Real Estate Agents are NOT your friends

I just recently moved.  My experience of Real Estate agents in the past year has lead to me to a cold, hard realisation.  Real Estate agents are NOT your friends.  They might have little girls cuddling teddy bears on their advertisements but don’t be fooled fellas.  Whether your child has a roof over their head is not exactly their highest priority.

Let me pre-empt this by telling you I am a renter.  I am one of the “good tenants”.  I pay my rent on time without fail.  I do most of my own repairs and I keep the place like it’s my own.  I don’t have noisy parties.  I don’t hang washing over the balcony.  I observe the recycling signs in the garbage area.  I park my car exactly where I’m told.  I am extremely co-operative when it comes time to inspect the property.  I smile and say hello to my neighbours.  I am not a serial mover.  I want to be settled and stay in one place.  Give me a 5 year lease and I will sign it happily.  So, if you watch A Current Affair or Today Tonight, I guess you would think I was one of the rare breed of “good tenants”.

So how am I rewarded for this?

Well let me tell you about my last place of residence being sold.  It began with assurances from the real estate agent who was slick and super friendly and had the firmest handshake I have ever experienced.

“Don’t worry; we can see what a great tenant you are.  We do 75% of the rentals in this area.  We’ll make sure you guys are ok.  We’ll find you somewhere before it even gets advertised! Now, is it ok if we show people through 5 times a week?”

Once you get an assurance like this from a real estate agent in this current rental climate, you feel so much better.  Of course you think, well, I’ll just show him what a good tenant I am! I’ll let him lead an endless trail of people through my place, morning, noon and night.  When he leaves the back door wide open after every inspection you think, better not complain, don’t want to rock the boat!  After all, he has given you a wink and a nod! He’ll look after you. He is your friend.  I almost expect he will arrive with a giant Mr Hooker teddy bear for my daughter next time he sees us!

No such luck.  He couldn’t sell the place and once he no longer had the property under contract he had no interest in us good tenant or not.  Being naive, I called him to let him know we were looking now for a place to live.  His response after I explained who I was (Shucks! I thought we were friends!)... “Yeah, nah there isn’t much around at the moment. Why don’t you look in the local paper or on the internet?” Such valuable advice.  Thanks Ken.

Then we met the next agent.  This guy seemed to be a younger version of the first guy, slick, friendly, firm handshake and so grateful for the access and the fact that I kept the place spotless.  I got the same “Oh don’t worry, if you have to move we’ll look after you! You are obviously a great tenant!”  It certainly helped that I kept the place spotless when he would ring me at 4pm to say he had someone who wanted to see the place at 5pm that day.  Inconvenient? Noooo. That’s totally fine.  My daughter can do her homework in the backseat of our car while you traipse through the house for the third time this week with people who will walk mud through my place, sticky beak in my cupboards and even use the loo and not flush.  True story.

Anyway, in the end the house sold and we were informed we had to move.  Then I joined the throng of poor Sydney renters looking for a place to live.  Rocking up to open houses only to find that the photos on the internet were doctored up to make places look bigger, cleaner and brighter was a demoralising experience.  Competing with other applicants to pay $500 plus a week to live in a tiny, dark hole was even more demoralising.  Ringing agents and never getting a call back and applying for properties and then getting jerked around for a week before being told you missed out was par for the course for me for a while.

It became apparent to me that real estate agents treat most renters with contempt.  It was humbling to stand in the street waiting to see a place you suspected was already way overpriced with 20 other groups of people, all jostling and pushing to get in first., then to stand back and watch when people actually bid more than the advertised price while you are standing there filling out your application.

And then it happened.  I found the place I knew we wanted.  And I found Rebecca, our agent.  She treated us kindly and fairly and professionally.  She was honest.  She answered my calls and emails.  She did exactly what she said she would do when she said she would.  The day we moved in there was even a “Welcome Pack” on the counter.   It was so refreshing to discover that not every real estate agent is a jerk. Some tell the truth. They don’t all treat you like a low life simply because you rent.  So for now, I’m off the renting roundabout.  It’s nice to know where we are going to live for another year.  We are happy and settled.  Only thing is, Rebecca hasn’t bought my daughter a giant teddy bear yet....the day she does is the day I will start to worry.