Olsen Ziegler Realty

Chris is a very experienced and responsive realtor. You can count on Chris to answer your questions day or night, even on vacation! Purchasing a home during a market with hard and fast turnover rates was not easy, but Chris was able to help us through every step of the process. He was knowledgeable  about unexpected issues as well as standard procedures. We would recommend Chris for any potential buyer looking in the NE Ohio area

As first time homebuyers with a strong interest in launching a side business as real estate investors, my wife and I faced a daunting uphill climb during our recent property search. Open house visits on our own gave us an introduction to realtors in the area, but we were having trouble finding a realtor with the personality, skills, connection and experience to help us make a sound purchase. We were also undecided between starting off with a multifamily vs single family property, and, as transplants, did not have an intimate familiarity with various neighborhoods in our target cities. Per the recommendation of a colleague, we contacted Chris. Within the first ten minutes of speaking with Chris on the phone, I was confident that we had a found a trustworthy guide to help us navigate the rocky terrain that lay ahead. Over a period of approximately eight months, he provided customized searches that matched our criteria, showed us a number of potential properties, and gave us an education in homebuying (including a deep knowledge of our target cities) that went beyond what most would expect from a realtor. Chris spent a lot of time with us at each property, especially our first showing, to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the property and to help us understand how to evaluate a property. We were consistently impressed with his broad knowledge and his genuine concern for our well-being. In fact, Chris helped us to avoid more than one property that looked good to our then-naive eyes, but had some serious problems. Moreover, Chris patiently endured several changes to our search criteria and a couple of near offers that we backed away from at the last moment. Other realtors may have a similar skill level for evaluating properties, but I doubt that many--if any--others match that skill level with the patience and kindness Chris demonstrated. There are so many good things that we can say about Chris, but we are especially grateful for his skill, experience, and contacts when it comes to renovations. With Chris' help, we were able to secure a renovation mortgage and the services of a highly skilled contractor to perform the renovation. Typically, such a feat would take at least several months, but Chris and the contractor he recommended helped us to move from pre-approval to final loan approval in around one month. This process involved coming up with a proposed scope of work that would add value to the property and appraise accordingly, creating a renovation proposal, and an appraisal of the property based on the projected value added by the renovation. It's very obvious that Chris has a deeper set of experience and connections than most realtors, and his skilled guidance and connections were primarily responsible for helping us to have a seamless experience with obtaining a renovation mortgage. Based on the appraisal and because of the value-adding choices Chris helped us to identify, we anticipate being able to reap more than a 100% return on our renovation investment (which seems to be somewhat rare in this area). In my humble opinion, it would be difficult to find a better realtor than Chris Olsen in any market. His breadth of knowledge, extensive connections, experience with investors, non-aggressive style, and overall affability mark Chris as a true gem in the industry. We will be using Chris for all of our future transactions in the area, and we cannot recommend him strongly enough to all of our friends and colleagues.

It's hard to find the words to describe how wonderful Chris was to work with as our buyers agent. He was extremely knowledgeable, patient, and responsive - he made our first-time homebuying experience very enjoyable. Even in an incredibly competitive market we were able to find exactly what we were looking for within our budget. He even walked us through a home warranty claim weeks after the sale when he had no obligation to do so. Hands down the best realtor in the area!

In all three of these transactions, Chris has been an invaluable resource and partner in the process. He is patient, knowledgable and honest. On the buying side, Chris never pressured us to buy any home we saw, and, in fact, often highlighted flaws in homes against his own self interest (he only gets paid if we buy or sell after all). This was especially important during our latest search for a home. We were looking in two very "in demand" neighborhoods - Rocky River and Brecksville - in which homes flew off the market. Chris always made himself available to see homes as soon as they came on the market, even at odd times of day and night, to increase our odds of a successful offer. He also has great insights into how to compete in multiple offer scenarios having been in the real estate business in several markets, including markets outside of Ohio. Finally, Chris is somewhat of an expert in home rennovation transactions; he has excellent contacts with lenders and reliable, responsive and reasonably priced contractors. On the seller side, Chris provided great staging advice and helped guide us through some challenging offers before we ultimately sold. His level head kept us sane and, at times, out of our own way. Nothing about real estate is ever easy, but Chris makes it seem manageable and easier than it otherwise could have been. I recommend Chris to everyone I meet that is entering the real estate market, even before friends and family in the business. He is just that good. Call him. You won't regret it.

The process was made much easier with the help of Chris. His attention to detail was remarkable, and he was very knowledgeable about the market.

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I cannot imagine a better realtor than Chris Olsen. He helped me and my wife both buy our townhouse and sell it when it was time to move for jobs. His in-depth understanding of this entire process as well as the local housing market helped us take full advantage of a buyer's market when we were buying and a seller's market when we were selling. His advice was greatly appreciated after we became involved in a difficult situation in which the buyer under contract wanted to back out of the purchase. It was partly based on Chris' advice that we concluded that it would be in our best interest to agree to part ways with that buyer and put our house back on the market. Within a week we had competing offers and we did far better than we would have with the initial offer. My wife and I are completely satisfied with the service that Chris provided and would definitely recommend him to anyone buying or selling in the greater Cleveland area.

This is our third time using this realtor. He went above and beyond on professional touches. I feel he researches in detail the market in which you are buying without being over pushy. Weve bought two houses and sold one house (which sold in a week) with this realtor. Our current house is over an hour away from his territory, in which, he services. I would highly recommend Chris's service, excellent customer service and will go to work for the clients interest.

My husband and I move to Shaker Heights and purchased our house during the winter months with the lowest inventory on the market.  Chris was recommended to us by a colleague at work, and we immediately appreciated his exceptional responsiveness, accessibility and willingness to work with us around our busy work schedule. Despite the restricted times that we were available to go see houses, Chris always made sure that we had an appointment, responded promptly to all of our calls and texts, and met us at unconventional times to help us find the perfect house. Chris demonstrated an incredible attention to detail and patiently and accurately answered all of our questions. He created a custom portal for us based on all the specific needs and wishes we had for a new home and this aided us  greatly in our search. The fact that Chris has a superior knowledge of the area and the homes gave us extraordinary confidence in our decisions. Chris could walk us through the old homes of Shaker Heights and point out architectural features as well as potential issues that we would never have known to look for. We were amazed by his dedication and obvious love of his work. Although it was the most difficult time of year to find a house, Chris notified us immediately when our future home came on the market. He also gave us perfect advice when it came to negotiating the sale and we trusted his perception and we ended up paying less. Everything went smoothly during the closing and Chris was then able to assist us in renovating in record time prior to our move in date as he is very well connected with professionals that perform top quality work for relatively low rates. Chris is outstanding and unparalleled in this field and we highly recommend his services to anyone in the real estate market in the Greater Cleveland area. 

When it came time to sell our house and look for a new home the only realtor that we considered as an expert for the entire process was Chris Olsen.  Our daughter and several of her friends had used Olsen Ziegler Realty and highly recommended their services.

From the moment that Chris walked into our pervious home we knew that we had made the right decision.  It became completely evident that Chris had a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the entire process of selling and buying properties.  The recommendations on what to improve or change in our previous home paid off ten-fold.  The property sold in one day.  We strongly feel that this was due to Chris?s suggestions that we followed, the amazing photographs that he took and posted, and his extremely strong negotiation and contract skills.

Chris and Julie have many professional contacts that they share with their clients, from painters, to bathroom refinishers, to roofing companies, to just about any kind of work that you may need done.  We were confident these professionals would complete the jobs to the highest standards, and they did.

As we went through the process of searching for a new home, Chris was extremely patient. He gave us his opinions of the properties as a guide in our decision making process.  We never felt pressured and no question or concern was too insignificant to be addressed.  We always felt that Chris was serving our best interests.

Once we found just the right home to purchase Chris was always available to guide us through the purchase process.   He never pressured us in our decisions but gave us all of the options very clearly and let us work through the decision process.

We have recommended Olsen Ziegler to many others.  We are still amazed at how smoothly the entire process went, from prepping our previous home before its quick sale to purchasing the new home.  We know that when it is time to move on we will be contacting Chris and Julie again.

Chris is a brilliant realtor. We felt extremely confident in our purchase with the benefit of Chris' knowledge of the market and his eye for common home problems. He is wise, thoughtful, kind, extremely responsive and a joy to work with. He was able to explain concepts in home construction, quality, and confusing real estate processes in ways that made sense to us. Weeks after we moved in, when we had a question re: a home warranty claim, Chris was still available and willing to offer guidance. We recommend him 100% for both the purchase and sale of a home!

He is a professional real estate broker and agent who also is a fabulous photographer! He was wonderful to work with from day one. House sold in 58 days or less in Fall - we missed prime time and we got received the highest price for that type size of home! Higher than all the comps! Chris knows his stuff so when he makes suggestions - listen! He will offer you legitimate options to speed the sale. When Chris photographed the home he really took time and was very precise. I believe this is why we had Grand Central Station for open houses and constant showings. In fact the house had two good offers after an open house and we received asking price! He's awesome!

Chris Olsen is extremely professional, reliable, knowledgeable, level-headed, and meticulous.  He gave us great advice on how to showcase our home, and he used professional-grade photography equipment to take fantastic photos.  During the process, he adeptly navigated issues that arose with both the buyers of our house and the sellers of our new property.  Throughout, we trusted Mr. Olsen to do right by us and he did NOT let us down.  We will definitely use him again.  We would highly recommend him to anyone who is looking to buy or sell.  Take it from us, you do not want him working for the other team!

We had an excellent experience with Chris as our buyer's agent. My husband and I were first-time homebuyers and wanted a realtor who would really explain the whole process to us without being pushy, and Chris completely fit the bill. He wisely encouraged us as first-time buyers to look at a number of homes right off the bat. This enabled him to get a quick sense of what we wanted; just as important, it helped us narrow down what was important to us in terms of house and neighborhood. 
At each house visit, Chris helped us recognize strengths and weaknesses that we might not have noticed. Having a background in home renovations, Chris was able to spot water damage in basements, problematic layouts that would be really costly to fix, etc. Conversely, he was very good at pointing out houses that had good bones even if they didn't look great aesthetically. He was extremely patient explaining every little detail to us; he never rushed over any questions, and my husband and I truly feel that we got a much better sense of each house looking at it with Chris than we could have gotten otherwise.
When we finally found a house we wanted to make an offer on, Chris gave us very helpful information to decide what our offer should be. We appreciated that he didn't give us a number and say that we had to make that offer. He presented several different scenarios and explained what he thought the risks and rewards would be of each different offer level. 
Once our offer was accepted, Chris helped walk us through the mortgage process, home insurance process, finding a contractor to do some renovations that we wanted to do, etc. He has a large network of contacts and has continued to be very helpful recommending vendors. Even several months after we closed on our house, I continue to contact Chris for recommendations and advice, and he continues to respond promptly and helpfully.
My husband and I were so satisfied that we have already recommended Chris to several friends of ours who are thinking of buying homes, and some have already used Chris and have reported to us how happy they have been. We recommend him highly and would use him again if we purchase another house (though we hope not to do for a long time, as we are delighted with the house Chris helped us find!).

 Chris is a consummate professional who did his homework thoroughly and was attuned to our specific requirements regarding cost and location of our new home.  He went out of his way to facilitate each step of the home purchase.

Chris was also very effective in suggesting a realistic selling price and providing expertise to suggest renovations of our former  house to accelerate its sale.  His listing was attractive and effective.  Even though the house was listed after the peak season (listed in August), it sold within two months at nearly the list price.

I was transferring on a corporate relocation and was limited on a number of realtors I could use. Regardless of that Chris Olsen started working with me and completed the process to work with my corporate relocation so that he could continue to work with me. He spent many days traveling around the Cleveland area showing me neighborhoods and homes. He communicated regularly when new properties became available and went out of his way to accommodate my schedule as I was transferring to the Cleveland area.

We worked with Chris Olsen to purchase a new home in Bentleyville, OH. We contacted Chris while we were still living in TX planning to move to OH within 3-6 months. From the moment I spoke with Chris I knew we were in good hands. He was interested in getting to know our family and background. He listened to our needs and was extremely knowledgable about the suburbs, schools, and communities. We told him our "wish-list" and he searched to find the best ones for us.  While we were in TX he even previewed homes on his own, and gave us great feedback. He helped us find the home of our dreams. Chris was an excellent negotiator. He was helpful and present every step of the way. He continued to assist us in finding contractors once we purchased the home. I can not say enough about what a great realtor Chris Olsen is.

As far as my wife and I are concerned, Chris Olsen is a consummate real estate professional. We've had dealings with others as a frame of reference, but we chose Chris to help us buy our house in Shaker Heights, and we returned to Chris to have him sell it when it was time for us to move.Chris has an extensive knowledge of real estate, both as a consumer, and as a real estate agent. He draws upon this knowledge to be prepared for any contingency that might occur. He also has made a lot of contacts in the business. Lightning struck the house we were purchasing on the day of closing, throwing a monkey wrench into the whole affair. Chris knew an electrician that was available to come out that same day and complete the repairs. When we went to sell our house, we were having difficulty getting exterior painting done in a timely fashion, despite having a signed contract to have the work completed. It was holding up our POS compliance. Chris knew a painter who got the job done quickly, and it cost us much less than the contractor we found on our own.Buying and selling is very stressful. Chris is a calm, patient individual who listened to our concerns, and had answers to help us along the process. Chris is capable of explaining real estate to in a succinct and non-condescending way. Chris is also largely available. Many of our conversations took place in the evening and on weekends. Most importantly, Chris listened to us. We never had to repeat ourselves. He listened to what we wanted in the house we were looking for, and was able to trim some off of our list based on that. When selling, he listened to what our concerns were with marketing the property, and he worked to help us meet those goals.Chris has integrity. He is not trying to work both sides of a deal, selling you a house that he is also listing. He has no affiliation with the lenders he recommends, nor is he financially involved with the title companies that he suggests using. Also, he doesn't just recommend a company because he has traditionally dealt with them. He seems to consistently review their performance and adjust his recommendations. When we purchased our house, he suggested one title company, stating concrete reasons why. When we went to sell the house and got an offer, I figured he'd have us use the same title company, but he didn't. I asked him why and he gave compelling reasons for the switch. Chris doesn't stagnate in his job, he continuously updates his resources to help you buy or sell a home.My wife and I don't suffer fools. We are fairly critical of other professionals. We think very highly of Chris, so much so that we have used his services twice now. If we ever move back to the area, Chris will be helping us to purchase another home.

Chris Olsen is an excellent Realtor with extensive local
area knowledge, a keen ability to identify and communicate his customers’
needs, and a firm grasp on Ohio real estate laws and regulations.
My family recently relocated to Ohio from Virginia and
selected Chris to assist us with our home purchase. He was an outstanding buyer’s agent and we
will use him in a heartbeat if we ever sell our current home (unlikely, since
it is an amazing find!). We were
unfamiliar with the greater Cleveland area, and Chris patiently took us on a
tour of many different Cleveland suburbs until we selected the location that
was best for us. At each house we
toured, Chris provided an informative yet objective overview of the location
and local amenities.
It was clear from his patience and honesty that Chris was
not just out to “make a quick sale.” We
never felt pressured to make an offer on a house or as if we were wasting Chris’
time. Chris’ background in home
appraisal is extremely beneficial to buyers.
Chris was extremely honest about the condition of each home; if there
were obvious maintenance issues, he would explain what the issues were and
generally how serious/expensive the issue would be to fix. He was also able to give us an accurate idea
of the sales price – if it was just right, too high, or too low.
Chris is a seasoned negotiator and was able to negotiate a
winning offer for us in a three-offer situation without leaving us feeling as
if we overpaid. He was also an
invaluable resource throughout the loan approval process, as well as the
closing. He continued to fight for us
and went right to the top when it looked like we weren’t going to close on
time.
Not only was Chris outstanding throughout our purchase
process, he continues to be a valuable resource for local home improvement and
maintenance services in the area. He
certainly does not receive payment for his help, yet he responds quickly and
enthusiastically to all of my questions.
I feel extremely lucky to have found such an amazing source for local
knowledge.
Chris is a true professional and I highly recommend his
expertise to anyone looking to buy or sell a home in Northeast Ohio!

I had the pleasure of working with Chris Olsen from February 2013 through September 2013 as my fiancand eacute; I attempted to look for our first home. Chris was nothing short of amazing through the whole process, always there to help us, even in those moments when we were not quite sure what we were looking for in our house! We presented him with a challenge, during a market that was lean, and, though it did take a while for us to find what we needed, we could not be happier with the result.
Chris impressed us from the beginning with his knowledge of the industry. He knew what we should be looking at in our search, and when we would look at a house, we always had insightful conversations afterword to discuss the pros and cons of what we had just seen. Chris was honest in all of his opinions of the homes that we saw, and would lay out exactly what we would need to do to make it our “dream” home, and whether he thought it would be possible with our budget. After looking at over 25 houses, we did come to rely on not only his advice, but also how friendly and easy going he was through all of our ups and downs.
When we found a home that we knew we wanted, Chris was there for us throughout everything, guiding us through the process of making an offer, connecting us with the best people for home inspections, and being there for our near-constant phone calls, emails, and texts asking if he had heard anything back from the listing agent. When we didn’t get the responses we expected, Chris helped keep us focused on our goal and guided us through making reasonable counter offers.
I would recommend Chris to anyone looking for an honest, hard-working Realtor in North East Ohio. I cannot imagine that our search would have been as smooth as it was with anyone else.

When I found Chris, I had been looking to buy a home (my third) for six months and had already tried two other and quot;big companyand quot; realtors. In the past, realtors had done nothing more for me as a buyer than open the door and hand me paperwork. When I sold my homes I did it by owner.
But this year, the housing market came back strong under a low interest rate environment. I knew I needed someone who knew the area well and was extremely responsive, considering how fast desirable homes were selling. Because I was looking for an older home, I also knew it would be helpful to find an agent who understood the structure of a building and where warning signs might lurk. The other agents I'd worked with this time and in the past offered me no insight into the homes I saw, regarding structure or value for the price and it was incredibly frustrating. I had spent countless hours doing my own research on the different markets and couldn't understand the value a realtor brought to the table.
Then I found Chris. Everything was different from the first day. He knew how critical time was to get into a house and got me the appointments to see them right away. His low key, incredibly detailed, concerned demeanor and knowledge about homes, the industry, the quickly changing market, and all the ins and outs on negotiating a deal were like nothing I'd come across before. This purchase ended up being more complex than my previous purchases, but he knew every angle of dealing with appraisal issues, negotiating fairly and closing the deal in an incredibly efficient manner. He remained professional and calm under every circumstance and for all my questions, he responded so quickly at any hour of any day, I almost felt guilty!
In the end, I told him, and quot;You changed my opinion of realtors. You are truly knowledgeable beyond anything I expected.and quot; I have recommended him to all my new neighbors and will do so here as well. Whether you are a buyer or seller, I'm certain Chris will have your best interests at heart.

We would like to give our highest recommendation to Chris. He knew all the ins and outs of realty and he always had our best interest at heart. He took care of a thousand details that would have been a nightmare for us to handle since we live out of town. I really can't say enough good things about him.

My wife and I were ready to purchase our first home. We were very nervous being this was going to be the largest purchase either one of us had made. We did some research online and found great reviews on Angie's list about Olsen Ziegler Realty. We decided to give Chris a call and set up a meeting. From the get-go, Chris was concerned with our well being. He met with us for about an hour and explained the process of buying a house and asked us several questions to ensure he thought we were ready to purchase our first house. We are pretty sure if he thought we were not ready, he would have recommended for us to continue to rent. He was genuinely concerned with what was best for us, not just being able to make the next sale. He recommended a couple of banks for us to contact and get pre-approved for a loan. That way we would have a starting point for price. Once we were pre-approved, Chris set up a personal website for us so we could look at houses online and choose the ones we wanted to see in person. We looked at several hundred online and narrowed it down to a few we wanted to take a closer look at in person. Chris told us not to hesitate at looking at houses in person, he would look at one or 100 houses with us until we found the perfect home. Once we found the house we both loved, he did a tremendous amount of research for us and gave his opinion on what he thought the house was worth. We negotiated with the sellers and were able to get the house cheaper than they were advertising. Chris explained the paperwork involved in great detail and made us feel comfortable with everything we had to sign, which is a LOT!! The entire process of buying our first house went extremely smooth and we credit Chris for that. We absolutely recommend him.

We wouldn't hesitate to recommend Chris. He's integrity, honest and experience are just what you would want, whether you're buying or selling a home.

We were very happy with our home buying experience with Chris Olsen (Olsen Ziegler Realty)! It was our first time buying and we were lucky to have Chris help us through it. Next time we buy/sell we willl use him again! We were nervous because we had never undertaken such a big and important process, but Chris made everything so easy for us to understand and always gave us many options so we could take control with the expert advice he gave us. he is an excellent negotiator. When we submitted our first offer on our home, he wrote out a two page explanation detailing why we started at the offering price we did. It was very convincing and well researched. We ended up closing at a price that was 14K lower than the appraisal value! He also referred us to a top home inspector Craig Haas (who is also an architect) is one of the toughtest home inspectors out there, and his thoroughness allowed us to gain a comprehensive perspective of the true condition of the property we were buying. He also knows many of the best contractors (competitive pricing and excellent quality). He referred us to Heights Hardwood Floors; they sanded and refisished our hardwood floors. The floors turned out beautifully and the price was very very reasonable for the high quality. One of Chris' greatest strengths is his utilization of technology. In this day in age if you don't have a realtor who uses technology to the fullest extent then you are missing out on huge benefits in therms of tremendous time savings as well as the full perspective you gain from the infromation that is avaliable online. I couldn't imagine doing this any other way, especially under the time constraints we have in our professions. Last, but by far the best, we must say that throughout this entire process Chris was incredibly professional, friendly, likeable and dependable. We wouldn't ever expect anyone to work for us during vacation (and our email inquiry was worded as: "when you get back for vacation, could you send this counter-offer?"), but Chris went above-and-beyond and wrote us back in less than an hour indicating that he didn't want to wait on something so important, so he did it immediately. People THAT dedicated to doing a great job are very hard to come by, and we are incredibly lucky to have found such a person in Chris!