Smartny Realty LLC

Liars, scammers, and time wasters. Both Josh and his pal Jake are manipulative sons of b’s who are out to play mind games and leave you hanging waiting like a darn fool. I put an application and downpayment for a rental and been «waiting» for the landlords final decision for over 5 weeks now. Josh is the agent I dealt with. Now I’m waiting for my refund check and they wont respond? Wtf stay away from them! Also these guys float under various realty company disguises. Check out the reviews for jb realty or just search Josh Brick and you will see what I’m talking about.

Wasn’t impressed at first. .. kept exchanging text messages with these guys, based on listings they posted, and nothing seemed to be working out. Felt like they were flakes. But when I finally met them, it was all good. Worked with both Jake (Weissman?) and Josh — just really good people. Honest, hard-​working family men. I don’t know if my case was unique, but through them I ended up finding the PERFECT apartment for me, exactly what I was looking for, at a great price, with a very strict but fair (and respectable) landlord. Rare to find honest brokers and landlords in New York. I count myself very blessed.

DO NOT USE THE BROKER! He will lie, change already discussed prices, and add additional fees way down into the leasing process. Look up more reviews on Unilocal for Joshua Brick, Brick Joshua, Smart NY Realty and JB Realty. He operates under different business names probably for this reason. Keep a look out for his phone number and address 1837 Flatbush Ave and do not go near this guy. He also has a partner named Steve that runs the same games.
Josh set up an appointment with us for an apartment and never showed up. When we got there he told us the door was open in the unit and to go ahead in. As we looked through the apt and waited on him, he later called and said he went ahead to another appointment. Not sure why he thought that was ok. We called him back (while he was supposedly in his other appointment) told him we loved the apt and wanted to confirm the pricing and fees. Josh confirmed the apartment was $ 1400, $ 1400 broker fee and only a $ 100 app fee to which we would get back if we were denied for the apt for some reason. After we filled out the application, sent over our information and paid the app fee, Josh then told us that the owner wanted $ 1500 for the apt. After asking what we could do to work out the miscommunication, Josh came back and said the owner would go down to $ 1450, but the owner would no longer pay the $ 200 and $ 250 app to the management company, so we had to pay it. Eventually we got in touch with the owner and the owner said he never made any adjustments in the pricing and Josh only told him that we wanted the apt for $ 1450, so he agreed. Feeling better having communicated with the owner, we decided to simply ignore Josh and move forward with application, still willing to pay him the broker fee. We asked to see the apt again and hours before the apt, Josh decided to send his partner Steve to meet us, one of is multiple efforts to avoid talking and meeting us in person.
As days went by and no word as to what the next steps in the app process would be, we became worried and asked Josh again to review the process. He then told us that none of the fees we had paid, the initial $ 100 app fee and then the additional $ 200 app fee were never refundable (although, at the beginning of the process he said any fees would be refundable). This story goes on longer than I would like to continue writing. We ended up withdrawing from the application process after other factors surrounding this apt made us feel uncomfortable.
While working with him, you will notice that he prefers to deliver info that is hard to deal with like pricing via text, so he doesn’t have to talk to you in person or over the phone. He puts on a great impersonation of a good person, but will do anything to his paycheck at your expense.
Point of the story is Joshua Brick is the scum of the earth.

I just moved from North Carolina. I don’t know anything about real estate in Brooklyn. I was referred to this realty by a friend. I saw two apartments near Brooklyn College that I fell in love with but could not afford with the brokers fee. Josh was honest with me and told me that he could not negotiate the months rent to a lower price because I did not have great credit. Although I was not approved for my first pick I am happy with my second choice and Josh agreed to lower the brokers fee. Thank you Josh I was definite need of a place!

I found an apartment on Streeteasy and contacted the broker who happened to work for Smart NY Realty. When I met her to see the apartment she promised there would be updates to the flooring, bathroom, and cabinets. After placing my first deposit and application she texted me a few days later to surprise me with another month’s deposit on top of the first deposit, first month’s rent and the broker’s fee. After that she was nearly impossible to get a hold of. When it was time for me to get my keys I had to chase her down. When I couldn’t get her to answer her phone I had to actually go to the property management of the building and explain to him I couldn’t get her to answer her phone and figure out a time to meet to exchange the broker’s fee for my keys.
After I finally got my keys, I went in and NONE of the updates had been done. The super told me they had no intention of updating the apartment at all. When I contacted the broker’s boss she had told him she never told me they were going to do the updates, even though I have a text message proving it. When I sent him a screenshot he never responded. Seems like it’s a business practice to ignore customers.
This company will cheat you, they’re liars and completely unprofessional. Go elsewhere, believe me. This whole situation was a complete nightmare.

I was looking for a place 2 bedroom apartment with my sister and these people were initially very accommodating: they answered all of our questions, they reassured us about pushing our application through, they told us that there were no other applicants for the place we were looking for. After we applied– giving all of our information including past three statements from checking and savings accounts, last 3 pay stubs, letter of employment, 2 references, last two years W2 and federal tax form, AND paid a $ 100 non-​refundable fee, they had the nerve to tell us that they found a «stronger applicant.» We told them all of our financial information ahead of time! They assured us that everything was fine. Every time we expressed any concern, they would always say «no problem!» If they had concerns, they should have told us and then we wouldn’t have wasted our time, money, and energy applying. Never working with these people again.