I first moved to Newton 14 years ago and worked with Preservation Properties to find my first apartment here. I worked with Heather (absolutely awesome person). Stayed at that apartment for 8 years before the owner had other plans for the place and I needed to move. I then worked with Amy (another absolutely awesome person) at Preservation and found my current apartment in Newton and have been here for 6 years before deciding I needed a change. Contacted Preservation and worked with Heather again and found a great apartment. All three of my experiences partnering with Preservation Properties have been great and I couldn't be more happy. Preservation really takes the time to talk to you and listen to you...all for the goal of finding you a place that is the best/right fit. Let's be honest...moving is always stressful and the folks I've worked with had a real impact toward reducing that stress. You won't be working with some cold massive real estate corporation that only cares about getting your $$$. In my personal experience, you'll be working with folks who care. I wholeheartedly recommend Preservation Properties and will partner with them again without hesitation. I appreciate all that they've done for me. read more

I had the pleasure of working with Amy Kaplan at Preservation Properties to secure a new apartment for me and my family of 4. We were in the midst of a power struggle with our current landlord over lead, and she was super accommodating and understanding about our situation. I'd recommend her to anybody looking for an apartment in the area. read more

Just rented my third apartment through Preservation Properties and couldn't be happier with their service, employees, and company, altogether. After searching for months through various companies, websites, etc., they stood out as they made a stressful process easy. Enjoyable, even. Dmytro and Heather couldn't have been kinder or more helpful. Additionally, the apartments they manage tend to be some of the most beautiful I've come across in this area. I'm happy to be working with them, again, and look forward to contacting them in the future, if ever I have more real estate needs. Thank you! read more

My boyfriend and I had an excellent experience working with Amol at Preservation Properties. We went to see an apartment that ended up being too small for us but with some info on what we were looking for, Amol showed us the perfect place. We submitted our applicant information on a Sunday afternoon after seeing the place and Amol contacted, the landlord, completed the application process, and got back to us on Monday afternoon. We met the landlord at Preservation's office and signed the lease by mid-week. The process was FAST, easy, and enjoyable. Amol was sincere, transparent, and reliable. I would recommend Amol and Preservation Properties to anyone. read more

Ed and his team worked very hard to sell my house. It was a multifamily on a busy street so not one of these properties that sells in a day. He held six open houses over three weekends! I would highly recommend them. read more

Don't even bother. These clowns do the bare minimum, and sometimes not even that. In the process of renting my apartment, the realtor gave me the wrong address and made it massively inconvenient to get my keys. All of this after making me pay an insane fee for their "services." Go elsewhere. read more

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 1st 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 1st 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 1st to look so we made an appointment to look at some places for September 2nd and she asked me to email her closer to the 1st so we can touch base again. I emailed her again on the 1st, 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 1st due to the large amount of moving traffic. She finally breaks down and lets me keep my appointment on the 2nd 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 2nd, 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 1st." 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. read more

This company clearly works for the landlord and is not concerned w/ the renters' best interest. I get that the property owners are paying the broker fee, but that doesn't excuse you from ethical & unlawful behavior. Moved to Boston out-of-state and answered a Craigslist ad for a single family residence listed by Preservation Properties at $3,500/month. The agent said it was recently renovated by a local real estate investment flipper that they represented on many of his flipped properties. It was the end of the day & 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 a 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. 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 Yelp reviews, you don't have to fake them. read more

Fantastic experience! I'm relocating a large family with a dog to the Boston area and finding a dog-friendly, short term rental was no small feat. I left a message and heard back from an agent the next day. Galina was amazing. I had a signed lease in hand within 2 days. When she realized the urgency of finding a home to land in, she started to hustle us, the owner, we got a facetime tour with her immediately. She communicated promptly and clearly throughout the process and never missed a beat. Can't recommend them highly enough - extremely impressed. read more

I worked with Amol Malhi to find a 2 bedroom in Newton. He was by far, the most professional, patient and proactive agent I have ever worked with. He took time to listen to what I was looking for in a unit and always went above and beyond to get me into see things as soon as they came on the market. Also, he is just a kind and professional agent and never pushy. He had my best interests at heart so I highly recommend using him if you need to find a place- A+++ service read more

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. read more

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. read more

Ed Lyons is top notch. I would highly recommend him. He is very responsive, honest and extremely knowledgeable about the Newton real estate market. Ed has also put together a great team at preservation properties, you will be glad you used them. I have used Ed for buying a house and also rentals. read more

Worked with a realtor named Amol to secure my first apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was very, very, responsive and humane to both me and the landlord's needs during these crazy times. He was the perfect amount of compassionate yet professional and assertive. I'm sure he advocated for both sides (me and the landlord) to make sure our needs were met! He made a stressful process during a stressful time incredibly easy and smooth. I would recommend him to anyone looking to quickly secure an awesome apartment. read more

Several reviews said that this company works for the landlord. As a landlord, I don't think they work for the landlords, either. Rather, they work for themselves. Their interest goes as far as to the point of collecting fees and seems to compromise to get that point. I had several problems with this company in the past several years during application process as well as tenants they brought. That involves not providing deposit check for several days after signing the lease which I resolved by locating the prospective tenants myself to find out where things are. And instead of honest disclosure of the fact that they received the fee and the check would be mailed several days after by the tenants, Ed tortured me by leading me as if the deal was likely off only days before the occupancy, accepting application with pet for no pet apartment, and so on. This time Dimytri chose to make a verbal claims of unsubstantiated financial status instead of presenting income verification documents. Then only after my request, he sent an obscure financial statement of a significant size. So I texted Dimytri the required list of legitimate financial documents. Instead of sending them, Ed called me and asked if I was HAPPY with the applicants for which I was really annoyed. How could any landlord be happy with unsubstantiated claim of financial status? I told him that review has not started until the arrival of the legitimate doc and HAPPY was out of place.. He apparently sizing me up to find out if he could get by without providing financial documents. Only then some of the required doc came and none showed enough asset. Dimytri then even sent unsigned financial transaction document. He kept on saying it was being signed for days. Then without sending the signed the transaction, he wanted know if I would accept them, and texted me that the applicants were withdrawing for which I had no intention of stopping. Next day, he called me if I would accept them. I told him that I could not since I received no evidence of income and he never fulfilled the requirement of sending signed the document. He asked if I would accept them if he sends the document. Dimytri used this line so many times. I have to receive documents to assess but he demanded promise before sending each doc of insufficient income. That night Dimytri tried me again by sending only the last page of doc for which I did not respond. As I did not fall for it, he, several hours later, sent the remainder of the doc, EXCEPT the first page that would contain actual financial figures and proof of transaction. I was terribly annoyed by his dragging for a week while presenting no evidence of income. Then He texted me if I don't want them just say so. So I text him that I reject them. Dimytri then sent me a nasty long email accusing me of dragging the process and claiming the applicants lost time looking for another apartment and how I owe them explanation. The dragging over a week was his game plan not mine. Dimytri obviously got upset that he missed the fees close to 4k because I did not fall into his scheme. Landlords, be ware of Dimytri , Ed. and Preservatrion Property. read more

I'm happy that someone had a good experience with them. I found them really hard to deal with and very uppity. My husband and I were relocating here to Boston from Chicago and we wanted to rent for a year and then buy a house in Newton. We found Preservation b/c we were driving by and stopped in. Moving in all forms in stressful and they just added to our stress. We felt they were unprofessional in both the office and when they were showing us properties. Most of all the properties were not in great shape and our price range was in upper range fortunately. I have bought a house before and I expected more from the agency especially in being friendly and listening to what we were looking for. They did neither. Another interesting fact is that they promote themselves as a "green" company, but I'm not sure what that means for them. They don't recycle, they don't use recycled paper and when we asked them questions about enviromentally friendly listings they had no clue what that meant. I guess I was disturbed by this complete misrepresentation of the facts b/c a good friend is very involved in that industry. Another friend told us about LBK Realty in Newton and thankfully was an excellent experience. Their properties were wonderful and we bought a house with their help 15 months later. read more

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! read more

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. read more

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! read more

I'm a property manager and work closely with PP to get our apartments rented. thanks Ed!

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. My review is based on our disgusting short experience. In retrospect, the realtor was a complete fraud. I don't know what they teach them at Preservation Properties but it's not how I learned to work and it's NOT an honest business. read more

I went to these people and I guess it all depends on what agent you go out with because in the past I had had a good experience when I got a 1 BR a few years ago. This time the agent I had was disorganized and didn't seem to know the area. I went to their competitors at Centre Realty Group also in Newton and the agent there seemed to know exactly what I was looking for! She took me to only a few apartments before showing me an absolute steal of a place! It was a big 2BR in West Newton for $1150....my roommate who is a friend from NY and new to the area couldn't believe what a deal it was in comparison to what she also was finding on line. I was especially happy it had a fenced in yard for my dog and it was a lot cheaper and nicer than anything else we saw! read more

I had a really lovely experience with Preservation Properties. I contacted Debra Finn about a rental property in Waltham. She spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with me discussing the details of the listing. I had been apartment searching for a while, so I was used to brokers rushing you off the phone, and acting like they couldn't spare the time for you. Debra set up a viewing for me the next day. I loved the place and submitted an application. I was worried about my chances because I have a cat and a dog. I have amazing credit and references, but I feel like I get passed over because of my animals. Debra was a great advocate for me with the landlord, and later that evening she called me to say I was approved! She sent me all the paperwork electronically and the lease was signed Monday afternoon. Really a pain free, smooth experience. Thank you so much Debra and Preservation Properties for making this all possible. I am so thrilled to move into my new apartment. read more

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. read more

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! read more

I contacted Preservation Properties about a listing. Jennifer Crook got back to me promptly with a list of questions. We already knew the listing we wanted to see and asked 3 days prior to view. The email read exactly "I will pencil you in Tuesday for 11am" however when Tuesday came I was told I had not given enough time to view the apartment. At this point myself and my 2 roommates requested time off from work to do this. She responded with the fact she would have had to give 24 hours notice to view, I copied and pasted the email showing she had in fact said she would pencil me in Tuesday. After she informed me I should work with another broker. Thanks for the wasted time and day of work. read more

I called on a few of their listings last week. I was asked a million questions by the agent on the phone. Each property I inquired about was either rented or I was told it wasn't right for me. I told them that they should not advertise all of these listings that are rented or bad. They asked me if I wanted to come in anyway and see some nice properties that they had. When I asked for details and pictures on them, they said they didn't have time to send them and that if I didn't act quickly they'd be gone anyway. I have done sales before so I know a gimmick when I see it! I asked to speak to the manager (Ed Lyon) and was told he was on the phone. I left my number and asked him to call me back. I never heard from him (of course!). Bottom line, this firm is a waste of time. They don't have any good listings and they are rude to deal with. read more

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 read more

We had a difficult experience with this place. The office manager was wonderful as was one of the other agents. However, the agent we mostly dealt with was very insulting and treated us as if we were morons. They clearly deal with a lot of students. read more

I was looking for a rental in the greater Boston area after moving from out of state. I responded to an ad for a Preservation Properties rental. The agent who replied to me, Masha Senderovich, was incredibly helpful, always responded quickly, and suggested multiple additional options for me. I ended up finding a property in another part of the metro Boston area, but I would definitely recommend Masha and Preservation Properties for anyone who's looking in Newton and surrounding areas. read more

My husband and I have just closed on a home that was found by Heather Mandeville with Preservation Properties. We had been on the home search for about a year. We interviewed a few realtors, but none even came close to displaying the level of professionalism and attention to detail Heather was able to provide. Heather was always able to answer our process-oriented questions (and we had a lot of them), and clearly had the industry experience we needed in a realtor. Even when we told her we were going to take a break from the house hunt as it had become exhausting to us (first time home-buying trepidation), she said that she would continue to try and find us the perfect place so that we could rest easy knowing someone having our best interest in mind at all times. Talk about customer service. If we had to do this all over again, we wouldn't change a thing about our experience with PP and Heather. We are so happy to have met her and will be referring everyone we know to PP for their home buying needs. Heather is the absolute best! read more