American Dream Team Realty

I've been collaborating with American Dream Kalaba Realty LLC for many years. They are true professionals!
Nov 29th, 2015

I wish I could give this company minus 5 stars, as in a completely negative review. I urge you all to read my full review. This place is truly slimy and criminal, I wouldn't recommend anyone renting from them. Last year they listed an amazing, historic property on Harrison Street in Staten Island. I'm not quite sure how such a dodgy company got a hold of such a lovely property, but so it goes in New York. The agent who showed me around seemed nice at first, but I'm sure you can guess how this story goes. A classic bait & switch. When I got really serious about the apartment, the agent started hinting at strange responsibilities I would have to take on if I were to rent the apartment, including carpeting the entire place myself. Anyhow, fast-forward to the moment at which I went to American Dream Kalaba Realty's office and attempted to review the lease. I entered the office, sat down and asked to review the lease. A man entered the office from a rear door that led out to a garbage area and then walked over to the front door of the office and seemed to stand guard there. The agent kept asking me if I had brought certified checks / cashiers checks with me, to which I said "Yes, I've got them here, just need to see if the lease checks out, I've just got to run them by my friends who are much more well versed in lease agreements than I am." Standard practice no? Apparently not with these people. He continued to print out lease agreements and explain what they said, but literally would not let me take the agreements into my hand and read them. I became visibly anxious, which seemed to make this man very happy. His attitude completely changed when I said I cannot take the apartment without reviewing the lease, his response was: "I've never, ever had anyone ask to review a lease, it's just a lease, you don't trust me? I don't do this, I don't let people look at the leases. I'm a man of my word." I should have walked out then, but I didn't, I stayed for the full ride this criminal had in order for me because this property was amazing. 30 minutes later, I had FINALLY received a copy of the lease in my hands, and he continued to say "Wait, wait, wait - that's the wrong one" and have his assistant print out another one. When it was all said and done, I had a friend fully review the lease and he had found several things to flag in it. The agent became VERY aggressive at this point, saying "I'm not changing anything in there! NOTHING! I've got other people who could take the apartment, so many people! I've got to go pickup my son, you're wasting my time." I offered him this "Let me make these adjustments to the lease, and I'll be back with the checks tomorrow, I'll come meet you wherever you are, I'll come to you." To which he replied "No, my Son has got a soccer game tomorrow, I can't meet, it's now or never." What real estate agent turns down money because of a soccer game? I've had brokers show me apartments and sign leases on Christmas eve. Anyhow, I told the man it was off and he coldly stated "You're not leaving here with those checks, I'll destroy them for you." He took my bag off the table which contained my wallet and the checks and tried to lock the checks in a safe behind his desk. I kid you not, I jumped over this man's desk and grabbed my checks out of his hands, but not before this man scratched up my entire arm and tried wrestling them back from me. The dodgy man standing by the door looked like he was going to whack me over the head or something, but I kept screaming about how I was calling the police, so he backed off." The best part of this interaction was when the agent said "I'll call the police on you!" For what? I got my checks back, busted out of the door and took off running towards the ferry. I flagged down the first NYPD officers I could find and told them what happened. They asked me if I wanted to file a formal report, and I lost interest to be honest. I'll be following up this review with a proper BBB report and all.
Oct 19th, 2019