Founded in 1965 by Roger Fazendin, Fazendin Realtors continues to excel at assisting buyers and sellers with all their real estate needs. Roger’s son, Dan Fazendin, took over in 1986. When the company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015, Roger’s grandson, Andy Fazendin, took the reins. Other family members have been or are currently involved as well - it’s a true family legacy.
“My grandfather was an amazing person and to this day my role model,” says Andy. “He came out of the Depression and was wounded and almost died in World War II. I think those life experiences kind of shaped his vision. He was an artist and big idea guy. When he started Fazendin Realtors, he was great at getting the company going and building an amazing culture here.”
Roger’s true passion, says Andy, was real estate development, and he developed quite a few neighborhoods in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities. “When my father got involved in the 70s, he created the vision we follow today, which is being a full-service real estate brokerage. We strongly believe in focusing on how we can best serve our clients, and as the broker, I focus on how I can best support my agents.”
Over 80% of their business, he says, comes from referrals and repeat clients, and they take that to heart. “I’ve heard stories about how we’ve helped multiple generations throughout our years in business. You know you’re doing things right when you have that kind of allegiance from your clients.”
With 50 full-time agents (none of their agents work part time) and 12 full- and part-time support staff, Fazendin Realtors has the resources to provide outstanding service to their buyers and sellers. “We have really upped our game with marketing,” says Andy. “We have built our support staff to try to do a lot more creative things, both electronically and traditionally. Over the years, we’ve listened to our clients so we can really give them what they want and need.”
Fortunately, he says, Fazendin Realtors continues to attract and hire hardworking, honest, and nice people who are drawn to the brokerage’s long family-owned history, business practices, and overall culture. “We have amazing loyalty – the average agent has been here for over a decade. One agent has been here about 40 years. We also have many new agents, so we have a huge spectrum of ages and experience. I love our people, and we all respect each other and work well together. This has led to a lot of success.”
COVID-19, explains Andy, has changed and reprioritized what home buyers are seeking. “What I’ve been hearing often from buyers are requests for home offices, and in some cases, two home offices, which was unheard of years ago.”
Buyers today are also looking for larger homes with large yards. Pools have become very popular, he says, even with the locale’s short summers. Outdoor hockey rinks are popping up in backyards all over town, adding a flat back yard to the list of characteristics buyers are seeking. Another very popular trend that has developed in recent years is indoor sport courts.
“The biggest surprise is the luxury housing sale rates,” says Andy. “Sales of $1 million dollar plus homes are up 54% over last year. Although, the highest demand is still for homes under $250,000. Overall, it’s been a consistently busy market in all price ranges that is still very undersupplied compared to demand.”
In addition to providing high quality real estate services to buyers and sellers in all price ranges, Fazendin Realtors also strongly believes in giving back to the communities that have supported the brokerage all these years. “Being a good community member has always been very important to us, and we regularly partner with different organizations throughout the Twin Cities to do fundraising,” he says. “In the spring of 2020, our agents felt a need to do more.”
What they did was create Fazendin Community Cares, a humanitarian division focused even more on endeavors that will benefit people living in the Twin Cities. “We are currently making blankets for My Very Own Bed, an organization that provides new beds and Dream Kits to children moving into stable housing,” says Andy. “We’re volunteering our time and materials to them.”
The creation of Fazendin Community Cares, in addition to hearing about recent food shelf shortages, really amplified our annual holiday drive initiative as well. “We recently gave nearly 5 tons of food and hygiene products to NorthPoint’s Community Food Shelf in Minneapolis,” he says. “We delivered it on a Saturday and the person who runs it came into our office on Monday and started crying. Their shelves had become so bare that he was in the process of ordering more food, but since we replenished all their shelves, he didn’t have to do that. We’re very thankful to be able to offer some relief to them and the communities they serve.”
Fazendin also annually hosts a toy drive, and collected over 500 toys for Toys for Tots in one year alone. “Helping our communities is part of our culture,” he adds. “Of course, we’re here to sell real estate and have a career, but we realize that life is bigger than just that. These initiatives give our agents and staff opportunities to be involved in something bigger.”
Find out more about Fazendin Realtors’ history, real estate services, and community outreach initiatives at https://www.fazhomes.com/.