Saturday 7 February 2009

Hey, dropkick! I'm the customer! The customer!Memo to Perth real estate agents. Photographs like this (above) on your joint website are seriously off-putting.
At least take the washing in before you shoot — especially since it's hanging from the front of the house!
And move the yucky-looking rubbish bin out of the picture:I'm suddenly not a fan of Perth real estate agents.
Four of them have not bothered to answer emails I've sent them about properties.
Too cool, too busy, too important?
Too hungover?
Too up themselves?
This is the conversation I had with an irascible fifth, who did at least answer his mobile phone.
'Yeah? Tom here.'
'Hi — I'm ringing about the property you're advertising to rent at ... [insert address here].
'Yeah?'
'Can you tell me about the backyard? Is the outdoor living area under perspex or shadecloth — the website pictures don't ...'
'Shadecloth, love.' [Grrrrr ... from me.]
'I'm moving back to Perth from OS in just under two weeks, any chance you could email me with details of properties like that one so I can ...'
'You've gotta be kidding [snorts derisively]. I don't have time to do that. What? Email you individually? Just go back to the website and keep looking there. Not that anyone's going to let property to you that you've only seen online [another snort].'

I think life in the US has spoilt me.

9 comments:

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

oof... that reminds me of house hunting (before the crash.) It's not too much better now. How do these people survive, after their initial crawl out from under the rock?

So stay here!

I get a little sad when I think of you going far away.

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

Oh man...don't get me started... Have been there and done that.

I'll email you details of the Property Manager we ended up renting through. She was excellent. But it's all dependant on what's available at the time.

M said...

Kidding? I would've thought that they'd be FALLING OVER THEMSELVES to find you a property in this market. Trouble is, Perth hasn't hit rock bottom yet but when it does I bet someone returns your call.

We once bought a property sight unseen from interstate and it made the local papers. Your old local paper, actually.

M said...

site

Anonymous said...

Well, love, what do you expect. He probably needed to get his expensive motor vehicle to the car detailer to freshen up its new car scent!

Funny - my word verification is - aneyingf. Makes me think 'annoying f***'.

Good luck with the move.

Pondside said...

Oh dear - that doesn't sound promising. Is the market so hot in Perth that they can behave like that?
You really do need a letter, so I'm sending you 'H' for house, which is what I Hope you'll soon Have.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lesley, I've been lurking on your blog for a few weeks now (found you through Fairlie). I live in Perth and have to agree how bad the real estate agents are! It's like they couldn't care less about your business. In some areas of Perth the slowdown hasn't really bitten yet, so maybe they're still riding the boom years mentality? They're in for a rude shock soon. (And those terrible photos they put on real estate websites drive me crazy!)
Good luck with your hunt.

Jennifer said...

Why does an already stressful process have to be made worse by people like that? And where's a good voodoo doll when you need one?

Karen said...

Les, report this conversation to the principal of his firm. Dob! Dob!