Housing question

[ohyeah36.livejournal.com]

Hi there!
I am fairly new to davis_square. I am a current NYC resident looking to move to Davis Sq sometime around August 1st. I walked around the neighborhood when I was visiting this past weekend and totally fell in love with the area. I've checked the tags and I had a couple of questions I was hoping y'all could help me with.
Since I'm from NYC, I'm no stranger to outrageous rent prices--to me, 1600 for a 2 bedroom is a steal! If I was looking for a 1.5 bed around the Davis Square area, is 1400 a reasonable price? I'm hoping to be about 10-15 minutes from the T (closer is better, obviously, as I probably won't have a car). I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about where to look for listings. I'm checking Craigslist, obviously, but I know in NYC, it's hard to find a legitimate listing--a lot of them are scams, or brokers just looking for you to call them. On that note, any broker recommendations would be great.
I've also heard that it's better to look early for an apartment in the Boston area. I'm used to looking no more than a month before I want to move, but I get the impression that I should be starting to look soon. Is it hard to find available apartments over the summer?
I appreciate the help in advance and look forward to hopefully being a Massachusetts resident sometime soon! :)

Comments

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Most leases in Boston roll over August 31st, the joys of a student population.

Basically, hit Craigslist. Also try boston_housing and b0st0n, although the former has been dead for a while.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

feeding them to the wolves i see :p

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

>SHRUG< I wouldn't have recommended b0st0n if the OP came off like snark bait. We get enough of that, I don't need to actively farm it.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

lulz, i was just kidding. b0st0n has gone pathetically soft these days anyway.

i meant more that it's likely someone else will say "did you try posting this to davis_square?" and then someone else will say "try looking on craigslist." and then someone else will add "lots of students will be after apartments around that timeframe as well."

there, i've done all the work :D

[ohyeah36.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yeah, that's what I figured, with all the students living in Boston.
I'm a member of the Boston community already, but I'll check out Boston Housing too. Thanks for the recommendations.
I'm no stranger to snark, I think I can handle it ;)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend surrealestate as a real estate broker; she has placed a number of friends in homes that they are very happy in, and I'm pretty sure she does apartment rentals, too. She is *very* familiar with the Davis Square area.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the plug (and I am meeting your friend tomorrow :), but I don't actually do rentals (never have). I can certainly recommend some excellent rental agents, but these days most people can do just as well with craigslist. You can explore all options, though, and see what turns up where.

But indeed, I am very familiar with the greater Davis area (and beyond!) and am happy to work with people looking to buy.

[ohyeah36.livejournal.com]

If you could recommend rental agents, that would be great!
It seems like Boston craigslist is much more reliable than New York craigslist. Perhaps I should give that more of a chance...

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

Most leases in Boston start on June 1 or September 1. The big apartment hunting weekends are 6 weeks and 5 weeks before those dates. You can come into town, walk into a realtor's office, see places until you find one you like, and sign a lease on the spot. Know what you're looking for before you talk to the realtor. Some places will have August 1 leases available, but they'll probably ask you to sign for 13 months so it ends on August 31, 2010.

Apartment listings in Boston are open to all realtors, so they all see the same ones and charge the same fees. (MA is the complete opposite of NYC. We have laws requiring open MLS access for all real estate for sale and rent.) So they compete on advertising and service. (Apartment Rental Xperts are awful. Maven Realty is OK. Coldwell Banker specializes in higher-end places than you're looking for.)

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

Also, you can probably get a 1.5 bedroom apartment for under $1200 in North Cambridge on the far side of Mass Ave near Rindge st, and parts of that are only 15 minutes walk from Davis Square.

$1400 is more than enough for most of the Davis Square area.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

If you are looking for August 1, then you don't really need to be super early about it. In fact, a lot of stuff won't even be listed for then until about a month before anyhow. September is the only time that it requires some pre-thinking.

Your $$ level is quite safe and you could probably do a bit better, especially if a 10 minute walk is ok. Look in porter as well, since many parts of it are only 10-15 minutes away from davis.

CL or just visiting real estate offices are generally the best bet.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

So you want a place that is $1400 and a mile from public transit? Most. reasonable. request. ever. You'll do just fine! Stick with craigslist for now and if things get touchy (or you really want to just bang out 10 viewings in 1 weekend) go to realtors.

For comparison... I had a large 1 bedroom in Somerville (granted, a solid mile outside of Davis) for 800/month, including utilities. Now I have a smaller 1 bedroom in New Jersey for 1600.

[ohyeah36.livejournal.com]

Thanks for giving the comparison. I assume wherever you are in NJ is fairly close to NYC? It's sort of ridiculous how pricey anything remotely close to NYC is compared to... basically everywhere else.
I guess I didn't realize that a 10-15 minute walk is a mile away. That sounds awfully far... Do you think 1400 is just as reasonable if I want something closer, say, 5-10 minutes?

[alphacygni]

A 10-15 minute walk is only a full mile if you walk really fast, or are writing apartment ads and want them to seem closer to the subway than they are. Distance is distance. You can measure that on Google. But you need your own idea of how long it takes you to walk a certain distance.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

I guess 10-15 min is less than a mile... regardless, you should be able to fine something within 10 minutes for your price-point.

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

I think that's reasonable. I pay a little less than that for a one bedroom and a 3.5 minute walk to the T.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

If you're looking to spend that much on a 1.5, you should do well around here.

[no1onthecorner.livejournal.com]

I can recommend John Lowenstein at Red Line Realty, 617-776-7000; the last time I was looking for an apartment he did the best job of any of the agents we met with at showing us places that matched what we were looking for, and he seemed to have good relationships with landlords (e.g. knowing if move-in dates were negotiable.)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

+1 on this, as I always do in these threads.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

I'll echo this recommendation as well.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

My wife and I had one weekend in Boston to find an apartment. We probably saw close to 20 different places, some from Craigslist, some with realtors. The best experience we had was with John Lowenstein at Red Line Real Estate (http://www.bostonapartments.com/redlinerealestate.htm). He asked lots of relevant questions and quickly matched up our needs to available apartments. We ultimately chose a great place within a 10 min walk to Davis Square where we have rented for close to 3 years.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Another +1 for John.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

More importantly, are you prepared to except the word and spirit of the Boston Red Sox into your heart?

I've been in a 1 bedroom for the past 9 years, and my rent is $950 a month.

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

Can I get an AMEN BROTHER! Can we win the soul of this Yankee fan, can we make him see the light!?! Hallelujah!

[cos]

craiglist roommate ads are mostly legit around here, and they seem to be the most common way people find roommates and apartments aside from the friends-swapping-places-with-friends networks.

Apts by Owner

[sungold123.livejournal.com]

Craig's List has the potential to be a great resource. I recommend using the "apts by owner" option in the drop down menu. This way, you can get around all those realtor ads... I prefer to rent directly from the owner because you don't have to pay a realtor fee (which can be up to a whole month's rent), and you don't have to deal with typical realtor BS.

I agree with others that it's too early now to look for August 1 - I'd recommend looking in May or June. Good luck!!