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Hi, I just need to vent and would love to hear what real estate PROFESSIONALS think. We moved long distance recently and had to rent a house for 6 months (shortest lease we could afford). My husband winged it without a job and landed a fulltime job in 2 months.
The thing is while we were in the midst of the move (on the road heading there) we get a call from our rental agent saying we can't move into the home until Monday because the carpets needed to be cleaned and wouldn't be drive. Hello! We are due to be there on Friday and the movers were scheduled from our hometown to be there on Saturday to move us in. I panicked. I told her we couldn't do that being we were coming from out of state and on our way. She said well maybe the carpets will be cleaned by Saturday. I was furious. We prepaid our entire 6 months, plus 500 holding fee, 50 application fee for a grand total of $8138.50!
We arrive and when we arrive the carpets are just being cleaned. We call her and she says she couldn't believe it. She told them to do it first thing. I said well where do we stay? We have a dog, a cat, a very cranky 4 year old, and my husband and I. She refers us to a hotel. We go and they're booked. She never calls to see if we found a place to sleep. We did.
We arrive at the house the next morning and the rugs stink to high heaven. It was pet urine, but we thought it was bad water from the carpet cleaner. We sleep there for the night in our sleeping bags and she calls the next day to schedule our initial meeting. We say everything is okay but the carpets need to be cleaned again. She said short of ripping them up she couldn't do anything. No apology or anything. I couldn't believe she knew about the carpets and put us there anyway. She tells us to look at her website and find another home. Tells us to do it!! She eventually found a home and pulled it off the market. Luckily our movers broke down and were a day later or we would have been stuck in that house.
We recently found a home to purchase, but our lease doesn't expire until October 31, 2007. They wanted us to pay a 2 month rental fee punishment for leaving early. Remember we paid upfront the costs. They come back after I said no way and ask for us to pay for the month we moved in, which was mid-May and they pro-rated that month. We had already told them we only wanted a 6 month lease and paid up front so we wouldn't be billed while husband was looking for a job. I am sick over being treated like this. I know Rental agencies work for the homeowners, but without renters who will they rent to. I am going to make a point of referring as many out of town people away from them as possible. I just am dumbfounded. Thanks for reading my long rant.
I posted my thread on here as well, even though it's not as horrendous as yours.
My short version....
My realtor, our landlord and her realtor got us to move into our landlords townhouse.
Major disaster with keys (mailbox..."nobody is responsible" for...post office says it's the HOA, and they say it's the Postal Service), garage keys and cabana keys lost in the mail somewhere. (Got the only master key now ...finally, for the mailbox)
We weren't able to retrieve our mail for 3 weeks!
Next....we were informed, that even that we have a lease agreement with the landlord, that we had to be approved through the HOA...not our landlord.
And, even better yet....everyone involved know/ knew right from the get-go that we have 2 large dogs (It's even written into the lease agreement with our landlord!), but now the HOA wants us out (sending our landlord a letter, giving HER 30 days to resolve the "issue" about the dogs with us).....because the HOA sub-laws state that no dog can be over 40 lbs!
(We've only been here 1 months...mind you).
Now we have to look around, again, and see if we will be able to find a home to purchase.
We are in a limbo....for one, there is a valid contract/ rent- lease agreement with the landlord....and then there are the HOA and their sub-laws.
Mysteriously, I became the "niece" of my landlord....because she did not rent out her townhouse trough the HOA, and family members staying in the properties are okay.
So......it's your turn to figure THIS mess out I am in....I sure can't.....
One lesson learned.....I will never, ever go through a realtor or real estate agency again to find a rental, because between mine and the landlords.....they didn't acknowledge the HOA, their sub-laws and the right procedure to rent the property out. Someone dropped the ball somewhere, and it's affecting US!!!
All I am saying is...I BETTER get my security deposit BACK after THIS MESS!!!
I hope you will have luck of straightening your mess out.....and stay sane in the process....huh.
Good luck!!!
Homeward...I'm a little confused about why you hold the agent responsible for not telling you the carpets were clean and I need you to help me understand. From what I read, I'm under the belief that you rented a property you hadn't actually seen?? If you did see the house before moving in, did you ask to have the problems you mentioned above fixed before you moved in? Was the agent representing you or the landlord? From what I can tell, it sounds to me like the agent represented the landlord and you were under the impression that she was your agent. If that's the case, she should have made sure that you understood you were not represented. Before you ever get involved with an agent, make sure you know who they represent.
Although it's nice to have clean carpets, unless specifically requested a lot of times it won't happen.
I think the OP is saying the carpets are pee-stained. They tried to clean the carpet, but it didn't get the pee odor out. And by the realtors reaction she knew the carpets had pee odor in them and that is why she had the carpets cleaned - to get it out. But it apparently didn't work.
From personal experience - I rented a place with cat pee odor and the only cure was carpet replacement.
Homeward...I'm a little confused about why you hold the agent responsible for not telling you the carpets were clean and I need you to help me understand. From what I read, I'm under the belief that you rented a property you hadn't actually seen?? If you did see the house before moving in, did you ask to have the problems you mentioned above fixed before you moved in? Was the agent representing you or the landlord? From what I can tell, it sounds to me like the agent represented the landlord and you were under the impression that she was your agent. If that's the case, she should have made sure that you understood you were not represented. Before you ever get involved with an agent, make sure you know who they represent.
Although it's nice to have clean carpets, unless specifically requested a lot of times it won't happen.
We rented the house from seeing it on the internet. Believe me - not the only people who have done this. As far as the carpets being cleaned, I told her when we were going to have to delay our movers that I could care less about the carpets being cleaned please let us move in any ways. She said she can't rent a house until the carpets are professionally cleaned. When I say dirty carpets I mean there was dogs that had urinated in each and every room and the smell was saturated in. They cleaned the carpets 2 times and the previous renters had them cleaned also. When a dog urinates and it isn't cleaned immediately it goes so far down that the only answer is to replace the carpets. The agent does represent the landlord, but is it not fair to expect that you will not be expected to live in a house that smells so bad you could throw up. Our eyes burned when we were in that house. It attacked all our senses. You are probably from the agency. Your tone is very much offensive and very much like we deal with when dealing with them. I will definitely warn as many people as I can not to use them especially people moving here, as we did, from out of state. We know of 4 families in our neighborhood who rented houses from other agencies and they did not do a walk through in the house because they came from OUT OF STATE.
By the way, we weren't moved in when we asked her to fix the carpets. The movers had not yet arrived luckily. She didn't try to fix any problem because like you she represents the landlord and could really give a you know what about the people that would be living in that house for six months.
I think the OP is saying the carpets are pee-stained. They tried to clean the carpet, but it didn't get the pee odor out. And by the realtors reaction she knew the carpets had pee odor in them and that is why she had the carpets cleaned - to get it out. But it apparently didn't work.
From personal experience - I rented a place with cat pee odor and the only cure was carpet replacement.
Are you saying her attempt to clean the carpets is enough. Sorry I don't believe that. What about follow up. Following up with the carpet people to find out if the problem was resolved. God! I think I posted on the wrong website. I should have figured I would get this kind of feedback from family realtors. Maybe you can live with cat pee odor, but I have a son and did I mention a cat and dog. Son plays on the carpet constantly. Cats and dogs will mark when they smell other animals have gone. I would have been held responsible if our animals had done what is natural and I wasn't about to live in that situation for 6 months.
Are you saying her attempt to clean the carpets is enough. Sorry I don't believe that. What about follow up. Following up with the carpet people to find out if the problem was resolved. God! I think I posted on the wrong website. I should have figured I would get this kind of feedback from family realtors. Maybe you can live with cat pee odor, but I have a son and did I mention a cat and dog. Son plays on the carpet constantly. Cats and dogs will mark when they smell other animals have gone. I would have been held responsible if our animals had done what is natural and I wasn't about to live in that situation for 6 months.
Huh? Did you read what I wrote? I'm on your side. Realtor tried to pull a fast one renting out a place that clearly needed new carperting.
Huh? Did you read what I wrote? I'm on your side. Realtor tried to pull a fast one renting out a place that clearly needed new carperting.
Please forgive me. I am such an emotional wreck right now. I have never in my 41 years dealt with a business that was so unconcerned about, not their client, but rather a person, a family. These people consider it as a business transaction and that's it. I'm not that kind of person and when you're hit during a move like that its even worse because you are usually (if you're me) already on edge. In one month from now this will all be history or at least, we hope. Thanks FarNorthDallas and please once again, forgive me.
Hey, no problem. I don't blame you for being a wreck. The whole situation sounds awful.
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I am living a nightmare right now as well....
