In one of my previous posts, I discussed how I was going about finding a house to rent. I had set up searches on Zillow, and my intention was to call the various property management companies that oversaw the houses I wanted to look at to set up appointments to see the homes. When I shared this information with the woman from the temporary agency whom we brought in to take my place at my day job, she suggested I call a realtor. This is what she had done when she moved back to So Flo. The realtor got all the information about the type of property she was looking for, and he sent her the MLS listings that matched her criteria. From there, he set up the appointments for showings. Well, let me tell you--that was the best damn advice I've had in a long time.
A friend of mine from school and I reconnected on Facebook in the not-too-distant past. My friend relocated to Charlotte several years ago, and I noticed he often shared posts from a realtor in that area. I assumed the realtor was whom helped him find his house, so I sent my friend a message. He confirmed my assumption and said his realtor had been very helpful. I, in turn, called the realtor to see if he handled rentals. While he normally deals in sales, he said he would be happy to help out. And boy, did he ever help!
He began by setting up a couple of searches on the MLS listings for me, so I could see what was available. A couple of days before I was to go to Charlotte, I emailed him the list of properties we were interested in. He set up all the appointments for the Saturday I would be in town.
I did as much research as I could on the properties before hand, maybe even too much research. I had so much paperwork with me, I could barely keep track of it all! Perhaps because I made my list right before the first of the month, houses kept getting rented out from under me. By the time we left my hotel Saturday morning, my list of 10 possible houses was down to six! Out of the six, I felt five were real possibilities. One was just a little too rough looking. It's funny because as Mr. Weezy and I looked through the MLS listings, we would come up with names for houses based on something we identified with the house. For instance, the house that didn't pass muster we called the "dog" house because in two pictures on the MLS listing, we could see a dog outside looking into the sliding glass doors. The chewed up blinds in the house were evidence that the dog had, in fact, been living there ...
My realtor and I finished up our tour mid-afternoon, and I immediately began calling people to find out how I could apply for the rentals. I had a ton more paperwork with me that had all kinds of banking and pay information, and I also had it all saved electronically on a flash drive, so I could get the application process going. Here is how the process went:
My #1 home choice, which I had been absolutely salivating over since I saw the pictures of it, was the first place I called. The note under pets on the listing sheet said conditional. When I called the realtor and told him we had two small dogs and a cat, he told me they wouldn't take cats. Well, dumbass, why didn't you put that in your listing? It would have saved my realtor and me time and a wasted trip to see the house, and it would have saved you the time you just spent talking to me.
On to my #2 choice: Also a pets conditional house, I called the realtor to see if our pets would be accepted. She didn't answer, so I left her a voice mail. She did return my call, but she said she had to find out from the owner whether or not we could have our pets. My realtor followed up with her via email on Monday, but she said she was still waiting to hear back. Long story short, I didn't find out about the pets until Tuesday. By then, I had already applied for three other properties. I applied for this one too at that point, but it was too late in a sense, and I really ended up wasting $75.00.
I got a hold of the realtor for my #3 choice right away, and she told me the pets were no problem because the owner was only opposed to big dogs, so I applied for that house. There was no application fee unless my application was accepted, so I figured I had nothing to lose. My realtor followed up with the home's realtor on Monday. She said she was reviewing the applications, but there might be a problem because the owner didn't want so many pets in the house. Really? That's not what you told me. I emailed her to let her know we had been approved for and accepted another property. She didn't even have the common courtesy to acknowledge my email. So much for professionalism.
My numbers 4 and 5 choices were a toss up. Although about equal in square footage, the way one was laid out, it seemed much smaller. It, however, was in a nicer area. That was a pets conditional house, whereas the other was pet friendly. I called the contact person for the "little" house on Saturday. I got her voice mail, so I left her a message saying I needed to know if our pets would be accepted. Sunday, I realized that there was a listing agent who was different from the contact person. I called her Sunday and ran into the same voice mail scenario. The listing agent called me Monday and emailed me an application. Again, there was no application fee, so I went ahead and submitted the application. I got a call from the contact person, who was going to be the new listing agent, Wednesday, but we had accepted a house already.
In the midst of all of this is the other choice 4/5 house. I sent in an application on Monday morning. Tuesday morning, the agent called for one more document, which he said if I could get him, we should be good to go. I emailed it right away, and within an hour, I had an email saying we had been approved. We did need to put the security deposit down to hold the house. Well, with the way things were going, I wasn't going to take a chance waiting on the other houses, only to find out we didn't get approved. We accepted the house and put the deposit down. The whole process took less than 48 hours.
Note to realtors/property managers: Get your shit together because efficiency gets homes rented! The house we accepted was tied for last place on our list, but the ease of the rental process is what got us to rent it. The efficient way in which the realty company handled the process also gives me confidence that renting from them will be a good experience.
Note to potential renters: Get yourself a real estate agent. They have the most current information about what is on the market, and they can streamline your search. They can set up an agenda for showings that makes the best use of your time, and they also have expertise regarding different areas, a definite benefit to you.
Now that we have a house, I will begin the process of setting up utilities, etc., etc. This post is certainly long enough, so I'll save the next steps for the next post.
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