Boston Union Realty

I have not worked with this company directly, however they are apparently one of the companies showing my apartment right now. Got a call from them the other day at 12pm telling me (yeah that’s right, telling, not asking if it’s okay) that they were going to be showing my apartment between 1 and 2pm THAT DAY. 1 hour notice? Hell no. I called back once I got the message (around 12:15) telling them that I would appreciate a 24h notice and did not want them showing my apartment that day because it was a bit messy and I had not made the arrangements for my cat I typically make when someone is coming to view the apartment when I am not home.
I got a snippy response basically saying that our lease does not entitle us to that so they are just going to go ahead and show it anyway, and I should just try to clean up a little bit right now. I’m sorry that I am a full-​time student working 2 jobs and not sitting at home at 12pm on a weekday to clean up for you guys so you can just stroll in whenever you want. And whether or not my lease entitles me to 24h notice, that’s a shitty move to just completely disregard someones request like that. It wasn’t until my roommate called our leasing company to complain that they rescheduled the viewing for the next day.
Very disrespectful and unprofessional. I will definitely never be doing business with these guys.

No respect from the realtor at all. Made me feel really bad about my budget saying I could never get an apartment when I’ve seen dozens of units in my price range and the realtor was just being pretentious as if I haven’t lived here for a decade. These places come a dime a dozen so save your money!!!

Avoid working with this company at all costs. They are rude, unprofessional, and do not take care of the properties that they show you.
This Company took over the building I was living in and on a day to day basis there is a new issue with the building that impacts my quality of living that are ongoing issues, including, rodents, bugs, daily shutoff of warm water due to unscheduled maintenance, and pipes bursting with untimely response times.

I don’t care how much you think you love the apartment, my advice would always be to avoid this company at all costs. Two and a half months after moving out and I still don’t have my security deposit back. I would avoid this company at all costs.

Huge SCAM. Paid a full month’s rent for a «finder’s fee» and full month for security deposit. At the end of the lease I was charged over $ 500 off of my security deposit for things that were not even broken. Over $ 300 for painting and holes in the walls. I did not paint the apartment and there were NO HOLES IN THE WALLS ANYWHERE. Basically they made up a charge and also charged us for their bi-​annual apartment maintenence. I was also charged $ 100 for leaving a microwave for the next tenant. The worst thing is they won’t even take a meeting to talk about these charges. They either won’t answer your phone calls or emails or they’ll tell you to contact someone else. Also I was robbed while at work one day because my door wasn’t properly secured like the other doors. After the fact they did add an additional lock but they refused to take any responsibility for the fact they did not secure my apartment properly. These are greedy and sheisty people who don’t care about you once they have your money. STAY AWAY!

Ok. So I walked into the Boston Union Realty office in Westland Ave. and I met Kathleen. She took me to the place I finally rented saying it is a fantastic building etc with a fantastic management company blah blah blah. The point is that the management company (Sabet Management) is gross, the place wasn’t cleaned (!!!) or painted before I moved in, the stove was broken and the whole place was smelling gas (I had to threaten them that I will sue them in order to have it changed), and last but not least, she had said that the unit has independent heating system, which proved to be a huge lie.
She was super polite to me at the beginning being also very professional about the dates I should send the payments etc. but then, from the day I paid the money she never picked up the phone again or replied to my emails.
Awful company, awful person.
AVOID BOTH AT ALL COSTS.

The majority of the staff at Boston Union Realty make up the worst realty experience I’ve ever dealt with. Avoid them at all costs.
Between their complete inaction regarding serious issues with our apartment (security, power, appliances not working for literally months on end, etc), their flippant attitude towards issues that affect health/​hygiene (mold, rodents, etc) and their rudeness to their clients, I cannot even begin to describe how terrible of an experience the past year or two has been.
I don’t care if the apartment you’re looking at is close to the job or school you want, DO NOT DEAL WITH BOSTON UNION REALTY.
Thankfully there are a few competent staff there, including Laura — she is astounding. I feel bad that she has to be surrounded by complete idiots all day.
I reiterate: Avoid them at all costs. You can find a better realtor to work with.

Terrible company. Stay away! Do NOT do business with them.
Here’s what happened to us. We got in contact with an agent from Boston Union Realty and arranged to see some apartments when visiting Boston. We told the agent we wanted to see places that did NOT have a realtor’s fee for the tenants. (Yes, this is fairly common in downtown Boston.) An agent from this company (Kathleen Valinch) showed us some places and after returning home, out of state, we called and told her we wanted one of them. We asked her exactly what would be required to get it, and she told us a 1 month deposit and first month’s rent. We sent a check for 1 month’s rent immediately, to have her hold the place for us. Well, later she sends us a «disclosure form» to sign and fax back to her. But wait, the «disclosure» is that to move in we have to pay first month’s rent, last month’s rent, 1 month security deposit, and 1 month fee to the realtor! We call and say that’s not the deal. She refuses to budge. We even offer to negotiate and pay half a month’s rent as fee, but she says her boss (Mike Meskin) refuses. Then she tells us she’s not going to send us back our deposit, because the place has been taken off the market.
To make a long story short, we have to threaten to sue them to get our deposit back, then we have to make another trip up to Boston to find another place.
This company has a well-​deserved BAD reputation. STAY AWAY!

they were super polite to me before signing and once i signed away my life they didn’t help me one bit. i was on tour with a group this summer and david was just awful with returning my calls. you have to understand that i was going in and out of canada the entire time so i was really limited to when i could get stuff done… but less the fact that i was ON TOUR and had to perform, rehearse and drive around north america. my roommate is from taiwan (and a bit lazy) so i was the one dealing with BUR.
i continually had to call them and the realty company that i now rent from about what needed to be in place. i needed to move in early (late august) and so needed to make sure i’d get the apartment when i got to boston since, i don’t know… I WAS RENTING A UHAUL and needed to return it asap since it can’t park anywhere in this damn city. less than a week before we got to boston it was clear that there was a breakdown in communications and things got quite heated.
when you give someone 1600 dollars to set up an apartment for you, it’s not out of the question to think that things will be setup for you. instead i had to do much of this myself while being crazy busy. i didn’t even know if i could move in to this place early until a few weeks before i needed to get out there for school. that’s unprofessional.
this is how things work in boston: there are some properties that only one or two realty companies can show you. for those you have no option but to deal with them. often times the owner will pay your finders fee for you.
there are also public listings that any company can show you. what they don’t tell you is that you get these apartments WITHOUT a realtor. that means you don’t need to shell out a month’s rent for someone to dick you around and do nothing for you in order to get a place.
BUR has a lot of places that only they can show. for those you have no choice, but don’t let them take you to places that you could see without them.

I have had the misfortune of dealing with Boston Union Realty twice.
David managed to sell me on an apartment outside of my price range, and it was awful. After thousands of dollars worth of fees and after the landlord raised the rent, I decided to move to a new apartment. We had Laura, who was kind enough to deal with our new landlord herself when negotiating the rent, but the realtor fees were outrageously expensive.
The worst woman in the whole institution is Marjean. Her inability to handle her client’s smallest requests, or rather, her refusal to do her job misplaces any credibility Boston Union Realty might have had in the first place.
If you have any choice whatsoever about which realtor to use, do not step foot inside Boston Union Realty. You will regret it.

Boston Union Realty has unethical business practices. I sublet an apt for two and a half months from them. They charged me for a carbon monoxide detector that was never in the apt to start with. Then after my roommate and I cleaned the apt before we moved in and after we moved out, they had the nerve to charge us a cleaning fee which they never provided us with a receipt for. The leasing agency was not helpful and will not return our calls, emails and letters. Absolutely, the worst slum lord ever.

Let me try to explain something to you: Boston Union Realty is in the business of being as difficult as possible, whenever possible. They actively try to steal your money in many less-​than-​legal ways, will refuse to offer any sort of receipts of their charges, and, in general, make your time in their apartment buildings a living hell.
Word of advice to you all: Even if you’re rent is a day late, BUR CANNOT LEGALLY CHARGE YOU EXTRA. They will try to force you into a $ 50 charge each time, but in the great city of Boston, this is an illegal and underhanded move to abuse the trust of their tenants.
I will never deal with them again. They have left a sour taste in my mouth that no amount of cleansing can repair.

I had horrible experiences with TWO different realtors that work there.
After the first time with David, I swore this place off. He didn’t get me the apartment dimensions that he promised, was really rude and short with all of my room mates post-​lease signing AND he hung up on my Mom (who was just trying to get some real answers out of him politely). I rented from them three years ago and my Dad still asks me to find that guy for him so he can punch him in the head. He was super unprofessional, and often didn’t answer the phone if he knew we were supposed to be calling and showed up to appointments late.
The second time, I didn’t have a choice because they are the only company that rents the apartments I wanted to live in. Hassan was no better than David. He was more skilled at being fake nice to us, and didn’t try to hang up on our moms BUT he lied to us about the place being pet friendly and he was all around scummy and fake. He doesn’t remember my roommate or me at all when we go to hand in our rent. These people are ridiculous.
Marjan (their horrible finances department person) tried to get a subletter of mine to pay a broker’s fee when we found the subletter on our own. Miserable people, really. The epitome of what you don’t want to deal with in Boston.

I walk into the Boston Union Realty office, rent check in hand. New to their company, I ask the guy closest to the entrance if it is he whom I give the payment to. He glances at me, says, «Hell no!» and points to a plastic mailbox across from his desk. He then goes back to watching a Penn State Football play on YouTube.

Boston Union Realty just took over all administrative tasks from my management company (a good thing because Sabet management could not handle cashing rent checks and scheduling maintenance at the same time!). So far the experience has been good. they did their paper work on time. The realty lists property mainly in the Fenway/​Symphony area… run down yet still expensive apartments for the most part good for college kids. If you are looking for something nicer in the Back Bay I would avoid them.