Warning on Brokers / Executive Director of InFocus Realty

[niceboston]

Persons who are out of town and looking for an apartment in NYC would be well advised to avoid dealing with InFocus Realty. Based on my personal experience with one of their brokers and their Executive Director I would try to deal directly with the building managerial personnel if at all possible.

The following is an account of my experience with this company as I prepared to move from Atlanta to NYC to begin a job on September 1, 2010.

InFocus Realty is a rental agency that shows units at 3333 Broadway. The broker with whom I dealt (we’ll call him CG) first showed me an apartment at that building in June, 2010. I told him I was in the market for a 12 month lease for an apartment beginning September 1. He had me fill out an application (for which I paid $50.00). The application process, itself, had a few glitches which I attributed to the usual administrative challenges of dealing with someone out of town. They included repeated requests for the same information, phone calls not returned, annoying stuff but nothing too major. I finally received an approval at the end of July and was then sent a lease for August 1. I called and reminded CG that I said Spetember 1. He claimed not to understand that and said fine we would be OK for September 1.

In August he called to tell me that the apartment I had seen was no longer available but he could get another for September 1. I said I wanted to see it before. He made three appointments with me: two on August 25 which he cancelled on very short notice and one on August 26 for which he did not show up at all. When we tried to get hold of him he did not answer his phone --- for two days. I called his boss, the Exec Director. She did nothing but later told me (several days later) that he had lost his phone. That was not a sufficient excuse not to come to an appointment but she assured me that September 1would be OK and CG would get in touch.

CG told me on August 28 that I could see a few apartments on August 30, sign the lease for the one I wanted and move in on the 31. During that conversation he told me for the first time that the lease was not for 12 months but 15 but that the price per month would be at the price he had told me. I was not happy with this development but at this point I had no choice in the matter.

As I was crossing the Verrazano Bridge coming into Manhattan on August 30 I received a call from CG (found his phone miraculously) who suddenly had NO apartment available and wanted me to wait until October 15.

I leave to your speculations as to how that turn of events occurred.

Subsequently, after seeing other apartments, I tried yet again to rent at 3333 Broadway and spoke directly to the building manager. She told me onSeptember 2 that she had a September 15 rental available. She knew my name because CG had told her that I cancelled my lease application for August 1 at the building which was a baldfaced lie. She had thrown out all my information and I had to start (and pay) the application all over again.

To be clear: There was NEVER any request from me for an August 1 lease. There was no cancellation because there never was any lease. Rather, C Gand InFocus told the building management an untrue story and then tried to get me to enter into a lease that not only started a month earlier than I wanted but was also for 15 months (instead of the consistently discussed 12).

Because of all this unprofessional and unethical behavior by InFocus and its personnel I eneded up with no apartment when I thought I had one; had to pay two applications fees and underwent extra truck expense and difficulty. I was lucky to be able to store my belongings when I got to NYC while I found another apartment. Others might not be so fortunate.

However, the cost of renting another truck to move into the building with whom I eventually signed a lease in New York was unavoidable. So that was yet another unnecessary expense incurred and paid due to lack of straight, professional and fail dealing of CG and InFocus.

It is possible that there are more forthright and professional personnel at InFocus and this may just have been a blip on the radar. But, I would be careful when dealing with this crew.

[TenantNet]

We were recently contacted by the agency mentioned in the above post. We normally do not remove posts such as this--whether the original post be about a landlord or a brokerage--and no matter how strongly they demand a post's removal.

We also try to avoid getting into a pissing contests. There's no way to resolve a "he said -- she said" situation other than to acknowledge there are facts in dispute. We are not arbiters.

But in this instance something unusual happened: we know two of the owners of this agency. They are former tenant activists (from a former life). So that at least got our attention.

Their account of their dealings with their former client sharply differs from that of the original poster. They state the poster wanted an apartment to be put on hold for over a month and that he failed to return required paperwork. They state the building owner had a unit available for August 1st, but told him that if he wanted a unit starting in September, he would have to wait to see what was available.

They also say they were told by the poster that if they didn't reimburse him for his moving expenses he would start slandering the company on various websites. We did find a few near identical posts on other websites.

That, of course, doesn't prove anything, other than that the poster is angry at the agency. Whether there is real fault to be had, or if there were miscommunications blown out of proportion, we do not know.

We urge prospective tenants to check out any agency they might be dealing with. And they should do so before it's too late in the process.

For more information on Apartment Brokers, see:

NY Department of State - Apartment Hunting
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/cnsl/apthunt.html

To file a complaint
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/licensing/

A report released by the New York City Council in October, 2006 about online real estate ads.
http://www.housingnyc.com/downloads/gui ... report.pdf