Recently, there have been apartments for rent at the Macallen Building that had inaccurate listing details, implying to potential renters that pets are allowed, yet following a standard review process by building management of all renters, the no pet policy for renters becomes explicit.

It’s quite common for condominium developments throughout Boston to have some sort of pet policy in place, oftentimes limiting the number and/or size of pets that are allowed on site, however, the differentiation between owners and renters at a particular building and disparate policies for each is perhaps less common.

A reader contacted us recently inquiring whether the rental dialogue that they were having with a purported condo owner at Trinity Place, the luxury condo development located at 1 Huntington Avenue adjacent to Copley Square, was legitimate. The reader was kind enough to forward one of the emails they received from the scam artist, which advertises a penthouse duplex available at Trinity Place for rent. The only catch, the owner requests upfront cash through Google checkout before the potential renter can even so much as see the unit.

For some many reasons this is wrong, however, one interesting note is that there are no duplexes at Trinity Place, and further, the penthouse level of Trinity Place, is composed of two separate grand units that are owned by the same individual.

To make readers aware what this scam looks like, we are publishing the email thread between the potential renter (name has been removed) and the scam artist below.

Trinity Place Boston Craigslist Apartment Rental Scam

From: Christy Patton
Date: Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: 3 Bedroom 3 Bath Super Luxury Penthouse Duplex – $2899/month (Boston)

Hi, My name is Christy, I am 32 years old and I’m an interior designer.
I apologize for the delay! The apartment is ready for moving in. The address is 1 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Typically, students start looking for their September 1st apartments beginning in January. Over the years, landlords have grown accustom to this trend and the expectation is that the majority of their apartments will be rented by June. This year, the apartment rental market has been strong, but it has been apparent that renters have really been doing their homework and taking their time. Renters have been looking at more apartments and spending more time weighing options. Early in the season, this left landlords worried, and when July hit and they still had excess inventory, some landlords were starting to worry that their apartments would be left vacant for the  next leasing year.

Thankfully (for landlords), the market has been very busy over the last month and Boston apartments are renting at a record pace. After speaking to several prominent area landlords and real estate professionals in the Back Bay, South End, and Fenway, it appears that they are all on pace to meet their historical vacancy rates of sub 5%.  Despite the break from routine, landlords are happy with the last minute rush.

For those still scrambling to find a unit for September 1, 2010, don’t worry, some (picked over) inventory still remains, and with landlords anxious to fill units, Boston renters are in a position to negotiate fees and other items.

1. Brokers: You might be aware that there are many broker agencies that work with apartments for rent, oftentimes housing a team of specialists within the brokerage that focus solely on rentals. You can get help from them and they’ll assist you in finding something that is perfect for your needs. Keep in mind that they will oftentimes charge for their services – oftentimes not directly, but indirectly. If you have a budget to afford it, then you can easily get an apartment that has everything you need. This is a great option if you simply don’t have the time to carry out the hunt entirely on your own. They’ll search for you and you’ll only spend time going to look at apartments for rent when they find one that seems to be just what you’re looking for – in terms of budget, needs, location and amenities you’d like to have.

2. Word-of-mouth: Always keep your ears open when you’re on the hunt for an apartment. You can ask your colleagues if they know of any and ask them to also keep an ear out for you. They can contact their neighbors and if something comes up, you’ll find new opportunities you would have possibly never known about before. You will be surprised to know that this way you will be able to save lots of money as well, as you will more than likely not have to pay a broker’s fee.

3. Walking around Boston: Do you have an idea of the area you would like to live in? If so, get out and spend some time walking around in that area. Many times, owners place for rent signs in the windows of a brownstone or rowhouse, or on the gates surrounding a larger complex.

4. Housing offices: Find out what kind of local housing offices and services there are. You may be surprised at the deals you can find through these kinds of organizations. For instance, the Boston Housing Authority has several resources available. If you’re a college student, then you may want to contact the office of student housing at your institution.

5. Boston apartment referral services: These services aren’t particularly well known, but they are growing in popularity. They’re especially helpful if you are searching for apartments for rent on the Internet. The Internet is the perfect way to connect you to any area and you can find websites that offer specialized services to help you find an apartment in a distant area – ideal for students moving into an area of the city that they are not at all familiar with as new transplants. These sites will let you look for apartments based on various features like budget, location, area, number of bedrooms and other amenities.

The answer is that a majority of Boston landlords try to accommodate the school schedule by having leases start/end right around the September 1st date in order to attract undergrads, grads, and employees from one of the thirty colleges here in Boston. With more supply and demand for rentals on this schedule – and the turnover that comes with students who graduate, move, and/or switch apartments – it should come as no surprise that these rental listings are posted as early as February to attract the eager crowd.

Another reason for the focus on September 1st apartment leases in Boston is students are often out of the city during the summer and therefore can’t look at apartments during the summer. This means that going by the industry standard lease up time of 30-45 days prior to move in can’t apply to these renters as they need to start looking in May at the latest. Since the rest of the summer months don’t tend to apply to this school schedule, the advanced notice from residing tenants is not needed as the apartments are unlikely to be rented to students, hence the reason you don’t see as many rental listings posted yet for these (summer) months.

If you are looking for a Boston apartment rental for move in during any other month but September, I would suggest starting your search 30-45 days prior to your move. If you are looking to move in September, you can start as soon as you’d like, but get a move on it if you’re looking for an apartment near BU, Northeastern, Berklee or Boston Conservatory, they’re renting quickly!

The Unplgged post led to us pondering Craigslist and its relationship with real estate in general. It’s easy to come up with a correlation between the user-generated postings and real estate listings on Craigslist, while making note of how the Unplugged tips can apply to real estate agents that need a little something extra for their listings. Listing properties on Craigslist can be a quick, cheap and easy way to syndicate a real estate listing and get it exposure not otherwise provided by a region’s Multiple Listing Service. A simple “FOR RENT” post for an apartment or home can provide just the boost a property needs to get it rented or sold.

But, with all good things free and easy comes temptation for abuse. In a post published last summer on Canonfire entitled Scammin’, it’s pointed out that finding real ads amidst the con artistry can prove to be a difficult task for consumers. In the post, three scams are exposed and it explains how these scams are designed to take advantage of would be renter’s who are just trying to find a place to live. Here’s a look at the top 3 Craigslist rental scams:

1. Scam number 1 is a rental ad that contains no name, phone number or property location and the only means of contact is an email address. When a potential renter inquires about the property they are asked to fill-out a rental application, send it back, and then they will receive more property information …but they never do. This type ad is usually a “phishing” attempt to get personal information, including a social security number, on a rental application for a property that does not exist.
2. Scam number 2 appears to be an ad to lease an actual home, but instead, is a ploy to get renters to move in a home that is pending foreclosure. In this case, the individual placing the ad pockets rental money without paying their mortgage company …all the while, the home is in foreclosure proceedings and the renter will be evicted once the foreclosure is final.
3. Scam number 3 is an ad to rent a property for an unbelievably low price. When those seeking to rent call they are connected with a rental agency that induces them into paying $170+/- for a “list” that has addresses of several unbelievably priced properties. Needless to say, the addresses for the unbelievably low priced rental properties do not exist or the properties were conveniently rented as soon as the list was delivered.

In an age where people prefer to tweet their thoughts or click a “Like” button on Facebook in order to form an opinion, websites like Craigslist are fast becoming a go to source for listing agents and renters, as well as Internet predators looking to take advantage of the naive. Thus, when using such sites to find bargains or list properties, all users should probably use caution since this is a medium that has been associated with scam artists. The Latin Phrase “Caveat Emptor”, meaning Let the buyer beware, has never rang more true.

For starters, the smallest floorplan is a 680 square foot one-bedroom, while there are numerous two-bedroom apartments in the area that can’t stack up to that size. To help put this into perspective, I recently showed a one-bedroom apartment in the North End that was 350 square feet – almost half the size of CCP’s.

What really sells people on this building is the outdoor space. The private courtyard, roof deck and balconies allow renters to spend time outside without having to leave the property. And did I mention that there are terrific views of Boston Harbor? This pet friendly, no brokerage fee building also includes heat, hot water, electric, and gas in the rent, while most North End apartments tend to leave these costs to the renter.

With pricing comparable to most rentals in the area, Christopher Columbus Plaza Apartments are truly a diamond in the rough.

For those of you who have not gone through the licensing process, I would like to comment that Massachusetts is one of the easiest states in which to get licensed as a real estate salesperson. To obtain your license, one must take 24 hours of pre-licensing education from an authorized real estate school, which can be done in a single weekend, and then pass a state licensing exam. The required hours of education is relatively low compared to most states, and during my education, little to no discussion of apartment rentals took place. Some states, such as Ohio, require over 100 hours of pre-licensing education, which is over 4 times the requirement in Massachusetts.

My guess is that when the requirements for licensing were first created, the one-month “broker fee” that is oftentimes common in Boston rental apartments was not standard, and most agents had the goal of becoming an agent to sell property, not rent it. Coupled with the lack of salesperson rental education, this creates a potentially growing issue as we see increases in the number of real estate brokerage offices in the Boston area that rely heavily, and almost exclusively, on business models centered on apartment rentals.

I’m not here to knock real estate brokerage offices that focus on rentals, it’s the type of office in which I started my career, and it can be very profitable considering the average rental fee per transaction is in the neighborhood of $2,000, however, I do think that the pre-licensing education and state requirements to become a real estate salesperson should be beefed up. In effect, agents are taught about legal issues and sales transactions in a 24 hour course, then go to work for a rental company and are forced to learn on the go; hence the large quantity of part-time agents who aren’t quite sure how to handle the rental process as a trained professional. This leads to big problems for all salespersons and their brokers in the city, as well as renters, as every agent is a reflection of the entire profession – in sales, one bad impression can ruin years of hard work.

My solution? I think that the education requirement for a Massachusetts real estate salesperson should be increased, and that the additional hours should focus solely on apartment rentals.

Why Would Landlords not allow Students?

Of course there’s the perception that undergraduates will wreck the place with their parties and hooliganism. Moreover, when presented with tenants of equal financial stability, a landlord would rather not have to put up with the headaches that might come along with their undergraduate tenant if they don’t have to. Buildings like the Trilogy, Boylston 1330, and Church Park (to name a few) are some examples of these landlords. Since age is a protected class and cannot be used as discrimination when choosing tenants, even a 50 year old undergraduate student (who writes that they are such on their application) would be turned down from these buildings according to their “no undergraduate” policy. Student status is not a protected class, therefore landlords are able to discriminate based on a wide variety of criteria relating to students. For instance, certain apartments are known to expand their no undergraduate policy to include law school students. To these landlords, there’s nothing worse than a know-it-all law school student threatening to sue you as a class exercise. Again, law school students are also not protected in MA, and therefore, can legally be discriminated against when choosing tenants. Beyond law school students and undergraduates, the other most commonly, but legally, discriminated against class is the pet owner (see Pet Friendly Boston Apartments).

Ironically, many of the apartment buildings that allow pets do not allow undergraduates. Interpret that as you will. Some students have been able to bend the rules and work their way around these policies by having a parent sign for an apartment, however, this is not advised as it could result in eviction. The best advice I have is do the research to find out which apartments will allow undergraduates to live there before viewing an apartment.

So how can you win as a pet owner renting in Boston?

Know your dog or cat’s weight and breed and plan accordingly. If you have a small pet under 50lbs (fully grown) it’s likely that most pet friendly apartment buildings and condo owners will accept them. Weight and breed restrictions mostly exist for insurance purposes. Although cats and small dogs may be more likely to scratch the floors and walls, they are generally quieter and less potentially harmful to other residents. Larger dogs get a bad wrap for biting and louder barking, which makes it harder to insure a building that allows these breeds. If you have one of these breeds you will have to focus your search on condo rentals and hope that you can either: find a landlord sympathetic to your breed, or negotiate a situation that is amicable for both parties, which usually can be done by offering to pay an additional security deposit.

Know Where to Search for Pet Friendly Boston Apartments

There are certain areas of the city with more dog parks and therefore more pet owners tend to live in those areas. Brookline, for instance, has more dog parks than most of Boston, while the South End is known to be relatively dog friendly. The Seaport District, with its open lofts and spacious apartments, has also become a popular area for pets. The areas to avoid with pets tend to be those with more compact city living: Downtown Crossing, Chinatown, the North End, and Copley Square / Prudential are not particularly pet friendly places to live compared with other areas of the city. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the size of most apartments in these areas hardly accommodates more than one human, let alone humans living with pets.

My suggestion for large dog owners: buy a condo! Rarely do you see condo associations with the same pet weight and breed restrictions as you do with rentals.