Portland Alternative Realtors

We just bought our place in January 2016!
My husband and I came to visit in November with the intent to do some house hunting and gave Portland Alternative a call. After looking at plenty of realtors, I had a really good feeling about Alt PDX. They seemed like normal people that we could relate to. Robyn gave us a call back and we told her what we were looking for. She was always on time and had a great attitude. I think we looked at at LEAST 12 places that weekend. There was one that just stood out. And it was perfect.
Robyn made sure that we always had access to her. She was there until the final minute and even after. There was even a point at the very last minute where a mistake was made that would have impacted the sale of our house and she was right there to work it out. At sale, we got a nice bottle of whisky and a gift card to a freaking AMAZING restaurant.
We are currently renting our house out to tenants until we can move up there, but this weekend we went up and did some work on the property. I realized again, what a great place we got. I really appreciate the time and energy that Robyn spent with us making our investment happen.
Buying something like a house, is a major purchase. You want someone you can trust, that has your back and isn’t just pushing the sale so they can get paid. We got that from Robyn at Alt PDX. That is good customer service. I wanted to get her a gift but she told me the best gift was to pass the word along to others. So here I am. And I have already given her name and number out to two other families.
Thank you!

Erica has helped me purchase two houses and sell one house. I was so thankful to have her by my side! She is an expert on the Portland housing market and knows the process of buying and selling property inside and out. She was always available to answer questions, and always seemed to be two steps ahead of the process. She is very professional and has connections to high quality inspectors and contractors. Her advice was always solid. I have referred Erica and Portland Alternative Realtors to many friends and co-​workers. We all agree — Erica is the best! She will always be my go-​to person anytime I need a realtor.

We would have lost the house we’re in now if it wasn’t for Amy and Brian. I had expectations when I started looking for real estate agents, but I never expected them to do what Amy and Brian did. I plan to use these two for the rest of my life.
We met with Amy about six months before we started looking for houses. We told her where we were looking for jobs and she took the time to sit down, show me a map and explain the pros and cons to each area. She gave us a packet with suggested lenders. I picked one, got everything set up and started looking for jobs.
Six months later, we had jobs and planned a weekend to come look at houses. Amy wasn’t available so she set us up with Brian. He’s a hoot. We had a blast with him. If you get to look at houses with him, count yourself lucky; but if you drive by a yard sale while on your search, prepare to stop :)
We found the house we wanted on Saturday. On Sunday we called Brian asking if he could take us through one more time. He dropped everything and took us through again. We put an offer on it that night — one of four offers the house got that weekend. Amy and Brian wrote a letter to the sellers explaining our situation and, while I didn’t get to read it, they told us the reason our offer was accepted was because of some of the things they said in our letter. They also called the seller’s agent and asked what we could do with our offer that would strengthen it. They took a lot of time — on a Sunday — to help us get the house we wanted.
Our lender ended up falling through after our offer was accepted. I thought we lost the house. I was sure we did. I called Amy panicking. She said she knew of a lender that is experienced at saving loans and called her that morning. Michelle Geraci with Umpqua Bank started working it immediately and saved or loan within hours.
We had so many hurdles to jump — three other offers, our loan falling through, etc. Amy helped us jump every one of them. I would have expected a real estate agent to have said «Well, when you get financing, we’ll go look again.» Instead, she worked to, and did, save the loan and the house we wanted.
They met us for the home inspection. Afterward, I went home — 4 ½ hours away. They made appointments with repair people, came to the house to meet with them and coordinated all of the estimates themselves.
Since we were new to the area, Brian also had the title company prepare a HUGE welcome to the neighborhood packet — teaching us everything we could ever know about the house.
After the sale, they kept in touch with us and continued to be a go-​between with me and the seller when packages got mistakenly delivered here and other things.
I never expected the experience I got. I’ve never had a real estate experience like this and I don’t plan to use anyone else. They will be the ones to sale this house and help me look for another when the time comes.
Thank you, Brian and Amy, for all you did. You made the experience incredible.

We recently closed on our new home and Amy Reed was our agent. I can’t say enough about Amy’s attentiveness, tenacity, and attention to detail — she was never too busy to help us at every step, and really made us feel like important clients. I will sing Amy’s praises from the mountain tops for as long as I live in Oregon!

Amy Reed is the best! We came to town for a long weekend, not expecting to leave having an offer accepted. It was unusually quick even by her standards. The bottom line is that we were first time home buyers and generally not well informed and she was so patient with us! She made us feel like we were her only clients, which I knew we were not. This is the best trait of a realtor. She gave us great guidance along the way. She also did not pass judgment on the fact that we were another CA couple looking to buy a house in PDX. which I know is not the most popular right now. I highly recommend her and from what I’ve heard, the entire office is great.

If I could put 10 stars here I would. I cannot say enough about Alan Allred, who went way above and beyond the call of duty to help me transact a house purchase in Portland from 1000 miles away. He was so thorough, he had a negotiating technique that made the seller choose me over a higher-​paying buyer, and even became Sherlock Holmes in his deep investigation of permits, sewer repairs and other details required for escrow to close. He has a «spidey sense» you can rely on to make sure you’re not stuck with something that should have been taken care of before the house becomes yours. He talked to me for hours on the phone over a three month period and really understood completely what was important to me. This man is an intuitive, a credit to the field of real estate sales, and is one of the finest human beings I’ve ever encountered. PS: the office of Portland Alternative Realtors is WAY cool! If you get a chance, take a meeting in the back yard conference room. THANK YOU ALAN.

I can’t say enough good things about Amy. We sent an email inquiry to her group requesting a meeting to go over what we are looking for and a month and a half later, we were moving into our new home.
She provided a bunch of options for us and always made herself available for showings. Any questions or concerns we had about anything were addressed immediately.
She was always upbeat and made the entire home buying process a breeze. You can tell she loves what she does. I’d recommend her to anyone.

Mary Sue (realtor @ Portland Alt.) was awesome. It was our first home purchase — she was very helpful, patient, and explained things very clearly. Do yourself a favor and work with her!

Bought my first house this year thanks to Leia and her crew @ Alt PDX — the whole office is friendly, professional, and very knowledgable. Leia was a blast to work with and has a great eye for potential issues in a property. She was a fantastic advocate during negotiations and excellent company for our adventures in home touring (the house of the Dolly Parton fans, the house of odd heating systems, various episodes in These People Made Interesting Decorating Decisions, etc). Strongly recommended, perhaps particularly if you’re new to the sometimes-​terrifying-​and-​odd process of buying a house.

I recently sold my home as a FSBO, and Leia Carlton represented the buyers in the transaction. I can’t say enough good about her professionalism and calm cool clear approach. She facilitated the transaction well, represented her clients appropriately, and creatively managed to work around the inevitable sticky situations that occur with contractors and inspectors. If I were going through this process again, either as a seller or buyer, I would definitely call Leia to represent me. She’s also just a great person with the sweetest disposition, and that goes a long way in what is bound to be a somewhat stressful time of transition.

My husband and I have purchased and sold a home with Robbie @ Portland Alternative Realtors in the last 2 years. He is such a joy to work with, he made our experiences easy and as stress free as possible. Robbie is knowledgeable, professional and kind. He held our hands as we toured waaay too many homes. And he provided a critical eye when we were de-​cluttering for the open house when the house went back on the market. He lives and breathes real estate, and truly believes that there is a home for everyone. Seriously. He said it a bunch of times when we were looking to buy.
Not only does Robbie rock real estate transactions, he’s also a true professional. I would email him periodically for references when we needed something related to the house. He just knows everyone. And he can provide a killer restaurant recommendation regardless of what neighborhood you’re in.
Robbie is superb. He is truly full service in a self-​service world.

My fiancé and I worked with Robbie Ratkai for 8 long months before finding our first house. Not only is he extremely patient (we looked at upwards of 75 houses!) and always available to show a house or hop on the phone to talk something through, but he’s also FUNNY and a joy to spend time with. And he’s been around the block– he knows Portland construction and home styles inside and out, and he was always able to point out potential problems in houses and give honest insight about why a house might be priced a certain way. If I could give him a sixth star for dealing with my stress and neuroticism during the offer /​inspection process, I would!

My wife and I purchased our home with Leia in 2012. Before choosing Portland Alternative Realtors, we had interviewed two other agents at two larger firms in Portland. In those interviews, while it was clear we would receive professional and courteous service, it was also clear that the agents did not quite get the types of homes and neighborhoods we were interested in.
Leia was the last agent we interviewed and the difference was clear. She immediately understood the style of home we were after and what we wanted and needed out of the home buying experience. After patiently and professionally showing us 10 – 12 homes over a 4 – 5 month period, we found our dream home in May 2012. Leia had singled out the house in an email to us the first day it was listed and we viewed and made an offer that same day. Despite many other offers, Leia provided excellent advice and spent her Friday evening drafting the offer for us and the following day the seller’s accepted our offer.
Once the offer was accepted, Leia and Portland Alternative Realtor’s worth shined even brighter. They were complete professionals with home inspectors and communications with the sellers’ agent and she expertly handled two somewhat major fixes that needed to be made after the inspection was complete. Since then, Leia has been an excellent resource for insurance agents, renovation services, and other needs.
I would recommend Leia, her team, and Portland Alternative Realtors to anyone looking to buy a home in the city proper. You will be blown away by their warmth, professionalism, and results.

Derrick and I received the keys to our perfect first home on October 25^th, all thanks to Erica Dagle of Portland Alternative Reatlors! Here’s our story…
We moved to Portland earlier this year from California because it’s such a cool and affordable city! We knew we wanted to buy, but did not expect it to be so soon.
This summer I submitted our info to our credit union to see if we qualified for any type of mortgage. We were hoping to purchase a condo. To our surprise we were pre-​approved for more than expected. I now recommend people apply for pre-​approval even if you don’t think you will qualify… you may be pleasantly surprised like we were.
Hence began the process of hawk-​eyeing listings on Redfin, as they are the most user friendly app in my opinion. We met a Redfin agent Memorial Day weekend, and from that point on were touring homes and condos left and right for the next 2 months. Redfin touring agents are very nice, but we did not like the first realtor whom we were assigned to, so they gave us another. With Redfin, you only meet your realtor once and then random agents take you around when you schedule showings. Very convenient if you’re just dabbling the market.
After a couple months of active searching and disappointments, we decided to try a traditional realtor who could dedicate more time to us and answer my myriads of questions. I took to Unilocal and found Portland Alternative Realtors. I liked the reviews, and the fact that their office is just a few blocks from our apartment. I read all the profiles and decided that Erica was the one. Aside from her gleaming and friendly online photo, I liked the fact that she has vast personal experience in home buying, is licensed as a broker, is a co-​owner of the business, and loves cats!
I met with Erica mid-​summer at her office. The office is very charming, a PDX style house right on SE Belmont. Very non-​traditional. Erica was friendly and bubbly. I told her that I have lots of free time during the day but no car, so she happily agreed to be my chauffeur. We were sold on Erica, and the hunt began.
We saw place after place, and Erica would always accommodate me even on short notice. She has a very pleasant demeanor, not only with clients but also with other agents both live and over the phone. Rapport was easily established, as Erica works quickly and efficiently, as do I. Emails, texts, and phone calls were answered immediately or within a very short period– just the way I like it!
In July she showed us a short sale, and our application was approved! Short sales are long and boring but Erica was patient and helpful throughout the process. We went to the house several times and were in constant contact. As closing approached, she came with me to meet with various contractors so we could get quotes on future work to be done. When the inspection came around in September, the house had too much major damage so we dropped it like a sack of bad apples.
I was disappointed, yet relieved to be rid of a place that would require so much work. Erica never complained or argued, even though she had spent so much time and effort pursuing this property for us. She remained optimistic and pleasant.
Just two weeks later we found our perfect gem. Erica counseled us on how to submit the offer, and even in this seller’s market we were able to get the home for slightly less than ticket price. Everything went so smoothly and easily, thanks to her work. Erica arranged all the inspections with her reputable contacts. She even arranged for a chimney technician and foundation technician to come out and give us free quotes so that we could negotiate repairs. Much to everyone’s delight, the sellers agreed to do all the repairs on our list. This being on top of the fact that the home was in excellent condition (unlike the short sale that fortunately and literally fell through)
The loan process was a breeze thanks to Erica referring us to Aaron of Capital M Lending. Aaron is her loan officer counterpart in professionalism, friendliness, and competence. We felt safe and secure with this dynamic duo on our side. More on him later in a separate review.
Thanks to her hard work and constant follow-​up with the seller, we were able to close on schedule despite last minute hurdles and hoops. We received the keys to the perfect starter home. Erica continued to answer residual questions and concerns I had even after closing.
Although our hopes and expectations were high and our budget limited, we were still able to get exactly what we wanted: a move-​in ready Portland style home in the Inner SE!
We are currently getting improvements and additions for the home, and excitedly await our December 14^th move-​in. I full heartedly recommend Erica and could go on saying more positive things about her if only Unilocal allowed me more than 5,000 characters. I look froward to working with her again when we’re ready to buy our second home!
Thanks Erica!

As first time home buyers, we didn’t know what we were really getting ourselves into. We met with several realtors before we got started — one was too mellow, one was too aggressive. Luckily, friends recommended Leia Carlton at Portland Alternative Realtors. She was a great balance of a calming demeanor with a keen eye for when to fight hard in our corner.
Leia was amazing — she put us at ease, clearly understood what we were looking for, worked with our schedule, and helped us negotiate for a great house. Her recommendations throughout the bid process helped calm our nerves, and lo and behold, we got the house! I can’t imagine the experience with anybody else.
We’ve already sent several clients her way, all of whom have been equally impressed. Can’t recommend Leia highly enough!

Mary Sue Denninghoff was my realtor extraordinaire! This was my first home-​buying experience and she was just fantastic throughout the whole process. She really knows the area, knew what I was looking for, and helped me find it! I cannot thank her enough for everything she did. Couldn’t have done it without you Mary Sue! I would recommend her and PAR without hesitation.

It took us an entire year to find our home, and Erica was nothing short of incredibly patient, understanding, and professional. She gave us great advice, explained everything clearly, and as another Unilocal reviewer said, you do truly feel like you have a personal advocate in your corner throughout the home buying process. I would never use or recommend a different realtor and agency to handle my real estate needs, because this is the best service Portland has to offer. We couldn’t be more pleased that Erica and her agency helped us achieve our home ownership dream.

Robbie Radkai was our realtor and was nothing short of awesome throughout the entire home buying process. After finding a house to move forward on, he made negotiating, dealing with multiple inspections, fixes to the house, etc. as simple as it could be. As with any home purchase, there were issues that arose at times, but he never stressed and simply took care of them to make sure we stayed on track for closing.
Would highly recommend his services.

Leia Carlton of Portland’s Alternative Realtors is simply the best, and she’s great at her job. She exceeded every expectation we had for a realtor and went above-​and-​beyond at every step in the process of selling our house. ’
We were moving out of state for new jobs in summer 2011, so were faced with selling our house in a buyers’ market. Plus, we had bought the house as a «fixer» at the top of the real estate market 5 years earlier in a fringe neighborhood. Several months before putting our house on the market Leia gave us advice on where to focus our remaining fix-​it efforts, buyer-​friendly color schemes, and general strategies for readying our house for the market. When it came time to put the house on the market, she did an excellent job of helping us decide on a realistic asking price and laying out a price-​adjustment strategy for keeping the house fresh and attractive to potential buyers for a quick sale.
Throughout the entire process Leia was extremely responsive via telephone, email and personal meetings. When it came time to negotiate with the eventual buyer, she kept us up-​to-​date every step of the way, was pro-​active about gathering bids from multiple contractors, and was able to complete the entire transaction with us living out-​of-​state. In contrast to a previous realtor experience we’d had, Leia’s interpersonal communication skills were an asset during the negotiation process. We can’t recommend Leia highly enough – our only regret is that she’s ruined us for all other realtors!

Erica Dagle did an outstanding job by helping us buying our first home. She is super dedicated, incredibly efficient, with a great team of professional people working with her.
She made us feel very comfortable during this process, giving us the necessary support and advice when we needed it.
I recommend her for any home buyer.