Robbie Ratkai

I love Robbie!
As a nervous first time home buyer going into this process alone, I asked a million questions during the process and always felt confident in Robbie’s advice, experience and knowledge in this insane Portland market. He would steer me clear of any potential headaches and was always looking out for my best interest.
It took about 10 months to find my dream home as it was full of ups and downs and heartaches and frustrations, but Robbie was so patient and positive throughout the process. If it weren’t for him being so flexible with his schedule and being willing to drop everything to meet me for a house viewing at 8pm in my pj’s, or helping me write a kick-ass-you-can’t-refuse-this-offer, I don’t think I’d be sitting in my lovely home at this very moment writing this review. He was so enjoyable, professional and fun to work with. Robbie definitely made a positive influential impact on one of the biggest adult decisions of my life, and I am forever grateful.

Reasons we loved working with Robbie:
1. He knows his stuff. As first time buyers, we relied heavily on his knowledge and he helped us learn what to look for and more importantly, what to avoid.
2. He let us do our thing. We told him our budget and he made sure to show listings within it. When we needed to discuss the pros and cons of a house, he let us have our space – but was always there to provide his insight when we needed it.
3. He’s persistent. After looking at dozens of house with us and making a few offers, we finally found our house. Robbie got us in to see it before anyone else which allowed us to be the only offer on the table, something that is insane in today’s market and a major reason we got our house.
4. He’s fun! Looking at houses with him was always enjoyable and his humor really saved us during our nerve wracking inspection. He remained cool as a cucumber and kept the mood light.
We are so glad we chose Robbie to be part of our first home buying experience and we plan to use him the next time we’re looking to buy!

I’ll keep this review short and to the point — Robbie is an amazing realtor and will work tirelessly with you, on your schedule, to help you find the house of your dreams.
We worked with Robbie for 9 months before finding our perfect house (it took that long due to our pickiness and the tight housing market). Robbie was always professional but fun to work with, and he always gave us great advice. He was also a strong advocate for us during negotiations and when we got ourselves into a difficult scenario (even when it would have been much easier and profitable for him to put us into a house we would not have been happy with). He is incredibly knowledgeable about the Portland market and doesn’t hesitate to share his informed opinion when you ask for it. Robbie was also always accommodating and willing to work with our inflexible schedule. He made a potentially stressful and tiring experience fun and got us into an amazing house. Five+ stars!

Hire Robbie.
He sold our house in August, which he found for us 7 years prior. In the space between, he responded to all of our referrals and helped many of our friends buy their first homes, too.
Robbie makes this process as easy as it can be, in part because he is lighthearted with a great sense of humor. He takes the edge off what can be an opaque, overwhelming task. He knows the Portland metro market inside and out – you’d be hard-​pressed to find a more knowledgeable, experienced realtor. He is well-​connected and respected in the realty community, which is super helpful. Also, Robbie loves and respects his city and its people.
Robbie goes above and beyond, e.g. showing up at 9pm to install new CO2 detectors for the next day’s inspection.
If he ever sweats a part of the process, you won’t know it. He works his ass off, but he’s easygoing and unflappable.
He makes good jokes to dry your (inevitable) tears of frustration.
He takes excellent care of his clients and loves his job.
The buying and selling processes were not easy for us. Especially in the selling phase, our circumstances were anomalous. I am pretty sure we wouldn’t have managed such positive outcomes without Robbie’s magic. All this to say: Robbie isn’t your average realtor, folks. When you’ve bought or sold your house, you’ll feel a lot of sad mixed up in the relief and gratitude because you know your days with him are coming to an end.
Best. Realtor. Ever.

Portland’s Alternative Realtors, and specifically Robbie Ratkai, were recommended to us by good friends who we trust. And we were absolutely not disappointed. Robbie is organized, on top of the details, and he really listened to what we were looking for. And we changed what we were looking for, as we navigated the process.
We ended up finding a home much more quickly than we expected, and Robbie handled all of the inspections for us. He offered calm advice when we needed it, and stepped back to let us decide, when the situation called for that. Highly, highly recommended. I wish he were licensed in WA so he could help us sell our home there…

I was referred to Robbie from a friend who had purchased multiple homes with Robbie and he lived up to the hype. Very patient, honest, and knowledgable about all things residential real estate. If he takes you to see a house that is kind of a dud, he will turn around and say «nope» and continue on to the next place. Won’t waste your time.
Driving around on tours with him was also a really fun experience. He should really be the star of his own home buying show on TLC or something.

I reviewed Robbie under the business (Portland’s Alternative Realtors) but I just have to be clear: Robbie is the ultimate real estate professional. His expertise is top notch. He gets the transactional elements and the personal elements of real estate.
We bought a home (fun!) and sold the same home (not so fun) with him. He always acted like we were his only clients. His time was our time. I recommend him without reservation. He made a stressful time (selling, then relocating out of town) easy and stress free. I only wish he was licensed to help us buy our next home in Seattle.

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 husband and I have had the pleasure of working with Robbie for not only finding our first home, but now our second. The first go around Robbie probably showed us 50 or so houses until we found the right one for us. And that’s not to say we didn’t find houses we liked before finally making an offer! Robbie did a great job maneuvering us as fist time buyers, from construction disasters, and fixeruppers far beyond our talents. The whole process was fun, easy, and I never felt pressured to buy something.
Our second house was a bit of a surprise to us all. I randomly came across my dream house (years later) and asked Robbie to show it to us. A month later we were again buying a house and moving!
I highly recommend working with Robbie has your realtor! God forbid I decide to look for yet another house, I will be calling him!

Knowing little to nothing about the entire home-​buying process, my fiancée and I figured we ought to reach out to an agent to help out once we were ready to start looking at houses seriously.
We had heard some good things from a friend of ours about Portland’s Alternative Realtors, and wrote them through the contact form on their website.
Robbie got in touch the same day, and set up an appointment for that following Saturday to check out some listings and go over what we were looking for. My fiancée and I both work all day Monday through Friday so it was great to meet someone who was available on evenings and weekends.
Being that this was our first time buying a house, we had a bajillion questions. Robbie clearly and happily answered ALL of them. TWICE.
Robbie is AWESOME. He’s incredibly patient, knowledgeable, funny and was really a pleasure to work with. He knows his stuff about what to look for in a house, and provided a lot of insight in pointing out some potential concerns with houses we looked at.
We were looking at a pretty small pocket of the inner SE, and Robbie was great at working within our super picky criteria and sent us listings anytime possible houses of interest popped up on the market.
I had a somewhat negative preconceived notion that realtors may try to constantly upsell and rush you into making a decision at every corner, but that was exactly the opposite case working with Robbie. He knows what’s up. After learning what kind of people we are, and what kind of house we were looking for, at no time did he ever try to sell us on something else, or push us in a particular direction.
Ultimately, we ended up in a RAD house, EXACTLY where we were looking, in the price range we were working within. And Robbie helped negotiate back and forth until we were satisfied with the conditions of the sale. I really feel like he went to bat for us, and knocked it out of the park (obligatory baseball metaphor).
Without boring you with the details, let me just say that I’d recommend Robbie to ANYONE looking for a cool house in Portland. He really clarified the whole process for us, made it fun, and a whole lot less scary. ⁶⁄₅ stars.