Unlike many of the other 4-5 star reviews I've read, my roommates and I did not do our actual apartment hunt through Gateway. We used the various websites that aggregate listings and met with many agents that represented them. We had positive and negative experiences, but the place we ultimately decided was perfect for us was being shown by Hannah from Gateway, who was amazing throughout the rest of the process. Do NOT believe the 1 star review of Hannah below, and definitely DO give props to Paul for defending her, because after our experience with her, I have no doubt Paul's rendition is exactly what went down. After all of the places we looked at that did not live up to expectations, we were at the point that we could size up a place in minutes as to whether we wanted to take it a step further. So when we walked into the apartment with Hannah, she did not really need to sell us, we knew we wanted it. But thats where our experience really starts, she didn't kick back and wait for the fee, she worked for us from start to finish. Whether it was meeting up after my own work hours because I forgot to actually attach my application to an e-mail or working with the landlord to waive the security deposit, Hannah made every step easier. If we could, we would go back and start our search with Gateway, because then we probably would not have had to go through some of the headaches along the way. If you're looking for an apartment in the Boston area, start your search here. read more

We toured a few places with a Gateway agent - ultimately there were too many red flags to feel good moving forward with any Gateway property. 1. They charge an $40 application fee per tenant - this is illegal in MA for landlords, but not for real estate agents, so they get away with it. Our agent admitted it's purely just a revenue generator for them - it also doesn't apply to your broker fee. 2. They ask for most of their fees via Venmo, which has to be the sketchiest way of sending any kind of transaction. 3. If you go in expecting to tour a single place, expect the agent to line up a bunch of other showings and pressure you into them. We ended up in an apartment with a dog, despite telling the broker we were looking for no-pet buildings due to a severe pet allergy. read more

Exorbitant fees with non-refundable options. Felt pressured to forward money to the group and was never reimbursed because of a questionable disclosure form I also felt pressured to sign. I found a great apartment in Boston from another group who did not pressure me in any way. I am happy to put any prospective renters in touch with one of these groups. read more

Yet another realtor group, that list properties that are not for rent I assume bait and switch. I would stay very clear of them. Obviously underhanded in the way they do business. They ignored my complaint to remove the listing they have of my property (which is not for rent). So over the next few days I will be reporting them to every agency that has some Controle over them and also filing a Police report. I will strive to get their license removed, so they can't scam other people. read more

Not a responsive team. Whenever i reached out theyd spam me with questionaires and forms, instead of just answering my question.

I hope this message gets to whoever it needs to. My name is Megan, I am currently a tenant at an apartment that Gateway Realty represents. The real estate agent I just spoke to was horrible. Alexis called me, saying that she was been contacting me several times to confirm a showing for this evening, which I did not and have never received from the number she used to contact me. Furthermore, she was wondering if she could show my apartment without me or my roommate being there, because she was just right outside my door. She didnt even introduce her name, nor where she was calling from, or even the address she was standing outside of. It was all so confusing, but in the big mess of confusion, she was incredibly rude and unprofessional. When I said that I do not know this number or her and if she has not set up a time specifically then I don't feel comfortable letting her into my space, she proceeded to tell me I was wrong. When I suggested that maybe she has been in touch with my roommate, she said oh yes she has been, but could not confirm a name of my roommate. On top of that, I agreed to have a showing on Friday of this week, in which she very rudely told me that "tomorrow is Friday." Tomorrow is not Friday, tomorrow is Thursday. Thursday does not work for me. Showings after 5pm also do not work for me and I've made that very clear with other real estate agents who have had no issues with my boundaries. Alexis, you were very unkind to someone you would want to be in good graces with. I am happy to have a conversation and set up appointments/showings, but it is essential that you treat me with the same level of respect that you demand from me. This includes, not sending a screenshot of your recent text messages to "prove" you have been trying to confirm meetings/showings. How petty and unprofessional. Take the L and let it go, I have never been contacted by this number and I have no idea who you are, naturally I am going to refuse entry into my home. Furthermore, I attempted to leave a voicemail or speak to someone at the group to discuss this situation directly, but found that the voicemail was full and there was no other way to express this except write this review. I am really disappointed in the way this company, namely Alexis, has chosen to treat the current tenants of the apartments that you represent. read more

Absolutely same experience as another reviewer. We reached out about a property with a simple question, and instead of responding to our enquiry like a human, he just sent an exhaustively long series of questions in copy-paste fashion, and written in a totally patronizing manner, which we "had" to answer before he could even tell us if a property was still available. Depiste having nothing further to do with him, I'm now randomly getting emails from him many months later (like 4 months after our desired move in date) implying that I messaged him yesterday and I better hurry up answering his questions because "the rental market is so fast paced"! Fast paced! Lol! What does he think, I've been living in a hotel the last 4 months waiting for him to get back to me? Who we DID have a good experience with was Sam Schwarz at Remmes&Co. If you're looking for a realtor in the Boston area he was calm, pleasant, responsible to deal with. read more

TLDR: We worked with Gateway Real Estate agent Leo Joachim to rent an apartment. Leo gave us false information on the tour, and later tried to pass it off as speculation. Later on, when we brought up this issue with his superior Will Armstrong, Will quickly became defensive and claimed that it was all just a miscommunication and that somehow the situation was our fault. The situation as a whole left a bad taste in our mouths, so we are writing this review to inform renters of what to expect when working with Gateway. Full story: We worked with Leonidas (Leo) Joachim to rent an apartment and the process was bumpy. We toured two apartments next door to each other and we proceeded in the process of renting one of them. During the tour, Leo continually used specific language to lead us to believe that the apartment would have better amenities than it actually did without committing himself to those statements. For example, Leo said that a dishwasher would "probably" be installed prior to our move-in and "he believed" there would be laundry in our building identical to that of next door. Upon confronting Leo about the mix-up after moving in, in Leo's own words: "I did mention that it would make sense to put washers and dryers that's identical to the set up in 8 Gardner, I did not say that there will be washers and dryers just merely sharing thoughts mid conversation. I see where the miscommunication may have occurred." What kind of real estate agent tries to play off things he said to potential clients as just "sharing thoughts mid conversation"? If a doctor told you that "you might be sick", you would of course believe them, due to their position and knowledge. If a real estate agent says "there will probably be laundry here", why wouldn't you believe them? We believed Leo as our agent was the best source of reliable information and assumed that he had done the due diligence to check the facts before sharing his "thoughts" on matters. Clearly Leo had not. When it comes down to the common knowledge about an apartment, the agent should be aware of what is and will not be installed as it will obviously impact renters' decisions. Leo's speculation misled us on more than just this laundry issue. The dishwasher that Leo "believed" was going to be installed was also incorrect information. We are lucky that we followed up and requested him to put the installation in writing where and when the dishwasher would be installed. This forced Leo to actually do his job and discover there were never any plans to install a dishwasher. This should have been a sign to us that we needed to verify what Leo had told us about other amenities in the apartment. We are not in a position to state whether or not it was Leo's intention to lie to us. We wanted to address these concerns with Leo's superior and were directed to William Armstrong. Upon emailing him the concerns he responded: "He (Leo) said that he would reach out to you to figure out where your miscommunication happened... I thought that it was sorted out." It was shocking to us that even without calling to hear the full story, Will automatically said "your miscommunication". Will sided with Leo, insisting that we were "poking around" in the basement and treating the situation as if we had just misunderstood what Leo had told us. Given how careful we were in verifying information such as the dishwasher, this is probably not the case. Our main objective in calling Will was to inform him of the situation. We wanted to make sure that he was aware of Leo's lack of preparation for our tour and the false information we were given. However, instead what we got was a defensive boss who clearly did not want to deal with us. It's now clear to us that there can be nothing gained by communicating with Will or Leo, so we have decided to write this review in order to inform future potential clients of Gateway about our story. read more

Unresponsive, rude, exploitative, and unprofessional. They'll ignore absolutely everything you ask about, including pests and intruders. Their communication is unimaginably poor and the buildings are barely maintained. Please do yourself a favor and keep looking for another place! read more

Will Strong, our agent, at first was great, helped us find a place and walked us through the process. The problems started when we finally moved in and he did not execute on his promises. He had promised cleaners, repainting of the walls, and a parking space. The floors were caked in dust and dirt. Then denied his repainting promise and said it would have been impossible. He took advantage of college kids who were renting for the first time. He also was most responsive when the situation was for his benefit, paying the broker fee. BEWARE OF HIS SNEAKY TACTICS. read more

Was not pleasant to work with. I reached out to an agent several times asking for more information about some rental properties that he had listed. He sent one automated email, and that never followed up. I would not recommend then due to thier lack of communication. read more

My roommates and I have lived in an apartment in Roxbury Crossing for the past eight months and It would be hard to imagine a worse property management service. Our property manager, David Virr, is unresponsive, unprofessional, and has even broken the law multiple times. Our experience with the online portal has not been much better. First of all, our heating was broken during the month of November. Our apartment was under 45 degrees during this time which is legally "inhabitable" and yet it took an entire two weeks before anybody even came to look at the furnace. During this time David even offered to bring over space heaters to warm our apartment, only to ghost us and never actually bring us heaters. Absurdly disrespectful wile we are freezing in an inhabitable apartment. After this incident we requested a form be sent to us multiple times so that we could request temporary reduced rent for the inconvenience. David either would tell us that it was "too late," or would ignore us entirely. Whenever it comes to us owing money for rent, he responds immediately and pesters us with emails. Gateway's online portal is as useless as their property managers. I have had a request for a doorknob to be fixed outstanding in the portal for over six months as of now! Nobody has attempted to fix it. We had a group tour the apartment today without contacting us ahead of time. When we talked to the real estate agent, she said that she was told that it was ok and THAT IF WE ARE NOT HOME SHE CAN USE THE LOCKBOX TO GET IN. THAT WOULD BE COMPLETELY AND ENTIRELY ILLEGAL^^^ We have had other issues as well but for the sake of keeping this review at a reasonable length I will leave it at the most egregious instances of unprofessionalism. I also wrote a long letter about some of these issues and personally dropped it off at their office. I never received any response which has led me to lay it all out on a public, online forum like yelp. Overall, our experience with gateway property management has been horrific and I believe they are crooks who only care about collecting rent, until I am proved otherwise. read more

Steve did a good job of showing us 8 apartments, all of which met our selection criteria, and provided helpful local knowledge and information about the landlords. We appreciated his casual, no pressure, approach to the showings, especially since it was a Saturday. Note to Gateway leadership: Have some pride in your office. The floor needs to be vacuumed and the place cleaned up. read more

Worked with agent Colin Andrews three years ago and was very happy with the experience. He listened to what we wanted, found some great matches within budget, and was motivated and proactive in making sure we got the property we wanted. Would recommend to anyone renting in the area. read more

My roommate and I had the worst experience with this real estate group. Their real estate agent, Chris, told me and my roommate that he was "here for us" and could negotiate items such as rent and move-in dates during tours. A day after the tours, we requested a negotiation of rent for a property; he immediately turned that down without asking the landlord, saying that they wouldn't budge. On his advice, we waited until August to ask the landlord/current tenants about us moving in/bringing some of our furniture early. We were left with unanswered questions about a move-in date several months after signing the lease (we signed the lease in March) and less than two weeks before our lease begins. Chris was incredibly unprofessional in the delay in his responses. As a result, me and my roommate were, for the most part, left in the dark throughout the process. $2200 for this kind of service? Absolute joke. Please go through a different realty group and save yourself the headache. read more

I think a real estate group like this is PERFECT if you are looking to rent from afar and need extra help to snag an apartment, and because of this long distance help, can stomach paying the Realtor a month's rent in fees. I guess it could be ok if you're local and new to apartment searching, but you still gotta stomach the fees. My husband and I got our apartment with the help of Jillian while we were living in South Carolina. She was GREAT- extremely friendly and very efficient. Let me tell you the customer service she has: About The Hub and me (yes me, not I) about 4 years ago: Two, suburbanite southerfolk (sans heavy country accent, at least on my part hahaa) were seeking an apartment in Boston because Husband got accepted to BC in a PhD program (he's wicked smaht). HOW DO WE FIND A PLACE TO LIVE?? Craigslist! A few apartment opportunities came and left us because we were to slow to jump on it and somebody else snagged it before us, most likely a local (or they preferred to not rent to out of towners). Then we found an ad listed by Gateway. The first apartment (or two) opportunities came and left us but our Realtor, Super Jillian did not give up. She helped us snag an apartment and was VERY efficient about faxing paperwork (yes I know she probably wanted her commission, too, BUT she is still amazing). So we snagged this apartment, and signed a lease without seeing it (other than pictures she took and sent to us at our request) A month before we moved here, we finally had time to come up and see this apartment we blindly signed for, just so we could see the space and what we had to throw away before moving (we used to live in a two bedroom, two story townhouse- so we had a lotttt of stuffff) Remember we were "outta towners". She not only arranged to pick us up-- get this, she picked us up at the Harvard Ave T stop. She could have given us directions to walk, but she picked us up. She might have tried to give us directions to walk, but we might have sounded confused- I don't remember, but she picked us up less than a block from the office. And then she drove us to our soon to be apartment (also in walking distance!) AND THEN SHE DROVE US TO BOSTON COLLEGE SO WE COULD SEE WHERE IS IN PROXIMITY TO OUR APARTMENT! And as she drove us there and back to Allston, she told us a lot about the city, recommended places to eat, etc. Amazing. So if you're looking to rent from afar, I highly recommend getting help with Jillian. DO try your best to get here to look at apartments with her before signing a lease (we did this so blindly and were THANKFULLY LUCKY to not land in a dump), but keep in mind they do charge fees, and just deal with it. read more

Luke, Justin, and Iain always take care of all the friends I send their way when they look for an apartment. Gateway is my go to for all my real estate needs! Thanks guys! read more

I generally HATE everything that has to do with renting an apartment in Boston, the worst part being the inevitable useless trips with a realtor who completely ignores every requirement you have and shows complete shitholes for $3453468 a month. Allison Kramberg is not that realtor. She's professional, perky and everything I want in a realtor because she applies her personal standards for an apartment to those she shows. Although she can't do much about how blatantly overpriced the apartments are, she will show apartments that fit your needs. That's right; SHE LISTENS. Novel concept, huh? And it's clear she really enjoys her job. Now, despite having looked at apartments with Allison two years in a row, I never ended up renting from her, due in no small part to wishy-washy roommates. Maybe this glowing review will make up for that. :) read more

**I changed this review from a 1 star to a 2 star review because they reached out to me and apologized for how this situation went down... which is definitely better than not having done so.** My complaint with Gateway is based on a few really sour interactions I've had with them. Here are the broad strokes: -I live in an apartment that has access to both: -The hot water heater for my unit and the 3 units above me inside of it -The boiler that handles the heat for my unit and the 3 units above me inside of it The water heater & the heat went down this past weekend, and they contacted me to tell me that they'd have to come in and look at it. We told them that was fine, and to please keep us informed of when they were coming and going so that myself of my girlfriend wouldn't be surprised coming home to strangers in our apartment. The next day I emailed a few times, and kept getting emails that they would be there soon. At close to 5pm i was told that the key they had didn't work for our place. (which is funny, because they'd gone in and out multiple times over the last 2 years without us there) Then I got home at 6, and they were not there still. My neighbors came down to my apartment and told me that Gateway told them that WE said gateway wasn't allowed in our apartment without us there. (which is not at all what happened. We asked Gateway not to let our neighbors inside our apartment with the techs, which they had done before without asking us. we did NOT said they couldn't come in while we weren't home) Then the tech showed up, and told me that they'd have to order parts and come back the next day. At this point, I gave the tech one of our only 2 sets of keys, because otherwise the entire process would be held up again the next day as neither of us could afford to take off work to let them into our apartment. This caused us to have to change our plans to work around the 1 set of keys, but we did it to make sure the other tenants got heat back asap. (one of them has a baby) I also emailed gateway and said that if the working key to our apartment was lost, that we'd like to have our locks changed, and I got back two emails within a minute of each other from two different people at Gateway. One saying "The key wasn't lost, it just stopped working" and one saying "Actually, he just grabbed the wrong set" implying they still have a good set of keys for our place. SO the next morning I emailed gateway first thing the next morning, stressing that if they DID have working keys still for our place like they said, that I wanted to STRESS that they should get that working set to the tech, because if for any reason it wasn't able to be fixed that day, that we REALLY needed our keys back that night for the next day. They didn't respond to that email at all throughout the day, until I got a phone call at 5pm telling me that the part ordered hadn't shown up, and that they needed to keep our set of keys another day... because even though they said they still had a set of keys to our place, they in fact didn't. (were they just saying that so I wouldn't ask them to change the locks?!) Now, I emailed them before 10am on this same day. If they'd responded and told me "Actually we DON'T have a working key, we'll need yours another day" I could've copied the one set for my GF, but they didn't. instead they waited until it was too late to deal with to tell me they needed my keys another day. So I told them that wasn't going to work, and that I really needed my keys back that night. what did they do? They called my gf after I had gone into work that night, and told her that "even though it's not a big deal to you guys, it's a big deal to other tenants".. as if we were being dicks about it, when they were the ones who weren't communicating, and who were I THINK lying about having keys, and definitely lying to the other tenants about what we'd said. They refused to give us our keys back when we needed them, and as such I had to lose money staying out of work as a result. They've not apologized at all for any of this. We've also lost electricity for days at a time, multiple times, because someone (a neighbor) knocked the door off of an electrical box out behind out place with snow, and they won't replace it. That was last year, it's still not replaced. Now there's a piece of Styrofoam around the wires in the box, but the door still is not replaced. We'll PROBABLY lose electricity again this year because of it, and they won't do anything to fix it. read more

I don't usually like to write premature reviews, as in, companies by which I don't follow through with their services, but I had a great experience at Gateway. Although I am not going with the apartment shown, I was extremely impressed with Gateway Real Estate Group, especially with Jillian Chan. I think everyone can agree with me on this, even if you don't live in Boston, finding an apartment is one of the most stressful things, ever. You have to tour a bunch of places, gather enough money for the dreaded first + last + security + realtor fee. Gah! Then, not to mention, the usual "cheesy car salesman" attitude you get from these money hungry sharks. But, friends, listen to me when I say this: I did not get that feeling from Jillian. As I was searching for my picture perfect place, I emailed her via a Craigslist posting. Within a few hours she touched base with me on the phone and asked me exactly what I want (which is great, I found many real estate agents don't listen to you). So I told her what I wanted then what I would love to have. We ended up meeting up the next day to see a property. We walked into Gateway and was welcomed with a huge smile and a full personality. She came over and explained the waiver completely (which, in my three year experience, was the only time any agent has ever done that). We then take her (super cute) car to the property. On the ride over, she laid out some ground rules (which was great, as I could tell there is a great sense of professionalism). One of her ground rules, which I really enjoy, was to rank the apartment afterwards. Anything that falls below three stars ought to be crossed off the list for good, as we won't be happy. She also asked for us to debrief with her so she has a better feeling of her clients. So we saw the place, and guys, this is exactly what I wanted (read: Jillian listens to the requests of the clients. Again, this doesn't happen too often). Although it was a little above our budget, she wanted to show us the neighborhood and explained what's around. I definitely appreciate someone who can take an extra half-hour out of her day to just show us what's around and what to expect living in the neighborhood. Afterwards, we debriefed in the office and talked a little more. After our Gateway experience, we ended up meeting with three other real estate agents and kept thinking "man, Jillian was so much better..." If you want a great, personal, experience, contact Jillian Chan at Gateway Real Estate Group. You won't be disappointed. read more

Since our landlord put our apartment on the market a couple of months ago we have been in charge of communicating with the real estate agents who want to show our apartment and scheduling times with them. This can be a little hectic, but we've managed. Out of all of the agents who texted us the two worst ones have been from Gateway Real Estate Group. The first one texted me at 11:48pm to see if he could show our apartment the next day. When I asked that he do not text me that late again he said that his clients just "reconfirmed" with him. Whether or not you hear late at night, you do not text someone 12 minutes before midnight. The second agent texted me one hour before the proposed showing, claiming that the text she sent the night before didn't get through. That happens. I told her that no one was home but that I would be back a little bit later. The one person who was at home works remotely, so we have tried not to disturb him too much by not having a showing when he his home alone. This usually isn't an issue. But this agent still showed up, and then told him that I said it was ok to do this showing. I assumed that if no one was home, she was going to reschedule like every other agent we've spoken with, so I didn't text any of my roommates before going into an important meeting. She just completely lied to my roommate and showed up unexpectedly. Both of these situations were handled unprofessionally to the point that I felt I needed to share. read more

This review is entirely based on our great experience with one realtor at Gateway Realty Group, Allison Kramberg. If you're looking for an apartment in Allston, Allston-Brookline, or Brighton--do yourself a favor and work with Allison--rarely do you meet an honest, genuine realtor--but if they're out there--Allison is one of the few. During our initial search, when we thought about living between Allston/Brookline instead of Somerville (where we eventually ended up). Overall, we were extremely impressed with her professionalism, personality, and units. We had fun looking at the places she picked out for us. She only showed us nice units with lots of potential and she never strayed outside our rental requirements that we outlined for her. She respected who we were & what we wanted. Seriously, she was a pleasure to work with. She kept in touch and sent us photos of the apartments we would see, was always on time, and drove us around to the apartments so we could take a look. Though my boyfriend and I regrettably ended up finding a place in Somerville instead of the area she worked in, if I was a BU student looking for my first place, or a young professional who was looking in the area--I'd definately work with her--she's the best. read more

The first time we rented we got lucky. This time, not so much. We had to go through 4 real estate agents before getting the right one. Every other person never listened to us, went above our price, and showed us apt's in creepy locations. Valerie B listened to everything we asked for. She found us 3 places with everything we wanted within our budget, but the plce that won us over was beyond what anyone could expect. She was fantastic. I will return when I look for another place in the distant, distant future. read more

My girlfriend and I recently moved to Boston for school and work. We came from upstate new york about 6hours away, so as you can imagine, that sort of a drive can make it a little tough to really apartment hunt. We got in touch with Patrick Milane at gateway and his words on the phone call were "Don't sweat it, I got this." When we did come down, we had a 4 hour window to look at apartments that allowed a dog and fit into our other requirements (price range, location, parking etc) Upon arrival, he had 5 different places for us to look at and before we left to return to upstate new york, we had put down a deposit on a REALLY AWESOME apartment in Brighton. close to everything we could think of, no deposit for a furry four legged Tina, and the entire experience was just pleasant. He took the stress out of the hunting and made our move one of the most easiest transitions ever. 5 stars. If you go through Gateway, ask for Patrick, and tell him Sean and Mary sent you!! read more

Searching for apartments can certainly be daunting, especially as a college student. Whats funny is that Gateway is full of realtors, some amazing and others that are straight up con artists. Kim R is awesome, we actually used her to find the apartment we are soon moving into. She was helpful, on top of it, and knowledgeable. Chris Verissimo on the other hand, should likely be fired. When we first began our search we came across a beautiful listing on a street that was known for having some sub par, good-for-college-students apartments. We were excited and hoping to get into the space to see it. One of the people in our group called Chris to set up the showing and asked, VERY SPECIFICALLY, to confirm if the photos and description were accurate. He sure confirmed. The day of the showing I was a bit curious and skeptical of the gorgeous photos so I did my own research. By very simply taking the photos from his listing and searching them via google image search, I found that Chris stole the photos and description from a 1.4 million dollar home about 5 miles away. I figured I would give him the benefit of the doubt and was interested to see what he would do when we got to the showing. Upon walking into the "gorgeous and light" apartment with "in unit laundry" we found a dark and cramped apartment. When I asked him about the description and the photos he said to me in a condescending tone, "Oh yeah, that place already sold so I figured I would show you guys some other ones." You are a liar, Chris. It never sold because its not even on that street. College students, especially those in the area in which Gateway operates, are pretty smart. They are actually smart enough to realize you post these stolen photos to lure in desperate students and then show them garbage. If anyone is desperate in this situation, it is Chris. Later that night I went home and flagged the listing on every website I could find it, in hopes that someone wouldn't fall into the trap we did and it was taken down. 2 months later, I write this after I receive a Zillow notification that Chris Verissimo has done it again! The false listing is back open to the public and he is out here scamming more people! I hope it works Chris, for your sake, as you clearly are comfortable pathetically lying to teenagers who are clearly leaps and bounds more intelligent than you are. My advice- be careful who you choose to work with at Gateway. read more

Not only is Nick Luongo an awesome Real Estate agent, but he is just a nice and friendly guy in general. He was able to show me and my roommates over 10 different options all of which were very appealing. Once we made our selection he made the whole process super easy and he stayed extremely in touch the whole time. Nick didn't give us any of the normal realtor runaround and that was very much appreciated. If you are looking for one of the best realtor's in Boston, definitely look no further. read more

Out of all the crappy real estate groups and pushy rental agents that exist in Boston, Gateway is an absolute breath of fresh air. I've used them twice to look for apartments and both agents I've been in contact with were extremely prompt and helpful. They actually listen to the criteria of what you're looking for and don't waste your time by showing you apartments outside of your budget or preferences. They also get back to you right away, which is really important when you need something quickly. I ended up looking for the first apartment with them extremely late in the game (July..) and yet they were able to find two great apartments that fit what I was looking for right away. I ended up taking one of them and lived there for a year; it was perfect for what I needed at the time and Gateway was the only company, out of about 6 different real estate groups, to show it to me. I went back to Gateway when I was looking for a second apartment; unfortunately I was looking more towards the outskirts of Boston, and they don't have many properties out there. However they found several properties that met most of my criteria and really did their best to help me find something. I ended up finding an apartment without a real estate company (hence the one star off), but regardless I would absolutely recommend Gateway for anyone looking in the Allston/Brighton area. TL;DR Gateway is probably the best real estate company you're going to come across in Boston and I would hands down recommend. read more

Our experience with Gateway Real Estate, and broker Jillian Pagliccia in particular, was incredible. My sister and I were looking for a place near Boston University for grad school. We were flying in for one weekend from Chicago and needed to find a broker we could trust who could help us find something in that short amount of time. We contacted Gateway and Jillian was quick to get back to us. She asked questions about who we were, what we wanted and what our expectations were. She always responded promptly to any emails we sent and easily worked around our schedule. Instead of taking us to a million places that were out of our budget or didn't meet our needs, she took the time to really scour through the listings and only show us places that had the features, location and price we were looking for. She always listened to what we had to say and never pressured us to make a decision. We honestly would have been happy with any of the apartments she showed us and ultimately the hardest part of the experience was choosing one. In the end we chose a fantastic place that really meets our needs. On the way to see the apartment Jillian said she felt like it would be "the one" for us and she was right. Of course, we spent an hour in the waiting area of the Gateway office before coming to our decision, but Jillian never rushed us and let us take our time. If that had been the extent of our experience with Gateway it would have been more than enough for 5 stars, but Jillian is part broker and part ambassador for Boston. She drove us around the city and pointed out the best restaurants, stores, theaters, etc. She mapped out the travel time from each apartment to BU for us and showed us how to get to the bus or T-stop for each one. When we mentioned that we were going to be looking for jobs she searched Craigslist for listings that fit our experience and emailed them to us. When we said that we planned on visiting downtown Boston the next day she wrote down an itinerary for us that included a list of all of her favorite places to visit. She was friendly, helpful, funny and knowledgeable throughout the entire experience. When it finally came down to signing the lease she met us at the apartment so we could see it one more time before we went back to her office. Boston rentals are expensive, but Gateway breaks it down nicely so you don't have to pay 4 months of rent all at once. We can't wait to move in. There's a reason Gateway is the highest rated Boston-area broker on Yelp - they are everything a good broker should be. I would do more than recommend them, I would say that there is no reason to choose any broker other than Gateway. read more

Truly horrible experience with Christine Hall - she's pushy, dishonest and rude. I never write yelp posts but she is an exemplar of a sleazy broker. She pushed us past our comfort zone multiple times, and lied to try to get extra money. Just go elsewhere, it's not necessary to deal with people like this. read more

Sarah was my broker through a 6 month period where I was looking for apartments with various groups of people, and she was incredibly helpful throughout it all, even when I had to move my search online because of the pandemic. Sarah was very responsive, knowledgable, and was great at finding apartments I would like. I'd definitely recommend her to anyone looking for an apartment in the area, especially groups of students. read more

To preface: I can't speak for the entire company, but if this employee I dealt with is indicative of the overall culture, I caution to avoid or come prepared with a lawyer. My friend and I signed onto a lease back in June (2018) after having been misled by Christine Hall into signing and applying for a unit. She told us that we could legally bring a third roommate on in order to get us to apply, and immediately after she backtracked and said the landlord wanted us to have someone live in the unit off the record. Then, after we had signed (and after she tried blaming us while saying our deposit is non-refundable), she introduced a July deadline to finding the roommate - a time constraint that was never mentioned in any of our prior conversations, not even when we specified we'd likely find someone after several months. If yelp had the option, I'd attach the text message and email records of our conversations. read more

5 Star Reviews almost across the board so far!!?? I'm not surprised. Why? Because Gateway is f*^&$#^$*ing amazing. That's right kids, we're pulling up our big girl pants and not quite spelling out but clearly swearing over here. We have been using Gateway to rent our apartment on Commonwealth Ave in Brighton for a few years now. When we decided to move out and take a job with a live in apartment down the street - the owners of our new building hooked us up with Jillian at Gateway. I kind of had a crush on how amazing she was. Tattoos, classy, yellow Chanel shoulder wallet (still saving up for this bad boy - damn you Jillian!) totally professional yet completely relate-able. Not what I expected and unlike anyone I've ever worked with before. Sadly, for Gateway, but happily for Jillian, she's moved on and up in the world! Fast forward to Patrick at Gateway. Um, can we say he serviced all of my needs and just be adults about it? No.. you can't? Me either. Giggle-fest over here! Seriously. I have rented 3 different tenants with Patrick and he's just so wonderful. I don't have to worry about anything but dropping off a set of keys. His response time is very fast and he has been so helpful to us in adding things like a move-in/move-out checklist, letting us know what our asking rent should be due to the market of the area, and giving advice on updates we should make to our apartment. All 4 times we have rented the space in less than a week. Half of the time, in 24 hours. They also took photos of our empty apartment that make the place look cleaner than I think I could ever get it while living there. I still go onto Zillow from time to time and look at how beautifully they captured our renovated space. (Uh, yea, I bathed in a half complete bathroom - with no shower spout I might add - for 6 months while we renovated. I looked like a crazy tribal woman. I have a deep deep love for our finished product.) Gateway just gets it. They know their market, the know their clients and they give honest and accurate information. I think the real estate market can be full of people with either have their heads so far up their asses it's difficult to make out what they're saying or people who just plainly don't care. Gateway, and they staff I've worked with, are not those people. I would highly, and I mean HIGHLY, recommend them to anyone in need of a good servicing... of real estate. Good luck to you Gateway and keep up the good work! read more

I have to say that I haven't encountered any realty offices in Boston that make me want to give a rave review. I did end up renting through Gateway this year though. The agent that we worked with was Valerie. After searching for months with very specific, but basic requirements (two bedroom apartment with a dishwasher, laundry in the building, close to MBTA, for under 1800/month with the date of Sept. 1) with no results, we found Gateway through Craigslist. In Gateway's favor, they did have a number of nice apartments, and our agent didn't show us anything that didn't meet our standards. As some of you may know, these things are worth mentioning, as many Boston agents will show you things that are out of your price range, have a different move-in date, or completely disregard your requirements. However, not all of the apartments were nice, just not terrible, which is better than what I have experienced with other offices. Aside from this positive factor, our experience with Valerie has been entirely negative. When showing us apartments, she was very aggressive bordering on rude. Also, this was the first agent in my experience that would not let us wander more than three feet from her when viewing the apartments. She repeatedly told us we needed to stay right by her, as if we were criminals. Maybe she has had a bad experience that made her do this, but it was insulting to be treated this way. She also made some contradictory statements, saying that we could negotiate the fee, then later scoffing at our request to do so, telling us that we're undergrads and "lucky to be moving into this place at all." As I have not met my landlord as of yet, that may be true, but her response was very unprofessional. Speaking of professionalism, Valerie was anything but: she was very casually dressed when we first met her, was on her cell phone throughout our appointment, demanding and rude on the phone, and then late for subsequent appointments she set up. From what I can tell, Gateway has some good apartments, others that at least meet basic living standards, but Valerie's presentation and interaction with us made the experience a negative one. read more

I've used Gateway to broker my last 2 apartment rentals, and I've been incredibly pleased on both occasions. The agency itself is conveniently located in Allston on the busy intersection of Harvard Ave and Brighton Ave (easily accessible via the 57 bus, or a short walk from the Harvard Ave T-stop on the B-line). I've used 2 different agents from this place, so I think I've gotten a pretty good feel of how they run their business. HONEST, pleasant, eager to please, and very helpful! Not pushy by any means. No mess, no fuss. They only show you places you'd actually want to see and that meet your needs, as opposed to trying to jam you into any available apt they have to make a buck, which I've seen other agencies in the area attempt. I highly recommend both Will Strong and Jillian Pagliccia (she's awesome! Although I didn't see anything I liked when I initially went out with her, she called me back a month later when she found the PERFECT apartment for my needs - showed me the place that morning and I was signing the lease that afternoon. It's absolutely amazing that any agent would keep a client in mind for that long. Even came along for the Landlord interview.) read more

See below request by my wife to see a 6000$ per month apartment in Boston and response by Iain Smith from Gateway Real Estate Group. This is how true professionalism and service-orientation looks like, right? Hi Iain, I am contacting you regarding the apartment at 20 Sussex st, 1IS. Would you be available today? Best, Carola today is the 4th of July read more

Don't waste your time with this real estate company!! Nick Luongo was terrible and completely unprofessiona and a creep!!! I had only 1 weekend to find and apartment in boston because i was flying out from california. Half of the apartments he took me too we couldn't even get inside the unit because his keys did not work. The apartments he did show me were run down and dirty! I also wanted a place with parking in my price range yet all the places i saw would be over budget with parking. When i asked him about other parts of Boston besides Allston/ Brighton he just said " he would never live in those areas Allston/ Brighton is where I should be." Really? Then later that night after he showed me the dumps he txt me and called me about showing me a "luxury" property the next day! Im pretty sure my idea of luxury is different from his. When I told him the next day I would be unable to look at the 1 other place he was extremely rude! I would recommend boardwalk properties! They were really helpful and found me exactly what i was looking for!! read more

Joe was incredibly great to work with when I needed to find a new apartment. He listened to everything I wanted my new place to have and things that I would not compromise on. He understood exactly what I wanted and needed, which is so refreshing since I've had terrible experiences with other rental agents at other companies. Joe is extremely professional, and I felt very comfortable trusting him to find me a new place. My new apartment is even better than what I expected and below my budget. I was very pleased with how fast and easy everything went with Joe. read more

One of the best agencies. Very thorough, patient, and communicative throughout the entire rental process.

They showed my apartment without closing my room door today, very disrespectful to my private space. And none of the agent replied when I would like to look for an apartment again with them this year. The rental experience with them last year was acceptable, but I would never rent through them again. read more

I had a terrible experience with one of the agents. We setup a showing of an apartment and were extremely interested in the place. We filled out the rental applications and were going to drop off the deposit check the next morning. However, the agent was pressuring us to give her a 30% down payment that night with a credit card to take the place off the market. We decided we didn't want to do this and would wait until the next day. She then sent us an email saying she made a mistake and the apartment was actually $300 more dollars per month. Glad I didn't give her my credit card information that's for sure. read more