Real estate agents (the saga continues)
Oh dear. And I thought Saturday was bad. This morning was worse. At the risk of losing my anonymity, I think I need to name the agency now because I reached the stage this morning where I won't sign a lease that they're managing. I don't care how good the property is. If the Professionals New Farm treat their prospective tenants this badly, I don't want to know how badly they treat their current tenants.
To cut a long story short, I was supposed to see 4 properties this morning. And I saw 1. After organising all of this on Saturday. And yep, this is the same agency I had all of the trouble with on Saturday as well. Not because any of the properties had been let, which is an understandable reason, but because the agent/s really just weren't competent.
I found out this morning, less than an hour before we were due to meet there, that one of the properties wasn't available for inspection until Friday. You'd think she could have told me that at some stage between Saturday morning and Tuesday afternoon hey? Then we arranged to meet at one of the other properties. But it turns out that I went to one and she went to the other. The names aren't that similar, and I was very clear on which one I wanted to meet at. If she had said then that it wasn't available until 9:30am, I could have met her at the other one instead. I honestly think that the girl has the same problem as my aunt, she just doesn't listen on the phone. She hears what she expects to hear, and not what you say. I always thought it was because my aunt is in her 60's and a little deaf, but it seems this condition may occur in the young and dumb as well. I mean, the job of a rental agent is really not that hard. It's simply a matter of people skills and time management. Not that dissimilar from any office job really.
Without going into too much detail, that was just the beginning of being stuffed around. The girl obviously knew nothing about the property. And when I informed her that I wasn't interested in seeing any other properties managed by the Professionals New Farm because I had been stuffed around so much, she tried to engage me in an argument in the middle of the street. Because of course, it was all my fault. I walked away. She swore at me. Not the best way to deal with a customer complaint when you're in a service industry, especially one that relies on word of mouth and good referrals to be successful.
So anyway, I've made a complaint to the agency. In writing. With details. And I'll never deal with them again. Which includes when I buy. Big mistake of theirs really, since I'm likely to be buying in the next year whatever happens with the decisions I'm facing now. And am likely to sell and buy again within 10 to 15 years. And considering my friendship group, they're likely to lose up to 100 customers from word of mouth alone. Many of my friends live in the area. Many buy properties which they sell or rent out when they're transferred or go overseas. Good real estate agents, like lawyers, work on the long term in developing clients. Early 30's professionals like me are their bread and butter. And we talk about who to use. The Professionals have previously had a pretty good name in my circle. But I can't recommend an agency which I think has shown a high level of incompentency. Even for real estate agents.
/rant
On a completely other note, I was feeling completely chuffed with myself yesterday afternoon. I've finally completed the training package I've been putting together for about the last month. It's been a matter of collecting materials together in a logical form and taking ideas and removing the legalese from them so that the non-lawyers I work with will understand the concepts. I've found that many lawyers seem to write training materials as they would for a fellow lawyer - it's like reading a textbook. They include case references and quote judges and excerpt legislation without giving the context. Now most of us lawyers find what judges say pretty incomprehensible and interpretation of legislation is frequently subject to vigorous argument, so how do you expect your standard government audience to get it? Especially in my area, where they are mostly scientists. So anyway, I collate the material, de-legalese it, put into some sort of context and then shove it out there as a completed work. It's a lot of work, but it's not hard - a graduate could do it. And for this, they seem to think I'm some sort of genius. I don't get these people.
Oh, and I had the weirdest sort of half dream last night. I was having trouble falling asleep - I think I was too hot, I finally hopped up to have a shower and put the fan on which cooled me down and I fell asleep not long after. But anyway, when I was in the weird sort of snoozing state, when you're half asleep but half awake, I could have sworn that there was a spider on my bed. I can even describe it - it was about 3cm in diameter (including legs) and pale and spindly, a bit more body than a daddy longlegs, but nowhere near as hairy and scary as a huntsman. It seemed real enough that I quite literally leaped from my bed. I went from lying down to standing up about 3/4 metre from my bed in one move. But there was no spider there.
My heart was racing, the adrenelin was pumping and I took my bed apart making sure. No spider. So I had that shower (partially to cool down, partially to calm down) and watched some TV before falling properly asleep.
Listening to: No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
To cut a long story short, I was supposed to see 4 properties this morning. And I saw 1. After organising all of this on Saturday. And yep, this is the same agency I had all of the trouble with on Saturday as well. Not because any of the properties had been let, which is an understandable reason, but because the agent/s really just weren't competent.
I found out this morning, less than an hour before we were due to meet there, that one of the properties wasn't available for inspection until Friday. You'd think she could have told me that at some stage between Saturday morning and Tuesday afternoon hey? Then we arranged to meet at one of the other properties. But it turns out that I went to one and she went to the other. The names aren't that similar, and I was very clear on which one I wanted to meet at. If she had said then that it wasn't available until 9:30am, I could have met her at the other one instead. I honestly think that the girl has the same problem as my aunt, she just doesn't listen on the phone. She hears what she expects to hear, and not what you say. I always thought it was because my aunt is in her 60's and a little deaf, but it seems this condition may occur in the young and dumb as well. I mean, the job of a rental agent is really not that hard. It's simply a matter of people skills and time management. Not that dissimilar from any office job really.
Without going into too much detail, that was just the beginning of being stuffed around. The girl obviously knew nothing about the property. And when I informed her that I wasn't interested in seeing any other properties managed by the Professionals New Farm because I had been stuffed around so much, she tried to engage me in an argument in the middle of the street. Because of course, it was all my fault. I walked away. She swore at me. Not the best way to deal with a customer complaint when you're in a service industry, especially one that relies on word of mouth and good referrals to be successful.
So anyway, I've made a complaint to the agency. In writing. With details. And I'll never deal with them again. Which includes when I buy. Big mistake of theirs really, since I'm likely to be buying in the next year whatever happens with the decisions I'm facing now. And am likely to sell and buy again within 10 to 15 years. And considering my friendship group, they're likely to lose up to 100 customers from word of mouth alone. Many of my friends live in the area. Many buy properties which they sell or rent out when they're transferred or go overseas. Good real estate agents, like lawyers, work on the long term in developing clients. Early 30's professionals like me are their bread and butter. And we talk about who to use. The Professionals have previously had a pretty good name in my circle. But I can't recommend an agency which I think has shown a high level of incompentency. Even for real estate agents.
/rant
On a completely other note, I was feeling completely chuffed with myself yesterday afternoon. I've finally completed the training package I've been putting together for about the last month. It's been a matter of collecting materials together in a logical form and taking ideas and removing the legalese from them so that the non-lawyers I work with will understand the concepts. I've found that many lawyers seem to write training materials as they would for a fellow lawyer - it's like reading a textbook. They include case references and quote judges and excerpt legislation without giving the context. Now most of us lawyers find what judges say pretty incomprehensible and interpretation of legislation is frequently subject to vigorous argument, so how do you expect your standard government audience to get it? Especially in my area, where they are mostly scientists. So anyway, I collate the material, de-legalese it, put into some sort of context and then shove it out there as a completed work. It's a lot of work, but it's not hard - a graduate could do it. And for this, they seem to think I'm some sort of genius. I don't get these people.
Oh, and I had the weirdest sort of half dream last night. I was having trouble falling asleep - I think I was too hot, I finally hopped up to have a shower and put the fan on which cooled me down and I fell asleep not long after. But anyway, when I was in the weird sort of snoozing state, when you're half asleep but half awake, I could have sworn that there was a spider on my bed. I can even describe it - it was about 3cm in diameter (including legs) and pale and spindly, a bit more body than a daddy longlegs, but nowhere near as hairy and scary as a huntsman. It seemed real enough that I quite literally leaped from my bed. I went from lying down to standing up about 3/4 metre from my bed in one move. But there was no spider there.
My heart was racing, the adrenelin was pumping and I took my bed apart making sure. No spider. So I had that shower (partially to cool down, partially to calm down) and watched some TV before falling properly asleep.
Listening to: No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
posted by OLS |
Wednesday, November 03, 2004 | 1:27 pm
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