Last year my boyfriend and I (and my daughter) were looking for a place in Queens to call home. We'd spent countless hours on Zillow (in hindsight, we probably should've widened our scope a little); not all places were bad but we were meeting some of the most unprofessional agents (one of whom actually told me "thank god I get a pension from Verizon because I can't live on the commission from this shit") and some pretty bad places (think holes in walls, blatant disrepair, addresses similar to, but not matching, what'd been posted) and while searching for an apartment, especially in NYC, is exhausting, we were really losing hope and getting desperate. We answered a posting for a place being brokered by Calvin Yan at Modern Spaces and set up a viewing for a three bedroom, first floor in Fresh Meadows. Calvin was a breath of fresh air: very polite, professional, upbeat, engaging and friendly; all the positive works...and sadly, it was all superficial. When we were inside, I asked about the neighbors upstairs and whether they were quiet. Calvin looked me dead in the eye and said "he's really quiet, there are no problems there. Several minutes later I asked again: "...and the guy upstairs isn't loud or anything"? and again, Calvin told me "not at all; they're good". Well folks, after signing the lease on April 22nd and moving in on April 25th 2018 (though the lease became effective on May 1st; probably should've questioned why he was so eager to give us the keys beforehand; I just thought the landlord was being very generous) on Memorial Day and after working a full shift, we were awakened at 5:30am the following morning by a brutally loud, very physical fight from our "quiet" neighbors upstairs...and this went on EVERY. OTHER. DAY. for almost the next full year. Our next door neighbor, upon welcoming us to the neighborhood, warned us that "the people upstairs fight a lot" but I didn't think it was anything like the horror show it was. After the third fight where we could hear their three kids screaming in terror, we called the landlord and then the police. The landlord told us he was well aware of the situation and had been for some time but since the previous tenant in our apartment played loud music, he never bothered to do anything about it. "Just call the police" was what he said. The police told us that they knew these people well after having been called to the house about them more than a dozen times in the previous year, that they're "deeply disturbed" and to stay away from them until they or we can move. My daughter is school aged and is not used to hearing screaming, yelling, cursing and someone getting their ass kicked by their man. Their children would run from one end of the house to another, stomping, screaming and dropping shit on the floors all night long, every day. We were miserable at this point because for the amount of money we were paying, we couldn't even enjoy the place and I was constantly on edge about my daughter not being able to sleep on school nights because of the fucking circus upstairs; I would have to take her to grandma's when it got really bad. Long story short, the landlord sold the building six months later to an Asian man who was finally able to evict these people but who also refused to answer either my or my boyfriend's direct questions, through both text and phone call, about whether he was planning on renewing our lease or not (he finally let us know two weeks before our lease was set to expire that he was not planning on renewing it)...and guess who brokered that sale? Yup; your boy, Calvin.
To end: this review is about him specifically. He straight lied, twice and then again a third time: the day he'd brought the prospective buyers to look at the place, he'd asked how I was liking the apartment, I told him why I wasn't and when I told him that the issues with these nightmare neighbors was common knowledge on the block he acted concerned, slightly contrite and feigned ignorance: "the neighbors never said anything". Maybe not but the fucking original landlord did and HE told YOU what was up! The original owner was looking to unload the place because of all the ongoing chaos and was desperate to get someone in so he could collect a few more months worth of rent until he could get rid of it and Calvin found the right suckers (us) to finagle into doing so. It's too bad that one person can reflect so poorly on an entire business but after my experience, I'd say they're a great agency for owners/sellers because they're willing to say and do anything, including blatantly lie, to get your place bought/sold but not so much so for renters as they certainly don't have a renter's best interests at heart; just their own commission. I wouldn't recommend Modern Spaces to anyone I even remotely care about because I imagine this "fuck people, get money" attitude is probably company standard. read more