July 24, 2008

Corcoran and Citi - Reputable?

We thought we would share our story with all of you who are lovers of Brooklyn and use brokers for rentals and/or sales. We have dealt with very professional brokers like Urbanviewreality and Aguayo&Huebener but we thought we needed to share with you an experience with two large brokers - Corcoran and the Citi- Habitats - that was most unpleasant and should be noted for all who may be considering engaging them for representation.

The summary of our experience with Corcoran & Citi are that they expressed very little professionalism and neither broker upheld their obligations to us as renters. As a result of not ensuring that all of the tenets and requirements of our rental were upheld by the landlord (and subsequently not representing, in good faith, the interests of us as a renter), the resulting experience was one that was so acrimonious between my landlord and myself that we were ultimately left with finding a new apartment (only a few weeks after the start of the lease). The brokers were not knowledgeable about basic New York rental laws nor were able to understand the basics around the proper structure of a rental lease - two bare-minimum expectations when engaging an "agent" for my interests.

After sending emails to both companies (to executives) explaining the situation and expressing concern that as agents representing a "buyer", they should either offer to help us find a new apartment at no additional fee or refund the hefty $5K+ fee we paid, neither ended up happening. We ended up scrambling to find a new apartment on our own and were out a significant amount of money.

Reputable firms? I’m sure the CEOs of both firms make sure that their staff is trained and act with vey high ethics but I guess they should take a harder look at the people they hire and how they treat their customers. Bottom line, if you want a smooth and professional experience stay away from these 2 firms…

Posted by Parkslopelover at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)
Categories: Brokers

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