real estate agents are woe.
If I hadn't mentioned it before, househunting is quite demoralising in London - flats can be on the market for just a few hours before they're snapped up. House hunting is a full time job and you need to go and check relevant websites for new availabilities at least 2 or 3 times each day - preferably more often if you can sneak the time off work to do it. Then you need to call prospective agents and landlords from the ads ASAP, and the first question you ask is, "is your flat still available?"If you have a viewing for a flat booked in 24 hours, there's a chance it will be gone by then, so you have to be ready at a moment's notice to drop everything and go and see a prospective property whenever an agent can get you a viewing, and the sooner the better. We had three viewings cancelled on us because of that - one literally three minutes before the viewing was scheduled, and after we'd all left work early so we could get there. Grr.
Then there are all the fees associated with renting a place. Some agents (ours included) charge you draw up the contract, and for conducting reference checks. The banks also get in on the act, with mine charging £8.50 to supply the reference to the agent! Then there are all sorts of other mysterious and sneaky fees that are thrown in, like an "inventory charge" where some dude goes around with a clipboard to say what's currently in the flat so you don't nick off with it at the end of your lease and dispute the fact that it was there and undamaged in the first place. Some agents like Foxtons will even charge you just to apply for a place. How nasty is that?!
Because the real estate market is so hot, agents don't really have to do a lot of work if they're letting sought-after properties. People will offer rent above the advertised rate in order to secure a property if they really want it and they know it will go fast. Anything that's reasonably modern with nice furniture will get snapped up within the day. Your real estate agent can do about ten minutes' work to get the property let out and then sit pretty on the fees they charge to manage the property, so the upshot of it is they don't really give a crap about you, or it, once the dotted line has been signed.
We've been living in our flat for almost a month now, and we've had an annoying collection of problems that includes:
- Broken washing machine when we moved in, fixed after 10 days
- One set of keys for 3 people for the first 14 days - the previous tenants had taken a set to mexico, and the agent hadn't paid for the third set so they sat in the building office for a while, not able to be released until paid for
- Random junk lying around the flat when we moved in, including a giant pink stuffed monkey and half a bottle of wine (ugh)
- A broken window that doesn't shut properly - awesome in winter - still not fixed
- A broken heater in the same room!
- A shower bracket that was installed by the Polish handyman that sprays water straight into the shower curtain, above my head.
I seriously think I'm in the wrong industry here. Recruitment and Real Estate - that's where the money is, and also where the large moral vacuum is...
posted by d @ 9:35 pm
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