Beacon Hill Real Estate

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.

Beacon Hill Real Estate is a one-​man operation, and that man is Rande Mindick, who is as good a landlord as you are likely to find in Boston. Unlike lots of landlords, especially in Boston, he doesn’t try to wring every penny out of you, and he actually seems to care about the state his buildings are in. He also gives you his cell phone number and usually answers it if you call him, and not begrudgingly. I ended up buying an apartment and so I had to break my lease with Rande – he could have been a jerk about it but his attitude was that as long as I can find someone to rent it (which was not hard – the quality-​to-​rent ratio of the place was so great that I got over forty responses to an ad I put up on craigslist for it within a day), he was fine. He also provided good and patient advice when I talked to him about dealing with difficult or incompetent utility companies. After a particularly stressful day, I stopped by his office on the way home to bitch about the sellers of a condo I had put in an offer for, and it was like talking to your favorite uncle, who also happens to be a bartender. Anyone looking to rent in Beacon Hill will not go wrong with one of Rande’s properties.