Luna Realty · Waltham & Greater Boston
Property management, run out of Waltham
Owning a rental is supposed to be income, not a second job. We take the operating side — rent, maintenance, inspections, renewals, reporting — and leave you with the part you actually wanted, which is the return.
Two different services, and most owners only need one at a time
Tenant placement
A one-time job: market the unit, screen applicants, sign a lease, hand you the keys and the file. Right if you are happy managing day to day and just want the vacancy filled properly.
Leasing & tenant placement →Property management
An ongoing relationship: everything above, plus we keep running the property afterwards. Right if you are out of state, short on time, or have reached the number of units where the phone calls have become the problem.
You are on this pagePlenty of owners start with placement and move to management when they buy a second unit. That is usually the point where the arithmetic changes.
What management actually covers
Rent collection and owner payout
Rent is collected on a fixed schedule and paid out to you on a fixed schedule, so the money is predictable rather than something you chase. Late rent is followed up the day it is late, not at the end of the month when it has already become a habit.
Maintenance coordination
Tenants report issues to us, not to you. We triage what is urgent versus what can wait for the next scheduled visit, dispatch a trade, and stay on it until the work is signed off. You hear about the outcome and the cost, not about every step.
Periodic inspections
Condition is checked on a schedule and documented, so a small problem — a slow leak, a failing seal, a tenant quietly keeping a pet — is caught while it is still small and still cheap. Most expensive repairs in a rental were inexpensive repairs a year earlier.
Tenant relations
Renewals, notices, disputes, and the day-to-day questions all come to us. That matters more than it sounds: the single biggest driver of return in a small portfolio is not rent level, it is whether good tenants renew instead of turning over.
Owner reporting
A clear statement of what came in, what went out, and why — in a form your accountant can use at tax time without reconstructing the year from a shoebox.
Compliance and paperwork
Massachusetts is strict about the mechanics of tenancy, particularly security deposits, and the penalties for getting it wrong are not proportional to the mistake. We handle the lease, the notices, and the deposit handling to the letter.
Why Waltham and MetroWest specifically
The office is at 481 Main St, Waltham, MA 02451. That is not a detail for the footer — in management it is most of the service. When a tenant reports water coming through a ceiling, the useful question is not who has the better software, it is who can be standing in the unit this afternoon. Waltham, Watertown, Belmont, Newton, Weston and Lexington are all a short drive from the desk.
Waltham is also a particular kind of rental market: a large student and graduate population from Bentley and Brandeis, a steady professional tenancy along the 128 corridor, and a lot of two- and three-family houses owned by people who live in one unit or used to. Those are different tenancies with different renewal rhythms, and pricing a Moody Street two-bedroom like a Warrendale single-family is how owners leave money on the table in both directions.
We manage across Greater Boston as well — Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Boston proper — but Waltham and MetroWest are home, and it shows in response time.
Questions worth asking any management company
Including us. A firm that gets uncomfortable with these is telling you something.
Who actually answers when a tenant calls at 9pm?
Ask specifically whether it is a person at the firm or an answering service that takes a message. The answer tells you what your Saturday looks like.
How are maintenance costs marked up?
Some firms bill the trade at cost; others add a coordination margin. Neither is wrong, but you should know which before you sign, because it changes the real cost of the service.
Is the management fee charged on rent collected, or rent due?
On collected rent, the firm only gets paid when you do — the incentives line up. On rent due, they are paid whether the unit performs or not.
Who holds the security deposit, and where?
Massachusetts has specific requirements about deposit handling. A firm that cannot answer this crisply is a firm that has not read the statute recently.
What does it cost to leave?
Notice periods and exit fees are where management agreements differ most. Read that clause before the ones about service levels.
Do they also lease, or only manage?
If placement and management sit with different firms, a vacancy becomes a hand-off. If they sit with one, the same people who screened your tenant are the ones living with that decision.
Who you’ll be dealing with
Joshua Stone, Broker / Owner of Luna Realty. Massachusetts real estate license 9585297-RE-B, Florida real estate license SL3596702. A broker-owner is licensed at the broker level and carries responsibility for the brokerage itself, which in management terms means the person deciding how your property is run is the same person answerable for it.
More about Joshua →Property management FAQ
What does property management cost?
Management is quoted per property rather than off a rate card, because a single condo with one tenant and a twelve-unit building with common areas and a boiler are not the same job. Call (720) 810-0005 with the address, unit count, and current rent, and we will quote it plainly.
How is this different from your $499 rental listing?
The flat $499 listing is placement only — we market the unit, screen applicants, and get a lease signed, and then you take it from there. Property management is the ongoing relationship after that: rent, maintenance, inspections, renewals, and reporting for as long as you own the property. Plenty of owners start with placement and move to management once they own a second unit.
Do you manage single condos, or only larger buildings?
Both. A single condo owned by someone who has moved out of state is a common case, and so is a small multi-family where the owner lives in one unit. The service is the same; the scope and the quote differ.
What areas do you manage in?
Waltham and MetroWest first — the office is on Main Street in Waltham, so those are the properties we can be standing in front of quickly. We also manage across Greater Boston, including Watertown, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston proper.
Do I still choose the tenant?
Yes, if you want to. Some owners want to approve every application; others want to see the screening file and let us make the call. Both work, as long as it is agreed up front and applied consistently — inconsistent standards are a fair-housing problem, not just an admin one.
What happens if a tenant stops paying?
We follow up immediately, document everything from the first missed day, and walk you through the options. Massachusetts has a specific legal process for non-payment with strict notice requirements, and the documentation you build in the first two weeks determines how that process goes.
Who is responsible for the property manager?
Luna Realty is a licensed Massachusetts brokerage and Joshua Stone, Broker / Owner, is the broker of record (Massachusetts 9585297-RE-B, Florida SL3596702). You deal with the broker-owner directly rather than with an account manager who escalates to someone you never meet.
Tell us about the property
Address, unit count, and what the rent is now. That is enough for a real quote rather than a range.