Rapid Realty

Absolutely, horrifically awful. I wish I had read reviews before working with them.
I was looking at a May 1, 2014 move-​in date. I found an apartment on Naked Apartments that I liked, so I contacted the Rapid about viewing it. I should have trusted my gut. The apartment we wanted to look at was already rented, which our Realtor, Kevin, had no knowledge of. He then proceeded to show us a few more apartments, one of which we fell in love with, and we went immediately back to the office to get the paperwork started. But before we could do that, we had to have $ 1400 CASH to put down, and we had to do it right then. That should have been the second sign.
My boyfriend and I raced into Manhattan since that was the closest branch of his bank, and withdrew the necessary amount. After traveling on the C train with $ 1400 cash in our pockets, we went back to the Rapid Realty office.
There we met Brandon, who is apparently a senior Realtor. He assured us that with my credit score and his reputation we should have no trouble getting the apartment – he was apparently on a first-​name basis with the landlord and was well-​loved by him. However, we put in the application on a Thursday night and the landlord, being Jewish, would not be in the office until the following Monday since he apparently didn’t work on Fridays. He neglected to remind us that Passover was the next week (which is partly our fault), but that the office is closed ALL WEEK. We were told we would get an answer by Monday.
The following week I was in constant touch with Brandon, who kept assuring me that no news was good news. A week and a half after we put in the application, put down the deposit, and stopped looking for apartments, because we would have been out $ 1400 if we were approved for the apartment and backed out, we heard from Brandon. We were approved! Awesome!
A day later, 6 days before I have to be out of my current apartment, he calls to tell me that the landlord rented the apartment out from under us (which apparently happens a lot with this company), and as a result, they were going to try to find us a new apartment. I told Brandon that I didn’t feel comfortable with that since he had dicked us around so much before, and told him I wanted my deposit back in CASH. He said he would have it the next day.
At 10 AM the following morning, a Saturday, my bf and I arrived at the Rapid Realty office expecting our deposit back. Brandon said that since he had given the deposit to the landlord, the landlord had written us a check. I was furious, because I had specifically said cash, and because we were going out with another Realtor to look at apartments, but decided to just take the check and go. He told me to go to a check cashing place around the corner and cash the check. I went to do so, and couldn’t cash it because it wasn’t made out to me. I went back to Brandon and told him I couldn’t cash it. He grabbed it from me and went to the check cashing place with me, where they told him they couldn’t cash it even though his name was on it. Now here’s where this awful story gets even worse: we left the check cashing place, and I told Brandon that if he had given us the cash back like we asked, we wouldn’t be having these issues. He exploded and yelled at me, in the middle of the street, «I can’t pull $ 1400 out of my ass, Dawn!» To which I responded, «you expected ME to!» He continued to say he was sorry, he was severing his professional relationship with that landlord, and it had put him in an awful position, and that he was putting his reputation on the line. I very calmly told him that I was going to look at another apartment, and that when I was done, I was coming back to the office and he had better have $ 1400 cash or a personal check made out to me which I could cash immediately. To his credit, he had a personal check for me, but only after I threatened to call the DOS and destroy his reputation. Luckily, we found an apartment in time thanks to Alotta Apartments, but we shouldn’t have had to go through all that drama and crap in order to move. I will never recommend this company to anyone, and I hope Brandon has lost his real estate license.

Absolutely horrendous experience. Just like all the others. Apartment didn’t go through. Deposit is still withheld and they are attempting to withdraw fees for credit checks that were never performed. They were totally unresponsive by phone the whole time. We had to deal with several people instead of one. Darison showed us the place and criticized us for not trusting him when we asked some clarifying questions. HA HAHAHAHAH! Do not place your trust here! Ever. I called 311. They referred me to the NY state dept. of licensing services:
Here’s their website and some info from it:
License information can be obtained form the Department’s Division of Licensing Services at 212−417−5747.
Any tenant or landlord who believes that he or she has been victimized by a real estate broker or apartment information vendor may file a complaint with the Department of State, Division of Licensing Services, 123 William Street, 19^th Floor, New York, NY 10 038. The Complaint Unit may be reached by phone at 212−417−5790.
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Please file a complaint as I am going to do if you are having trouble! These places should be put out of business post haste!!!

We eventually got in touch with Levi, the owner of this particular franchise. We were able to prove, after a rather nasty text, that Chris was in fact behaving in appropriately & we got every last penny of our money back. The difference in Deposit & Application Fees came out of his pocket & he was suspended for a month without pay. If I’m being honest, I hope he never gets work as a showing agent again.
While this certainly doesn’t justify the amount of time we wasted, we appreciated that Levi was willing to work with us & he seems like a good guy. Also, while we’re happy with the eventual outcome, the process it took to get there was far too painstaking to merit an upgrade in star value.
That said, we’re very turned off of Rapid right now & we’re still not sure if we’ll ever use them again.

Chris from RR was really great during our search for an apartment. He worked really hard to find places for us to view in Park Slope and was always quick with communication and punctual for our meeting times. We ended up finding a place through someone else, but I would definitely recommend RR for your next apt search.

I was in a tight spot looking for an apartment. My two roommates and I had such a limited budget — I honestly thought we would not find a place that would fit. The other two worked such extreme hours, so I knew it would be difficult to find a place we all would like, and have someone who could keep up with three schedules.
Chris Rodgers sat down with me and was constantly in contact, running different locations and prices by us to make sure we found something by our emergency date. And even when it looked grim, he was working his tail off.
I have a wonderful apartment on a great block thanks to him. And reading the other comments around this website, everyone can agrees that he pays attention, is incredibly friendly, relatable and gets the job done.
Hes the man. Seriously.
Thanks Chris.

Chris Rodgers is the best! My roommate and I had a really great experience looking for a apartment after Chris came a saved the day. We told him exactly what we were looking for and he listened and found us the perfect place (below our price range). I had used Rapid Realty a few times before and had always had a good experience… but Chris made our experience great!
If your looking for a great realtor, make sure you request Chris!