Apartment Hunting

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Once again: moving.
Last time I moved (3 years ago? 4) I met with folks from
1. Apartment Rental Experts
2. Maven Realty
and have enjoyed my experience with both companies. If anyone has specific recommendations (names) of people who are currently working at either places, or recent stories (good or bad) - any info would be much appreciated.

Names I have from the past:
1. ARE - Will, really wonderful, but he probably doesn't work there anymore
2. Maven - Mimi and Eddie (not sure if they are still there). Laura was the most recent recommendation.

Thanks everybody!

Comments

[concrete.livejournal.com]

ARE - I had a pretty bad experience with them, never planning to go back.

I walked in one day, they had nothing for me, suggested to come back closer to my moving date.

I went in closer to my moving date, whereby I was promptly chastised for not making an appointment and I practically had to beg them to even look at their available apartments for me.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I had a bad experience with ARE also. We looked at several units, then a few days later decided we wanted one of them. I called to say we wanted the apartment but that because I was in Waltham it would be difficult for me to get to the Davis office, would it be okay if my roommate came with the deposit after she got off work? I was told yes, that's fine. My roommate went by the office a few hours later with a check in her hand and was told Ohhh, it's too bad you didn't get here earlier, we rented that apartment to someone else 20 minutes ago.

ARGH. It still makes me mad, a year later.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I've had extremely good luck just craigslisting it up. My impression is that the stuff on CL is stuff that they are having some trouble selling, so it's relatively easy to get a deal done on it. I could be wrong though. Any realtors on here?

Yet another bad experience with ARE

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

As two rentees have shared that they had bad experiences with Apartment Rental Experts, I thought you might like to know that a landlord has had the same. I tend to just post on Craigslist these days but, if I do use an agent, it will definitely NOT be ARE!

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I always recommend Eddie at Maven -- he helped us out back in January. I imagine he's still there.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Ditto that, and I've had especially good luck (two dog-friendly, reasonably-priced one-beds in Somerville) with posting "Housing Wanted" ads.

Of course, now I seem to have used up my luck and can't find something that way for love or money...

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

We used Laura at Maven the last time we rented and it was a mixed bag. We enjoyed working with her personally. She was quite pleasant and accomodating. That said, she told us the apartment we ended up signing a lease on had shared storage in the basement. It was in a three family. She gave us a tour of the basement and said that each apt basically staked out a corner with the 4th for laundry. After we moved in, we found out that the landlord was quite opposed to basement storage. If she had had her facts straight, she would have been a great realtor. Buyer beware.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I did pretty well with craigslist back in the day but this time around I've gone through days of pouring through every ad that fits my search parameter - and coming up with a small handful of listings, none of which I'm terribly psyched about. Back in the day I'd call a dozen places a day and line up appointments one after another.
I think this time I'm much pickier and know exactly what I want, so most ads I see are falling short of my idea of a perfect place. Also, we are moving in August instead of September, so we have fewer options...although last time I moved in July. Hm. (and it probably is a bit early for August openings)
Craigslist hasn't failed me before, so I'll keep at it. I'm just curious about ARE vs. Maven (as back-up plans), if there are specific realtors that are consistently good, between all the horror stories.

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

Do NOT use Bay State Realty. They have extremely deceptive practices and I'm involved in a court case to try to get a deposit back from them on an apartment I never rented.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

holymoly. thanks for the warning and good luck with your case!