How proactive should a renters agent be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an agent who has done rentals. They suck. They aren't worth it because it ends up being so little money.

You get a client. You show them 5-7 places, they find a place for around $2000 a month. The listing agent usually keeps 65% of the commission, so 35% of $2000 is $700, which I then have to split with my broker. So I get about $475 to spend a couple days showing places with a tenant, doing the lease, application, running checks around town for all of it, dealing with a non-responsive listing agent. It's not fun. It's definitely more than a few hours work. More like 7 hours. Not worth it. And that's why I don't do rentals or only do them if someone really begs me. It's not just the money, it's the opportunity cost of what I could have been doing with my day - even if that means spending it with my kids. Much more valuable to me then the $250 I'll have post-taxes and expenses.

This is when your client is the renter. The listing agent would get 1300 for posting a few places and running credit checks or showing the place. If someone shows up that is not represented does the listing agent get the entire 2000? Then it's nothing to sneeze at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an agent who has done rentals. They suck. They aren't worth it because it ends up being so little money.

You get a client. You show them 5-7 places, they find a place for around $2000 a month. The listing agent usually keeps 65% of the commission, so 35% of $2000 is $700, which I then have to split with my broker. So I get about $475 to spend a couple days showing places with a tenant, doing the lease, application, running checks around town for all of it, dealing with a non-responsive listing agent. It's not fun. It's definitely more than a few hours work. More like 7 hours. Not worth it. And that's why I don't do rentals or only do them if someone really begs me. It's not just the money, it's the opportunity cost of what I could have been doing with my day - even if that means spending it with my kids. Much more valuable to me then the $250 I'll have post-taxes and expenses.

This is when your client is the renter. The listing agent would get 1300 for posting a few places and running credit checks or showing the place. If someone shows up that is not represented does the listing agent get the entire 2000? Then it's nothing to sneeze at.

Right. Sorry. I was running out at the end there and didn't make my final point. This is the reason that listing agents of rentals suck. They take more than a 50% share of the commission thereby discouraging other agents from even wanting to do any work for the rental and they basically do nothing.

Some agents in Virginia actually pay 10% of the commission. Like I would ever work for $150, then split with my broker, then pay taxes on the remainder. It's BS.

[Anonymous]

My problem when I was looking for a rental is that I would contact the listing agent, and wouldn't hear back. I'm sure the owner really appreciated the lack of customer service being provided.

[Anonymous]

The renters didn't have an agent. But that reminds me that they paid first month's rent to the agent too, so that makes it about $500/ hr.

No, the first month's rent was paid directly to the listing brokerage from the renters. You never saw it, but that is the one month's rent that was charged to you by the listing agent. The listing agent then splits it with his or her broker, and the tenant's agent and broker if applicable.

[Anonymous]

We used an agent to rent our condo and ended up cutting him loose after a few months (during prime time for getting a renter) of no bites. They clearly did not give a crap about our rental, which I get. After less than a week of posting on craigslist and my neighborhood listserv, we found a renter on our own. We paid $35 to do the background check with an online company (I think it was a branch of experian or one of the other credit reporting companies). Really the only benefit of an agent is having it listed on the MLS (which most tenants aren't using to find a place anyway), having someone else show your place, having them do the background check, and having them draw up the contract (which you can easily find forms online). None of this seems worth losing a month's rent to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an agent who has done rentals. They suck. They aren't worth it because it ends up being so little money.

You get a client. You show them 5-7 places, they find a place for around $2000 a month. The listing agent usually keeps 65% of the commission, so 35% of $2000 is $700, which I then have to split with my broker. So I get about $475 to spend a couple days showing places with a tenant, doing the lease, application, running checks around town for all of it, dealing with a non-responsive listing agent. It's not fun. It's definitely more than a few hours work. More like 7 hours. Not worth it. And that's why I don't do rentals or only do them if someone really begs me. It's not just the money, it's the opportunity cost of what I could have been doing with my day - even if that means spending it with my kids. Much more valuable to me then the $250 I'll have post-taxes and expenses.

Isn't there some value though that the client will use your services later when they buy?

We used a Realtor to find our current rental and she was fantastic. We are moving out of the area for a short stint and when we come back, I fully plan on calling her up to help us find a house. I also would be more than happy to refer my friends to her for their buying or selling needs.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous
Isn't there some value though that the client will use your services later when they buy?

We used a Realtor to find our current rental and she was fantastic. We are moving out of the area for a short stint and when we come back, I fully plan on calling her up to help us find a house. I also would be more than happy to refer my friends to her for their buying or selling needs.

Yes, but agents are generally lazy. Once they've done a few rentals and get a few buy/sell clients there's no need for them to care about lowly renters any more. Do your friends a favor and educate them about commission rebates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quote=Anonymous
Isn't there some value though that the client will use your services later when they buy?

We used a Realtor to find our current rental and she was fantastic. We are moving out of the area for a short stint and when we come back, I fully plan on calling her up to help us find a house. I also would be more than happy to refer my friends to her for their buying or selling needs.

Yes, but agents are generally lazy. Once they've done a few rentals and get a few buy/sell clients there's no need for them to care about lowly renters any more. Do your friends a favor and educate them about commission rebates.

Ha.
I'm the agent who posted upthread.

I assure you that I'm not lazy. I put in 70 hours this past week, most of it showing houses in the heat...you may think we're lazy but it's always easy to judge something from the outside looking in. I agree there are agents who aren't worth much, but if you want to be successful in sales, you have to always be working, 24/7.

[Anonymous]

A renter's perspective. We just rented a unit where the landlord used an agent to list and I can tell you it got our landlord less money then he would have been able to get if he listed it himself. The guy didn't post any interior pictures of the unit, which was underpriced for what it was (after seeing 20+ places you get a sense for these things). AND the agent was so bad he almost blew the deal several times. My DH, a former broker, is actually filing a complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A renter's perspective. We just rented a unit where the landlord used an agent to list and I can tell you it got our landlord less money then he would have been able to get if he listed it himself. The guy didn't post any interior pictures of the unit, which was underpriced for what it was (after seeing 20+ places you get a sense for these things). AND the agent was so bad he almost blew the deal several times. My DH, a former broker, is actually filing a complaint.

LOL. DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A renter's perspective. We just rented a unit where the landlord used an agent to list and I can tell you it got our landlord less money then he would have been able to get if he listed it himself. The guy didn't post any interior pictures of the unit, which was underpriced for what it was (after seeing 20+ places you get a sense for these things). AND the agent was so bad he almost blew the deal several times. My DH, a former broker, is actually filing a complaint.

LOL. DC?

Arlington.