Apartment Realtors

[overanalyzed.livejournal.com]

I am thinking about trying to find a new apartment for September 1st when my lease comes up. I know it is the most high demand time so I've been looking on Craigslist but its a bit too early it seems. Therefore, I'm resorting to finding a realtor, but I've had bad experiences with them in the past trying to take advantage of me. Can anyone recommend someone or a company that they liked? I would like to stay in the Porter/Davis/Teele area. Thanks!

Comments

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I've had great luck with Apartment Rental Experts, who have offices in both Davis & Porter. Disclaimer: I'm a landlord, but my tenants have all been happy with Apartment Rental Experts.

[taranwan.livejournal.com]

My wife and I also had a reasonably good experience with them. A lot of other rental agents/companies never bothered to contact us and another didn't even show up for our appointment to see a place.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

We had a decent enough experience with Apartment Rental Experts recently. The guy (actually a power-realtor represented his younger gopher boy) was very salesmansy though. You just have to remember that you're in the driver's seat and not be intimidated or rush into a decision this early.

[latvianchick.livejournal.com]

It is a bit early. I'd look again in a month or so. It IS a high demand time, but people are also not quite thinking of September yet.

[gandalfgreyhame.livejournal.com]

I went with Apartment Rental Experts - I can't say the experience was anything more than "OK" - there was a lot of "Oops, we didn't tell you about that" and a lot more drama than I thought there should have been.

That being said, I did (eventually) get what I wanted through them.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we had that too. Such as, being promised a driveway spot that turned out to be a tandem shared with the other 2 floors.

[divasue.livejournal.com]

Another negative for Apartment Rental Experts. Drove us all over wasting our time showing us icky places not within walking distance from the subway (our main criteria).

[katers5636.livejournal.com]

I am relocating to the Boston area, and I was just out there last weekend. Every single realtor I made an appointment with either canceled on me or told me they had nothing for me when I get to their office. It was a horrible, stressful experience.

Because none of the appointments were working out, my roommate and I stumbled upon Boston Rental Exchange in Davis Square and walked in. Someone met with us right away, discussed our options, really LISTENED to us, and showed us two places. We were just approved for an awesome apartment that's steps to the T.

I cannot say enough about this place. Here is their website: http://www.bostonrentalexchange.com/

They're located across the street from the Davis Square stop. Good luck!

[sungold123.livejournal.com]

Second. We looked at a few apartments for a September rental last year, and the owner of Boston Rental Exchange, Roy, was extremely helpful. I didn't get the skeevy feeling that frequently comes with rental realtors.

We actually didn't end up using them in the end, though (we found an apartment under the "Apartments by Owner" tab on CL, which I HIGHLY recommend - no realtor fee! And meet your landlord right up front).

I dis-recommend All Boston Apartments on Highland Ave... we used them for our apartment several years ago when first moving to the area and they were just awful - lied to us on several occasions.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are the IRA Toyota of rental agents.. they blow.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

FWIW, they're not a realtor, but a management company. I have had really, REALLY good experiences with Investments Limited (I have heard stories about issues, but they all seem to be over 5 years old, which isn't that they aren't valid, but things are much different now). I worked with them after a former co-worker of mine recommended them highly, and I've been pretty content.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

(also, I'll be looking for 2 new roommates for Sept. 1, since my one roommate wants his own place, and the other wants to move into a group house in Chelsea with some friends). Rent is $650 a month, we're about 3m walk from Porter Square shopping centre, and 10-15 from Davis and Union).

[justjess.livejournal.com]

I'm looking for a place to live for August 1st or September 1st. The price and location sound good, so when you begin looking for roommates, feel free to keep me in mind. =)

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

They are also seemingly, cleaning out their rental properties (ie, they are often the sales market) so they may be "trying harder" than they used to, since they have to up the service in this market to do the trick.

[suzybuzz.livejournal.com]

my roommate is moving in with her boyfriend and dealt with some super sketchy realtors, then found someone on Yelp who received great reviews. I believe it's Red Line realty but I can double check. It's pretty clear on Yelp. she and her boyfriend found a great place within a day with this guy, and endured no strong-arming or fear tactics.

[thebostonreader.livejournal.com]

We had a good experience with the Apartment Rental Experts office on Elm St. (Is that the Porter office? It's not that close to Porter.) The agent was named Ben and he was very helpful.

We did not think the Davis ARE office was very good - they were the ones renting our old apartment to new tenants, so our only interactions were when they came to show the apartment, but it seemed to us that they were not accurately describing it to prospective tenants.

Ben Tauber, John Lowenstein

[elements.livejournal.com]

The ARE agent named Ben @ the Porter office is Ben Tauber, and he was AMAZING. I think he is a lone standout among the ARE employees, from my experience with them.

The other realtor I'd recommend is John Lowenstein of Red Line Real Estate. He only works with good, local landlords - and with tenants with good credit records, etc. Very honest, forthright, no-smarm.

[ominousspectre.livejournal.com]

Jay Salvo from the Porter office was great. I was also in contact with Evan from the Davis office but my only contact with him was canceling an appointment and a few emails but otherwise he never came up with anything else for me to see. The Porter office in general seemed to have a nice, down-to-earth feel.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

Well technically...

Realtor is the wrong word. They are real estate agents, usually salespersons working for a Broker out of one of the offices you guys are discussing.

You have to take a class and exam to do this. Also you usually work on a commission only. This means you get a check for something around 1/2 of a months rent if you are able to place someone in an apartment.

So this causes a problem, if you are looking for a $1000/month place, your agent sees you as $500, however the next customer who wants a 4 bedroom to split with a couple roomates and is looking to spend $2500/month will yeild closer to $1250. You can imagine which customer your agent is concerned more about.

Plus you have a bunch of people who really dont want to pay for the fee but still waste your time and you spend a whole day showing them a dozen places only for them to find a place on their own and you earn $0 for a days work.

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

(copying from a previous post I made) Maven Realty is the anti-christ as far as I'm concerned. They basically spam craigslist like 6 times a day. They have a horrible reputation within everyone that was within earshot of me +/- 6 months of my most recent move. No one with a soul would do business with them as a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or agent.

Other than that, I have no opinion on the matter... I do know someone who works at People's Choice, and while I haven't been with them, I would never use them based on what I know of said person. But they could be great for all I know.

24 year old, female, recent masters in accounting grad..

[raleighmom.livejournal.com]

...is moving from Raleigh to Boston in September and needs roommate and apartment. Likes Davis Square area; proximity to the T is essential. Can anyone on this list suggest a match or a good place to look? Craigslist has not worked out very well so far, but we're still looking. Thanks!

Natalie Flanagan

[mega-tsunami.livejournal.com]

Was awesome and not pushy, a real person. She was at Apartment Rental Experts about three months ago - the one in Davis Square across from the T and next to the convenient store. Good luck!