If any of you ever wondered what makes this group of extremely wonderful and generous people donate their time and expertise for free then here is your answer.

A broker or real estate agent gets paid the equivalent of 1 month’s rent in virtually every transaction in which an apartment is rented.

There are 3 ways that they get paid:

1. You, the renter, pay them a full month’s rent fee.
2. You split the month’s rent fee with the landlord so each party pays a half-month’s rent.
3. The landlord pays the full month’s rent fee.

Scenario 3 is better known as the “No Broker Fee” apartment.

From my experience, if the landlord is willing to pay such a high incentive, the fee ends up being passed down to you anyway in the form of higher monthly rent. For example, a $1200 a month apartment with a one month’s fee would end up being $1300 a month ($1200/12=$100 extra dollars per month) so the landlord recovers his expense. Your rent is higher than it could have been if you rented the unit directly through the owner/property manager.

Also another point worth driving home – no matter who pays the broker fee, the more rent you pay, the more fee they get. That relationship usually leads to you seeing apartments that are at the top if not slightly over your price range.

Bottom line is this: if you want to avoid paying a broker fee you should not go around with brokers. It doesn’t matter whether they classify them self as Fee or No Fee; there is no free lunch.

IG

So for all you April-September renters, I would suggest you start your search early. As soon as the weather gets warmer and more people are out looking, prices will rise and inventory will go down.

The early birds get the worm.

On another note, Boston Real Estate Now, The Boston Globe Blog covered a new rent calculator-thingy called Zilpy.com. I’m not entirely sure how they get their information, but you can get some detailed info about Boston, MA (or any location you desire), such as:

• Renter occupied: 64 %
• Population: 589,141
• Vacancy rate: 4.9 %
• Median household income: $39,629
• Monthly rent affordability: $990
• Crime rate index: Violent: 5; Property: 4 (1-lowest, 5-highest)
• Ethnicity: White (54 %); Black (25 %); Hispanic (14 %)
• Age groups: 25 to 34 (21 %); Under 18 (20 %); 18 to 24 (16 %)
• Education: High School (38 %); College (13 %); Graduate School (10 %)
  Source: zilpy.com

Good luck,
IG

Since anybody can plug in whatever they want the results are not necessarily accurate but I thought it was an interesting concept nonetheless.

Enjoy

IG

The best case scenario for renters is to get the heat and hot water included in the rent. That way any insulation or efficiency problems are the landlord’s responsibility.

Before signing a lease:

When visiting a potential apartment you want to ask what kind of heating system they have in place.

1. A gas-based furnace that heats a hot-water baseboard is, in my opinion, the most economic.
2. Gas bills are somewhat cheaper than electric or oil.
3. Oil based burner – Oil, like, we all KNOW is expensive right now.
4. Electric baseboard – from my experience this is the most expensive heating system to the renter.

Another questions or observation should be the windows – are they new, old?

As far as insulation goes, try and see if the unit is drafty. If you place your hand on an outside-facing wall (from the inside) in a poorly insulated unit, you can sometimes FEEL the draft. That draft is heat and your $$$ escaping and being replace by cold air from outside.

Another good bit of advice is to call N-Star, KeySpan or the previous tenant or landlord what the average bill is during the winter season.

Like anything else, some landlords might be willing to negotiate the utilities when paying a higher rent price.

Hope this helps.

IG

Unfortunately, Section 8 voucher holders face many challenges while trying to secure housing. Often, property owners are hesitant to rent to someone who relies on government subsidies, or they don’t keep their property in good enough condition to pass Section 8 inspection.

The best advise I can give you, the voucher holder, is to seek out professional help in the form of a Housing Advocacy Group, of which there are a few in the Boston area such as ABCD or Home Start or use a professional service that has already pre-screened the listed properties. This will ensure that you are treated with the respect that you deserve and that you are sent to apartments that you will be welcomed in.

Often when you, the property owner, hears about Section 8 you think you might not be interested in renting to voucher holders because of some negative connotations that go along with having to use government subsidies. In my experience, I have found that most Section 8 voucher holders are regular folks that just need some financial assistance to sustain their family. And from a business perspective, a Section 8 tenant is one of the more secure ways to insure you get the rent paid on time every month since it is being paid for by a government agency.

If you, the property owner are considering accepting a Section 8 voucher, the procedure is roughly as follows. A prospective Section 8 tenant becomes interested in your unit, they tell the issuer of their Section 8 voucher about your unit and then an appointment is scheduled for an inspection. If your unit passes inspection, you sign an agreement, and that’s that.

Hope this helps,

IG

There are four main reasons why landlords and property managers are often not open to the idea of having a pet in the apartment.

1. The obvious reason is the fear of wear and tear to the unit as a result of having an animal live there. Some of the fears are obviously justified and some are not. I guess it depends on the type of animal, cat, dog, bird or even the pet owner.
2. Another reason is liability. In some cases, to protect themselves (and their property) a landlord will buy extra insurance. Extra insurance means extra cost. In order to avoid that they don’t allow pets, period.
3. Allergies – some people are allergic to pets, so it might cause a problem in an apartment building setting.
4. Some people just don’t like animals.

What to expect?

When you start calling pet friendly apartments you will learn that pet friendly does not necessarily mean you can move in with your cat or dog. Often pet friendly will mean either “cats only” or “dogs under 25 lbs.” or “pets negotiable” based on the landlord’s impression of your pet after you meet.

The toughest situation is when you have a medium to a full size dog or even worse, when you have multiple pets moving in with you.

What to do?

Consider the suburbs. Living with a pet is easier in a suburban setting than it is in the city, simply because of the availability of outdoor spaces like a yard, a deck or a porch. The suburbs are also not as congested, so you are far more likely to find a single or a multi-family house that will agree to take you and your pet. (The fewer tenants are involved the better).

Referral for your pet. If you have already rented an apartment with your pet be sure to get a letter from the previous owner that states how good of an experience they had with it.

Pet deposit. Expect to pay it or offer to pay it if that will seal the deal if the owner is on the fence. Usually the equivalent of month’s rent> The money is deposited into an escrow account and it is used for cleaning and fixing any pet damage the unit suffers during your stay.

Negotiations. Anything can be negotiated, so if you feel there is even the slightest chance of the owners agreeing to take you and your pets try and negotiate a solution or use a professional to help you.

Over all I believe that using an apartment finding service or a real estate agent can make a world of difference when you are moving in general but especially with pets.

Hope this helps.

IG

It’s quite true that buying a home will be just short of impossible after bankruptcy or with terrible credit, especially now with current mortgage conditions being extremely strict.

But when it comes to renting an apartment not all is lost. Many people who have declared bankruptcy have most likely rented apartments in the past.

My first advice would be to try and avoid large apartment complexes and the larger professionally managed properties. The reason is that with the larger companies there is much less of a chance that somebody will care about your personal situation. Furthermore, almost 100% of the time they will rely heavily on your credit report as an approval method.

You will have much better luck with private owners who only own 1-5 apartments. They might show some sympathy if you leave a good impression when you meet for the showing. Before you go to the showing make sure that you have prepared an application that will impress the landlord. This is especially important if you have bad credit.

When all is said and done, getting approved for an apartment is all about making the landlord comfortable with your ability to pay the rent consistently on time.

Here is what you should present to the landlord:

1) CO-SIGNER/GUARANTOR
This can be someone in your family or a very close friend that has good or much better credit and income than you, and who is willing to co-sign the application agreeing to take legal responsibility to pay the rent if you should default on your rent. Many students with bad or zero credit use their parents as guarantors.

2) BANK STATEMENTS
If you have a few months worth of rent in a saving account in your name and you can prove it on a bank statement, show it to your landlord.

3) REFERENCE LETTERS
Get a reference letter from your employer verifying the length of your employment and your income. You can also ask your employer to put in a good word for you in terms of reliability. This will all give confidence to the landlord.

A reference from a past landlord is huge. This is basically a letter from someone you rented an apartment from in the past that states how much money you paid for rent and that you paid consistently on time. Make sure they include their contact information and get permission for a follow-up call from your future landlord.

A personal reference can also be used, but personally I would not make too much of it if I were the landlord, unless it’s from someone who has some clout like your good friend the State Senator and is willing to vouch for your being a stand up guy or gal.

4) CREDIT REFERENCE
Although you might be recovering from bankruptcy or just have terrible credit, you might have a few bills that you keep paying on time (cell phone, cable TV, car payments, student loans, etc.). Ask the companies for a credit reference letter and supply it to the landlord.

Hope this helps!

IG

Whatever the case, there are three ways to secure short-term housing in the Boston area.

1) CORPORATE RENTALS
These are apartments that are being rented on a weekly and monthly basis. The apartments come fully furnished and equipped top to bottom. These units are being priced out in comparison to a hotel room stay, so if you compare them to a regular rental rate they are very expensive. The units are usually very well cared for, like a hotel, and include internet connection, cable TV, linen, and a fully applianced kitchen.

For example:
Standard hotel room rates in downtown Boston are, on average, $250 per night. Multiply by 30 nights and you’ve just spent $7500 that month on housing.

The corporate rentals will run about half that. So count on spending around $3000 a month for a one-bedroom or studio apartment in the downtown Boston area.

There are exceptions to that rule but I don’t know of any corporate rentals that are renting for less than $1400 a month for a studio or $2000 for a two-bedroom.

2) BED AND BREAKFAST
There are quite a few B&B’S in the Greater Boston area. You will most often find them in Cambridge, Brighton, Brookline but not so much in the heart of downtown Boston. They range in quality from a run-down motel/hostel feel to a homey, almost hotel-like feel.

Renting is usually done on a nightly basis with the option of a longer-term stay (per week or month) for a reduced rate.

Prices range from $100-300 per night for an apartment-like unit, not just a room. Weekly and monthly rates are priced around $600-$1500 per week and $2000-$3000 per month.

3) RENT A SHORT-TERM UNIT, RENT THE FURNITURE TOO
This is by far the most economical way of securing short-term housing in Boston. However, it requires a little more work on the renter’s part.

What you do is find a regular non-furnished market-rate apartment that would accept a month-to-month lease or a Tenant-at-Will agreement. Some landlords will be agreeable to this sort of arrangement from the get-go or sometimes only after some negotiations.

These arrangements are far and few between, but they are out there.

Once you have secured the apartment, you use a furniture rental company to furnish the apartment to your liking. This will cost you $70-$350 per month depending upon the quality of the furniture and how detailed you want to get. Do you need just a bed? Or do you require a living room and dining room set with chandeliers, a plasma TV and matching area rugs?

Companies that rent furniture in the Boston area are: Cort Furniture, Rent-a-Center and probably a few others.

Hope this helps.

IG

GrandCentralApartments.com created a rent calculator to make budgeting for your rent simple.

Keep in mind your responsibility for utilities. Obviously the best case scenario is finding an apartment where the rent includes all utilities. If not, be sure to get an idea of what your heating bill, electric, phone, cable and internet expenses will be and factor that into your budget as well. Your landlord should be able to help you estimate your utilities.

A recent article in the Boston Globe reported that the amount of low-income renters that spend upwards of 50% of their income on rent increased dramatically over the last 8 years (almost doubled).

Low income refers to people making no less then the minimum wage and no more then 120% of the median income for an area.

IG

1. CLASSIFIED ADS – That’s how everybody gets started, whether you are going through the local paper or various other websites. Weeding through listings is the only way to start.

The most popular source for the do-it-yourselfers is craigslist.org, a totally free online classified bulletin board that allows you to contact some private owners directly. Some other popular sources are rent.com, apartments.com, boston.com (The Boston Globe web site) and homefind.com (The Boston Herald web site).

CONS:

• Unless you plan on making a career of looking for an apartment, don’t bother. Yes, there is a chance you might be able to get lucky and find an owner directly without paying any fees to anyone but from the get-go you limit your options severely.
• The other sources are paid advertising. The landlord or property manger pays to try and drive attention to their property. In many cases the listings are rarely up-to-date or super-accurate.
• Craigslist is a free classified board so anyone can put anything they like on there and it will never be verified or updated.
• Most of the so-called “free” listings are brokers advertising properties on behalf of the landlords. So while you think you are saving money by doing it yourself, you are actually wasting time because most probably you will end up paying a broker fee.

PROS:

• I’m still trying to figure that one out, I know that a common belief is “You save money when you do the work yourself” but when trying to find your next apartment, this cannot be further from the truth.

2. REAL ESTATE AGENT – A licensed real estate agent will drive you or with you to apartments that are as close to your desired criteria as possible. A good agent will preview the apartment before you see it so you end up saving a lot of time.

CONS:

• A broker fee in MA is the equivalent to 1 month’s rent so a successful search with a broker is pretty costly.

• As in any profession it’s difficult to find a really good, reliable, trustworthy agent that will actually do all the leg work for you.

• Because of the agents business model you are, for the must part, shown units that are at your budget or, more often, exceed your budget. Why? Simple. The more rent you pay, the more they put in their pocket.

• Brokers are very localized. No broker can search and find you units in several different neighborhoods. So unless you have a very specific area you are interested in, you have to run around with few different agencies.

PROS:

• Huge time savings if you use the right broker. They (should) do all the leg work for you, drive you around and then help you throughout the application and lease signing process.

• Rarely, extremely rarely, a broker will have an exclusive listing with a certain company or landlord. In order to get to that specific property you must use the specific agency.

3. To be continued…