Reviews

Dave's excellent reputation is built on his clients' experiences. The following testimonials offer just a sampling of what they have to say about Dave and his services.

I have known Dave for 25 years, since we worked together at WCCO-TV/ Cable. When my parents were looking to sell their home in Rochester, Dave was my first and only suggestion on who to represent them. His cornerstones are Honesty and Integrity.

Mark D. Steen

We are very satisfied with the service that we received with our Realtor David Birka. When we came to Rochester, we decided it was best for us to rent. Do to some predatory lending practices; we were not comfortable with the whole real estate experience. I met with Dave and viewed a few homes at first. Dave was nice and very accommodating. He picked me up from my work downtown, and we were able to see several homes. Dave was never pushy, and actually pointed out things that would end up costing a lot of money to update and repair.

We were involved with a few multiple offer situations that Dave forewarned us about in this market. When we got our offer accepted, Dave went to work for us, and made sure that the repairs we asked for were completed, and our loan was ready for closing. Dave was available to answer questions and concerns; he always answered them in a timely and professional manner. He always looked out for our best interest. Dave was great to work with, and we would recommend him to anyone needing an honest helpful and knowledgeable realtor.

Linda & Steve

Dave,
The house hunting process was very different than expected! It was all very exciting and fun! We are settling into our home and absolutely love it here. We have not had too much time to sit back and relax, but all the hard work pays off, and we have enjoyed every minute of the experience. I think out of all the homes that we looked at... we chose the perfect house! It was the only one that felt like home as soon as we walked into the door. Thanks for all your help.

Kim & Nathan

Dave Birka was wonderful through the entire process of selling our mother's home. Dave made recommendations and provided the consultation that helped us in making the right decisions. His knowledge of the market, and work ethic resulted in an offer on our home, even though we were in a very tough real estate market. I would recommend Dave highly as a professional you can trust with the sale or purchase of your home. Thanks for everything!

Sharla Wagy

Dear Dave:

We wanted to write to thank you for all that you have done for us! We want you to know what a huge blessing you have been to our family.

Selling our first home in such a professional manor, then helping us get through the building process, which was a great experience. We then threw on more sale at you with our rental which you managed to complete in record time I might add! You were the most supportive, patient, hard working, caring, and sincere person that we have ever met, and a great Realtor! We couldn't be happier in our new home, and thanks to you, and the Maplewood Home family, we have the home of our dreams!

Many blessings to you in the future and to your family! You will be the first recommendation to anyone who is searching for a sale or a new home! We look forward to knowing that we can depend on you in the future! If you ever need a reference, you let us know... and keep in touch!

Sincerely,

The Schnell Family
Jeff and Heather, Cassie, Jordan, Kaylie, and Abby
6316 Shetland Drive NW

Dave answered all questions and returned all phone calls promptly. He educated and informed us about real estate properties. He kept our "best interest" in mind.

David & Lori Eggert,
1329 Fox Valley Dr SW

Dave is a great person. This was the first house that I bought on my own. He was caring and always kept in touch with me. He was always there when needed, and was always willing to help me out.

Naomi Klampe
1409 16th Ave NW

Your professional and organized selling style really was my guiding light through this apprehensive and exciting time! I am truly happy in my new residence, and I will refer your name and company at any opportunity. Keep up the good work.

Nancy Nichols Hensley
2351 18th Ave SE

Dave is an expert on Rochester, an organized manager, a tasteful decorator, and most importantly, a trusted friend. He knew that we were busy people that enjoyed the outdoors; he lead us to a perfect match! Dave continued to impress us with his work ethic and relentless efforts to ensure that we would build the perfect home. Dave made the choices simple, easy, and efficient. He was truly there with us every step of the way. We are extremely happy with our home and investment. We are grateful to Dave Birka. He is an honest, hard-working, knowledgeable Realtor and a wonderful person and friend.

Dr. Erik & Helena Summers
Mayo relocation from North Carolina

From our first contact with you, both Jeff and I felt confident you would be the perfect person to help us. I also wanted to thank you for your calm and patience during our closing. Not only were we doing this long distance, we had to deal with a mortgage fiasco and go to our back-up lender. You knew I was panicked, but you stayed calm, assured us that everything was moving along as it should. It helped me tremendously to know you were looking out for our best interests. You can be sure we are recommending you to anyone we know!

Jessica & Jeffrey Punshon
Mayo relocation from Williamsburg, Virginia

You were patient and never advancing at a pace that was uncomfortable for me. I appreciate not only your patience, but your understanding of my wants and needs in a home. Being a first time home buyer can feel intimidating, but your ability to explain things clearly, and without overwhelming me, was exactly what I needed. Your knowledge led me to a great home. My family and I couldn't be happier with the house and we thank you so very much.

The Gilmore Family
1815 21st Ave NW

David Birka is a thorough, knowledgeable, and motivated real estate agent who always has his eyes on the details and the needs of his client. We had five days to find a home at the end of January. (I was four and a half months pregnant at the time.) David did an excellent job of taking our needs into consideration when showing us the Rochester area and homes on the market, pointing out details in construction and location that otherwise we would not have noticed. In addition, David went above and beyond the call of duty to be available to us while we were in town looking for our new home 3; his accessibility and willingness to work hard was present every step of the way.

We ultimately chose a home that was at the end stages of construction. With David we not only negotiated terms of the sale long distance, but also made a multitude of decisions regarding completion of the home. Once again, David exceeded our expectations, meeting various contractors at our new home, talking us through one decision after another, and taking numerous pictures of the house, tile samples you name it, along the way to further assist us through the process. Through all of the decisions we made, and changes we requested, David stayed on top of the necessary paperwork while at the same time coordinating in our stead with all of the players involved.

Ultimately, with his attention to detail, responsiveness and energy, David made our home buying process and all that came with it, smooth and free of glitches. David is a hard worker and he knows the business. His only interest truly is serving your best interests.

Jonathan & Leslie
Mayo relocation from Bend, Oregon

Mr. Dave Birka truly exemplifies his motto: "Serving your best interest is my only interest." Dave is a dedicated professional who represents the best of his field. We were blessed to have his as our Realtor in the selling of our house and in the purchasing of a new (construction) house. In all parts of the process, he was a pleasure to work with. His agenda focused on our goals and objectives, and we always felt that he was considerate of our feelings and concerns. Dave is a tireless worker, and his involvement in all parts of the home buying and selling process was thorough, comprehensive, and, in many cases, far above what we would have expected from any real estate agent. His kindness and caring in what can be quite an emotional process was a blessing to our entire family. We would not hesitate to recommend Dave to anyone considering buying or selling their home, as we have already done so with many of our friends.

Dr. Edward & Linda Laskowski, Mayo Medical Center

Please accept our gratitude for your help in shepherding us through the process of purchasing our new home. From the initial viewing, and through the sale and closing of our two existing houses, your measured guidance and wise counsel have been invaluable. We are extremely pleased with our new house, and feel very fortunate to be able to call it "home." We are looking forward to many years here and will always remember your support and friendship during these significant transitions. Feel free to stop by when you are in the neighborhood; we always look forward to visiting with you.

Barbara & Joel, IBM

Dave was very helpful! Especially over long distance, and with our limited time in Rochester. We were very impressed with how quickly he discerned what we were looking for and truly catered searches for us. He was not pushy and we enjoyed working with him.

Ryan & Leslie,
Mayo relocation from Wheaton, IL

Thank you very much for your hard work and thoughtfulness in representing us in the purchase of our new home. We would certainly recommend you to others that need to contact a Realtor. I am still interested in finding some investment property such as a duplex, triplex, or fourplex. Thank you again for doing such a good job!

Arthur & Dorothy
Relocation from East Grand Forks, MN

Dave was the consummate professional. Very patient and willing to go above and beyond to assist me and support me in my purchase of my new home!

Carole
Mayo relocation from Eugene, OR

We just want to thank you for selling our home, and for all the things you did to make it possible. Some of the things you did were:
1.) Found a contractor to repair damage to our home while we were hundreds of miles away.
2.) Coordinated with person representing my insurance company while we were away.
3.) Worked with roofer to get roof replaced
4.) Made suggestions and changed trim color front of house, carpet, and had a professional install a sump pump.
5.) Secured one of his many contacts to remove the snow in our absence.
6.) Dried out wet areas of home after storm damage.
7.) Contacted trash removal company to clean out garage and remove construction debris.
8.) Kept us informed with photos of the home repairs and weekly updates.

We were away from our home and living in our new home several states away. We never felt a need to worry about anything that needed to be done because David was always a phone call away, and took good care of anything problems that cropped up. Dave is certainly the best Realtor that we have ever had, and we highly recommended Dave to anyone needing a super REALTOR.

Thanks Dave!

Sincerely,
Bill & Doreth Coleman, IBM

We love coming to the Coldwell Banker Appreciation Day, we've been fortunate to be able to attend the past couple of years and we now look forward to it every year as a yearly event in our day to day lives.

I think it;s wonderful you do this for all your clients. Thank you for letting us partake in this event, we really appreciate it.

Hannorah Olson

I am grateful, lucky to know you. You have really been beyond the realtor role to us.

Ahmad Farij
IBM Relocation

Our home sale was an emotional situation for our family, with tight timeframes and even tighter finances. We actually had to move across the country before the house was sold, leaving Dave to handle everything! He was great about making sure the house was being maintained, and arranging for any contractors, etc. The sale became a short sale, and Dave was diligent in getting all the paperwork done and following up with the banks, until finally it was done! His calm throughout the process made us feel like everything would be ok.

Jeffrey & Jessica
Rochester

Dave,

I don't know how to thank you for all you have done for us. We are so relieved that this process is over and we are able to call this a short sale and not a foreclosure. You worked so hard and did so many above-and-beyond things to make this sale happen, we could never repay you.

We appreciate your being with us every step of the way. You began this relationship by giving us detailed information regarding short sales, and informing us of the experience you had with other short sales which gave us a lot of confidence. Certainly this short-sale process took longer then we expected, but your continuous updates and working to try and stay a step ahead of the banks, etc. made the process much smoother for us. I am certain you kept some things completely transparent to us as well. Your willingness to step in and navigate through the mine fields of the bankruptcy rules gave us additional comfort. I am so happy we signed with you. Your expertise with the short-sale process, the housing market in Rochester and willingness to work with us long distance, lifted much stress and brought Mom and me great peace of mind.

Thank you so much for making all this come together and giving us a bright spot in a very stressful time in our lives.

Lynda

Concerning Mr. Birka as our realtor, and as we call him by his first name, David, as he has become our friend, is the most caring and professional person that one could deal with on selling or buying a home. David sold our home in 11 weeks in a down market, and never complained if we asked him to have more than one open house. He is a very easy person to talk to and gave us good advice. David also sold us the home we are now living in. No matter how many times we wanted to look at it before we bought, he always was available with a smile and on time. This I would tell anyone-Mr. Birka is the person to sell your home, and if you want to buy, he will work hard to get what you want!

Thank you - Danke-Schoen

Leo & Elfriede

Dave Birka served us effectively as the listing agent for our sale of a 5 acre parcel of buildable property north of Rochester. He was very responsive, kept us informed of developments, and took the steps needed to be sure that the property would show well. Most important was his positive, can-do attitude. This was especially important for us since we live more than 1,000 miles away and needed to have regular, informative updates on developments. Dave did a good job for us.

K/A Darr

We had an amazing experience working with Dave Birka as our realtor. We did meet a few realtors and as soon as we met Dave, we knew he was the one that was right for us! After owning a house for only a short few months, job relocation forced us to move south. We turned to Dave to help us sell our house in this "bad housing market." We were on a short time-line to sell our house, and Dave did a fantastic job getting our house on the market in a timely fashion. Dave did a wonderful job taking pictures of our house, and made colorful pamphlets for potential home buyers to take home after a walk-through of the house. Throughout the process, Dave was very approachable and always kept us updated with any new information. We were absolutely amazed that our house sold in less than a week!!!! Without Dave's expertise we do not feel it would have sold that fast. When the new home buyers did their final walk through, they were having trouble with the oven. Dave ran over to the house and used his magic to fix the oven. He truly went above and beyond our expectations!! Thank you Dave!

Alec and Katy

Thank you Mr. Birka for the service you gave to us. You went well beyond the "normal" scope of most realtors and went that extra mile.

The Hardy Family
IBM Rochester relocation

I have had the interesting experience of buying and selling a house in the span of a few years and I am thankful to have had Dave guide me through both experiences. I bought my house as a single, first time home buyer and I thought that Dave listened to what I needed and that he represented me accurately. It was helpful to have his insight on the houses we looked at and he was flexible to schedule showings when my work schedule allowed. Dave answered my many questions timely and in way that I understood. I knew I was in good hands! I was really happy with the house I bought and was pleased with the final price and the ease of closing, mostly because of Dave's expertise. A few years later, marriage and relocation made it necessary to sell the house and I turned to Dave again. We were apprehensive about the changing market and about selling the house we had owned for a short amount of time. Dave provided a thorough market analysis and helped us understand the competition. He worked closely with us to set the price and then lower it as we felt comfortable. We valued Dave's experience and thoughts and never felt pressured to make a certain decision. Dave was very encouraging when we moved out of state while the house was still on the market. He was very helpful during the negotiation process. The week we closed on the house, Dave exceeded our expectations; meeting a service company at the house, and even doing some minor repairs himself. Dave walked us through the paperwork, and went to the closing. After we sold the house, the new buyers had trouble with the fireplace. Dave went to the house, trouble shooted the fireplace, and then found a replacement part locally at a much lower price than the distributor was asking. He put the new part in and got it working for the new owners. We are really happy to have sold our house with Dave. I would gladly recommend him to anyone looking for a real estate agent.

Thanks Dave!

Christopher & Rachel