Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Apartment Realtors

Ok so I get that I am moving out at the end of July and my management company wants to get this place rental ASAP. I suppose they hope the next tenants won't mind not seeing out their window, paint chipping off walls, or raw plywood covering the bottom of a rotting vanity (all things I didn't see because it was night when I viewed the apt-and they boarded up the vanity while I lived here). Classy.

Another thing I didn't pay much attention to in my lease was that fact that if the management company got a bigger than normal property tax bill for the year - the tenants were all responsible for paying it. Why I pay property tax on a property I don't own is beyond me. But I signed the stupid thing it's my fault. So I got stuck with a $90 tax bill or 2.78% of the entire bill. And apparently each unit has the same % - but I live in a 1 BR, why would I have the same percentage as the 2 or 3BR places? Plus with condos the fees go up the higher the unit - I'm on the 1st floor, I shouldn't pay the same as a 3BR on the top floor! Whatever. It's my mistake for not paying attention to that in the lease.

So apparently they [management company] call some real estate agents to show the apartment. They "claim" they only work with 3 agencies that have many agents, but that isn't true. OR else do you explain the 6 or more different real estate companies that agents have called me from. Granted I get 6-15 calls a day for various agents sometimes 3 from the same company, but there has to be at least 6 rental agencies calling me. Davis Sq something, Inman something , Porter something, Maven and the list goes on.....

But these people are out of control! They are calling me morning, noon and night. They want to show my apt morning, noon and night too! One guy tried to come at 8am 'is that convenient'? UM no it's not even close to convenient! That's when I'm getting ready in the morning! WTF time do they think I leave for work? No day is off limits as they apparently also work Sundays. Some are giving me 4 hours or so notice (which I appreciate), others 1 hour or less.

But now last night a new thing started happening. Agents showing up without calling at all! UM hello! what if I was in the shower or something and they just barge in. She knocks and I answer it and she's like hi I'm blah blah blah I called earlier. I said actually no one called me today, but you can still come in. I have a very reliable iphone with visual voicemail (one of the best inventions ever!) - so I would KNOW if I missed a call or had a voicemail. Nothing. There's no missed call. The only calls I got yesterday were from my brother and my mom.

It also appeared that someone had shown my apartment earlier in the day too (without calling me) because my pantry door was wide open. My cat's food is in there (plus all my dry food) and he could have (and often does if it's left open) ripped open the Indoor cat weight management food and go to town. It's pretty funny he's ripping it open like it's some kind of special treat, when in reality it's diet cat food for the fat thing. He's awesome and cute.... and 20lbs.... so he's on a diet. anyway I always make sure to close the door - because when I have forgotten I regretted it while I cleaned up ripped bag and food. Either that, or Cody got really hungry and figured out how to open the door all the way.

But back to the apartment. I called my management company to say hey can we time box these showings into one or two reasonable hours a day? And they said well the faster it rents the faster you can stop having people come see it. work with the real estate agents to figure out convenient times. Great thanks. This makes me REALLY happy I didn't tell them I wasn't coming back earlier. See in my lease it states I need to give them 60 days notice (which I did), but every year they want to know about 5 months ahead of time if I will renew. They send this letter and say I have 10 days to respond. Um WTF the lease says I need to give 60 days notice - not 5 fucking months!!!!!!!! It's been 3 weeks of daily showings since I told them. I can't even imagine 5 months of showings had I told them back in March when they wanted to know!! Someone rent it so I can have some peace and quiet!

3 comments:

Kim said...

We are going through the same thing. The other day, I got home and my landlord told me that he found renters (a very nice couple who came by a few days earlier). A few hours later, my boyfiend and I were at Hollywood Express when my phone rang. It was an agent from a realtor that my landlord was working with to get the place rented. She told me that she had 2 clients in her office who wanted to see our apartment and she wanted to go over right away. I told her that my landlord had already rented the place and she should check with him before hand to avoid wasting everyone's time. She said that she was going to show the place anyway.

Whatever. I hope they enjoyed the dirty dishes!

DJDiva said...

if it's already rented - why show it to other people?? UGH that's annoying!

Trashcan VonOpenMeup said...

Apartment realtors are the scum of the earth. They're the lowest of the low - worse than used car salesmen.

When I moved from Boston over here to Porter Square, I had realtors calling me 5 to 6 times a day, coming in the apartment while I was sleeping, and even coming in the apartment while I was in the shower! I had such a crappy apartment, it was listed for nearly 3 months before it was finally rented.

After about 2 months of these, I pretty much said "fuck this" and left my apartment as messy as I possibly could. Dirty clothes all over the bedroom, dirty dishes piled in the sink, and a nice stinky cat litterbox for realtors and their clients to enjoy.