Each year there are a handful buyers and sellers in the Alexandria area that choose to use REALTORS® (not being like Trump, the label is trademarked and supposed to be in all caps) that primarily do business outside of Alexandria. No judgement but it usually piques my interest to see what the sale price ends up being. While I spent a number of years in Minneapolis/St. Paul during and after college and continue to be a frequent visitor, I don’t know its real estate market and if a family member wanted help buying or selling real estate I’d connect them with an Agent or broker that knew the real estate market well. I also get asked by people about lakes outside a fifteen mile radius of Alexandria and will most often tell them it is out of my area of competency.

In this next paragraph I need to be careful as I in no way mean to say anything negative about a REALTOR®. This year the Alexandria MLS merged into the Minneapolis/St. Paul MLS (Northstar) and I’ve noticed an uptick in Minneapolis/St. Paul based agents making the trip to Alexandria for showings and/or listings. Likely, they are all decent people and distinguished agents or brokers. That being said, in regards to lakefront real estate, I am doubtful about the benefit provided to those seeking assistance. I’ve noticed an uptick in sale prices of properties with lakeshore that looks great early in the year but not so great later in the summer and higher premiums paid per foot of frontage where the selling agent (the agent or broker representing the buyer) is from outside the Alexandria area. This has gone on other years too but there has definitely been an increase this year.

What led me to this post was a lake home showing experience earlier today. It is typical to book an hour to look at a property that is listed for sale in the MLS. There are strict rules as a member as to how showings take place. Those rules set aside, there are also unwritten rules of etiquette and courtesy. One, both written and unwritten, is respecting the showing time. The Minnesota Association of REALTORS® considers it a violation to interfere with another REALTORS® allotted time. Today I was at a lake home with a couple I have been working with since the beginning of this spring. Our time at the home was from 10 – 11 am. They were taking a careful look and appreciating the property. At 10:40 we noticed two cars pull up and park on the street. The people in the cars proceeded to tour the lot and walk out on the dock. The couple felt uncomfortable and pressured to leave. We headed to the entry and they stepped outside before me and were greeted with “are you done?”. I heard it and am ashamed that I was befuddled and didn’t state the inappropriateness. The offending agent’s clients were standing nearby and while it irritated me, I didn’t see an upside of dressing the agent down. We left. It was a bad end to a good showing and I know my buyers weren’t happy. The offending agent and his clients were over 50 minutes early. Their appointment was at 11:30. It was and is bad form all around. It is more nuanced than courtesy and etiquette as most people looking at homes are considering one of the most important purchases of their lifetime.

This all leads me to market knowledge. I contacted the offending agent and referred to the appointment at “Maple”. It took another message as they didn’t know which property I was referring to. They didn’t know they were at Maple Lake. No joke.

My point isn’t that you should be contacting me for real estate in Alexandria. While I know the lakes very well and have a track record of success with buyers and sellers (by track record I mean happy clients that are happy with their purchase prices and sale prices), there are also other agents and brokers in Alexandria that are local. My point is buyers and sellers might be better served by someone that is competent in the market they are working in and not being interlopers looking for a sales commission. Knowing the lake is pretty important. The name of course but also the shoreline, history, and general zeitgeist.