Realty Executives Today

I usually don’t write scathing reviews, but I want to help people avoid a horrible experience.
I found a studio apartment on CL and took a tour with Juan Carlos Abad who claimed it was 450 sq ft. I liked the location and the apartment, and getting the documents in was fairly easy.
However things became fishy starting from the day of the contract. The contract indicated $ 1500 rent while the actual rent was $ 1350 but I was allowed to add any kind of rider explaining this. Juan just said don’t worry just sign it. Then the landlord says she’ll give me an extra week of free rent to get me started on moving, which later on she forgets and still charges me.
Afterwards, I measure the apt and it turns out its only 300 sq ft. Thats 50% off, what a big lie.
However the worst was when I contacted the super and then a week later with the landlord about an electrical problem and a couple of other problems. Juan then calls me several times to harass me about how not to call the landlord and even said for me to delete her number. He was really like the landlords pet and was afraid of her. He then tries to tell me that if I contact either the super or the landlord, he was going to cancel the contract.
Lessons learned:
— Measure your apt before signing the contract
— Write down any strange changes and promises on paper.
— dont use this company.

Worst place This women by the name KELLY seems like she is Bipolar. The 1^st day she seemed like a nice person and the next day a total bitch. Don’t waste your time going here. They dont even deserve 1 star.

BEWARE!!! One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with CARMELA and KELLY!!!
Where do I begin? Last week I saw a listing I was interested in. I called the phone # listed, the apt. was listed under CARMELA. I called a few times, days went by and nothing! No word from CARMELA.
Since, and only since, I liked the pictures of the apt. I decided to call the actual office of Realty Executives (this Monday). I told the front desk lady my situation and she transferred me to CARMELA’S secretary. The secretary took my information and told me she would get in contact with CARMELA and the super to see if I could go see the apt. Great! I was naïve to think I’d actually get a call back.
So on Tuesday, I called and spoke to Christina, told her my situation. She said I could call back on Wednesday after 12pm and speak to KELLY (person in charge of complaints and such).
So today, Wednesday, I called and Christina picked up again and went to transfer my call to KELLY. However, Christina comes back on the line and says «Kelly knows your situation and suggested I put you thru CARMELA’S secretary to help you». Are you kidding me?
Kelly refused my call!!! I told Christina the purpose of my call and the importance of speaking with KELLY. Christina was nice at first, even offering me another realtor. But my point was I wanted to address the initial concern with the horrible follow-​up and customer satisfaction. Christina became very rude and smart with her comments. I then told her do me a favor and throw out my information, I want nothing to do with you guys.
Then guess who finally calls me… CARMELA! Not to apologize and fix things, rather to interrogate me and try to catch me in a lie. Why? I wonder if it’s because she knew this wasn’t the first time ppl have complained about the same situation… I guess she needed to cover her butt.
She had the nerve to tell me after I told her when I called, who I spoke to, and what phone # i called; that it is highly unlikely that this happened. So I just made all this up? I had nothing better to do? Come on!!!
So unprofessional, rude, insulting, and ridiculous. Do your research… you’ll see all the negative reviews on this woman!
I have submitted a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Yes! my experience was that bad!!!

ANGELA KONTIS is the most unprofessional person I have ever dealt with in my life. Angela set up an appointment with me to show an apartment in Astoria and completely stood me up without calling and just completely went dark. After calling into her office, her assistant said that she did not have any appointments scheduled because «the apartment already had an accepted offer». Below i am writing word for word the text messages from the same day. Screenshot of the conversations are also available to anyone who questions this situation.
11/​19/​2014
Me (9:32am) — Hi, are you still good to show me the apt at 5:45 pm today? This is Bryant
Angela Kontis (10:23am) — I am sorry tenant can not do 5:45 only 5:30. We currently have accepted offer but we are still showing.
Me (10:24am) — ok 5:30 then. is the offer all cash?
Angela Kontis (10:23am) — see u 5:30
Me (5:27pm) — I am here
(3 calls between 5:27 to 5:34 go unanswered)
I call into Realty Executives where i speak with Angela’s assistant and she informs me that Angela has no appointments at 5:30 and that the apt has offer accepted and no longer showing. Assistant has no idea why Angela would make an appointment AND confirm an appointment for 5:30.
UNPROFESSIONAL, DO NOT USE.

Like others, we had a very poor experience with with Realty Executives Today or Carmela Vlacich. We made an appointment for 11am and were kept waiting for 45 minutes. We were took into a conference room and just left there, I had to repeatedly ask the receptionist when we would be seen. Finally, one of the other agents finally came and asked us if we were his noon appointment. He somewhat begrudgingly took us out since we had been sitting there. He took us to see two apartments which were mediocre at best. And, of course, he then had hi noon clients who he had kept waiting the same 45 minutes we had… Never use them.

If I could, I would give this place ZERO stars in a heartbeat. For those of you unlucky enough to be searching for an apartment in Astoria (I’ve been here for several years but trying to upgrade my current apartment for a bigger one and it’s been a literal NIGHTMARE to put it mildly), avoid this company and an agent by the name of Juan Carlos.
Here’s what happened to us:
We saw a 1BR advertised on CL literally right next door to where we live. We obviously like the neighborhood since we’ve been here for a while. We respond, and Juan Carlos is the realtor of the hour. The current tenants were gracious enough to let us in, showed us around, answered our pointed questions that only a soon-​to-​be-​former tenant would know. We liked it, and figured that’s that. We’ll take it.
Juan tells us that if we have good credit (we do) and good income (we do), then he can negotiate the price from $ 1625 down to $ 1525. Okay, we were going to be fine with $ 1625 but we’ll take the extra $ 100 off. This was late on a Thursday night. THAT SAME NIGHT we get him our paperwork for the application and he says he plans on talking to the owner tomorrow (Friday) or the next day (Saturday). He also tells us he doesn’t work on Sundays. Okay, fine.
Friday rolls by. Nothing. We text him that night and he said that he didn’t get a hold of the owner that day, but he’s going to talk to him on Saturday. Saturday rolls by. Still nothing. We call him and he says the owner’s hard to get a hold of us but he «definitely» plans on talking to the owner Monday.
Already starting to see the writing on the wall, we go see another apartment with another realtor on Sunday night and we liked it (not as much as the 1BR in question, but it was cheaper and still in a nice area). That realtor tells us to get our application in ASAP on Monday, and we figure we’ll do that assuming Juan Carlos doesn’t come through. Monday comes by and he says Tuesday. We say yeah, no, and submit the application on the other apartment Monday night. For those playing the home game, that makes two applications we’ve submitted in less than a week.
Unfortunately, we were beaten to the punch and lost the alternative apartment we saw on Sunday (why that place accepted our application when there was already another application is beyond me… that seems to be a favored trick of Astoria realtors). So not only has Juan Carlos caused an inordinate delay in getting our application in, he has now caused us to lose a different apartment.
Think it can’t get better? OH, IT DOES. My fiancée calls Juan Carlos to demand our documents back and this guy THREE WAY CALLS the owner without the owner knowing it, and my fiancée had no choice but to listen to this conversation. It was clear from the phone conversation that the owner did not like Juan Carlos and the owner also told him that there was already another application in on the apartment. After the owner hung up, Juan Carlos proceeds to badmouth the owner and blame this whole fiasco on him.
Oh no, no no, it’s not me (or the building owner), it’s you.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Thumbs waaaay down. We came here to see an apartment in LIC that was in our budget, were told it was no longer available and were subsequently shown 3 other apartments (all above our price range) in shoddy condition — one actually reeked of cigarettes! The broker who took us around was was pushy and didn’t give us much time to actually look at each place. He also told us we’d never find an apartment in our budget, which is ironic because we found one we ended up taking later that afternoon with another company.
P. S. When we arrived at the office, the secretary had no record of our appointment with Carmela, whom we never actually met. Does she even exist?
AVOID.

Carmela Vlacich is an extremely professional and friendly Realtor to deal with. She showed my roommates and I several apartments, of varying characteristics, to get a feel of what we were looking for in an apartment. At no point was she pushy or aggressive in persuading us towards a particular apartment. It did seem at certain points that she was a bit busy, but that is understandable in the type of business she works. In the end we were able to sign for the best apartment that suited us.

I wish I could say I had a good experience. I called about a two-​bed apartment in Astoria and spoke with a broker (named Juan) who did not seem to know what he was talking about. He kept getting confused about the type of apartment I wanted, price, etc. as if he was doing something else as I was talking to him on the phone. Anyway, after he got it straight what I was looking for, he was supposed to call back the next day. I waited a couple of days and I called but no word from him. I finally signed up for a similar apartment with a different company. A week later he called back and wanted to make an appointment and acted as if nothing had happened!!! Wow, what a trip. I will never refer anyone to this real estate establishment.

A friend of mine found a place with Realty Executives and referred me to Carmela. I called and made an appointment on a Monday and was told Saturday would be the best day. When I showed up, Carmela was nowhere to be found, but Eleni (someone on her team) showed me some apartments. The office also failed to call to confirm that I even had an appointment (something they said they’d do). I called the day before to make sure I wouldn’t be wasting a trip to their office.
Eleni was friendly, but when I gave her my parameters for an apartment I was looking for, she was a little discouraging that I could find something in that price range (1300 – 1500 for a 1br in Astoria). She ended up showing me two places that day, neither of which were a good fit for me.
Eleni was hospitable (she took us around to see the places in her car) and was friendly, but I got the impression that she either didn’t have much to show me, and that she wasn’t really interested in working with me either. The broker fee with Realty Executives is higher than with most places (10% of the yearly rent as opposed to one months rent) so that would have been a factor had I found a place that I liked with them.

My girlfriend, Chelsea J. and I used these guys to find our first apartment together. We were helped by Teresa Monda. I called her off of a Craigslist posting. It turned out that the place wasn’t really in an area we wanted, but I then asked her if we could meet with her. So we set up a time and met her on a Saturday. She was very nice. She took us to one place in Astoria that we weren’t really crazy about. It was hard to tell how stuff looked because they were renovating. I didn’t like that she offered to take us to a in-​progress place, but she then said there were a few other places in this one building that she was dying to show people. So we went along with it and the first place we saw in this building, we wound up taking!
As far as showing apartments to us, Teresa is very nice. She wasn’t pushy while we were looking at places. She gave us the basic info and was there for us if we had any questions. She is very friendly and easy to talk to. Some brokers I know can be intimidating, but Teresa was the exact opposite. When we asked for some private time to discuss whether we were going to take this particular apartment, she was totally cool in letting us talk alone. I really felt no pressure with her. She just knew that she had three newly renovated apartments that she was really excited to show to people.
Office and paperwork-​wise, she was great as well. She was able to answer any questions we had and even followed up with me by email to see how our lease signing went and stuff like that.
If you are looking for an apartment in Astoria, I strongly recommend Teresa. You won’t be disappointed.