Hi Peter,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the smoothest and fastest apartment search ever! I love my new home and my neighborhood in Astoria.

Cheers!
Leisa

10/8/2012
The very first thing I understood about Peter was that he wasn’t going to be like other brokers. I knew that because the way he talked to us was just as though he’d sat down next to us at a quiet bar and was shooting the breeze. He’s personable and friendly, not pushy and respectful of your boundaries.

He wasn’t dismissive of our price range; he didn’t show us stuff that stank. He didn’t try to push us on anything. Having an innate distrust of real estate brokers, at the beginning of working with him I even started talking to another landlord about another apartment; when I mentioned it to him I think he was actually wounded by it a little bit! He just wants to find you the right apartment, because he knows that that’s how he builds his business: satisfied customers and repeat business from house hunters and landlords. If the rest of his profession had these incentives instead of acting like characters from Glengarry Glen Ross, brokers would have a better name.

He’s also participating along with the rest of us in the 21st century. What does that mean? If you’ve ever looked for an apartment in New York City you can probably guess. All those documents you’re faxing or leaving work to bring to some out of the way office? You just email him a PDF. All his listings? They’re on his personal blog (which he maintains himself.) You can actually email him! In Astoria in particular I’ve found you’re dealing with people who have availed themselves of exactly zero of the modern conveniences of business.

He doesn’t just look on MLS or Craigslist and walk you through apartments to collect your commission. Landlords who use Peter know him and have trusted him for a long time. He knew about the rental history of our new apartment, about the tenants’ relationship with their landlord (which was one of the reasons we were moving in the first place).

And that probably means that he doesn’t have 2,400 listings at any given time. For those who are mentioning that he can be hard to reach, a couple things: First, his new assistant, Sue, who just started, is great to work with as well. And second, in my own experience, it took a while to hear back from him but he showed me the first 2-bedroom he got that was in our price range (low, and difficult!) He made the process unbelievably simple. I saw the apartment on Thursday, gave Peter a bunch of questions for the landlord, signed the lease on Friday, and moved on the Sunday.

And then that wasn’t even all. He hooked us up with a contact at Time Warner Cable to help us move our account over to the new address more quickly (and we even ended up with a special discount!) He was ready with referrals to movers. And Peter continues to take responsibility for our move, checking in and offering to call the landlord on our behalf on any issues that are outstanding.

I hope we don’t have to move again for a very long time but if we do I won’t call anyone but Peter.

This is my second time around writing about Peter Horowitz’s excellent real estate skills and i gotta tell you, not only did he find me an absolute beauty of an apartment but a landlord that tenants can only dream of! The previous place he had found for me was awesome but it was not close enough to the train station. Which had nothing to do with Peter not being able to find me something last time around..last year I was just hanging by a thread trying to move at the last minute and he had thankfully found me a place in the nick of time. But this time around..wooooow..
Me: i need something closer to the train..
Peter: check! 3 blocks from the train
Me: I need a 1 bedroom at the most $1,300 a month
Peter: bam! $1,300 a month great neighborhood!

I had gone with 2 other brokers before him this time ONLY because I couldn’t get ahold of right away but here’s a great rule of thumb, if you can’t get ahold of him by phone go to his website and email him..he called me back within the hour after I did that. Anyway both of the previous brokers had showed me dumps I mean all dumps and told me I’d never find anything under $1,400 a month or a 1 bedroom these days in Astoria! Ok mr. Real estate agent then why did Peter find an apartment for me on the first try?! Hmmm? I’ll tell you why:
1. He has a great repoire with the landlords and knows a great deal of people in astoria on a personal and professional level.
2. He finds apartments that are always clean and in great condition.
3. He tells it like it is..if you give him a price range and he doesn’t have that price range he will be honest with you and try to find you something as close as possible..instead of leading you astray into something well out of your ball park..like most brokers do.

anyway, try peter horowitz..you won’t regret it! he is fantastic!!

Before working with Peter, we had already seen a few apartments with a couple different brokers. We didn’t like any of the apartments and the brokers didn’t inspire much confidence. They knew very little about the places they were representing. The idea of paying a broker’s fee to someone who did little more than open a door for us was very frustrating! We were so relieved to find Peter and applied for the very first apartment he showed us. Not only was the place beautiful, but it was such a pleasure to work with him. After showing us around the apartment, he then drove us around the neighborhood — telling us about the local restaurants, touring the local park, locating the closest train station… It was very helpful!

I highly recommend Peter! He is very professional, and makes the entire process easy. I feel very lucky to have found Peter’s website. He was extremely prompt and very upfront. I rented from him while living in another state, never even traveling to NY to see the property. After seeing the apartment at move-in date, the area, and the building…all of his representations, pictures and information were entirely accurate! Prior to finding Peter’s website, I had stressed over Craiglist, no-fee brokers, and other such listings. What a difference finding a great broker makes!

Peter did a super job. He was readily available and easy to reach. He is not only people-friendly, honest, flexible, and accommodating, but he know his business. He advertised widely and well and, in a difficult market, got the house sold within 3 weeks to the ideal buyer (the one who loved and appreciated it), giving excellent, experienced advice that helped us make the right decisions along the way. Both parties felt great about the deal. I highly recommend Peter Horowitz to co-op, condo, or private home sellers in Queens.

The Story of Cat & Chris:

We were super-excited to find a new home in Astoria, but became discouraged after searching Craigslist for weeks and coming up with nothing. A short stint with another broker left us sad and unsatisfied. And then there was Peter. Peter Horowitz. We had followed the blog for a while and decided to shoot him an email. He immediately responded and once we told him exactly what we were looking for, he set up appointments for the very next day: not one, but three places in one night! The final apartment was EXACTLY what we were looking for. Peter made the process easy and stress free, and we were in the place 2 weeks later. Peter was extremely nice, funny, attentive, and didn’t run us around, wasting our time showing us things that weren’t in our budget or what we wanted.

We would recommend Peter Horowitz to anyone to find them their perfect Astoria apartment!

Cat & Chris

We were at our wits end after a terrible experience with one broker and looking at several places with some others. Peter was the last broker we were to see and we’re certainly glad we persevered and still met with him even though we were exhausted and ready to just settle on something. Each one of Peter’s listings was somehow better than the last one he showed us and his attitude, friendliness and genuine nature made it impossible not to like him immediately. We decided on the place we liked best, he helped us through the approval process and we had the lease signed the next day. I couldn’t imagine an easier or more pleasant experience in finding an apartment here in New York.

Thanks so much Peter!

Jon & Rebekah

Hi Peter,

I could not be happier with the apartment! Nice Super & just the right amount of space. And heat:-)
Thanks again for finding it!

Sikeea

After roaming Astoria with multiple relators, and with only a couple days to lock down an apartment, Peter found me the place of my dreams within hours of meeting him. If you need to find a place in Astoria, and want someone with a great personality who has knowledge of Astoria then Peter Horowitz is your guy! I would recommend Peter to anyone who wants to find the perfect home. He truly is one of a kind! – Thanks Peter!!!

After trying to find a place in Astoria with Craigslist and some other local brokers who missed appointments, forgot who I was and what I wanted, and laid on the skeezy high pressure tactics to take places that didn’t meet my needs (you know what I mean), Peter was truly a breath of fresh air. He had a good selection of apartments to show that were actually within my price range, knows the neighborhood, and has a good relationship with landlords. The apartment I went with is great and the rent is actually less than I budgeted for—thanks Peter!

Peter is truly unlike any other realtor I’ve ever worked with. He’s patient, pleasant, honest and non-pushy. He drove me around to view four apartments in only a day’s notice and was extremely helpful in guiding me around the different parts of Astoria. I highly recommend working with him and would totally refer my friends to him.

Peter is honest, reliable, and willing to go out of his way for you. I’m reasonably happy with my apartment, having been there for about 5 months.
I recommend Peter often whenever someone says they are thinking of moving to Astoria.

Thank you for being such a mench!

My boyfriend and I are very happy with the apartment that Peter found for us. He was very helpful and concerned about finding a place that met our criteria. Peter also knew a lot about the neighborhood and the apartment, he even knew the landlord. And we were extremely happy with how quickly we were able to get our apartment. Thank you so much for your help Peter!

Peter, took care of all our concern’s and worries about moving with the ease of a seasoned realtor. He was always willing to show us as many spaces as needed without the slightest hint of discouragement. On the contrary he seemed almost obsessed with helping us find the perfect place to make us completely happy. He smoothy brought us from curious viewers to our very own brand new beautiful apartment. I would recommend him to anyone including my mother and that is a fact. Give him a call if you want to find the perfect space at a great price.