STAY AWAY!
TLDR: Do not worth with Israel Mendlewicz. He is untrustworthy. He lied on the listing about not having a broker fee and increased the rent price by $150.
I would give them 0 stars if I could. My friend and I saw a listing for 270 Clarkson Avenue #628 on Streeteasy. It was listed as $2,400 and was advertised as "no fee." The listing photos were stated to be of a different but similar unit. It seemed too good to be true.
My friend and I reached out to Israel to schedule a tour. Israel said that the unit was under renovation but we could do a self-guided tour. That should have been red flag #1. We arrive at unit #628 and find that it is inhabited, so the Streeteasy listing was incorrect. The actual unit was #624. We knock on the door to #624, and without opening the door, the construction guys on the other side of the door said that we couldn't see it because of the current renovation process (I don't blame these guys at all - I'm sure they were doing their due diligence). I texted Israel about the situation, and then he made me call the super and told him that we wanted to look at the apartment. The super asked me to give him Israel's number (why was I now doing Israel's job? I guess I would have done his job better than he could have). Finally, the construction guys kindly let us in.
The photos on Streeteasy were completely different than the actual apartment (not even related to the renovations). The photos of the apartment on Streeteasy were of a true 2-bedroom apartment with a large separate kitchen and a separate living room with a window. The apartment we looked at had a small kitchen that was a part of the living room, which had no window. I then looked at the unit's previous listings on Streeteasy and discovered that is used to be a 1-bedroom that had been converted into a 2-bedroom. The apartment needed a lot of work.
Still, my friend and I decided to apply. The next day, Israel reached out to tell us that the broker fee was 15%. But I remembered that the listing said "no fee" on Streeteasy. When I went back and looked at the Streeteasy listing, I realized what happened. The "no fee" listing was for unit #628, which was incorrect, since that was still inhabited. I then looked up the actual listing for the unit we saw, which was #624 and was marked as "delisted" on Streeteasy, and that unit was not "no fee." So Israel clearly mislead us, and I am sure a lot of other people were mislead as well. I replied with my observations, to which he completely ignored and went into a long text rant about how the unit was a deal. I also voiced my concerns that, judging by the state of the renovations, the unit was not going to be ready by 9/15, which was the date he wanted to put in the lease. He assured us that it would be ready, and if it wasn't, he would give us a "credit" for each day the unit was delayed. I didn't even want to ask about this magical "credit," as I didn't trust that one bit.
He then sent us a deranged youtube video of the apartment in its current state. It looked like found footage from a horror movie, yet I would much rather watch a movie like the Blair Witch Project than be subjected to the horror show that is dealing with NYC brokers. This video was sent to us perhaps the 4th or 5th of September, implying that the unit would be ready by 9/15.
Here's the perplexing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrDv7AgHt4
He told us the rent was $2,500 plus a $50 gas fee, so the rent would be $2,550 per month. What happened to the $2,400 that was originally displayed in the listing? And since the broker's fee was 15%, the fee would be 15% of $2,550, which is even more money. He wanted us to send him a "good faith" deposit of $750. Hmm, sorry Israel, but I have more faith in my dead beat estranged father of 15 years reaching out to me in my future than any faith I have in you. We told him we would not give him the deposit, and guess what? He still sent us the lease.
By then, we stopped replying because we didn't want our time wasted with this fraud. Shame on him and Urban Pads. read more