Best of Boston Living

Read forty reviews of Best of Boston Living and one phrase keeps repeating: first-time buyers. Over and over, people who had never bought a house describe being walked through it — what an offer looks like, which inspector to call, when to push and when to let one go. That is the through-line of this Middleton team, and it is worth knowing before you call, because it shapes how they work. The team is led by Annelie Sirois, who the company says has been a broker and realtor since 2005, and Manrique Alvarenga, who it says has been licensed since 2014 and also works as a notary, with a stated focus on 203K renovation mortgages and first-time buyers. They represent buyers and sellers across Massachusetts and New Hampshire from an office on South Main Street in Middleton. The selling side has the sharper receipts. A seller writing in August 2025 described being told exactly what to fix first, checked on while the work got done, then staged, listed and put through two back-to-back open houses — two offers inside five days and a sale above asking. Another, in September 2023, said their old house sold in a matter of days for well over asking while they bought their next one with the same agent. On the buying side, a couple relocating from Los Angeles in June 2023 bought sight-unseen on the strength of daily listings and video walkthroughs, and a landlord in November 2022 had a tenant placed inside a week. The team works in more than English: three of the reviews are written in Spanish, one from a July 2025 buyer describing the search for a new home with Manrique. Two things deserve weight against all that. In November 2021 a one-star reviewer, a veteran buying his first home, wrote that he was brushed off and found the agent rude — the exact opposite of what everyone else describes, and old now, but a specific complaint about how someone was treated. A second one-star, from September 2021, tells readers the positive reviews are fake. Nothing corroborates that claim, but it sits in the record. Alongside it, several of the five-star reviews are plainly written by industry colleagues rather than clients — one says outright, in October 2021, that they have never used her personally. For a first purchase or a sale that needs prep work and staging, the evidence here is deep and specific. Ask directly who on the team will handle your transaction, and confirm which brokerage holds the licence before you sign anything.