I do NOT recommend this company. I had the most bewildering experience with Simon and Yasen and I…read morehave never felt more disregarded as a client.
To start off, it's basically impossible to get a response from Simon. He initially promised me videos of the units I was interested in (since I was not in New York), but never sent anything. He also stopped responding to me.
I finally reached out to Yasen who, for his part, was more responsive. He asked me to come see the two apartments I was interested in at 5pm on 12/28, and tells me which apartment to meet him at first. I get there at 5pm sharp, and nobody's there. Yasen says he'll be down in a few minutes, because he's showing other clients. I wait about 10-15 minutes in the cold and he never comes down. Eventually, Simon shows up and lets me into the lobby, but tells me to wait downstairs while he checks to make sure that he can get into the unit (5C). I'm left downstairs for another 10-15 minutes, with no updates. Finally, Simon and Yasen come down with the other clients and tell me that they can't access 5C and that the super is unresponsive, but that they can show me a similar unit that's a 3bd instead of 2bd. I tell them that I'm trying to make a decision on an apartment soon, and that I don't want to sign any leases without seeing the actual unit. Simon says I should take a look at the 3bd and if I like it, he can try to get into the 2bd tomorrow and send me a video or I can come look. I take a look at the 3bd, like it a lot, but still need to see the 2bd. I go back downstairs, there's nobody there. No Simon or Yasen. I text Yasen and ask him if someone's going to be at the second unit (240 W 122nd Street). He responds "I'm 2 minutes away." I tell him that I still have to walk there and it'll take about 20 minutes. No response.
I walk for a total of 25 minutes in the dark and in the cold, and when I finally get there, surprise! nobody's outside the building. Thinking either realtor is just upstairs again, I call Yasen and he tells me that he had to go back with the other clients but that "he saw the super walking in and out and he should be able to let me in, just wait 5 minutes" and that "they left the apartment units unlocked so I can go check them out myself." I can't say i'm an expert on showing units but is this the norm? Letting clients check out units by themselves without anyone to provide any explanations or answer questions? Doubt it. Anyways, I wait 5 minutes and nobody comes out. Mind you, I'm a relatively petite female waiting outside an apartment building in an unfamiliar neighborhood at night. I was not comfortable waiting alone. I call Yasen and he asks me to wait for two more minutes. I wait two minutes and nothing. I call him back and he says he's going to have another tenant buzz me in. This works, but I go upstairs, and the unit is locked. Yasen tells me to try a lower unit. It's locked too. Yasen says he's with the other clients but he'll come back if I can give him a few minutes. Because I highly HIGHLY doubted he would actually be back in "a few minutes", I said no, that I was walking back home, even though I had walked 25 minutes for nothing. He tells me that he'll show me the prior apartment (242 W 109th) tomorrow at 5pm. I tell him that I need to make a decision on another apartment by earlier tomorrow. He says he can show me it by 12pm then. I ask him if he's sure he'll be able to access the unit by then, since I don't want to walk all the way there for no reason. He says he'll call me an hour before.
So here we are, it's 12 PM the next day, at the time the appointment was promised. I tried calling three times around 11:15, with no answer. I texted him at 11, no answer. This has truly been the most terrible experience I have had with a realtor.
Simon and Yasen's behavior was completely unacceptable for many reasons, but I'll list the three main ones:
1. If they can't handle two clients at once, they should not have double-booked showings. If they did, they should have attempted to accommodate both clients simultaneously. It makes no sense to choose which client to focus on while leaving the other to figure out alone.
2. There were TWO realtors, so there's no reason why one of them couldn't have helped me while the other helped the other clients. Not sure if something gave them the impression that I wasn't a serious client? I've seen 20 units in the past 2 days because I'm trying to find a place to move in to immediately. The irony is that out of all the apartments I've seen, 242 W 109th was in my top three (as far as I could tell since the unit I viewed wasn't the exact one).
3. No client should have to wait outside in unfamiliar neighborhoods at night for a total of one hour, especially not a female client. This experience had me feeling that Simon and Yasen, and perhaps Bold New York as a company, do not care about their clients' comfort and safety.
