I have been looking at houses for rent in the inner north Melbourne area of Fitzroy and Carlton. These two suburbs are very familiar to me because 8 years ago, I was looking in this same area to rent a house. It was a dreadful experience having to go from one inspection to the next on public transport. The night before, I had to create a schedule every weekend for 3 months to make sure I am able to view the houses. Every single house was important to view. Obviously, after 4 weekends of searching, the desperation of finding a place sets in and houses that really do not meet the criteria starts popping up the on my list of houses to inspect.
There was one particular real estate agency that stuck out….in a very bad way. Very, very bad way. I can’t mention the agency’s name here but I am more than happy to advice people about not leasing from them. To be fair, the wife of the owner is very lovely and helpful and when I needed some information, she was very accommodating. However, her pleasant outlook doesn’t negate the fact that, during that time, they do not seem to inform their tenants that an inspection is happening. This happened twice, on two different tenants with two different townhouses in Fitzroy. One tenant was kind enough to let people in and show the place even though they were still a month away from moving. The other tenant was clearly annoyed. I would do if I had a few friends over for an early dinner! On both occasions, the agents from this real estate agency did not show up. Well, the second one was really late and showed up as everyone was leaving and it was very, very clear the tenant wasn’t going to let anyone in.
The other incident happened in 2006 when I was looking for a house to buy. I saw this 4 bedroom, two storey house in Abbotsford. It had a walled fence around and the lawns were sprawling for that part of town. So when the agent (we are still talking about the same real estate agency) opened the door from the inside, there was a heavy smell of decomposition that rushed out of the front door. Fortunately, the odour was not emanating from a dead person. It was just a dead rat splayed on the staircase landing. To top this inspection off, one of the bedrooms upstairs had 2 twirled, semi-hydrated animal faeces. I sh*t you not. Right there, on the middle of the room, on the carpet. So that was a good time to dash out. The agent asked us “Are you interested? I can email you the Section 32.” I replied with, “There’s sh*t on the carpet.”
