Preservation Properties

So, P.P. exclusively rents out the property that I was renting in Chestnut Hill. When we wanted to end our lease early, we had asked our Landlord if it was okay and if we should tell the potential Renter whether or not the rent was going to stay the same or if there would be anything in particular that the new Renter would need to know about regarding the lease that they would need to sign. The Landlord said no and that everything will stay the same. So we found a qualified Renter to take over the lease. The new Renter’s credit and income checked out perfectly. When the new Renter was referred to P.P. to proceed with the lease signing, all of the sudden there was now a $ 500 application fee and a $ 50 increase in the monthly rent. I also know of others that the same thing happened to. BEWARE: When you get to the lease signing, they raise the price of the rent on you another $ 50 per month. They have very unethical practices and if I were you, I would definitely STAY AWAY!

I don’t think my response to Ed is going to post publicly so I wanted to update my review with the continued conversation.
Hello Ed,
Thank you for your response to my review. It seems as though there was a mild miscommunication. I would have appreciated a quick response that the property was not exclusive to you and that you had nothing else suitable to offer at that time, so that I knew that my message was received and not ignored. I also work in customer service, and even when I can’t help a customer my practice is to respond to them to tell them that, so that they know they have at least been heard. I do appreciate the clarification on what happened there on your end. I would not have interpreted either «If they’re not exclusive listings with your company, we’d rather not look at those as we don’t want any misunderstandings about whether we have already seen a space and/​or where we first saw it.» or «If you have anything that seems to fit and is exclusive to your company, please feel free to send it along.» as saying to absolutely not contact us in any manner unless you had a property, even to tell us you don’t have anything, but I can see how perhaps those sentences could have been interpreted in that way.
Just for the sake of full accuracy, since you are being very precise about what I wrote to you, we did say that we had some flexibility on some criteria and specified which ones were truly non-​negotiable for us.
As for the time lapse between our experience with you and my review, as I’m sure you can understand, apartment hunting/​moving takes up a lot of one’s free time. This is simply the first opportunity I’ve had to sit down and start writing reviews, and I am currently in the process of writing reviews for brokers we interacted with during our search.
Thanks again for your response and clarification of what was going on on your end.
Sincerely,
Heather

Not a friendly place to look if you have a disability, they do not understand the laws about the FHA and Americans with Disabilities Act. I was denied a rental because of volunteer work training service dogs I am involved with.

I would highly recommend Preservation Properties. They helped list and find tenants on my apartment twice.
Specificly, I was referred to Jordan Stanger from our corporate relocation specialist — Beverly Keyes. She has strong relationships with agents around the Boston area and would only direct me to hand picked top agents for my home buying and the future renting my condo.
She strongly recommended Jordan. He is professional, knowledgable and worked quickly to help secure renters. He guided us through the process as first time landlords and gave us everything we needed to have a lease, background checks and paperwork to rent our place.
He is a honest and hardworking agent. I’ve since recommended him to friends and they too have been pleased.

Ed,
Thank you for your response, however I can assure you preservation properties managed our house (or mis-​managed it). One of the worst decisions we ever made was selecting your company, Masha was a disorganized mess and you were a disappointment to say the least.

This company clearly works for the landlord and is not concerned w/​the renters’ best interest. I get that the property owners are the ones paying the broker fee, but that doesn’t excuse you from ethical & unlawful behavior.
We moved to Boston out-​of-​state and answered a Craigslist ad for a single family residence listed by Preservation Properties. It was a $ 3,500/month rental. I met the agent at the house after work and she said it was recently owned and renovated by a local real estate investment flipper that they represented on many of his flipped properties.
Since it was the end of the day, I told her I’d like to bring my husband back the next afternoon to take a look and I got the hard sell, «If you don’t take it now, I can’t hold it» speech. Like I dummy, I agreed to leave a check equivalent to a month’s rent to hold it, and once my husband took a look, we’d fill out a contract if we wanted to proceed.
I went to their office first thing in the morning because there was something about the whole thing that didn’t feel comfortable to me. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. The agent was surprised to see me, and when I told her I did not want to proceed and wanted my check back, she went to talk to her boss.
A man named Ed came over to tell me that it was too late, and once a check is in, they have a legal obligation to give it to the landlord. What?! I hadn’t signed any contract and when he opened up the file folder he was holding and I saw that my check was stapled to a copy of the listing, I told him that the check was right there and all he had to do was hand it back to me. He refused and suggested that the only thing I could do was place a stop payment on the check. Fortunately, I was smart enough to already do that the night before, but I was still shocked at the unethical behavior.
The kicker is that my gut was right. After I got home, I Googled both Preservation Properties and the landlord and was horrified at what I found. The landlord, Paul McMann, had many complaints about scamming people & banks, & not paying subcontractors on his properties. We ultimately rented a lovely house from lovely landlords in Weston through a legitimate real estate agent at Coldwell Banker, but had to drive past the the house that we looked at daily on our way to work. It went into foreclosure and before it went to auction, he completely gutted everything out of it… down to the studs. He was recently indicted on fraud charges. This is the type of client that they were protecting.
Caveat emptor. Maybe there’s a reason why there’s 17 filtered reviews at the bottom of this page. Great businesses get plenty of legitimate Unilocal reviews, you don’t have to fake them.

Their website is the pitts, particularly for rentals.

I had a really wonderful experience with Preservation, especially Ed, Stephanie, and above all Eric. Even though I was only looking for a studio in a low price range and wouldn’t be putting much in their pockets, they treated me with respect and consideration from day one. I felt like they were totally attuned to my wishes and really cared about finding the right place for me! In the end I found a very decent place in a great neighborhood without compromising any of my needs the way I thought I’d have to in this hectic market. I would heartily recommend working with Preservation to anyone and I know who I’ll call if I have to move again!

My wife and I had a great experience working with Jordan Staiger from Preservation Properties. We were looking to rent a 2+ bedroom during off-​season (Jan/​Feb), so there weren’t that many apartments available that fit our criteria, but Jordan was diligent about identifying the options, screening out the ones that didn’t fit, and keeping the rest in front of us.
Ultimately the one we chose didn’t want to accept cats (we have 2) and Jordan even convinced the landlord to let us move in. He worked really hard on our behalf, understood what we wanted, and didn’t waste our time. And he’s a nice guy. What more can you ask for in a rental agent?
I would absolutely trust him and Preservation Properties with our next apartment search. Highly recommend.

I responded to an ad on craigslist stating that they had 100’s of apartments in all sizes and price ranges. The ad said to send an email with answers to a list of questions so I did. I got an email back from the agent where she asked me those questions again. I answered them again and told her specifically what I was looking for. I didn’t have a lease so I could move out whenever I wanted as long as I found a replacement. So I stated I wasn’t in a major hurry to move since at the time it was a week until September 1^st and who wants to willingly move on that horror show of a day. She responded with «I need to know where you are emotionally regarding this move.» SERIOUSLY??? I didnt ask for a shrink I just need to see some apartments.
I let this slide and explained again that I didn’t want to move until after the 1^st since I’m not a college student and that would a be a nightmare but I want to find a place as soon as possible and I asked to see some places that weekend. She says it would be better after the 1^st to look so we made an appointment to look at some places for September 2^nd and she asked me to email her closer to the 1^st so we can touch base again.
I emailed her again on the 1^st, only to receive a reply telling me that she has one place for me to look at and that I should come that afternoon. Now I work for a living so I can’t just drop everything and go out to Newton from Boston because she says the place might get rented before tomorrow which is when I suggested to see it. Also, it takes hours to get anywhere on Sept 1^st due to the large amount of moving traffic. She finally breaks down and lets me keep my appointment on the 2^nd only to email me a list of questions she needs answered (which I have now answered for her 2 times prior). She then emails me back and tells me she just saw that we already had the appointment on the 2^nd, haha, isnt that funny? (gag)
I get there and she has a very «whatever» attitude. She askes me if I want her to drive me (like I have any idea where I’m going and aren’t realtors supposed to take you to the property?) On the drive there she starts asking me the same questions I have answered in email form 3 times already. Do you have a memorie problem? Since I answered them in writing the first 3 times you should have maybe printed it out…
We get there and it is a decent basement apartment. I’m so put off by her already that I really just want to get back to my car and go home. On the drive back, she asks what I thought and I just tell her that it was ok. She says «well I can poke around and see if I find anything out there but everything gets rented prior to September 1^st.» Now I did ask to be shown apartments prior to the first but she was so adament against it. GRR! «I guess it doesn’t hurt to poke around and see if I find anything else, I’m not going to find anything, but I can look.» THANKS FOR THE EFFORT!
Yeah I left this place very unhappy and I’m never going to work with Masha or anyone at Preservation Properties again.

I had a wonderful experience with Preservation Properties… not just as a company but because the agent I work with… Heather Mandeville. You never know who you are going to end up with when you start looking for a new home and it is such a stressful situation because it has to be «just right» for you. Heather was beyond patient with me as we searched for my new home. I had to see a lot to know what was out there and what I did and did not want. I spent the summer working with Heather and our teamwork and her patience paid off. I found the perfect place and it turned out to be a place I had seen originally and decided it was too big. Apparently Heather had really listened to me and figured out what I really wanted, before even I knew. Now that is good service. Thank you Heather and Preservation Properties for helping me find my new home!

Needed an apartment last minute and got the perfect little place in Waltham near Brandeis. Great communication between the agent and landlord, other tenants in the house. I only had one issue with the property (was taking on water) but between everyone we were able to quickly remedy the situation.
I would certainly recommend these guys, and would use them again if I’m back in the area.

The person I worked with here was very professional and kind. He went out of his way to help me. I live in another state and needed a rental, and he did all the work for me (taking photos, drawing a layout of the house) and will give me a tour when we come visit in a few weeks. He managed to find me a rental that took multiple pets, even. I would definitely use them again.

I used Preservation Properties rental department to find my first two apartments when I very first came to the Newton area. I would keep going back to them if I ever need to move again. Finding a new place and spending lots of money and just the thought of moving is always SO STRESSFUL so I really appreciated their help! Their website was easy to use to view available listings and I never had trouble scheduling some time with someone to get apartment viewings. They also have a pretty good range of size and price, in all parts of Newton. Also some listings in Brighton, Watertown, and Waltham, but this is definitely a company that knows Newton like none other. Nice job all around!