Realty Collective, LLC

Mary’s a great agent, she’s helped a lot people I know find great places, it seems like everyone I talk to found their place through Mary actually, and they all speak highly of her. There’s no substitute for local knowledge and Mary has plenty of it having worked in the area for many years.

I have worked with Mary Gaglio to find 2 out of my last 3 apartments and I would recommend her 100%. She’s very friendly, funny and absolutely no BS and NO PRESSURE. I have looked at many places with other brokers where I feel like they are breathing down your neck to get you to move in so they can get their fee — Mary is the opposite. Another plus, she’s been working in the the area for upwards of 30 years so she knows all the landlords and is very knowledgable about the neighborhood.

It’s amazing how bad some people can suck at their jobs.
I lived at my last apartment for years and years, and one of the things I dreaded most about moving (aside from the prospect of being awash in a sea of boxes) was dealing with the dreaded NYC real estate broker once again. You’re lucky if your broker is simply brain-​dead; most broker’s offices are wretched hives of scum and villainy. When I stepped into Realty Collective, I was cautious.
Megan listened to what we were looking for in an apartment. Megan was honest. Megan was responsive. Megan didn’t make threats or try to bait-​and-​switch us. Megan’s intervention made an often harrowing and fraught experience go as smoothly as possible, and allowed us to concentrate solely on all those boxes.

Awful experience. I found this place through
. Saw a potential new home in one of their listing. After trying to contact this specific broker for 4 days (via email, phone, voicemail), I finally got her on the phone. She was so disorganized on the phone, I knew this wasn’t going to be a good experience. She complained that TOO many people responded and that she may be stuck showing it until 9pm. Well… sorry that you have a job to do, ugh! She said she’ll forward me an application in which she never did. The day of the showing, there was 6 other potential renters who all showed up at the same time (so much for a private viewing). We were forced to fill out this form before viewing the place which was stupid – I’m sure it’s for marketing. Anyways, she couldn’t answer any of the questions and plain rude. Simple questions as – «are the garbage always expose? Is there maintenance? How the crime rate in the area?» Her answers was «I don’t know – why don’t you stop by the police station to find out, wow! AND every answer was – the landlord would answer that. She was just plain useless. No way am I ever paying this lady commission. She didn’t even do her damn research/​job. Every single one of us were so annoyed with her that we didn’t even bother to stay more than 4 mins… the worse broker I have ever encounter. By the way, her name was Mary.

Really, disappointing experience. Pushy, suspicious broker, exactly what makes the NYC apt search so frustrating.

Terrible place. We worked with an astoundingly grumpy, completely tactless senior citizen realtor. She actually muscled in on the showing of a junior realtor from the same agency who had contacted us by Trulia, and then didn’t even show up for the scheduled apt showing! We had to independently contact the owners to see the apt. This agency also works with a lot of «slum-​lord» owners in the area who don’t take care of their buildings and try to get maximum rent with minimum upkeep. Avoid this agency, go with pros.

These people willingly work with slum landlords. My current landlord is a disaster and a liar and these company had full knowledge and worked with her anyway for the commission. I was lied to over and over again. Try another agency, one that has the ability to not work with whatever scumbag landlord comes along.

I am really, really good at spotting fake Unilocal reviews, so when I was looking for a broker, I basically threw out any company where the majority of the positive reviews were obviously fake. This left me with VERY few options at the time, one of which was Realty Collective. I didn’t want to use them at first, just because it seemed like their area of interest was an area we can’t afford. At first, we searched on our own, but after getting screwed by landlords a few times, I said «screw this» and contacted some brokers. Some were terrible (protip: if I ask to view a specific place and you refuse to give me the address, you’re clearly a baiting-​and-​switching douche), some were mediocre, and then there’s Realty Collective.
The only thing I hate is their website: the search feature is kinda borked and doesn’t show the right results, and the contact form is weird – you don’t really know if you’re just contacting in general or about a specific place.
So I sent in an email about one place, didn’t hear back for a day or two, figured it was off the market. But first thing Monday morning, I got an email from the lovely Maris James, who offered us an even cooler place at a great price. I explained that we were on a tight budget because, while I have two roommates, they’re both grad students and I don’t want to rely on them for a huge chunk of the rent in case anything happened. I work full-​time, and so I wanted to only look at apartments that (a) would fit three people and a yappy little dog, and (b) would be affordable on my salary. Sounds bloody impossible, right?
A lot of people complain about feeling rushed by brokers, and that’s their right, but honestly, I love it. I *hate* moving, so I want to just sort of rip off the band-​aid as fast as possible. I show up with all my paperwork in hand and seriously would sign a lease in 15 minutes if I could get away with it. I also have very low standards – if it’s not actively on fire, I’m like «I’ll take it!» I know this can be really frustrating to brokers just because I have no real idea of what I want and I don’t care, but I feel like Maris did an amazing job figuring out what we liked about the place we had originally asked about and basically matching it and, in our case, even making it better. She was also totally understanding of my desire to Get Shit Done, and so we viewed the place and signed the lease (with $ 100 off the rent!) on the same day. As a bonus, she mentioned that she had lived in two different buildings run by this same management company, so we knew almost exactly what we were getting into in terms of expectations. (And they’ve been awesome – living here has been an absolute pleasure so far.)
They moved fast, but we never felt pressured, which is awesome. Maris also did an awesome job keeping in touch with us throughout the process, and was very helpful every step of the way. The fees ain’t cheap, but I will definitely get in touch with them in the future if we ever move again (god I hope not).

Don’t believe the 5 star reviews for Victoria. No one who has actually interacted with this woman could possibly give her that good a rating.
The broker I worked with, Mary, was actually okay. But Victoria (the owner), is pure evil. I put in an application on an apartment. The application required a $ 500 deposit, in cash, which Mary told me was refundable if I didn’t take the apartment. The building owner wanted to meet me in person and after meeting him he said I could have the apartment. But I decided I didn’t want it because I got a strange vibe from him and didn’t feel comfortable with his rules. So I told Mary that I wanted to keep looking. I asked for my deposit back. She said no problem.
Later that day I got a frantic, hostile voice mail from Victoria. She was talking a mile a minute and sounded crazy. She said that I wasn’t allowed to back out after the owner had accepted the application, that it was totally unacceptable not to take the apartment, and that she was going to keep the $ 500 deposit. When I called her she claimed that the deposit was only refundable if my application got rejected (not what the broker told me). She then claimed that I had signed a document agreeing to those terms (nope, I didn’t). I demanded that she produce this document and I told her I was coming to the office to get my money. I told her I would take her to court if she tried to steal my deposit. She said that happened all the time and she had lawyers for that… she sounded proud of that.
A few hours later I got a call from Mary telling me that she had a check for me. Apparently my threats worked. But I’m still in shock that a broker would try to bully me into taking an apartment and steal my deposit. Victoria is the worst kind of business person and the experience was really unpleasant. Stay away!

Business must be good — they never bothered to call me back.

I totally recommend these guys. I had a hard time finding an apartment because I had just arrived from overseas, but they were really helpful and supportive… and patient!

I first met Victoria, owner of Reatly Collective, when she overheard me and a friend talking about local real estate. Several months later, when I finally got ready to start looking to buy an apartment in the area, I contacted her.
Victoria was very accomodating and scheduled a time to meet in the evening after my work was over to learn more about what I was looking for in an apartment. She then emailed me lots of listings and told me to tell her why I did or did not like them. After that she made appointements to start looking at the apartments. If I found a place online that looked interesting, Victoria would look into it and set up a showing. When she came across a new listing, she’d send me the link.
Throughout the whole process Victoria was very supportive and always easy to communicate with. Looking for an apartment to purchase can be a frustrating process when dealing with other brokers, sellers, lawyers, etc. Victoria was always willing to talk things through – and more than once talked me down from the ledge. We’d see a place and then evaluate if it was a legitimate possibility. I saw a place early on that had potential. We kept it in mind while continuing to look at other apartments. We also occassionally went back to this apartment to continue to check it out and eventually put a bid in… which was when the support was really needed.
The journey from bid to closing had its challenges, but Victoria was actively involved the whole time – even bringing me champagne at the closing. She has continued to check in with me during the renovation process and has truly become a friend.
I love my two bedroom spacious apartment in Carroll Gardens that I would never have even looked at if not for Victoria. And therefore I highly recommend working with Victoria and Reatly Collective when looking for real estate in Brownstone Brooklyn!

Real Estate Agents Who ARE Creepy (an unsponsored post)
The boyfriend and I recently got an apartment through Realty Collective and it was a rollercoaster, to say the least. This «artist» run agency is really an «out-​of-​work actors» collective. The «We’re Artists!» slant to their advertising is just that — advertising. Every meeting with our agent and office reps were filled with schmaltzy, over-​the-​top compliments that bordered on creepy. For every mistake they made, it was met with a huge smile and superfluous reassurances. It was all very phony and if it weren’t for the great apartment deal, we would have run in the other direction. We tried talking to the agency president, Victoria, over the phone about a series of broker mistakes but (as stated by other reviewers) she had major attitude & quickly voided our concerns.
Some Issues:
–We were rushed throughout the whole process. It was a MUST GET THIS DEAL NOW approach.
–Requests to see the lease & rider the day before signing were denied. When discussed with Victoria, she said, «all New Yorkers see their lease/​rider for the first time at signing. It’s a NYC standard»!!!
— The broker did not communicate with the landlord on 1) the inspection report to be filled out before signing, 2) the lease start date for a mid-​month move in & 3) first month’s rent (a $ 900 vs. $ 1800 difference). The broker wrote the lease 18 hours before signing with zero input. Many calls, emails & texts were placed to make sure everyone was on the same page.
–The bank check requirements were sent via email at 3:30pm the day before the 9:00am lease signing. Ever played «The Amazing Race» with loads of your personal cash, two banks and your permanent residence for the next year at stake? We did. Not as much fun as on TV. Add to the mix a broker that forgets to include your $ 500 deposit and is texting you different first month requirements every few hours.
–The agency obtained/​stole the listing from another local agency. So the landlord had absolutely no idea who our agency was, why he was going to a different office to meet renters, who our agent was and why their asking for lower rent. It made our first meeting with the landlord VERY AWKWARD.
–We were never given our new landlords contact information. I had to request it seconds before the broker was leaving the signing.
–One of their lauded perks, free month of cable, was never finalized. A week after signing, we had to contact the agency to ask for the paperwork they forgot to include.
After the lease was signed, Victoria finally responded to my emails by apologizing but also defending the whole fiasco as normal real estate practice & that the broker went above and beyond to finalize the deal. Unfortunately, I was under the impression paying $ 2,100 in brokerage fees merited just that — above and beyond service. Not minimal and barely professional service.

So, if you’re a prospective renter willing to pay 10%-12% annual rent to an agency that needs more prodding than a farm mule and can provide the «NYC standard» on messy lease signings, Realty Collective is there for you!

I totally recommend Realty Collective!
My friend and I are both recent college grads — financially responsible and great tenants but without a ton of savings or income. We stumbled upon a gem of an apartment at a great price on Craigslist, and the listing was through Realty Collective. We were the first people to see it and fell in love with it immediately, but Suzanne, our broker, told us that the landlord had never accepted guarantors before and was pretty strict about his tenants. She worked really hard and had us send in tons of financial documents, employment verifications, and letters of recommendation, but in the end, the landlord accepted our application! I would never have even considered looking at fee apartments before, but I don’t feel badly about paying a broker’s fee for this place, because Suzanne really pulled for us and was able to get us into an apartment that we never would have been approved for otherwise.
This afternoon, I signed a lease on an amazing apartment in a neighborhood I never thought we would have been able to afford! I’m so incredibly excited and thankful to Realty Collective for getting us into the place of our dreams.

The broker, Sterling, was pretty easygoing and showed us an apartment that literally just went on the market – we were the first people to see it with the prior occupants still present when we viewed it – because the original apartment we were to see had already been taken. Sterling had us meet the landlord, told us what the rent was and that the broker’s fee was «negotiable.» We liked the apartment and how low-​pressure the experience was and called him an hour later to let him know we would like to take it. He replied that he would get in touch with his boss Victoria and we could meet with her, fill out the paperwork, put down a deposit, etc. We arranged to meet with her the next afternoon.
When we arrived at the office the next day, firstly, she told us the rent was actually more than what we were told the day before. Secondly that the broker’s fee was a set percentage amounting to almost two thousand dollars. Lastly, when we stated that we wouldn’t pay more than what we were told the rent was and that the fee was really quite high for showing us a place literally around the corner from their office – which they wouldn’t even need to list since we were the first to see it – she told us that there were other people who would be applying at the new, higher, price and if we didn’t want to do that it was fine, but, again, the other people – who were shown the place after we already told them we were taking it – would pay the new, higher, price. Nevertheless, we put down a deposit, which she insisted needed to be in cash, paid for our credit checks, and filled out the application for the original rent amount and with a 10% broker’s fee.
Needless to say, while «it was close» we didn’t get the apartment. I had to go to their office and obtain a check as a refund for my deposit since they had already deposited the cash. On the plus side they did tell us our credit scores, but a week later they refused to release our credit reports to another broker or to us, which seemed bizarre because we had paid for them and they contained detailed information about our financial histories.
We were so turned off by this experience that we ended up moving to a different neighborhood.

My husband and I moved into the neighborhood January 2010. Broker/​owner Victoria and agent Mary made the entire process a smooth one. Victoria and Mary set up a meet-​and-​greet with the landlords, negotiated a more than fair rent and were even flexible on their fee to fit our budget. They are also very nice, locally-​minded and down to earth people. If you are looking for a nice apartment in the vicinity with authentic real estate agents they are the ones to use. Thanks for everything!
Cara & Ben

The broker who worked with me (Wayne) was very helpful, listened to what I wanted, and, despite not having an apartment that fit my needs, made the experience if not fun, but at least stress-​free.
Unfortunately the owner, Victoria, was very pushy: she tried brow-​beating me into looking at apartments I knew were not going to be the right fit for me (very close to BQE, for example, when I said that noise would make an apartment a no-​go for me). When I pointed out the issue I had with those apartments, she became confrontational and told me that at my price range I will be unlikely to find what I want. The interaction was strange and unpleasant.
P. S. Owner sent me a really strange message that was somewhat apologetic, but also basically stated that it’s not she didn’t care what I wanted, it was that she was too busy at the moment to actually pay attention. Thanks, I guess.

Its nice to find a place like this. Looking for an apt can be very stressful. We took the first place we looked at with them and it was all pretty simple. It was all very professional and everything was laid out right in front of us. NY is sketchy when it comes to apts but I really trusted them that everything was going to be smooth and it was. Also the fact they are all young and hip is pretty cool, you can actually have a conversation and relate to them which was helpful. If you are looking for an awesome place in BK check them out!

I was looking to stay in the same neighborhood (Carroll Gardens /​Cobble Hill) and found Victoria’s Realty Collective on Craigslist. She was very down to earth friendly and knowledgeable of her listing. There was definitely not the huge obstacles in going through the mind game broker process with her. Applying was very straightforward and no bullshit– Have your money and paperwork ready and she’ll get back to you in a day or so with a Yes or No.
As for how it went after signing and moving-​in, the landlord had barely done any of the fixes that I requested. Realty Collective did follow through in mediating those repairs. They didn’t bail on me after paying the broker fee. Overall, I really appreciate Realty Collective as a local Brooklyn realtor and sense they want grow out this great neighborhood, unlike the bigger realty chains that cherry pick.

The first apartment Victoria showed us was the one we ended up taking. She listened to what we were looking for and cut out a lot of the hoops other brokers make you jump through.
If you want to work with someone who truly wants to make finding an apartment easy, then Realty Collective should be your first stop.