!@#^#$% realtor

[Cookie]

Sooo, bit of background: My husband and I have to move AGAIN even though we found a place we wanted to stay in for a while. We're renting a condo from the owner and he decided to sell since he's about to be upside down on his mortgage. The condo association, in the meantime, ruled that fewer people can rent out their units so the owner can't sell to someone who will rent out, but to someone who will live there, thus, making it so that we HAVE to move. We're trying to go ahead and get the hell out before the place sells so we set the deadline rather than scrambling.

ANYWAY, this means we have the lovely issue of the realtor coming and showing the property. A pain in the arse when it's your own property you want to sell, worse when you're having to scramble and prep when you don't even want to leave. We are trying to be nice about this. Our landlord has been awesome. We understand he has to do this and we don't want to make things difficult for him. However, the realtor pretends to be nice, but at the slightest hint that it might be a bad time for us when she makes a pretense of running the timing for showings by us, she gets super snippy and says things like "You know he really does need to sell this place, right?" FTR, we've never said no to a showing. My husband just didn't say yes right away because he wanted to check with me first.

We just got back from vacating the place so they could show it and found they had left the lights on - which we are always careful not to do. Also, they had not re-locked the deadbolt on our back door leaving only the door knob lock securing the place. First of all, that's not secure in the best circumstances. Second, that knob is very jiggly. It wouldn't even take much effort to get in.

We're super irritated about it and my husband just left the realtor a voicemail detailing exactly why that's not acceptable.

BONUS: We'll be going out to look at several apartments with someone to show us around on Saturday. However, our attempts to look at a few places on our own have not gone well. Either people don't call us back, or the one place we did get to see was haunted. No, I'm not joking. I sensed the presence. Not sure if it's malicious, but didn't stay to find out.

[MoonCat]

Yeah, some realtors are....not so nice. I had an awesome one when I bought my house. My sister had one who was an asshole.

She and her BF-at-the-time were in a 'must sell' situation. The realtor insisted that their pets had to be out of the house during the hours the house was being shown. That's right - there couldn't even be a sign that they had any pets. They had several rabbits. Realtor wanted them to take the bunnies somewhere else for a few hours. Sis was NOT happy. There really wasn't anyplace to take them. No relatives in the area, no friends who could be counted on for something like this, and not enough room at BF's place of work (plus he wasn't keen on the idea). I don't remember what they ended up doing, but I know she was not impressed with this realtor at all.

[PepperElf]

You might also want to let the landlord know this as well. Although you're trying to help him ... if he lets people access the property who then leave it unlocked, who is going to pay for the damages if you get robbed?

He needs to understand that he himself may be VERY liable for that.
Not that you want to make things hard for him but, you do want him to make things hard for the realtor if they don't respect your property.

[FenigDurak]

My parents used to own a mountain home that they finally decided to put on the market. During the winter months, even though it was uninhabited, they left the heat on low to keep the pipes from freezing. Until one helpful realtor showed the house and shut off the heat on their way out. The water froze in the pipes, cracked a few and split the toilet. To say my parents were unimpressed would be an understatement.

[Cookie]

Just got home from the store where I went off to while they showed the place again. Back door was left unbolted again. This is after all of her spluttering apologies and excuses from last time. Last time, her assistant showed it and she blamed him. This time, she showed it herself. No excuses. My husband is calling the landlord as I type this.

[lupo pazzesco]

Honestly? I at that point, would ask where in writing it says you HAVE to vacate while it's being shown. Stay in your home. It IS still yours, until it's sold, or until the landlord tells you to get out. And if the realtor tries to take you aside and asks you to leave, explain to her that you do not feel that your personal property is safe, and this is a precaution to protect HER and HER company, as well as you. After all, she can't be bothered to remember to bolt the door, so YOU can't be bothered to remember when to vacate... Respect and decency goes both ways, after all...

[Cookie]

Yeah, I don't think we want to leave again. Besides, we signed nothing in relation to showing the place. We're trying so hard to be nice about this for our landlord's sake because he's a really great guy. Makes me wonder what else is going on while we're away, though.

[Cookie]

Ok, our easy-going awesome landlord is ANGRY. Also, he's seriously wishing he hadn't signed a 1 year exclusive contract with her for listing and showing this place. If he could, he would fire her right now, but he's stuck. She has been totally two-faced and one way with him and a completely different person with us. He's FLOORED that she's leaving locks undone. He calling her to instruct her to wait on showings until we're moved out. Right now, he doesn't trust her to abide by that. However, the owner of this place is totally on our side.

I didn't really want him to delay showings because I don't want it to hurt him financially. We told him we would just stay for showings, but he's afraid crazy realtor bitch will get more hostile in that case. He said for his own sanity, he just wants to wait on showings. Ever the optimist, he said maybe the people from today will just buy it and it won't be an issue. For his sake, I hope so! That would be really nice!

[dendawg]

Ask the landlord to change the locks and not give the realtor the new key. That'll keep her out.

[PepperElf]

also ... he may have signed a contract with her but ... if she's lying to him then isn't she therefore breaking the contract?

especially if she's leaving the residence unlocked.

[Cookie]

But IANAL, sadly.

Our landlord IS a lawyer and he sees no way out of this right now based on what's in the written contract.

THE GOOD NEWS: We just came home from apartment hunting and found a new place! Applications are submitted!

[Merriweather]

Honestly, it sounds like you've gotten stuck with the same sort of realtor I had the dubious honour of dealing with when my old place was on the market. Oh, and I wouldn't put it past her to show up when you're not at home and let herself in to show the place. That happened once to me - I arrived at home just after the realtor had let herself and the prospective buyers in, and I totally lost it. She had no right to be in there, there was no lock box on my door for her to be able to do that so she had obviously gotten the key from the owner (whom I also had plenty of issues with...another long story, to put it mildly), and that she was NEVER to be in my home unless I was home. When she tried to say that the owner had said it was okay I told her point blank that she was trespassing as I had not given her permission to be in my home, regardless of what the owner had said. And yes, going by the local tenancy act, I was well within my rights to go after them for trespassing.

I had the same problem when a house we rented was on the market. Told the owner we did not agree to anyone in our home (and it was ours, we paid the rent) when we weren't there (I've heard way too many stories of people having small items go missing, and most of our small items are irreplaceable keepsakes). He agreed. Then when we were supposed to be out of town, and had told him that (got stuck an extra day at home due to car trouble) we're sitting in our living room and in walks the realtor with prospective buyers! According to her, the owner had given her the key and told her to let herself in whenever she wanted Don't know if it was true or not, we read her the riot act anyway, said we'd call the cops for trespassing if we ever found anyone had been there when we weren't no matter what the landlord said. Definitely the landlord from hell, I could go on for hours about him. And i still have my doubts about the realtor, though can't prove anything (though seems to me, with a sitting tenant, the realtor should have something in writing from them as well as the landlord, since tenants (at least, in most places) have the right to refuse to have a house shown while they're still there with a lease.