Rapid Realty

Don’t go with them. We got a rental place in Brooklyn through them quite a while ago (several years ago). When we signed documents in their office they had sneaked in one form for us to sign that would bind us (wife and me) to using them as our agent should we decide to buy the place at some point.
I just remembered that and decided that I should not let them get away with this kind of business practice.

Don’t trust anything these people say. I was ready to sign a lease then suddenly they wanted double the originally agreed upon brokers fee. They’re all very nice people but deceitful. Be careful with this agency. I will never suggest them to anyone nor will I use them again.

Yet another real estate agency that doesn’t feel the need to call their potential customers back. They don’t have a consistently working office number, and when it does ring, no one is ever «available» to answer your call. Truthfully, after reading all the horrible reviews on this place, I’m HAPPY I didn’t get a return phone call. I think it’s time for this scam of a «business» to just pack it in.

Worst experience ever. I found a place online through padmapper and was excited to see that there was no broker fee. My Roommate called, and spoke to someone who didn’t tell us their name but gave us the office location to meet him at rather than the apartment location we said we wanted to see. We showed up to the place full of lines of computers, like a computer lab decked out fake futuristic plastic chairs. What a cool fancy place; not. After looking online with the broker, who by the way was not the person we spoke on the phone with he decided to take us to one location. Keep in mind, this was not the place that we called about, in fact it never even showed up on his search. The guy kept referencing the fact that we would get a place today, and that he wouldn’t be taking too much of our money. What a reassuring thing to hear. After taking us on a bus, were we had to pay our own way, we ended up at another Rapid Realty location to get key’s for the apartment the broker decided we would be seeing. My roommate and I just kept saying it was cool and we didn’t have to find anything thing today because we had other things to do. It was already after 6pm. Time wasted. Best part of the entire ordeal, was the fact that the location that had the keys was locked, he couldn’t get in and we didn’t see a thing. Rapid Realty is basically like the McDonald’s of Real Estate, avoid them, and be your own broker.

SCAM, FRAUD, STAY AWAY !!!
They don’t have a clue as to what they are doing as far as business goes. And in the process they will try to get every cent out of you possible. They operate with a complete lack of morals or regard for the truth, and will say anything to get money out of a renter, even mis-​represent there own contracts. Stay away!
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Not really willing to get into the details of why these guys are awful. I am reporting them to a few consumer fraud protection organizations such as Better Business Bureau, and I think that everyone else who has had similar experiences should do the same.
Look out everyone, these guys are bad news. I see a few lawsuits on the horizon. Burn baby, burn.

83 days and counting…
Still dealing with these goons.
I just want my deposit back… this shouldn’t be so difficult. Especially since their contract says refunds will be issued within 48 hours.
This money was never Rapid Realty’s to take. This money was going to be part of my security deposit for the apartment he told me was available (which I later found out it was not). I will never ever evvvver use or recommend Rapid Realty. In fact, I am starting to make it my mission to spread the word about how awful they are.
I have put in a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau, I am about to file a complaint with the Attorney General and Small Claims Court isn’t far behind.
It’s so stupid that all of this is going on over $ 500.
Stay away… unless you feel like wasting $ 500.

I fully expected my (4^th?) experience with Rapid Realty to be just as unprogressive as all the others.
I made an appointment with Consarah for today at 4 p.m. She had listed an ad on CraigsList for an apartment in Prospect Heights and had omitted any reference to Rapid Realty whatsoever. It was only when I google-​mapped the address that I noticed I’d be meeting her a Rapid Realty office. We searched the RR agent database and couldn’t find her, but still assumed she worked with them because it was too coincidental. Still, since we’d made the appointment, my boyfriend and I decided to risk it.
We called to confirm approximately 3 – 4 hours before the appt and verfied the crucial points: yes, she was from RR, no, this experience would be totally different with her from all the others because she liked to get things done and her office was much more organized, «you know how you go to a McDonalds and get poor service and then judge the entire chain?». Actually Consarah, NO, I’m fully aware that some of the restaurants are under better management than the rest so your comparison baffles me. She assured us we would absolutely not be wasting our time by coming into the office today; she’d definitely have MULTIPLE properties to show us.
Arrived at the 377 Franklin Ave office with 15 minutes to spare, soaking wet from the rain. Of course, Consarah was not there. The one agent who happened to be there and let us into the office, left 15 minutes after we arrived. It seemed a bit odd that he would leave us alone in the office but I was grateful since it was cold and rainy and my boots were soaked.
I’m sure you can guess what the outcome was.
Consarah never showed up, never answered our calls or responded to our voicemails. But I expected this to happen. I kicked off my boots and propped them next to the space heater and spent the next HOUR, drying my feet off (you see, I absolutely KNEW this chick was NOT going to show up and needed to warm up before making the journey home), checking through the insider RR database (the one that the agents use, not the public site) that an agent previously using the computer had been so kind to leave up, and confirming that the apartment Consarah had posted did not exist. The other apartments that maybe she was going to show us, I’d either seen already and dismissed, or they were in areas I was not looking for. I actually typed 75% of this Unilocal review in their office, debated having a quickie with my boyfriend in the empty room for kicks (but that would have been rude to Rapid Realty), before another agent finally showed up and was nice enough to try and pick up the dropped ball and research the database to show us the apartments himself (i, of course, already knew he wouldn’t find much) so he took our info, apologized for our wasted time today, and said he’d contact us if anything came up specific to our requirements, but I wont hold my breath.
I am quite sure Consarah wont be contacting us to apologize for standing us up even though we called to confirm the appt earlier today. But I’m not even upset. I WOULD have been upset if I had to stand in the cold wet rain OUTSIDE the office for an hour and 15 minutes for an appointment that would never happen, but at this point, I am far too jaded by Rapid Realty and all the experiences I’ve had with them to care that they let me down once again.

I truly wish I had I visited Unilocal before wasting my time with these amateurs. I find Kimberly Nathaniel on Facebook Marketplace. I’m too angry to describe my experience in detail. Ms. Nathaniel had me waiting in the lobby on a sub zero day so she could be late for the re-​schedule that she requested. Then she tries to show me an apt $ 150/​month over my requested range. The final insult was when she texted me at 8AM this morning, wondering why I’m upset. I’m upset because she knew I had to work last night but she’s still texting me at 8AM!!! Thanks Kimberly Nathaniel and Rapid Realty for wasting my time & money yesterday and yanking me out of my slumber this morning. Your lack of professionalism confounds.

Do yourself a favor and avoid the headaches that come with Rapid Realty.
I have to say, I really wanted to like Rapid Realty at first. I saw an ad for them and went into their office to see an apartment that I had found seperately on Craigslist. Their office was small but slick, and it seemed in those first moments a professional operation.
But it was not. I waited over a half hour for my broker to finally stop chatting with people and get us on our way. When we did, he took me to about six apartments, all in obscure corners of Brooklyn with too high rent for their areas and at least one in major need for repair. The search was not helped by the broker’s need to bullshit with his friends in the car, who for some reason came along. I did in the end, though, like one apartment, and I put down a $ 150 cash deposit plus $ 50 for the credit check. I was told it wouldn’t take long to get the lease.
But Rapid Realty was not so rapid. I waited. And waited. A week went by. I would e-​mail or call my broker, but on some days he didn’t respond or pick up and on others he had no info. With my lease at the time about to expire, I went to a different broker and got something tied up within 24 hours on the UES for the same price. It would take me more than a month of harassing Rapid Realty to get back my $ 150.

Pretty much what everyone else said. The guy I was working with was really nice but sort of disorganized. We made an appointment to view an apartment, but when I called him to confirm an hour beforehand, he told me that he wasn’t able to get the keys to the place. We made a meeting the next morning and he had a few listings he wanted to show me, but again, wasn’t able to get into a lot of the apartments — so I ended up having to peer into the windows to see anything. The apartments I was shown were nothing like what I was looking for and seemed way overpriced. Like I said, the broker I was dealing with was SUPER nice and was honest when it came to showing me no-​fee apartments, but the stuff Rapid Realty has in their database just seems generally really crappy.

These people are horrible. They scam you thinking you have the apartment on hold till you get approved, then lose the apartment to someone else and keep the money you put down to hold the apartment, are not quick on returning it, and complain to you the whole time about it. They are unfriendly, confusing, and pushy.
DONT GO HERE. go to lang realty

That time of the year has come, when I’ve started looking for an apartment that suites me better than a current one.
As part of my search I’ve stumbled upon Rapid Realty office and online posting from one of the agents. I contacted them, told them my situation, desired location, budget and other details.
First agent that I talked to (Kristofer something…) showed me 3 different apartments (he wanted to show just one, but luckily his buddy had a car and he went for 2 more). I didn’t like any of those places. Kris has lost his interest in me and with a promise to «keep looking» went off to his business.
A bit later Luis from an office in Clinton Hills called. Seemed like a nice guy, talkative and willing to go an extra mile for a potential client. He showed me an apartment the same night, which was nice but not quite there yet. Showed me few more apartments the next few days.
All seems nice and perky so far? Well, here comes the reality.
All this time both agents were constantly pushing me to put down a deposit on an apartment. I lost count how many times they told me about it (I will have nightmares). Couple times we went looking without any prior appointments with landlords and/​or supers. And while some of those apartments are broker fee, apartment management wanted anywhere from 300 to 750 dollars more one-​time management fee on top (RR charges $ 40 non-​refundable fee for credit check).
But real horror came when I found an apartment outside of RR. Prior to that I’ve put down a deposit for an apartment with RR, hoping management will not charge me the additional fee — RR agent promised to talk to landlord — and I’d be able to get it for a reasonable price.
RR policy states that deposits are to be refunded back within 24 – 48 hours after I request it back. And that’s what I did on Wednesday. Luis told me he’d pass it on to his manager and I will get my refund in no time. Thursday I stopped by the office around 7 pm to see if my refund is there, but no luck. Stephanie had told me that check is being written out and will be in the office next day. So I come back on friday. No check. No Stephanie. No one knows where it is. I skip monday and come to the office on tuesday. No check. No one knows where or what’s going on. Every visit to their office ends up in a 2 hour wait time while they are trying to «find» the check. Went to their main office. The lady at the front desk told me it’ll be ready next day. I am going to stop by tonight after work, see if it’s there. It’s been a week. Agents do not return any calls. Managers don’t know what’s going on.

My experience with Rapid Realty was awful. I was pretty specific about what I wanted and what was really important to me (i.e. location, within my budget, close to a specific train station) and the real estate salesperson I was working with showed me a few apartments on the first evening we met that were COMPLETELY wrong. They were not only out of my budget, they were also directly opposite a housing project, in an area I specifically said I didn’t want to be near. The next time we met, she told me to meet outside of the Parkside subway stop at Ocean and Empire — which is actually the Prospect Park stop. It took five or six texts for her to realize she was messing up.
Not only was she was horrible with details (which is BAD for a broker), she was also continuously feeding me these lines which she’d clearly memorized from some handbook (this is a great area, you won’t get much better than this, lots of people have already moved so nothing’s available, if you just increased your budget a bit more there would be more options) — AWFUL. She was also late every time we met.
I’m sure that with over 300 agents this company is very hit or miss but it was an epic fail for me. The only pro was that she was very sweet, but that eventually turned into a con after naïve me realized all the sweetness was faked.
Oh, and the other person who wrote about the CL ads was totally on point — I can’t tell you how many times I called about a CL posting only to find out I was talking to a Rapid Realty agent. Some disclosure please, people!

I have lurked on Unilocal for years, but was inspired to register specifically to tell others about Rapid Realty. Our two month long ordeal with Rapid was just a long succession of one surreal disappointment after another… This is pretty long, so I can just sum it up if you don’t feel like reading: Misrepresented Prices, bait and switch showing, Unprofessional Employees who will outright lie to your face. If you are thinking of going with Rapid, don’t do it unless you have massive, saintly amounts of patience and forgiveness.
Found a no-​fee broker on craigslist– no mention of being affiliated with Rapid. Our first «broker» (in quotes, because as it turned out, he was just a «shower») showed up an hour and a half late. We loved the apartment and placed a deposit, only to be informed the next day that it was taken (after they already had our check, of course). We asked to be shown similar apartments in the area, and were taken to a neighborhood that was miles away and completely failed all of our demands (like: safety, accessibility, no «meth being cooked» smell in the hallways…). We had to drive our «broker» from apartment to apartment because he didn’t have his own car (the entire time he kept grubbing cigarettes from me), and after seeing the third apartment, he told us that he had to leave because he had a gig in Connecticut with his band. At this point, we asked to be switched to another broker who actually did take us to an apartment that was in our neighborhood and price range. We agreed to come back the next day to sign the lease. When we arrived, of course, it turns out that he had «accidentally» showed us an apartment that was $ 200 more per month than he had originally stated. We went back to see another available apartment in the same building, which we were assured was actually for rent at the amount they quoted. Surprise! Three days later, just before signing the lease, they spoke to the landlord and found out that that apartment was actually $ 100 more expensive than they had told us.
At this point, I believe I told the person who was working with us that we would not be taking our apartment, and wanted our deposit back NOW. She promised if I gave her two days, she would be able to talk the landlord down. We waited, and I received a text message from her claiming that she had talked to him and we could come sign the lease.
We go to sign the lease, and apparently our broker, who was fresh from RS school, forgot to run a credit check. They asked us if we had our bank statements and tax returns on us (does anyone?). We had to make a two hour drive back to Long Island, then rush back to Brooklyn before they closed. We sat in the office for over an hour before someone finally told us that the woman who was working with us had left and we had to come back tomorrow.
We came back the next day, and they stuck us with a new woman. Before she started explaining the credit check and legal agreements, I asked her if she could please speak up because my husband is hearing impaired. SHE LAUGHED. And not like a cute «Oh, I’m sorry» giggle. We actually turned and looked at each other because we couldn’t believe she was still laughing 30 seconds later.
To make a really long story short, we waited an additional two weeks before signing the lease because they supposedly «couldn’t get in touch with the landlord, because he’s really old» (which is not the case. He’s in his 50’s and he hangs around our building all day). When it was finally presented to us, it was still $ 50 more than discussed, but at this point we had wasted so much time that we only had two weeks to move. We signed the lease, and they told us there was another paper that we had to come back to sign. This one said that the landlord was giving us a pro-​rated rent and that he had the right to change the rent from $ 1250 to any amount up to $ 3500! After a month and a half of completely inconsiderate, asinine crap, I finally lost it, told them where to stick their agreement and demanded the landlord’s number. I called him myself to give him a good chewing out– and he was surprisingly apologetic and completely reasonable. We were able to work out our issues directly through him, signed the lease, and thankfully had our apartment ready before our move-​in date.
Still to this day, when I drive by Rapid I feel tempted to egg the building or spray paint «BEWARE» on the front door. It was quite possibly one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life, and most definitely an exercise in superb self-​control.

They are horrible. The game plan every time is to post lies on Craiglist to try and hook you in, and then switch to crappy and overprices places.
Never, ever, under any circumstances use them. Trust me!

If I could give this business –10 stars I would. They are horribly inconsiderate and inefficient and even unethical. I walked in to their office one day frazzled after a day of searching for a no fee apartment in brooklyn. I had low expectations but Greg, my agent seemed very personable and knew the area. He showed me a few places which were very lackluster but no fee and then he showed me one place that had some serious potential but wasn’t quite ready. The kicker? It was a fee apartment. I was a bit desperate and it still seemed like a decent deal so I agreed. I paid my deposit. They assured me it would be ready in time to move in 2 weeks later and that the papers would be drafted up within days. WELL it took 2 weeks and to his credit, Greg was quite helpful during the waiting game and helped me when the property manager continually dropped the ball. Supposedly my landlord was on vacation and that’s why it was taking so long to get my lease. The real problem was the property manager, Johnny Colon. Day after day he promised me a lease and kept not calling me back. I felt like I had to stalk him to find out what was happening. When I brought up the idea of finding another apartment because I was concerned by the uncertainty, again they assured me that all was fine and that I would definitely get the apartment and be able to move in on time…
What actually was happening is that the landlord was going through foreclosure! Conveniently the guys at rapid realty «had no idea» (though I have heard stories to the contrary). I only realized this a week after I finally moved in when I received a legal document under my door.
Though I know not all of this is Rapid Realty’s fault, I have to say they managed the process terribly and the worst thing is I paid a broker fee for frustration and continual stress. Johnny Colon is one of the most unprofessional individuals I have ever encountered in life. He has been consistently undependable and difficult to get in touch with. He is blatantly rude and on several occasions had the audacity to complain that he was getting paid very little for this deal and had been «so stressed» over getting my apartment worked out. I wasn’t able to move in on time because none of the repairs or cleaning was done. The apartment was filthy when I moved in and I’m still in the process of getting repairs 3 weeks later. He was a terrible representative of the company. Now I am left to make sense of this foreclosure mess as they obviously take no responsibility for anything. Yes, they could have been worse… but not by much. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. and specifically AVOID JOHNNY COLON. They are not thorough. They don’t do enough due diligence. They are just after the broker’s fee. I will never work with this company again and I feel like if nothing else I want to help people from making my unfortunate mistake.

Rapid Realty is frustratingly hit or miss.
Yes, I found a great apt and had a nice broker who really did some digging and showed us the good stuff. However, I also spoke to about 900 other super sketchy brokers who all post to craigslist and say nothing about being part of Rapid just to make sure you call them instead of sticking to whatever nice person you have found.
Yes, in general they are pushy and unprofessional. They are disorganized and really screwed up the day we went to sign the lease, sending us to the wrong location.
However, there are some good people there if you have the patience to find them. Becky Yee and Lili, you ladies were the tops, really. The rest of them can go to hell.
I would recommend, but I would say proceed with caution.

They are the worst business I have ever delt with. It seems that you don’t have to have the acumen of a high school graduate to work there. Idiots!
I had to deal with Adrian C. and his assistant Lilly of R.R. twice and both times were a complete disaster!
The first time was when I found an apartment listing on craigslist, posted by the already occupied tenents who were looking to for a roommate. I had to work with Adrian to process the application and sign the new lease. He had the audacity to ask for $ 260 to process the application fee and then $ 40 per application! When the R.R. website clearly states that 1. this is a no fee company 2. to process an application is $ 40.
I had to get the landlord involved but I still had to pay over $ 140 to «process» an application. When I challenged Adrian and his assistant the reason for the unnecessary cost was because they had too had to get paid… Plus, it took them almost two weeks for them to their act together and revise the old lease with new names.
The second time was when we had to find a new roommate. Adrian and his assistant’s actions were so shady that it deterred the first person from wanting to move in with us, and with our current roommate Adrian was trying to pressure her to bring $ 140 plus $ 50 extra in cash. Shady Shaderson! I will never deal with Rapid again, nor will I recommend them to anyone.

I called Rapid Realty because I live literally across the street. So why not start my next apartment hunt by supporting this new business on my block? When I told them what I was looking for and in what neighborhood and at what price, I was told that wasn’t realistic. Even though I’d already looked at a number of apartments that fit the parameters through another brokerage. I was told he would call me back the next day. I never heard from him again, and I found a great apartment at a great price in a great neighborhood… from someone else. Sorry Rapid, I gave you a chance.