All Forum Posts by: Dennis Hernandez

In Boston, a lot of landlords i have worked with have used in-unit washer/dryer as an extra. For that alone they have gotten as little as $100/mo extra. 

@Beau Blinder It's no problem. This is a very stressful time of the year for all landlords, especially when there is a vacancy, which means you are hemorrhaging money monthly.

Honestly the level of service you get from going exclusive will completely depend on the agent in question. You should be getting more updates, from monthly to weekly, and in the case of showings but no one biting, the agent should be on his/her game and giving you recommendations on what to do as far as pricing, amenities, updates, etc... For example i had a land lord in East Boston once who went vacant after she had to evict her tenant. She was vacant or a few months and i caught her at the right time and had a long conversation with her about what needed to be done to her unit to make it more friendly to renters. The biggest selling point was to rip up the old stinky carpets and refinish the gorgeous oak floors underneath. Long story short, she didn't have to drop her rent and put a few thousand into updating the place a bit and rented it out immediately.

 You should have this kind of an honest open relationship with your agent. It should be one where you know you will be providing each other with business for years to come, so if you cant really stand talking to the person for too long or if they seem too much like a salesman you probably dont want to deal with them for very long. Talk to them on the phone and meet up with them for coffee, they can then lay out what they can do for your unit. A good agent will have their ear to the ground and know what the local renters are looking for and will take note of it when they are on showings and the clients make comments about what they liked and didnt like and then feed that information to the landlord. 

I don't want to pitch you, but if you want i have a few friends across a few different companies in the city that i can recommend you to, and can provide exactly what you want. if not no big deal, I can just be here and be your sound board and help you figure out what you need.

Hey Beau!

So this is from my experience because I was a rental agent in Boston. 

What you suggested is done my many different landlords and the success rate usually varies as well. If you give an exclusive to just one agent, that agent can then syndicate it out on the MLS and greatly expand his advertising base,which in turn has many added benefits to the people looking at apartments. Because if you give an exclusivity agreement it means that that agent can freely disclose the address without fear of other agents in the city trying to poach that listing for themselves(Happens far too often). If you syndicate it out to a bunch of agents they will just blast the same information every other one will have aon all the usual websites Cragslist, zillow, postlets... The bonus to this is that you have more agents fighting for your property and to show off so that in hopes of one day getting the exclusive from you. The negative side to this is the exact opposite of the positive, in that they know they don't have an exclusive with you and other agents have it so it might not be on their priority show sheet.

It is from here you need to decide what approach you would like to take,as far as paying the fee to the company, It has ALWAYS made a unit more marketable when a landlord is willing to pay the fee. (You can write it off in taxes, but i am not an accountant so i won't dive further on that one). Think about it from a renters point of view if you are looking for a place and all of the places are the same but this one place allows you to save an entire months rent, that is what entices most of the renters to your unit.  Most landlords actually bill the fee into the rent through the year if they end up paying for it. You can have two separate prices, or billing practices work out with your list agents:

If landlord pays the fee:

First-1200

Last- 1200

Sec-1200

If landlord DOESN'T pay the fee:

First-1100

Last- 1100

Sec-1100

These are random rough numbers i just made up so i haven't done the math to see if it works out, but you get the gist. I know this was long-winded and random. Feel free to ask away, I love helping people on both sides (landlords and renters). IMHO I have seen far too many unscrupulous agents ruin it for the rest of us just because all they could see what that next commission.

Welcome @Brian Cate! I agree with you on the property taxes. I'm looking to buy in Hillsboro county in NH (Peterborough Specifically) now and the property tax rates are insane! The going rate it looks like is $29.80 per $1000 of estimated value. For buy and hold though the numbers still work out, but I guess that is what you get for the 34th most expensive county (in property taxes) in the US.

Hi James,

I Have a friend that is a great property manager, I will PM you and give you his contact info.

I have always used Tiger Home inspections. They are very professional and thorough from what I hae seen in the past. I use them, I know some family that uses them, I have some property manager friends that uses them as well. I hope this helps.

Hi @Anne Faber 
Welcome to the site, I'm new as well and love everything about this site. If you are looking for groups I suggest the Black Diamond and NERIA, they both meet in your area. I am sure that there will be a few of the reps coming along here shortly to introduce themselves.

Thanks everyone! I already have been devouring all the information I can. Time to enjoy the 4th!

@Duncan Banks , I know I am coming to this party extremely late and have no real valuable input here but was there any conclusion to this? Have you bought it and are pursuing? Thanks for any updates!

@Frank Fiore Jr  Thanks! I look forward to this "new chapter"