Smarte Realty

Alec was an awesome realtor and we are so lucky to have been matched with him by Zillow. Throughout every step of the process, he proved knowledgeable, and helpful, and was never pushy at all. We have never worked with a realtor before, but my impression of most realtors is that they are very flashy and only care about their image and surface appearances, but Alec focused on getting to know us and what we wanted in a home. He was able to identify what we wanted and would always speak his mind, one time telling us that he “would not let us buy” a home that was small and wouldn’t be able to support our plans to start a family. In addition, his experience as a contractor before becoming a realtor was super helpful because he was able to identify things like water damage to foundations or roofs that needed a repair that we might not have noticed without his keen eye. He also was able to give us decent ballpark numbers on renovations, or cheap ways to upgrade potential homes. Lastly, he supported us, stayed positive, and gave us excellent advice during our process of making offers in this difficult market. Even after our offer was accepted he made sure to follow up with us and make sure we were set up for success until we had signed everything and gotten the keys to our first home. We would not hesitate to work with him again in the future!

Alec helped us buy a home. 5 stars for his responsiveness, home improvement knowledge, and connections to contractors

Responsiveness - he responded almost immediately to our texts and calls. During critical moments, such as near closing, we would often have multiple conversations with him a day to make sure everything was good to go

Home improvement knowledge - Alec used to be a contractor, so whenever we'd go into a home and would see a problem (i.e. a hole in plaster wall, damaged flooring, cigarette smell etc.) he was able to tell us how major it was and ballpark the cost of fixing it. To provide context for the price, he would go through the detailed steps needed to fix it to help us learn as well

Connections to contractors - One day AFTER we had bought our property, we had a partial electricity outage. After determining it wasn't DTE's fault, we asked Alec if he knew any electricians (we didn't know any). He referred us, and the gentleman came and saw it was something minor and waved his fee.

Alec Applebaum is a rockstar! I read all his reviews and saw a lot of genuinely highly satisfied customers and reached out to him on January 14th, 2019 from Australia and he stuck by us happily until we bought our first house on June 30th 2021! He will put you first, respond to you usually within 10 minutes, is knowledgable about contracting work, has great contacts, and has 10+ years experience as a real estate agent. He's a good guy and I would recommend him.

Alec with Smarte Realty just helped me and my husband purchase our first home and in 2021 that was asking a lot! He was always very responsive when we wanted to go look at houses. He was NEVER pushy about properties. If anything he was the opposite when it came to being very honest about issues he was observing. Since we've never owned our own home this was extremely valuable to us. I would highly recommend Alec and Smarte Realty to anyone and will for sure be calling on him if/when we are looking for house #2!

We have just moved into a great home in Ypsilanti and that was thanks to the team at Smarte Realty. Specifically, our realtor, Alec Applebaum, was excellent to work with throughout the home searching and buying process! Generally, we would find prospective homes on Zillow or Realtor.com and send him the address, he would coordinate a time for us to see the place the next day. While there he would point out things that likely needed repair and especially emphasize anything that looks like it could be costly to address. At the end of the day, we asked him for an estimate on how much he expected the house to be worth based on recent sales of equivalent homes in the same area. With all the information he provided it was easy to weigh the pros and cons of each place we visited and eventually make an offer on a home that we are very excited to be in!

Beyond his demonstrated abilities as a realtor, Alec was always friendly to work with and generous with his time in order to give us the best experience possible. Alec is clearly passionate about his work and it shows. I highly recommend him for anybody looking to buy a home in the Ann Arbor area!