The Joys of Renting
This morning I was up nice and early to go to an open house. Phill and I currently rent a townhouse and we’ve simply grown out of it – we need a house again. I’d prefer to move before Christmas so, while I hate the whole process of finding, getting approved for and moving into a new house, I’m getting started on it right away in the hopes of moving soon. Hence why I was sitting outside a really nice house this morning, five minutes before the open house was due to start, because I know turning up early means you might get a chance to meet the real estate agent and make a good first impression.
Hey, I’ve done this a lot.
I also like being able to “suss out the competition”. I can tell pretty much straight away whether we stand a chance or not depending on the other people who turn up. There were three other cars – two of which knew each other, so I could count them as one. There was an older couple and a heavily pregnant woman with a small child who was there with her mother. Damn. The house almost always goes to a family over a childless young couple.
We sat and waited for fifteen minutes, the duration of the open house. No real estate agent turned up.
At 10am the open house officially ended and, since the house was tenanted, we knew we wouldn’t be allowed in. We’d hung around hoping the agent was simply running late (which happens often) but this was becoming more unlikely now that 10am had passed. The older couple drove off, leaving the pregnant woman, her mother and I still waiting. I didn’t want to leave before them but I knew this was ridiculous. The sun was hot and sitting in the car with the window down wasn’t very comfortable.
One of the ladies took out a mobile phone and called the real estate agent. After a couple seconds she hung up and called out to me. “There’s no inspection, it’s been cancelled. Apparently the tenant is sick and there’s already some applications on the house, so there’s no point.”
I was gobsmacked. Sure, they wouldn’t have known our phone numbers in order to call us and tell us it had been cancelled, but the open house time had only been put on their website last night – how on earth would there be applications between last night and this morning, since you have to view a house before an application will be accepted? Couldn’t they have asked the tenant to put a “Open House Cancelled” on their letterbox or something? We sat around for about twenty minutes in the hot sun waiting for an agent who wasn’t going to turn up.
What a waste of a morning.
The thing that really bugs me about this is that the last two routine inspections at my house have resulted in the real estate agent not turning up. I have to tidy up the house and rearrange my schedule in order to be home for their inspections and it really shits me when they simply don’t turn up, especially since they have my home phone, my mobile phone and my email details and they didn’t even contact me. One day we will buy a house and rest assured, we are creating a list of real estate companies we won’t be touching with a barge pole – do they forget that young renters may wish to purchase a house in the future and will remember their bad treatment?
I’ve got another open house booked in for tomorrow at 11am – fingers crossed the agent turns up!
What a pain! Well, good luck with the next one Katie!
….Salihan´s last post ..Juggling Pears {+ Groovy Buttons}
We live in cardboard boxes! (Good luck finding just the right place.)
….9´s last post ..HE’S BAAAAACK……
When I called the agent to ask about the house we’re in now (first inspection, first application ever, and we got it – I’m assuming it’s not usually that easy!) I got this response: “There’s an inspection at 10am, just turn up and the tenant will walk you through.” The agent didn’t even plan on going! The previous tenant had to deal with people traipsing through the house, walking dead grass into the carpet she was trying to clean.
Luckily for us, although we have a 3 bedroom house, it is a small house, and it was obvious that the families who came to inspect it that day weren’t happy about the size of it. But it’s perfect for us!
I hope you have better luck tomorrow and soon you’ll be stretching out in a bigger place!
….Kelly´s last post ..Yay, it’s Friday! Four more to go!
Salihan – Thanks! Fingers crossed!
9 – Cardboard boxes sound awesome because you can chew them too, so renovating is easy!
Kelly – Sounds like you had a good experience – usually they’re not that easy to work with! Our first rental house was easy, as was this one, but it depends on the company you’re applying to, some can be terrible.
Oh, man, that really stinks. I hope you have lots better luck tomorrow. I don’t get why these real estate agents think they can treat people like dirt and still get customers. For sure, make out that list of rotten agents and keep it handy.
….Karen Jo´s last post ..Patches
Karen Jo – It’s because we’re renters and they don’t get a commission from a “sale”, so we’re not as important. Bleh. If we wanted to buy a house, they’d be all over us like a nasty rash!
Good luck with the house! My humans and I just moved into our new house 2 weeks ago. Phew! I am glad that is over. I hope you get to say Phew! I am glad that is over too!
….kitikata-san´s last post ..What it was like for Puddy
oh renting sucks.
We are back on the treadmill, and will probably be there forever.
For us (older professional couple with older children, we are a landlords dream) the worst part is getting stuff fixed. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just do it ourselves.
Kitikata-san – I’m glad you have moved into your new house – that must be a very exciting feeling! Well, not the “moving” part, but the living in the new house part!
Kelley – Tell me about it! It took us 10 months to get our ensuite shower fixed (in which time we couldn’t use it and it was a main feature of the house) and it’s taken well over two years to get the water damage fixed in the ensuite that only got bad because they didn’t get right onto fixing the sealing on the roof that was causing it! Ridiculous!