Here are a few pics from the weekend.
173 Commonwealth Avenue
Comm Ave Mall
Commonwealth Avenue Road Closed
Blizzard Bikers
View from the Westin
Back Bay Dog
Blizzard of 2013
More Snow Pictures in Boston
Last night I met up with a high school friend in town for business. I decided to walk home and was glad to see it just started to snow. Good thing that I usually have my camera on me. Here are a few of the pics
Frozen Public Garden Pond
Snowy Boston State House
Frog Pond
George Washington Statue in the Public Garden
Ice Skating on the Frog Pond
Walking Home
Posted in Blog Posts, Featured Listings
Tagged Boston Common, Photography
What a Real Estate Scam Looks Like on Craigslist
Yup, recently I found out that one of my recent, but old rental listings was turned into a scam on Craigslist. I’m not sure why people choose this as a profession, but I think people who do this are the scum of scum. Just Saying. I thought I might use my blog to show people what one looks like and possibly make it a learning experience for someone.
Just recently, I was contacted by 2 people who almost got scammed by this, and they followed up to see if it was too good to be true. It had the correct address in the listing so the prospective tenants looked it up in various other locations and found out that I was the listing agent. If you search long enough you can find out that I had the exclusive agent although the listing is all over different websites .Both People reached out to me in confusion I was asked a lot of questions that made me uncomfortable, but i guess they are protecting themselves since they aren’t even sure i’m reputable. I read the original email by the scammers and i noticed that they said that they were cheated by their listing agent (read below) and that might deter from someone reaching out to me because they think i’m the deceptive one.
Here is the original email response from the scammers (with location, phone #’s and names omitted) the description is pretty much the same that I wrote. My personal thoughts are in red. This message below is in response to the original ad after this kid replied to the listing. I do not have the original listing link unfortunately. I didn’t include the email from the scammed kid, but I feel bad that he went as far as he did.
Hello,
Thanks for the interest you have shown towards our House for rent.We are pleased that you have an interest in our house, Our lovely home is still available for lease and we want responsible adults/family who are neat and also believe that they have what it takes to take the house.I am currently living in (West Africa Nigeria) for a Missionary Project prayer crusade (the first warning sign, missionary project and Nigeria) I came over here with my wife and daughter we decided to stay here for few years because we like it here and its warm, We will be very pleased if we can find the right tenant to rent our home, As soon as we are settling down here, I had a thought of selling the house so I have to look for an agent after getting one, we got a deal but later he try to scam us and forge some documents to win the house because we send the keys to him and we later go to court and get the house back. (great use of english here and agents don’t do this, that would make the cover of the Boston Globe). We would have given the same agent this job, but want to rent the house out ourselves and I do not have anyone in the area I can leave the keys behind with. If you notice the price we are offering is far below normal price (warning sign #2) and I this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the entire care for the property. I know there is no way we can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we would not be able to meet physically (warning #3) before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the property. The property is available for as long as you want and if you drive by the house you may see a sign there, you have nothing to worry about it belongs to my former realty so you don’t have to call them because they do not have access to the house anymore.(warning #4) due to my transfer and I will be here for as long as 5 years that is why am renting out my house so if you belief you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then I will be more than happy to let you rent the house if you can promise me & my family that you will sure take very good care of the house for us as if it was your own.The house is located at:(The Real Address Here) St Apt 1 Boston, MA .This 3 bedroom and 2 bathrooms (only 2 beds)Nice size family house on a quiet tree line street area.The rent is $900 monthly (really $3700) including utilities and $600 for security deposit.built-ins and arched doorways.Kitchen is bright and cherry with all wood cabinets and plenty of counter space. Open dining room and large living room.with about ~1,500 sqft (no 1500 sf unit would ever rent for $900 in the back bay, not even close)
Below is the Rental Application form, fill it and get back to us, I can see your willingness in leasing our home and hope we will never have regrets in leasing our home to you.
BELOW IS THE RENTAL APPLICATION FORM (nobody puts an application form in a few lines like this)
PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF?
FULL NAME__________?
HOME PHONE ( )_________?
CELL PHONE( )____________?
DATE OF BIRTH___________?
OTHER PHONE ( )__________?
CURRENT ADDRESS_______________________
REASONS FOR LEAVING?______________________
ARE YOU SINGLE OR MARRIED__________?
HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL BE LIVING IN THE HOUSE___________?
DO YOU HAVE PETS___________?
DO YOU HAVE CARS___________?
OCCUPATION_______________?
IF THE HOUSE IS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU,HOW LONG WOULD YOU LIKE TO STAY_____________?
MOVE IN DATE___________?
ARE YOU READY FOR THE DEPOSIT___________? (what? you mean are you ready for the scam? who asks this?)
WHEN DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVED THE ENTRANCE KEYS/DOCUMENT___________?
Perfect location on charming (real address here), steps to the Prudential Center, the Green Line, Copley Place, and Back Bay Station. This spacious parlor duplex features a large master bedroom on the upper level. The lower level has a large 2nd bedroom, guest bath, and an expansive living/dining/kitchen area with full height windows. The eat-in kitchen opens onto the patio and features granite counters, stainless steel appliances w/gas range, and cherry cabinets. W/D in unit and Central Air.Must see to believe! My husband would like to speak with you over the phone also,you can reach him anytime on (they list 2 international #’s here which is also skeptical)
God Bless You and your entire family.
(they used my real owners name here which is creepy that they found it)
This was the 2nd Follow Up Email
Thanks for your warm response,and for getting back to us with your application.I can see your willingness and understanding you have really shown to work and take good care of our precious house for us.I must confess to you sound like the type tenant we have praying to come our way,and now is like a dream come through.We felt so relief when we read your email Walter (they screwed up here because this is not the original name they used) ,my husband and our only daughter were so excited reading your email.We believe that you family are God sent to and we are ready to keep the house for you prior your moving date,but you have to promise us that you will take the house and give your best to it. (seriously, real people don’t toss god and prayers around in real estate transactions, at least not in Boston) I want you to keep to your promise that you will take proper care of the house for us,like it is your own. We have put our trust you on you Walter,so please don’t let us down.We believe that this is the day the lord has made,so let us the glad and rejoice in it.We pray that may the almighty God guide and give you and your family the strength to take good care of the house for us as soon as you move in.Proverbs chapter 11 verse 1 says that inaccurate scales are something to detestable to GOD. (ok if you still think this transaction could be real, I am sorry for you) I know times can be rough and earning money is hard. However God would never justify or condone cheating and stealing others of their money. Rather Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount that if we pursue Kingdom interest first all other things would be added to us. This is found at Matthew Chapter 6 verse 33. In the preceding verses Jesus explains how our loving God feeds the birds even though they do not sow seed. He also clothes the lilies of the field. Then Jesus goes on to say that are we not worth more than a bird to our Creator? Are we not worth more than the lilies of the field to our Creator? How much more so will God provide us with life’s necessities (I’m not religious, but these A-Holes are using all this towards a scam? unfathomable)I want you to know that my husband in the respect of (Rev. owners real name here, and no he’s not a reverend) has use your information to prepare for the rental agreement,I will forward you the rental agreement via email attach to sign your part of it as soon as you ready to send us the upfront advance deposit payment of the first and the last month from you.The first and the last month payment you will pay upfront will cover for the first 2 months you start living in our house,I hope you get me right? More so I want to bring it to your notice that we can only receive the payment here via money gram,also this will be the last time you will use money gram to make the payment to us. (seriously, never pay money upfront)My Husband is taking his time to searching for a better bank to bank here,I will forward you the bank details as soon as we get one,so that your next month payment will be paid into our bank account and there will be no money gram again.I will advice you send us the first month now,so that we can be able to secure the house for you.l will go ahead and commence on how the House Keys / Documents will be delivered to your current home Address you have provided to us here in Application,(They included the potential tenants home address here which he gave them) and i will ensure that i book for the 1ohrs as express shipment as to enable you receive it on time and as scheduled.. Let me hear back from you as soon as possible so that i can arrange for the delivery.Below are the contents of the documents my Husband will post to you via FedEx courier service,after confirming the payment from you and your part of the rental agreement is signed.
1)Entrance and the rooms keys
2)Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your details)
3)The house documentary file
4)Payment receipt
My husband would like to speak with you over the phone also,you can reach him anytime on (they give 2 phone #s here, both international and i wonder if they lead to a real person…but i’m not going to test it) you let me know the best time we can reach you. Do let me know if you are ready to move forth so that I can forward you the rental agreement and the details you will use to make the payment to us.I will be looking forward to hearing back from you again,thanks for being so honest with us and God bless you abundantly. (and bless you scumbags too)
So pls get back to me today.
I await your reply ASAP.
The sad thing is that this was an 18 year old kid who was looking to move to Boston. He had a budget and was doing a year abroad at an amazing non-profit company. He filled out their application and almost went through with it until his mom got involved. Personally i can’t ever imagine someone falling for this, but they do!! These Ass Faces put a big damper on my day and made me lose a little faith in humanity. I just want to do my job and maybe help out someone in the future. Happy Craigslisting!!!
Posted in Blog Posts
Tagged craigslist
Parking Garages in Boston
Online Garage Parking Resources
This weeks blog idea was to compose a bunch of garage parking options for downtown boston. I reached out to my “Twitterverse” aboout garage options someone suggested I check out Primospot.com . This is a great tool for Parking Spaces in the Downtown Boston neighborhoods. It has a lot of garages that i never heard of, but as for a real estate needs they list a lot of hourly and overnight parking lots, but don’t necessarily have many listed with monthly rates (which is what residential people are looking for). Since I do a lot of business in the South End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, I noticed that they were missing out on a few good parking options, and some of the pricing on the list didn’t truly reflect the real pricing. I think it’s a fairly new site so over time this could iron itself out.
A few other big resources of parking in Downtown Boston garages are Pilgrim Parking and Central Parking. These 2 companies manage a large percentage of parking garages in Boston.
According to Pilgrim Parkings Website, they manage about 26 parking garages and have them all over the Greater Boston areas. Since they manage the site and all their rates and locations, I would assume all rates are fairly up to date. There are a few garages that are missing on Primospot.com that are on pilgrims site.
Central Parking Systems is a massive company that manages parking spaces all over the country. They manage some of the larger garages like the Prudential Center and Boston Common and post deals on their website
Tips:
- “Reverse Commute Price” this is a really good option for some residents. This is the option that reduces the price by restricting garage usage. If you are a 9-5er, this is a great option to look into because the times you cant use the garage are usually 8-6 and you get weekends as well. Some garages give “sick days” but you have to look into that.
- Don’t wait till January to get a “winter parking spot. Nobody likes digging their car out of the snow and yes, its a smart thing to get a garage space for the winter to avoid the hassle of winter (if you can afford it). The only issue is that everyone else is thinking the same way. Don’t wait for the 1st big storm to hit because it might be too late and the garage (closest to you) might not have any monthly spaces left. This tends to happen more with the smaller garages like at Atelier 505 on Tremont. I’ve had many clients miss out due to a full monthly parking capacity.
- Do your research. Parking is all about demand and availability. Prices can sway heavily and if you are willing to walk an extra few blocks or so, you can save a bunch
This month I will be featuring other parking options around the city, including alley parking options which is an entirely different story.
Posted in Blog Posts
Tagged Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Boston Parking, Garages, Midtown, Parking, Parking Garage, South End
14 Braddock Park Rental. Large 1 Bed with Parking
This is one of my favorite rentals that is coming back on the market for April 1st. This is a parlor level 1 bed that is renovated and has 1 tandem parking space included in the rent. It has Washer Dryer in the unit as well as hardwood floors, Central Heat/AC and high ceilings.
Posted in Blog Posts, Recently Rented Homes
Tagged Braddock Park, South End, South End Rentals
Awesome Loft for Rent in the Leather District. #121 Beach Street #701
Boom. Two photo shoots in 1 day. I promise I’m a Realtor, but out of the blue I was asked to photograph two really nice listings yesterday. I have a good relationship with several real estate agents in the city and occasionally I will take some photos for their listings. It also gives me a chance to feature those places on my site, but in these situations, I am not the listing agent.
This particular listing is on Beach Street in the Leather District and its a 1500 sf 2 bed home. It has 2 full baths and a ton of special features. Check out the Pics.
It is currently listed at $5500 (Furnished) but could possible be rented out unfurnished.
True Loft Living
Couches and Seating Area
Foyer
Guest Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Second Bedroom
Kitchen with Breakfast Bar
Dining and Kitchen
Sitting Area
Master Bath
Posted in Blog Posts, Featured Listings
Tagged Elevator Buildings, Exposed Brick, Leather District, Lofts, Luxury Rental
New Listing at the Somerset. 416 Commonwealth Avenue #611
Did a photo shoot at a new listing at 416 Commonwealth Avenue this afternoon. Its a 2 Bed Duplex, roughly 1100sf and comes with a deeded parking spot. It’s a full service doorman building with elevator. this is located on the 6th floor. Price is $889,000
Living Area
Master Bedroom
Master Bathroom
Second Bedroom
Full Second Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Dining Area
Renovated Kitchen
Posted in Blog Posts, Featured Listings
Tagged Back Bay, Commonwealth Avenue, Luxury Building
Penthouse Duplex with Amazing Boston Common Views
Yesterday i did a photo shoot for this 2 bed plus office. Its a newly renovated penthouse duplex right on Beacon Street overlooking the Commons. I don’t think there could be a better view in Boston than this. There are 2 decks and the private roof-deck is amazing. This is going to be on the market for $7500
Posted in Blog Posts, Featured Listings
Tagged Beacon Hill, Boston Common, Outdoor Space, Private Roof Deck, Views
New Listings in the Signal Building in South Boston
Well, I guess I am now the unofficial photographer of the Signal Building in South Boston. I just recently went over there to take a few pics of their current inventory. They have a few great places for rent and the square footage for these rentals is fantastic. Here are a few of the Apartments for rent.
Unit #306
Unit #202 
Unit #215
Unit #114 (Just Rented, Only 3 Bed in Building)
Posted in Blog Posts, Featured Listings
Same Company new Office!!
It’s been a great 5.5 years over in the South End office, but as of this week I have officially moved over to the Back Bay office. I moved primarily to increase my focus on Sales (while still doing rentals, but focusing more on the higher end). I still have the same phone # and same work email, but now a different mailing address. I’ve ben a resident of the Back Bay for 10 years so I thought it was time to make a move closer to home. Not really big news, but worth sharing.
Newbury Street Office
New Back Bay Address:
137 Newbury Street. 2nd Floor
Boston MA 02116
Posted in Blog Posts