Brokers

Reporting a Realty Company

I don’t know if this is best place to do this, but my Girlfriend and I responded to this CL posting last Friday: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/abo/1333597140.html We did not get a email response. Then Saturday night a rapid realty broker called both my GF and myself. We had only responded to this one posting all week. So…

by Pragonetti
08/24/2009

I don’t know if this is best place to do this, but my Girlfriend and I responded to this CL posting last Friday:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/abo/1333597140.html

We did not get a email response. Then Saturday night a rapid realty broker called both my GF and myself. We had only responded to this one posting all week. So he tried to tell my girlfriend what APT’s he had and she politely let him go.

He called me about a hour later (this sat night at 8pm) and I started pressing him on how he got my number, he said I had called him and left him a message. I told him he was incorrect, I told him I had responded to one CL posting last week, he asked if he had the right number, changing the last digit on my number and saying he must have the wrong number. Then I brought up that he called my girlfriend a hour early and I told he was posting fake listing on CL under “listing by owner”. He hung up on me, I tried to call him back twice and he would not answer.

How do you report that Rapid Realty is doing things like this? I have his number but I don’t know how to proceed with reporting him.

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Comments

  2. honestly what a tempest in a teapot. You make a couple of phone calls sound like they ruined your life and destroyed your home. Trust me, by the time you find a place you’ll have complained about every single real estate agent you meet because when it comes to real estate there is a lot to complain about.

  5. As a LL, Rapid was the first and only broker I used. That was four years ago. They had told me it wouldn’t cost me anything (otherwise I would not have used their services). But after they found a tenant, checked them out, got all papers signed including the lease, and received checks for the security, first and last months rent, they kept the last months rent. I protested but let it go. If I use a broker again it won’t be Rapid.

  6. Not to excuse them, but Rapid Realty doesn’t charge a broker fee (the landlord pays them directly) so they often do post under apts by owner. I dealt with them during my last search and thought they were a little sleazy but so was every other broker I dealt with. If they called you twice and that was their only offense, then I would let it pass. As far as brokers go, that’s not really that big a deal.

  7. The problem is like Aaron Morris said, it so hard to prove because of the nature of CL. The minute I started pressing him he started making up stories till he just hung up. I knew that the posting was too good to be true, but I figured I would take a shot. I have found APTs like this before for friends.

    I just find what rapid realty does is ridiculous and unlawful. I lived in BK long enough that I avoid them and instruct others to as well. I just worry about people that are not as aware of the situation with realty companies like this operating in Brooklyn.

  8. Rob probably has a point, but of course that’s how these kinds of outfits manage to keep operating: because nobody wants to go to the trouble of doing anything about it. I think what they’re doing is outrageous, and I would report it to everyone you can: the NYC Consumer Affairs office, the NY State Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, the local network news stations, not to mention Craigslist itself. We the public have to make it too hard for these criminals to keep preying on people.

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