The price at all is ridiculous. Touring a rental is a sales action. Yes you have to pay for someone to administer a tour, but that’s a cost of doing business. It’s also weird because you generally don’t pay to tour homes for purchase.
Comment on Charging to tour rental properties...
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
We’re missing some critical data here.
The price is really low. Not in a value proposition way but looking at minimum wage…
If you have an agent that drives to the rental property, talks to you let you in walks around with you for 15 minutes maybe
That’s $5 for 10 tours. That’s $0.50 per tour.
These have to be virtual tours, or VR tours. Or maybe the real first tired of getting stood up, or tired of people trying to see every property that exists without ever buying anything.
There’s something strange with that.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Or maybe the real first tired of getting stood up, or tired of people trying to see every property that exists without ever buying anything.
Those sound like “cost of doing business” as a landlord/management agent.
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
[deleted]SacredHeartAttack@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You keep saying this. Is that better? Like what makes any of what they are doing ok?
GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
You sure? Cause nothing about what you’re talking about is critical. Part of being a renter is the cost associated with showing units and convincing people to buy. You’re lucky enough to have the capital to own rental property that’s essentially passive income. If you don’t want to put in the effort to show a unit to a potential tenant, then sell the real estate and fuck off with your money.
“Oh, you’re interested in a desktop PC? It cost us money to power it on and show how well it runs while playing games or using it as a workstation. So to cover that cost we’re going to have to charge you $5 to mess around with a display model.”
“Test drive a used car on our lot? You’re using 5 minutes of fuel and wearing the tires so $5 please.”
“Welcome to your local shopping mall. It costs us money to keep the place cool in the summer and we’re tired of people coming in and not buying something so to make sure we recapture that cost, we’re charging $5 at the door.”
FOOH
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Yeah, gone forbid they ask you for a way that ends up giving them your legal name and your home address and a likelihood of your credit rating No one would ever want that for a rental system. /s
FOOH Right back at you.
Stovetop@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You do that when you submit an application, not when you are just looking. Those details are none of their business if I have a look and decide no.
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I agree completely. I’m not saying that it’s a good system I’m just trying to figure out how they were doing anything useful with a 50-cent charge for a tour.
FishFace@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You’re missing the point, which is that estate agents already get paid by the landlord for this. Charging renters is just extra money for doing what they already did.
And in sane places it doesn’t happen, and is often illegal.
MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
It’s real.
Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I take issue with the phrase “landlords don’t need to lift a single finger”
I’m in the process of selling my house (in the UK) right now so I can move to somewhere cheaper. We have people coming round to view it on maybe a twice- or thrice-weekly basis. I don’t even know their names. The estate agent (American: “realtor”) handles all of that. I just get a phone call telling me they’ve got someone who wants to come and view at X date and time, all I have to do is say yes or no then arrange to not be home. It’s all included in the frankly breathtaking sum I’m paying the estate agent.
I can’t imagine rental properties are different in any meaningful way.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Low?! The price should be zero.
If you’re trying to sell a product, the last thing you want to do is create a barrier between potential customers and the sales pitch. Most people are going to look at the free homes first, and probably move into one of those before they pay a fee to see something they might not even want.
The only way this fee helps the company is if they have a monopoly on the area and people have no other choice than to pay to play.
Witchfire@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you have an agent that drives to the rental property, talks to you let you in walks around with you for 15 minutes maybe
Half the time they just send you a (usually wrong) door code or tell you to knock on the door and ask the existing tenants.
But also, it should never be on the renter (the customer) to pay a broker whose only job is to post the property on rental sites
relativestranger@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
there’s probably a commission system built-in to pay the value of a month’s rent or something to the ‘agent’ when you sign a lease. which means, of course, they’re financially motivated to steer you to better paying properties (for them), not better units or locations for you.
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
One month rent was the going rate for a real estate agent to fill a rental for you in my area 6 months ago
jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
rumba@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
They’re self tours. They’re forcing you to pay a pittance with a identifiable credit card (not a gift card) which gives them your billing address The name associated with your bank account and with a quick joint through Nexus you’re approximate credit score and amount of money you make.
At 50 cents a tour nobody’s making any money off of it they’re not even making enough money to pay for the internet connected lock they put on the door