Standard Living Realty

If I could leave no stars I would. I put a deposit down on an apartment that Felix showed me. I called and text him for weeks after and he gave me the run around. He kept telling me that the landlord had not reviewed the applications yet (although he told me he had the exclusive rights to show the apartment). I am notified when an inquiry is made on my credit report and the landlord never ran my credit. After a few weeks, he wasn’t reaching out to me and I was tired of calling him so I cancelled the deposit check. I’m happy I paid via check. Beware of this firm

I just came from an appointment with a realtor form this agency and was very disappointed. The posting was a misrepresentation of what the apartment actually was, probably one reason was because the realtor didn’t even see the apartment before showing it to me. Even worse, she started coming up with excuses of why it was misrepresented. At least admit it. It was a complete waste of time.

Our experience happened a while ago but it stung enough to be memorable. It’s similar to what everyone here is saying– They show you a great apartment, take money from you and then «oh wow the apartment is not available, let me show you another under completely different terms.» It’s dictionary bait and switch executed perfectly by them.
Here’s the thing I learned that I thought was worth sharing. Another broker for a more reputable company told me SLR was trying to steal their exclusive properties. They would go to properties they knew were for rent by someone else and try to rent them. Therefore, they may be showing places they don’t have the right to show and when push comes to shove, they can’t rent those properties. They take money from everyone as deposits on great apartments and every once in a while someone will stick with them and find a place, I guess that makes it worth while.
Bottom line, SLR has so many listings. Many seem too good to be true. And when that’s the case they usually are.

Scammers! Applied for an apartment, put down the deposit and $ 50 credit check. Was told two days later the landlord wanted more in rent than what was advertised. Apparently SLR knew this at the time we put the money down. Got the deposit back but not the credit check fee of $ 50. Was told another apt in the building might be available, but couldn’t tell me when the tenant was moving out. WTF? The agent didn’t even respond after I asked for a ball park date. Totally a shady operation. Run, don’t walk, in the other direction.

i didnt think it was even possible for a real estate company to have low quality or be able to scam people because its either they find you a place or they dont… so how bad could it be? boy was i wrong.
So I find this studio basement apt for $ 900 on craigslist and contacted them. They called me back and we set up a time to view the apt. The first thing that was off was that their email address wasn’t even a company domain. It was a gmail address. Secondly, on the phone, the broker tries to play it off like the apt was $ 1,000 when I had to correct him and say the apt was listed as $ 900. So I view the apt and make a decision to take it. He tells me I would have to put down $ 500 to take it off the market and so I did when we went back to their office after the viewing. They charged me a $ 50 credit check fee which I could’ve done myself but they insisted on letting them do it to speed up the process. The next day I get a call from them telling me there is another person offering more for the apt and that I would have to pay at least $ 950 for the apt to be further considered. I asked how were there people offering more if I put down a deposit to take it off the market. They claim that there are people going directly to the landlord and offering more (bullshit). So I refused to offer more for the rent and instead offered to move in as soon as possible and sign the lease immediately since that other person haven’t even put down a deposit yet. Next day, I skim through craigslist and still see the apt listed! not only still listed, but listed for $ 1,000!!! Couple days later, they give me a call back and tell me that the apt is no longer available due to a flooding (this is obviously a lie). So I pretty much paid a deposit that was pointless because they didnt even take it off the market, tried to raise the rent on me after a firm agreement on paper, robbed me $ 50 for a stupid credit check, and pretty much wasted 1 week of my time in my life. Everything I signed with them was a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME because theydidn’t follow through with ANYTHING. Oh and I could’ve taken another apt that I was looking at but now I can’t. DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE.

I just had an incredibly creepy experience with this company as well, but it was different enough that I thought it warranted a new review.
I’ve been looking for rentals with my girlfriend for the past few weeks, and we have responded to a HUGE number of craigslist ads. Most don’t email back, but we’ve gotten lots of calls, most of which I are from realtors. I tend to lose track of which realtor went with which apartment (they always have more listings) so I just give my requirements and ask them to email me with listings. One of these phone calls was from «Mark» with Standard Living. I didn’t think much of it, just asked for him to email me with listings or an appointment to come in to the office and look at listings.
Today, things got really weird. I received an email from «Kristina,» no signature, no introduction, no context, FROM A GMAIL ACCOUNT WITH NO REFERENCE TO AN AGENCY saying she had a listing in Fort Greene that she wanted to show me. I shot back with «Could you send me the original listing? I just want to remember which realtor you are.» Her response: «You called me.» Again, no context. Also, entirely not true. I make it a point not to call ANY agents and let them contact me in response to my emails.
A quick google search placed her name and email combo at Standard Living. A quick survey of the listings I’d responded to revealed that I’d never responded to any of their listings, nor to the email, etc. All listings seemed legitimate, so it’s impossible to tell which this was, but it was creepy, scammy, and entirely unprofessional. This is an agency to stay away from entirely. There are tons more in the Slope that are incredibly helpful and professional and whose fees are reasonable.

The reviews here freaked the bejezus out of me — the apartment we applied for through SLR did not come through, so I asked the agent we were dealing with for the application — the broker handed us off to him when it came time for the paperwork — when we could get our sizable deposit back. He said that the check would have to be issued by the broker and it would happen «at the end of the week». I said we could drop by on Thursday or Friday, and to have him tell me a time to come. He replied that he’d still have to communicate with our broker to see when he could write the check. Throughout the week, neither this guy nor our broker returns our calls. We were pretty nervous about the whole situation as they’d had our money in their account for five days already.
Last Friday, my boyfriend biked to their office on 12^th St/​3^rd Avenue and the accountant, who was in the office alone, issued the check for a full refund on the spot. Apparently she has a stack of papers on her desk of people who need checks written to them so she just asked for his last name and that was all there was to it. Sucks that the apartment didn’t come through, but I was hugely relieved that it wasn’t a Herculean task to get our deposit back, and that our dealings with SLR are over.

I’d leave no stars if I could. It doesn’t matter if you have good credit, make good money, have great references — the fact of the matter is these people don’t know what the hell they are doing, and they treat potential tenants like marks.
Luis with SLR showed us an apartment that we liked and we started the paperwork on it. Luis reassured us we were good to go.
A few days later Luis called and said the landlord didn’t want to pay his fee so we would have to, then he said the landlord wanted to increase the rent but the fee wasn’t the problem, then the fee and the original quote for the monthly rent were both different… my boyfriend and I were fed up and confused so we told Luis nevermind.
Two days later, Luis calls to tell us the landlord wants to know if the original deal is still on the table, however we’d have to pay half the agent fee, and move into the apartment 10 days early. We said ok, and went to the SLR office to sign the lease. While we’re signing, we notice on the rider that is says «No Pets,» and we have a dog, and we’d been totally forthright about the dog from the get-​go. Oh, it’s the landlord’s mistake Luis says, they’ll get it taken care of. Yeah, after sitting at the neighboring bar for 2 hours they got it taken care of.
So: Lease is signed, $ 5,000+ deposit is given, we have the keys, Luis assures us the deal is in the bag, and we’re due to start moving in on the 20^th. We stop looking for apartments. A week goes by, and two days before we’re due to move in, Luis calls to tell us the landlord has decided to rent the apartment to his daughter… what??? We were flabbergasted. Not only had we exerted a ton of time and effort into this apartment, not to mention put down a bunch of money, but we’d lost an entire week of search time and we have to be out of our current apartment in 11 days!
So now we’re on the search again and I’m praying we won’t be homeless or we won’t have to settle for a crappy apartment just so we won’t be homeless. He did give us our deposit back, HOWEVER I won’t be surprised if the check bounces. We’re also out $ 100 for the credit checks, and I don’t buy for a minute his bs about the landlord’s daughter.
Save yourself a ton of trouble and don’t bother dealing with this company.

Our apartment search with Standard Living reality was with Luis who was very polite, professional, disclosed all fees upfront and most importantly didn’t pressure.
After putting a deposit down on one place, there was some back and forth between the landlord and the Standard Living office which ultimately ended in not getting the apartment (never did find out what happened). Needless to say I was a little worried that they still had my money, but in the end Luis showed us another place we loved and transferred over the deposit to the new place.
Once we started dealing with the management company that’s where the «hurry up and wait» started. Each time I finished the necessary forms, there was another round of «we also need this filled out IMMEDIATELY». Even days after our lease was signed and keys were transferred; I still got multiple forgotten forms to fill out.
All in all, our experience with Luis was great but I couldn’t help feeling that the operations at the SL office were a little JV league. Having dealt with exclusive agent brokered apartments in the past, though more expensive I found to be considerably much less stress than dealing with broker free for alls.

After threatening legal action, SLR finally sent security deposit check. However, they claimed that we did $ 1000 worth of damages and made up a phony bill – claiming that they cleaned the damaged floors, walls and every other thing imaginable just to take half of our deposit. I would have taken them to court, but my roommate was happy with receiving any money from this dishonest realty company. As a second year resident of NYC, I have learned my lesson. Document everything. Take pictures of everything before and after you move in. The biggest lesson, however? Continually warn people about the dishonest business practices of SLR.

It took 4 months of calls and texts to get my deposit back. They picked up the phone all the time though, and seemed very eager to help. Realty agencies in NYC are often unresponsive, so I give them some credit.

Well, I see there are quite a few awful reviews of this place and while I didn’t get top notch service, I had a decent experience with them.
The Good: My roommate and I found the ad on CL and went to check it out. It was an open house and we were the first to show up. We decided to jump on the apt and headed up to their offices to give them a refundable deposit.
SLR let us use a personal check even though that is against their policy. They also let us provide our own credit checks so we wouldn’t have to pay the fee.
THE BAD: Everytime I talked to them I felt like it was the first time. I had to explain things more than once.
I am thinking that my experience was better because the actual owner of the apartment is better. Either way, I’m living in a 2BR in Park Slope right now that I got without having to pay any type of fee.

Run away! Run away! Don’t do it. Don’t call these people. They’ve got a ton of listings on Craigslist. I called on one of them and spent a day being driven around by a bored agent who showed me and my friend four places. We had told her we were looking for a no-​fee 2br in prospect heights or thereabouts with a max rent of around 2200, so not unreasonable requirements. I mean, we weren’t trying to live in Park Slope. She started out showing us two complete crapholes that she was clearly trying to unload. When it became obvious we weren’t going to jump on either of the apartments with crumbling molding and filthy stoves, she showed us a slightly less dingy apartment that was nevertheless unacceptable. Then she showed us a really beautiful apartment which came with — surprise! — a broker’s fee and which was out of our price range. We went home, I found an apartment being rented by-​owner, and now I’m happy and much richer than I would be using an agent.