Ziprent handles leasing, tenant screening, rent collection, maintenance coordination and statutory deposit accounting for Brookline owners — one flat monthly fee per property.
Massachusetts settled the broker-fee question statewide: from 1 August 2025 the party who hires the broker pays the fee. In a town where a Coolidge Corner one-bedroom asks around $2,995 a month, a one-month broker fee is a $2,995 line item that used to land on the applicant and frequently decided whether they could move at all. It now lands on whoever engaged the broker.
For a Brookline owner the practical consequence is that leasing cost is a decision you make rather than one you pass along, and it needs to be priced into the turnover the same way vacancy is. Brookline had its own warrant articles moving on this before the state acted — Article 26 appears in the town document library in versions filed on 12 March and 12 May 2025 — but those are Town Meeting resolutions, statements of position rather than enforceable by-laws, and the state law is what binds.
M.G.L. c.186 §15B is the most punitive security-deposit law, and Brookline is where it bites hardest because the sums are largest. At or before the start of a tenancy you may require only four things: “rent for the first full month of occupancy”; “rent for the last full month of occupancy calculated at the same rate as the first month”; a security deposit not exceeding one month’s rent; and “the purchase and installation cost for a key and lock.” No pet fee, no amenity fee, no cleaning fee. The deposit must go into “a separate, interest-bearing account in a bank, located within the commonwealth,” beyond the claim of creditors, with a receipt to the tenant within 30 days naming the bank, its location, the account number and the amount.
Five percent annual interest is owed on the deposit held a year or more and on last month’s rent — the limb most owners forget. A statement of the condition of the premises must be furnished within ten days of commencement or of receipt of the deposit, whichever is later, with the statutory language in 12-point bold. And §15B(6) forfeits the right to retain any part of the deposit for a paperwork failure alone, with §15B(7) awarding “three times the amount of such security deposit” plus 5% interest, court costs and attorney’s fees. On a $3,695 Brookline unit, that is $11,085 plus fees before anyone argues about a carpet.
| Area | Typical rental stock | What owners ask about there |
|---|---|---|
| Coolidge Corner | Pre-war apartment buildings, condominiums, two- and three-families | Whether the §15B ten-day statement of condition is being served on every unit at turnover |
| Brookline Village | Older multifamily, converted houses, small condominium associations | Green Line D-branch premium and 1 September turnover logistics |
| Washington Square | Brick apartment blocks and converted houses on the C branch | Last month's rent interest — the limb owners most often miss |
| Chestnut Hill | Larger single-family homes and newer condominiums | Longer professional tenancies and whether to price for renewal or turnover |
| Fisher Hill / Pill Hill | Period houses, some divided into flats | Whether an older converted unit triggers a c.239 §8A habitability counterclaim |
| Corey Hill / Cottage Farm | Dense apartment stock and river-side condominiums | Parking, student-cycle turnover and lease-start alignment |
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A live look at how we are doing
2019
Year Founded
4,282
Units Managed
596
Cities Served
9,239
Tenant Placements
189,861
On-Demand Showings
537.4M
Rent Processed
43,438
Repairs Coordinated
60,245
Applications Processed
18
Licensed States
Pricing
We believe in transparent and flat fee pricing. Don’t let other property managers fool you into thinking they need to take a percentage of your income. Keep your money where it belongs, in your pocket.
Tenant Placement
$1500
Due at lease signing and security deposit receipt. No cost to get started!
Paid when we sign a lease. 100% satisfaction guaranteed!
Property Management
$150/month
Per property. No percentage nonsense.
$100 / month standard management for every additional property added.
$1500 for tenant placement if you need it. $250 per lease renewal.
ZipGuarantee
$250/month
Per property. No percentage nonsense.
$100 / month standard management for every additional property added.
Unlimited tenant placement and lease renewals.
Brookline Property Management
Ziprent is an all-in-one customer service platform that helps you balance everything your customers need to be happy.
Our payment processor issues an ACH direct from tenant to landlord, ensuring the fastest transmittance of rent in the industry. We believe in removing delays and barriers.
We provide tenants the ability to submit maintenance requests online. From there, we gather quotes from our network of qualified experts and coordinate the repair as quickly as possible.
Our customer support team is available 24/7 for you or your tenants. Whatever the issue, rest assured it will be handled with great detail and efficiency..
At any point in time, we will refund up to 3 months of property management fees if you are not satisfied with our services.
Class leading tenant placement service with an average time of 12 days to place a qualified tenant.
Coordinating schedules with prospective tenants is a thing of the past! With Ziprent, prospective tenants can select a time that works for them, and we will send them a unique code to open up a lockbox and view the property.
Our extensive partnership with income, credit, and background data providers ensures near-instant verification of tenant qualifications with the industry’s highest confidence level. In addition, our ZipScore tenant scoring system makes it easy for you to vet and approve prospective tenants.
You are in control. Specify custom lease parameters for your property and setting while having our system generate a comprehensive city, county, and state specific lease that protects you and your property. It is as easy as that.
We’ve partnered with over 20 listing sites, such as Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, Zumper, Redfin, and Realtor.com, ensuring that your property receives the highest industry-wide exposure!
Tenants and Owners Love Us
With the reviews to back it up as well 😎
“Extremely well-organized, professional, and efficient!!! […] Ziprent was able to do this with ease and in a very straight-forward way. I believe the best part about this company is how it is structured with several teams handling different aspects of the management (i.e. onboarding, repairs, leasing, etc), which made the whole process seamless. That in addition to also being affordable with flat-rate pricing makes this property management company best-in-class.If you’re looking for a property manager, Ziprent comes highly recommended!”
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Rebekah A.
Yelp
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Zillow
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Trustpilot
Brookline FAQ
You got questions? We've got answers.
Our current average time is 14-21 days but depending on price and location it can be anywhere between 3-20 days in general.
Tenants will submit their request via their online account. Our platform will automatically send out bid requests from our extensive vendor network. We will surface the bid to you for your approval and then coordinate with the vendor and tenant to get the issue resolved.
To date we have done on-demand without any major issues. We carry an additional $50k in liability insurance to cover any damages, beyond your coverage, that may occur. Should a key go missing, we will have the locks rekeyed at our cost.
Depends on the location of the property. But at the very least, it needs to be free of clutter and trash, it needs to have been professionally cleaned or cleaned to that quality. Flooring and paint go a long way in making a rental feel refreshed.
We can usually schedule to come out to take photos, do a walk-through and take keys within 24-48 hours. We prefer to take photos when the property is completely empty and move-in ready and can generally get a listing online within 24-48 hours of taking photos.
IOur property management contract can be used for both tenant placement and property management. Our property management fee is tied together with rent collection, so if we aren’t collecting rent through our platform then we aren’t charging our property management fee.
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