The Bouklis Group

Honestly I walked out of my appointment after the front desk woman tried to convince me a contract was a sign in sheet for clients. Sweetie the sheet literally says by signing this form you are retaining the services of the broker and are liable for fees, etc. Avoid at all costs. Also — until you sign the contract the broker will not show you the property, or even talk to you in the office while you’re there.

You need to be very careful with this agency. Indeed, I would not recommend. They will sue you and try to make your life a living hell.
Details: I visited them in winter Feb 2015 to find a no fee rental in the financial district. (Yes, there are many.) Every apartment they showed me was no fee, but the Bouklis agent kept asking for me for a fee since the owners of the buildings would not give concessions to agents for studios. I got tired of the nonsense. I decided to not use Bouklis anymore and hunt on my own. I found out that most buildings in the financial district have no fee apartments and the management offices were more than happy to meet with me on my own and negotiate terms. I ended up taking a no fee studio in 20 Exchange Place.
Since the Bouklis agent simply walked me over to 20 Exchange Place and had me meet management who is offering no fee apartments, they demanded a fee. I paid the agent what I agreed to with him in-​person, one month’s rent for a fee rental; I felt ripped off since it was a no fee rental and he hounded me anyway. Then I posted a negative review on Unilocal of the experience.
Tom Bouklis, the owner, called me and threatened to sue me if I did not remove the Unilocal review, and because I paid less then 15% of year’s worth of rent. I told him, «no.» Tom Bouklis sued me. I happily went to court. They never showed up. I walked away. That was that.
Oh and by the way, I was not the only person in court that day getting sued my this agency; This says a lot about this company.
The contract that they try to make you sign when you first visit doesn’t hold up in court because it is not exclusive. But do yourself a favor and don’t sign it all. They probably will refuse to show you around. This is actually a good thing because You don’t need a broker to get a nice place in FIDI. Just go to the buildings and ask for management. You do need a broker for other parts of the city. This may change eventually.

I was contacted by a broker from the Bouklis Group after having marked my interest for an apartment listed as NO FEE on a real estate website. I asked him to confirm that there were indeed no fee and he replied that he was sorry «for the confusion» but he was charging fees. Such a dishonest attitude.

WASTE OF MY TIME.
Broker Adis Kolenovic never showed up after scheduling a showing. Ignored my emails, calls, and texts. Petty. Do not waste your time.

Classic bait and switch by Bouklis agent Edwin Taveras. I responded to a no-​fee posting on NY bits where he was the listed broker and we agreed to meet at a place and time to see the unit and then after I leave to see the unit (30 mins before our appt) he texted me that the unit was off the market (although I see it’s still online) and that he wanted to show me another unit in a different building instead. I should have read these reviews before reaching out to him, shame on me. Don’t work with this company.

Great service; thank you Vik and Marzena for being so responsive and accommodating throughout what felt like one of the most daunting processes I’ve ever experienced while looking for an apartment. My sister and I had a lot of issues with the leasing office at the building which we ultimately decided to live in, and Vik and Marzena both worked tirelessly to make sure we were not taken advantage of by the leasing office. They also provided good insight on whether a rental was worth the rent amount or not, drawing on their own experiences and knowledge after having lived in NYC themselves. Thank you!
As a side-​note, if you are not familiar with renting in NYC, make it a point to note down all costs and expenses involved for every rental you take a look at and double check everything before you sign any papers. Read all papers before you sign because the legalities of these things are very ambiguous and you don’t want to get into a situation where you have to seek legal counsel. Thanks to Vik and Marzena, we didn’t have to take that route with the building’s leasing office.

This review is for our realtor, Allen Ray III. Allen was a great resource for my roommate and I. He is extremely knowledgeable of the area and found the perfect place for us. He is reliable, and I always felt he had our best interest in mind. (very important considering a lot of realtors do not.)
Highly recommended!

Tom Bouklis sent a direct message to me from Unilocal in response to my review here/​trying to resolve my Unilocal complaint. He should have done that before filing a lawsuit against me. Yes, that’s correct, they sued me before trying to talk to me about what happened. Why would I ever respond to him while his lawsuit against me is still pending.

Don’t work with this firm. They don’t try hard enough to find what you’re looking for. They also threatened to sue me just now when my room mate saw the building without them and I heard about the building way before I met these people and told them I already knew about this freaking building. All they know how to do is threaten people and collect money. They are not reasonable and do not have many selections. They didn’t even try to contact me through me. They texted my room mate in the most UNPROFESSIONAL TONE AND MANNER. DO NOT work with these people.

Moving from CT into new York City, I didn’t know where or how to begin looking for an apartment. When I was on the search, I stumbled upon a listing that Bouklis Group has posted on their website. One of their agents — (and best!), Joseph Simon helped me find a great place in Battery Park. Needless to say, he was fantastic. Joe was very accommodating, responsive, and found me my first home in this city with practically no stress. I cannot thank Joe enough. When I want to buy my first place, I know exactly who I’m going to call.

My agent George helped me find a perfect two-​room studio in Astoria! The studio and the neighborhood are both awesome! He is super nice and patient as well as efficient! I had all the documents prepared and then I got the key in a short time! I had a great experience with Bouklis Group. They offer the best!

Awful. They make a mockery of the business. Wrong floor plans, advertising apartments as exclusives that are NOT exclusives (most times, you can go straight to an on-​site leasing agent and will not have to pay a broker fee), lying about broker fees, completely ignoring their clients, show complete lack of interest to help their clients in any way. The only thing this firm wants to do is collect their fee and leave you to deal with the mess. DO NOT CONTACT THIS AGENCY. Find the address of the listing and see if there is a way to contact them directly. These guys are hacks.

I’ve reached out to these realtors a few times now and got poorly composed automated responses which I responded to in kind and then never heard from them again.

Great service !! Frank & Tom are very accommodating and experts at what they do ! They make renting much much more easier !! Definitely going to them when I decide to purchase my first home !!!

I had a great experience with the Bouklis Group! I was referred by a colleague of mine who once worked with an agent by the name of Edwin Taveras. She gave me his number and I worked with him. He was great! I told him that I did not want to waste my time. Unlike the other agencies, I was able to meet with the agent at the place to view the apartment immediately. Most agencies want you to come in and to fill out paperwork and then go to see places — -WASTE OF TIME. Over the phone we discussed what I was looking for and he was able to show me a few potential places within my expectations. Everything was organized and my experience was a smooth one. I was in a rush to find a place and they managed to find the perfect apartment with immediate move in within a matter of days! I would most definitely recommend working Edwin and the Bouklis group to anyone looking within the Manhattan area.

I wish there is no star to give. untrustworthy. Images and information that they gave on the phone, all lie, even avenues and streets are wrong, they are late to their appointment, they’re incredibly unprofessional and rude, please don’t waste your time, they deceive you on the phone, and reality is NOTHING, don’t even bother to call them, they don’t even deserve your 1 sec or 1 cent!!!

These guys are absolutely awesome! I moved to NYC from Seattle. While in corporate housing, I started calling places for rent. It was awful! New York is FULL of Realtors who DO NOT return calls or answer their phones. I thought I was in some sort of twilight zone! Finally, I called one unit and left a message. I got a call right back from Frank. He talked to me about what I was looking for and asked if we could meet to go see places! Wow! Responsive! I went to his office, we went over places and then we were off on our adventure! Frank took me to see about 5 or 6 places! He knew the areas and buildings like the back of his hand. He knew subway entrances, parking situations, amenities, how long it would take to get to different areas of the city from each place, etc. He also didn’t try to bully me into places I wasn’t interested in. Honestly, at every single place we saw, he knew more about the surroundings than the actual person showing us the place! I was impressed. Excellent service, professional presentation and dedication to actually helping me find a place! THAT is what I’m talking about!
I’m not sure what the other reviewer went through, but I can tell you that I had a great experience with Frank and he WILL try to get you into what you are looking for. I also didn’t deal with Frank on the selling side of his business — only the rental side. However, the service as far as I’m concerned was awesome! Very responsive!

Hi Tom,
I’m STILL waiting for the ½ of the deposit you promised me personally. Do you remember that? Do you even care? Do you remember that it was YOUR agent who told me he had already looked at our reports and our co-​signers and told me he was going to be setting up a lease signing later in the week? Are you in the habit of employing people who make promises they cant deliver on? Are you in the habit of lying to people about returning their deposit money? Are you in the habit of collecting three people’s security deposits AFTER pulling their reports and telling the perspective tenants that they are going to be approved? Are you in the habit of collecting these deposits in cash without receipts? I’m STILL waiting for the money you promised me personally. Where is it sir? When can I expect it? Would you like me to come pick it up at your agency?

I wish I took the time to read the Unilocal reviews before I tried to email these guys. They flat out admitted via email that they were selling properties that did not have the amenties that they stated on their website. Frank from this group was incredibly unprofessional and rude.

Total bait and switch. None of the apartments on their websites are available. The ones that are are all way higher than the prices on the site. One apartment showed a floorplan, and the building we went to gave me a hard copy version of the floorplan. The one on the web site was altered to show larger numbers.
Total scam.