Ideal Properties Group

I worked with Patrick Russell through the apartment hunting process. Patrick was communicative, efficient, and professional. He met me the day I called him with a prepared list of nice apartments and even drove me around to see them. I never got the sense that he was trying to up-​sell me.
Though I ended up going with a different place, I’d highly recommend Patrick to anyone looking for an apartment. This process can be brutal and frustrating, and it’s a rare gem to find someone who knows what they’re doing.

You would have to be insane to use this realty company — FOR ANYTHING! One of their favorite things to do: use photos of someone else s apartment and put them into your home’s Zillow listing. Yes, you can sometimes find apartments in your home listed on Zillow (when you haven’t contacted Ideal Properties or any other realty company and the apartment is NOT for rent) and there you will find pictures of someone else s apartment. This has happened to be several times now. And people, please, never give anyone a cash deposit. Only deal directly with a landlord/​owner and exchange money when the deal is closing — signed lease & keys.

Let’s face it, the broker experience in NYC is a murky, dark world. The stereotypes are alive and well for a reason and everybody has a horror story, myself included. This is why I feel the need to share my positive experience because it proved that dealing with brokers does not HAVE to be horrendous.
We called Ideal Properties when we had seen a few apartments on their site that interested us and connected with Luther Hines. He was great from the first point of contact. We gave him some criteria– neighborhood choices, laundry, dishwasher, had to be pet-​friendly, outdoor space would be a plus but not a deal-​breaker, etc. He immediately emailed us listings to check out and see if we wanted to see them, including apartments that were not even his listings (other brokers in the agency had them) because they met our criteria. He stayed within our price range for the most part and when he did show us things outside of it it wasn’t by much and he was aware of that fact but wanted to run it by us because it hit on every other point of criteria. Never egregious.
We met him on a Saturday afternoon and saw several places, none of which worked for us. We did, however, fall in love with a place on the website that he couldn’t show us at the time because the occupant was out of town and he hadn’t cleared it. He showed it to us as soon as the owner returned, and we decided to go for it. We went back to his office to fill out the paperwork, give a $ 500 deposit, and were told he’d have an answer for us either that evening or first thing in the morning. We then left to have dinner nearby and before we were even finished with our meal he called us to tell us the place was ours.
I’ve recommended countless people to him because he’s the anti-​broker. Honest, hard-​working, and aims to please. The broker fee is painful, but the fact that you’re giving it to a guy who actually worked for it does soften the blow.

My boyfriend and I were new to the city when we worked with Marion Yuen. I was extremely impressed by how professional she was, the lengths she went to to make sure we understood the ins and outs of how brokers work in NYC (an entirely new phenomenon for us), and how hard she worked finding us places in our price range and that fit our needs – including our desire for a dog-​friendly apt. She was upfront and honest, gave us excellent insight into different Brooklyn neighborhoods when we were unfamiliar with the city, and did not try to push us into an apartment or area that wouldn’t have been a good fit. She was also flexible and willing to show us places on weekends and evenings, which we greatly appreciated. As luck would have it, we ultimately found a place through another company, but would have preferred to see the broker’s fee go to Marion since she did such excellent work. She returned a deposit for us on a place that did not work out (through no fault of hers) promptly and with no issues. If you are looking for a broker in Brooklyn, I highly recommend Marion Yuen.

The brokers are nice and helpful but the management is hands down SHADY. The 500 dollar deposit I initially put down on the apartment was difficult to back. I tried to pick it up 3 times after my move in and I was told the check «wasn’t cut yet». Circumstances in my life made it difficult to pick up for a while-​they do not mail it to you. When I finally got it, a couple months later, the bank rejected it, it had «expired». I tried to get a new check and the manager at the office refused. He threatened to call the police to get me out of the office (I was NOT making a scene, I simply wanted my money). He basically called me stupid and dared me to sue him. JERK. The check, I was told EXPIRES after approx one month. Most brokerage firms deduct your deposit from the fee, not these guys. Their system is designed to take your money. DON’T DO IT.