Testimonials

When I started my search as a first time homebuyer I considered three different agents. Mark was the only one I found on Yelp, the other two were referred by friends. By the end of the meeting I knew Mark was my guy. As the other reviewers have pointed out, Mark is smart, strategic, plainspoken, patient, a great listener, funny, reachable, polite, professional--basically everything you could hope for in an agent. This is important, because given today's market it could take you... A year and a half and several attempts before you find a place. That's how long it took me. (I was looking in Silver Lake. If you are, prepare yourself.) Before I found my home, Mark helped me make solid offers on four different places. Take it from me, losing a home correctly in a bidding war, is as important as obtaining a home. You don't want to bid too much--that's a given, but you also don't want to feel like you lost your dream home when you would have bid more. Four times other buyers blew my offers out of the water. Each time stung, but I was able to move on knowing that Mark and I had come up with great offers and that I was only beaten by buyers with way more enthusiasm or money. Somewhere along the line, it began to dawn on me that I have a knack for picking homes people go bat s**t insane over. If I wanted a home, I'd either have to join the insanity or change my strategy. Mark helped me shift from looking at turnkey properties that would have earned him a nicer commission to fixers with little charm, but lots of promise. Again, Mark was extremely patient. We looked at many fixers and he was invaluable in detailing what it would take to renovate each home. I've never owned a home, let alone remodeled a place, so I wanted to make sure I didn't bite off more than I could chew. In the end, Mark helped me find a fixer with great bones where the remodel wouldn't be too extensive. We still had to fight for the home--flippers saw what we saw and swarmed. Making the offer was intimidating and Mark was right there the whole time helping me craft offers and counter offers. Because of Mark's diligence, I was able to save a considerable amount of money. I don't believe in fate, but if I did I'd feel like it was fate to have met Mark, and fate to have waited until the fifth round to land a home. The house is in a better location than any of the other properties I bid on, it's roomier than ones that were much more expensive, it's got great light, a great back yard, a logical layout (many don't in Silver Lake), I can walk to places, it's a stone's throw from the reservoir, etc. I can't believe how lucky I got finding my new home and it's all because of Mark.

Mark Mintz is a brilliant real estate agent! I was lucky enough to actually find him on Yelp! I was looking to buy an apartment and he had great Yelp reviews so I called him! The other reviewers were right- Mark is so great. He helped me to get a great apartment, in my price range- which was not easy to do! He gave me a great sense of what the market is and what I could expect to find and where. He was patient and kind. And he's also a really fun guy! I really enjoyed getting to look at properties with him. When it came to buying the property, he really looked after my interests. He made sure that I was paid rent from the owners from the time the sale closed until they moved out. This saved me a few thousand dollars, which I really appreciated! He went through all the paper work with me and made sure I understood everything. He also helped me to find a great insurance agent afterwards who helped me select a great deal on home insurance and saved me a lot of money on my car insurance. I also asked for his help to find a contractor to do a renovation and he put me in touch with an excellent one. Working with Mark was really fun, stress free and smooth. He is a lovely person, who works hard and helps you to get great results. The next time I do any business in real estate, whether buying or selling, I will absolutely work with Mark again.

It's no longer a matter of whether your real estate agent can FIND you your dream house (MLS listings are easy enough to set up), it's whether your real estate agent can GET you your dream house. At the recommendation of the agent who sold our home in Northern California, we contacted Mark. Even though it would mean a long commute, Mark was happy to help and up to the challenge. We quickly learned he was unlike the agents we met in Orange County, who were more concerned with a quick commission, or telling us about how many houses they'd bought/sold, than in helping us find our dream home. Mark never pushed us over what we could afford, working with our budget to make an offer on our dream house that we were comfortable with. And when we didn't get it, he was persistent in following through with the listing agent. In the end, his persistence (and ours) paid off: After more than two months of negotiations, we finally got our dream house, and at the price we first came in with! Mark congratulated us with a bottle of '04 Dom Perignon to celebrate that first night in our new home. Our advice? Get Mark. He listens. He's honest. He isn't pushy (and is willing to go in with low offers that might make you blush). And he will absolutely "fight" for your dream house. Just make sure to ask for the '03 Dom...it was a better year.

We found Mark through a friend's referral after a frustrating THREE YEARS of looking for a house in LA. For some reason, five minutes after meeting him, I had a sense that our search would soon be over. One of the lessons we learned in our search is about the importance of great communication with your agent. It sounds obvious, but we've had some bad experiences in the past. Mark knew what our dumb questions were going to be seemingly before we'd even asked them, and he always promptly returned our calls. Going to see houses was more like hanging out with a friend for an afternoon. Mark really knew the market and the neighborhoods well, and had great advice during the offer/counter offer phase. It took us just two offers this time, after I-don't-know-how-many before! Another thing: he was unfailingly, brutally honest. He never tried to egg us onto a place out of our reach and always had honest opinions about a house's pros and many, many cons. Realistic but optimistic, that's what you want. And when it came time to close the deal and do some repairs, he had some great referrals when we couldn't quite find the right people. We found a really trustworthy and hard-working contractor through him. We're really glad Mark had our back through all of this, and I'm sure we'll have him again as our agent in the future!

Mark was absolutely fabulous during our whole home buying process, especially because we were first-time buyers and trying to buy in LA while living on the East Coast. He was patient with us as we refined our exhaustive search lists and a pro at scheduling tours when we came out for a 3-day housing visit. Mark quickly tuned into our preferences, which was so helpful in streamlining the process. He was never pushy and gave us honest feedback whenever we had questions. He was also able to draw on his extensive knowledge about LA neighborhoods to help us pinpoint desirable locations. Once we found a house we liked, he was instrumental in crafting an initial offer and guiding us through negotiations. Moreover, as evidence of his commitment to clients and attention to detail, he not only got us bids but also oversaw plumbing/contractor work for us -- even after closing. It was wonderful to walk into a ready-to-move in house after a cross-country drive! Most importantly, Mark is easy going yet passionate about his work -- important characteristics for minimizing the stress of a very competitive housing market. With his help, we were able to get a house that we love after a few days of intense, in-person searching and 1.5 months of long-distance closing. He would definitely be our first (and only) call if we need to find a new home in the future!!!

My wife and I moved to LA from Chicago last year. We rented for 6 months in Los Feliz before deciding we were ready to commit long term to the West Coast and buy a house. We were first time home buyers from the Midwest, we had no clue in which neighborhood we wanted to purchase, and as renters we had no urgency to buy -- in a nutshell, we were an agent's worst nightmare. The very first house Mark took us to in Los Feliz was an amazing house that was priced to sell, but we were too skittish to buy the very first one despite Mark's assurance that it "was a really good deal." We decided to pass, and over the course of the next five months Mark spent time with us touring neighborhoods and houses in Pasadena, South Pas, Mount Washington, Atwater Village, Silverlake, Los Feliz, West Hollywood, and Burbank trying to find a house as good as the first. We nicknamed ourselves "commission impossible," but Mark never waivered. Mark helped us find our perfect home in the equestrian neighborhood of Burbank. He flawlessly coached us through the offer, inspection, and closing process. We didn't know Mark before we started looking for our house, but now we consider him a friend. He's an excellent agent, and an even better guy.

Buying a house is extremely stressful, buying a house in LA on a budget is a nightmare! But Mark and his very capable team were able to guide my wife and me through the entire process with great ease. When the search looked dire, when my wife was in tears, when ALL the paperwork was so overwhelming and I was literally ready to say, "Honey pack up the kids we're moving to Montana and raising dental floss," Mark and his extremely professional and patient team kept us calm and on point. They entertained all of our questions, no matter how small or redundant and never made us feel stupid for asking things two or four times when we just didn't get it! Bottom line, I cannot imagine having entrusted anyone else with this task. Mark is a straight shooter and unequivocally one of the most honest business people I have ever known. If you don't believe me, just ask anyone who works with him. From the loan company, other realtors, the chimney inspector, the termite guy, everyone will confirm he's the best they've ever worked with. True professional, bar none. I really hope I don't have to go through buying a house again but if I do, it will be with Mark Mintz.

In a word, amazing. Mark Mintz helped me and my family buy a home when we really thought it not possible. My husband and I came to Mark in a state of near crisis. Our landlord informed us of his intention to sell the home we had been renting, and he gave us three months to vacate. Finding a home that would meet the very specific needs of our family would be no easy feat: we have four kids who go to different schools in the far reaches of the greater Los Angeles area, and we had a limited number of neighborhoods we could consider. And we needed to find this unicorn of a home in a short amount of time. On a VERY tight budget. Mark never lost faith that we could make it happen. When we were stressed out, he maintained his calm, and he always brought much needed humor to the situation. Mark hooked us up with a user friendly website to find homes, he accompanied us to countless open houses, and he connected us with other critical professionals to help usher us through the process. A week ago, we moved in to our new home. We are thrilled, and will forever be thankful for Mark's help!

Mark was a great realtor! It took us about a year and a half before we finally found our house. Mark was always supportive and always able to show us houses at our convenience. He never pressured us or ALWAYS offered great advice about the conditions of the house and things to think about. I never felt like he was only there for us to purchase a house, he wanted to make sure we found a good house. There were several times, where he pointed out out issues with houses and advised us not to buy. Once we found the house we wanted he was great at getting us a reduced cost and also getting about 10K back on our closing costs. He was always on top of the paper work and communicating with us. There was some work that needed to be done on the house and I needed to bring contractors by before we actually closed escrow. He lived on the other side of town, but always came by when we needed him. He also had a great personality and was fun to talk and hang out with. It made looking at houses much more enjoyable! I would definitely recommend Mark to anyone looking for their perfect house!

I've worked with a few different realtors in the past, and I can honestly say that all those experiences pale in comparison with what Mark has provided for my wife and I. He's been patient through literally years of us picking through listings, amazingly flexible about scheduling showings, and once we finally found a house we loved he guided us through negotiating with the seller and got us an amazing deal on the place. Anyone who's been through the process before knows that this is not where it ends - Mark went out of his way to facilitate communication between mortgage broker, escrow, seller, etc... going above and beyond his duties as a buyers agent. We were floored by his deep knowledge of every aspect of the process and his ability to keep cool and collected through everything, even through a couple of bumps in the road. Throughout it all, Mark not only does his job, not only goes beyond his job, but he truly enjoys doing it...this I think might be the best thing of all, and it really shines through. Hands down he is the best realtor I've ever worked with, Los Angeles or otherwise!