Shame, Canberra Real Estates, Shame

FioBla said :

nyssa1976 said :

Real Estate Agents DON’T tell you why. They aren’t required to even if you do ask. So the OP has no other recourse but to come on here.

And in my case we offered to match our current rent for a place (they were $50 less per week) and still got told “no”. If you have a bad agent you will get screwed over.

LOL at “recourse”. Anonymous person rants about unnamed estate agents = recourse.

Way I look at it: suppose a person says “I went to 7 car rental agencies, who had a look at my application/driving history/references and none would rent to me. Even though I offered to pay $500 above usual price. And they won’t tell me why…”.

OK. Might be the car rental agencies fault [rant]. Or might be you. But of course it’s not you. So it’s must be the agency. It must be some discrimination. They hate kids. Or cats. Or must be the whole damn city not cutting you a break. #lifeisunfair #skywhale.

Yes, moving totally sucks.

Not everyone is a feral that features on ACA after trashing houses.

I moved to Canberra in 2007, September. I had an excellent rental record, no credit issues, good references, no pets, a rental resume and a high income job. It took me from September until April 2008 of going out nearly every weekend applying for at least 3 – 4 properties at a time.

It isn’t until you start getting into rental auctions that you get agents responding and putting yours at the top of the pile.

nyssa1976 said :

Real Estate Agents DON’T tell you why. They aren’t required to even if you do ask. So the OP has no other recourse but to come on here.

And in my case we offered to match our current rent for a place (they were $50 less per week) and still got told “no”. If you have a bad agent you will get screwed over.

LOL at “recourse”. Anonymous person rants about unnamed estate agents = recourse.

Way I look at it: suppose a person says “I went to 7 car rental agencies, who had a look at my application/driving history/references and none would rent to me. Even though I offered to pay $500 above usual price. And they won’t tell me why…”.

OK. Might be the car rental agencies fault [rant]. Or might be you. But of course it’s not you. So it’s must be the agency. It must be some discrimination. They hate kids. Or cats. Or must be the whole damn city not cutting you a break. #lifeisunfair #skywhale.

Yes, moving totally sucks.

nyssa1976 said :

Our problem? Sticking to the Tenancy Act when we went without heat for SEVEN weeks last winter (-6.7 nights folks) due to a broken ducted heating system that almost burnt the house down. Dealing with no less than FOUR trespass issues by the owner – he doesn’t knock, he just comes right on the property and with no notification. So we know it’s our property manager. We have completed a Notice to Remedy and spoken to the Tenants Union etc.
.

I had the almost the same issue, except I put up with it until I moved house. The landlord (polish I’m assuming and his mute grinning son) would just turn up with no notice. We’d only know he was turning up if we looked out the window and saw his car in the driveway.

It happened many many times, we complained to the real estate and only got a apathetic reply. The last straw was on my birthday this year, I had been studying at the library and had my phone on silent. I had been getting a few calls that day because well, it was my birthday. They were mostly from private numbers. When I did answer one call it ended up being my parents. So I figured if it was anyone else then they would have left a message if it was important.

Roll up later in the afternoon, hanging out in the Dil cave and we look out the window, the landlord walking up the driveway, He ended up going off his nut inside because he had called a couple of times and I hadn’t answered. Trying to explain that 1. He had been calling from a private number, 2. he never left any messages at all. 3. I was in a library and couldn’t pick up a call straight away, just all fell on deaf ears and further encouraged his rage. He then started going on about ‘this house was perfect until you people came here! I want you out! I want you all out!’ This was in front of the wife and two small kids. Holding back my rage I focused on calming him down. I was livid, i’m not paid to be oncall for a landlord.

Afterwards we organised to gtfo and move somewhere else. Landland was a ****** asshole.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Surprise surprise, real estate agents and land lords acting like dirtbags.

Surprise surprise CGN generalises again.

MissChief said :

Mentioning pets will limit your options. Our neighbours used to park their car in our drive with their pets in it when they had an inspection. They kept a dog, cat and parrot.

The problem isn’t the pets as much as what they might do to the house. If a person is fastidious about the house they rent and responsible about their pets, they can normally get away with keeping them on the side.

Actually, yes, OP, no reason to even mention your cat.

Mentioning pets will limit your options. Our neighbours used to park their car in our drive with their pets in it when they had an inspection. They kept a dog, cat and parrot.

The problem isn’t the pets as much as what they might do to the house. If a person is fastidious about the house they rent and responsible about their pets, they can normally get away with keeping them on the side.

nyssa1976 said :

Actually the post was spot on. The OP needs to find out WHY they are being turned away, not come on here sobbing about how they missed out and property managers are bastards.

Real Estate Agents DON’T tell you why. They aren’t required to even if you do ask. So the OP has no other recourse but to come on here.

And in my case we offered to match our current rent for a place (they were $50 less per week) and still got told “no”. If you have a bad agent you will get screwed over.

They may not have to tell you why, but in my experience ask them and they will. I mean to say agents and owners need (good) tenants as much as tenants need owners.

Surprise surprise, real estate agents and land lords acting like dirtbags.

JC said :

Dork said :

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

Actually the post was spot on. The OP needs to find out WHY they are being turned away, not come on here sobbing about how they missed out and property managers are bastards.

I often disagree with arescarti on property matters, but not this time. He is spot on.

JC said :

Dork said :

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

Actually the post was spot on. The OP needs to find out WHY they are being turned away, not come on here sobbing about how they missed out and property managers are bastards.

Real Estate Agents DON’T tell you why. They aren’t required to even if you do ask. So the OP has no other recourse but to come on here.

And in my case we offered to match our current rent for a place (they were $50 less per week) and still got told “no”. If you have a bad agent you will get screwed over.

Sooo much sympathy for you. Been in that situation years ago where it seemed all hope was lost. I hope something comes up roses for you soon.

PS OP if you are having that much trouble is your name down for public housing?

Dork said :

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

Actually the post was spot on. The OP needs to find out WHY they are being turned away, not come on here sobbing about how they missed out and property managers are bastards.

You do realise that it is not the property manager that decides if you get the place, it is up to the owner. It is THEIR house after all. If you have been turned down so many times there must be a reason for it.For example maybe the owners think you are at risk of over extending yourself and as such are a rent risk to them. The cat would have next to nothing to do with it. Have you bothered to seek feed back and ask why you have missed out.

So maybe you need to go look in the mirror before blaming everyone else for your inability to find a house.

Dork said :

Like ‘wear and tear’ gets fixed anyway. The amount of stuff I reported as safety issues in my rental that never got fixed was ridiculous. They never even replied to my reports. Not only that but after we moved out they upped the rent and did not resolve the issues.

I think that owners are in a lot better position than renters. Reason being is that owners will get the occasional bad renter. Where as people who rent have to deal with bad real estate agents and bad owners and there is a lot more bad real estate agents out there.

Occasional bad renter? Well yes if you screen the applicants appropriately which is exactly what this is about.

Like ‘wear and tear’ gets fixed anyway. The amount of stuff I reported as safety issues in my rental that never got fixed was ridiculous. They never even replied to my reports. Not only that but after we moved out they upped the rent and did not resolve the issues.

I think that owners are in a lot better position than renters. Reason being is that owners will get the occasional bad renter. Where as people who rent have to deal with bad real estate agents and bad owners and there is a lot more bad real estate agents out there.

arescarti42 said :

Something doesn’t add up here.

Turning down potential tenants is not something property managers can afford to do in the current market, so the fact that they’re rejecting your application flat out in favor of re-advertising suggests to me that they think you’re a completely unsuitable tenant.

You need to figure out why that is. Is it your presentation? Income/ability to pay the rent? Do you have no/bad references? Are you not filling out the applications properly?

The fact that a couple was favored over your family is unsurprising, children and pets make messes, which is not what a landlord wants in their brand new house. Try applying for properties where the landlord is less likely to care (e.g. older houses in poorer condition), and you might have more success.

I hope that helps, and good luck.

I agree with you. I’ve been looking recently and for the first time in years, I had real estate agents calling me back and asking me if I’d like to make an offer on the properties I inspected. Many of them willing to be negotiable with prices and leasing arrangements.

Consider the advice that arescarti42 has given you. Also, if finding a place to live is as important as you say it is, then maybe you should get rid of the cat. It’s a better alternative than going without a place to live.

We rent out a property and manage the rental ourselves. My reading of the market is that it is definitely tougher to rent out and easier for potential tenants. We use an unusual strategy of picking people with pets as they are much more likely to stay for a while as it’s tough to find other rentals that are ok with pets. Young boisterous kids might be a little offputting – I certainly know how rough ours are on our house.

As arescarti42 said, there’s probably a reason why you are getting knocked back on rentals. As private landlords, these are some of the things we look for:
Some kind of income stability
Some kind of rental history
References that check out
A genuine approachable manner
Bothering to fill out the application with some attention to detail – if the person can’t be bothered to fill out a form, they probably won’t care much for cleaning etc.

Then we’d ask, does everything add up? Do I think these people are going to look after our house? Would they be reasonable if there was a dispute to settle? Essentially we ask ourselves would we be happy having these people live in our rental and will they stay for the long haul thereby minimising empty periods and re-rental hassle.

I looked at about 8 properties recently, applied for two (one last week and one this week) and got the second one . We would have applied for more but you know effort… (the real estate agent wasn’t at a few).

Group house – 1 public servant, 1 phd student and 1 unemployed… no pets.

We were being careful about what houses we applied for though, we had several criteria.

1. Seriously? Real estate agents were recently rated 3rd from last of the most trusted professions.

They’re real estate agents! Whaddyawant?

2. They work for the owner, not for the not-yet-even-a tenant.

http://youtu.be/M0QxQoOInV0

I am in no way attempting to be insulting, as per my average, but Captains Flat is a 15-20 minute drive from Queanbeyan and the folk out there should be more than comfortable in renting out a 1000 sq metre property for a low cost. It is a beautiful area with great scenery and wildlife, they should be well accommodating to your needs.

Dork said :

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

People who haven’t invested their hard earned money into a property always come up with this nonsense.

The post was helpful and truthful.

Bond does not even come close to covering damages in many cases, and the system for recouping costs from tenants is severely broken. It can take years to get a judgement, and even longer to wring blood from that stone.

Understand that property investment is a business. We don’t do it as a community service. In business, you do what you can to mitigate risk. People with pets and young children are a risk. People without steady incomes (including contractors) are a risk. Life’s just not fair sometimes.

what_the said :

Canberra has something like less than 1% rental availability. Agents have been picky for the ten last years I was renting there. They can afford to give it to the most qualified candidate. I remember 40 people applying for one house. It’s just how it is and it takes many people way longer than three weeks.

That used to be the case, but things have changed massively in the last 12 months. The vacancy rate has more than doubled over the last 12 months from 0.7% to 1.5% and rising. Properties coming on to the rental market at 10-15% below what they last rented for is not at all unusual, and I’ve seen some that have been reduced in price by well in excess of 20% in order for them to rent.

The demand just isn’t there at current prices, so tenants are in a much, much better position to secure accommodation than they have been in a long time.

Dork said :

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

It’s not fair, but it is what it is.

Reasonable wear and tear cannot be claimed from the bond, and the reasonable wear and tear component is likely to be higher with more people, pets and children etc.

I applied for about 20 a year and a half ago and looked at about 20 more before we got one.

We were told too young and not enough references. How are you supposed to get rental references if no one will allow you to rent?
I’m a public servant and that wasn’t enough.

arescarti42 your post is sooo unhelpful. So people are expected to live in crap housing because they have children/pets?

Any issues are what bond is for! They should only care that you are paying the rent on time.

arescarti42 said :

Turning down potential tenants is not something property managers can afford to do in the current market.

+1.

Or owners for that matter. Each day that a property is un-tenanted, the owner loses money.

Look for properties that have been up for rent for a while, or anything that says “Available Now’. Maybe offer 5 or 10 bucks above the asking rate, or offer to sign a 2 year lease, if it will save you the cost and trouble of relocating back interstate.

Canberra has something like less than 1% rental availability. Agents have been picky for the ten last years I was renting there. They can afford to give it to the most qualified candidate. I remember 40 people applying for one house. It’s just how it is and it takes many people way longer than three weeks.

I have to agree with the OP.

I’ve applied for 18 properties. I’ve now stopped. I’ve had the same job for 11 years, my partner for 6 years. We have 4 children between us (2 live FT, 2 live PT). Our personal referees gave us glowing references.

We don’t find out that we’re unsuccessful as Property Managers don’t have to let you know nor do they have to tell you why you ‘failed’ despite asking.

Our problem? Sticking to the Tenancy Act when we went without heat for SEVEN weeks last winter (-6.7 nights folks) due to a broken ducted heating system that almost burnt the house down. Dealing with no less than FOUR trespass issues by the owner – he doesn’t knock, he just comes right on the property and with no notification. So we know it’s our property manager. We have completed a Notice to Remedy and spoken to the Tenants Union etc.

We have until September, with an early leave agreement (in writing) but a friend is now looking to rent us their property privately because of all this drama.

Ironically, some of the property’s we applied for were less per week than what we are paying now….

Check out Distinct Property Management (www.distinctpm.com.au) most of their properties will take pets and you can see this on the listings page. Providing you don’t have a poor rental history and can afford the rent you should be OK.

There are a lot of Agents in Canberra who take a blanket ‘No Pets’ position which quite stupid really. I can understand if an owner doesn’t want a Doberman in a small 2 bedroom unit, or a team of pit bulls in a tiny yard – but if a property has an enclosed yard or is suitable why wouldn’t they? I know cats pee and dogs chew stuff, but the tenant is still responsible for getting any damage fixed and a good property manager will make sure they keep on top of this rather than waiting until the tenant goes to vacate to raise any issues.

Sometimes its more about finding the right Agent first and getting them to help you find the right house.

Hi there

At Luton Properties we advertise on all our listings at http://www.luton.com.au if our Owners will consider pets or not.

I sent your post to the property management team across our 8 offices so please take a look at our website and if you see anything of interest with Team Luton speak the property manager on the ad directly and we can see what we can do to assist you in finding a new home for your family and pets.

Good luck

Something doesn’t add up here.

Turning down potential tenants is not something property managers can afford to do in the current market, so the fact that they’re rejecting your application flat out in favor of re-advertising suggests to me that they think you’re a completely unsuitable tenant.

You need to figure out why that is. Is it your presentation? Income/ability to pay the rent? Do you have no/bad references? Are you not filling out the applications properly?

The fact that a couple was favored over your family is unsurprising, children and pets make messes, which is not what a landlord wants in their brand new house. Try applying for properties where the landlord is less likely to care (e.g. older houses in poorer condition), and you might have more success.

I hope that helps, and good luck.

Story of my life. I must have applied for 100’s of private Canberra rentals in my life. Being a single parent it is actually impossible to rent privately in Canberra. My income is too ‘low’ for the affordable housing scheme even though , I have done the math and could afford it easily.
I have been in public housing and had a horrendous dangerous few years and was placed on ‘high needs’ transfer list which is a wait time of 2 years. How 2 years is high needs i don’t know.

I don’t know what we are meant to do in this city , honestly.