DSA Management Co.

I’ve been renting with DSA for the past year and a half, and I wish I wasn’t. We’ve had several unsanitary issues while renting, including a collapsed ceiling, overflowing garbage, cockroaches, and now mice. Every time we’ve had an issue with our apartment, DSA is not only slow to respond, but literally ignores our calls. Once we are able to get in touch with someone, usually after a few days of calling, voicemails, and submitting online complaints, they very lazily & casually tell us they’ll send someone to fix it. So far, they have NEVER been on time when they say someone is coming, and never call back when they say they will. I just wish they took their jobs more seriously.
Do not rent with them, or if you do, be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time spent calling, waiting, and living in conditions you shouldn’t be.

The repair finally happened after months with the same old machines that could and/​or should be broken in few days/​months (I’m nice)! To thanks us of our patience… they increased the price by 27% (calculation on demand). Thanks DSA for permitting me discover again Unilocal,improving my english through those comments !

I happen to find DSA Management on Unilocal out of complete serendipitous luck. And I have to say I am so grateful to have the opportunity to share my voice regarding the horrible treatment I received from this company.
The story I am about to tell you took place about four years ago…
I was living in the apartment on my own when my grandmother in Florida became ill and I started traveling to see her. My family lived in one of their properties for over 60 years — way before DSA had anything to do with it. I had been living there with my mother for decades, and then eventually my mother moved out and it was me and a roommate (which I could legally have).
The company took this opportunity to place a case against me saying that I was not living in the apartment and renting it out for money. They hired a private investigator who took photos of me with my overnight suitcases (I was never away for very long and it wasn’t even that often. And mind you, one should have the freedom to come and go as they please from their home), they harassed me, they were impossible to get a hold of, and a few occasions they didn’t cash my rent check and then I didn’t give it to them (the last 7 – 8 months I lived there I started taking my rent check to them in person to avoid them saying I wasn’t paying) — and then they handed me court papers. I couldn’t afford to hire a legal company and had to succumb to them buying me out. To add insult to inquiry, they told my roommate that I was making money off him (which I wasn’t). My roommate then put a case against me and I had to go to the city for help; luckily in that situation I was able to represent myself in the legal handling of things and everything was turned out fine (because I wasn’t doing anything wrong and had the paperwork to prove it).
This company forgets that although there are some tenants out there that scam the system, there are also tenants that are simply fortunate enough to partake in a good situation that is rightfully theirs.
If you work at the DSA and are reading this I urge you to begin viewing the people you deal with as humans, not dollar signs and possibilities.

I would give this place 0 stars if I could. I’ve lived in NY for 5+ years, and this is the worst experience I have ever had with renting. They made the experience a nightmare with their rude, unprofessional, and offensive «customer service.» DO NOT SIGN A LEASE WITH THESE PEOPLE. Even if it is a nice apartment, they will taint the experience and belittle you until you are miserable. The majority of the reviews reflect this and speak for themselves.

I currently live in a DSA apartment and am eagerly awaiting the expiration of my lease.
My apartment has been overrun by roaches and mice for several months — especially the kitchen which, despite my own daily thorough cleaning, is covered with insects and rodent feces.
Despite my constant and continued efforts, DSA remained unresponsive to the rodent problem for well over a month, telling me that there were no mouse holes to be found, despite my having directed him to the area under my sink where I frequently saw the mice. I was handed a stack of glue traps which I was told I had to set out on my own and also told that I would be responsible for disposing of the mice on my own (by either throwing them in the trash alive and stuck to the trap or walking the trap to an outdoor area and allowing the mice to come free with the use of cooking oil). After having caught and released 9 mice and a lot of screaming on my part, the super finally agreed to take a closer look. Five holes were found in my kitchen, several in the living room and one in the bedroom.
We are still living in a kitchen full of roaches however. The exterminator has allegedly sprayed but there have been no beneficial results. At this very moment, as a matter of fact, there is a roach crawling up into the cabinet where I keep my glasses.
I will never work with DSA again and would never recommend them to anybody I know.

It’s my pleasure to rave about Mr. Adam Steinberg. He has been upbeat accessible, positive and most-​of-​all HONEST in our dealings thus far. I have no contact with the realty company itself so i cannot comment on them but after meeting Mr. Steinberg while searching for an apartment i was so impressed by his straight talk I sought him out immediately when i decided I wanted to buy.
The review goes to 5 stars when i find a place!

This review really is a composite of two reviews: a five-​star review for Sadie Tull, who helped us find our new apartment, and a lesser review for the rest of the company. Sadie was exactly what we would want in a broker: someone truly committed to helping us find an apartment we’d like. We ended up with a no-​fee place that was slightly cheaper than what we were hoping to pay.
But DSA was in general a pain to work with. This was particularly brought into focus when we signed the lease. Sadie wasn’t there; instead we got Scotty, the «face» of the company. He didn’t care at all about us, instead he was only focused on DSA building good working relationships with the property mangers. It’s fine that he wants to grow his business, but that he was visibly annoyed that we were actually reading the leases rather than blindly signing them was just petty. We’d only work with this company again if Sadie stays with them.

Our apartment was a great value for the east village but …
1) they were very nice until the lease was signed. then the gloves came off.
2) they needed an architect to come test the wall, which is fine … but they didnt warn me so i came home to a gaping hole in my wall covered with a plastic bag! they entered my home without warning and completely disrespected the space. it took weeks for them to patch it up.
3) i needed to break my portion of the lease early, my roomates were staying. my interactions with them over this time was RUDE, UNPROFESSIONAL, DISRESPECTFUL.
they are crooks — just like any management company. which i get — its just frustrating how they make themselves out to be legitimate.

I’ve only dealt with DSA inquiring about an apartment. They have quick response but seems to lack options. Relatively helpful about guarantor information but I’ve had better experiences with other companies.

What a waste of time! My boyfriend and I wanted to move from the east village to the east village. We saw the sign that said walk-​ins welcome and did just that-​we walked in. There was a receptionist and one other person, an agent named Amanda that we got set up with. We filled out a paper and described what we were looking for – something bigger (and more expensive) than our current 1-​bedroom, preferably renovated.
I realize there was not a lot on the market at the time (June 2010 for July move-​in), but she said she had some stuff to show us. The next morning we met her and saw some of the most ridiculously shoddy, shabby, un-​renovated and TINY junior 1-​bedrooms (at best) and office spaces. She did apologize, since she had not seen any of the spaces beforehand. One of the spaces which was on the first floor actually had a sign in the window saying «OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT.» We would not have been able to fit a queen size bed in any of the places she showed us.
At our last stop, we stood out front while she tried to get us into the building. She had no key to the front door, so she tried ringing the buzzers on several apartments, saying she was a realtor and could they please let her into the building. Needless to say we heard some unkind words shouted at her over the speaker. Not sure I blame them! She did mention that she never had to do that before. The whole thing was embarrassing.
She left us saying she was on her way out of town for a few days and would call us as soon as she returned to show us more apartments… we never heard from her again.

My roommate and myself had been looking for an apartment for around a month. Both of us were stressed in more ways than one about finding the right place in the amount of time we had. We had hoped to find something in our price range that wasn’t too tiny or a disaster. Through Rent-​Direct New York, I found out about DSA Realty, and set up and appt. with realtor Alex Mecum to see some places. The second apartment he showed us was an absolute perfect fit. The area was what we wanted, the price fit our budget and the apartment had just been renovated and was in great shape! Alex got in touch with us to follow up and was available to show us the place again right away. With DSA’s help we were able to get the ball rolling very quickly. The lease was completed by Christine Carter, and DSA was truly incredible at staying in touch and letting us know that our getting the apartment we wanted was their priority. We were able to successfully lease the place, and we couldn’t be happier, not only with our new apartment but with DSA who helped us find it and made the whole experience incredibly enjoyable. Everyone that we met and worked with from the organization was friendly helpful and just overall there to make the rental process not a terrifying experience. I would highly recommend and definitely use them again!

I had an awful/​exhausting time trying to help my boyfriend find an apartment UNTIL we found DSA. They responded to my emails right away, met us early the next morning, and met a few more times over the course of the week til he found «the place» — which is spacious, clean, beautiful (nice molding and a fireplace), cheap as could be, and a great location in the East Village.
Alex helped us out, and he REALLY knew his stuff, didn’t waste our time looking at places that weren’t what we wanted, and was never pushy. 95% of their places are no-​fee, too. (Such a contrast in every way to other brokers and companies). They followed through politely via email, were always available, and left us feeling really satisfied with the experience.

DSA Realty/​DSA Management has been described on other sites online as a ‘slumlord’, and as a former tenant, I would agree 100%. I recently moved out of my DSA apartment in New York largely because of how difficult they are to deal with, and I’m very happy that I’ve moved elsewhere.
The first clue we had to the complete lack of caring whatsoever by DSA was the way they responded to any requests for apartment fixes or upgrades. In the winter, DSA does the absolute bare-​minimum needed to heat the apartment, so on nights where the outside temperature is 41 degrees (1 degree above 40), they gave no heat whatsoever, since they controlled the radiators. Coupled with the terrible condition of the windows in my apartment (which they made no attempt to fix, even after several requests), there were several mornings where I woke up to an apartment that was about 55 degrees.
What really sealed the deal of my hatred for DSA was dealing with them personally at any time. The DSA co-​president (Aric L) that handled our building is perhaps the worst person I have ever dealt with from a customer service standpoint. Whenever we had any request or complaint, he would flat out refuse and go to the level of **personal insults**. My roommate called when our lease was set to expire and asked about a lower rate (which was very reasonable considering the condition of the real estate market), and this guy told him the following:
«I hope you move out. If you move out, I’m going to put up a wall and turn your apartment into a 3 bedroom and get even more per month. Obvious you have no concept of the price of oil, rate of inflation or the value of the dollar. I have a real problem with you coming in and trying to change the rate when you clearly have no concept of the market conditions.»
My roommate, a trader at a major Wall Street firm, somehow managed to avoid going off on him completely, but that incident sticks out in my mind as one of many horribly negative encounters with DSA’s management staff (and this was a co-​president of the company).
The bottom line is, if you see a DSA apartment, make sure that it’s really exactly what you want and you understand what else you’ll be getting yourself into. If you’re even CONSIDERING joining DSA as an employee, even in this job climate, I can’t recommend enough to steer far away, because if they treat their CUSTOMERS like this, how do they treat their employees?
*Edit: Wow! I’m amazed at how many people have private messaged me with similar experiences! Just another reason for potential tenants to stay away!