Realtor to rent out our condo?

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

We're looking to have a real estate agent rent out our Tufts-area condo. Any leads on good folks who might do this work well?

Comments

[mistresshellena.livejournal.com]

I've had better luck doing it myself through this site in particular:

www.SabbaticalHomes.com

I don't have specific names of rental realtors because I came up dry when I was looking, but if you really want to go this route, make sure to ask them if they already have some clients looking for a property like yours. If they don't, find someone who does.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

use craiglist and DIY

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

As someone who just signed a lease on a new apartment, I will say that I have not been happy on my end with any of the rental agencies I dealt with in my search. Many of the people I spoke to on the phone were overly brusque or even just rude with me. It made me reluctant to even look into an apartment I saw on Craigslist if I found out an agent was showing it, and I turned my focus mostly to those apartments where the owners were doing the work to rent them. What made me likely to take an interest in a listing there was:

1. Good pictures of all rooms in the apartment
2. Plenty of details: not about the "hardwood floors" or the "awesome apt. you have to see to believe", but about the number of rooms in total, the parking situation, the laundry situation, what kind of storage was available, etc.
3. If the ad mentioned stuff about new windows or a new heating system, or something like that.

[taranwan.livejournal.com]

My wife had some really bad experiences with rental agents except for one: Apartment Rental Experts. They have offices in Davis, Porter, and Central Squares, and although they seem to have a lot of seasonal staff, the fact that they at least were willing to answer our call, had to say something. We were able to find a good, two bedroom apartment near our ideal location, within our price range.

Some of the other rental agencies didn't return calls, show up, showed us apartments our of our price range or too small or in locations we said we did not want to move to.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Ah, they were not very nice to me on the phone. Laughed at me when I said I was interested in a place but not available to see it for a few days, and were dismissive of me (basically, tried to make me feel stupid) when I said I only wanted a place with gas heat because it's currently cheaper than oil. But to be fair, I've had a coworker tell me they were great for him.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose by any chance it happens to be handicapped accessible, doe it? I have some friends in desperate need of wheel-chair accessible space.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

No ... it's on a second floor walkup.

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

As someone who was using craigslist this last month or two to look for a place, I can't give any recommendation except to NOT use Maven Realty. They abuse craigslist by re-posting the same ad up to 11 times a day. I sent them an e-mail asking them to stop to no avail (I also e-mailed spam@craigslist.org). They seemed to have a lot of places available, but I specifically avoided using them (I told this to them in the e-mail). In fact, I wasn't even registered for livejournal until I read your post and had to write about them. They made it VERY frustrating to use craigslist looking for a place, and I think there is a place in hell waiting for them... was that over the top?

We ended up using NextGen realty, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them or anything. Mostly, I just implore you not to use Maven.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Maven realty sucks. Avoid.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

Good tips, all. Many thanks!

[milkhoney.livejournal.com]

This guy is an acquaintance of mine, and I've heard good feedback:
Jay, salvo@apartmentx.com, 781.424.8942.

Is it a large-ish condo? We're getting a 4th roommate and looking for a 4 bedroom place near the Red line.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

Sorry ... it's just 3BR.