Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, and you won’t pay anything. The seller will be charged one month’s rent as commission, with half of this going to his agent and half going to your agent.

Only if the landlord agrees to pay the commission. As a landlord I’m not going to pay an agent a month commission for bringing me a tenant when I have no problem finding my own by listing on Zillow or Hot Pads.

Exactly... that person is giving terrible advice, as it's obvious that they have ZERO clue what they're talking about.

The rental market is insane right now, with rental prices being jacked up immensely.

No landlord needs to pay commission to find a tenant right now, lol.
It's the people looking to find a good rental in an uber competitive market that will do the paying.

Any rental that’s listed on the MLS has already agreed to pay a commission. OP could have a separate agreement with an agent to find her a rental and pay an equivalent commission whether the landlord has agreed to that (listed with an agent) or not (listed independently on Zillow, HotPads, wherever.)

Anonymous wrote:we did this in Arlington about 10 years ago. We paid nothing, the fee came from the landlord. It worked great!

+1. We did this in 2012 when we were initially moving to the area. Found a realtor, he showed us a few townhouses for rent and we signed an application that day for the agreement. We were in town for one weekend and had limited time to house hunt. We then spent 7 months figuring out exactly where we wanted to buy. Worked well for us.

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t really a thing in the DC area. Some areas hiring a broker to find you a rental is common or necessary. It’s not in DC. Go on Zillow and HotPads and do a search

Of course it is.
Why do people insist on answering posts that they clearly have no clue what they're talking about??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, and you won’t pay anything. The seller will be charged one month’s rent as commission, with half of this going to his agent and half going to your agent.

Only if the landlord agrees to pay the commission. As a landlord I’m not going to pay an agent a month commission for bringing me a tenant when I have no problem finding my own by listing on Zillow or Hot Pads.

Exactly... that person is giving terrible advice, as it's obvious that they have ZERO clue what they're talking about.

The rental market is insane right now, with rental prices being jacked up immensely.

No landlord needs to pay commission to find a tenant right now, lol.
It's the people looking to find a good rental in an uber competitive market that will do the paying.

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t really a thing in the DC area. Some areas hiring a broker to find you a rental is common or necessary. It’s not in DC. Go on Zillow and HotPads and do a search

Yes it is. It's very common. People just don't talk about it like in other areas.

Definitely work with a realtor! The good listings posted to Zillow get absolutely mobbed - you will be one of 10s of emails the landlord gets, and if you don’t happen to see it in the first few hours, forget about it.

We used a realtor in Arlington to find a SFH to rent - she set us up with a portal on the MLS and we got alerts whenever a home in our price range in our desired location popped up (and most of these houses were charging less than market - we ended up paying $2700 for a 3BR 2BA with a screened porch walking distance to Westover in N Arlington - comparable houses were renting for $3000+ in 2021). We earmarked a few to see, she scheduled the showings, and we paid her nothing. She even negotiated for us (we have a dog and the listing said “no pets” but she worked it out with the owner).

we did this in Arlington about 10 years ago. We paid nothing, the fee came from the landlord. It worked great!

Anonymous wrote:Yes, and you won’t pay anything. The seller will be charged one month’s rent as commission, with half of this going to his agent and half going to your agent.

Only if the landlord agrees to pay the commission. As a landlord I’m not going to pay an agent a month commission for bringing me a tenant when I have no problem finding my own by listing on Zillow or Hot Pads.

This isn’t really a thing in the DC area. Some areas hiring a broker to find you a rental is common or necessary. It’s not in DC. Go on Zillow and HotPads and do a search

Yes, and you won’t pay anything. The seller will be charged one month’s rent as commission, with half of this going to his agent and half going to your agent.

Yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just call your local real estate office, they'll get a junior agent to help you. The agent will get paid a commission which is a percentage of the first month's rent, usually. The commission is paid by the lessor, which means they have to be willing to bring in an agent knowing they will be paying a commission to them.

Thanks. I’d rather have agent that will work for me. I’m happy to pay commission. I don’t want to limit myself to corporate housing groups

Yep, you can... we did!
Their commission will be the price of one month's rent of the property.

Anonymous wrote:Just call your local real estate office, they'll get a junior agent to help you. The agent will get paid a commission which is a percentage of the first month's rent, usually. The commission is paid by the lessor, which means they have to be willing to bring in an agent knowing they will be paying a commission to them.

Thanks. I’d rather have agent that will work for me. I’m happy to pay commission. I don’t want to limit myself to corporate housing groups

Just call your local real estate office, they'll get a junior agent to help you. The agent will get paid a commission which is a percentage of the first month's rent, usually. The commission is paid by the lessor, which means they have to be willing to bring in an agent knowing they will be paying a commission to them.

I need to find a rental townhouse in inner moco. I don’t have time to do all the research myself. Are there any agents who would do this for a fee?