New Construction — Minnesota Real-Estate Agents

1. Ben Ganje

9.5/10

$800K+ · 181 reviews

Ben Ganje leads one of Minnesota's top-producing teams — the Ben Ganje Group at Lakes Sotheby's International Realty in Edina — with more than $1.5B in career sales, 1,500-plus homes closed, and 181 reviews at a perfect 5.0. Across roughly 24 years he's ranked among the top three agents in the state by volume. He's the choice for luxury and new-construction buyers and sellers who want a proven, high-powered team.

2. Joe Houghton

9.4/10

$350K–$3M · 183 reviews

Joe Houghton runs Minnesota Property Group under RE/MAX Results out of Plymouth, and the numbers are the headline: 1,600-plus homes sold since 2002 and 183 Zillow reviews at a perfect 5.0. He's the high-volume, broad-coverage choice across the west metro — from Lake Minnetonka waterfront to first-time and move-up buyers — backed by a full team rather than a solo practice.

3. Jim Dropps

9.1/10

$240K–$1.2M · 33 reviews

Jim Dropps has lived in the Sheridan neighborhood of Northeast Minneapolis since the mid-2000s and founded Northeast Real Estate Group, an independent two-agent brokerage, in 2012. His recorded sales cluster almost entirely in Northeast and North Minneapolis neighborhoods — Audubon Park, Waite Park, Windom Park, Holland, Sheridan, and Near North — and his firm markets itself specifically around neighborhood duplexes and starter homes. Public reviews are limited in number but uniformly five-star, and a construction-and-building background in the family gives him a practical angle on the area's older housing stock.

4. Brian Scates

9.0/10

$300K–$1.2M · 155 reviews

Brian Scates runs his own brokerage, Scates Real Estate, out of the Plymouth / northwest-metro area — a GRI-designated broker with 20-plus years, 800-plus career transactions, and 155 Redfin reviews at 4.9. He's the high-volume, independent-brokerage choice across the west and northwest metro, comfortable from first-time buyers to the upper-mid market.

5. Beth Nordaune

9.0/10

$200K–$900K · 1134 reviews

Beth Nordaune has led Rochester's Enclave Team, formerly the Nordaune Team, for roughly two decades, and recently moved the operation's brokerage affiliation from RE/MAX Results to Real Brokerage. Aggregator data citing Zillow attributes about 1,134 reviews at a 5.0 average to her and the team combined, the largest reviewed footprint found for any Rochester-based real estate operation in this research. The team now runs close to two dozen people out of offices in Rochester and Eagan, so a client who calls Beth Nordaune may end up working mainly with a teammate rather than her personally. That tradeoff between scale and personal attention is the central thing to weigh here.

6. Kim Ziton

9.0/10

$600K–$3.9M

Kim Ziton has worked the Woodbury and east-metro market since the mid-1990s and has been credited by Keller Williams as its top-producing agent in Woodbury every year from 2012 through 2025. She operates as a solo licensed agent supported by an assistant and a staging consultant rather than a multi-agent team, and her publicly listed transactions skew toward move-up and luxury price points above $600,000. Independently verifiable third-party review counts were not accessible at research time, so her public reputation rests more on brokerage production rankings and self-published testimonials than on an outside audit.

7. Wendy Carson

8.9/10

$150K–$2.5M · 155 reviews

Wendy Carson has worked out of RE/MAX Results' Apple Valley office since 1998, one of the longer continuous tenures among agents based in the south metro. Her practice spans first-time buyers through executive-level and relocation clients across a wide swath of the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. Public review counts are unusually large for an individual agent -- well over a hundred logged ratings across Zillow and an independent aggregator, plus a separate Yelp page -- and are consistently close to perfect. She operates as a solo associate rather than under a named team brand.

8. Fritz Kroll

8.9/10

$140K–$2.9M · 145 reviews

The downtown Minneapolis condo specialist: 27 years in the business, lives in the North Loop neighborhood he sells, and holds Edina Realty's top Chairman's Circle distinction.

9. Denel Ihde-Sparks

8.9/10

$230K–$2.1M · 100 reviews

Rochester's highest-review-volume team leader, nationally recognized, with 25+ years and a genuine relocation specialty.

10. Tom Scott

8.8/10

$280K–$750K · 6 reviews

Tom Scott has sold real estate in Shakopee since 2001 and added a broker's license in 2010, working as an associate out of RE/MAX Advantage Plus's Shakopee office rather than leading a named team. Brokerage materials credit him with several hundred Shakopee sales and a career total in the high hundreds of closed transactions. Public review volume is modest — a handful of write-ups on Birdeye and Facebook rather than hundreds on Zillow — but every rating found is five stars.

11. Tom Sommers

8.8/10

$210K–$980K · 214 reviews

The most heavily-reviewed solo agent working Lakeville, with two decades of hyper-local, mid-market resale experience behind the numbers.

12. Chad Baker

8.8/10

$130K–$850K · 67 reviews

A Lakeville native with a builder's-eye view of the market — two decades at RE/MAX Advantage Plus, $120M+ in career sales, and a strong independently verified review record.

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. 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.

15. Jay Fletch

8.7/10

$200K–$1.2M · 113 reviews

A 30-year veteran team lead with an unusually deep bench of designations and a genuinely five-star, 100-plus-review track record across the Woodbury/St. Croix Valley corridor.

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. Mark Pietig

8.7/10

$12K–$4M · 121 reviews

Founder of a RE/MAX Platinum Club/Hall of Fame team focused squarely on Brainerd Lakes waterfront — the clear specialist pick if a lake home is the goal.

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. 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.

20. Melanie & John Willy

8.5/10

$275K–$850K

A husband-and-wife team and consistently top-selling duo at Edina Realty's Eagan office, with 24+ years and 925+ homes closed in the Eagan/south-metro market.

21. Lisa Endersbe

8.5/10

$250K–$900K · 24 reviews

A Coldwell Banker team with a verified 5.0-star, 24-review track record on Birdeye, praised for round-the-clock responsiveness and specialist certifications spanning new construction to distressed property.

22. Scott Hutchinson

8.5/10

$250K–$1.5M · 56 reviews

A Lakeville-headquartered RE/MAX team lead with a strong, independently verified review record and genuine range from bank-owned resale to $1.5M new construction.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. Bruce Johnson

8.3/10

$150K+

The most tenured agent in this guide — a 40-year Moorhead broker/owner with a RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement Award, now working alongside his son.

27. Michael Jordan

8.3/10

$220K–$913K · 1 reviews

A lifelong Northfield resident since 1983 with the highest sales volume of this group and a genuine new-construction/relocation specialty, though his public review count is thin.

28. 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.

29. Richard McDonough

8.2/10

$370K–$2.4M

Richard McDonough is a fourth-generation Stillwater resident who has worked as a real estate broker in the city for roughly three decades and holds dual licensure in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He practices as an associate broker with Lakes Sotheby's International Realty out of its downtown Stillwater office, with current and recent listings concentrated in the historic Main Street corridor. Third-party transaction data (homes.com) shows 84 closed sales over the past five years worth about $41.9 million; that figure, and the 238 sold listings shown on his own brokerage profile, are both well below the '450+ career transactions' cited in his marketing, a gap that is not explained anywhere public.

30. Ryan Haagenson

8.2/10

$244K–$1.6M

A RE/MAX Hall-of-Famer with 16-plus years and a broad Twin Cities book of business, best for clients who want an experienced generalist rather than one narrow specialty.

31. Ann Breuer

8.2/10

$195K–$775K · 30 reviews

A 25-year veteran team based in neighboring Champlin with the deepest career transaction history of this group and an independently tracked 5.0-star rating across 30 reviews.

32. Mark Reiland

8.1/10

$275K–$850K · 15 reviews

Mark Reiland has worked the south metro out of RE/MAX Advantage Plus's Savage office since 2000 and leads the small Reiland Team there. His public review record is real but thin — 15 Google reviews at 4.2 stars — and his brokerage profile lists a wide, generalist range of specialties rather than a narrow focus. Recorded sales cluster in Shakopee, Prior Lake, and Savage, consistent with a Scott County-centered practice. He holds a Certified Distressed Property Expert designation, relevant to short-sale and foreclosure work.

33. Jaclyn Gavzy

8.1/10

$450K–$1.8M

A marketing-background Compass agent posting real $10M-plus annual volume across Minneapolis and the West Metro, verified by RealTrends rather than just self-reported.

34. 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.

35. Wendy Giles

8.0/10

$100K–$800K

A 27-year Bemidji-area veteran at RE/MAX Results with an unusually broad specialty list, from rentals to lakefront lifestyle to development land.