I have nothing but great things to say about Al Theisen and his team and highly recommend him to anyone looking to purchase or sell a home and especially to anyone that wants to remodel. We have completed several projects with Al including a whole house renovation in 2014. We also sold that home and purchased another home with Al and Taya's help in 2020. We built 2 custom homes before working with Al. The experience we had with Al was by far the best. The process was clear and simple and Al was totally transparent regarding pricing and costs. The final product exceeded our expectations. And best of all, Al stood behind all the work and has been there for 6 years to help with any little project. Anything we need done, we call Al. I give Al and his team the highest possible recommendation.

Al and Taya were excellent to work with during our relocation to Minnesota which involved multiple trips and dozens of home showings until we finally found our perfect home. They were very patient with us and listened to all of our concerns and input. Al’s vision for a remodel was invaluable. He has a great eye for the hidden potential of a home. Both Al and Taya have extensive knowledge of real estate and investment value in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. I highly recommend them for your real estate needs!

You can imagine how stressful (and eventful!) it is buying your first home as an immigrant, being fairly new to the country, and even newer in Minneapolis. Taya and Al made the entire process super easy. I cannot speak highly enough of their expertise. Taya answered all our questions with tremendous patience and with all possible details. She is an excellent communicator and has extensive knowledge of everything real estate! Al's expert recommendations and their team's work on the projects needed to be done before moving in, were always spot on! Add to the mix that we were away on an international trip for a month while all the remodeling was happening. If you need this service, look no further!

Al and Taya are amazing realtors - and my wife and I give them our absolute highest recommendation that you partner with them.

They are the best as realtors representing you as you sell your home, and as you buy a home.

We worked with them this past summer as we sold our home in SW Minneapolis and bought a home in the SW Twin Cities metro.

As a selling realtor, they were instrumental in getting our house sold quickly and at the price we wanted. One key reason is that Al and Taya have a tremendous, trusted network of contractors who converge quickly and efficiently on your house to help prep it for sale. Another reason - Al and Taya work so incredibly hard for you - getting you prepared, going over the details, outlining everything you need to know and do to put your house on the market.

Most essential, Al and Taya have just a keen understanding of the marketplace - from the right price to what buyers are looking for in a home. They bring sellers and buyers together for great agreements that make everyone happy.

When they represent you as a buyer, you’ll have that exact same level of high service. They are dedicated and tenacious - incredibly attentive and work hard to ensure you find the right home. And, as an added bonus here again, they tap their loyal and top-notch network of contractors to come in immediately after you bought the home to make any updates you want quickly, efficiently and at a fair price.

Personally, the thing I love most about Al and Taya is that they are always honest and accurate with you. They always tell you exactly what you need to know, not what you want to hear. That is so absolutely critical when buying and/or selling. I appreciate that so much, and I think you will, too.

Al and Taya have taken great care of our family over the years as we have relocated into and out of the Twin Cities with our growing family. We have remodeled a beautiful 1920's home with them (when we had 1 child), we have used them to find a lovely, expanded Linden Hills home with our 2 children, and then we have used them to help us make the obvious if cliched move to the suburbs with our 3 children. Al and Taya have always been responsive, helping us find contractors when needed, and have been best in class with the homefinding and purchase journey. They are a pleasure to work with.

We had a great experience working with Taya Rotering and Al Theisen when we sold our home and bought a townhouse last year. Tay and Al work very well together, each sharing different expertises.

Once we decided to look for a townhouse, Taya identified a large number of places that met our criteria; many of them we just drove by, but when we wanted to see a place Taya quickly arranged that. Taya stayed on top of listings and notified us as things became available, arranging for us to see listings often the same day, and helping us to craft an appealing offer that resulted in a purchase with which we are very happy.

Taya and Al were also very helpful as we got our "old" house ready for sale. They made recommendations about what we needed to do, suggested some very specific things we wouldn't have thought of, and arranged for people in their network when it came to having some work done (like ripping up carpet and refinishing the natural wood floors). Al took the lead in this arena and I don't think we could have gotten our house ready to sell so quickly without his insights and contacts.

Taya and Al work very effectively as a team and we benefitted from that. We would definitely contact them again when buying or selling a home.

I have sold two homes and purchased three since meeting Al and Taya in 2003. They have a team- including subcontractors from Al's remodeling business- that can get your home ready to sell quickly -at or above listing price. If you are buying, Al and Taya both have a good feel for the market and relationships with agents to find houses you will be interested in, often before they hit the market. This is the group you want if you are ready to move or buy.

Highest praise for Al and Taya! No one knows Minneapolis real estate like these two. Their history and reputation in this city speak for themselves and our experience is a testament to both. Our house sold pre-list for asking price, allowing us to bypass the staging, photos, showings, and open houses that everyone dreads. It truly was smooth sailing.

Al and Taya's knowledge of the market, specifically in our area of the city, their negotiating skills, and Al's experience as a general contractor helped to find us a home in our desired neighborhood and even the specific block we loved!

Bonus, Al was able to give us renovation advice while we were touring homes, and now they will be renovating the home for us this summer! Al was able to help us see a vision for this home that we could never have dreamt of on our own. We are forever grateful for their knowledge, experience, and tenacity. Many thanks to Al and Taya for seamless selling, buying, moving, and renovating experiences.

Ours is a crazy story. We went south to avoid winter, and called Al Theisen from FL, asking if he would swing by the house and give us an opinion on what we should do in terms of updating, sprucing up, before putting it on the market later in the year. Al said “sure”, and called us soon after to suggest that we could sell it “as is” (the house was in pretty good shape), and asked if we would like him to sell it while we were away. We agreed that no sign would go in the yard, no MLS advertising, and nobody was to be in the house without Al or Taya present (for security reasons, as we still had personal belongings out and about). Long story short, Al suggested an attractive asking price, showed the house to three people, got an offer and sold it. We cut our trip short to come back, pack, move, and close.
Al Theisen and his team took care of everything that was on the buyer’s punch list, and worked closely with the buyer’s agent to deliver a seamless close. And we did the entire sale remotely, never actually sitting down with Al, and relying on him to guide the process skillfully and professionally.
Keep in mind, this all took place between Feb-April, 2019, with the pandemic exploding all around us.
Nobody could ever match the confidence we had in Al and Taya and the team. They are the absolute best!

I have worked with Al Theisen Homes throughout my years of buying and selling in Minnesota. My last transaction was effortless. I live out of state, reached out to Taya Rotering to sell my Edina home and it was all taken care of in under a month! Easy peasy!
I will always recommend Al Theisen Homes for ease and quality of service from start to finish.

I have had the pleasure of working with Taya Rotering and Al Theisen for over 13 years. Taya helped me find my first home and just this summer helped me sell that home and purchase a new one. I can't express how valuable it is to work with the Al Theisen Homes team. Prior to selling my home, Al and Taya came out to explore if adding on to my house could be the option. I always had the options of renovation or buying on the table as I entered the marketplace. This flexibility made me feel like I wasn't stuck in a box with just one way to go. Once I determined I needed to sell, Taya provided over-the-top service in finding me house painters within 24 hours, handy people to take on projects quickly, cleaning people, staging people, and more. In addition, Taya herself helped me with so many final touches in picking up brighter light bulbs, touching up grout on my kitchen floor and patching holes where there should not be holes! I sold super fast and was able to stay on schedule with my purchase closing. Communication was top notch from start to finish. Tons of creativity in getting things done. Knowledge of the marketplace and a network of relationships to tap into along the way are some of the reasons I would recommend them in a heartbeat. Plus, they are just all around cool people. Thank you, thank you!!

My husband and I absolutely loved our experience working with Taya to find our first home! Taya was so patient as we worked through figuring out what we wanted in a home and where we wanted to buy. With the crazy market we had to make quick decisions on which houses to look at and Taya made sure we got to see the ones we were interested in. She never complained as we made her drive all around the metro for us to look at different houses in different cities. Her communication was great and we used her expertise and knowledge to make a competitive offer and "win" our home. We are so thankful to Taya (and Al and team!)! We LOVE our new house and really enjoyed the first-time home buying experience with Taya! Highly recommend!

Dear Al and Taya - thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts, for making all of our home dreams come true!  

Al is a true professional and his houses have every detail well thought out. His personal service is outstanding and we are thrilled to have purchased one of his homes! - Chris W, 2020

"We first met Al and Taya back in 2009 when we were searching for our first home. We were informed buyers that knew not only what we wanted, but the market pretty well. The realtor we were working with just wasn't cutting it. We met Al at an open house in south Minneapolis, a home that he had redone in great taste making the small one-story efficiently livable and charming. In addition to his good work, we immediately found Al to be a straight shooter that could not only help us find a home, but also modify it from a tear down to small adjustments along the way. So, we hired Al and never looked back! When we found our home shortly after, Al drew up plans to modify the smallish kitchen and the upstairs. While we didn't make those changes right away it was so helpful to have him create that vision for us before we purchased the home - something you generally don't get from your average realtor these days. We stayed in our lovely little home for six years until a job relocated my husband and I to Austin, Texas. From the time I found out I got the job to when we were leaving was about four weeks. There are really no words for how helpful Al and Taya were during this time. They helped us expedite several projects to get our house market ready, managed all of the contract work and invoicing and managed several things after we left town - oh, and most importantly sold our home within four weeks. Oh, and they are just chill and rad human beings. I mentioned it earlier, but I love that they both tell it how it is. There is never any BS, which I appreciate so much. I can't say enough about how helpful these two have been to my husband, and I and should we come back to MSP and buy a home, we'll call Al and Taya."

- The Grimm's, 2015

"My experience working with Al Theisen Renovations was first rate. From selling our previous home to guiding us through our new design build, I always felt at ease. It's clear to me what drives these two is their desire to have satisfied customers. When we had an unexpected leaky pipe hours before an open house Al immediately had one of his plumbers come to our rescue. He and Steve also seemed to be on call 24 hours during our design build. Unlike other contractors I've dealt with they actually returned emails and phone calls within one day, usually within an hour. It's this type of customer service that really sets them apart. Without a doubt Al and Steve are the best contractors/realtors I've ever worked with."

"Al and Taya,

I wanted to take a second to drop a note of thanks for all your efforts on behalf on selling [our] house. You guys were both super professional, incredibly helpful, and most of all, optimistic throughout. We really, really appreciate it.

You're at the top of the list whever anyone asks for realtor/remodeler recommendations anywhere in the cities."

"Al helped us remodel the kitchen in our first home. Together we created an open, functional and beautiful EIK which was a major selling point when we recently put the house on the market. One of the benefits of house hunting with Al is his contracting experience because he can rovide on-the-spot estimates for pre-occupancy up-grades and add-ons.

Al’s calm patience and wry humor were appreciated while he drove us between showings, pointing to the homes he had improved throughout the neighborhoods of south MPLS. He shoveled near-record Minnesota snow [while our house was on the market] and adjusted the staging throughout the winter. It paid off. We recently closed the sale of the home.

We most enthusiastically endorse and recommend Al Theisen for all your realty needs."

"Hi Al and Taya - just wanted to thank you again for all of your assistance in selling the house. I envisioned it to be a long and painful process and it was neither. The processes you have put in place work so well from beginning to end. I always felt updated and informed and your staff does an excellent job. It was a fantastic experience and I wish I could shout it from the rooftops.

Thanks again from the bottom of my heart."

- J. Fitzer, 2012

"We're so happy with the house and really enjoyed the process of working with you on it! Thank you for everything! You worked with us so much and that's not always easy!"

"In describing the experience of working with Al Theisen Renovations, the entire process was very smooth, from the initial planning stage to the final touches. Al had many great ideas, yet was always open to incorporating our personal needs and desires into the project. We were impressed with the work and friendliness of each of the sub-contractors that helped with the home....Looking back there is very little we would change....We felt the speed and efficiency of the entire process was amazing! We were overjoyed to move into our new home within four months of starting the renovation project....Al Theisen Renovations was accurate in pricing and estimates, with the finished project completed on budget, including many upgrades/additions not factored into the initial estimate. We appreciated Al's willingness to pass on savings to us, such as giving us the contractor pricing at various vendors. We were pleased to have the project completed in such a timely manner....We would highly recommend the Al Theisen Renovations team to others. The quality of the product we got was notably superior to comparable properties in Southwest Minneapolis. Not to mention, the friendliness of Al, Steve, and Taya to work with."

“Al and Taya,

Thank you for helping us find such a great house and then for turning it info such a terrific place to live. And we’ve enjoyed having the [before and after] photos to show everyone the process. Thank you again!”

"We were just talking about you two and how good you were to help us in helping us to get this place. We're so happy with it. Most of all we were reflecting on how mildly in shock we were that you provided such a great "safety net" for us that completely freed us up to look for a new place without the over concern of selling ours. How many realtors/builders would do that? My guess is NONE! You guys are "super special" and thanks again for all your help."

Al and Taya -

“Thanks for everything! Kristy and I would like to write a letter of recommendation to express our appreciation for your hard work, friendship and overall excellence in how you both operate your business.”

Al and Taya,

“Thank you for helping us find such a great house and then for turning it into such a terrific place to live. And we’ve enjoyed having the photos to show everyone the process.”

Dear Al and Taya – -

“….Just wanted to thank you again for the enormous effort you put into selling my house – cannot express what a relief it is to have that behind us. We’ve already recommended you guys to several people.”

Thanks again.

"Al and Taya went out of their way numerous times throughout our first time home buying process... extraordinary response to all forms of communication. More importantly they took the time to understand our needs and wants and put us in a position to find the right home for us! Very few, if any, professionals operate efficiently and effectively as Al and Taya. Much appreciated."

"Al paid for staging of our home to put on the market. Helped us install another light and clean windows. Always available. Seriously, there were many nights when he would be by after 8 pm when our son was in bed so we could chat. Fought hard for us negotiating our new house. Because he also does remodels, he used his contractors to build a deck and fence for our new house within 1 week (before the ground froze). It was for a really, really reasonable cost. It was $10,000 less than it would have been for us to hire someone.

Great! I don't think I've ever said I LOVE a person I do business with, but Al and Taya were really extraordinary. They are great people, a joy to work with during the uneasy home selling period, provide first class service, AND Al's construction experience was immensely helpful for us. I highly recommend him and his wife Taya."

Song written and performed by Linda Muehlbauer, used by permission:

"I like a man who can list my house, who can fix my house,

Who can help me buy one too, that's what I like about you.

I like a man who can make it happen, who can get some traction

When the buyers are far and few, that's what I like about you.

You can be sweet, yea you can be tough, making other realtors life real rough.

Everything you do you do so well, but when do you sleep? I can tell.

I like a man who can fix my house, trap a mouse, crawl through mud, explain a HUD

And still keep his cool, that's what I like about, can't sell my house without

That's what I like about you!"

"I recently purchased and sold my home having hired Al Theisen and Taya Rotering. I can give them a very high recommendation based upon their efforts to sell my home. They were patient and honest. I felt also that they went the extra steps needed to get my wife and I the home we wanted at the price we could afford. Please consider them as a useful asset to buying or selling a home."

"We [are] convinced more than ever that you guys are one of the best teams to do home business with in the cities. To think that you did a project of our magnitude on budget on time with very few surprises (which were timely and openly communicated) seems pretty amazing to us. We'll continue sending our friends your way!"

Dear Al and Taya,

"Thank you so much for helping us build our "dream home". We feel so fortunate to have met you and worked with you. You make a talented team and should be very proud of your work. We can't say enough good things....we are so grateful.

We can't say enough good things about Al (and Taya). He is not only honest, trustworthy and a talented builder but also always on time and on budget. We loved working with him and love our new home. We did not have one disagreement with him because he kept us in the process all along.

We have been in our home for six months now and he is still going above and beyond to tie up any loose ends that have come up after we moved in.

….I do not have a single negative thing to say about the whole process. It was great and we hope to do another home down the road with them. It was a great investment so far.”

"Al & his wife, Taya, helped us sell our home to a builder. The experience was very positive. I'm impressed that they were able to find a buyer offering a respectable price for our home within weeks when many people have been on the market for months, or have had to dramatically reduce price in order to sell. The real estate work is only part of what Al Theisen Renovations performs. They also build/remodel homes and do amazing work. We have seen some of the homes in person and would highly recommend checking out their work if you're in the market to buy, sell, or remodel your home."

I would describe working with Al Theisen Renovations as ".....an excellent experience and a true example of trust and cooperation...the service and product were as promised, on schedule and on budget.....the building and designing process was fast, easy and flexible....the best thing about working with Al was that I never felt concerned or worried."

"[We] want to thank you for who you are and all of the work that was put into helping us find our first home. We are blessed to have you as Realtors and friends. We love our home and have no regrets. Can't say enough about the experience. Thank you again!"

"Taya Rotering and Al Theisen are service agents of dreams. In my pursuit of my first home, I was fortunate enough to work with Taya and Al. I'm recommending them for their follow-through, guidance, and strict attention to detail as well as creative problem solving skills. What a great team!"

The experience of working with Al Theisen Renovations from start to finish was "Great. Al was very enthusiastic about the project. He was the person who brought the home to our attention and shared his vision with us for the remodel. He personally took the time to create some drawings right away and saw the project through from start to finish. The greatest strength was, I felt: availability, personal touch, [and we] felt Al really cared about the success of the project and meeting our needs. I would highly recommend Al to anyone. He gives great personal, customer service and is really proactive in resolving issues."