How are Rental Agents Paid in Texas? (Dallas, Allen: houses, neighborhoods)

[ladulce]

I don't seem to be able to find an answer for this question anywhere, so, I hope that you kind people will assist me in this.

We recently looked at homes and the agent for some reason consistently showed us homes that are outside of what we would like to pay (Even though they are available).

Later, we spoke with a resident who claimed that rental agents essentially contract with the homeowner to pay them what they want and then tack on an additional amount to the monthly rent. For example, the owner wants $2000, and, rental agent lists and shows it for $2300 and he pockets that additional $300 per month.

Obviously, this would give the agent additional motive, but, would seem to be a conflict of interest.

The resident that we spoke with suggested walking through neighborhoods and looking for 'for rent' signs and to rent straight from the owner.

Any insights or advice on this matter? We will be coming back to the states from abroad in a couple of months and are trying to figure out the best way to proceed.

Thank you.

[TexanByMarriage]

We just moved to Dallas, and used a rental agent to make the house-hunting process as smooth as possible. He was very helpful in setting up the viewings, both on houses he found based on our requirements, and listings that we found ourselves on Zillow/Realtor.com etc. We scheduled a bunch of viewings over 2 days, and we were in our rental on day 4 :-)

He is paid by the owner, and I suspect the norm is 1 months rent. They don't add on to the monthly rent, as that is listed online. As it is no cost to me, I would suggest using a realtor to make the process quick and easy. Ours was very easy to work with, and came up with listings that fit our requirements. PM me if you'd like his details.

[KWJCSAyers]

It is typically 25% of the first months rent, paid by the landlord.

[TeamLynn]

The agent's fee is paid by the owner. Typically anywhere from 25% to 50% of one month's rent.
With me....you tell me what you want to pay and that's what I will show you....or you pick the homes and I'll set the appointments. Couple of benefits to using an agent. I can probably get you in 10 homes in 3 hours...if they're all in the same city. If you do it on your own with 10 different agents....you'll probably only reach 6-7 to make the appointments ...3 of those you'll play phone tag with...1 or 2 won't show up at your appointment time...so you'll spend all day or all of 2 days trying to get in. If you're lucky you can put them in some kind of order, but with 10 different agents you'll be lucky to get them in the order you want.

Not sure where you're looking, but there aren't many rent signs in my opinion. I can drive with clients all day and not see any rent signs.

I can also go over your lease agreement with you if you want. Probably not a lot of negotiation room these days, but there could be some. At least we can explain different provisions of the lease.

By the way I was the agent for Texan by Marriage above, they're great people and I think they got the home they wanted at the price they wanted to pay.

[TexanByMarriage]

Originally Posted by TeamLynn

The agent's fee is paid by the owner. Typically anywhere from 25% to 50% of one month's rent.
With me....you tell me what you want to pay and that's what I will show you....or you pick the homes and I'll set the appointments. Couple of benefits to using an agent. I can probably get you in 10 homes in 3 hours...if they're all in the same city. If you do it on your own with 10 different agents....you'll probably only reach 6-7 to make the appointments ...3 of those you'll play phone tag with...1 or 2 won't show up at your appointment time...so you'll spend all day or all of 2 days trying to get in. If you're lucky you can put them in some kind of order, but with 10 different agents you'll be lucky to get them in the order you want.

Not sure where you're looking, but there aren't many rent signs in my opinion. I can drive with clients all day and not see any rent signs.

I can also go over your lease agreement with you if you want. Probably not a lot of negotiation room these days, but there could be some. At least we can explain different provisions of the lease.

By the way I was the agent for Texan by Marriage above, they're great people and I think they got the home they wanted at the price they wanted to pay.

I can vouch for that. Our plan was to use 2 days and see 10 houses a day. We probably looked at 15 or so, in a wide price range from Allen to Frisco (we wanted to see what the options were), and are very satisfied with where we ended up. If you already live in the area and have a lot of time to look you can probably organize it yourself. But using a realtor was very beneficial for us moving from out of state (overseas, actually).

[WorldKlas]

I have 7 rental properties. When I have a vacancy I list on Zillow. Realtors always contact me to try and show the properties. They want me to pay them one months’ rent if they secure a tenant. I have not accepted appointments from Realtors because I never have trouble finding my own tenants and I like to screen applicants myself. However, if I had trouble securing tenants I would use realtors.....just don’t have the issue.

[TurtleCreek80]

Realtor fee is one month’s rent paid by the landlord. The information that “resident” gave you was 100% false.

If you are constantly being shown properties over your budget, you either need a new realtor or your budget is not adequate to get what you want in the area you’re looking. Have you asked your realtor why s/he won’t show you homes in your stated budget?