Equity Residential

Don’t have much to say except that this is the worst management company of all time.

Get ready to spend all your money on an outdated apartment.
I lived at 10 Emerson.
CONS:
Everything is outdated. The kitchen appliances are old and cheap. The counters are made with that fake granite that you can peel off. Same with the bathrooms. They have hideous 70’s style vanities + mirrors.
If you don’t give two months notice that you are leaving they charge you two months rent after you leave. At the time I wasn’t sure if I was moving. I did end up moving and got charged. Such Bullshit.
The concierge are useless. Particularly Dwane who just sits and stares at his Android phone all day. I once accidentally got locked out of my apartment and it took him a half an hour to get the key to let me in. A HALF AN HOUR. It was as if he was trying to walk as slow as possible. I watched him stop and chat with people along the way. Meanwhile Im just standing in the lobby waiting to get back into my apartment.
The fact that they keep the keys to 10 Emerson in a separate building is pretty idiotic if you ask me.
PROS:
Large living space + great view.
In conclusion, if you have the money to spend on an apartment in that price range don’t waste your time here. There are plenty of brand new buildings in Boston with updated features.

this place is ridiculous. Supposed to be smoke free, yet the halls smell like ash trays and smoke from other apartments comes into mine… hate it.
The place is horribly noisey. Right next to MGH and the helicopter comes in frequently and shakes the windows. The large industrial fans run all the time and it messes with your head.
Maintenance just comes into your place without notice.

I lived in 1 Emerson Place in Boston for 1.5 years and although most of my living experience was pleasant, I would definitely try to avoid renting from Equity at all costs.
Pros:
— The location. The main draw for me was how convenient it was to the Red Line stop and other places within Boston. I commuted to work via the T and had friends who lived nearby.
— The wonderful concierge staff who are very nice, receive packages and try to help you in any way they can. It’s also nice to know that there is someone who stays late at night to watch out for any people who might try to sneak into the apartment.
— The space of the apartments. I had a 860 sq. ft. 1-​bedroom apartment that overlooked the Charles River. At first, the prices seemed reasonable but they increased the rent price after the 1^st year.
Cons:
— There is high turnover at the leasing office and most leasing consultants are not equipped to help in a meaningful way. They are extremely incompetent. During my rental tour, the leasing consultant couldn’t show me a 1-​bdrm because she had either mixed up the keys or chosen an apartment that something was living in and we walked in on someone who just got out of the shower (awkward). The leasing consultant also failed at providing me the Rental Bylaws (even though I was bound to these rules if I were to sign the lease).
— They charge a $ 500 amenity fee that is bogus and illegal. In MA, apartment complexes aren’t allowed to charge a community fee or amenity fee. Archstone and Equity were sued in a class action lawsuit for this. To this day, Equity tries to evade the law by charging this fee to residents on the 2^nd month and by calling it ‘additional rent’.
— Lack of responsibility for anything. After I moved out and paid a hefty lease breaking fee (~$ 3500), Nstar continued to charge me for electricity after I had moved out so I called Equity about it. Equity tried to say that this was my fault. After a few phone calls, Equity agreed to reimburse my charges because this was electricity that I had not been using/​Equity was benefiting from.
The experience with Equity was terrible. I will never rent from them again– they are AWFUL.

I lived in a apartment belongs to this company for 1 year and 3 months and here are my comments.
Pros: large rooms, good service team.
Cons:
1. Pricy. For a apartment in the middle of no where they charge over a $ 1000 for a one bed and jack the rent 10% every year.
2. Highly greedy. They tried to rob me two months early termination fee without stating in lease; trying to take all my security deposit for cleanning even I have done my part well enough.
3. Management team is good when you paying the rent, once you want to leave they turned into cold stones. Trying to take as many penny as they can.
4. 200 people with only one pool that is shared with another apartment building, total of 500 people in summer but only one pool to use.
5. Laundry room is horrible. Water leak a lot.
Don’t recommend to live with this company’s property at any level. I am an angry customer who don’t felt being treated correctly.

PROS:
Good location
Large rooms
Super friendly doormen/​women
Power never goes out b/​c it’s a medical building
CONS:
The management company nickles & dimes you (it’s $ 300 for the pool, which they don’t tell you when you pay your $ 500 amenities fee in the fall).
The heat/​AC is on a single system, and you can’t turn it on, you just have a fan. So when the seasons change, your apartment is either freezing or extremely hot for a month or two when they’ve only got one system on. Currently, neither system is on, it was 80+ last weekend, and 40s at night this week. This is a big deal in a city with such variable weather like Boston.
If your neighbor smokes, you will smell it. My apartment smells like I smoke a pack a day, and management won’t do anything. They didn’t tell me this, even when I signed MY lease and it said smoking was forbidden.
They jack the rent 10% every year.
BOTTOM LINE:
This place is a big clean box with a good view, and everything else about it sucks.

Housing Management;
Horrible customer service. Horrible Horrible Horrible
I can NEVER get a hold my 20-​something Leasing Consultant. SO UNPROFESSIONAL.
Apartments:
Good location
Nice Concierges

We lived in 10 Emerson for 2 years. First the positives: The location is great and the apartments are spacious. Maintenance is responsive.
The downside is that the cost is very high for what you get. Unless you live in one of the new buildings there is nothing luxury about the units. They are old and poorly maintained. The laundry rooms are busy, the elevators are always broken, they will not turn off the heat until there is something like 1 week of days over 65 degrees in a row even if it is 80 degrees like it was a couple of years ago.
The worst part of living there is the management. They are unpleasant, impersonal, and care only about getting as much of your money out of you as possible. The leasing office is comprised mainly of a bunch of 20 year olds who do not have experience they need. It is difficult to get in touch with anyone in the leasing office to speak to when they try to jack up your rent every year. But most offensive to me was how impersonal they are. I paid rent by autopay, and one month their system for some reason dropped our autopay and we got an eviction notice on the door and in the mail. No phone call or anything. After finally reaching the manager Kory Lavelle who said «he’d look into it» and that it did show the autopay existed he assured me the problem was fixed. Next month another eviction notice etc. These people are there 9 – 5 to make money and really could care less about your satisfaction.
Also know that your rent will increase by at least 10% every year. They basically don’t negotiate that at all, especially if your lease starts in June or July which is the peak time because of the MGH residency cycle. To break your lease you need to fork out 1.5 months rent.

I lived in 1 Emerson place for 2 years. For the most part, my living experience had been very pleasant.
PROS:
Though some of my neighbors can be really noisy and inconsiderate (Note to the person who thought blasting electronica music at 2am on a school night: SO NOT COOL!), most of my neighbors were cordial.
The concierges assigned at 1 Emerson were really nice, helpful and friendly. (Shout out to Hussein and Kedist!).
My studio was fairly spacious in comparison to a lot of the studios in the city proper.
Their response time to maintenance request is fairly quick. I usually put in maintenance requests online before I leave for work and by the time I get home, they were taken care of.
The location of 1 Emerson is probably THE best feature for me since it is within walking distance to just about every single spectacular place in Boston — Charles River, T stations, Beacon Hill, Esplanade, Boston Common, TD Garden, Faneuil Hall. I could go on and on.
CONS:
They will lure you in with a move-​in special rate so low that you think you hit the rental jackpot in the context of Boston rental prices only to be slapped with a 20% increase in rent after you renew. In fairness, they only did that to me as I was signing on for year 3. It was non-​negotiable too!
If it weren’t for this deceptive sales move on their part, I would have rated this place higher as over-​all my living condition was very good.
A special tip: Ask for Melissa Reis if you are interested in looking at places in any of the west end building (and don’t do it through a broker! So unnecessary). She helped me tremendously!

So the Longfellow Towers are not all that. The reason is because of the electric bills!!! Before we moved in we called to find out the electric bill for the 1000 sq.ft. one BR apartment we were moving into. It was something like $ 230. We moved in at the end of June. Little did we know that our electric bills for the winter would be $ 430, $ 580, $ 600 for the last three bills!!! The insulation in this bldg. is very poor. We sealed off all the giant windows with that shrink wrap but it didn’t help. Just beware its going to be expensive. We know people who have studios and they say they pay $ 200. We didn’t believe that it could be so much. Now we’re moving when our lease is up, a year earlier than we wanted but there are plenty of places that include heat.
I did read Unilocal reviews about the heat, but I ignored them because all the amenities. After a while who cares about a concierge sitting there, a tiny gym, an expensive dry cleaner, and expensive parking. It’s $ 30 each cat pet rent, and $ 2.05 for a load of laundry. Can’t forget the fire alarm that has gone off 4 times in 7 months and the slow elevators. The only thing that was good is the pool and zip car rental.

I lived here for 2 years. At first my husband and I were in love with the place because of the views, all the amenities and location but all of that quickly changed the longer we lived there. Read below and be warned!
1.) HEAT — First of all heat is not included and we all know Boston is cold. When we were shown the apt I asked the leasing agent what the average heating bill was during the winter months. She told me — «Oh not bad at all — Very reasonable around $ 150 — $ 200 a month». I guess she meant if you turn on your heat for 2 hours a day!!! To conserve energy my husband I and ran our heat the 1^st cold month we had in the morning for about 1.5 hours before work, turned it off when we left, turned it back on when we got home at 6pm and ran it until 11pm and then turned it off when we went to bed. We also ran it whenever we were home on the weekends, turning it off when we left and at night when sleeping. First electric bill $ 430 and that was not the highest we had. At one point it reached almost $ 600 for ONE month!!! Our apt is about 1000 sq ft. and a 1 bedroom. Are you kidding me???
2.) AMENITIES: When we moved in we were under the impression that besides the small gym facility, which is $ 25 per month, that all other amenities were free. At least that is how it has worked at EVERY OTHER apt. complex I have rented from in the last 12 years! Not here. The pool was $ 100 to use for 3 months in the summer the 1^st year we were here. This year it went up to $ 150. We tried to use the tennis courts this summer to find it locked. We asked why. You need to reserve it and it cost $ 80 to use for the few months they are opened. 24-​hour concierge security. Yeah right, half the time they are sleep if it is after 11pm and only a handful of times have they asked our guests to stop and check in. Anyone can walk right in the building. This place nickels and dimes you for everything!
3.) RENT: The rent for 1 and 4 Longfellow place is outrageous for what you get. And if you renew, most of the time you can expect a large rental increase.
Do not be tricked. This place is not what it seems!!!