All Forum Posts by: Joan L.

I had a similar experience! She was post-doc in biology, doing a year at Harvard. She set the 2nd floor thermostat to 80, then complained that the 3rd floor was way too hot, so she left the windows open, and complained that it was cold. Then she complained that the heat bill was too high.

I didn't buy for the first 4 years because I didn't want the responsibility of caring for the house after I left the area (I knew I didn't want to stay in the area long-term), then when I saved up to move to the Boston area (without a job lined up), I spent a year figuring out the most ideal place for me to live (get a job, then determine if I liked my job enough to want to keep it, then ideal commute, neighborhood, where I mostly hung out, car-less life, house-hack-able).

Then I got extremely lucky and found a place in 2 months when I did start looking for somewhere, but most of my friends in the area spent over a year finding suitable places.

"How do I turn on the disposal in the bathtub, to get rid of all the hair?"

Oh, also, I charge my tenants water as my unit was relatively new, so came with a separate meter - my realtor told me she thought charging for water was going to make renting it difficult. It did take me a while (Cambridgeport, 2+ months, tried to get 8/1 but had to get 9/1 instead) to rent my place at what appeared to be market rent so it could have been the water or it could have been a softening of the market.

@Paul Lombardi Karen is correct about New tenancies, and you can't get force existing tenants out to get new ones because of water, though I'm not sure how they'd prove that. You also have to file a form certifying your place is submetered and low-flow with the health department or inspection department along with a copy of your lease.

http://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/booklets/water-law

@Alison Loiselle, I rented out my attached garage to my condo in Cambridgeport for the last two years. Since it was such a popular area, I just did month to month and found a simple lease online that sounded good. I found a couple where one person was doing their residency and really wanted to know they had a parking spot when she came back at 3 AM and didn't have to dig out her car at 5 AM. They leased for over two years until I decided to rent my entire unit.

While I was renting, I helped my landlord in Cambridge fill his parking space, all people who worked at a company around the corner.

Craigslist worked wonders for both. Shoveling of the driveway was included in both cases. I also had to put down a lot of salt in the winter as there was a dip right in front of my garage door, causing water to pool and freeze. This wasn't a huge problem since I lived on-site. 

Great experience overall, you might just want to clarify exactly where they are to park.

Hi @Cassandra Staffieri, does he do HOA management (budgets, reserves analysis, condo meetings, 6d, etc)? I couldn't really tell from the website.

Thanks!

Yeah, I need to watermark my photos next time. I do already post cross streets, and in this case, the poster came from a licensed brokerage with whom I had worked briefly, so she had the original pictures and the address. However, I had told them I would not work with them after the agent I was already working with, but didn't have an exclusive with, told me of the shady business that brokerage and the agents there had. They don't steal first/last/deposit, just listings and clients from other agencies.

Rentlinx finally paid attention to my complaint and removed the listing, but only after I tweeted at them publicly. They took down the listing, which took down the listing everywhere, but told me it was reposted again after they took it down and so they're looking into it.

Not quite sure who I'm supposed to file a complaint against at this point because it's a huge tangled web and I don't know exactly who associated with Company B was responsible, but the listings are gone for now!

Owner of Company C says phone owner denies posting it, but will ask more questions and look into how his company got involved.

Update - looks like most sites (but not all) have removed "Company C" as the listing brokerage but now has it listed as Company B, and after posting 1-star review to Company C for bait-and-switch tactics, I got a call really fast.

The phone number listed under Company C belongs to an agent who does currently work for Company C, but used to work with Company B, and was part of the group fired by Company A for shady practices, but does not belong to the broker who started Company B.

Owner of Company C is looking into the issue - says the property is not listed in their database, but will ask the owner of the phone number.