Citi Habitats

Jill Ji and James Castro are the dynamic duo. Within the first day of my search, I found an apartment well within my budget and requirements. The day was filled with anxiety and stress but working with Jill and James made the experience enjoyable. They are both super responsive, professional, knowledgeable of the market, and more importantly, genuine. Jill and James are genuinely here to help you find your dream home – at least that’s the vibe I got!
I first contacted Jill through Naked Apartments, and she responded very quickly to set up an in-​person meeting. On the first day, James and Jill took turns taking me out to look at places, and that’s how they work for maximum efficiency! One is in the office, ready to submit paperwork or send another listing/​set up appointment; the other one is taking the client out. Because of this, I was able to land my apartment as it was a last minute listing at the end of my day of appointments. During the walk-​through of the apartment, I told them I wanted the apartment, so James and I hurried back to Citi Habitats to get the application, paperwork, and money order. Jill was of course already there, ready to help. We got it all done, and James SPRINTED back to the apartment to hand in everything in person to the apartment’s broker. I swear that’s how I got it. Out of many applications, mine was selected because of my brokers’ diligence, hustle, and dedication.
I highly, highly recommend Jill Ji and James Castro.

Apartment hunting in NYC can be extremely stressful, but thanks to the patience and perseverance to Steve Kwon and his assistant Jahnio, we were able to find an apartment that fit all our needs. At one point our faith was shaken, but Steve never gave up on our search and didn’t settle until we were happy. I would definitely recommend Steve Kwon with 5 stars and rate his customer service impeccable

Beware of this douche AJ Sharma. Totally disrespectful when showing the apartment we are moving out of. Touched our belongings and rearranged stuff. Shows up unannounced with no heads up. Tells other brokers to come unannounced as well even when we aren’t home. Does not adhere to normal business hours. Will come at 9pm, 9am, whatever time. Total d! ck and won’t respond to any of our messages.

I generally hate working with brokers, but Jessica Ekstein (our broker at Citi), was excellent. I was impressed with the quality of research Jessica did and how much time she was willing to put into our apartment search. I felt Jessica was open and honest and I really enjoyed having coffees with her while between viewings, talking about more than just apartments. Jessica went the extra mile for us, and I want to thank her for that. I wasn’t necessarily easy. I saw a thousand places with Jessica and then would narrow the list down so my boyfriend could see the top choices (which required Jessica to return a few times to certain places). She didn’t bat an eye, and she communicated and communicated. If I ever need a broker again, I will be finding Jessica. Jessica pushed nothing on us– a huge plus. She helped me decide against places, and would even say «why would you spend money on that? let’s keep looking!» when I was getting desperate. She’s an honest, good broker.
Thanks, Citi!

Citi Habitats has made the apartment hunting process in NYC seamless! The agent Kate Purcell has been an absolute dream. She is knowledgable and patient, and she worked tirelessly to get us into a safe well-​maintained apartment in a great location. She maintained our relationship even after we moved in, checking in on us and even sending a welcome card. We have referred her to multiple friends, all of which she found places for. I recommend Citi Habitats to anyone looking for a dependable, friendly company to use to find a new home in the city.

Akif helped me find a great apartment for me and my dog. He is extremely kind and attentive throughout the process. I would definitely recommend him to anyone. Working with him felt like working with a friend. He’s def one in a million when it comes to NYC agents.

Jose Berrios was our realtor and he is an honest and honorable guy. Him and I spent 4 hours walking through the neighborhood and he insisted on staying until I was satisfied. Unlike other realtors, Jose and Citi Habitats are straight forward with all negotiations, fees, and who was representing who. This made the process enjoyable and straight forward. Jose is always willing to put in the extra hustle for his clients.

I just moved from staten island to manhattan. I gotta say i felt lost in this gigantic borough. I didn’t know where to find a place to live, and i found citi habitats. This company and it’s agent (danny zhu) really helped me a lot in finding a place to live. Mr. Danny zhu is a very energetic and helpful person. He is passionate about his job and always has a answer for my questions. I would definitely recommand him to others. Keep up the good work!

You hear nightmares about apartment hunting in new York city but thanks to Ike from Citi Habitats the lucky was not the case for my roommate and I.
Ike made the process so easy and was there for us through every step of the way and several apartments until we found the perfect one.
I couldn’t recommend Ike more, he made the process fun and easy and helped us find our dream apartment!

Great apartment, Great agent (Ike Toda), Great experience.
We started our search for a 2 bedroom apartment and had to do a quick change to 3 bedrooms and during this time we were completely overwhelmed by the market and how quickly apartments were listed and taken down on a daily basis. This was our first apartment and we were completely lost. We all had our ideas of what a perfect apartment was and it probably didn’t help that we had a 45+lb dog with us.
Luckily, my third roommate knew Ike from before and asked him for his help on this insane voyage that is apartment hunting in NYC. Ike was extremely professional and once he knew our preferences, he would reach out or update us on an almost daily basis with apartment listings or tips to preparing our documents to maximize our chances of getting accepted.
After a short 2 weeks, Ike comes to us with an apartment that was out of our budget but otherwise hit all the checkboxes on our list. He strongly believed that he would be able to lower the rent well into our price range and that we should put an application against it immediately. Within the 1 – 2 days we took to mull it over, Ike managed to get the monthly rent on the apartment dropped $ 50 below our budget and had all the paperwork ready to go.
The next day we ended up signing the lease and have moved in just this past weekend. I don’t know what magic Ike pulled to get the listing agent to come down by SO MUCH but he did and we’re extremely glad to have had him guiding us on this crazy and confusing rental market in NYC.
In a market that is disturbingly vague and convoluted with vocabulary and bait and switches, Ike was a breath of fresh air with his happy demeanor and extreme transparency. He always gave correct numbers regarding all fees during the entire process. I recommend him to anyone who is looking for someone who will go above and beyond to help you find the apartment you deserve.

Catalina did a fantastic job finding a «reasonable» 2 BR for my daughter & her roommate in Manhattan. She was tireless, patient, creative, persistent. She dealt with our indecisiveness with very good humor and helped identify the pros and cons of each of the many apartments she showed us. She was responsive, always available and very kind. A lovely person who was a pleasure to work with.

Ramona Vicenty is a everything you need in a broker and more!
I moved from Michigan to Manhattan as a college grad. As you can imagine, freshly out of college, I didn’t have the most flexible finances. Ramona really made my search as stress-​free as possible– I told her my budget and she respected it, didn’t try to upsell me, or show me locations way out of my range (which a decent amount of other brokers I got in touch with did!)
Ramona stayed in touch the entire time she worked– she visited locations in my stead, FaceTimed me on-​site, and sent multiple pictures of the units with her honest opinions. In addition, she found a lot of locations that paid her fee, as she understood that would greatly help, as the large down payments associated with renting could be a problem.
I settled on a location in the Financial District close to work, and it was everything I was hoping for! Ramona really cares about your needs and wants. She builds a great relationship with you, and works with you as a friend, as opposed to a paying client. If I ever need assistance finding a living space again, I would definitely go back to her. 10/​10, would recommend her to anyone!

Kate Purcell is a miracle worker! After tirelessly searching with my roommate and dealing with crazy brokers-​one who never showed, one who lied about the apartment location, and one who even called us 7 times in a hour-​we were at our wit’s end with no prospective apartments. A coworker recommended Kate, and we found our DREAM apartment within our budget; with completely new finishes and hardware throughout! Paperwork and moving in was an absolute breeze, and she was even kind enough to give us a housewarming gift. A+! I’m recommending her and Citi Habitats to all of my friends

This is a review of Dicky Tsuerte, Johnny Lal, and Seth Hirschhorn. I hired Dicky, who is on a team with the other realtors, to rent my apartment. When you hire someone, you would think that they have a fiduciary duty to be a good client and protect their name. Well, they have clauses in their contracts that can cause you serous financial harm and agony.
I signed a contract with them in 2014 to RENT my apartment. I paid $ 5000 for their services, and a year later they were threatening to sue me for $ 100,000 (with an arbitrator, not a judge or jury, so there is no chance of winning). This is because there is a clause in the contract that they receive a percentage of any subsequent sale. I settled for $ 64,200. A big price to pay for renting out one’s apartment. In fact, my total cost was almost $ 70,000 when you consider that I hired them in the first place.
In a tight market like the one in NYC, there is no need to use an agent to rent or sell.
I should also note that Citi Habitats has reported this review as «inappropriate» and Unilocal actually removed it! I am a long time member of the Unilocal community, and feel that it is wrong to allow the businesses that Unilocalers review (appropriately) to have their reviews removed. That is a double wrong for Citi Habitats.

Looks like their secret «tricky clauses» strategy has been revealed.
A «Contract to Lease» that contains clause making it a contract to sell as well? So if I sell the house to my tenant, they won’t need to do anything and get a share of my sale? Yes. That’s what you get as a bonus «service».
Check for the other review for more detail if you are consider hiring them.

We wish Citi-​Habitats had a higher requirements for their agents in terms of their ethics and professionalism. We had a terrible experience with Judy Chhuon of the NYC Park Ave. office.
Do not walk, RUN!

This review is for Albert Attias. He misrepresented an apartment to my partner and I and did not disclose that the apartment and the building the apartment is in were infested with bedbugs. We were less than a day away from signing the lease when I found information about the apartment and building online from HPD, Unilocal and the building’s tenant association. When I confronted Albert about his dishonesty, he disappeared. He then reposted the apartment under a different address. This guy is so greedy for your money that he will let you move into a terrible property just to make a buck– costing you thousands of dollars. Avoid Albert Attias, Joe Harari, TTJ Realty and any apartments in 39 Turner Place– which is also managed by one of the top 10 worst landlords in the city. Shame on Albert Attias for his dishonesty.

Wynson and Lorett were a phenomenal team. My roommate and I met with them and they helped us find so many options in our very tight budget. They really tried to gain a sense of what we were looking for by taking the time to sit and feel out our situation. Until we met with Wynson and Lorett we felt uncomfortable paying a broker, but when we saw the hard work and dedication they put into our apartment hunt, we would have been happy to pay them whatever % they wanted!

I met with Wynson Ng and Lorett Vigon over the weekend to find an apartment for my boyfriend and I to move into on September 1^st. It was early and not many things were listed, but I figured we would get set up with a good broker who could help us find what we wanted.
I mainly worked with Wynson. He was very patient with us even though we were looking for a rather cheap 1 bedroom in Chelsea (which is pretty much unheard of). He ended up finding us (literally) our dream apartment with an absolutely perfect location for us in West Chelsea. It was the second place he took us to. He essentially knew us well enough to pinpoint the perfect spot within an hour of meeting us.
They didn’t try to hustle us or show us apartments that were wildly out of our price range, which I have had happen to me on many occasions, as this is my fourth apartment search in NYC. I was amazed at both their friendliness and professionalism.
My current apartment’s management was giving me trouble with regards to a letter of reference; I told Wynson how they were telling me they would have to charge me $ 100 for the letter and asked if a letter was required by most apartments. He actually called my management company for me and was able to convince them to send a ledger detailing how my payments were all on time (what most landlords care about) free of charge. He stuck his neck out for me even though at this point he didn’t even have a guarantee I was going to rent from him. He is willing to fight for his clients which is a characteristic that is hard to come by.
They were a pleasure to work with and I know if I ever end up requiring a real estate agent again I will go back to citi habitats and HOPEFULLY Wynson again!

This review is for JILLIAN VIGON, a part of «Vigon Group» which is her and her mother.
Where to start. She showed us one apartment that was great, but it was a bit out of our price range. I told her we need to pay, $ 4600 NET. I defined to her NET being if there is a fee, add that in, if they give a free month, take that out of the cost of a year, divided by 12. So after all is said in done, we need it to be 55,200 for the year. She said not a problem.
So she made us pay for a cab to get to the next place, odd. The next place was great. She said that we would get approved within the day, she spoke to the owner, and they liked our pre qualifications. We had to pay $ 250 EACH for a background check for the building, but the place was nice so we were down.
We go back to the office, and she did some number crunching and talked to me about the place being $ 5,250 a month. I asked her about the rent at the apartment, and she said $ 4675, I asked what the other amount was for, and she said «well we have to get paid too.»
At this point her mother rolls up in her electric wheelchair, and gets up and starts yelling at a colleague about her lunch order, like really yelling. Then she asked what the problem was, and after Jillian explained to mommy what was happening, her mommy was mad at me. She said that I was confused about what net meant. I asked her does net not mean everything all together? What was confusing about $ 55,200 a year all in? She then said something along the lines of me being confused and young. I’m not «young» and I draft contracts ALL DAY for work.
She then wouldn’t give me back the cashiers check that was for the deposit, which I had to literally grab from her hand, since it’s basically cash. Walked out of the office.
JILLIAN then proceeded to call me 1000 times, called my roommates, texted us 1000 times, THEN CALLED OUR WORK FROM A NUMBER WE DID NOT PROVIDE HER. This freak looked up our places of work that we mentioned, and called our bosses asking for us.
We had to call her office and tell her manager to have her stop calling us.
We then went contacted the building to stop our application and that we wouldn’t be paying the $ 250 application fee. They told us that there was no fee and that they would investigate why Jillian tried to use them as a scapegoat for getting $ 750 from us.
SHADY SHADY SHADY. We had to threaten to call the police to get her to stop contacting our work