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Renting and house is on the market
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Anonymous
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We've been happy renters of a SFH for a few years but now our landlords need to sell. Our lease runs out end of June and the house went on the market today. Since I have a 3 month old and another DC the listing includes 24hr notice/by appt...but I wasn't anticipating that my cell number would be given out to agents for me to do the scheduling. Is this the norm? This is my first time going through this, and I thought the agent would make the appointments within the time frames that work the ntell me about them.
The house is in a desirable location with good schools, so I'm hoping this will be over quickly. I sure hope so! Seven calls so far and I okayed 3 visits today since tomorrow grandparents arrive for their first meeting with baby. Have two visits after 5 tomorrow, then in comes another request tonight, from the listing agent, for later tomorrow evening. I am wondering how I am going to make it through this process without losing my mind. My older DC was really upset about people coming in this evening and I'd like to keep things normal as possible. DH is traveling for work (so can't help with logistics of this). Of course, no one seems interested in seeing the house between 9-2 when it would be easy for us to show it. So to renters/landlords/realtors: what has been your experience showing a rented home/living in a rental that's for sale? What boundaries can I reasonably set for my sanity that will work for all parties? Boy, do I feel better having gotten that off my chest. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. |
Anonymous
| I would ask for some kind of discount on your rent for having to coordinate all of that. That is nuts. Perhaps you can set the hours that are convenient for you. |
Anonymous
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Do you really just want the realtor to pick a time and then tell you? Sounds like the landlord is trying to be respectful of your schedule.
If the lease says they can enter with 24 hours notice and they are abiding by that, not much you can do. However, if they've had that many showings in that short of a span, odds are it will sell quickly. Houses around me rarely stay on the market more than a week. |
Anonymous
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Contact your local tenant/renters assistance center. (My friends used one in DC, so I know there is one but I'm afraid I don't know the name.) You should not be in this situation. Your lease is until June and unless there is something in that contract about the owner selling the house before your contract is over and you having to do certain things to help, I believe the property is (in a sense) yours until the contract ends. You need to seek some good renter's legal advice on this one. At the very least, you should get a rent reduction.
In the meantime, simply tell the agents "no" when they want to visit and it's not convenient for you. Offer an alternate time that works for you and the kids. The agents will push (it's their job to be pushy), but it's your home and you will need to be strong so your children's lives aren't disrupted. From a landlord's perspective (I have a property in CA and have had several in MA), I would never put an occupied single family home on the market. I would wait until the tenant was out before attempting to sell - if only because staging and having the house in a nice condition are so important for the sale and you can't count on a tenant to care about that. Not to mention, there are repairs, painting, etc. that will have to be done and you can't just willy-nilly invade the tenant's home to do them. |
Anonymous
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We were on the other side of this, as the landlord. They did call our tenant to schedule showings. I'd be careful about listening to PP. We used the standard NVAR lease and it does allow reasonable access during the lease to sell/rent the place. Check your lease but your landlord is probably within his/her rights.
That said - I can't imagine how much this sucks for you! We did put our place on the market with a tenant, but he was a single guy, not a family. We were very appreciative of his helping us by keeping the place in decent shape and got him a nice bottle of liquor as a thank you gift. I do agree that if you are getting this many showings this fast, it probably means the place looks good online and is priced decently, and that plus a good location probably means it will go fast. I do hope so for your sake. As for setting boundaries - you can say that the hours of __ to __ are off limits and have that put in the listing. The more constraints you put on showings, that may end up dragging it out longer. But if there are times of day that are just awful for you, it's probably worth it. FWIW I think most showings are in the mid afternoon to early evening range and of course weekends. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for the responses so far. I've since dug out the lease. It allows lockbox during last 2 months with showings during normal business hours including weekends. We have the lockbox and I guess the lease answers my question about evening showings.
I have flexibility to show after 5 sometimes and hope that by being flexible I can somewhat limit the window on weekends to start a bit later than 9. Before I read the lease I'd assumed it was anytime with 24 hrs notice since the listing agent had discussed bedtime and with one exception, all the requests have been for evening showings. 6:52 Yes, I think doing the coordinating is the price of having some notice so that I'm not in the middle of breastfeeding when people walk in. Hope you're right about house selling quickly with that many showings. I'm concerned that there will be a stream of fruitless showings--the house is described as having X bedrooms, making it very attractive at its price; X-1 bedrooms plus a bonus space might be a more accurate description. 7:00 Thanks for your perspective and reminder that I can say "no". Our landlord originally planned to wait until we were out to complete needed repairs (and house would show better not stuffed with furniture and baby gear) but they feel financial pressure to sell. Think I will keep track of showings and consider requesting a rent reduction if it's not wrapped up quickly. Does anyone know what is standard in these cases? I'll also check the almighty Google, but if any DCUMers have successfully requested (or granted) a rent reduction, would appreciate the info. |
Anonymous
NP here- this just isn't my style and seems overly litigious. |
Anonymous
OP again. I hadn't seen your message yet when I replied. Thanks for the suggestion of adding a note to the listing if we find we need to--but I hear you on the catch-22 of adding constraints. Maybe some liquor will make my evenings more manageable! 
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Anonymous
| It stinks, but the owner is within their rights to do this. Try to be as flexible as possible and ask the listing agent if you have questions. They can't show the house from 9PM to 9AM -- the lockboxes automatically lock all agents out during this time period. |
Anonymous
| If it helps, we're selling our house and going through the same thing with a 2.5-year-old. the realtors call at least an hour in advance of their visit and we try to be out of the house as much as possible to make it easy for them. it's easy enough on the sunny days, but on rainy days, it's a real pain. we've asked that no showings happen after 8 because of my daughter's bedtime, but if someone really wants my house, i'll bend that rule for them. |
Anonymous
OP here, bumping in the hopes I'll get some input on the bolded question. I've shown the house 12 times in 3 days, most of them evening showings, with 3 more showings scheduled tomorrow. Overall hasn't been too bad, but in case the house doesn't go quickly I want to have as much info on requesting a rent reduction as possible. TIA. |
Anonymous
| Based on the fact your lease specifies they can show the property the last two months and you signed the lease it is highly doubtful they will agree to reduce the rent. You have a contract and you agreed to the conditions. I think you are stuck. |
Anonymous
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I added an addendum to my lease that didn't allow my landlords to sell during the term of my lease.
Of course now they're telling me they're "working with the banks" to keep the home I'm renting. This has happened to me once before. Sigh.....Landlords are sticklers for timely rent payments...how about a return of the favor and you pay your mortgage? |
Anonymous
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But the lease specifies showings during
"normal business hours" (9-5) and OP is not obligated to entertain all these evening showings. I think her landlords should rebate part of her rent for the hassle factor. |
Anonymous
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Absolutely not did I allow showings in the evening, past 6, nor did I alllow early morning showings on the weekend (I had a 7 month old at the time I went through this; this was more for the benefit of whichever one of us got to sleep in that day). I would do only business hours, and that's what I accommodated when I was in your shoes.
Depending on what your thoughts are in terms of being home during showings, you might want to consider asking the real estate agent to remove the lock box and just give it you to place outside when you know people are coming. That's what I did. I felt like a sitting duck with a lock box on my door, and the shit hit the fan when an agent came in during a time I told her she wasn't permitted to come in. Because we had a lock box, there wasn't much we could do. After that incident, the lock box was removed and I just placed it outside if I was going to be gone. |