Brownstone Real Estate

My husband and I had a great experience with Lisa French. She was lovely to work with and selected beautiful apartments for us to visit. She was very helpful and attentive to our needs and criteria (even when they kept changing!) and went above and beyond in assisting us in our search. We recommend her enthusiastically!

I found these guys on Unilocal about a year ago, and boy did they ever deliver.
My wife and I were looking for agents to list our co-​op in Kensington, and we happened upon Arny Cohen. He and Robert Bryan came by to check out the place and immediately struck us as honest, hardworking guys with lots of personality. Our cat also approved, so we decided to give them the listing.
We got an above asking, all cash offer about two weeks in and were ready to close. Robert, being the scrupulous and well informed gentleman that he is, caught that we hadn’t owned it long enough to avoid paying capital gains tax, so dissuaded us from the deal, instead encouraging us to wait. In this type of market it is VERY rare to have anyone remotely involved in your deal not pushing you to close as quick as you can — I’m sure it was difficult for Robert and Arny to walk away from a sure thing, but they did have our best interests at heart.
We relisted with them with the intention of buying another place. They quickly got another (much higher) all cash offer that unfortunately didn’t pan out, but that didn’t stop them from tirelessly showing us open houses in the far corners of Brooklyn every single weekend of the past cold winter. Sure enough, another offer came in that they negotiated up close to asking from a lowball initial offer and we got into contract. We closed yesterday. Thank you, Robert Bryan and Arny Cohen for working so hard for us and having a good time while doing it, too. We really appreciate it!
John, Mir, Zelda and Timber

We are very grateful to have worked with Lisa French. After spending one day with us looking at apartments, she learned what was most important to use and as soon as the right property became available, she contacted us immediately. Needless to say, we signed the lease on the apartment soon after seeing it, and highly recommend her to anyone looking for a smart, understanding, reliable broker in Park Slope.

We had a great experience here with Lisa French! We were visiting from Ohio for only a couple days. Lisa first emailed us a list of places to get an idea of what we prefer before setting up 7 visits for us in one day, essentially spending the whole day showing us around Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Cobble Hill. She was super nice and we got a great feel for each different area as we walked around. Eventually we found two places we liked and couldn’t have been happier with our experience.

So, this seems to be the place to get a good flat from. My current housemate got our apartment from this branch and some friends of mine got a nice one in Carroll Garden through another branch. Stepping into the office of an estate agent is never easy. I always feel they will try to get me to up my budget … and I’m not wrong. Here again I was told that its not enough. I’m viewing an amazing apartment above my budget and a not so nice one which is right on the money. Of course I up my budget. I’m such a sucker when it comes to comforts.
The estate agent I’m dealing with (Lisa) is an absolute sweet heart, who really seems to like her job. She’s easy to talk to and understands my concerns. She shows me a good range of apartments.

We contacted Brownstone Real Estate to look at several properties in Park Slope. Callie and Lisa French were both very response, friendly, and helpful. However, the
units available in their portfolio (this was admittedly in January, the off-​season of the rental market) seemed to be consistently well over-​market for the area. Often the apartments we saw lacked the amenities or renovations that other places right around the corner had, despite being 200 – 300 more expensive per month.
In short, I would certainly recommend contacting them if you are in the market for a rental apartment in the Park Slope area, but make sure that you are also in contact with other brokers (particularly if you are new to area) as you may find a better deal elsewhere.

Robert Bryan is the most patient broker in the city. We looked at no less than 60 apartments over a year and a half period until we finally found our apartment in Cobble Hill. He was an invaluable resource, always honest and never pushy and made the experience fun and educating.
Could not recommend more!

I have lived in Brooklyn for over 4 years and Beatrice was BY FAR the best broker I have ever come in contact with. She was knowledgeable about the apartments, areas, and actually offered honest opinions. I never felt like I was being sold but rather accompanied by a friend. She knew exactly what my girlfriend and I were looking for after showing us one apt. I know this because she listened. She even humored some other listings (despite knowing we wouldn’t like them).
We were going to sign a lease for one of her apts but it ended up falling through because the landlord wasn’t amenable to any of our requests. She was EXTREMELY helpful in the aftermath and worked very hard to show us new places. She even offered to put us in contact with her industry friends.
I will recommend her and the agency to any friends/​family that are looking for apts in Brooklyn. Amazing.

I contacted Arnie Cohen a few months ago based on his great Unilocal reviews. My partner and I had looked at some terrifying no-​fee apartments that looked out to gas stations and brick walls… we’d also met a few brokers who were really… unimpressive. Anyway, Arnie called me right after I emailed him, we planned a visit and found the perfect apartment in a fantastic part of Park Slope. He really does care about his clients, and that makes a big difference when you are navigating the housing process in NYC. Larry Weiss from Brownstone was also the listing agent on the property we ended up leasing, so we worked with him as well. He’s a great guy — he even came over to our apartment when we moved in and helped us find our electric meter. These guys go the extra mile!

My wife and I were looking for a two bedroom apartment in the South Slope/​Windsor Terrace neighborhoods. Arnie Cohen was our broker and he was a real pleasure to work with. What makes him a special realtor is that he listens to you and what you’re looking for and does his best to show apartments that are real possibilities. He was honest, and very helpful in finding the right apartment in the price range we were looking for. He wasn’t pushy and was willing to work with us and the landlords to get us into places. You can probably find a great apartment with him, and I don’t say that lightly.

Well. I have actually never written a review before, but feel compelled to now after the brief but incredibly unpleasant conversation I just had with one of the agents at Brownstone. I inquired about one of her listings and then asked if she had any others that would be in one of our prefered neighborhoods within our price range. She very abruptly interrupted me and said «Not in your price range.» She was also tactless and rude when I asked about making an appointment to view the first place. Quite a departure from the experience with one of their better reputed competitors whose agent was courteous and helpful when I explained my parameters.

Man, what a bummer. The whole time I was writing this review, I had two stars selected in the little box up there. But after reliving our experience, I honestly couldn’t see how the second star was deserved, so I dropped it down to one.
I reached out to Arnie to help facilitate our move from Denver to Brooklyn because of all of his stellar Unilocal reviews. To say that I was let down is quite an understatement.
I knew that finding an apartment in our preferred location would be a challenge, considering our desired price point and are large (70 lbs) dog. This knowledge is most of the reason that we decided to use a broker in the first place.
From the get go, Arnie seemed completely disinterested in us and helping us find a place. He told us that we would have to increase our budget by $ 400-​$ 600 to find a one bedroom in any of our desired neighborhoods. He told us that having a large dog would be nearly an insurmountable challenge. He told us that our timeline wasn’t reasonable.
And he told us he would keep us in mind and keep in touch.
That last one is where I was really disappointed. I called him a few weeks after our initial conversation, and he had forgotten everything about that first conversation. Then when I called him a week later (the day before we were to arrive in town to search for the apartment), he had forgotten all of the relevant details to our search (our price point, our move in date, our desired neighborhood, and he even seemed surprised that we had a dog).
Suffice to say, it was not a pleasurable experience. But, these things have a way of working out. My experience with Arnie led me to calling one of his competitors, and this time Unilocal didn’t let me down. She had us viewing apartments within 15 minutes of our arrival in Brooklyn, and we immediately found a perfect 1 bed in the perfect location for a little less than our budget.
When he wasn’t telling us that our search was hopeless, Arnie was a very friendly guy, and I’m sure that most of the time he’s a great broker. But he certainly wasn’t great for us.

I don’t know if this was just good luck, but I was really fortunate to meet only the nicest real estate agents on my apartment search earlier this month. I was looking on behalf of my mom, who is disabled, boy that is hard to write. But everyone I talked to was very, very sympathetic and helpful, I was just floored by the goodness.
Greg di Gesu was no exception. Looking thru the listings on their web site (you should always do your research before going into the realtors office if you can — saves you some time, although granted, you might learn a lot from a face-​to-​face chat. He had all the best listings — centrally located in Park Slope and many on the ground floor, which is ideal for anyone who’s not able to do a lot of walking. I called him, we met the same day, and we walked into just one apartment but I had already learned a lot from that visit.
I was pleased to learn, that despite his winning listings, he wasn’t an arrogant man — quite the opposite, just very friendly and sincere. As soon as he found out my mom could barely walk, he helped narrow my search down quite a bit, which was a great time-​saver.
Greg is just the kind of guy you want as your real estate ally– call him if you want something great!

I’m a fairly frugal gal and also independent enough to have always hunted for apartments myself, but I knew that the real estate /​rental biz in NYC was going to be a TOTALLY different beast than anything I’d dealt with before. Being a west coaster relocating from Seattle Washington to NY for a new job smack in the middle of Manhattan, you can imagine my trepidation as I scoured Craigslist for WEEKS and dug through dozens of fake/​scammy ads.
Even though the thought of paying a brokerage fee wasn’t exactly enticing, I realized that I had a unique problem: I was only going to be in town for ONE WEEKEND and literally 3 nights /​4 days and HAD to secure an apartment FAST. Luckily for me, Unilocal never fails and I stumbled upon so many stellar reviews for Brownstone Real Estate, that I thought I’d give them a shot.
I found a gem of a studio in Park Slope, which I was interested in due to it’s proximity to Prospect Park (I’m a distance runner afterall!) and immediately sent the broker an email about the listing about a week ahead of when I’d be in town. That broker ended up being Arny Cohen, and I could NOT have been luckier to have worked with such a darling of a man!
Arny not only made sure that he secured a viewing for me, but even made sure that I had an early morning viewing before a few other people who were interested. If any of you have tried renting apartments in New York, you know how competitive and fast things go up and off the market — so the very fact that Arny actually «held» the apartment for me to look at was amazing in and of itself.
I immediately fell in love with the space and literally ran to my bank to acquire the certified checks needed to get the ball rolling. Now, this next part is extremely embarrassing for me to admit but it’s necessary to demonstrate just how great Arny was: there were complications with my credit score (fraud/​id theft issue) — BUT here’s the real kicker: Arny not only empathized with my situation (while I cried like a baby in his office for a good 20 minutes) but he went out of his way to vouch for me to the landlord about my character and that I was not lying about this issue.
Arny could’ve easily just given up or not trusted me, especially since I’m moving from out of the state, but instead, he fought for me — which I never expected from anyone, let alone a real estate broker in New York! I ended up signing a lease for the apartment I wanted in TWO DAYS, which I’m pretty sure is a miracle record in New York!
The LAST and final amazing detail? Arny called me 2 hours after the lease signing to tell me that he did the math wrong on his brokerage commission and informed me that I OVERPAID him! WHO DOES THAT?! I probably wouldn’t have ever known or even bothered to re-​check the math later on it! Instead, Arny was a real stand up guy and called me back to tell me that Brownstone would resolve the issue ASAP.
All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience with Brownstone and I HIGHLY recommend working with them and Arny Cohen if you’re looking for a space in Park Slope! I hope to stay at my current studio for awhile but if I need to relocate I’ll definitely turn to Arny first!

I contacted Gail Donnarumma the second I saw my dream apartment. She got back to me immediately and next thing you know – I was on my journey of solidifying the deal for a place that «just felt right.» I had seen a lot of places up till that point and you either feel a place or you don’t. Gail felt the fit too and did everything to get my apt rental process going, and going quickly… I didn’t have to figure anything out for myself – it was all prepared for me and double checked by Gail.
I really can’t say enough… She made me feel comfortable and excited thru the process and I can genuinely say, I made not only a great connection w/​an outstanding realtor, but also made a connection on a human being to human being/​friend level – which is always an invaluable experience. So, thank Gail and everyone @ Brownstone Realty for the accommodations and general great vibe throughout a typically grueling process. Cheers, Brooke

This is the first time i’ve gone through the apartment search in New York, living with roommates until now. I’m not sure i could have been much luckier. After hearing horror stories about the cut throat rental market in NY, i was so relieved to meet Beatrice at Brownstone. Beatrice went out of her way to make the process quick & painless, i highly recommend her to anyone on the hunt for new digs and i’m not just saying this because she brought us wine & doggie treats with our keys. After we were in the apartment, she made all kinds of recommendations on where to go for what in our new hood. We love our apartment & it turns out Beatrice is a neighbor, i’m a lucky girl!

Just like a previous reviewer, we were very happy w Arnie Cohen as our broker. We had been looking for a long time and my intelligence was often insulted by the crappy places I was shown for rents well over 2k/​mo. Once we saw a nice place w a Corcoran broker but after that fell through because our income was a little less than 40x the rent (which he had made him aware of; we had been ready to pay one year’s rent upfront…), he all but abandoned us — obviously some brokers don’t care about rentals… We had found a great place on craigslist w/​o a broker, but the current tenants changed their mind — so we kept searching for weeks and weeks… Many a broker’s strategy seemed to be to show whatever they had indiscriminately, obviously hoping that we would settle for a less-​than perfect place out of sheer exhaustion. Brownstone’s approach was different — they really wanted to hear from us what kind of place we were looking for. It took more than a week between our first contact and the first showing — but that place happened to be perfect and we immediately applied. The very next day we signed the lease. As other reviewers have stated, paying the brokers fee hurts less if you work w a nice guy; also, we feel that finding such a nice apartment ourselves could have taken another couple of months so it was well-​deserved.
Update: Unfortunately, after the deal was done, Arny Cohen wasn’t of much help when we were looking for a place to buy less than a year later. I don’t know why but he essentially never came up with anything despite me reminding him several times while other brokers where emailing us several x /​wk… He also was of absolutely no help in contacting the landlord who I know him to work closely with. As he put it — «not his business» — but that disappointed me as it would have been easy for him to help.

Stop your search for the perfect broker now! Crisitian Dobles, Brownstone Real Estate’s resident shaman/​Don Quixote doppelgänger, is on the case and willing to do whatever it takes so you can get the apartment of your dreams.
My roommate and I’s encounter with Cristian and Brownstone was serendipitous to say the least. We’d been looking at some mediocre places around Park Slope and just happened upon Brownstone on our walk back to the subway. Even though it was quite late and their offices were technically closed, Crisitian was eager to help us right away.
Other brokers will not return your calls or will show you stuff completely outside of your price range, but Cristian will work hard for you and respects whatever financial limits you have set. He went over all the forms we needed to sign and if there were any hiccups along the way he handled them gracefully. He even talked on the phone with my parents at midnight to go over guarantor forms.
Always calm and funny, his presence was an instant stress reliever, which is absolutely essential when you take on the Herculanean task of trying to find an apartment in New York City.

After sampling a selection of so-​so apartments, I happened upon Cristian Dobles at Brownstone Realty in a moment of pure serendipity. Lo and behold, not only did Brownstone have EXACTLY what my roommate and I were looking for (the price was right!), but the apartments we were shown were bigger and in amazing locations in Park Slope than we could have ever hoped for via Craigslist. The most amazing part about working with Brownstone was finding Cristian as a broker – the man was about to leave for the night when my roommate and I walked in on a whim. Instead of asking us to come back in the morning, Cristian sat down with us on the spot and showed us a beautiful apartment right in our price range that very night, then sat with us in the office as we filled out an application at 10:30pm.
I couldn’t have felt more taken care of with Cristian as our broker. Good-​natured and kind, Cristian consistently went the extra mile to work with my schedule (not only did he show my roommate and me apartments after hours, he made himself readily available to me via cell phone at all hours). His brilliant communicative skills made the otherwise terrible stress of finding a NYC apartment significantly easier to deal with. Cristian really has a gift for working with people – and none of it is contrived. He’s all heart, really listens to your needs and will walk you through the apartment process and paperwork every step of the way.
I will definitely be returning to Brownstone next time I need an apartment. In a tough city like this one, I can’t emphasize enough what a breath of fresh air it is to work with a broker that is so warm, welcoming and personable.

Without a doubt the best experience with a broker I’ve had in the city.
This coming from a guy who, at the beginning of May, was dead set on a ‘no fee’ apartment. My fundamental problem with the ‘fee’ is that you’re so often paying a broker a month’s rent just to turn a key… you’ve already done the footwork on craigslist. So to really impress me a broker would have to be more than a middle man.
Jamie was more than a middle man. Over a month ago, my girlfriend and I started looking for a place together. I found myself fruitlessly combing the ‘no fee’ section of craigslist for weeks. After seeing a few miserable places, we finally decided to consider an apartment with a fee. Thank god we did because we almost immediately came across Jamie’s ad for a rent stabilized one bedroom on Graham Ave.
The price seemed too good to be true, a few hundred dollars under our limit. After reaching out through Brownstone’s website, Jamie gave me a call almost immediately, and we set something up for the next day. He was punctual, professional and, most importantly, incredibly personable. The apartment was equally outstanding. Jamie made it clear that if it was not to our liking, he would happily assist us moving forward in our apartment hunt. How refreshing.
The apartment was to our liking though, and we were whisked away to their Park Slope office to get the paperwork together. The catch, if you want to call it that, was that their broker fee is 12% as opposed to just a single month’s rent. If they hadn’t been so great, we might have balked at that. Jamie actually told us we could try to negotiate it down, but we were too excited about the apartment to stall the process. My girlfriend and I did the math and, even factoring in the high broker’s fee, we came out just under our max at signing (meaning if we had signed for a place AT our limit, then paid first, security and one month fee on that).
Everyone else we met in the office seemed delightful. One gentleman even rendered his desk to me so I could sort and print bank statements and the like. As an added bonus, the office was a short walk from Dram Shop, where the lady and I celebrated with a couple of burgers and beers after signing the lease.
If you want my honest advice, I would still say avoid paying a broker’s fee. When you realize that’s impossible though, call Brownstone.