Boardwalk Properties

TERRIBLE. Slimy real estate agent, unprofessional, pushy and get this– my lease wasn’t even legally valid. Something I got to find out the hard way months later. Do yourself a favor and go with one of the many other realtors in Boston.

5 stars, all the way. I cannot say enough about my experience here. First of all– my boyfriend and I drove from CT and were stood up by another agent (different company) near Boardwalk Properties. So we walked into another agency who gave us the impression that we should have called before we just «waltzed in»… Awkward, to say the least. We were about to give up after trying two more places until my boyfriend suggested we try one last place. I was so over it at that point.
We walked in and were greeted by this bubbly, happy, enthusiastic and professional young man by the name of Nick Burke. What a breath of fresh air! He had so much personality that it got us excited about looking again. We weren’t expecting to be able to actually see any properties that day– but after 10 mins and a few questions he says «I have a few places we can check out today but I think you guys are REALLY going to love the first place I’m about to show you».
Wow. Just like that.
Walked in and within minutes he had made some calls and we were on our way. To make a long story short, over the course of a few days Nick had shown us about 10 properties. Guess what? He was right. After all that– we went with his first choice. We fell in love and as of November 1^st, 2015 we will be Watertown, MA residents. Nick fought for us and got the landlord to agree on letting us rent– even with my boyfriend’s less-​than-​stellar credit. He worked his magic and we are forever grateful!
My boyfriend had worked with this company a few years prior (but didn’t realize it until a few things jogged his memory.) He had a great experience with a fellow by the name of Steve. Give this place a try. They have a HUGE database with listed and soon to be listed properties (ours was technically not on the market yet, as the current tenants had not moved out at that point). Very professional. I cannot attest to anyone else that works there but give Nick a call or shoot him an email at
. Good luck!

Never again will I use this place! There were two apartments I was interested in and arranged to see them the next day. We first went to two buildings that turned out to be the incorrect addresses. The third building was finally the one he was going to show me. When we went in the apartment it was an absolute dump. It was not the apartment I had arranged to see. Total bait and switch.
I inquired about another apartment in the area and he informed me that the landlord had decided to raise the rent $ 300 from the listing and that it would not be available to see until much later in the month because the current tenants were being evicted for not paying their rent. When I got home I looked up the apartment and called a realtor and it is available for the price listed, it currently vacant and I set up and appointment with him to see the place later this week.
Based on reading the other reviews of Boardwalk, this company seems like a bunch of scam artists.

We were disappointed with Boardwalk Properties. They showed us a place that we really liked. We made the application and wrote a check for deposit. We were told that the lease would be signed in a couple of days. They cashed the check, but we had not signed the lease. The broker gave us excuses from the landlady that her lawyer is on vacation, she is on vacation. finally after 3 weeks we were told that the apartment is off the market. We got the deposit back, except that they kept $ 70 for application fee.
I think it is bad policy to cash the deposit check before the lease is signed. Also, disappointing that we had to pay $ 70 for the application when the landlady had no intention of renting the place. Cannot recommend them to anyone!

Do not go through them for an apartment. I specifically dealt with Alex who was nice and helpful in the beginning but as soon as you move into the apartment you’re on your own along along with the many problems you may have. They also work with other companies with horrible review so you may not actually be seeing an apartment owned by Boardwalk Properties but by another company and they will not even tell you so make sure you know who owns the building.

me and my roommate picked out an apartment we really liked and the guy gave us the wrong apartment! after 2 WEEKS he finally calls me saying that «we» picked the wrong one? it was very unprofessional how he handled it and we told him specifically which apartment we wanted but picked the wrong one… thank god the one that we have is nice, but it wasn’t our first choice and this is my first apartment. Were trying to lower the broker fee more, he only gave us 300 bucks off, but i dont think he deserves his half and only the company does. how do i contact a boss there?

Part 1: Do NOT trust Caitlin. She listed an apartment at the beginning of April that we were highly interested in. My husband called and left her a message and she NEVER returned his call. I decided to text her and she was happy to converse that way. I told her we would like to see the apartment as soon as possible and were ready to write a check that day. She gave me the runaround for DAYS. Then after following up with her for a third or fourth time, she tells me the apartment has been rented but shed be happy to help me find something else. Needless to say I stopped corresponding with her right then.
Part 2: Two weeks later, I see on Craigslist that this SAME apartment is available for rent (posted by, you guessed it, Caitlin). I obviously don’t want to give her a dime in any fee, so I found another agent who also had it listed– Mike. Mike got us in to see the apartments that day. We met the landlord, who stated he already had be bad experience with Boardwalk and that he was wary of renting his place out through them. I said let me guess– Caitlin? He said yes– it seemed as though Caitlin was trying to rent this place to some friends of hers (explains her giving me the runaround) and that it ended up falling through.
Part 3: We applied on the spot for the rental, only to be told by Mike (when following up a few days later) that the apartment was not going to be available until May 15^th and even then we may not get it. So, we’ve moved on. However this apartment CONTINUES to be advertised for May 1 on Craigslist. Interesting…
Part 4: We now find ourselves one week away from needing to move, with no where to go (with an 18 month old and baby due at the end of May). Thanks for wasting our time, Boardwalk. Stay away from Caitlin. Mike was responsive and helpful, but Boardwalk realty in general seems way too shady.

Terrible.
— wrong price given
— next place lost because didn’t file paperwork in time and got outbidded
— took 5 days longer to move in than promised
— told us would have keys to apt that day but didn’t turn paperwork in until after business closed that day so there was no way we were moving in on that day.
— when we pressed them for move in date was hung up on.
— do not use this realty company — flat out lied.

Albert from Boardwalk was amazing! My roommates and I spoke/​met with A LOT of agents and the range in customer service was pretty surprising. Albert was extremely attentive and genuinely wanted to find us the best place possible. He set us up personal meetings with landlords and made sure we were totally comfortable in our decisions — I never felt pressured or like he was trying to sell us something. I doubt we were, but he treated us like we were his only customers and called us as soon as a a place we might like fell onto his radar.
He ended up getting us a gorgeous apartment within our price range. Hopefully I won’t have to find a new place anytime soon, but if I do I know who I’m calling.

When I came in, the individual I had been speaking with was not there. He took a full 15 minutes to arrive. HE then proceeded to tell me that the place I was interested in wasn’t very good and I wouldn’t like it… BUT he had a closer and nicer one for the same price. That was thoughtful, but told me that the advertisement was deceptive.
The place was small but he ASSURED me it was the biggest one on Mission Hill. I had just come from another viewing that proved him wayyy wrong. I mentioned I had seen one larger and he got extremely defensive and accusatory towards the reality office I said showed me. This was extremely unprofessional.

I was looking for a place with 3 other guys and we could not have had a better experience than with Al Estavez (
). He found a place in a better location and for cheaper than we were hoping and went completely above his duties of just finding the place.
Every time we needed help from finding another roommate to fill our place to getting the lease from the landlord, signing it, and having him bring it back, he was willing to go the extra mile.
I would really highly recommend Al because he will seriously make himself available to help you and definitely earned his broker fee from us.

AWFUL!!!
— Misrepresented the apartment
— Gave us the wrong price on the place
— Set up a «payment plan» without knowledge of landlord
— Refused to call us back when we had questions
— Came up with phony reasons /​excuses
Seriously, do not use this place. The worst, most stressful experience I have occurred.

If it wasn’t for Dan, I wouldn’t have the best place to live in Brighton. Our townhouse wasn’t listed, it was their private listing just in their company.
He knew right off the bat what I wanted, and didn’t hesitate to show me exactly that. Other places I went would try to con me in to a place I had no interest in, or show me things w/​one bathroom per say, when I said I would not look at ANYTHING that didn’t have two. They just didn’t listen. Also, I had one guy at another company call me the wrong name… via email… when it says right on it who it is! Another more expensive company, looked down upon me because I didn’t look like their normal clientele… little did they know how much we were willing to spend.
Dan was SO helpful, and the rest of the guys in the office were too. He made special trips for us, helped us get the place even though our now landlord did NOT want cats, and has since checked in with me to see how everything is going.
With family in Real Estate, I know how important customer service is, and he killed it (that’s a good thing!). Anytime from now on I need a new place/​to move/​referral he’s the first guy I’m going too!!!

Horrid, horrid, horrid.
All the apartments they showed me were either disgusting or far over the price range I had given them. After a few weeks of searching I finally found an apartment that was «good enough» (I was nîave and it was my first time renting an apartment) and was promised by Dan (the realtor I worked with) that prior to move-​in, the landlady would be refinishing the kitchen and bathroom and repaintng the whole place. Come move-​in day, none of this was done. Apparently our landlady had never even heard about this deal.
The worst part came after living in the apartment for a few months. My landlady found out that we have a few pets in the apartment. Nothing major, just a few rats, a corn snake, and a cat. She raised a fit over it. However, in our lease it specifically said that cats, small caged animals, and dogs under 15 pounds were allowed. Having misplaced my copy of the lease, I contacted Dan about it (so I could fight the landlady on the issue) and was told that he couldn’t give me another copy. Really? How is it so difficult to either nab it out of a filing cabinet or get it up on the computer? I mean, it isn’t as if my roommates and I paid you $ 2000 for the apartment or anything…
I will never use Boardwalk again.

I’ve had really bad experiences with this agency, and with Lisan Mo in particular. We leased a property through this agency, and our agent mucked up our lease (the landlord thought so, anyway). Not a fan. Would never use this agency again.

I actually felt like I had to go home and take a shower after dealing with Ady from Boardwalk Properties. This guy was so slick, he left a trail of grease behind him.
Before going out to see apartments with Ady, he claimed he had to «pre-​screen» myself and my husband, to make sure we were adequate candidates for the properties he was going to show us because Boardwalk has properties that are not listed on MLS and are only of the highest caliber.
When I went to his office, it was another Allston-​Brighton fraternity party Realtor scene. Ady had not set up the appointments he said he was going to, and was trying to arrange them while were were in the car en route. It was extremely unprofessional.
As for the quality of the apartments, all were over $ 2000 and they were disgusting. One had a kitchen in the bedroom. An actual, bona fide, kitchen with cabinets and a sink. Ady tried to tell me I could block that with a Japanese screen and it wouldn’t look so odd. Really? Another was dark, dank, and filthy. The list went on. He wasted my time and then wanted to know which I liked best. How about none. I would never deal with this company again.

This real estate agency was HORRID. I previously had set up a tour meeting with Hiram, one of the agents for a 5pm meeting. I sent him all the places I wanted to tour and details of my price range, etc. When the day of the tour came, I showed up to the meeting early and waited for about 15 min. After that, I started to become impatient and asked where my agent was. Turns out he had never showed up for work! His co-​worker called him and he didn’t pick up. About 15 minutes later he called back saying «he forgot» and STILL never came in. Another agent unwillingly «helped us out» by making us wait another 15 or 20 minutes and ended up offering us only ONE apartment which was about $ 400 out of our price range. Basically, no one wanted to put in any real effort to make us happy and find us a proper place to live. They didn’t even care that their fellow employee didnt show up!
This was the worst real estate agency I have ever been to.
NEGATIVE STARS.

I have good and bad to say about Boardwalk Properties.
Good: They found me the apartments I wanted! Out of all of the places I’d look at, they found the best quality apartments for the price range I was asking.
Bad: We got lost looking for an apartment. We went through with an apartment from their agency and to find out that we had to pay MORE for security and realtory fee than we were promised. Ron was our realtor and he had told us that everything was negotiable and when we told them what we were looking for we had asked for «no fee apartments» and we had to pay the full fee. Also, we never knew if Ron was going to ever call us back or not.
You may be paying more than they promise you.

When i first walked in the office nice and the agents were nice…
Yet this changed
First i had written a check and put an offer down on an apt for a certain price.
— I received a call saying the landlord did not agree to my offer and there was someone willing to pay more but if i wanted to offer the same i would get the apt… (this made no sense to me especially if they had someone willing to pay more) so i said no!
— I then received another call from the agent saying that the apt was still open if i would just pay a smaller amount…(this once again baffled my senses. if they had someone willing to pay the price why would they offer me a better deal)
— I took some time to think about the apt and look around some more. I then called the agent and said i would be willing to pay the amount… (I was then told the apt had been rented already)
**** the FACTS***
1) during these convos the agent one time placed down the phone in order to talk to his boss… what i heard was the boss attempt to take my down payment despite the agreement that it was only if the landlord agreed my my offer…
2) the agent then complained about having to show me apts and didn’t want to work with me anymore. (Anyone who has done sales before knows that this is just part of the job)
3) the apt which they said has been rented was still available as i was shown it with another Realtor from a different agency. (At a cheaper price!!!)
OVERALL
–they have tried to take my money
–sales agents are fake and liars
–i have yet to get my money back
–allot of the other Realtors have the same showing
In the end i went with Alpha (Jeff) a brand new guy in the bizz friendly nice and does his job… if you go tell him i sent you

So I was looking for a new apartment.
I called 5 realty agents from Craigslist, asking to see apartments in Mission Hill. 3 of the 5 agents responded, 2 of them showed me two crappy apartments and 1 agent wanted to show me the same place as the one of the other guys. That took 3 weeks to accomplish (and to which I accomplished nothing, really).
Then I called Jon at Boardwalk. He called me back the next day, and took me to see 5 apartments, all them either decent or VERY nice places. A day later and I put a deposit on one of the nicest apartments on Mission Hill, AND at a great price.
Don’t mess around with the other amateur agents in the area, let Boardwalk take care of you. They make the realty fee associated with their business worth it. And, if you’re looking for a place on Mission Hill, ask for Jon.