I worked at a Synoptic managed building in 2017 as a Doorman on Central park West. I am very surprised to find negative reviews, I now feel that it is necessary to share my experience about Synoptic. Their staff was always competent, professional, courteous, prompt and friendly in responding, so I was very pleased to work in a building that was so exceptionally well managed. I have never met any other property managers that were so caring and so hands on with the building and very attentive to the tenants needs. David Steinberg the CEO/Founder of Synoptic was very involved made himself available during the reconstruction phase that the building was undergoing which can be exhausting to any tenant. He would stopped in for random checks to make sure all was moving smoothly which is very noble of him. I unfortunately as I was undergoing heart surgery and reassured job security in a non union building even though I would be out for at least a month. David with incredible generosity during my hospitalization contacted my wife to get an update hours after my surgery. Not the managers or his assistant but the president of the company. Now I am a big believer that a company is as good as its CEO. Although I have not worked for Synoptic for a year now I highly recommend this company for those looking for work and for tenants that may have any doubts considering the harsh reviews. My experience has made me very fortunate to have witnessed an impeccable organization strive to make their employees and tenants happy. read more

If i can give a zero star I will. This management company is extremely difficult. Not helpful, not responsive when you need it, and def. not easy to work with when you want to renovate the unit as an owner. They will try their best to delay you and their best to find ways to charge you extra money. Why in the hell are we paying for a management company that's supposed help us out but instead bringing us pain and stress everyday? Can't wait to join the board and switch the management company. If you're thinking of renting/purchasing, run away if you see the building is being managed by Synoptic. read more

Looking at the one raving review posted about Synoptic, it is evident that its WRITTEN BY a BOARD MEMBER who is either being blindsided around Synoptic's deceptive practices or is somehow an associate of Synoptic as is the Board Treasurer of a building in Upper Manhattan who was also hired as a financial contractor of Synoptic! (talk about poor ethics all around). Our building has been with Synoptic for several years and has had a very poor experience. They are NEGLIGENT, UNRESPONSIVE, LACK TRANSPARENCY AND HAVE NO ATTENTION TO DETAIL. Further, they treat their employees (e.g., doormen) very poorly to the point that they want to go to the Labor Department for unfair pay and lack of sufficient sick time and holiday allowance. But their workers are afraid to do so due to the fear of being fired. Yet SYNOPTIC HAS BOARD MEMBERS OF THE BUILDINGS THEY MANAGE IN THEIR PAYROLL: TALK ABOUT MURKY BUSINESS PRACTICES! Synoptic is always coming up with new "time sensitive projects" and unforeseen emergencies which they finish poorly and are extremely costly requiring imposed assessments. Agree with the other reviewer that they always suspiciously hire the same contractors who happen to always come in at the lowest competitive price (or so claims David Steinberg, the owner of Synoptic of course) and finish projects with little/no attention to detail and their contractors' workers are extremely rude unless you are part of the Board. Synoptic's strategy is to serve a building's Board members well and no one else, particularly the Treasurer. To the degree that the TREASURER of one building managed by Synoptic Uptown is also an EMPLOYEE of Synoptic! Talk about the highly dubious ethics of the Treasurer and unscrupulous business practices of Synoptic! Other friends in buildings in the UWS and Uptown have also had similar negative experiences with Synoptic. My sense is that they appear very competitive on price as they take a percentage of large projects they "invent" as well as kick-backs from their contractors. Hard to prove of course as highlighted by another reviewer. But not impossible with a good accountant and government agencies if possible to gather the resources. I wish that they at least finished their jobs right. One often has to check the work of the contractors they hire as they are always sub-par, often need to get redone and look very cheap. Steinberg, the owner of Synoptic, never seems to come check the quality of the work of the folks he hires. He just cares about manufacturing reasons for building wide assessments for large projects so that he can collect more fees. My building is finally waking up to their poor ethics and negligence. If you haven't hired them, please do yourself and your building a favor and run away as fast as you can. If you have retained them already, drop them asap as there are several alternatives of cost effective, honest management agents that won't put your building and wallet through this absolute misery. If anyone has a recommendation on NYC agencies/resources available to stop the CORRUPT PRACTICES of management agents, please message me! Thanks read more

I've served on the board of my Upper West Side coop for over a decade. We're a small coop, 7 brownstones and were self managed for many years. Deciding to hire a management company was a huge decision for us. Synoptic came highly recommended. We made the decision to go with them and have never looked back. Their property managers are very responsive to any issue that comes up in our old buildings. They have strong expertise about what older buildings need to maintain and how to schedule capital improvements in a way that's most cost efficient and makes sense. We've been happy with the sub contractors they recommend. Their managing agent Andrea Phillips is wonderful to work with on board packages. She gives informed guidance during the document loading phase and quickly turns finished packages over to the Board for review. read more

We rented an apartment with Synoptic for a year and they were pretty great, especially when it comes to nyc management companies. If something broke, they fixed it very quickly. They have an easy way to pay rent and set up automatic payments. Most of all, they were super flexible with our lease (we had to move and they let us extend our lease to the same day our new lease started so we didn't have to pay double rent for even one day!). This sounds silly but is really unheard of in Manhattan. Just taking one star off because they are slow to answer emails and it is difficult to get in touch with the super. Overall very pleased with this company and would recommend renting from them. read more

Andrea is the best person to help you get through stressful times with your property. Andrea genuinely cares and makes every task a breeze. We are so happy to have Synoptic Management as our management company. With Andrea on board you can't go wrong. read more

They don't communicate with the people who they're doing the work for, they are slow to respond (if they ever respond). The construction crews they use have caused damage to my internal apartment, although the construction was external, and it was clear that instead of taking responsibility for the damage caused by their crews, they point fingers at 3rd party contractors, and request money for repairing the damage they cause. read more

My wife and I lived through several years of the absolute, unmitigated Synoptic nightmare. Surprised to see a recent positive review about Synoptic, I have no doubt that free apartment maintenance/handyman work is being provided by Synoptic in exchange of the reviewer's goodwill (a classic trick that this management agent uses with 1-2 Board members to pull wool over their eyes). Synoptic is clearly trying to burry the reviews pointing to their long track record of corruption and negligence. Real estate professionals anywhere are a mixed bag but Synoptic ranks among the all-time worst of my life experiences. We've lived in Europe, Asia, Chicago, New Jersey and now lived in New York City for over fifteen years. We've moved many times, bought and sold a house, and bought and sold a luxury condo. Working with Synoptic was worse than going to the DMV because when the DMV makes you wait in line for a long time your car doesn't necessarily lose value and they don't try to scam you out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's really just an inconvenience. Synoptic was extremely unresponsive (my wife, who served on board, would have to call them five or ten times to get a single cryptic response). They were disorganized, losing blueprints and keys. They seem to have shady deals with contractors who will tell you that X amount of work needs to be done at a cost of Y extravagant dollars, when if you get other opinions they will be in an entirely different range. Of course, this sort of thing is difficult to prove. For example, they insisted repeatedly our less-than-ten-year-old roof with a twenty-year-warranty needed to be completely redone. We opted instead for regular maintenance and patching based on a second opinion, and the roof is fine five years later. It will probably need to be redone at some point years down the road but not right now. We understand that building management is not a high margin business and it may not attract the most motivated or exceptional people. However, many owners (and spoken with other boards who used Synoptic as well) felt over and over that they were being lied to, scammed, manipulated and stolen from. This is very difficult to prove. When we switched management companies it was not all sunshine and roses but a much, much happier experience. Avoid this company if you can. If the decision has already been made and you think you are stuck with them, don't believe it. They'll tell you about institutional knowledge and continuity but it is nonsense. We got our new team up to speed in no time at all. These people are crooks; it would be great if we lived in a world where law enforcement had an unlimited budget to look into their conversations with contractors. I bet what would be uncovered is a lot of kickbacks and unneeded work. If only they actually did do the work they were supposed to do, we wouldn't still be so upset years later! Wonder how many times they have listed on Yelp only to pull it down once people notice and start commenting? Note that they used the bizarre abbreviation / misspelling "Managmnt" on their own Yelp listing. They may indeed have had listings in the past which they deleted to game honest ratings. read more

Been in a Synoptic managed building for a little more than a year now and it's easily been my best experience since moving to NYC (about 6 years ago). We've had one or two maintenance requests that couldn't have been handled quicker or with more care. It's clear they pride themselves on knowing tenants and taking that extra step to make sure we feel heard and looked after. With all of the nonsense you get with shady landlords and sterile management companies in NYC, Synoptic is a welcomed change of pace. read more

My building has used Synoptic for about 2 years now. They are PHENOMENAL. Being President of my Co-Op Board, I work with them on an almost daily basis. Very professional, great response time on getting back to me, very knowledgable on everything, they recommend great vendors (plumbers, contractors, engineers, electricians, etc.). My building had 3 other management companies before Synoptic, all who were very much less than par. I started to assume that this was just how building management firms were. But Synoptic really came in and changed my mind. I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone looking for building management. read more

Synoptic was an absolute unmitigated nightmare. Real estate professionals anywhere are a mixed bag but they rank among the all-time worst of my life experiences. I've lived in Germany, Japan, China, Chicago, New Jersey and I've lived in New York City for over fifteen years. I've moved many times, bought and sold a house, and bought and sold a luxury condo. Working with Synoptic was worse than going to the DMV because when the DMV makes you wait in line for a long time your car doesn't necessarily lose value and they don't try to scam you out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's really just an inconvenience. Synoptic was extremely unresponsive (our board would have to call them five or ten times to get a single cryptic response). They were disorganized, losing blueprints and keys. They seem to have shady deals with contractors who will tell you that X amount of work needs to be done at a cost of Y extravagant dollars, when if you get other opinions they will be in an entirely different range. Of course this sort of thing is difficult to prove. For example, they insisted repeatedly our less-than-ten-year-old roof with a twenty-year-warranty needed to be completely redone. We ignored them, opting instead for patching, and the roof is fine five years later. It will need to be redone at some point but not right now. I can't remember all the frustrating times we had to deal with them, thankfully it seems like I have repressed most of it by now. I understand that building management is not a high margin business and it may not attract the most motivated or exceptional people. However many owners (and I've spoken with other boards who used Synoptic as well) felt over and over that they were being lied to, scammed, manipulated and stolen from. This is very difficult to prove. When we switched management companies it was not all sunshine and roses but we were much, much happier. Avoid this company if you can. If the decision has already been made and you think you are stuck with them, don't believe it. They'll tell you about institutional knowledge and continuity but it is nonsense. We got our new team up to speed in no time at all. These people are crooks and I wish we lived in a world where law enforcement had an unlimited budget to look into their conversations with contractors. I bet what would be uncovered is a lot of kickbacks and unneeded work. If only they actually did do the work they were supposed to do, I wouldn't still be so pissed off years later! I wonder how many times they have listed on Yelp only to pull it down once people notice and start commenting? Update: Note that they used the bizarre abbreviation / misspelling "Managmnt" on their own Yelp listing. They may indeed have had listings in the past which they deleted. read more

I recently came across the Synoptic reviews by chance as I googled to find their phone number since I could not access it on my cell. Very surprised to find a negative review, I now feel compelled to share my experience about Synoptic. I am not a board member, nor is there any private interest that ties me to Synoptic. Synoptic has managed since a very long time (at least 20 years) a building where I have a loft. Their staff has always been competent, professional, courteous, prompt in responding and friendly, so I was very pleased they were managing our building. But that is only half the story. I really discovered how exceptional they are in this last year: there was a major fire in our building that took 100 firemen to put out. The CEO of Synoptic has spent months working with fire investigators, making himself available with incredible generosity. And since months, to aid the reconstruction of 5 floors, he is coordinating, supervising, helping, supporting not just unit owners, but also the contractors hired by unit owners . Even my architect, who had never met anyone from Synoptic before, commented that he has never seen a management company so involved, so caring and so hands-on. To look at things the positive way, I thank my lucky stars that despite the bad luck and devastation of the fire that destroyed our building, Synoptic was there for us and able to rescue us with such expertise and care. I consider myself very fortunate they manage our building. read more

The positive review must be written by either an employee or a friend of the owner of Synoptic Management. Our building has had a terrible experience with them. They are unresponsive, are always coming up with new "emergency projects" which they finish poorly and deface parts of the building, and always suspiciously hire the same contractors who happen to always come in at the lowest competitive bid. A previous review on another site referred to the fact that Synoptic's trick is to serve the Board members well and no one else. That review disappeared in the last week. Perhaps they are using the services of reputation management on-line services firm to hide the truth. Acquaintances and friends in other buildings in the UWS and Harlem have also had similar negative experiences with Synoptic. They have even been kicked out of managing some buildings. For instance, in a building in West Harlem they allegedly told the neighbors that they needed to change their entire roof (which would involve an assessment and associated fees for Synoptic and their "contractors"), upon a second opinion the roof was and is in perfect shape. Please be very careful when hiring or remaining with this firm. read more