Stars are arbitrary. Here are the facts regarding 14 Peverell st and 230 Boston st.
There are three actual bedrooms upstairs. There’s a bathroom upstairs. There’s a bathroom downstairs. There’s a teeny, tiny space upstairs that they put a twin bed in and are calling it a “bedroom”. There is a parlor downstairs that they shoved a bed in and are also calling it a “bedroom”. This parlor “bedroom” has no closet (we were told it did before booking) and a door that doesn’t close because it’s broken. So total, they are selling five rooms as bedrooms. Each room except the twin bedroom, I’m assuming, can have up to two people in it. That’s 9 people. 9. In one house.
At one point my boyfriend and I were living with five other people, sharing one kitchen. These five people had animals that would frequently poop on the carpet. One of these individuals was verbally aggressive and had angry outbursts towards us. We were terrified to be around him. There are no locks on any of the bedroom doors. My Boyfriend went out of town for two weeks and I was absolutely miserable. I told Lance that he needed to install a lock on my bedroom. He did order 2 items as a temporary solution, but no lock was ever installed. He said, “it’s never been an issue before.”
There were repairs that were needed all over the house: the washer didn’t work, so no laundry, the burners on the stove didn’t work, the blinds were broken, etc.
There are MASSIVE LEAD HAZARDS. People came in to install window AC units, and they were just scraping away at the lead paint on the window sills (we know it was leaded because we tested several areas). Lead paint chips fell all over the yard.
Last but not least, one of the housemates died in his bedroom from a drug overdose. My boyfriend watched the body being removed.
We left 14 Peverell st crying and traumatized.
Lance’s solution: put us in 230 Boston St.
230 Boston st is a multi family building. Each floor it’s own unit. Ours was on the 1st floor. Very small unit with 2 actual bedrooms, one tiny kitchen, and one very tiny bathroom. And guess what? Yep, they shoved a bed in the dining room and called it a “bedroom.” So once again, up to six people living in a tiny, one family unit. We paid $1600 for our room. We lived with 3 other adults. They were messy. Always left the kitchen a disaster, would leave standing water with hair in it in the bathroom, left the windows opened when it rained, and left the burners on the stove going. It was a nightmare. I was so angry living at 230 Boston St.
Lots of lessons learned thanks to Lance, that’s for sure.