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edew · 06-08-2008, 02:15 PM

Ok, this shouldn't be in the main fencing forum, but I'm afraid it might not get seen soon enough.

My stepdaughter is moving to Boston to attend BU this fall. She needs a place to stay. Any suggestions for nice safe areas close to BU, or maybe someone who might need a roomie? Non smoker, will be doing MBA program, so not too much partying (or maybe a lot, I don't know what the program entails).

seak · 06-08-2008, 02:23 PM

see craigslist

MyrddinsPrecint · 06-08-2008, 03:46 PM

The problem with Boston is that you go from good areas to bad areas too quickly for a list. The good places cost more. You don't particularly want her paying less than $700 a month--- and that's for sharing with at least two other people--- unless there's a good reason (pets, sharing with 5 other people, etc).

Craigslist. Have her talk to the people in question, and google/facebook the people as well. There are plenty of students, 20somethings, artisty types all living in Boston/Cambridge/etc looking for roommates, and they're all posting on Craigslist.

BU grad schools also usually keep an internal list of places. I know that SPH does, and they don't really have things. Considering how much nicer the School of Management is, they have to be able to offer some help.

dcrocket · 06-08-2008, 04:06 PM

My daughter will be a senior at Simmons next year. She lives on Peterborough, which is located between the Backbay Fens and BU. The area houses a few undergrads and many graduate students and young professionals. I have been relatively comfortable with her living here.

edew · 06-08-2008, 04:24 PM

The problem with Craigslist is that while it might advertise a place, she has no clue as to whether that place is safe, desirable, easily accessible etc.

Also, a number of landlords and tenants looking for roommates want her to take a look. Well, she isn't willing to fly out to Boston for $500 just to look for rooms. One hope is maybe one of you could be nice and offer to visit some places in her stead, take some pix and email them to her (or me).

Lastly, seems a lot of places on CL mentions "smoking". Is smoking more popular in Boston than elsewhere? Or is it just that there's more vacancies with smokers than non-smokers.

Yes, she's gotten a list from the BU grad dept for available housing. But again, many places won't rent to her unless she's been by in person (or at least a person representing her).

seak · 06-08-2008, 04:30 PM

For a place you're going to be living for the next year possibly longer, it might not be the worst idea to fly out, see the place meet the people etc. Make a list and appointments ahead of time of course.

If she can fly midweek and fly into Manchester on SW or something (and rent a car) she might be able to find a better deal on airfare.

Short of that apartmentratings.com has ratings and comments from residents and can give you ideas of places.

Beloit Fencer of Old · 06-08-2008, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edew

The problem with Craigslist is that while it might advertise a place, she has no clue as to whether that place is safe, desirable, easily accessible etc.

Also, a number of landlords and tenants looking for roommates want her to take a look. Well, she isn't willing to fly out to Boston for $500 just to look for rooms. One hope is maybe one of you could be nice and offer to visit some places in her stead, take some pix and email them to her (or me).

Lastly, seems a lot of places on CL mentions "smoking". Is smoking more popular in Boston than elsewhere? Or is it just that there's more vacancies with smokers than non-smokers.

Yes, she's gotten a list from the BU grad dept for available housing. But again, many places won't rent to her unless she's been by in person (or at least a person representing her).

Maybe this is a good excuse for you to fly out to Brandeis for the potato...and extend your trip to do some apartment-viewing!

edew · 06-08-2008, 07:06 PM

Thanks. I've got enough balls in the air being juggled than to add a trip to Boston to my load.

MyrddinsPrecint · 06-08-2008, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seak

For a place you're going to be living for the next year possibly longer, it might not be the worst idea to fly out, see the place meet the people etc. Make a list and appointments ahead of time of course.

If she can fly midweek and fly into Manchester on SW or something (and rent a car) she might be able to find a better deal on airfare.

Short of that apartmentratings.com has ratings and comments from residents and can give you ideas of places.

Having just dealt with subletting a place, it took two weeks --while living in the area-- to find a decent place. I wouldn't have wanted to do it second hand, never mind third hand.

If she flies into Logan, she should be able to do without a rental car at all--- she shouldn't want to live anywhere she can't T to (or at least bus to)-- even if she plans to have a car, there are plenty of times when it's just not practical. (Unless she wants a commute of at least a half hour/45 minutes by car, she'll want to be withing T range.)

There's a hostel RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the School of Management. While it's not as pretty, I've heard reasonable things about it, and staying there would give her a very good idea of how far away things will be to school for her.

edew · 06-08-2008, 08:33 PM

My understanding with my stepdaughter is that she has several possible places found (via CL or other online resource). However, the owner would like her to physically show up to see the place or something. I don't know exactly what. (We have a rental here in CA and when we were renting it, we CL'ed the place and had people email us from Boston and elsewhere with their information. We didn't need a physical body. Money -- physical or electronic -- usually did the trick to convince us.)

I'll find out more about what she need from a person in Boston before we put this to bed.

telkanuru · 06-09-2008, 02:15 AM

As a general rule, avoid Chinatown. Anything in close physical proximity to BU will be expensive, but BU sits right on the Green Line (one of our streetcar lines) so you can look pretty much anywhere within 5 miles and still be 30 min away by train. I went to school on the BU campus for four years, although I commuted from my parent's house. If you have any in-depth questions, feel free to PM me.

EdGardner · 06-09-2008, 10:10 AM

Alot of old school landlords in Boston, and with the transient student population, its not tooooo surprising they want to see a body.

Whatever you find, get it month to month at first if you must do it sight unseen. I moved to Boston 11-12 years ago now, sight unseen, and was glad of my month to month lease. Let me have a place to sleep and was able to look for more permanent dwelling. Its a tough city to find adequate places to live remotley, I'll continue the broken record and say if you can find a way to come look yourself, you should.

I'll second the Peterborough area of Fenway though, its very nice.

In general, stay inside 95 for ready access to public trains, look at a map of the T and compare the address. BU is a city campus, right on the Green line at the Kenmore Square station.

Many students live in Allston, I'd personally avoid it for just that reason. Brookline is close, but tends to be pricey. Newton is further west, but will suffer similar price issues unless you are lucky. I lived in Brighton briefly, alot of students and a bit of a crapshoot in terms of quality, marginally better than Allston in my opinion. South End, Back Bay all have lots of places to live and things to do, and are embedded in the city.

Does she have a budget?

epeemike81 · 06-09-2008, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by telkanuru

As a general rule, avoid Chinatown. Anything in close physical proximity to BU will be expensive, but BU sits right on the Green Line (one of our streetcar lines) so you can look pretty much anywhere within 5 miles and still be 30 min away by train. I went to school on the BU campus for four years, although I commuted from my parent's house. If you have any in-depth questions, feel free to PM me.

Brighton. Safe, relatively cheap (by Boston standards, anyway), and proximate with good public transit to BU.

-m

MyrddinsPrecint · 06-09-2008, 09:48 PM

South End is difficult from afar--- bits of it are becoming very very expensive, and other bits are projects. These bits very well might be right next to each other.

... They're nice projects....

fencerbill · 06-10-2008, 01:20 AM

Eric, you may have run across Jason and Elif Sachs at some NAC or another. They have a rather new fencing club in Somerville which is near the Tufts campus. It is not as close to BU as Brighton but still reachable by rapid transit. Go in town, change once, then out to BU. My impression is that the rents may be less than closer to BU.

My point is that they have been looking at real estate for several years, now resulting in their new club. They may have more real estate contacts than a lot of people, which may help with avoiding the trip to Boston.

epeemike81 · 06-10-2008, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MyrddinsPrecint

South End is difficult from afar--- bits of it are becoming very very expensive, and other bits are projects. These bits very well might be right next to each other.

... They're nice projects....

It's also, you know, not very convenient to BU...

-m

MyrddinsPrecint · 06-10-2008, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epeemike81

It's also, you know, not very convenient to BU...

-m

Having lived conveniently near BU, it's overrated.

Then again, I had no reason to find the proximity convenient, so it's not really a fair comparison.

The Super 88 Food Connection is the bit I miss the most.

fencerbill · 06-11-2008, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MyrddinsPrecint

Having lived conveniently near BU, it's overrated.

Then again, I had no reason to find the proximity convenient, so it's not really a fair comparison.

The Super 88 Food Connection is the bit I miss the most.

Propinquity is probably more important to undergraduates that graduate students.

edew · 06-11-2008, 03:12 AM

Alyson, my stepdaughter said that she would like to live at a place that is close to campus so that if she has to walk home at 11PM at night, she'll make it there in one piece and not be a headline the next morning. Is that too much of a tall order or can that be done?

MyrddinsPrecint · 06-11-2008, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fencerbill

Propinquity is probably more important to undergraduates that graduate students.

I was living part time in grad student housing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by edew

Alyson, my stepdaughter said that she would like to live at a place that is close to campus so that if she has to walk home at 11PM at night, she'll make it there in one piece and not be a headline the next morning. Is that too much of a tall order or can that be done?

If she's spent her life in Cali, and hasn't ever experienced a New England winter, and has an expectation that she'll be comfortably walking places at 11 pm...... regardless of safety, there's a grad student housing building operated by BU across the street from Management. Decent place, but expensive.

So, immediately around BU is ... BU. In order to GET to the places that have reasonable rents and people to share with, it's usually more comfortable to bike or take the T. The T isn't reasonable very late at night, and biking isn't reasonable in the middle of the winter. Safety is fine-- I mean, it's a city, and common sense should be followed, but it's not horrible....