K & R Realty

Almost 60, wasted thousands of dollars relocating to this newly constructed property, selected by lottery, interview process was a griller, had all my docs. in order, told me I qualified and never heard from them again, that is until I showed up at the 118^th street locale. they showed me my assigned apt. at 9am after another snow storm, disabled? Not so easy getting around? Show up or loose the apt? Who knows, they wouldn’t say… told me a lovely garden would be constructed outside my only window and I though, how nice an QUIET… by that summer, a child’s sliding pond appeared under my only window, along with A playground. my head and my ears are still ringing with duress… the over-​occupied apt. next door moved my walls on a daily basis, when I called K&R on it, they REFUSED TO MAKE CHANGES and eventually invited me to break my lease and move, not hold me to further payments, keeping my security and demanding a full months rent for less than 2 weeks occupancy in the end. EXCUSE ME, I didn’t break my lease, K&R broke it when they handed me a 50 page useless rules and regulated packed lease favoring management, about as useless as all those cameras installed to protect THEM, and not the TENANTS… the E. River stinks, the windows don’t work, the «green heat/​ac unit» was defective, it was damp all the time and I was sickened by fuel, smoke, filling up in my unit while asleep… an event that brought in the fire dept, EPA, and no real investigation… this building should be torn down and reconstructed again, using all allocated funds, real walls, not paper ones, sealant, wood floors, a front door that opens for a guy in a wheel chair. and do something about that stupid laundry room… bending down to the floor to do wash? Not all disabled people are in wheelchairs… let me tell you, when the help starts telling the tenants that their apartments suck on purpose because they are low income, it’s time to form a tenants association, but to no avail there, the top floor apartments loved their silent hallways and units and couldn’t give a shit about their neighbors who have to put up with their screaming children outside my window… a neighbor on the 12^th floor who happened to be Black responded to my complaints by saying that White people are 2 nice, hence the reason for the LEMON I was assigned on a low floor, perhaps not 2 far from the truth? 2 many people, an over flowing garbage room, but a refreshing melting pot, with an elusive owner, incompetent, or just taking full advantage… one who refused to show his face at the initial interview… who ever you are, please note, that I kept your floors scratch free with felt furniture pads, my kitchen and the bath remained spotless, I never imposed noise on my neighbors, I was in fact afraid to leave my apartment, outside was a gun-​toting hood and I felt harassed on the property, as if I were living on a compound under house arrest or something… is there a «bite me» star so that I can give these guys a proper rating??? Stay out of «low income housing» maybe you guys should be in the prison building business instead.

To leave more stars than one for K and R Realty is living with your head in the sand.
I rented from them in the brand new building. This company is so corrupt words cannot describe it. The architect, the builder, the realtor, the landlord and the management company is all one person. The shabby construction of development they put up is on the taxpayers dime through 421A and 420C programs. One can only wonder where the money goes. Building has been nothing but a nightmare with floods during rain, freezing due to drip heating. Noise pollution because of substandard windows, floors and walls. The issues are too numerous to list, however landlords are partly to blame. It’s our local politicians who have their hands in real estate lobby pockets and HPD and Department of Buildings who let landlords get off scot free and Landlords do everything they can to make the life of the tenants miserable in order for tenants to vacate so that new tenants will pay 20% more.
Giving this landlord a 1 star is a compliment because other landlords in NYC are 10x worse.

Ok — where to start with this review? If you’re reading this, you’re probably in the hunt for an apartment and have come across one of their no-​fee listings. And if you’ve read the other reviews you’re probably scared and wanting to run for the hills, lol. First, calm down and let me say congrats on your new apartment search and I wish you the best of luck. NYC real estate can be very difficult to navigate and shady brokers and building management companies don’t make it any easier. I’m going to try to keep this review short so you can spend more time searching for your new pad :)
First off, the office is in the UWS on 118^th and Manhattan Ave — I’d tell you to call to get the exact address, but you probably won’t reach anyone. All that to say, they are very very difficult to reach via phone. As other reviewers have stated, it’s almost impossible to get a person on the phone, regardless of the time called. My suggestion is to visit the office in person if possible or email. My experience was mainly with Shakira (who I would personally recommend) and she was always available via email.
Secondly, as previously mentioned the lease is intense, exhaustive and at times contradictory. It’s also 50+ pages long. A lot of the language is boiler plate and not at all specific to your particular building. There is also a lot of legal jargon and almost none of it can be amended.
Lastly, a few logistics and tips. There is a $ 50 credit/​rent check that all applicants must pay before the application will be processed. Application checklists are extensive (paystubs, statements, proof of employment, etc.) and must be complete before you will be considered. Ask plenty of questions and don’t be afraid to walk away.
Also, full disclosure, I’m a fairly new tenant so who knows if I’ll have the rug pulled from under me in a few months (or have the sink fall through according to one of the pics posted :-/​) — but so far so good. I’ll be sure to update if things change. For now, I would say, go with this company if you like the apartment you see — and if you can, ask to deal with Shakira — she was very competent. Good luck!

I’ve been a tenant of K&R’s for over five years. Considering the amount of rent New Yorkers pay, you would expect, if not hope, that the service you receive would be just as high. Sadly, this is not the case. Customer service isn’t high on their priority list. There have been many instances where I’ve called the office about a matter and received no return phone call. Sometimes, my emails go unanswered as well. I will say, I have had good experiences with Lynette from the maintenance department. She is consistently responsive and responsible. Other employees could stand to follow her lead. She is one of the company’s only saving graces.
In summary, in another city, the overall quality of service provided by this company wouldn’t fly, but in New York, you don’t have much of a choice, so people deal with it.

Worst management company I had the disgrace to rent an apartment with.
I lived at the 401 west 25^th street building for a year and from them I only got non flexibility, insane fees for thing that should be normal like a spare pair of keys ($ 180 only for the front building door), insane raise of the rent, insane time to get back my deposit 6 to 8 weeks!
Also they don’t pick up the phone most of the time.
Stay away!

I loved my apartment unit with K&R. The building was always very clean, and the super was great. All that being said, the price increases every year were insanely high ($ 300/​month in one year). That was the only downside, especially considering the building had no amenities, the price got to be quite steep.

They are the worst management company in the city. We lived there for a year and they charged us repeated late fees despite our lease giving us to the tenth to send checks and us never being later than this. We called many times to get this fixed and never heard back from anyone. We moved out 10 weeks ago and still have not received our security deposit due to their «clerical errors.» They will not return our calls to deal with these issues. Do not rent from them.

K&R realty apartments are nice that’s it.
I’ve apply for low income housing and the building is managed thru K&R realty. There management is very unfair an won’t help you at all. You can meet the guidelines for everything, but if you’re credit report isn’t squeaky clean you’re not getting anything.
You cannot have no delinquent payments from previous credit cards you’ve had in the pass if they find that you will be disqualified. This is very unfair, what does your pass have to do with you getting an apartment now? I am paying those off hence, school loans and credit card. I can understand if I had a bad tenant report but I don’t, I haven’t had my own place yet.
Make sure you credit report is perfect before going through with K&R realty. There management is horrible. Bloomberg or the new Mayor should improved the guidelines for these type of situation.

K&R Realty is absolutely horrible. If I could give them zero starts I would. Their application process is insane and they require more documentation than any other management company I have ever worked with before.
Their employees are incompetent. Even though I make 6 figures, and my salary fell smack in the middle of their required range (about 170−190K) they asked me to get a guarantor. When I asked why I needed a guarantor, it was discovered that they didn’t thoroughly review my paperwork.
When I showed up to my lease signing they didn’t have me scheduled for an appointment, even though one of their agents confirmed my appointment in writing. They made we wait for almost an hour before they had the lease ready. Finally after going through the numerous pages of the lease and signing everything, I found out that I could only get 1 set of the keys to the apartment. I don’t fault them for being careful and not wanting to lose the tax incentives they receive from the City Housing Authority, but this is something they should inform potential tenants about from the outset. Many of the terms of their lease were also absurd, such as requiring the tenant to give up the right to a jury trial.
Upon realizing that I could not get a spare set of keys for emergencies or for my cleaning lady to be able to enter my apartment when I’m not home, I finally walked out.

I feel like I have to put in a good word for this company. Yes they are not ideal but they are way better than my previous landlord and I have a feeling that they are above average comparing to what I hear about other NYC landlords.
I am very happy that they are picky with who they put into the buildings. Their properties are located in Harlem so this pickiness greatly increases the value for prospective tenants.
I also felt that they were more responsive than other landlords and best part is No broker FEE!

I rented for 3 year, they showed no consideration when it came to increasing the rent in a building that has no amenities. They are always nowhere to be found unless they want to charge fees. I vacated 2 months ago and I’m still waiting for my deposit check. I’ve tried numerous times to contact them, but no response. they will hear from my lawyer soon.

I’m not one to write reviews, but K&R has driven me to such lengths that I feel it’s my civil duty to share these experiences — perhaps I can pardon just one lucky soul from the trials of renting from K&R.
Here’s a list of their top 5 transgressions. Maybe you can all sympathize and save yourselves.
1) My first experience with K&R really should have stopped me in my tracks. It has dictated every interaction I’ve had with them since. When we were applying for the apartment, I had to send them many confidential bank statements. The office is so disorganized and the people working there so lackadaisical that they lost my paperwork countless times. I had to send them my tax returns in 6 separate emails. Each time, they blamed my broker for not sending the emails, when I myself was copied on and received each email.
2) They failed to take the garbage out on time during the summer and early fall, so every apartment had a gross infestation of fruit flies. No matter how impeccably clean we kept our place, they still came — in swarms — because the garbage was rotting in the building’s basement.
3) When October came, it got cold. But they refused to turn the heat on until a set date. And when that day came, our heat still didn’t work. As the temperatures delved into the mid 20’s, we were without heat for the first 3 weeks of winter. No matter how many times we called, no one seemed to do anything about it. I had to track my super down on the street and force him to come into our apartment, hovering over him until he fixed it.
4) During the hurricane-​induced power outage, the building keyfob didn’t work. Their resolution — manual keys. Logical idea, but they only gave each apartment (including 2 and 3 person apartments) 1 key. And refused to give us extra copies. Additionally, they put the keys under our apartment doors and gave us a few hours to retrieve them until they locked the building from the outside. Because I was at work, I got locked out of my apartment, only to be let in when my neighbors returned 2 days later.
5) I had forgiven K&R for all of the above things, until now. Two weeks ago, my kitchen sink fell through. As in, the bowl of the sink detached from the countertop and fell into the cabinets below the sink. I since found out, after the super inspected it, that it was improperly installed in the first place. He was unable to fix it, leading me to call the highly incompetent maintenance team at K&R. One entire saturday spent at home waiting for a repair man who never came, 10 phone calls that led nowhere, 5 ignored emails, and two weeks later, I still have a broken sink with no promise of repair.
If you’ve gotten this far, hear my final plea. Save yourself endless struggle and go find another wonderful apartment in Manhattan. K&R’s properties really don’t have anything you can’t find elsewhere.
Good luck!

K+R is an offshoot of Artimus Development. They own a huge number of buildings in Harlem. They are very particular about who gets into their buildings so the application process is arduous. It’s like applying to a coop. There are a million rules, but they aren’t so strict once you are approved if you pay on time and are a good tenant. I doubt they are trying to rip anyone off on $ 50. Artimus is highly profitable. It probably means they don’t like you for some reason. You are going to need good credit scores and references.
Here is what you can expect. Immigrant super who will be underpaid (tip him!) but basically a good guy. They pay them almost nothing around $ 200/​month last I heard, although they do provide a decent apartment. Your windows will be plentiful but for crap so the apartment will be cold in the winter. They keep the heat on but it leaks out the windows. No amount of complaints seems to rectify this. If you take the top apartment in a new building, your roof will leak unless it has been around for a few years. Eventually, it does get fixed permanently.
They do answer the phone and deal with other issues promptly and keep their buildings in good order. You usually end up with good neighbors too due to their careful screening. It’s a mix. Better than many once you are approved. But chilly in winter.

Based on the fact that my husband and I met the required terms ‘eventually’ by the CITY! I would rate our experience with K&R Realty as positive.
Yes there was a lot of paperwork and it’s different to a normal sign up for leasing but this is due to the fact it’s a city building.
The buildings they have are significantly lower rental per month and ‘NO FEE’ this has saved thousands of dollars in move in costs and living expenses over the period of our lease.
We personally dealt with Josh K and whilst at times he was busy I was really happy with his polite, helpful service and manner.
It’s a nightmare to rent in the city and I would say most brokers are not people I’d choose to have a beer or break bread with but after my experience with Josh K I could change that rule.
Does SUCK that you can’t have pets.
If you want to use Go NO FEE accept that their a broker and as with any of them you may not get fast responses or the result you want… that’s New York, it’s a jungle baby!
Give yourself a fighting chance and have all your documents ready and check if your in the right income bracket as the decision is made but the city and they are not willing to bend their rules.

Wow, I just want to respond and say I do not work for K&R. I am surprised to read all of the negative comments on this page. I emailed Caroline, Monique, or Jenny whenever I had pest control/​repair issues and they always got right back to me. They were friendly and sweet and anything but «incompetent.» My super was really nice and would come over whenever I called him. When my rent was raised I was given the contact info for a manager at K&R and he never answered his phone or returned my emails.
Also, when I applied for my apartment I called a few times toward the end of the week and there were some people ahead of me, but when I called on Monday morning I was the next person on the list and able to come over that day to meet with someone at K&R. I only had to pay credit check fees for myself and my dad (guarantor), and get a more detailed letter from my employer. I moved into the apartment the following weekend.

K&R Management/​GoNoFee put me through a complete emotional roller coaster. I went to see one of their amazing apartments, filled out and application and then told me that someone was in the middle of an interview for it. Fine — I accepted that. Then, it’s been on their website for over 2 weeks now since I viewed it myself. To humor myself, I had someone else call and guess what — IT’S STILL AVAILABLE. When I called back, I left a message. No one returned my call and for 1 whole day — no answer. Now, I know nothing is wrong with my credit or background check to turn me down. As with everyone else w/​a negative review, COMPLETELY ON POINT. Whoever wrote a positive review, it’s probably someone from K&R Management/​GoNoFee. STAY AWAY!!!

Almost all the other reviews are dead on. Except for the fact that they are good landlords. I’ve tried to reach them several times, and I always get a busy message or some other excuse. When I leave a message, they never call me back, and I’m always forced to call them back myself, to repeat the lame excuses that they are busy. And don’t even try to get them to respond to emails…
When I do get a hole of them, they lack professionalism, and seems to be incompetent. I’ve even been billed incorrectly once. When I tried to fix it, they said leave it up to them… big mistake. I had to eventually call them again and force them to send me an e-​mail response confirming it was their error.
I would not want to work with them again.

Not a good broker, unless you are a very low income person and have no other choice. They deal with such properties. If you have a choice, go elsewhere. For one thing, as another reviewer stated, they list properties that are not available.
Moreover, they do not allow pets in their buildings, which is ridiculous.

My previous Unilocal post kept it a little too real for some Unilocalers, whose delicate sensibilities were offended by my use of profanity. So here goes a squeaky clean version for you shining wits.
K and R is worthless. They canceled an interview for an apartment an hour before it was supposed to happen, inconveniencing everyone involved. They still list an apartment that they told me was rented. Shady.
This company is the reason people hate brokers.

Rip-​off! Avoid at all costs! SCAM!
They may be good landlords, as the previous reviewer stated, but as a rental agency they are a total scam.
Gonofee/​K&R Realty/www.triumphproperty.com takes your application fee and promises that they will find you an apartment. We applied for several apartments and even though, we met all of their requirements, they made us jump thru hoops with all kinds of absurd excuses and extra requirements. They took weeks to give us a simple answer and when they did they would find a negative forcing us to keep searching and waiting.
We began noticing that a lot of the apartments that we applied for were on the market for quite a while, even though, it was evident that these apartment were in great demand. Then, an insider told us that often times the way these real estate businesses stay afloat is by taking application fees from many applicants for the same apartments over and over but with the intention of NOT renting to any of them, just as K&R Realty/GONOFEE.com did!!!
While we waited and waited for some sort of answer, we were forced to look elsewhere and got approved and offered 3 other apartments. Within weeks, it became obvious to us that our history and income requirements weren’t the problem; it was K&R Realty taking us for a ride! We dealt specifically with Camille LLewellyn who turned out to be totally incompetent.
It’s been 5 months since our nightmare with them and we still keep getting their «email updates». And sure enough, several of the apartments we applied for are still in the market and with allegedly reduced rents! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?
Please save your money, beware and look elsewhere.