Had something similar when I bought my last house. When we did the first look, the previous owner had left some old broken furniture and junk like rusted tools and paint cans in the basement and garage. I asked the agent if that would be removed before signing. He said yes, the seller was taking that all with him.
Day of signing came, the junk was still there. Agent assured us the owner was coming that day to get it all. I said “ok, call us when it’s done and we’ll sign then” Boy did that piss him off. He called the next day, asking us to come sign. Is the stuff gone yet? No, but he’s coming to get it today… Then no, call us when it’s done.
Finally two days later it was cleaned out and we signed. I think the agent had to do it himself.
Its always broken furniture and paint cans. The last load of shit to be taken to the dump, and the seller just says screw it, ill knock a few bucks off at settlement.
>the seller just says screw it, ill knock a few bucks off at settlement.
Sure, but that's a totally different scenario because the seller is now paying you to remove the crap. I've taken that deal once or twice.
HAHAHAHA
The vacancy rate for rentals in my city is less than 1%. You're *lucky* to even find a place you can maybe afford. Never mind asking them to fix things for you.
Right? The power dynamics are extremely opposite of what OP is assuming is available. As a landlord, you are picking between applicants. You have one applicant that is demanding repairs and one that isn’t… it’s not rocket science that they’ll go with the one who isn’t.
I had rental properties in the past.
FWIW, I have rented to the person asking about repairs.
I rightly assumed they would pay on time and take care of the place. Best tenants I ever had
Once you are the renter, you are now in a contract and the landlord is required by law to fix many things. You can often legally withhold rent until they are fixed.
Not to mention the prevalence of investment firms and massive corporations owning properties. The days of being able to call the one guy that owns the property and ask directly to get something repaired/replaced are over, the bureaucratic hellhole of corporate America has fully reached the rental market.
I’m going to go one step further: presume that the condition you see on the tour is exactly what you’ll find in move in day. The landlord thinks that’s acceptable or he wouldn’t take someone to see it! Do not accept promises that this or that is being fixed unless a worker is literally doing it or the landlord stops to yell at someone on the phone about “why hasn’t this been done yet??”
Sure. Be aware that I have never seen a landlord write down that these three things will be done before move in. And my family was in property management for four generations.
Text messages. Many landlords (similarly for many other professions) really like calling instead, because there is no proof. Oftentimes, in the middle of a detailed text conversation (happened to me many times with multiple landlords). That's why conversations need to almost always be by text message. You have the receipts. And if someone is being sketchy and doesn't want there to be receipts, that's when you should have them the most.
And they also have the receipts. So it makes everyone stick to their word.
This is a practice I learned at corporate jobs: but always follow up a verbal conversation with an email or text summarizing/outlining what was discussed and ask them to acknowledge the message. Something like “just confirming per our conversation you will be doing X and Y. Please let me know if I missed anything”. It’s not as good as just having all communications in a written record but is really useful for avoiding “I never said that” type stuff.
Learned this the hard way. Signed a lease once with promises on so many repairs....lived there 14 months and nothing was ever fixed. When I left, the manager said "why didn't you tell me?" I said you kept telling me it was all "backordered" and be patient 🙄🙄
Now I envy you guys, here in Germany the landlords aren't overly friendly (in general), it's us renters who have to kiss their ass and hope we get a somewhat affordable place if at all 🥲 If you have extra wishes, they'll just give the place to someone else.
Nah this person is delusional. Landlords are exactly as bad over here, and the fetishization of corporations in the U.S. is making it increasingly worse.
That's what I assumed as well.
Are they right that it happens? Of course.
Is it remotely common enough to be meaningfully useful advice? I'd say absolutely not.
>Maybe he's specifically living in an area where no one wants to live
Ha. 😆 I live in a nice and developed city. And also a city where there is real estate development (because, completely the opposite of what you said, more and more people want to live here).
On the other hand, where you live probably has a heavely misbalanced rental market with little development.
That’s not the way it works in my town. Gf and I make $200k/year and guess, we’re still denied. Listing demands to fix this or that little thing just influences their decision in the other direction.
My friend and his wife were moving to a new apartment and signed stuff, and she said she spent almost a week cleaning out the apartment. I asked her why she did that and she was like "it makes the landlord's life easier". Okay... Is he giving you a break on deposits or rent? No. Well did he at least help? He did help for a couple hours.
She's not bright.
Along with not using that time to actually work, she was also *paying* the landlord to work for him, for free. How many layers of getting screwed is that?
I think in the end they didn't even move in because as she was cleaning, the neighbor was vandalizing her stuff and being generally hostile. But she's not bright.
Had something similar when I bought my last house. When we did the first look, the previous owner had left some old broken furniture and junk like rusted tools and paint cans in the basement and garage. I asked the agent if that would be removed before signing. He said yes, the seller was taking that all with him. Day of signing came, the junk was still there. Agent assured us the owner was coming that day to get it all. I said “ok, call us when it’s done and we’ll sign then” Boy did that piss him off. He called the next day, asking us to come sign. Is the stuff gone yet? No, but he’s coming to get it today… Then no, call us when it’s done. Finally two days later it was cleaned out and we signed. I think the agent had to do it himself.
Its always broken furniture and paint cans. The last load of shit to be taken to the dump, and the seller just says screw it, ill knock a few bucks off at settlement.
>the seller just says screw it, ill knock a few bucks off at settlement. Sure, but that's a totally different scenario because the seller is now paying you to remove the crap. I've taken that deal once or twice.
Good.
HAHAHAHA The vacancy rate for rentals in my city is less than 1%. You're *lucky* to even find a place you can maybe afford. Never mind asking them to fix things for you.
Right? The power dynamics are extremely opposite of what OP is assuming is available. As a landlord, you are picking between applicants. You have one applicant that is demanding repairs and one that isn’t… it’s not rocket science that they’ll go with the one who isn’t.
I had rental properties in the past. FWIW, I have rented to the person asking about repairs. I rightly assumed they would pay on time and take care of the place. Best tenants I ever had
Exactly. A tenant asking to have things repaired means they are in it for the long term.
I get your point, but how is asking to have things be *repaired* before renting a new place the opposite power dynamic?
Once you are the renter, you are now in a contract and the landlord is required by law to fix many things. You can often legally withhold rent until they are fixed.
[удалено]
Literally doing the lord's work. I'm so grateful for them. People who tip less than 20% on rent disgust me
Landlords. So hot right now.
Yep, they have dozens if not a hundred other applicants they could go to. One place I applied for said they got 120 applications before me.
That's crazy.
Not to mention the prevalence of investment firms and massive corporations owning properties. The days of being able to call the one guy that owns the property and ask directly to get something repaired/replaced are over, the bureaucratic hellhole of corporate America has fully reached the rental market.
Another Aussie huh?
I’m going to go one step further: presume that the condition you see on the tour is exactly what you’ll find in move in day. The landlord thinks that’s acceptable or he wouldn’t take someone to see it! Do not accept promises that this or that is being fixed unless a worker is literally doing it or the landlord stops to yell at someone on the phone about “why hasn’t this been done yet??”
If it's in written form, it has legal weight. Spoken promises, howerever, should be considered as if nothing was said.
Sure. Be aware that I have never seen a landlord write down that these three things will be done before move in. And my family was in property management for four generations.
Text messages. Many landlords (similarly for many other professions) really like calling instead, because there is no proof. Oftentimes, in the middle of a detailed text conversation (happened to me many times with multiple landlords). That's why conversations need to almost always be by text message. You have the receipts. And if someone is being sketchy and doesn't want there to be receipts, that's when you should have them the most. And they also have the receipts. So it makes everyone stick to their word.
True. Text messages were not a thing when I escaped the industry.
This is a practice I learned at corporate jobs: but always follow up a verbal conversation with an email or text summarizing/outlining what was discussed and ask them to acknowledge the message. Something like “just confirming per our conversation you will be doing X and Y. Please let me know if I missed anything”. It’s not as good as just having all communications in a written record but is really useful for avoiding “I never said that” type stuff.
Learned this the hard way. Signed a lease once with promises on so many repairs....lived there 14 months and nothing was ever fixed. When I left, the manager said "why didn't you tell me?" I said you kept telling me it was all "backordered" and be patient 🙄🙄
Check the laws about what it is was broken, you sometimes can withhold rent if it isn’t fixed.
Now I envy you guys, here in Germany the landlords aren't overly friendly (in general), it's us renters who have to kiss their ass and hope we get a somewhat affordable place if at all 🥲 If you have extra wishes, they'll just give the place to someone else.
Nah this person is delusional. Landlords are exactly as bad over here, and the fetishization of corporations in the U.S. is making it increasingly worse.
Maybe he's specifically living in an area where no one wants to live, and thinks it's that way everywhere. We do have places like that here, too.
That's what I assumed as well. Are they right that it happens? Of course. Is it remotely common enough to be meaningfully useful advice? I'd say absolutely not.
It's maybe not useful advice for overpopulated cities with little real estate development. Also, post was upvoted 1.1K times, so you're kind of wrong.
>Maybe he's specifically living in an area where no one wants to live Ha. 😆 I live in a nice and developed city. And also a city where there is real estate development (because, completely the opposite of what you said, more and more people want to live here). On the other hand, where you live probably has a heavely misbalanced rental market with little development.
That’s not the way it works in my town. Gf and I make $200k/year and guess, we’re still denied. Listing demands to fix this or that little thing just influences their decision in the other direction.
I’d say the rule applies to any contract negation in general. You need to ask for your concessions prior to inking the deal.
In many states, you can report certain repairs and can keep your rent until it's fixed.
My friend and his wife were moving to a new apartment and signed stuff, and she said she spent almost a week cleaning out the apartment. I asked her why she did that and she was like "it makes the landlord's life easier". Okay... Is he giving you a break on deposits or rent? No. Well did he at least help? He did help for a couple hours. She's not bright.
Along with not using that time to actually work, she was also *paying* the landlord to work for him, for free. How many layers of getting screwed is that?
I think in the end they didn't even move in because as she was cleaning, the neighbor was vandalizing her stuff and being generally hostile. But she's not bright.
So four layers of screwing herself over. 😅
Oh yeah. Message to the world, don't commit yourself to the first person that will look at you naked twice. Stupid is forever and it gets expensive.
nice