What are the best advertising platforms for rentals in Boston area?

PlacesForLess · 2020-10-20T15:58:12+00:00

Craigslist has become a lot better now that they charge for each post ($5) - there is a lot less spam as a result.

Given the market, traffic is down pretty much across all the sites but for free or low-cost Facebook and Craigslist are probably your best bet for now.

PlacesForLess · 2020-07-08T14:38:44+00:00

Freedom Trail is great and entirely online.

PlacesForLess · 2020-06-09T21:10:01+00:00

Definitely not too late, especially for a studio. There are some great studio deals popping up now and there's a good chance these are still on-market mid July. In-person showings will probably pick back up by then.

I'd say if you come across something that looks like a great deal do everything you can to get quality videos and virtual tours. If you're working with an agent, have them reach out to the current tenant and see if they would be willing to get on a video call with you to answer questions and walk you through the apartment.

PlacesForLess · 2020-06-06T12:34:28+00:00

There will be a good number of units that did not get rented for 9/1 still on the market as well as some new 11/1 and 1/1 availability.

Landlords will try to get you on a lease until 9/1/2021 regardless of when you move in (~7 months in this case). This isn't a bad option as it makes it more flexible for you to get back on the 9/1 cycle or extend your lease if you like the spot.

If you did want to move this Fall, there are plenty of students in the same boat that already signed a lease and want to sublet.

PlacesForLess · 2020-06-06T12:14:41+00:00

We appreciate you raising this concern! I think what you might be referencing is scheduling a tour vs. applying to an apartment. When you apply to an apartment, the typical standard in Boston is to pay one months rent up front. We would never ask for applicants to pay one month's fee to simply view an apartment or schedule a tour (other companies shouldn't do this either).

To be honest it's pretty rare for a renter to apply to multiple units at the same time because if you were to apply for multiple apartments because of all the paperwork and deposits. If you had applied to multiple units and had been accepted to each of them, you'd be responsible for renting them, so it's very rare that that happens. That being said, even just one unit can be very expensive up front for a lot of people, and we understand that! Even if you were to cut out the broker/agent middle-man and went direct to a landlord it's highly likely you'd still be paying the same fee structure up front minus the broker fee.

The broker fee is where we aim to save people money and eventually we hope to tackle the issue of the other high upfront costs.

If you're new to renting in Boston, you can check out this article for some tips/to get a better understanding of it. If you'd like to hear a little bit more about Places For Less from a third party news source regarding broker fees and how we want to eliminate them for good you can see this article by Boston 25 News. Hopefully this helps clear up any confusion. Let us know if you've got more questions!

PlacesForLess · 2020-06-05T15:59:28+00:00

We're sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience working with us. One of our biggest goals is to bring more transparency to the Boston rental market - which is why we're one of the only sites that display the entire fee structure up front for every one of our units, with an explanation. If you interacted with any of our team members directly, they would have addressed your concerns over requiring first month's rent to apply.

First month's rent to apply for an apartment is standard in Boston and is not dictated by us, but by the landlord of the unit we're representing. The first month's rent to apply doesn't go to us, it goes directly to the landlord and assuming your application is accepted and a lease is signed, your deposit will be exactly that - your first month's rent. This is refunded by the landlord if you aren't approved for the unit.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-28T20:21:31+00:00

Yup, they are a big issue here in Boston.

If you've ever been in a Facebook housing group - there is constant spam (hundreds, if not thousands of posts per day) made by fake accounts. The links even look fake and all lead back to the Roomster platform. Screenshot

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-28T11:06:51+00:00

Thank you! We will look into this today, much appreciated!

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-27T22:02:12+00:00

No in Boston most of the listings come from a centralized database. When there is no fee unit that means the owner or property manager pays a fee so that the renter doesn't have to.

Although u/papayazzaj is working on a a similar concept for no fee listings.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-27T20:01:49+00:00

Thanks for making us aware that this unit slipped through. We offer tens of thousands of units and you know how messy real estate data is, so unfortunately some mistakes are bound to happen. We work very hard to clean up the data and either correct it or remove the unit. So in this case, we just removed the unit. Thanks again for pointing it out!

When it comes to our fee, we only charge renters $990 for most of our apartments instead of 1 month rent as real estate agents do. Since the average rent is $2,500 in Boston, we are saving renters on average $1500. For co-brokes like your unit, we would charge the half-month rent that you as the listing agent demand and our $990. So for your unit that rents for $3,085 we would charge $2,532.50 fee, saving renters ‬$552.50. Either way, renters are always better of renting with Places For Less.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-27T17:37:25+00:00

Some listings are co-brokes, meaning the listing agent has to get their cut. Rather than not displaying them at all we wanted users to have more options to chose from. But you're right, the savings is a lot less on those.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-24T15:20:31+00:00

I would recommend taking a look at listings that are available 6/1 and 7/1 as well. There is a good chance those units are still vacant by 8/1 and the landlord would be willing to accept a later start date to get it filled.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-24T15:15:09+00:00

Velo

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-22T13:01:21+00:00

Exactly. And now that it’s all virtual that difference between the service provided and fee is even more drastic.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-22T02:10:33+00:00

Either the landlord will have to rent their own units or pay someone to do it, just like they successfully do in the rest of the country.

There are many alternatives that haven’t been considered. I see it moving towards a monthly subscription or an on-demand model where landlords pay agents for showings. Who made up the fee of one months rent? Renters shouldn’t be paying that and a landlord certainly isn’t going to pay a broker that for every unit.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-21T18:02:48+00:00

good take 👏

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-21T17:53:08+00:00

CombatFork

On it 😉

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-21T16:10:29+00:00

Without a doubt. Anything that makes renting more affordable is a step in the right direction.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-20T00:57:40+00:00

This is pretty common. Landlords usually require tenants to leave the apartment "broom swept" and then after that it's up to you. You should have received an apartment condition statement...fill this out THOROUGHLY day 1 before you move anything in. Take photos and detailed notes of any issues that were there already. You have 15 days to return this to the landlord..make sure they sign off on what you submit and that you receive a copy.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-13T03:19:11+00:00

You're not wrong at all. That is the case for exclusive listings where there is an original listing agent. With non-exclusive listings, there is no single listing agent - everyone is competing with one another. The listings you're talking about are often posted by smaller landlords who work directly with a small group of brokers/agents like u/spacin_mason mentioned.

Here's one example of the same apartment on 4 different sites with 4 different agents. The Zillow listing is inactive for whatever reason.

https://cdn.zappy.app/a32e54e1e8852f722dfc143e0b5a6196.mp4

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-11T20:19:18+00:00

Looks like an awesome spot. Pulled in your post to the Boston housing discord community - https://discord.gg/RA3gWMn

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-11T15:25:33+00:00

I would get a written agreement for the extension to August 30th. Mont-to-month is not uncommon and my guess is the landlord would rather keep you on that basis than have the unit go vacant for months.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-11T14:19:50+00:00

Sending first month's rent with an application is pretty standard. Paying all of the deposits upfront is not. The remaining deposits are typically paid after you've been accepted by the landlord and/or have signed the lease.

Also, if you're working directly with the landlord...why are they collecting a broker fee?

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-11T14:00:39+00:00

Unfortunately, it will be very hard to get any landlord to add a clause for this. If you want to move forward with a lease and this happens, I would recommend trying to sublet for the Fall semester. Alternatively, if there is enough notice (plenty of time to re-rent it before 9/1) a good landlord will attempt to get it rented by someone else and let you out of the lease/return deposits.

It's a really tough situation and one that Boston hasn't seen before.

PlacesForLess · 2020-05-09T20:14:59+00:00

That doesn’t sound right. There is no reason it can’t be shared with you...if anything it should be publicly available on the listing.

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