I have rented two apartments from Hamel Realty and both rentals were a positive experience. He is a 'hands on' guy who not only manages a business but is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and fix things himself. I remember one weekend pipe freeze situation where he showed up himself at 6am on a Sunday and got our water back. Also, the tenant downstairs was a woman with a physical disability and he would be down there helping her with the littlest stupid things for free. I would strongly recommend Hamel Realty to prospective renters and buyers (he helped me find a 2 family house for under market value, he knows Albany real estate like the back of his hand). read more

I'D GIVE 0 STARS IF I COULD!!!! They will show the apartment while you are still occupying it, just an uncomfortable thing. I was told they were having a showing. Which is generally 1 or 2 people, they gave us a $100 gift card so we could leave the house so they can show it, but this was not a showing I had more that 20 people in my apt all at once for an open house! Guess who had to clean up after 20+ people that had been walking in and out my house, yup me. My rugs had mud on them and floors where filthy. Maintenance is mostly prompt but cheap (Called about heat not working at 11am didn't get it fixed till 9pm next day...yes we were freezing and yes 2 days no heat) they gave us space heaters, cause I complained and they couldn't be used cause it blew the circuit every time it was plugged in. TAKE PHOTOS of your apt.!!!! Tried to get money out of my deposit saying I left crumbs on stove and cabinets. But also they mentioned how clean my apartment was and that they like showing it before I completely left. I had photo proof showing otherwise. I also had to clean the cabinets myself when I first moved they were dirty. Asked to look at there photos, I don't think there was any. Too much interaction with landlord than I should have. Some of the maintenance work could've been avoided again being cheap. Privacy isn't something you'll really have, I haven't gone by 2 months without having maintenance or the landlord walk into my apartment. Yup I hate it here! Ps. I pay my rent on time, very clean tenant. 2nd apartment with them. 1st apt was in and older house completely outdated, problem started when I got the 2nd. I guess the better the apartment the bigger the nuisance. Good Luck. read more

Stay away from Bill Hamel... he's dishonest and will "yes" you to death without ever meaning a word he says. If you do HAVE to work with him, make sure you get everything documented on paper. I've been fighting to get my money back (which he agreed to and I have written proof) for over a month after he falsely advertised an apartment. After 4 months of trying to get my money back, I sued Bill Hamel and won in Small Claims Court. He then refused to pay me what the Court ordered! He said the check was in the mail and was trying to wait me out until I moved away (which he knew about since I had signed a lease with him). Fortunately, I contacted the Better Business Bureau and the Albany Police and started escalating the fight until he finally handed me a check and told me to screw off. He was menacing and I would sincerely be worried about living in one of his units. This man has no ethics at all. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!! read more

Hamel Real Estate is the definition of a Rip Off. Bill Hamel is a rental property manager in Albany NY. I moved over 300 miles to Albany in 2009 to attend graduate school. I found Hamel Real Estate on Craigslist and rented an apartment through them, I should have known something was wrong immediately when they made me compete with a renter and pay for half a months rent before I moved into the apartment in addition 1st month's rent or the security deposit. After living in the apartment for a year and discovering mold, Bill Hamel, recommended another apartment that he was managing and rolled my security deposit over into the new place, sight unseen. To his credit, it was an improvement. The problems didn't occur until my lease was up in the Spring of 2012. After graduation, I decided not to renew my lease and rent month-to-month. One month into our monthly agreement Hamel terminated the lease and gave me less than 1 calendar month to move as required by New York Real Property Law for all rentals outside of New York City. Furthermore, because the move out date was for a partial month Hamel demanded a full month's rent. I responded that I could move out of the residence before the beginning of the month and Hamel whined that I needed to give him 1 months notice even though he just terminated the lease and he would keep my security deposit as ransom. Hamel is a scam artist and had no intent of returning the $1725 security deposit. My only alternative is small claims court. read more

I would give Hamel Real Estate no stars if I could. Please, please, please stay away. I saw some of the reviews before I became involved with his company, and I thought maybe people were exaggerating. Well after having been hung up on many times by both Bill Hamel and his employees, lied to about the return of my security deposit, and having him keep thousands of dollars that I am owed; I have learned my lesson. Please, don't end up like me.. I am looking at small claims court now as it has been months since I was promised a return of my deposit. I should have realized when I couldn't reach him for days at a time, this is a man that screens his calls because he has so many disgruntled "clients" or as he likes to think of them "chumps" From reading additional reports, looks like I am not the only one, maybe we should have a support group haha. read more

I decided to take my chances with Hamel despite the mounting number of negative reviews when I moved to Albany for a year. In fairness, I had very little communication with them, I always paid my rent early, and the couple of times things broke or needed replacing in the apartment, they were responsive. However, at the end of my lease, things went south. Because I had a job offer on short notice in another city, I informed Hamel that I would be moving out in the middle of the last month of my lease, and asked if they would be interested in my giving them the keys to the apartment at that time in exchange for pro-rated rent. They replied that they weren't interested. Fine. Then, a short time later, after they had a new renter for the apartment who wanted to get in early, they called me to confirm that I was planning to leave early. Again I told them I was and would be happy to give them my key at that time for pro-rated rent. Again they refused. When the middle of the month came, after debating holding on to the key to make a statement, I decided it was simply more convenient for me to hand it in and cut ties, even if they would charge me for a full month's rent. I thoroughly cleaned the apartment - it was spotless, in far nicer shape than when I moved in. Yet they proceeded to charge me my full final month's rent (likely double charging on the apartment when the new person moved in - is that even legal??) and also charged me a $150 cleaning fee, apparently as a nice parting gift in exchange for the blasphemous suggestion that they pro-rate my rent for moving out early. I honestly feel that I was a model tenant and for the majority of my lease I was completely satisfied with Hamel R.E.. I am extremely disappointed that they managed to make what was and should have remained a respectful and amicable landlord-tenant relationship into such a mess at the very end. Do yourself a favor, stay away from Hamel RE and avoid the stress and headache. read more

I have been living under the management of Hamel Real Estate for over a year a half now, I read all of the horror stories and while i havent thought of leaving yet so I dont know about the end of lease treatment and so on, i want to say without question these guys are all awesome. Bill has been one of the kindest landlords ive ever dealt with, Mike in the office is always responsive and quick to get back to you with any problems you might have, and Tim and the other guys on the maintenance crew are professional, quick, and very friendly. Like I said who knows what will happen when the time comes to get a security deposit back but its been 18 months since i first met Bill and his team and I havent a bad word to say about them all. they offer affordable and nice housing with top noth service. read more

VERY disappointed looking into apartment rentals with Bill Hamel Real Estate. I am searching for my first apartment, after seeing many on Craigslist that looked perfect through Hamel Real Estate, I gave them a call. I had left at least 3 messages asking to make an appointment to view apartments, not one phone call was returned. I waited a while, and decided to call again to complain about none of my phone calls being returned. This time I got an answer. They were very nice and set up an appointment to view three apartments on a Friday at 11:00 am. I went to where we had scheduled to meet, I waited an hour. No one ever showed up. I called, no one answered. Finally, I left. I called the following Monday, I got an answer and asked why I waited an hour for no one to show up. The man told me I was scheduled for 11 pm. HOW am I scheduled for 11 pm when you close at 5 pm?? I do NOT recommend anyone to work with Bill Hamel Real Estate. My experience with him has been AWFUL. read more

It's going to be a year now since we moved into our new home. All my family members are delighted with the space and neighborhood. I must say we were fortunate in working with Mr. Hamel. We had specific needs and required property in a limited time frame and budget. Bill Hamel guided us throughout the process and even negotiated for lowering the prices on our behalf. I liked his commitment to providing reliable services. His insight into our needs and finding the right fit was remarkable. I really want to thank Hamel Real Estate for a job very well done. Really appreciated efforts! read more

We rented an apartment from Hamel. Overall it was an OK experience, maintenance calls were usually promptly answered, it was at the end of our stay with them we ended up having problems. We had our situation change, and approached Hamel about getting out of our lease early. They were happy to oblige, we had agreed on September, and let them know we could leave in August if needed. At the beginning of July, they asked us if it would be August or September, we told them August. We requested to get it in writing, they told us not to worry about it, and since we had overall had positive experiences with them, we thought they could be trusted, well we were wrong. A week before we were prepared to move out, I get a call from Bill telling me they did not find anyone for August first yet, and we should try to make our apartment look more show-worthy, or else we would have problems, I was taken back since I was under the impression we were set to move out, and had already found another place. His response was that we should just make the apartment look better so they can find someone and it becomes a non issue. Okay fine. Did it. Hadn't heard from them, so I called to ask about setting up a time for a walk through for our security deposit. We set it up, cleaned cleaned cleaned, our appointment time comes, and Tim, the person in charge, doesn't show up. Calls us about 10 minutes later to tell us that he had walked through himself, and we were all set to get our security deposit back. (He took a copy of our lease we had on the counter, fishy. Good thing we had an extra!) It was August 23rd when I contacted them to ask about the status of the deposit, and they told me to stop by the office for it. When I did, they had taken out "rent" for August (conveniently until August 23rd) Saying that since they didn't find anyone for the first, they took out the prorated rent until they did. When I asked them to prove it, they wouldn't. I called Bill, and he promptly hung up on me, then after I called him back, spoke to me disrespectfully. I was not nice at this point. I would only recommend this company to someone who knows nothing will change and they will never ever have to "break" a lease, and is okay with overpaying for an apartment. We decided not to bring it to court, because it would cost us as much in legal fees just to get back what they took (a little over 700 dollars.) read more

Hamel Real Estate is great! I'm so glad that whenever I have a problem I can call them and talk to their answering machine! It's so comforting to know that my message will always be saved and be brought up a week or two later after I need it. Not only is there answering machine great but there professional staff and manager's help to make things so much easier! For example house showings are my favorite. I love having random people walk in and out of my home without my permission or any given notice! It makes my life so much more exciting when I get home. I don't have many friends so when people come over for house showings I can party with them! It's also fun when they come while I'm not home. After a long day of work it's nice to just forget about it and play my favorite game. It's like hide and go seek but with my valuables! First I check to see if everything is there and if there not, I can spend the next day or two looking for them! Even when I have a bad day and I don't feel like playing Hide and Go Valuables, I know that I can always depend on the owner of Hamel Real Estate Bill Hamel to cheer me up! He so nice that he put a lockbox on my door so if I ever lose my key I'll be okay to get back inside! Unfortunately, I think he forget to tell the passcode and told his other clients instead. I guess they lost their key so they need the lock box more than I do. He also likes to crack jokes, my favorite one is when he called my place disgusting and laughed at me. It's hard to reach him when I have a bad day but when I mention lawyer he responds back so fast! Hamel Real Estate is great if you want to meet new people and always have someone to talk to and save your messages. read more