Manhattan Connection

Craigslist bait and switch coupled with threatening emails for continuing to look at apartments on craigslist — before ever being shown or even scheduling seeing an apartment.

Karma is the best! Go with him for sure, no doubt about it!
1. Efficient. I have been searching for a good deal apt for a while, but never found a good deal until Karma shows me the one in midtown west during the second time I met him. From the first time he showed me the apt till I moved in, I only spend a week! He knows my preference so well and within two days he found me this great deal. It saves both of our time and works out perfectly!
2. Superior communication skill. He is always on top of things and always proactively communicate with me, which drives the whole process moving forward faster. Without his help, I might not be able to move in quickly with my procrastination.
3. Very very helpful and reliable. So after the second month I move in (it’s a 2yrs contracts), due to job transfer, I have to relocate to west coast within 2 – 3 weeks. The moment I told him my sudden change, he posted the ads right away and started showing people the place. He also help me to rearrange the house setting to increase more space, which make it easier to rent out.
I never see any agents go this far to help his clients to get their ideal place. He definitely will be your first choice if you want to find a place in NYC.

Our personal experience as clients deserves 3 stars, only because our agent and super happened to be decent human beings. My roommates and I moved in last year and they made the moving-​in process not so painful. It also blew us away that our agent was the first (and only) non-​scummy real estate agent we met after our long apartment hunt.
However, when it came time to move out of the apartment and work with the agency to show the place, it was a 1 star experience. They are all unprofessional (some were nice, but it just begs the question: where do real estate agencies find these people??) when showing the place to new would-​be tenants and in dealing with us. I understand that we would no longer be living there, but until the end of our lease, the unit is still our place of residence and that needs to be respected.
Despite the office having contact info for all 3 of us, NOBODY seemed to communicate this to each other as we would get bombarded with text messages being called the other’s names and being asked for different viewing times even though we gave them a list of openings. Agents without prior notice buzzed our door or would show up terribly late. One of them brought his dog (nice dog but the owner didn’t even let us know ahead of time and the dog was not on his leash so he roamed the apartment like he owned the place), another showed up looking (and smelling) like she hadn’t showered for days, and one agent even showed the apartment twice to the same client, with neither of them realizing this fact. All of them were completely clueless about the apartment (how hard is it to just call ahead of time to get some intel?) and we as the soon-​to-​be-​ex-​tenants who get nothing out of this, felt like we were left with the burden of selling the place to THEIR clients. Shoulda just paid US commission instead.
Manhattan real estate agents are the bane of the apartment hunting experience. Either you increase your budget or just suck it up. Can’t even sugarcoat it. If you have to deal with this firm, ask for Treena.

I was making the move into the city not knowing what to expect. I’ve reached out to a few brokers and agents in the hopes of find the perfect apartment for myself. I found that lot a of broker and agents are unwilling to go out of there way to accommodate me with my busy schedule. I work in urgent care where i work 14 hour shifts. I barley have time for myself let alone the time to find an apartment.
I was telling my friend how hard it was working with agents in the city who have no time for anyone unless it involves instant reward.
My friend told me about his hardships during apartment hunting and how lucky he was to have found this boutique brokerage called Manhattan Connections, he referred me to one of their agents, Joey Shimunov.
Not only was Joey willing to accommodate my schedule and help me find the perfect apartment, he also provided me with the best customer service with a friendly atmosphere.
Manhattan Connections as a whole is one of the friendlier and easier alternatives to deal with. I hope you all make the right choice and choose to work with them you won’t regret it!

Don’t waste your time because THEY will waste it for you. They are a rude bait-​and-​switch type shop. I called their agent Ergys (Gus) Qeramixhi to inquire about a 4 bedroom in Midtown West that they had listed on their website for at least a week. He said that he «thinks» it was rented two days ago and then started to ask about my search criteria. I asked him about the other six 4 bedrooms in Midtown West listed on their website under different listing IDs and with different agents [Joanna (Esther) Ben Touitou and Sergio (Sergey) Lucky] and he told me that they were the same one, even though the pictures on all listings were totally different. As if that wasn’t laughable enough, after telling him that I was specifically looking for a 4 bedroom, he offers to let me see a two bedroom he has in the same neighborhood. LOL. It’s shady agencies like this that give all Manhattan real estate brokers such a bad reputation.

Worth experience ever! My wife and I applied for an apartment with them, they couldn’t get us an apartment that we wanted and told us we were rejected by the management, without any explanation!! when I came to pick up our deposit, I’ve been told that the check is not ready and I they will mail it but I need to sign paper that I received the money back. After I refused they told that their bookkeeper will be back in the office in 30min and will cut me a check. I stayed in the neighborhood for almost an hour and when I came back it wasn’t ready. I waited for almost 2 hours to get my money back.
Don’t deal with them!

Avoid this place. Worst experience ever.
Pro Tip: make sure your broker signs a document saying their fiduciary duty is to you the renter, not the landlord. I was offered no such option by Manhattan Connection, one of many red flags. Your broker should have your best interest and not their own or another client’s at heart.

Replied to a Craigs List ad for a Upper East Side apartment that was listed under the No Broker section of available apartments. Sent an email to the broker to confirm that they are NOT a broker, only to receive the following response:
«my attitude is great toward people that dont waist my time. Please next time read the fee disclosure on the bottom. Every time i post studios for under 1800.00, 90 percent of you think that youll be able to find something on the caliber of my listings for no fee… You can imagine what kind of thick skin one must have being a broker and dealing with the a bunch of @$$&*%@…If you dont want to pay a fee with such a limited budget, how about you just dont live in NYC?» — Gary Talis
Even as a life long NY’er I have never encountered such a rude response to such a simple question. At the end of the day, he posted an ad in the wrong space and asked if we read the fee disclosures?

I needed an apartment ‘tomorrow’ and had budget and paperwork obstacles due to having to move quickly. Not a problem for Susan Yuen at Manhattan Connection!
I trailed the Craigslist apartment section and got little or no response from other Brokers.
Susan went above and beyond to ensure that I found and moved in to, not just an apartment, but a real home perfect for my budget, timeline and requirements. Susan is professional, knowledgeable in her field and extremely personable. I would recommend and certainly use Susan again, for any real estate needs.
It’s hard to find a ‘genuine’ real estate broker anywhere in the World. But if you’re in New York you’re in luck. Talk to Susan!

I have worked in the past with Kourtney Szary from the Manhattan Connection and all I can say is that she was always very honest and helpful. She is very professional and knows her real estate. She listens to her clients needs and makes sure to deliver to find them what they are looking for. If you need someone to help you, Kourtney is the person to go to.

I recently worked with Kourtney Szary of Manhattan connection. She was great. She listened to what I was looking for, she didn’t drag me all over the place showing me apartments I had no interest in. She respected my time & did not try to get me to spend more money. She really knows NYC real estate. I am reccommending her to several of my collegues.

Jim Blanchard made me believe my dream of living in Manhattan (not under my mother’s roof) could come true. He got a good crop of listings in my barely-​possible price range on the upper east side and was great at communication (always returned my texts pretty quickly), down-​to-​earth and super-​friendly. Unlike a lot of brokers who will try to hard-​sell you an apartment that clearly only the desperate will take, his is a sort of «what you see is what you get» attitude, because there’s honestly no point in trying to upsell a tiny studio (yes, we know it’s Manhattan and we know it’s a good location; that’s why we’re looking here.) The places he showed me were small (which was expected, considering my price range) but in pristine condition. While the management companies did not accept me, this was no fault of Jim’s, who tried his best to get me into each apartment I attempted to apply for through him. While in the end, I ended up finding an upper east side studio through another broker, I would definitely recommend working with Jim because he has great follow-​through, and continued to give me updates on new listings to the very end, and he was a breath of fresh air after working with shady brokers who promised to keep in touch (after trying to rent me apartments that had been on the market for months for a reason) and never did.

I have an apartment right above my bar and I get noise complaints a lot from the tenants. I contacted Joan Warner of Manhattan Connection when the last lease expired and requested that the new tenants to be someone who can pay the rent, works at night, immune to noise. Challenging requests! This is the description of my new tenants Joan found for me; musicians who works at night till 4am, who are the nicest, reliable people you ever want as your tenant.
I am so lucky to have met Joan and highly recommend her to anyone.
She is the best!

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN APARTMENT– DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE!!! They WILL waste your time. I left work in the middle of the day to see and apartment that WASN’T EVEN AVAILABLE for rent! and then Sol– the agent who worked with me showed me another apartment in my price range and confirmed more than 5 times that it was available for $ 1500– so after we RAN BY FOOT FROM 2ND AND 73RD STREET TO 90TH AND LEX in mid-​day heat– sweating– I see another apartment and I decide to take it. We go back to his office on 86^th (NOW I HAVE BEEN OUT OF MY OFFICE FOR 2 HOURS) to fill out the application– pay the fee and sign a lease. He puts on a BIG FAKE SHOW with his «assistant Candy» who I really think is his boss and they get on the phone with the «owner» and make believe that the price is going up. THEY CHANGED THE PRICE 3X WHILE I WAS THERE! I was sooooo pissed they wasted my time. THEY HAVE NO REGARD FOR ANYONE’S TIME. AND THEY LIE!!! They tried to talk me into taking the property at each higher price they said– it went from $ 1500 to $ 1524 to $ 1695!!! I AM NOT KIDDING. Bait and switch is correct! They wasted 3 hours of my time and basically told me to get lost!
I hope these people get what’s coming to them– I am going to trust in Karma!!!

A «bait and switch» via Craigslist real estate agency. But that seems to be how a majority of the real estate agencies here function, so i decided to at least see the options they had listed.
After an hour with one agent, I was told i could F— Off!
So I did. i turned and walked.
Feel free to use these guys, i can’t say how they are once you finally find a property. I just don’t enjoy an agent lying to me then cursing at me.