Boston’s Best Realty

Searching for a ⁹⁄₁ move-​in date for an apartment in Boston/​Brighton/​Allston can be so stressful. I was able to find Adam simply through a listing online that sparked my interest. He was clear, concise and consistent. I work in commercial real estate so I know I felt confident grilling him with questions and expressing my opinions. After a handful of apartments with various range, Adam took us to our dream apartment. We handed him checks immediately and kept communication throughout the leasing process. Adam showed how he applied his market knowledge professionally yet truthfully and assessed the options that had our best interest. I highly recommend Adam at Boston’s Best.

A truly horrific experience. Jake was a good realtor and a trustworthy guy in general, but the guy running the show, Roy, is a bully and an unethical businessman. These people are not interested in keeping long-​term tenants, so if you rent from them, prepare to move next year. I thought Hamilton Company was the worst around, but they’ve got some stiff competition in Boston’s Best.

I found a place on craigslist, emailed the contact and then a realtor showed me a couple of places. That realtor was nice, but the lease went through the landlord’s place, Boston’s Best. They were ok at the time, though not super helpful and they kind of weaseled out of paying half the fee as they said they would, and I was already committed so I just paid.
A few months later and it’s time to renew (I was off cycle) and they say the rent has gone up. I get this isn’t their fault, but they were pretty rude about it. I know I am not really their customer but they couldn’t have made it more obvious that I don’t matter and they could just find another renter; when I didn’t answer fast enough, they listed the apartment without telling me so I got calls from realtors wanting to show the place. No polite follow ups, just rude emails and listing without notice.
I am new to the Boston area and renting, but there has to be a better way, right? I would move and try to find a place being rented directly by the owner if I hadn’t JUST moved. Next year, though; I definitely do not like feeling strong-​armed like this.

In a word– terrible! My roommate and I leased an apartment through Boston’s «Best» in September. At first, things went smoothly with signing the lease, etc. Upon moving in, we were told the apartment would be cleaned and that we would receive a copy of our lease within two weeks of moving in (neither of which happened) and we still have not been able to get our hands on the lease months later… They are totally useless every time you call about an issue. Our heat has been turned off on a few occasions and we have had difficulty reaching our landlord to resolve issues.
We are not renewing next year and so they have been bringing people by to look at the place. They claim you will receive an hours notice before stopping by, however, there have been times they have called 15−30min before just showing up. Furthermore, they have been up to an hour late from the time they initially told us (without calling) and frequently come outside of normal business hours (as late as 7:30−8) despite us requesting they come during the 8 – 5 window. This company is unprofessional and more focused on commission than making their customers happy. I strongly recommend going elsewhere for your leasing needs.
Update (Fall 2015): Having now moved out of the apartment, it has been nothing but an uphill battle to get our deposit back (key deposit). I have been calling and emailing to confirm my request for the deposit was received (we needed to mail a self-​addressed envelope). The landlord says he never got it and the leasing office claims they don’t know if they received it «because mail coming into the office goes to directly to the landlord.» If you work in the office, you should see what mail is going into his inbox because you put it there… I feel like the staff here are greedy and useless. They are a perfect example of what is wrong with renting in Boston nowadays– overpriced sh*tty apartments and staff who try to take advantage of students.

They really listened to what I needed in order to find the right place for me and they helped me to find what i was looking for in my price range. However, after they get their check they aren’t nearly as helpful.
They were pretty professional and making an appointment wasn’t difficult. Still debating if I’d recommend them.

Great group to work with, especially Adam.
I moved to Boston a few days ago, with about a week set aside for apartment hunting, and Adam was able to find me a great place in my budget that fit my criteria within the day. The process overall was pretty quick, but not rushed, and Adam was very accommodating and responsive throughout the entire process. Very friendly and honest guy — would definitely recommend.
The apartment had just been renovated with some finishing touches still needed, but the day after moving in, Carlos — really friendly maintenance guy — installed all of the finishing touches within a few hours. Great turnaround time and they work quickly to accommodate your needs.
Do keep in mind that the group has a strong working relationship with the landlord of many of their listings — Sanieoff. On one hand, this may lead to exclusive listings, but on the other hand, there also might be some bias involved with their available listings.
Nevertheless, definitely worth checking out (based on my experience throughout the past week — I’ll update if anything changes).

I worked with Steve and had a great experience. I just moved to town and I needed to find a new apartment. Steve showed me some great places that were exactly what I was looking for, was down to earth, and was very helpful in answering all of my questions. Overall I had a positive experience.

So I will agree with most other reviewers in that the staff here is your prototypical frat boy BU graduate. Be that as it may, I have managed to have a couple solid experiences here.
In 2010, I worked with Brian (?) to find an awesome apartment in Brighton. He took me to a few places, and my application was actually rejected at the first one I applied to, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. I also got lucky in that the owner of the apartment I ended up taking had paid the realtor fee.
Later in 2011 I was looking to move from said awesome apartment (#brokeasfcuk) and had emailed Brian to see if he was still there (which he wasn’t). The other agent I got in touch with, Eli, was essentially useless, and like someone else said didn’t seem to grasp the fact that I was a sure deal.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I got hooked up with the owner of BBR (Roy) after contacting my condo’s property manager regarding parking. Within a few hours I had a signed contract, sticker permit, and parking spot in the lot of my choice. Roy even came in after the office was closed solely for the purpose of accommodating my busy schedule, and as a result I got 4 free days of parking. I should note here that I was charged a «finders fee» (aka realtor fee) which is kind of ridiculous given that I found HIM. Not the other way around. Oh well.
So, take that for what you will. You never know what you’re going to get with realtors here so just adjust your expectations accordingly.

If it was possible to give negative stars on Unilocal I would.
From the start of signing my lease this has been the worst realty experience of my life. I received rude and condescending e-​mails from our realtor from the beginning. It was not until I wrote back an e-​mail stating that I was a paying customer and demanded respect that my realtor realized that I was not just some little girl that he could take advantage of. Along with being rude this company is completely incompetent. I found my rental listing on craigslist which was put up by the girls that already lived in the apartment, they were the ones to show me the house and get everything in working order. So I basically paid a realtor fee of $ 200 for the company to write up a lease for me and have me sign it. HOW HARD CAN THIS BE??? Apparently for them it was very difficult!!! I had to call and e-​mail them so many times just to get an appointment and then the actual day of the appointment my realtor forgot to show up! WTF? This experience all happened last summer, I am now moved out across the country and am still having to deal with them! I am now getting calls from the manager of our property about money issues that the realtor NEVER DOCUMENTED and HAS NO RECORD OF how much we paid for security deposit and how much we are supposed to get back.
IF YOU WORK WITH THEM MAKE SURE YOU GET RECEIPTS FOR EVERYTHING AND HAVE ANY EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS PRINTED OUT OR WRITTEN DOWN.
I AM GOING TO BE OUT MONEY BECAUSE THEY ARE INCOMP

If you can avoid it, do not use this company to find or lease an apartment. I believe that every review should include positive and negative attributes, but I unfortunately have nothing positive to say about the place I now call Boston’s Worst.
They are extremely unprofessional, where anyone with whom you make an appointment fails to show up on time – sometimes half an hour or 45 minutes late, or not at all. Not a single transaction with them has gone smoothly. They tell one occupant of the apartment one thing with regards to a lease, and someone else something completely different. There is zero consistency, competence or even a semblance of organization regarding this place.
They do not keep adequate records or voluntarily hand over a copy of your lease once it is signed. They couldn’t tell my roommates how much they had paid for a security deposit, or keep track of first and last month’s rent. Additionally, any change you make to the occupancy of the lease will cost you $ 200 – even if you stay for the full term and simply need to find a new roommate to take your place next year.
I repeat, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. If your landlord uses them, ask them to find a new broker. They don’t call it Boston’s Worst for nothin’.

I had one of the most unprofessional experiences of my life here. After conversing with Michael A for weeks about a visit to Boston to see some apts, I finally contact him to see places. Instead of sending me to the apt to see, he sends me to his office to pick him up. Ok, strange but I’m going with it. I specifically have emailed him previously under an email that says «Beacon Hill studio» which tells him exactly what I wanted to see. Instead he takes me to Brighton in the BU area which is FAR from where I asked to live and where I will work. He takes me to a house which I only humored him by going to while thinking about a way to talk about the fact that this WAS NOT what we talked about. Then I realized he didn’t have the key to the apartment he took me to see!!! What???
In the car ride back to the office I broach the subject that this was not what I wanted to see and maybe he mixed up my file with somebody elses. In fact he didn’t. He had nothing in Beacon Hill and denied knowing that was what I wanted until I pulled up the emails we exchanged.
Also in the emails he was very vague about meeting, never specifically giving an address or a time unless I pressed for it. One of the worst realtors I have EVER met. He literally had a guaranteed sale: I was in town for a day and wanted to sign a lease by the end of the day. Somehow he fucked that up! Stay away from this place or at least this broker. Has no pride in his job and obviously is doing it as a side gig for money and it shows.

Moving is the worst, i hate everything about the process. I was lucky enough to have been recommended by a friend to use Boston’s Best Realty co. I worked with Adam, and I couldn’t have had a better experience, he listed to exactly what I was looking for, quickly responded to my questions and wasn’t annoyed when I didn’t rent the 1^st apartment he showed me. In fact we looked at about 5 different places, obviously my wife had to approve too and when she was happy, so was i.
I would certainly recommend them to a friend and do all the time. Ask for ADAM, he’s the best!

I contacted boston’s «best» after seeing a few promising listings on craigslist. I inquired about one and made an appointment with a «realtor», however the realtor never showed me the original apartment nor did he show me any that were close to what I was looking for.
Eventually I decided I could make one work. It was smaller than I wanted and a little out of my original price range but the location and building were spot on. When we got back to the office he explained that in order to sign a lease i needed to fork over first, last, security, and one month’s rent realtor fee, totaling 5k. I didn’t feel comfortable signing over that much money to a business organization that was run by BU frat children so I hesitated. The realtor told me that it was standard and that’s what I expect to pay to sign a lease anywhere in boston. Umm you live with your parents in Newton, asshole. Don’t tell me about renting in Boston, I get it, I know.
I decided to walk and after a few more days found a great place with Metro Realty in Brookline. They showed me a great place and were realistic in terms of lease signing costs.

Please do yourself a favor and stay away from Boston’s Best. The horror show that I’ve experienced here cannot be paralleled literally anywhere else. When I first went in to see about renting an apartment, the man I was assigned to seemed highly shady from the beginning. He ultimately made me put down four cosigners before he would consider showing my application to the landlord. This is something I argued about, but he would not move. My cosigners were all good too, which is the baffling part. He then used scare tactics to get me and my roommate to sign the lease. Needless to say, we found out shortly thereafter that he was fired. The only good move on their part.
So now we were assigned to another realtor. This guy seems genuinely to be a good guy. When we ask him if we can add a third person to the lease, he says yes. Then come to find out we can’t. He never checked with the landlord. The one thing this did do, though was have the landlord check my lease, only to find that the original realtor never sent in the information about my cosigners. We were dropped from the lease with no chance of getting the apartment back!
So now, I’ll be taking my business to another realty company that knows what it’s doing. Boston’s Best is a shit show, and I’ll never be back.

I’ll start this review by saying we didn’t end up taking any of the places that Jake Eddy showed us… so it’s more about Jake and how wonderful, responsive and professional he was then the company as a whole.
I’ve rented for the last 8 years in Brighton/​Somerville/​Boston etc. and have moved just about every year. So, I’ve worked with a lot of different personalities and Jake was up there in the top 2 for best personality/​service.
Jake really had his crap together and wasn’t afraid to get in there and make some calls to see places (last min.). I do believe he showed us everything he had available and made taking the afternoon off of work worth it. He didn’t show us any place that didn’t make sense for our needs/​what we asked for.
He was fun to chat with, a great driver and made the whole experience easy.
If he stays in real estate he’s definitely going to be successful!

This review is for my experience working with one of the agents/​co-​owners at Boston’s «Best» Realty.
Let me explain my situation:
I am moving into an apartment managed by Boston’s Best. One tenant is staying on the lease, the other is not. Since this is, according to the agent, a nontraditional apartment turnover, I was asked to arrange the move-​out details with the current tenant. The current tenant was nasty and unbending and wanted to stay on past the terms of the lease, so I tried to negotiate a midnight move with her (because legally my name is on the lease at 12:01am) and I went to the agent to act as a mediator and help us out.
I did not know that this agent had actually told the current tenant ahead of time that she could stay past the terms of the lease, the day my lease begins. When I found this out, I mentioned that it was unfair, that I was not told this, etc. Was he helpful in fixing the situation or at LEAST trying to put in a word for me? NO. I’m not exactly sure why the agent continued to tell me to work out the details with the tenant if he had basically already worked it out for us. I’m still shocked and upset that these people get paid a fee… and for what? Do they act on your behalf or at least try to act as a mediator? No. And if I’m not mistaken he is either the owner or someone high up. How he got that position and keeps it when he acts like this is beyond me.
This place can hardly be called professional. I only hope that others don’t have to go through this nightmare with an agent who is completely willing to help one party but not the other. Hopefully I’ll never have to work with this agent again.

Wow, after reading everyone else’s reviews I don’t feel so bad about my rating. I contacted an agent about an apartment listing I was interested in, e-​mailed him several questions about the place and he simply asked to call me.
We spoke on the phone and I believe his favorite response to any of my questions were «NO NO NO NO NO!» So, the entire conversation was comical. I’m relocating from California, am a professional and may sound somewhat younger on the phone. He asked me several questions, talking in a condescending tone, including «what are you just out of college?» and «I’m sure this entire process is brand new to you and must be scary.» Both of which I did my best to calmly respond.
After my conversation with the agent, I decided not to even contact him again because there’s a ton of other companies that I’m sure would be better. And, turns out that there are! I wouldn’t recommend using this company.

I found a couple of apartments I liked. I e-​mailed the same agent twice on two separate occasions and called, but received no response.
I came across a nice sounding apartment listed as a 1 bed, also posted by Boston’s Best Realty. Having given up on agent #1, I finally got in touch with another agent who agreed to show me that 1 bed, plus another 1 bed in my price range.
First of all, the second agent was late to the appointment, and no one else bothered to assist me in finding an apartment.
Second, their listings are false. I found out that one of the «1 beds» I was looking at was an apartment I had seen earlier that week. It is actually a studio with a separate kitchen. A couple of other realty companies who advertised that specific apartment listed it as a «studio» as well.
Finally, the 1 bed I originally inquired about wasn’t a true 1 bed either, but another studio with a separate kitchen with a tiny bit of floor space to fit a table. The guy tried to call it a «living room area,» but I’ll be lucky if I can fit a couch in there. The kitchen was just in a tiny nook, and there was an obvious mouse trap in the area (yes I know Boston has mice, but some places have better control on mice problems than others, so it raises a red flag for me).
He tried to give me these grandiose descriptions of the apartment to try to convince me to rent it, but I completely saw through everything. One of the most awkward appointments I’ve had to date.

BEWARE! My experience with Boston’s «Best» (*scoff*) Realty has taught me several things:
1) ask who the landlord is and RESEARCH them before EVER signing a lease
2) talk to a tenant without the realtor around and
3) never use BBR again!
This is long, but all prime examples as to why this place needs to seriously revamp itself. Please do yourself a favor and avoid the hassle!:
I have lived in my current apartment for two years due to its convenience (thankfully moving out in September because of a raise in rent) and BBR doesn’t even have me on file that I live here! When I renewed my lease, I was told the slumlord had to sign the two copies and I would receive one. Never did. Went in several months later to request one, it being a legal document and all, and was told by one of the realtors that he had no clue what I was talking about because they don’t keep ANY leases on file!
You would think they’d keep track of that and at least scan them into a computer. I expressed my disbelief and the employee basically told me to screw off when the manager/​owner asked what I needed (he shouted it from across the room) and I explained myself again. He said «yeah, yeah, sure, we can do that. we’ll mail it to you after he signs it» because apparently getting a landlord to sign a lease saying he will uphold his part of it is not important to them (my landlord is a complete slumlord and I went months without heat and my stove has never worked. I needed the lease in order to show the health department that he was in fact liable for heat and it wasn’t just me not paying a bill. For $ 1250/​month, you would think he’d be more on top of his stuff). I scoffed and said that would be HIGHLY unlikely and it looks like I was right since I have yet to receive the lease.
Going back to the very beginning in January 2010:
I entered this establishment and was welcomed by rude glances and eye rolls from their bro-​dude staff. They acted as though I was interrupting some sort of hang-​out they were having (there were also a bunch of dogs around the office which they paid more attention to than my being there). I was finally asked what I «wanted» and explained I actually wanted to give them money to find an apartment. Big mistake, I should have just walked out. My realtor *seemed* like he was cool and giving me realistic opinions on the apartments we saw, as realtors are supposed to. He was a lying snake like the rest of them.
I eventually found an apartment on the corner of Babcock and Comm. Ave, super convenient and sunny, etc. After getting a key mix up right from the get-​go on moving day (which I excused since it is indeed a particularly stressful time), I began to move my stuff in. First off, the apartments’ hallways were FILLED with garbage from other occupants who moved out. A big «F-​you» to the landlord, I assume, which is completely understandable now. There were people from the street dumpster diving in the halls, it was ridiculous. When I called the number on my lease to report it, it turned out to be the landlord’s cell phone number. He said he couldn’t do anything and hung up on me.
I did a walk around of the apartment, noting broken things and whatnot, and discovered a partially eaten pizza in the ancient stove as well as the wall beside it CAKED with cooking oil… don’t even get me started about the fan hood, drawings on the wall, hair and dirt everywhere… they clearly didn’t clean this place out prior to my moving in. I called my realtor immediately and ask him what’s up because he clearly told me, as did my lease, and he gave his apologies and said «well, it’s not toooo dirty in there, right? you could clean it up?» Look, buddy, I have no problem vacuuming. But when there’s food and grime caked on walls and vents, that’s when I draw the line (especially at $ 1250/​month).
The building has roaches, mice, water issues (several times a year the water in my sinks will come out yellowish brown), heating issues, and a whole lot more. The landlord is unresponsive and so is Boston’s Best Realty. Both entities laugh and hang up on me and several other tenants I’ve spoken to when serious problems have occurred. Again, the health department is involved. BBR is WELL aware of the landlord’s behavior and how he manages the property, yet they continue to say whatever they can to rent these places out. Philco Commonwealth Trust is the name of the «property management group» listed on the lease but it really is just some guy named Syro (no last name ever given). Philco Commonwealth Trust doesn’t even exist, making this an even shadier living situation that BBR is puppeteering.

I had the pleasure of working with Kevin to find an apartment that I have been living in for quite some time now. After explaining my incredibly time-​sensitive situation, Kevin was straightforward, not pushy, and overall provided a smooth transaction. There were issues with my future landlady having shown the unit I signed for to multiple people and I was left without a unit, but quite luckily Kevin was able to help negotiate with me and I was able to get everything sorted quickly.
Having worked with multiple other Boston realtors who were as sub-​par as they get, I was very pleased and have happily recommended Kevin and his staff.