Rude real estate agents

Judy · Apr 12, 2007 10:14 am

It is unfortunate that you had a bad experience with this agent. There are a few people in every industry that behave this way . Not just real estate. There are plenty of people in the general public that are also very rude. That's just life I guess. I had the exact opposite experience. I sold my home through caulfieldrealestate.com.au and the agent Louis Rosenblum was extremely helpful and pleasant not only to me ,but also to my prospective buyers. I had to stay home once for a short time during one of the opens and I was very impressed by his courtesy and enthusiasm. One of the people coming to the inspection was a real blunt smarty pants,but Louis wasn't phased at all and was very diplomatic. He explained later that some people do this deliberately so as to get the house cheaper. Being the experienced agent that he was, he knew exactly what they were up to. He was just fabulous. He got a great result with a minimum of fuss and lower costs. I would recommend him to anyone. I also used to be skeptical about agents,but Louis sure restored my faith. Some agents may be rude. MOST are not.

Cabinfever · Apr 12, 2007 10:31 am

I've had a lot of experience with real estate agents and I can state with absolute certainly that the VAST majority of real estate agents regard, and treat, renters as SCUM. Renters are mere peasants to be shunted and pushed and squeezed in anyway that happens to suit the owners and agents' money imperatives.

And this goes no matter how much or little you pay. I was treated shockingly badly when paying $750 / week (and this was quite a few years ago).

I was turfed out of my apartment in Sydney two weeks before the Olympics; had agents in Brisbane raise the rent by $100 a week (while refusing to fix the airconditioning); and was rented a place which two weeks later was put up for sale. I've also seen some very corrupt deals done among agents and their mates - especially on deceased estates.

Individually most agents are warm, personable and reasonable people. But the commercial attitude to renters is appalling.

newhomebuilder · Apr 12, 2007 11:35 am

With a number of investment property's, (I am seeing people talk about real estate agents in relation to rental property's- the agents who deal with this are commonly referred to as property/ asset or portfolio mangers, not real estate agents- these are the people who actually sell homes) I can provide a little bit of inside information from an owners perspective.

When we brought our first investment property we were very open and accommodating towards tenants. If they wanted air conditioning we would gladly install it for them.

We now have a block of flats, and a cumber houses available for rent and have seen what some tenants can be like.

One house had over 20 cats in the house- without my consent and before I had anything to do about it, everything in the house from carpet to curtains to the walls had to be replaced. They would not leave, as they claimed to have no-where else to go. I was not going to give these people walk over us, I got a VCAT order, the police came and they were removed.

Had someone decide it was okay to have a dog in a 2 bedroom unit, gave them 14 days to find a new house

Went to mow the lawn on a house because they failed to maintain it, they came out of the house yelled at me, and said get off my property (I was very angry that they dare say that to me!!! Lol) so I got in the car, got out my brief case and gave them a notice to vacate within 60 days.

I now don't tolerate anything from tenants and am probably a landlord from hell! Oh well!

mattwalker · Apr 12, 2007 12:03 pm

We have a large portfolio of properties and most of the tenants are great except this one.

We had an inspection a few weeks ago and at this house and this 2story 40+ square nearly new home in a nice neighbourhood was trashed.

Doors kicked in, burnouts out the front, holes in walls for speakers, litter and rubbish everywhere, a dog that wasn't allowed, gardens not maintained, smokeburns in the new carpet (6 months old) Smashed cars dumped out the front, I could go on.

The rent on this place is nearly $1600 per month so its not cheap.

We are not allowed to remove this tenant as they pay their rent (albeit late) every month.

Most of our portfolio is in inner melbourne and this is one of the few thats not. Once this tenacy is up I think we might have to ditch this one.

Matt

newhomebuilder · Apr 12, 2007 1:09 pm

Hi Matt,

The tenants paying rent on time is irrelevant to serve them a notice to vacate if they are damaging your house. From what you have told us here you have grounds to be able to serve a notice to vacate today or at a later date for;

243(1)–damage
you or your visitor have (by act or omission) maliciously
caused damage to the premises or common areas.

I notice they are also paying their rent late as well, a breach notice can be served and if they keep it up they can be evicted regardless of when the tenancy ends.

If this was a situation I would be posting a Notice to Vacate via registered mail giving them 10 days to leave.

Best of luck .

mattwalker · Apr 12, 2007 1:43 pm

You would think so wouldn't you.

Not so easy.

We have to serve them with a notice to fix the damage and then if they don't then we can serve them with a notice to attend the tribunial.

They have been late consistently with rent and last month we applied to the tribunial and has to adjuorn it as they paid that month. We lodged again this month as they still havent paid (2 weeks overdue.)

The law is on the renters side unfortunatley...

Matt

newhomebuilder · Apr 12, 2007 2:13 pm

Wow, I didn't have to go via that channel.

I guess you could give them 90 days to move out- you need a reason to evict them this way!

Cabinfever · Apr 12, 2007 5:47 pm

The trouble is that the laws you'd like to apply to move out genuine trouble-makers, is also the law that owners will use to get rid of good tenants just because it may suit some new plan of the owner to have them vacate.

Also, in the case where the owner appears with a mower, the tenant *does* have a right to tell you to go ! It's written into every state tenancy law that I've seen. The tenant is paying good money for the right to live (relatively) undisturbed in the house. The owner, or anyone else, has no right to just appear and do something which they think might need to be done.

If you wanted entry you need to give at least 48 hours written notice - that's the average period across most states I've lived in. Lucky you weren't pulled up on that one !

Danois · Aug 29, 2012 9:11 pm

I only have one experience with an Australian (Sydney) real estate agent (being in Denmark and all), and it was a good experience. So good in fact, I made plans to come down and view the property. In the last minute, however, I realised it would be difficult for a foreigner to buy a, let's call it "already used" property with the visa I can get, without having to apply for various exemptions. I apologised profusely, but she was very nice about it.

Needless to say, that was one of the reasons I was pushed towards building myself down there. Apparently, it's not a problem to "develop" land or building, but buying an already built home which has been lived in before, and you run into a world of applications for exemptions to the rules.

Real estate agents here aren't much different from down there from what you guys are writing, so I feel with you.

travelbug · Sep 02, 2012 9:54 am

Juzzy73

SORRY I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH YOU - I think it is totally rude of you to go through someones private home if you have no intention of buying it.

Good on the real estate agent for putting you in your place.

How arrogant you are to think it is your right to go through someones home for "ideas" just because it is an open house. THE OPEN HOUSE MEANS IT"S OPEN FOR POTENTIAL BUYERS!!Not nosey people!!

When I sell my home I never have an "open house" - Sadly this is because nosey neighbours such as yourself feel it is their opportunity to look through your house.

haha!! Are you going to screen who you let look at it too? Don't let people with trackpants in!!!
Good luck with that.

We renovate and often look at renovated houses to see what they've done. We look at LOTS of houses in our area as that's the only way to "know" your market to know what price is a bargain to buy in order to renovate for profit.
Sometimes a house we think we are not interested in (but just stivky beaking) turns out to be something else. We actually ended up buying a house because of this.

It's called OPEN HOME" not "open to buyers only home".

Helyn · Sep 02, 2012 2:31 pm

Umm, this is a very old thread - juzzy73 posted 2 posts back in 2006, unlikely he/she will be reading your reply now.

However I do agree with you - I often go to open house inspections, and I say upfront to the agent I like looking at houses, Im just having a sticky beak, have never had anything but politeness in response to this.

Sellers dont have to have open inspections, - if they do, they have to accept that not everyone who comes through will be a potential buyer. Just like not everyone browsing in a shop intends to buy something.
If you are really uncomfortable with having an open inspection when you are selling - dont have one.
Simple