First-Time Buyer — Minnesota Real-Estate Agents

1. Graham Smith

9.1/10

$150K–$2.8M · 119 reviews

Graham Smith leads The Graham Smith Team at Keller Williams Integrity Lakes. Zillow displayed 119 team reviews at a 5.0 average, 80 team sales in the trailing 12 months and 1,419 total team sales when this profile was reviewed. Those figures describe the team—not Graham's individual production—and replace earlier unsourced cross-platform and career-volume totals.

2. Jim Dropps

9.1/10

$180K–$1M · 32 reviews

Jim Dropps is the broker-owner of Northeast Real Estate Group and states that he has lived in Northeast Minneapolis since 2004. Zillow displayed 32 reviews at a 5.0 average, 20 sales in the trailing 12 months and 366 total recorded sales when reviewed. His first-party biography supports a construction-family and home-building background, but the exact number of homes built remains a profile claim rather than an audited production metric.

3. Scott Ulland

9.0/10

$97K–$648K · 8 reviews

A 40-year Austin native with RE/MAX's top production honors and a stack of five-star reviews to back it up.

4. Mary Lindgren

9.0/10

$107K–$420K · 36 reviews

Thirty-plus years deep in the Mower County market with the best-documented review record of any Austin, MN agent we checked.

5. Wendy Carson

8.9/10

$114K–$2.7M · 159 reviews

Wendy Carson is a long-tenured Apple Valley RE/MAX Results agent with a current 159-review Zillow snapshot at 5.0 and independently verified 2024 RealTrends production of 30 sides and $13.28M. She operates as a solo associate across a broad Twin Cities service area.

6. Fritz Kroll

8.9/10

$70K–$2.9M · 159 reviews

A well-documented downtown Minneapolis specialist: Zillow displayed 159 reviews at 5.0 and 25 trailing-year sales, while Homes.com displayed 175 five-year closings with the largest neighborhood concentration in North Loop.

7. Denel Ihde-Sparks

8.9/10

$48K–$2M · 100 reviews

A long-tenured Rochester team leader with a 100-review Zillow team aggregate at 5.0, 87 team sales in the trailing year and a published relocation focus—strong signals that must be interpreted at team, not individual, level.

8. Jameson Melbye

8.9/10

$159K–$885K · 64 reviews

A Red Wing broker-owner with a 64-review Homes.com aggregate at 5.0, 159 five-year closed sales and direct publication of Minnesota license 41034209. Zillow separately reports team-level figures.

9. Tom Scott

8.8/10

$139K–$1.7M · 106 reviews

A deeply established Shakopee RE/MAX agent with 106 Zillow reviews at 5.0, 55 trailing-year platform sales and independently verified 2024 production of 35 sides and $17.98M.

10. Alex Mayer

8.8/10

$116K–$693K · 45 reviews

A direct-representation Rochester agent with a clearly documented first-time-buyer and Mayo Clinic relocation focus. Zillow displayed 45 reviews at 5.0 and 44 sales in the prior year; larger review totals and ranking claims on his own site are presented separately as first-party claims.

11. Randa Haug

8.8/10

$15K–$2.3M · 177 reviews

A heavily reviewed Brainerd Lakes agent: Zillow displayed 177 reviews at 5.0, 57 trailing-year sales and a $15K-to-$2.3M range. Reviews frequently mention collaborator Wes, so consumers should clarify working roles.

12. Amanda Armstrong

8.8/10

$63K–$1M · 31 reviews

A Fergus Falls-based RE/MAX agent whose public profiles document an 18-year experience claim, recent local transaction activity and strong review snapshots. Platform totals conflict, so compare the underlying records rather than combining them.

13. Scott Lynch

8.7/10

$180K–$750K · 100 reviews

Scott Lynch has worked full-time in Central Minnesota real estate since 2001 and is currently with Agency North Real Estate in Sartell, just across the river from St. Cloud. Public sources credit him with more than 500 career transactions and roughly $100 million in sales volume, along with a GRI designation. Independent review platforms show consistently high marks, though the exact count varies by source. He works across a broad range of clients rather than one narrow price tier or property type.

14. Karissa White

8.7/10

$250K–$890K · 5 reviews

Karissa White has sold real estate in the Bloomington market for close to two decades, working as an associate with RE/MAX Advantage Plus. Her production is heavily concentrated in Bloomington itself, and trailing five-year transaction data shows a roughly even split between buyer- and seller-side closings. Public reviews are uniformly five stars, but the verified count is small — five on RateMyAgent — thin for a career this long.

15. Brandon Doyle

8.7/10

$220K–$750K · 139 reviews

A second-generation, tech-forward Maple Grove team pairing an outstanding review record with genuine new-construction expertise.

16. Hyounsoo Lathrop

8.7/10

$275K+ · 53 reviews

A Woodbury-office Coldwell Banker luxury specialist with a genuinely perfect review record (53 reviews, 5.0 stars) and a top-1% local production ranking.

17. Ryan Mann

8.7/10

$140K–$840K · 125 reviews

Ryan Mann is a White Bear Lake-based Coldwell Banker agent whose brokerage profile displays license number 40195918 and a career dating to 2009. Realtor.com independently displayed 125 reviews at 5.0, 31 recent sales and a $140,000-to-$840,000 activity range when reviewed.

18. Regan Englund

8.6/10

$300K–$900K · 56 reviews

Regan Englund founded the Regan Englund Real Estate Group, a small team working out of Keller Williams Classic Realty NW in Maple Grove. She holds Minnesota real estate license #40370982 and has been active in the market for roughly a decade. Combined Zillow and Google reviews put her near a 4.9 average across 56 ratings, and third-party agent-ranking data credits her group with about 93 closed transactions in the trailing 12 months. She covers a wide range of transaction types rather than a single niche.

19. Tom Nicklow

8.6/10

$250K–$1.5M

Tom Nicklow has run Minnetonka Realty, a brokerage carrying the city's name, as broker/owner for the past 14 years, inside a firm with more than three decades of history there. He has sold Twin Cities residential real estate since 1984, holds the NAR's GRI designation, and was named a Mpls/St Paul Magazine "Super Agent" in 2023 and 2024. He works alone rather than leading a team, and covers a broad mix of property types — lakeshore, distressed, land — rather than one narrow niche.

20. Tyler Miller

8.6/10

$25K–$830K · 283 reviews

Tyler Miller is part of the Blaine-based Obvious Real Estate team at eXp Realty. Birdeye displayed 283 aggregate reviews at 5.0, while Realtor.com displayed 20 years of individual experience, 147 recent sales, and a $25K-to-$830K range. The review and production figures come from different profile scopes, so clients should confirm which team member will handle their transaction.

21. Skip Halverson

8.6/10

$150K–$700K · 7 reviews

A 23-year, Hall-of-Fame RE/MAX producer with a perfect (if thin) review record, built around first-time buyers, lake/recreational property, and round-the-clock availability.

22. Melissa Johnson

8.6/10

$95K–$3M · 18 reviews

A 26-year Burnsville broker who partners with fellow agent Lisa Rieken, and the one agent on this list with an independently-verified 5-star review record.

23. Beth Nordaune

8.5/10

2 reviews

Beth Nordaune is identified as Enclave Team's founder and team leader. When checked August 19, 2026, Zillow showed 1,330 reviews at 5.0 for the team, while Beth's separate individual profile showed two reviews at 5.0 and no reported sales data. Those records are kept separate, and a current Minnesota Commerce result was not captured during this review.

24. Sonja Zoet

8.5/10

$160K–$620K

Sonja Zoet has worked the Mankato-area market since 2013, a hometown return after starting her license in Florida and South Carolina. She spent seven years at True Real Estate, Mankato's largest local brokerage by sales volume, before moving her license to Real Broker, LLC in late 2024 while continuing to run her own team, The Zoet Group. Every review platform checked shows a perfect star rating, though aggregator sites disagree sharply on the exact review count, so no single figure here is treated as authoritative.

25. Nikki Ritter

8.5/10

$300K–$900K · 43 reviews

Nikki Ritter is a RE/MAX Advantage Plus associate working out of the brokerage's Eagan office, with nine years in the business. RealTrends Verified 2025 data ranks her first by sales volume among agents primarily working Eagan, on 45 closed sides worth about $24.7 million. Her review record is real but thin on the platforms most buyers check first, concentrated instead on Experience.com. She works both sides of the transaction rather than specializing in one price tier or property type.

26. Aaron Jones

8.5/10

$133K–$620K · 67 reviews

A 20-year Rochester veteran who works solo across the full price spectrum, backed by a clean five-star review record.

27. Matt Wieber

8.5/10

$150K+

A top-1% Central Minnesota producer who left the corporate-brokerage track to build his own shop, working everything from starter homes to seven-figure listings.

28. Jessica Tietema

8.5/10

$69K–$390K · 18 reviews

A consistently 5-star-rated RE/MAX agent who has guided a steady stream of Mankato-area first-time buyers and sellers over 8 years, with zero negative reviews on record.

29. Becca Brinkman

8.5/10

$225K–$918K · 11 reviews

A Northfield native with two decades of local closings and a clean 5.0-star record, best suited to buyers and sellers who want an agent who already knows the block.

30. Clark Diel

8.5/10

$118K–$650K

A 24-year Mankato veteran with 157 closed sales in the last five years and a specialty list built for harder deals such as foreclosures, short sales, and investment property, not just straightforward retail sales.

31. Misty May

8.5/10

$25K–$699K · 5 reviews

A 27-year Coldwell Banker professional with recent Apple Valley seller activity and a broad two-state footprint. Zillow displayed 5 reviews at 5.0 and 8 sales in the prior year, while Realtor.com independently displayed 4 verified reviews at 5.0.

32. Kathy Borys

8.5/10

$179K–$657K · 25 reviews

A veteran Twin Cities team lead with more than 30 years in the business and a genuinely large, well-documented review base, operating out of a real office in White Bear Lake.

33. Nancy Sletten

8.5/10

$174K–$587K

A 20+ year Owatonna-area veteran with the broadest specialty list in this set, from VA loans to farm/ranch to new construction, and a 4.9-star reputation on FastExpert.

34. Beth Reilly

8.4/10

$225K–$2.1M

A hyper-local West Bloomington specialist who, with husband-and-wife partner Dan Burling, has built a 13-year practice concentrated almost entirely in one submarket.

35. Dan Schneider

8.4/10

$200K–$1.2M

A Dale/Grand-neighborhood local whose design-and-staging partnership with his husband is a genuine, uncommon differentiator.

36. Jeff Scislow

8.4/10

$200K+

A high-volume RE/MAX veteran with a reported 25+ year career and nearly 3,000 home sales, working from the same Apple Valley office building as the Fiorella Group.

37. Dave Brown

8.4/10

$150K–$2.7M · 5 reviews

A 30-year Shakopee fixture running a small father-son shop, with a clearly published 4.5% commission and a wide Scott-County service area, though its public review count is very small.

38. John & Michele Anselmo

8.4/10

$250K–$900K

A husband-and-wife team with combined licenses dating to 1999 and 2001 — Michele is the Shakopee RE/MAX office's broker of record — with a genuine new-construction angle through John's separate homebuilding company.

39. Lisa Carter

8.4/10

$150K–$700K · 79 reviews

A high-volume, first-time-buyer-focused veteran with one of the more substantial, independently-verifiable review records of any agent covering Brooklyn Park.

40. Dawn Witt

8.4/10

$95K–$1.1M · 4 reviews

A Willmar lifer with 24 years licensed and a straight-talking bio that promises — and reviews confirm — fast callbacks.

41. Brian Wagner

8.3/10

$180K–$650K

Brian Wagner is a Coldwell Banker Realty agent working out of the Crocus Hill office on Grand Avenue, licensed in Minnesota since 2007 after an earlier career in higher education administration. His stated practice centers on Saint Paul's Macalester-Groveland, Summit Hill, and Crocus Hill neighborhoods, with first-time buyers and foreclosure transactions named as specialties. No aggregated review count or sales-volume figure is publicly posted for him, so his standing rests more on neighborhood ties than on documented numbers.

42. Tom Clusiau

8.3/10

$150K–$450K · 58 reviews

A solo Fargo-based RE/MAX Realtor with genuinely verifiable review proof and an explicitly stated Moorhead service radius.

43. Bob Reidell

8.3/10

$150K–$900K

A 46-year Twin Cities veteran whose Grand Avenue team runs almost entirely on repeat clients and referrals.

44. David Chase

8.3/10

$184K–$1.4M

A two-decade Twin Cities Realtor and Bloomington broker-owner who has lived in the area since 1982, running his own small independent brokerage rather than a large franchise team.

45. Bob Willmus

8.3/10

$200K–$850K

A Roseville native with 35+ years in the business, best suited to first-time buyers, downsizers, and anyone eyeing rural or lake-country property outside the metro.

46. Emily Benz

8.3/10

$250K–$650K · 34 reviews

A seller-focused Edina Realty agent with a strong, well-rated Google review base and a mortgage-industry background she leans on for market-stats-driven pricing advice.

47. Jordan Schroeder

8.3/10

$101K–$1.1M · 168 reviews

A White Bear Lake-based eXp team lead with 20 years of displayed experience and a large team record. Zillow showed 168 team reviews at 5.0, 33 team sales in the prior year, and 1,259 total team sales, with explicit attribution to the full Real Home Team rather than Jordan alone.

48. Michelle Pearson

8.3/10

$35K–$656K · 10 reviews

A 27-year Fergus Falls veteran running a small, hands-on family team (with son Ty and husband Keith) that leans on personal attention over marketing scale.

49. Chris Mosier

8.2/10

$250K–$800K

Chris Mosier has sold real estate in the Lakeville-anchored south metro since 2009, with more than 700 homes closed across Lakeville, Apple Valley, Farmington, Prior Lake and Burnsville. He works as a bilingual (English/Spanish) generalist rather than a niche specialist, covering first-time buyers, move-up sales, new construction and investment property. He recently moved to the newly independent Pemberton Real Estate after several years affiliated with eXp Realty, and no verifiable aggregate review count turned up to back the scattered positive testimonials on his own site and Yelp.

50. Steven Milkovich

8.2/10

$55K–$1.1M · 112 reviews

A NW-metro team lead with nearly a decade of top-5% production, explicitly built around trade-up buyers, first-timers, and luxury clients across Plymouth and its neighboring suburbs.

51. Heidi Swanson

8.2/10

$172K–$913K

A boutique Grand Avenue agent whose Old Home Certification is a genuine edge for Saint Paul's historic housing stock.

52. Susan Melbye

8.2/10

$250K–$800K

A genuine three-decade St. Louis Park resident who brings a former special-education teacher's patience to a solo residential practice at Edina Realty.

53. AJ Pettersen

8.2/10

$51K–$2.6M · 791 reviews

AJ Pettersen leads The Advisory Realty Group, now part of Pemberton Real Estate following a January 2026 merger. Zillow displayed 791 team reviews at 5.0 and 514 team sales in the trailing 12 months; those figures describe the 38-member team, not AJ's individual production. Pemberton identifies AJ as its Hopkins office leader, while Zillow lists Saint Louis Park among the team's service areas.

54. Jason Huerkamp

8.2/10

Jason Huerkamp is presented by Huerkamp Home Group as its founder and co-leader in Burnsville. When checked August 19, 2026, Zillow showed 339 reviews at 5.0 and 472 sales in the preceding 12 months for the team; Homes.com separately published a five-year activity snapshot without making individual-versus-team scope sufficiently clear. A current Minnesota Commerce result was not captured during this review.

55. Ryan Bretzel

8.2/10

$238K–$1.3M

A solo, 20-year RE/MAX Results agent who genuinely works the full spectrum from first-time buyers to rural acreage, though his review record is inconsistent across platforms.

56. Katie Fears

8.1/10

$180K–$1.2M · 6 reviews

Katie Fears is an active Edina Realty agent in Eden Prairie (part of the Leicht Fears Group) with a fast-growing practice — 61 homes sold and 21 in the last year, at a perfect 5.0 across her reviews. She's a strong, responsive choice for mid-market buyers and sellers across Eden Prairie and the west metro, from first purchases up to about $1.2M.

57. Kelly Arvidson

8.1/10

$240K–$788K

A Burnsville-based solo agent with a decade-plus of closed deals across the south metro, best for buyers and sellers who want one dedicated point of contact rather than a large team.

58. Sean Drury

8.1/10

$220K–$850K

A veteran Associate Broker and partner at Counselor Realty's Coon Rapids office who stacks four NAR designations behind a practice spanning starter homes, lakeshore, land, and new construction.

59. Jason Young

8.1/10

$68K–$690K

A lifelong Owatonna local who left a 16-year sales career for real estate in 2016 and now closes a steady 25-30 deals a year, a community-rooted pick for buyers and sellers who want someone who already knows the town.

60. Chad Piepho

8.0/10

$200K–$1.5M · 6 reviews

Chad Piepho has worked in Minnesota real estate since 2003 and has been based in the Brainerd Lakes area since 2008, now serving as broker/owner of Counselor Realty's Brainerd office. His public review footprint is thin for that tenure — six ratings on one aggregator site, all five stars — so there is limited independent volume to judge consistency against. His stated coverage is concentrated on specific lake chains (Gull Lake, Whitefish Chain) and nearby towns rather than the broader Brainerd market as a whole.

61. Gary Metchnek

8.0/10

$100K–$860K · 87 reviews

A steady, full-service Edina Realty solo agent with a perfect 5-star record and verified buyer-side experience in Plymouth.

62. Natalie Magnuson

8.0/10

$165K–$500K

A 20-year Coldwell Banker veteran with real, recent Cloquet closings and broad property experience, but no visible public review record as of this writing.

63. Jason Dowdey

8.0/10

$90K–$600K

A Willmar-based co-owner at Weichert's local office known for drone photography and neighborhood mapping aimed at out-of-town buyers.

64. Nate Thompson

7.9/10

$223K–$1.4M · 22 reviews

Nate Thompson is an Edina Realty agent whose brokerage profile focuses on Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, the southwest metro and first-time or move-up buyers. Zillow displayed 22 reviews at a 4.9 average, two sales in the trailing 12 months and 258 total recorded sales when reviewed. The earlier 1993 start-date claim was removed because the attached current sources did not establish it.

65. Chad Anderson

7.9/10

$200K–$1.6M

A Bloomington-headquartered brokerage co-founder whose interest in real estate started young at his grandfather's rental properties, and who now runs his own small local firm.

66. Dawn Wieland

7.9/10

$250K–$600K

A first-time-buyer-friendly Edina Realty agent out of the Eagan office, praised repeatedly for patience and responsiveness in competitive-market purchases.

Alex Murray's Minnesota salesperson license was Active when checked August 25, 2026, and a live Engel & Völkers page displayed the same license number. Zillow displayed 78 sales in the trailing 12 months, 393 total sales and two reviews at 5.0 in a dated individual-profile snapshot. Current brokerage is withheld because a competing cached/search affiliation signal could not be reproduced on its candidate first-party page.

68. Corey Johnson

7.9/10

$62K–$860K

A relationship-first Connect Real Estate Group agent with an active, roughly 90-sale track record and consistent praise for patient, step-by-step guidance with first-time buyers and investment purchases.

69. Shannon Barnum

7.9/10

$150K+ · 11 reviews

Broker/owner of an independent, fee-transparent Moorhead-area brokerage with two decades in the local market, working as a two-person team.

70. Eda Rivers

7.8/10

$60K–$1.6M

Eda Rivers is an individual Realtor with Compass Minnesota, based out of the brokerage's office in Edina. Zillow attributes roughly 70 career sales to her, about 14 in the past year, across a price range from around $60,000 to $1.6 million and an average near $409,000. Client accounts on Zillow and her brokerage bio consistently describe her as responsive and patient, particularly with first-time buyers. She works as a solo agent rather than leading a team, so the person a client hires is the person handling the transaction.

71. Jonathan Brenny

7.8/10

$200K–$700K

A relocation-focused Edina Realty agent embedded in one of Maple Grove's longest-running, highest-volume local teams — strong institutional backing, thinner individual public track record.

72. Krystal Christenson

7.7/10

$120K–$465K

A steadily productive 6-year RE/MAX Results agent with genuine recent Cloquet closings, though based out of Duluth with no public review record yet.

73. Karen Anderson

7.5/10

$150K–$500K

A Moorhead-based RE/MAX agent early in her career whose 2025 production already ranks among the city's busiest, though her track record is still short.

74. Sandy Carlson

7.5/10

$275K–$900K

A credentialed Edina Realty broker working Chanhassen's own office, best suited to straightforward buy/sell transactions rather than a specialized niche.