Michael Affeldt

Michael Affeldt Realtor® at Counselor Realty | The Boen Team | Home Renovation Enthusiast | Community-Focused Professional | Serving the Twin Cities Metro Area

Michael Affeldt | Twin Cities Realtor® | Minneapolis-St. Paul Real Estate Expert

Minneapolis-St. Paul Real Estate Specialist
I'm Michael Affeldt, a trusted Twin Cities Realtor® with The Boen Team, expertly serving Minneapolis, Saint Louis Park, St. Paul and surrounding communities. Whether you're buying your dream home or selling your current property, I deliver results with integrity and persona

lized service. From Officer of the Year to Your Real Estate Advocate
As a former Metro Transit Police Officer (2018 Officer of the Year), I bring unmatched professionalism, communication skills, and trustworthiness to every real estate transaction. My law enforcement background ensures your real estate journey is handled with the highest standards of ethics and dedication. Home Improvement Expert & Property Value Specialist
With extensive experience as a handyman and home renovator, I offer unique insights that other realtors can't match. I can spot hidden issues, identify valuable features, and help you maximize your investment in the competitive Twin Cities real estate market. Saint Louis Park Resident & Twin Cities Enthusiast
I live where I work! As a Saint Louis Park resident with my wife Jessie and our three dogs, I have deep knowledge of Twin Cities neighborhoods, schools, amenities, and market trends. When not helping clients, I'm enjoying Minnesota's outdoor lifestyle through hiking, kiteboarding, and traveling. Homes for Heroes Partner
Proudly supporting fellow heroes! As a Homes for Heroes partner, I offer exclusive savings to military members, law enforcement, firefighters, healthcare workers, and teachers buying or selling homes in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and beyond. Your Twin Cities Real Estate Journey Starts Here
Ready to buy, sell, or invest in Minneapolis-St. Paul real estate? Visit MichaelAffeldt.com for listings, resources, and to schedule your consultation. Let's make your Twin Cities real estate goals a reality! Licensed Minneapolis-St. Paul Realtor® | The Boen Team | Saint Louis Park | Minneapolis | St. Paul | Twin Cities Metro

09/05/2026

Understanding the negotiation dynamics between builders and homeowners can empower your real estate decisions. Learn how to leverage your unique position. Choose your strategy wisely.

Nothing to repair. Current finishes. A warranty. A marketing budget's photography.Nothing to repair. Current finishes. A...
09/04/2026

Nothing to repair. Current finishes. A warranty. A marketing budget's photography.

Nothing to repair. Current finishes. A builder warranty. Photography paid for by a marketing budget.

Answer them with a pre-list inspection, a written maintenance history, selective updates, and photos of every room.

Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/04/2026

Backs onto a DNR nature preserve, and the original owners never left. $624,500 in Circle Pines — 5 bed / 4 bath, 3,933 sq ft on 0.28 acres, coming soon. The back line of this property is the Rice Creek preserve and wildlife area, so the view behind it is protected land rather than a neighbor. Built in 1989 and held by one family since. Exterior work is done: newer roof, seamless steel siding, soffit and fascia, and Renewal by Andersen windows, patio doors and service doors. The kitchen was remodeled with cherry cabinetry, granite counters and stainless appliances, and it opens through to a family room with a wood-burning fireplace. The four-season porch is the room people will remember, wrapped in knotty pine to the peak with its own gas fireplace and windows on three sides. A newer composite deck leads down to a covered porch with outdoor speakers. Four of the five bedrooms are upstairs, including a primary with a sitting area, a walk-in closet and a remodeled bath with a soaking tub, separate shower and heated floors. The walkout lower level adds a second family room with a gas fireplace, a full bar, surround sound, the fifth bedroom, and a 3/4 bath with heated floors. Dual-zone heating throughout, three-car garage.

24 Indian Hills Dr, Circle Pines · 5 bed / 4 bath · 3,933 sq ft · MLS # 7109657

Shown from the public Redfin listing for commentary — not my listing.
Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/04/2026

A model home has no repair list. That is the thing you are actually competing with, and most of it is answerable.

Not all of it. You cannot make a home built in 1994 new, and trying to is how sellers overspend. What you can do is remove the specific hesitations a buyer carries out of a model home and into your kitchen.

Start with the unknowns, because those are the expensive ones. A pre-list inspection is not for the buyer's benefit. It is so you learn about the thing in the basement while fixing it, pricing for it, or disclosing it are all still your choice, rather than hearing about it for the first time inside a repair request with a clock running.

Then the maintenance history, written down. Roof, furnace, water heater, panel, windows, and any drainage or foundation work, with years and receipts where you have them. Where you do not have the paper, write the year from memory and label it as memory. A dated list with honest gaps reads as competence. Silence reads as risk, and a buyer who just toured a home with a warranty is unusually sensitive to that difference.

Then the mechanicals, selectively. If something is at the end of its life and a buyer will see it, dealing with it before you list is usually cheaper than negotiating it after inspection, because a repair request is priced by a stranger's contractor and your fix is priced by you. If it has real life left, document it and leave it alone. This is the line where sellers most often overspend.

Then the visual standard. This is the one people skip and it may be the widest gap. The model home was photographed by a marketing budget, with the house staged, lit, and shot wide. Your listing goes next to it in the same search results. Declutter to the point that feels excessive. Neutral where it is cheap to be neutral. Professional photography of every room, including the boring ones, because a buyer who cannot build the floor plan in their head does not schedule a showing.

Then the thing the builder cannot give them at all. Mature trees. An established yard. A finished basement that already exists rather than a rough-in. A short drive to whatever the new community is still fifteen minutes away from. Name those in the listing. They are not consolation prizes; for a real segment of buyers they are the reason to choose resale.

And then price it against the alternative the buyer is genuinely touring, not against what you paid or what the sign down the street says.

Removing hesitation does not guarantee anything. It does mean that when a buyer compares your home to what they walked through yesterday, the comparison is about preference rather than about risk. That is the comparison you want to be in.

Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/04/2026

New construction impacts your home's value in unexpected ways. It can elevate prices but also limit buyer interest. Learn how to position your resale effectively to attract buyers.

Construction nearby can raise your ceiling and shrink your buyer pool in the same season.It can raise the ceiling for th...
09/03/2026

Construction nearby can raise your ceiling and shrink your buyer pool in the same season.

It can raise the ceiling for the area over time. It also pulls buyers out of resale entirely, because a new home has no repair list.

One effect shows up in a price. The other shows up in your showing count. Price for the second one too.

Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/03/2026

A 1967 Edina ranch where the kitchen is the whole argument. $980,000 — 5 bed / 3 bath, 3,472 sq ft on 0.39 acres, active. The custom kitchen renovation is the centerpiece: a quartz waterfall island with seating, marble backsplash, brass hardware, a gas cooktop under a hood, and wall ovens beside the refrigeration. The main level is vaulted, with arched openings and columns instead of walls, hardwood throughout, a fireplace at one end and glass doors to the deck at the other. The primary bedroom sits off the main hall and its bath was reimagined spa-style in navy, quartz and brass. The lower level runs long with a second fireplace and more bedrooms. Outside is the part that sells it: a heated pool with a new liner, refreshed privacy fencing, updated deck railings and new landscaping, all within the last two years. Mechanicals have been updated as well, including furnace, air conditioning, water heater and water softener. Three-car garage, and just under four tenths of an acre fenced all the way around.

7001 Lanham Ln, Edina · 5 bed / 3 bath · 3,472 sq ft · MLS # 7136261

Shown from the public Redfin listing for commentary — not my listing.
Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/03/2026

The builder down the street is in your comp file whether you like it or not. The question is how it gets read.

Most sellers look at the builder's list prices, see numbers above their own, and conclude the construction is lifting them. Sometimes that is true. Often the file is more complicated than the sign.

Three things worth understanding before you price against it.

First, a builder's closed sales frequently include upgrades that are not visible in the recorded price alone. A home that closed at a given number may have carried tens of thousands in design center selections, or it may have been a base spec home the builder needed to move at the end of a phase. Two sales at the same price can represent very different homes. A price alone does not tell you which one you are looking at.

Second, incentives distort the file in the other direction. When a builder gives closing cost help, a rate buydown, or design credits instead of cutting the base price, the recorded sale price stays high and the effective price does not. That is deliberate and it is rational — it protects the comps for every home still to be sold in that community. But it means the builder's closed prices can read stronger than the transactions actually were, and an appraiser reviewing that community may adjust for concessions in a way the sign price does not show you.

Third, new construction is generally an adjusted comparable, not a direct one. Age, condition, warranty, and finish level all get accounted for. A well-maintained resale is not simply the builder's price minus a discount, and it is not automatically lifted to it either.

What that means practically.

Ask your agent to pull the builder's actual closed sales in that community, not the list prices, and to look at the concession detail where it is available. Ask how many of those closings were spec homes versus built-to-order. Ask what is standing inventory right now, because standing inventory is what your buyer is comparing against this month.

Then price your home against the alternative that buyer is genuinely choosing between, which is usually one specific standing home at one specific effective price, not a community average.

The second effect is quieter and matters just as much. Active construction pulls a portion of buyers out of resale entirely, because a new home arrives with no repair list. So the same construction that can lift your ceiling over time can thin your pool this season. Both are true at once, and only one of them shows up in a price.

If there is a builder community near you and you are thinking about listing this fall, pulling that comp detail is a short piece of work and it changes the pricing conversation. Ask and I will run it for your address.

Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

09/03/2026

Navigating new construction can be complex. Base prices often exclude crucial items like landscaping and upgrades. Read your contract thoroughly to know what’s included. Knowledge is power.

A builder purchase agreement is not the form you signed on a resale. It is the builder's own document.Delivery and delay...
09/02/2026

A builder purchase agreement is not the form you signed on a resale. It is the builder's own document.

Delivery and delay language. Change order pricing and cutoff dates. How earnest money is treated. Dispute resolution. Warranty structure.

All of it drafted by one side, and it varies builder to builder. Read it before you sign, not when something slips.

Michael Affeldt · Counselor Realty · 612-440-4673

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12800 Whitewater Drive, Suite 100
Minnetonka, MN
55343

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