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This weekend I saw a listing online for a 1BR 1BA, garden-level condo. Completely redone inside, beautiful, good size for me, great price, good location (although the neighborhood is not in its prime any longer). Been on the market for 5 months.
I emailed the listing agent, asked about HOA monthly fees and pet restrictions. The agent could answer the question on the dues and said that he knew dogs were allowed, but wasn't aware of any weight limits. Great. We made an appointment for him to show me the condo.
Gorgeous, loved it. I'd not been planning to buy right now -- I'm a happy renter -- but for this place, I was willing to change my plans. Was already picturing myself in the space, yada-yada. A friend urged me to call the property management company just to verify the pet restrictions, if any. And yep...sure enough: 35-pound weight limit on dogs. Which pretty much puts the kibosh on any dreams of making this house my own, since my dog weighs 73 pounds.
Which makes me wonder about you agents. Do you guys run into this type of thing regularly? Have you lost sales because of a HOA's bylaws? As the economy and the housing market has changed, has it become more of a problem, less of a problem? Or is it no problem at all?
What I do is, if I'm not sure or don't have the bylaws or "house rules" handy, is call the association management company and ask them. If someone asks if pets are allowed, the best thing to do is find out all the details rather than just "yes pets are allowed" because there are many variables. It may be difficult to find a condo community where such a large dog will be allowed.
You really can't rely on real estate agents to know things. Maybe you should be able to but the reality is just not there. Especially when it comes to zoning, ordinances, set backs, association rules - details.
You did the smart thing and checked yourself.
Speculation on my part....thinking this listing agent knew about dues and most likely pet restrictions too. Sounds to me like this agent wanted the opportunity to meet you, show the place and if it did not work for you, perhaps show you other places that might be a better fit.
In my area there a lot of condos and associations and the rules change. I couldn't possibly keep up with them all. Our association now has a system where the condo association name/number are listed and I can call them...as long as the listing agent puts it in there.
Can the association rules and regs kill a sale? Sure. But the point is that the buyer is happy with what they are getting. And in my area, I can tell you right off the bat there is going to be a restriction on the size of the pet. If it was a priority of the buyer I would find out in advance just what the restriction is...otherwise I'm wasting my time as well as the buyers.
Speculation on my part....thinking this listing agent knew about dues and most likely pet restrictions too. Sounds to me like this agent wanted the opportunity to meet you, show the place and if it did not work for you, perhaps show you other places that might be a better fit.
That's my line of thought too. Knowing very well that he won't be able to sell you this one, at least he could have a chance as being your buying agent for another place which would allow for larger pets.
Being a step more cynical, his duty as the listing agent is to represent the seller, so if "not knowing" the weight limit is what it took to sell the unit, then so be it.
I wasn't really asking with respect to MY particular situation. My question -- which I obviously didn't articulate well! sorry! -- was: "Do you guys as listing real estate agents sometimes lose sales because of something that's in the HOA bylaws?"
I was just wondering if you guys -- particularly as LISTING agents -- had your business affected because of limitations in HOA bylaws, such that once they were revealed to a buyer, the buyer passed on the property. That's what I meant by "are you stymied by HOA bylaws?"
This guy was not my agent. He was the listing agent. I'm fine with the fact he didn't know about the weight limit. I would expect that if I had a buyer's agent working for me, I'd have made it clear up-front that my dog weighs 73 pounds and therefore I was only interested in viewing properties that permitted pets the size of my dog. And my assumption (perhaps naive?) is that my agent, wanting to help me find the perfect house, would make sure that the properties she showed me matched that criterium.
I wasn't really asking with respect to MY particular situation. My question -- which I obviously didn't articulate well! sorry! -- was: "Do you guys as listing real estate agents sometimes lose sales because of something that's in the HOA bylaws?".
I've had clients pass on HOA's due to bylaw restrictions. One example - husband buys and restores classic cars as a hobby. He wanted space to store the cars and perhaps build a large workshop/garage on the property if it did not already have one. Most HOA's would have a problem with this. Ended up buying a non-HOA property where he since built his garage. I would not have made a sale if we were restricted to HOA properties.
I just lost a sale because the HOA rules prohibited dogs over 40 pounds and the buyer's boxer weighed in at 65 pounds. Out of curiousity, I did an Internet search for HOA "best practices" standards in regard to pet restrictions. All of the "professional advice" sites I found uniformly advised against HOA's restricting pets based on weight. Briefly, these type of weight restrictions are an enforcement nightmare and underlying such rules are most often an irrational fear of bigger dogs. HOA's should make and enforce rules about the behaviour of the dog and its owner, and not arbitrary critieria such as weight, IMHO.
I've had buyers tell me they did not want to look in HOA neighborhoods because of the restrictions. Doesn't mean that I lost a sale, because we simply looked at places that did not have those restrictions (or HOAs, for that matter), but that the listing agent does.
But I have no doubt that other agents, who might have shown any listings I have that do have HOAs with restrictions, run into the same thing I do and thus I suppose I could be said to have lost a sale that way.
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