Georgia wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:49 pm
If it's so hard to find a rental, why are they so caught up on getting you in their house? Surely it's easy for them to rent? That's what I would be asking myself, anyway.
Just trust your instincts! Good luck.
I have been.
As rentals have been so in demand our realtor told us to write a letter with our application which we did and they loved that. They also like the fact that we’re renting our own house out so understand what it’s like being a landlord too.
We’re meeting at 5pm.
I need to keep some perspective as well though. We’re all a bit flat after the weekend so I’d make a deal with the devil right now.
I was going to say that too - about renting your own house out too. Our landlord definitely liked that which is one of the reasons we got the house over the other applicants.
That sounds brilliant good luck! It sounds like the landlord has had a reality check that it may be their house, but it needs to be somebody else’s home.
I would want to discuss the right to quiet enjoyment* factor, if you go ahead. How often are they likely to be popping in to check on their beloved floor? Are there regular checks built into the agreement? To be fair, they seem as keen on you as they are on their furnishings so may well want to keep you happy and won't be a nuisance, but it would be worth checking as much as possible in advance (*especially as the right to quiet enjoyment may not actually be a right over there).
I have never had a landlord who popped in. I did once rent a house through a rental agency that passed on a complaint to us (from a "neighbour") that we had a naked Barbie doll on our front porch. We said we would like to know who the neighbour was, as we were actually quite freaked out that someone was paying such close attention to our house and even managed to track down our rental agency. Turned out the owner of the house lived in the same neighbourhood and were keeping tabs on us. (Our friend had put the doll there as a joke, which makes no sense now and I can't even remember why, but it was funny at the time and not exactly grounds for suspicion!) They actually got rid of the rental agency and dealt with us directly, and they were fine. They asked if they could pop over to do some garden maintenance once and that was about it.
That is so weird, Georgia. I know the landlords live nearby and are friends with most people in the community so there will be spies. That’s been the case with at least half of the places we’ve seen where the landlord lives nearby and is organising the rental themselves.
There is a clause in the contract that says that we are entitled to 24 hours notice ahead of their visit and their is nothing about any checks throughout the tenancy.
It was good! They are actually really nice and even my realtor who was very cynical said they are very different in person than how they (mainly she) come across on text/ email and she felt totally comfortable with us renting the house.
They just want their house looked after and feel that we’re likely to do that.
There is a 12 monthly check but nothing beyond that. They’ll come by with contractors if needed (for example the house is due to be painted in the spring) but they have 5(!) kids and don’t want to be running over constantly to fix or look at things.
We will probably run into them as they are members of the country club* and we’ll look at joining for the pool as it’s literally a 1 minute drive from the house.
* here a country club seems to be anything that has a golf course and a pool. It’s not some swanky, ludicrously priced one with strict entry requirements obviously.
We’re removing all clauses that we’re not happy with I.e hard wood floors and one other ($75 call out fee) and should sign later today.
