davis_square | flat rental from Sept

flat rental from Sept

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.)

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.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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