Wait until you hear about South Florida…

Proudly not using metric 👏

Fuuuuuuck youuuuuuuu guy

Lynn Woods is great if you don't mind taking a Lyft to/from the Lynn CR station

It's dystopian af. I really do hope the scales will balance out but half the country is too busy calling everyone woke and hyper focusing on people's genitals.

Yes okay that makes sense! I would say a combined salary of $80K is doable (tight but doable). It sounds like your experience would qualify you for jobs in university libraries, archives, special collections, etc. which there are definitely a lot of in the Boston area (more than there are in other areas of the arts and nonprofit sector). Those jobs also tend to pay relatively well in my experience too, like $50-60K although it depends on the university, exact responsibilities, blah blah. But I think you guys should be fine! Good luck!

"Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." — US Bill of Rights

Yes, landlords cannot. The AG's page here is pretty clear on this.

The OP is dealing with a real estate agent though, who must follow the State regulations on broker fees found here. The rules for brokers are extremely lax thanks to decades of lobbying to protect their prized broker fees.

Try really hard to find parking

> most of the ones ive seen online/in person have an application fee though. is it legal in MA to have an application fee but it just has to be refundable? > >

Illegal for landlords to charge this. See:

• Payments at the start of tenancy - from The Attorney General's Guide to Landlord and Tenant Right
• How Much Can a Landlord Charge - from MassLegalHelp

Not illegal for brokers - see the State regulations on this: 254 CMR 7.00: Apartment Rentals

> i'm also a current undergrad student- could that factor into them wanting such a high amount upfront since there are probably 20 other students fighting for the same place?

Yes. They want to weed out any student who might trash the place. That is likely why they want both an app fee and a "cosigner fee". I'm also assuming you're renting a large unit for $3,455/month in a desirable neighborhood near a major college. Broker fees are typically 1 month's rent, but they can vary since the legal regulations on them are light thanks to real estate lobbying. I'm assuming you're renting at least a 2 bedroom unit, perhaps 3 or 4 even with at least a few other people. In which case it's pretty typical for the landlord to want as much money upfront as possible plus to use a broker to deal with the logistics of showing the place and vetting applicants.

Note that under MA Law the landlord themself can further ask for these upfront payments:

• The first month’s rent
• A security deposit (which can not be more than one month's rent) to cover the cost of any damage to the apartment beyond normal wear and tear
• The last month's rent (the month that will turn out to be the tenant’s last one in the apartment, not necessarily the last month on the lease)
• The cost of a new lock and key for the apartment

You should be prepared to fork over upwards of 4 months rent upfront to the landlord/broker combined. Usually 1 month to the agent/broker and upwards of 3 months to the landlord to cover security deposit, first month's rent and last month's rent. Yes, this will be a shit ton of money. Make sure you have checks and the money ready to go if you're serious about this apartment. Get your roommates on the same page too, or have 1 person pay and everyone else Venmo/PayPal/whatever that person. YMMV based on the given agent and landlord and how many different checks they're willing to deal with. If you want to secure the place, you should be fairly flexible. That or keep looking until you find a landlord willing to do whatever you want.

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can confirm, that's what we pay for a 1/1 in Brighton.

jokes on both of us, i don’t smoke but we had channel 7 growing up in maine

It's 2023 and these pathetic tactics are still being used?

I had a feeling that the big apartment listing sites were steering me wrong. I'm guessing most people get their apartments off FB or Craigslist? I'll have to start looking there.

Big facts on the trust fund kids thing---I'm a first-get college student and was only able to afford 3 degrees because I had an academic scholarship! Right now I'm focusing on networking with my professors and honors program to try and help me get ahead.

Maybe they are banking on Cafe's being legalized and plan on transitioning it over when they do.

Aztec in Watertown, Tom is the man.

I think the issue is less there are not enough boobs in the store but because it is far away from the people wanting to buy.

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> ...a written extension or renewal thereof or lease for a further term of like duration...

Looks like my guess that the landlord had the option to force a tenancy-at-will was wrong.

> A non-refundable application fee (the $50/person here) is also illegal in MA.

This is true only for landlords renting directly to tenants. The OP however mentioned a brokers fee and an agent/broker. Under 254 CMR 7.00: Apartment Rentals the broker is allowed to charge pretty much any fee they want to, so long as proper notice is given. Since the OP mentioned this was provided via email, we can assume they were notified. They don't have to agree to this, but that doesn't make it illegal.

As for this bit:

> It's normal to pay that much AFTER your application is approved, even after approval but before signing the lease. But it's not normal to be asked to pay that much before your application has even been approved.

Pre-pandemic, sure. It was certainly not the norm to be asked to pay a lot of upfront fees like this.

Nowadays it's not uncommon. This is not the first thread I've seen on this, nor will it be the last. A quick Reddit search of this sub plus /r/bostonhousing will turn up results. Hard to say just how common it is, but it's not unheard of.

The only real red flag I see is a "fee for cosigners", which I haven't heard of before. But since I'm not a college student, nor do I have low credit, it's possible I've just never seen a broker ask that since I would never need a cosigner. It may be more common for new grads or college students. The OP could clarify with the broker what exactly the two fees cover, and if it would be possible to make them totally refundable since the application isn't yet approved. Whether that's worth it or not depends on how much the OP values $80 for themselves, and whether their roommates are willing to risk $80 each.

The other thing the OP should do is:

• confirm the broker is legit.
• confirm the apartment is actually for rent.
• confirm who the landlord is via GIS
• verify that all the amententies they want are actually available (parking, laundry, etc)

It's not clear how the OP found this place, so it's totally possible they're being scammed. But if they did their homework, then nothing too crazy about this. Just (now) typical housing crisis stuff.

As someone who can't live with roommates, this thread rocks. Thanks for plugging!

Maybe they think enough people will choose to pick up from someone topless rather than clothed? Not sure that will be the case, but interesting

There’s some devices that look to be for a pilot on the silver line. If you step onto the bus at the back door, there’s a device attached to the right hand yellow pole. It’s about the size of an iPad mini I’d say? If you’d be able to fit onto the bus while boarding at the rear door, you’d be able to reach the very small tap device no problem. If you can’t reach it, there’s probably not room for you to be getting on, moot point.

Put bike on T and go to Quincy Adams, then bike to Blue Hills. Not many great spots to lock up but if it’s a beater bike then don’t worry too much. Google shea memorial rink.