Q: House showing when rental home for sale
I allowed a showing yesterday of the house I am renting. I am moving in January when my lease is up and I want to help out the owners. The listing agent has not disclosed in the listing that the home is currently rented so 75% of the showings so far are for people expecting to move in. Yesterday, the agent who arrived was treating me as if she were serving a search warrant. I called the listing agent afterwards and he claims not to know her name and that everything is done “by computer”. There was another showing scheduled today and I said I would require the name of the agent and the agency they work for before future showings. He said I won’t give you anybody’s name and I expect you to show the property today as scheduled. I told him to cancel future showings then because I don’t feel safe not knowing who is just gonna show up. Is this normal?
A:
Talk to your landlord and ask them to deal with the agent. It sounds like the agent considers you a bother. That you want to have privacy and enjoyment of your home is not unreasonable, you are paying rent and are entitled to it. Its possible that your lease covers this situation and that may control, but I think your landlord would not want you to be treated like this.
Listing agents do have the ability to set limits on showings. That does not mean that some other agents with clients looking will follow all the rules all the time. Someone might still just ring the doorbell and ask, but that is rude and unprofessional for an agent to do so.
So, ask your landlords to help you with this -- tell them you need advance notice so the place can be clean and ready to show and you are not unduly inconvenienced. Again, unless its written in your lease it is not reasonable for you to have your home invaded by anyone at anytime they choose.
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