Beacon Hill Realty

When I first rented from Rande Mindick, I thought I found a realtor who was a genuinely decent person. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking.
First, the pluses: Rande has some decent apartments available in Beacon Hill. He is also reasonably responsive to requests, although at times disorganized. For example, at one point he needed a week to renovate the bathroom. I was away for three weeks, and yet when I came back, the toilet was in the living room, and there was a thick cake of dust from the renovation all over the apartment. So despite having more than 3 times the requested time, he was unable to finish the job on time. Otherwise, nothing major broke during my tenancy, so I don’t have any complaints about Rande’s response to household issues.
On the other hand, I would warn against trusting Rande with anything that is not in the contract. When I rented the apartment, there was a «no-​sublease» clause in the lease. I explained to Rande that it was likely that I would have to be away from Boston for the summer. He said: «We are all reasonable people. We can cross the bridge when we come to it, but if you are renewing for next year and leaving the furniture behind, I am sure we can work something out.» However, when I found a subletter with stellar references back in April, Rande refused to discuss the arrangement. My naïve trust in Rande, and the fact that I wanted to stay in the apartment come fall, caused me to pay out 3 months of rent. Worst part? The landlord sold the building, and the new owner wants a $ 650/​month increase in rent (yep, you heard that figure right — that’s a 40% increase over current rent). So the 3 months worth of rent that I paid up was for nothing, as I am moving out at the end of the month.
Bottom line — check out Rande’s apartment selection, you might get lucky and find a reasonably priced place in Beacon Hill. But please be careful and don’t trust the «we are all reasonable people» spiel, because unless it’s in the lease, you might just get screwed.