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

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.