Halstead Property – East Side

By far the worst management company, my building is run by Tanya Castilla and David Castro, honestly the most inept people I have ever had to deal with!

We worked with Ellen Hoffman (she came highly recommended) to help us rent our apartment while we were out of state. We explained our dilemma of trying to rent while out of state and she just read my mind. She reviewed all the legal documents, beautified the place and got it rented in 6 weeks during NYC dry season.
She’s good at putting herself in other people’s shoes and I felt her doing what I would have done for my clients if I was an agent. She’s been such an angel! She was so patient with my daily text for updates.
I say this because we had a different agent who represented us before Ellen. That person basically used our apartment as bate to get them to explore other places. Not all agents have negative intents and we’re lucky that we found Ellen.
She took the load off our shoulder and really tried to work to our best interest. We’ll be in touch if we ever come back to NYC. Thanks Ellen for all your help and friendship.
Check her website:

The phrase that comes up when you select 1 star on Unilocal is «Eek! Methinks not.» and that’s pretty much spot on to my experience here.
I called and left a message and was pretty quickly called back by someone who then left a message for me. I got tied up so didn’t get a chance to respond and got another call the next day. This time, I answered and the person was REALLY nice and was explaining the apartment I had called about and we were talking about what I was looking for and my price range (which, you know, was not insignificant) and what amenities I needed and blahblahblah…
Five or so minutes in, I go «And, FYI, I have a 12lb dog» and literally before I could get the last word out, the just TREASURE of a woman I was speaking with says «No dogs» and immediately hangs up.
Cool… There goes your $ 4500 realtor fee, ding dong.

Disclosure: the below review only applies to Amos St. Louis at Halstead Properties.
I utilized a shot gun approach when trying to find an apartment in NYC as I was short on time. I contact Amos via Streeteasy. He was very quick to respond. Our availabilities did not match but his colleague Nardo stepped up and did a great job of showing us the place. He showed me 3 different buildings and seemed well informed about 2 of them. Though he did admit he hasn’t been to the third as it was brand new. Showing: ⁴⁄₅
I worked with Amos on the application process and lease execution phrase of finding an apartment. He was very courteous and professional in our email exchanges. Again, quick to respond even though this took place the week before Christmas weekend. He never badgered me for time or when I missed a signature, though the sense of urgency was clearly established going in. A nice touch is when he actually stopped by the building and dug for information when I had a follow up question regarding parking several days after the showing. Last but least, he waived the application fee for me. The only thing, and I’m uncertain if there was anything he could have done, was that I didn’t quite get a positive response when I expressed that I was offer a lower price than the listing. Lease Execution: 4.5÷5
Overall ⁴⁄₅. I would definitely recommend him as I felt that he didn’t pressure me for the more expensive apartment. As the apartment building was paying for the broker fee, we never had any issues with deposits, etc.

I subletted in a Halstead managed Co-​Op building for 8 years & recently was forced to move because our Halstead manager steadfastly refuses to take action against bed bugs. He has willingly buried reports stating tenants have bedbugs, bullied, & threatened tenants as well as our super. Our entire building is infested and Halstead is REFUSING to acknowledge the problem and actively refused treatment for almost a month. The apartments that should have been inspected and treated are now being renovated for new tenants. Their actions are criminal under NYC housing laws. Stay away.

We were told we could apply for a place that it turns out was already rented and we did. We were given strong indications that we would be approved but instead we got lied to and strung along for a full week before the guy was like oh wait, my partner leased it a week ago (before we even applied!!!). He put us into a huge scramble to find a place and it was a very stressful experience. Avoid these dishonest brokers.

Cheryl Nicholas lied to us about a lot of important details. I just appreciate honesty. I saw the place during renovations two weeks before move in but couldn’t legally see it again until I got the keys the first of the month. There were an absurd amount of holes in all of the walls in our apartment, a large amount of cracks and gaps, unpainted doors, a bathroom with leaky pipes, the bathroom walls were half done and other problems. Also there were spiders crawling out of the wall holes. Just be honest and say it wasn’t going to be done at the signing at least! She told us only a couple light plates were missing when obviously that wasn’t even the half of it.

I have lived in a sponsor unit of a Halstead co-​op building for 6 miserable months and I am breaking my lease and moving out on Friday due to the terrible condition of my apartment and the horrendous response of Halstead’s property managers. To put in perspective, I am writing this review while sitting locked out of my apartment for the second time in 10 days because the lock was never properly installed my the landlord. Last time I called a locksmith who got me in but charged $ 300 and noted that the lock was improperly installed and still needed to be replaced. I emailed my property manager but never received a response. Now here I am again, locked out with the same problem.
Other highlights of the past 6 months:
— 40 degree temperatures in the winter due to cracked/​drafty windows, including one missing a handle that had been duct-​taped shut from the outside prior to my arrival. Halstead’s response was first to lie to me and say the windows would be replaced ASAP and then to inform me that there is nothing wrong with them and they will be doing nothing to fix them. There is still an open DOB violation with the city.
— 80 degree summer temperatures, even with a brand new a/​c unit running 24 hours a day, due to the above broken windows.
— a broken fridge/​freezer for two weeks because the one they brought to replace it was too large, so they eventually had to cut my countertops to make it fit.
— no cold water in my bathroom sink for 5 months, no explanation provided.
— the floor rose up and had to be replaced, so I came home one night to my dog locked in her crate and the subfloor exposed.
The super did his best to assist but isn’t allowed to do most of the repairs because Halstead needs to approve and send a vendor. My property manager has now passed me off to his assistant because he is tired of dealing with me, and now no one returns my calls or emails. Luckily I am getting out of this hellhole in three days. I will never again work with Halstead and recommend that everyone stay away.

Ernest is great — one of the best out there! He listened to my needs, worked hard to find matches and only showed me apartments that he knew were to my liking. He’s helped me find two perfect apartments in the past few years of being in the city. He’s patient, understanding and consistent. I don’t dread another move because I Look forward to working with him!

TERRIBLE COMMUNICATION. We had one of the worst experiences with Joel Stanger. If there was a 0 star option, he would deserve this. We tried to rent a property that we found through a site that was listed as no-​fee. When applying, we asked about fees and was told that there was a $ 30 application processing fee. After getting our application approved, we were told that we would see a lease in a few days. The following day, we get an email that asks us to write 3 checks (with no lease in sight), the third of which was a request for a 15% broker fee. It befuddles us that the broker’s fee was not mentioned till AFTER we applied and had been accepted. The experience was made even worse when we reached back out and asked if we could work with the broker to explore options on a solution that was amenable to both of us. That was met with a curt message that told us we’d been dropped from consideration because there were many others who wanted the apartment. We are truly shocked by the lack of manners for someone who makes a living in the services industry. Thank you for nothing.

Just had a great apartment experience with Ellen Hoffman at Halstead. Ellen figured out what we were looking for and took us straight to a great apartment on the UWS. We looked at some others afterward that she found and were also in line with what we wanted but ultimately went back to the first. Apartment hunt and lease signing same day!
Also when I first reached out she was on vacation but immediately responded to all my questions and sent a ton of listings because she knew we had a tight timeline. Great experience. Thanks Ellen.

Just completed my first apartment search in Manhattan. I talked with Ellen Hoffman a couple weeks before I visited New York to look at places and she provided all the information I need and communicated quickly and effectively. Looking at the different apartments was very easy and I quickly found the apartment I wanted on the morning of the first day. By the end of the morning of the second day I was already signing my lease. Ellen was very helpful and made the process fast and easy, even for someone new to the city. Highly recommend.

We were very lucky with our broker Ernest Gasparyan from the UES office of Halstead Properties. Not only gave he excellent service during our search but he also continued to help us after signing the lease on a very professional level. We always felt very well taken care of and we can honestly recommend working with Halstead. Thank you very much Ernest for helping us find our dream apartment in NY.

When the realtor doesn’t know the answer they just hang up on you like a child. Didn’t their mother teach them manners.

Realtor provided a truly unpleasant experience. At first indicated that apartment offered one month free rent. When I sat down with Cookie (the realtor’s nickname) to send my paperwork, the realtor casually let me know that he had found out that morning that the extra month was no longer offered. I’m not sure why he couldn’t call earlier. Most interestingly, I was accused of trying to rent from another realtor in the same office because I had asked the other realtor questions about the apartment when Cookie was not being responsive. He later accused me of being dishonest for having talked to a fellow realtor of his. NYC brings out the best in most but the worst in the rest. Best of luck on your search.

Terrible communication.
I contacted an agent (Whitney Osentoski) over the weekend and expressed an interest in a property. He told me he’d keep me in the loop but despite my voicemails, emails, and texts, he never responded. Not once.
I understand that people are busy but the professionalism is completely lacking here.

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A horrible and unprofessional experience. I was looking to rent my sixth NYC apartment, so knew what I was doing but was under some tight time constraints. I worked with Antonio Hamini and it was an awful experience. He lied several times, would not answer questions, and refused to meet me when it was clear there was several issues and outstanding questions after I signed a lease. He was happy to take my money and have me sign a lease and then was impossible to to work with and did nothing to represent me or my best interests in the negotiations with the owner of the apartment. After signing the lease, I had to follow up a week later to ask what the status was and he still had not sent the lease to the owner and I was supposed to move in less than a week. He could not answer some very simple questions about the lease and rental process and has horrible communication skills. I do not recommend working with Antonio at all.
During this 2-​week rental process I started to question whether Antonio even worked for Halstead or was scamming me and took my personal information and money and the apartment I saw was fake. (That is how bad working with him was.) I contacted Halstead immediately with these concerns and the Manager on the UES was very helpful in apologizing for my experience and gave me the option to get out of the lease and move-​on. I happily took him up on this offer and picked up my application and checks that day. Although this left me with no apartment and one week to move!
I thought using a broker would make the process a bit easier given my tight timeline, but in this case working with Antonio was a complete waste of time.
Also, do not pay the 15% fee they request. You should not pay them more than 10% and another Halstead broker I e-​mailed with a few times agreed to 8%. The 15% is just taking advantage of people that don’t know or are renting their first apartment.

I used Ellen Hoffman as my broker when I relocated to NYC. I was undecided on what kind of apartment I wanted. Ellen was great is this regard and over two days I saw many different types of apartments in the various areas I was looking at and by the end I had found the perfect apartment. She then assisted on the lease and security deposit discussions which was a great help to me as I had just moved to the US. I would recommend her to others for their apartment search as I found her professional, friendly and was determined to find me the apartment that best met my criteria despite the effort involved.

I used Halstead Property when I first moved to NYC, and I still live in my wonderful apartment! Ellen Hoffman was my broker, and she had plenty of places to show me within my price range and my preferred neighborhood. Ahead of time, she sent me a thorough list of all of the paperwork that I needed to have prepared in order to rent my apartment. We only had one afternoon for me to find an apartment and secure it before moving to NYC two weeks later, and all of her work ahead of time paid off. I LOVE my apartment!
In fact, funny story. I live in the first apartment that I saw. When I saw it, I fell in love. I was ready to apply! Ellen said something to the effect of, «that’s great, but I can’t let you move to NYC and take the first apartment that you see.» So, we looked at two more apartments. This made me feel like she had my best interest in mind. In the end, I still took the first apartment, but it was great to know that she was watching out for me on my move to NYC.