Advantage Property Management

I am shocked this place does not have a 0 star rating, for TJ in particular.
Overall rating: HORRIBLE.
TJ is rude, belittling, useless, and completely UNprofessional, as is the rest of the Advantage team. If you would like something done in these buildings do it yourself with your own time and resources because if you are counting on the management team to do anything you’ll be waiting a century. There is a huge mice problem in the buildings, as well as rats, and TJ although alerted of this problem multiple times did not seem fazed.
The heat was shut off during the winter of 2015 while there were dangerous road conditions, car bans, and other severe weather warnings out. We had to resort to calling the city of Boston because Advantage’s team could not be bothered. As soon as they found out the city was alerted then OF COURSE they seemed to be concerned.
Back story: our apartment was a complete disaster upon move in and it was like pulling teeth to get TJ to replace our floors, counters, front door, etc. (which was promised to us when we signed our lease). 3 years later, as 4 young girls, our apartment was up kept in very good conditions as we lived in that apartment very lightly. No holes in the walls bigger than the hole made from hanging a painting and the counters/​floors left without marks or scuffs. We received less than half of our security deposit back and the itemized bill stated damages for 16 walls and stated that the apartment needed to be cleaned — twice — totaling over $ 500. Not to mention that we moved out the evening of ⁸⁄₃₁ and we are friends with the people who moved into our apartment he morning of ⁹⁄₁ who confirmed that the unit was NOT cleaned even once, let alone twice.
We contacted the landlord Dennis a multitude of times with emails that he was unresponsive for weeks at a time. We left phone messages asking our calls to be returned and they never were. I cannot reiterate enough: unprofessional. If you are looking to use scam artists and obnoxious individuals — Advantage Real Estate and Property Management are your go to team!
If I included the list of ways this team was an awful experience for my roommates and myself I would run out of text space.

Truly unprofessional and a nightmare to work with. Grade A scam artists. The lease for our building stated that maintenance (i.e. shoveling snow, moving trashcans to curb) would be handled by Advantage, yet weeks would go by without anything getting done.
I moved into the unit in September 2014, and my friends already lived there. They forced me to pay a realtor fee claiming it was an agreement with the landlord even though 1) the apartment was never back on the market and 2) I found the apartment through my friends, with zero assistance from a realtor. Pretty sure that’s illegal. In addition to the fact that getting your security deposit back is next to impossible, they go out of their way to con people out of their money.
Lastly, TJ is the worst «professional» I’ve ever worked with. Clearly a direct reflection of the business as a whole, he is consistently rude and does not go out of his way to help tenants (which is apparently his job).
If you can avoid renting in Boston through these hack jobs, I urge you to do so.

Can we review any lower than one star? Word to the wise: DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! TJ the Property Manager aside, the apartments these people rent out (for a ton of money) are complete crap! I live in one at Packards Corner and the bedroom has a radiator that make so much noise that it is impossible to sleep in (NOT JOKING). After repeated maintenance requests, they told me there is nothing to do and no way out of the lease without paying it out. Other problems with the apartment:
–ants, mice, etc
–elevator is always broken
–laundry machines never work (and there’s only 3)
–mail gets stolen frequently
–the building is a mess
–at least once a month there is no hot water (most of the time no water at all)
–when you try to get your security deposit back, they claim the place has damage (TAKE PICTURES BEFORE YOU MOVE OUT, that’s what we did so they had nothing to base their claims on!)
–Solicitors are knocking at your 5^th floor apartment ALL THE TIME because the doors are never locked so anyone can come into the building
–They lost our rent check TWICE and sent us threatening notices and only when we could prove we had sent the check AND THEY HAD CASHED IT, they backed off.
The list goes on and on, but honestly… DON’T GIVE THESE PEOPLE BUSINESS!

Absolutely horrible.
I lived in their building for 3 years and I just recently moved out. I got completely screwed over.
One summer I had asked for an extra set of keys, paid THEM the deposit for them and returned the keys once I moved.
They then did not give me the deposit back for one of the keys, and charged me $ 150 for a lock change because a duplicate key was returned that they did not issue.
Except that TJ issued it to me and now they are screwing me out of $ 175 (deposit and lock change) for THEIR mistake.
Absolutely appalling.
We also got $ 300 taken out of our deposit to clean the apartment-​. Guarantee they will not clean it, let alone spend $ 300 on that. What a joke. When we moved in they did not clean, it was dirty and we had to clean it ourselves.
The customer service here is horrendous. They do not get back to your emails and are incredibly rude!
3 years of living there and they just treat you like absolute garbage. 1 star is being incredibly generous. DO NOT USE THEM! I repeat– do not lease from them. They will absolutely swindle you out of your money.

Absolutely unprofessional, and a nightmare to work with. A word of warning to those considering working with Advantage — stay away.
The staff is very friendly and accommodating, until you put down your deposits. Then they really drop the ball and make absolutely zero effort to accommodate the tenants’ needs.
My boyfriend and I emailed and called the property manager, TJ Gondek, numerous times last winter to fix a heating issue that made our apartment unliveably cold. He responded to one email saying he’d be right over, and he never showed up. Ever. Then he ignored all our following attempts to contact him.
There were a lot of maintenance in our building on Comm. Ave, including holes in walls, banisters ripped from the staircase walls, etc., that were not fixed in our time there. The elevator, in addition to having been past it’s inspection date, was often out of order.
When a group of tenants posted fliers advertising a tenants’ meeting to address the issues with management, the fliers were all torn down and the fire alarm was, coincidentally (yeah, right) pulled at the exact time the meeting was to happen in the lobby.
Also, when our security deposit check was returned this September, it bounced! It took FOUR MONTHS of constant heckling TJ to get a response, and when he did, he said he did not handle the deposits, but refused to give us the name/​phone number of the person who does.
Also, they charged us a bogus $ 200 cleaning fee of the apartment when we moved out. It was bogus because we left that apartment absolutely spotless, 100x cleaner than the absolute filth we found when we moved in.
In short, don’t work with them unless you want constant frustration from management who in no way respects their tenants, a freezing apartment in the winter, and your money stolen from you when you try to leave.
P. S. Check out the «not recommended» reviews. They speak to the true nature of the company, and for some reason ($$?) get filtered from the page.

I do not usually write Unilocal reviews, good or bad, but I am so appalled at this company’s practices that I feel it necessary to warn other people.
They are
#1: Unresponsive. Trying to get TJ to return an email or a phone call was like pulling teeth.
#2: Unreliable. He told me they would be able to install a new appliance in the condo by the end of 2 weeks. Lo and behold — at the end of 2 weeks, it was not done. What’s worse is that no one called me to tell me they wouldn’t make it. Unacceptable.
#3. Rude and condescending. TJ makes it sound like he’s doing you a favor by taking care of the things clients PAY HIM to take care of. It is very annoying and burdensome for him to do HIS JOB.
My advice: avoid this company at all costs.

One star is extremely generous for a company who doesn’t care in the least about their customers.
The property manager TJ Gondek is extremely unprofessional and unresponsive and won’t return your emails or phone calls. They refused to pay our bills and caused complications with many of our regular vendors.
I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone from patronizing this business.

I have had an awful experience with the management here. They just don’t care about providing any kind of service to the tenants. Things that they said would be fixed before move-​in were not done even after a year of constant reminders. The place was filthy when I moved in. Nothing ever gets followed through despite there being a ton of maintenance guys. They just keep reassuring you that they will either come back or send a write-​up to TJ, and they keep blaming each other when things don’t get taken care of… a complete chaos that you get stuck into. I have never had such a bad experience.

Not only are they unprofessional and discourteous, they will do their very best to nickel and dime you out of your deposit.
After neglecting to patch the numerous nail holes in the walls and repaint (as is put forth in the lease), the property owners attempted to charge me for the nail holes after I moved out. I still had the previous tenant’s phone number, and it happens that they did the same thing to him.
Only after threatening to take them to small claims court did they refund the ridiculous deductions from my deposit.
That being said, the places are pretty cheap. Just be prepared to do your own handiwork and fight for money that’s rightfully yours.

The folks on the real estate side are fantastic, and they’re who my review goes out to – Dino et. al truly care about their clients and will continue to take care of you after they’ve sold you an apartment – a rarity, especially in the Boston market. While hte property management may not be the best, I’ve always found them to be fairly responsive and professional.
Advantage – the actual realty company – is really great. I wish people would stop punishing them for bad experiences with property managers.

As far as working with them, I actually had a great experience with one of the realtors, Dino. He has been prompt and reliable, especially with responding in a timely fashion. I would choose him for an agent if in need of leasing property or an apartment.

Get in touch with Dino Bacoka! We didn’t end up signing with Advantage, but Dino was the only honest, genuine agent we worked with in the cesspool of corruption that is Allston/​Brighton apartment rentals. He was great!

I’m giving Advantage a low rating mainly because of the property manager, with whom I had the most interaction. He was extremely rude. He snapped at me for calling his cell when I was in a panic about a situation in the apartment, even though the Advantage web site says that clients are encouraged to call his direct cell number. Kate’s review is right on.
Each time we contacted him, he seemed very annoyed about having to help us out. I didn’t know the difference until I moved, and now I have a property manager who is pleasant and very helpful. In addition, my security deposit was returned late, and only after I repeatedly asked for it. I wouldn’t recommend working with this company.

Horrible owner/​landlord in Brighton that Advantage set me up with. Upon moving out, he attempted to keep a full months rent security deposit and made up a list of bogus cleaning companies/​floor repair services totaling the amount. My roommate and I left the apartment cleaner and in much better condition (we had painted with his approval etc) than we found it! None of the services had actually been completed or were necessary. Ultimately threatened legal action and had a friend draft up documents for us. Would absolutely not recommend.

Very professional and efficient real estate office. My roommate and I spent months looking for a decent two bedroom on mission hill to no avail. It seemed the only places available looked like former drug houses-​we happened to come across a Craigslist ad for Advantage and thought we’d give it a shot. Not only did we find a great place but we actually had a choice between two nice places. We worked with Emily from the office who was more than willing to help us out in any way, even going so far as to drive to our apartment in mission hill to pick up our checks. After having to deal with the normal plethora of shady real estate places for September 1^st places it was refreshing, to say the least, to find a respectable place determined to go above and beyond.

I worked with Jen at Advantage and she was great. I felt like she listened and went out of her way to find me the place I was looking for in Brighton. She showed me everything available in my price range and preferred location, and even negotiated down the landlord for the place I wanted.

I have been very impressed with this company since they got new management. Any problems I have had have been solved as quickly as possible, plus the people who work there are all so nice! They are very dedicated to their jobs and it is clear that they care about you and your apartment. I really like this company and would definitely recommend renting an apartment through them.