Madison Estates

Wow, I should have listened to the one-​star review. I worked with James Longo — nephew to the president, he touted — and felt like I wasted two month’s worth of hunting time. Not only was I the only one giving him leads the whole time, he could almost never book an appointment for any of them.
He didn’t know the area at all (I am looking in Bushwick), but had no problem lying about it. Once, my friend asked him how far away a house was from the train station — he said about a block. She asked me right in front of him, and I gave her the actual answer because I had just walked from it — 8 blocks. Big difference. If you don’t know the area, at least look at a map!
He was never prepared with any information or specs about the house — he had an info sheet for me maybe once and then promised to send everything through email. Whoops, that never happened. Then, right before I reached my wits end, he quits on me to «open a restaurant» and tells me he has transferred my case to one of his colleagues. I asked if his colleague was going to reach out to me and he said yes — another lie. It’s been almost two weeks and have yet to have an email or phone call from anyone else at Madison Estates. Big surprise. DO NOT work with these guys.

I wish I could give them zero stars. The stereotype of New York brokers who lie, lie, lie and then lie some more, well, that’s what I found at Madison Estates. I had this experience with Anthony (Tony) James, the very same person that another commenter here praises. He lied to me throughout the entire rental search process about the prices of the homes we were looking at, their fee or no-​fee status, and then, when it really mattered, he lied to me saying that other people were bidding higher on the same rental than I was. It was a truly upsetting experience, only underlined by the cheesy and excessive way in which Tony tried to make himself seem sincere and honest («You’re a very special person, I can see that you’re a good person and I want to help you, bla bla blah…») and in the end I felt I learned a life lesson about the kinds of people you don’t want to deal with. Don’t be deceived by their dignified-​looking office and classic-​sounding name; the only thing classic was the classic way in which the broker turned out to be everything you heard and worse.