood. So we not only got great information on the home we were buying, but on the neighborhood we were moving to as well. If we wanted a restaurant recommendation or a tip on a local business opening, Rob provided it.
Even after the sale was finalized, Rob would meet us to answer any questions about paperwork, taxes etc. without hesitation.
I definitely recommend Rob. He made the experience of buying a home for the first time much easier.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hanson
Be wary of Mr. Hanson — things are not what they seem! My wife and I met Rob at one of his open houses and were immediately impressed. He seemed nice, very knowledgeable about the area in which we looking, and seemingly had a lot of knowledge about home buying and renovating that he was willing to share.
We started working with him to find a home. Over the course of several months he provided information via email and met us at several houses, and helped us submit a few offers. He was busy and sometimes a little slow to respond and difficult to schedule, but on the whole he seemed great.
UNTIL we had an offered accepted. The day our offer was accepted, everything changed. He immediately started trying to railroad us into doing multiple inspections with his recommended inspectors, and when we expressed that we wanted to take our time and look into our own inspectors, he flipped out. I can’t really speculate as to why, but over several meetings and phone calls he became angry and abusive, yelling at me and insulting my family (my sister being a local architect who was also advising us).
We were under contract with him as our agent, so we tried several times to make peace, in order to get through the sale. He responded by sending us long ranting emails and refusing to meet with us in person. Ultimately, we were forced to contact his broker, who assigned a new agent to us to complete the sale.
I wish things had ended better with Rob. Our initial experience was so positive, I can’t begin to explain why it went sour — but it certainly did. As such, I would NOT recommend this agent in any way. Keep your distance!

It seems these days that everyone along with their cousin has a real-​estate license. It’s understandable. The qualifications are fairly easy, and the commissions are high. And while just about anyone can sell real estate, not everyone can be a great real estate agent. To be an agent means choosing your own ethical path– to walk in the light or the darkness. To choose the latter, which a major chunk of real estate agents do, means that they will show, and encourage you to buy, just about anything– along with saying anything to get you to agree to put in an offer. Their number one concern is not whether they are aligning you with the right property at the right price, but making a fat sales commission, and doing whatever it takes to get it. An easy way to spot one of these agents is to trust your feelings. If an agent shows you «fixer-​upper» property that looks like it’s ready to be condemned, and tells you how cheap it would be to fix it up or steers you away from looking at things such as the foundation, plumbing, etc., it’s in your best interest to work with another agent
On the other hand, a good agent will filter out the bad properties, showing only the ones that they are confident would fit the bill for you. They’ll also actively look over the property with you, pointing out major problems that may turn your dream-​home into a nightmare of a money-​pit. They should also keep you from signing a bad mortgage deal such as an ARM or Balloon– or even outright tell you to save up for a while, and come back in a year or two when a bigger down payment will get a better mortgage deal. In short, the client is put first before the commission, because if you’re a good agent, one good sale will turn into five as the buyers turn around and recommend you. A «dark-​side» agent, in turn, will lose perhaps twenty potential clients for the exact same reason.
It’s for these exact reasons that you should make Rob Hanson your real estate agent.
Rob will take the time to get to know you personally, and not only to treat you with human dignity and respect, but take the time that is quite necessary to figure out what would be the best property to show you and where. Rather than send you out on your own to examine any potential listings, he will go to each place along with you (even driving you to the location), pointing out both the advantages, potential benefits & problems, as well as any issues (both major and minor) that may come up in both the near and distant future (does anyone really want to buy a house only to have it collapse six years later because it was built on poor soil?).
Another advantage to having Rob as your real estate agent is that he will help in setting up the right mortgage, and move you away from problematic types. While most potential buyers would not sign up for either an ARM or balloon, many agents as of late have been encouraging a double mortgage on the property (i.e. you buy the upstairs part, and your brother-​in-​law will buy the downstairs part) while not mentioning that if one person defaults, both mortgages become null. Rob meticulously goes over all levels of paperwork– explaining the advantages, things to look out for, or even outright rejecting inclusions that could harm you and your credit down the road.
So when you’re ready to take that major step in making your first, second or twenty-​filth residential home purchase, call Rob Hanson. The experience will be rewarding for years to come!
PS. If you are looking to sell, he’s a great seller’s agent, too!