Betancourt & Associates Realty LLC

I really enjoyed working with Kristen Thorgersen. Hands down, she would be the first broker I would turn to if I found myself in need of a new apartment in Park Slope. Though I ultimately found my current home though another source, Kristen was terrific. She «talked us off the roof» many times during our search for the elusive, renovated 3-​bedroom apartment in Park Slope. In fact, I saw more places I loved through her than any other 7^th Avenue broker. Through no fault of her own, a couple of our applications fell through (broker decided to sell rather than rent, etc.) but she kept us informed and was very straightforward about what was going on behind the scenes with property owners. I always felt that we were high on her list of priorities. She respected our budget and called or texted us as soon as she had a new property to show — without us having to check in with her constantly (as we had to do with other agencies.)
Kristen knows her business well but is not jaded by the intense Park Slope real estate scene. She’s hungry to make money but also very calm, sincere and down-​to-​earth. I see her as a friend now and would be happy to work (or hang out!) with her again.

Searching for housing in NYC shouldn’t have to undermine one’s faith in humanity. There are decent brokers and then there are the ones that will play you, or lie to you, or just not tell you the whole truth. My experience with Betancourt falls in the last category. Bernadette, the broker that showed us the apartment, failed to tell us that there was an application pending on the place while she was showing it to us, despite the fact that we told her we were extremely interested and were going to be making a decision that day or the next. When we called her that day to say we wanted to put in an application, she didn’t return our calls until several hours later. By that time, it was too late to put in an application on our second choice. When Bernadette finally returned our call she said that somebody had put in an application the day before. In the meantime, somebody else put in an application on our second choice apartment, for which we ended up paying an extra $ 100 a month, thanks to a bidding war that might have been prevented (if it wasn’t fabricated — different broker).
The office was equally unprofessional. After Bernadette informed me, based on no substantive information, that the other applicant had a weak application and that we might have a chance at the apartment, we decided to drop off our application materials and deposit as advised. Though all our papers were in order, each broker has their own specific list of what they want so we asked the office to be sure we had anything, since Bernadette was MIA. The woman at the reception desk had no clue, either over the phone or in person, the list of materials required for a rental application.
Bernadette said she could check into an apartment in the same building. Though I would have loved to be in that building, I didn’t trust her at that point to follow through. I asked her to please let me know when she had information and we put down a deposit on the other place. We never heard another word from her! Other brokers that I’ve worked with and liked have been very prompt at returning phone calls and following up. If you are absolutely in love with a place it might be worth it to work with these jokers, but don’t trust them!

Used them for a search earlier this year. Real bad experience. Visited a place we liked, applied for the place, filled out all forms, left deposit and broker fee, told I was a perfect applicant, and was told the place was mine. Then got a call two days later saying the landlord can’t rent it out to me as being pulled from the market. This was only 10 days before I was supposed to move in, pretty f-​in stressful.
Betancourt gave me the runaround, with the broker outright lying to me. I know they work for the landlord but if youre taking my $ 3,000 broker fee, maybe you should be honest with me too. They told me the landlord was taking the place off the market, and then WHALA! its available and being rented… broker lied to my face
Maybe I should have contacted a housing lawyer, could have been interesting. There are honest brokers out there. Betancourt might present themselves nicely but I recommend you stay away…