flat rental from Sept

[triplecitizen.livejournal.com]

Originally posted by triplecitizen at flat rental from Sept

Dear friends,

I am a former Davis Sq resident returning from the UK, looking for the impossible dream: from Sept, 1 large or 2 med bedroom apt between Porter and Davis, pref nearish to Summer St, max $2100/mo. Needs to be unfurnished, no sharing. Will need to arrange remotely, as I won't be there in person until Sept. Very responsible locals can vet apt and vouch for me. A million thanks in advance for any leads.

Comments

Renting from abroad is a special challenge.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

And by special, I mean "a lot harder". I just went through finding an apartment myself (for the first time in eight years), so I have a great deal of sympathy for you. I am very choosy and I insist on getting a great place.

My advice, for what it's worth:

Put together your dossier now, not because you can't do it later, but it's easier to just scan it now and put it together in advance, and since you won't be presenting the documents in person when you see a place you like, it'll be way easier if you can e-mail a pre-arranged file in advance. In your case, I'd do this:

• Prepare the rental application. (M.I.T. has a copy live. (http://web.mit.edu/afarrell/Public/apartment_application.pdf) A lot of places do, you can Google on various phrases in the application, if need be.) The standard Greater Boston Real Estate Board application is used by nearly everyone, since it's a legal application, but still as nosy as is allowed under the law. I used PDFPen (http://www.smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/index.html) to prepare mine.
  
• Save the rental application as its own file. This would be your initial file to send off to interested listings.
  
• Compile the following documents:
  
  • Letter verifying your employment in the United States and your length of time at that job. (If you're a student, get a letter from your school verifying full-time enrollment.)
    
  • Pay stubs.
    
  • Bank statements.
    
  • Credit history.
• Arrange now for a guarantor, even if you think it unlikely you'll need one. It's easier to find someone now, and not need them after all, than to try to find someone when the real estate agents are advising you that it'll be about a half day before the apartment gets rented to someone else. Remind your guarantor that they'll want their credit report, and often a tax return, as well. N.B.: Your needing a guarantor may not have anything to do with your credit this time, more that you're currently residing outside the United States.

Do the rental application first, because it requires no more data than you can summon up yourself. I used a neighbour as the personal reference (as they can verify that I don't shoot guns at night or sell crack out the back door of my current house), a family member as the emergency contact, and NSTAR as my credit reference.

After you've gotten the rental application done, ask your employer for the employment verification letter and spend a little bit of time putting together all the data — credit report, bank statements, pay stubs, & c. — neatly. (I'd stick with the sort of crap you get with logos on it from those companies; normally I hate that kind of thing, but the idea is that it doesn't look like you PhotoShopped out the bad stuff, or just wrote it yourself.) And, of course, scan the letter from your employer. That way, you have a single large PDF file that you can send over for verification once it looks like someplace will move forward. (I choose PDF because everyone can read it. Microsoft Word files can look pretty funky once they're opened by someone new. You can generally do "print as PDF" or "export as PDF" from various files. On my Mac, it's an option from the printer dialogue in the rare programs that don't have it as an option from the File menu.)

RE: Renting from abroad is a special challenge.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

Now, it's time to go on the hunt.

I recommend that you hit up the MLS, Zillow (http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/) and Trulia (http://www.trulia.com/for_rent/Somerville,MA/map_v). HotPads (http://hotpads.com/) was good during my recent search. PadMapper (http://www.padmapper.com) still exists and does pull listings off of Craigslist. (There are plenty of free MLS lookup services — I used MLS Property Information Network (http://mlslistingsmassachusetts.com).)

One of the problems with Craigslist, and, for that matter, most real estate agents' sites, is that they will tell you "5 minutes to Davis Square" when it's more likely that honesty would say, "On Somerville side of the line at Porter Square". Also, because of the MLS being what it is, everyone tends to list the same apartment, and that's before Craigslist spammers. Using Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, PadMapper — all of those work off of a map. You can figure out where a listing is in relation to where you actually want to be.

My process was usually this order: HotPads / PadMapper → MLS → contact original listing agent as listed on the MLS.

I found that based on cross-referencing listings that looked good, I could often find out the exact address. As a result, I would compile information on each likely apartment and get a good vibe of what was going on. I learnt about who owned the buildings from the tax assessor's database, and with some rudimentary Googling, i could find out how many properties they owned in the area. It gave me an idea of the scope of the landlord I was dealing with. The guy who owned 20 properties was much more flexible than the company that held 300 or the owner-occupier who was renting out one. (The guy with a moderate number wasn't interviewing for his own neighbour, as the owner-occupier did, and the larger management companies had an unending supply of rules and regulations.)

Most owners and landlords were contacting one real estate agent, who published it on the MLS subsequently. But only that one real estate agent that was in the original listing had been brought through the apartment and likely taken most of the photographs. Often, that real estate agent had dealt with that owner's properties several times before and could give me a good analysis of what sort of landlord they were, what sort of tenants they were looking for, what the strengths of the property were, & c. A few listings were exclusive, but not very many.

If you get a local friend to help, you may wish to ask them to visit the places with a real estate agent, and to give you their notes, as well as taking some photos that weren't screened by a real estate agent. If there's a finalist, beg that friend to go to the place at 10 p.m. one night and figure out if, for example, that kitschy restaurant across the street turns into a really loud bar, or that the parking lot is used for drug deals, & c. Or if they can swing by one morning before work, is there an industrial garage across the street? (I realise this is above and beyond for many people, but if you have a friend who's willing, it's the sort of errand-running that you would do, if you were in town.)

The assessor's office usually has sketches of the layouts, which can help you figure out what the actual size and layout of an apartment is. Real estate agents are better than glamour photographers in terms of figuring out favorable angles to make something small look a lot bigger. (If you aren't very spatial — I'm not — you might want to plot out how much space you have on graph paper and grab the dimensions of furniture off IKEA's website — for instance, a Klippan loveseat is 71 inches wide by 35 inches deep, and try to figure out what will actually fit in each room. IKEA lists all their furniture dimensions, many other furnishing companies don't. I don't usually go in for much IKEA, but being able to figure out "a typical couch is about so big" or "a queen-sized bed is like so" can help you figure out if you can even fit yourself in those rooms.)

RE: Renting from abroad is a special challenge.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

Once you find likely listings, start using Google Reverse Image Search on images you like. Between that and maps, you can often figure out exactly what's what. Bear in mind that real estate agents have no qualms whatsoever about listing a place that lacks closets in a room as still having multiple bedrooms. The city assessor's office has none of that nonsense going on. If it lacks the standards by code to be a bedroom, then it's listed as not having that bedroom.

Let me walk you through my process with a couple of random listings that fit your criteria:

$1675 1BR/1BA in Davis Square (http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/(undisclosed-Address)-Somerville-MA-02144/2126765536_zpid/). No written address is given, but from the map, it shows that the apartment is at Winter Street and College Avenue, in a large pastel-coloured building with either dark green or dark blue trim. A Google reverse image search yields no other matching listings, but Google Street View panning down the street shows no such building. Zillow says that the listing is live for 82 days. That seems dubious, it's a bit below market price. Between the age of the listing and the lack of other corroborating listings, I conclude that it's a listing that doesn't actually exist, but is rather put up to get people to contact Apartment Rental Experts (surprise, surprise) to be told, "We're sorry, it just rented yesterday, but we have something really great, just like it, that costs a little bit more."

19 Cherry Street, $1900 1BR/1BA between Davis and Porter Squares (http://hotpads.com/rentals/19-Cherry-Street-2-Somerville-MA-02144--mtqnxwg8w5kq). The photos are gorgeous, and they don't look to be faked given the assessor's database (http://gis.vgsi.com/somervillema/Parcel.aspx?Pid=6039). The owner is a lady named Alma Keefe, who lives in Malden. A quick Googling of that name reveals that she is an older lady who owns no other property that can be quickly found. (She is associated with a couple of other addresses on various background check websites, but she's not listed as an owner of record, or a recent seller, on any of them.) So presumably she owns this one property and wants to not cope with having to screen tenants.

The HotPads listing tells you to call Kim Mulligan, whose telephone number is 508.493.1090. Doing a quick reverse lookup on that telephone number informs you that the number goes to the South Shore Real Estate Academy (http://southshorerealestateacademy.com). It turns out that she teaches classes there for future real estate brokers. Thus, she knows the legalities involved quite well. It also turns up a link to Realty Direct.

The MLS lists this property — it's not exclusive to Ms. Mulligan — but it does reveal that she is the originating broker (http://mlslistingsmassachusetts.com/idx/mls-71701317-19_cherry_unit_2_somerville_ma_02144). Thus, she's probably your best bet if you want this property. I would, if I wanted to live in Somerville:

Spacious apartment in a quiet building near Porter Square and a short walk to Davis Square. Building is very well maintained and boast classic built in woodwork details such as pocket doors and decorative windows. All rooms are of large size: Full kitchen with pantry, formal dining room with built in hutch, nice size living room, bedroom, and bonus room which could be used as a large office/den/sitting room with built-in shelving units. Prospective tenant to pay full fee to be split with the cooperating broker. No pets. No smoking. Verifiable income and decent credit required.

RE: Renting from abroad is a special challenge.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

So you can see how I'm doing it. It just involves taking what information there is in the listing and squeezing every bit of information you can get out of the listing. (I'd cry if I didn't have Google during this process. Seriously.)

You might want to consider engaging a real estate agent of your own to act on your behalf. The problem is, custom dictates that they only get paid after you've found a place, so while they're eager to get you a place, if you turn down the first few possibilities, they may decide that you're wasting their time and not deal with things attentively. I engaged a real estate agent this time, but ended up finding my place without his help, because he wasn't staying on top of the listings the way I did. Still, it's worth the trying. There's Maven Realty (http://mavenrealty.com) and Red Line Real Estate (http://www.redlinerealestate.com), both of which are well-reviewed on Yelp. I did look at a listing with Maven once, a decade ago, but I didn't manage to get it.

I'd say you have no chance in hell of not paying a realtor's fee — the only way that can happen is if you move into a large building (in which case all applications are handled internally) or if you arrange for a Craigslist by-owner showing with one of your friends. (I did all of the legwork with my current place, down to finding the listing, with no help from anyone, but the real estate agent still got her fee, although to be fair it was the landlord who engaged her, not me. C'est la guerre.) Either way, the amount of the fee will be the same, and if they're attentive, they can screen their listings and the MLS daily. If not, you'll be finding it on your own anyway, but you needn't pay them if they don't do their job.

Good luck and Godspeed. You'll need both.

A possibility

[goingtohaul.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm a landlord with a 2bd 1bath unit coming available Sept 1. It is a 3 family house & I've lived here for over 15 years.

If you are able to put together a dossier as suggested by jpallen, I'd like to touch base with the "responsible locals" you mentioned.
A few things that may be a deal breaker on your end.
- no smokers
- no pets (very allergic to cats)
- will you have a car? There is parking available for a nominal fee - depending upon the vehicle.
Pantry, wood floors & coin laundry in the basement.

I've had great tenants in the apartment but, they are moving due to work. In the past, I've tried to deal with local rental agencies and have found them to be unqualified, disrespectful and in some cases unethical. Once I have your info, I'll send pics and location info. The house is a 3 minute walk to Davis.

RE: A possibility

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that many local rental agencies are unqualified, disrespectful, and unethical.

However, all of my advice was designed around the possibility of her finding a listing that she might like. Anyone gets antsy about sending out personal info in a potential real estate transaction, but with her being from abroad, I didn't really see another way.

(I compiled a packet, yes, but I only handed it in, in person, when I decided I wanted to apply for a certain apartment.)

Wouldn't it make a lot of sense to contact her privately and offer to make some arrangements with those local friends she mentioned to vet the apartment? You're asking for a lot of info from her completely sight unseen, when you might be offering an apartment she has no interest in due to location or whatever else weird factor.

I was contacted by at least three real estate scammers, all of whom were angling for my personal info. I don't know the original poster from a hole in the ground, but when you're being contacted in response to your posting or advertisement, you have to be very leery of any involvement with anyone.

I own a property and I really do feel you about the desire to find a tenant who isn't looking to scam you and is a responsible adult. I haven't managed yet. But any good tenant would be leery of giving out a bunch of info sight unseen …

RE: A possibility

[goingtohaul.livejournal.com]

Agreed.