Brooklyn Properties

Only with the level-​headed guidance of Ilene Levenson we were able to get an awesome home for a fair price, actually below ask, which is unheard of in Brooklyn these days. Along the way, she steered us away from a place we fell blindly in love with but would have been way in over our heads. She hooked us up with a terrific mortgage broker who patiently talked us through all our options and she gave us the name of a great general contractor. And even with us obsessively scouring every online real estate site, she was able to introduce us to several interesting places that we hadn’t found.
The real estate market in Brooklyn is a battlefield. Ilene gave us the confidence of her knowledge and experience to stick it out and make a great purchase.

Easily one of the worst experiences of my life. I recently was involved in a court case against the owner of Brooklyn Properties, Hal Lehrman. Basically he breached his own contract on an apartment he himself was selling and forced me to take him to court in order to rightfully get my money back. Honestly, there are a lot of other real estate companies out there and there are better ways to find an apartment than to involve yourself with a shady company owned by an ass such as Hal Lehrman. The BIGGEST waste of money in my life.
3÷31÷2016 Response to Hal Lehrman’s, Owner of Brooklyn Properties, response below.
Hal Lehrman is a liar and a coward. I am completely aware of what the situation was when I sued him and his development at 283 Washington several years ago. That’s why when I sued him and the building at 283 Washington the judge ruled completely in my favor and I won all of my money back. I’m not going to go into the semantics of how he still hiding behind the corporation which he ran and was the developer of 283 Washington. I know that NYC real estate is a total cesspool and if you want a property to buy or rent you have to deal with that particular agency to get it. But know this going in, Hal Lehrman is a greedy, evil person who deserves his status as the owner of a second rate real estate agency.

Ian Johnson was «my» agent when I purchased a new condo in Ditmas Park. He deliberately and most definitely decieved me, telling me repairs on the punch list had been made that were not made. These repairs were the stated reason that the move was delayed 3 weeks. I still don’t know the real reason for the delays. Ian Johnson sneakily avoided meeting me at the apartment after telling me the floor had been buffed, a crack in the wall had been repaired, etc, so that I would not know until I moved in. Do not trust anything he says. And insist on seeing it yourself.

AVOID THEM — IF YOU CAN!
Mariana L’s review hit the nail on the head — Park Slope/​Prospect Hghts/​Bklyn Hgts RE is *CRAZY*! As a result, alot of the agents get away with **** that wouldn’t fly in most real estate markets. Unfortunately, most listings in the boros are tied to an agent, so you have to go through them to try to find your dream property. This is how we ended up working with 3 of the individuals at this agency. The 1^st agent we contacted (I can’t remember hsi name for sure, so I won’t call him out), never showed up at our appointment to show us a property. However, we really wanted to see it, so we called the office looking for anyone who was free to show it. This is how we got involved with Bonnie. This was the worst real estate/​sales experience I’ve ever been involved with — and I was a sales person! I assume she was as cavalier and insulting as she was while we were in negotiations because she assumed (incorrectly) that we’d do anything to get the place. Well, she was wrong! We tried to work with her sales manager to try and talk some sense into the property owner, but he wouldn’t return our calls — until we walked away from the deal, that is. Guess what, they kissed their commission adiós. We bought a better — FSBO (for sale by owner — read: NO COMMISSION!) condo in Hoboken, and the property sat on the market for another year before it sold (and this was in a strong sellers market in 2004!).
My advice to sellers — don’t use ‘em — they’ll do nothing to help you move your property.

Park Slope real estate is insane! There are tons of open houses every weekend, and crumbling browstone co-​ops seem to get the same prices as mansion 30 minutes from here.
This company, more localized, more boutique seems to have more realistic listings than most, and everything I have seen from them has been pretty nice actually.
Unfortunately, everyone else who sees the listing also thinks so, and you end up in a bidding war with 16 other buyers. That’s not their fault though.
Teri, the broker who showed us around, never gave us a hard-​sell, was up-​front, gave us the facts about anything we asked about, and always returned our calls. This sounds basic, but unfortunately, my husband and I found this to be rare in our home search.