What the actual fuck
Charging to tour rental properties...
Submitted 3 weeks ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://media.piefed.world/posts/AP/50/AP50SyiNzKoDHwv.png
Comments
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
socialsecurity@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Last few months... Grifting has seriously accelerated
SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Companies have been accelerating their grifting at an alarming rate since the COVID days
Notyou@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Just more rent seeking behavior.
ook@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
But you suuuurely tip when you look at a rental?
RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
Did you tip when you wrote this comment?
ook@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Of course, but I unfortunately cannot tip you because my payment processor doesn’t allow to tip NSFW comments.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’ve got a tip for you.
(I’m referring to the tip of my penis.)
comrade_twisty@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
There’s a 20% suggested tip on the $250 non refundable application deposit?
SARGE@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
$250 non refundable application deposit?
LMAO I’d sooner torch the rental property than pay just to APPLY to hopefully live there.
SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If they nickel and dime simple visitors like that, I can only imagine what they do to the people who actually rent the place.
potpotato@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If this weren’t such a huge red flag, I’d just knock on the door and pay the current tenant $5.
derpgon@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Might get a coffee out of it
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Rents are too high for a single income to cover anymore, so I’ve been looking for roommates. Even the websites about finding roommates expect you to pay.
To be clear, they have a free tier - but unless you pay, you can’t read the messages you receive. You can read the first line, but the rest is locked. I gave up with one place because the boomer trying to rent a room refused to send me an email. I told him three times to please just email me his message because I couldn’t read it on the site, but because he could read messages fine, he thought it was a setting he had to change. He kept responding with “Okay try now” and didn’t seem to understand that he can’t “settings” other people out from behind a paywall.
All he had to do was copy/paste his message and send it a different way, but he wouldn’t do it. I eventually gave up because the thought of living with someone that’s unable to follow such simple directions sounds more trouble than it’s worth.
Anyway, point is, even if you’re so poor that you need to seek out roommates, you’re still expected to pay a subscription. I don’t even know what to do anymore.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Sounds like a market ready for disruption
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 weeks ago
In the romulan disruptor kind of way?
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Isn’t this what Craigslist is for?
Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you were replying with an email address odds are he was not getting it due to the site actively trying to keep people on their site.
lunarul@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A site charging for reading messages will most definitely censor out emails and phone numbers and will have it in their ToS that you’re not allowed to take conversations outside the platform.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Probably. Not much I can do. I’m not paying for a subscription. If anyone has any advice for finding roommates otherwise, I would very much appreciate it!
mars@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
What is this app actually called? I can’t id it from screenshot, and every comment here seems to be talking about it without actually naming it.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Oh, I’m talking about websites I’ve personally attempted to use, which were whatever non-sketchy-looking options came up on DuckDuckGo. I have no idea what OP’s post is from.
devilish666@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
mrductape@eviltoast.org 3 weeks ago
Just people making passive income guys, nothing to see here.
We once heard of a service that would help us find a rental house. So we went there, had to pay for an appointment. Turns out they do nothing you cannot do yourself, and you pay a lot. They literally just put you in the system, which you can do yourself, and when you get a house through that system, which is free and from the government, they make you pay through the nose for that house.
Of course, since I am native in this country I have no need for a service like that. Turns out they mostly do this to people who don’t speak the language. I guess they offer a service, but their fees are excessive for what they do. They abuse the fact those people don’t know any better.
There’s lots of people making a profit from somebody else’s house finding misery and I hate it.
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
God I love capitalism. Insert SpongeBob shouting meme
StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This reminds me of the Italian websites posing as official sites that resell tickets for exhibits that can be purchased much cheaper directly from the exhibit’s actual website. The exhibit sites tend to be in Italian only or are more difficult to find.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
my parent went through that service, except they were trying rent out the other house, they are rich by any means. but it was the same process the agents basically did nothing, just put your house in thier database thats it.
acchariya@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds like France. There’s a whole industry of people charging a months rent or more just to make a few phone calls and assemble some basic documents. Not easy to rent a place by any means, but these providers do not offer a good value because they are not actually real estate agents.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
Hah what are you going to do, buy a house instead? We're all fucked once this is the norm.
Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I don’t know if this applies in the US but multiple people can take out a mortgage against the same property. If you have 3/4 trustworthy friends then you can pool your money to buy a place. It’s complicated but better to invest your money in your own property than to line the pockets of cunt landlords and letting agents.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That would require people to have three to four close friends that could tolerate their presence. That’s an exceedingly rare thing in the US as we’re mostly all intolerable cunts.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And bam, new laws come out that makes it illegal for more than X people who aren’t related to each other to share a home.
This is actually a thing in many places so people can’t do what you just described, isn’t American Freedumb so beautiful
Fuzzypyro@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Co-ownership is kind of a horrible idea overall. What happens when one of the 4 people wants to use the property as collateral for a loan?
Not to mention that this promotes increase in property costs without fixing the issue. If the norm is to continue pooling money between individuals then real estate can continue to raise prices. Then you just need 6 friends 10 friends 14 friends etc. we need a market crash and we need corporate residential ownership to be heavily regulated.
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Create a trust instead.
Contact an attorney to draft a trust where you all share equity at an amount you all agree to. The terms of the trust should indicate how someone sells their interest and what happens upon default, etc.
The trust buys the property and owns it. Ownership is managed through the trust.
The hardest part is qualifying for a loan. You’re essentially operating as a business and most home loans are designed for people and couples.
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I knew people who did this after college with an apartment building. Not sure that’s feasible these days but that seems like it would be much easier to transition out of than a roommate situation.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I haven’t really had any delusions that I’ll ever be able to afford to buy a house anyway, but I’m kind of at the point where I don’t even want to. Maybe a parcel of land or something…
BigDiction@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This has gotta be some NYC shit
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
In a region near me the rental market is 99.3% full.
Scumbag landlords charge $200 to view these horrid places no one will ever rent, and their job is showing people the place, one after another. It’s only a half-dozen a day, but that’s a good wage and there’s no end of hopefuls. Apparently, needing a landlord to come out to show you the place is a “call-out”, even if he’s just upstairs.
Of course that’s the “frbo” market; the rental companies can’t get away with that yet. They wish, though.
untorquer@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well if you have 5 vacant units artificial scarcity is pretty easy to achieve by only putting one to market at a time.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In a region near me the rental market is 99.3% full.
I hear that from every landlord in every market, whether the economy is booming or shrinking and people are coming or going.
I have never been quoted an occupancy rate less than 90%. I’ve been in buildings under construction and heard “Yes, we’ve already leased most of our units! You’re getting the last ones! So lucky!”
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Wait so the people who refuse to go with those big companies (aren’t there principled folks like that, maybe they have a name I’m forgetting) have to deal with that instead?
It was like people who have to pay some fee I thought… searches oh it’s the no broker fee people. So do no broker fee ppl often pay viewing fees? And viewing fees are legal?
chowdertailz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Do the unlimited and have constant tours for all 30 days. Get friends to individually do the same. Pester the ever living fuck out of them.
brem@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
r/maliciouscompliance
Oops, bad habit.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
You should make a Lemmy alternative
joyjoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Why would they sell/rent when they make so much money on tours?
rozodru@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I mean really just spruce up one unit, charge for tours, charge for applications, why even bother renting?
I mean places already charge just to submit an app.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
People do that, its pretty clear cut fraud though so it usually doesnt work out the best in the end.
Evotech@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The idea is proably just to filter out people who aren’t serious / not gonna show up.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Its common to pay a down payment to hold a rental, this is just a shittier version of that.
Pudutr0n@feddit.cl 3 weeks ago
See, you pay us for the privilege of being considered as a candidate to pay us.
brem@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Nobody tell OP about rental application fees, they’ll explode.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
If we can get people to do it near landlords we might fix the system
brem@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
…or we could raise our children to not be landlords.
Soup@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is 100% worse, though. Both should come with being shot in the street as punishment but at least application fees is paying for something you want and not paying to see if you even want it at all.
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
agencies: “housing is just not unaffordable enough. I wonder what else we can do to contribute?”
SillyDude@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
This is why I’ll boondock until its completely illegal. Then if they don’t force me into the gray pod then I’m going feral hobo until I die in a fight with a racoon over some berries.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I know this is funny, but to anyone reading this comment, I implore you:
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
What’s the biggest thing you miss? The idea certainly appeals to me; you have to pay to exist as a person in a building but there’s free parking everywhere. And you can do a bit of nomadism.
SillyDude@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
A nice shitter and a bathtub. I have a toilet and do shit in the woods as much as possible. But a reliable porcelain throne feels great. I can realese some genuine horrors and its just gone in a flush or two. I also like just laying down in a nice hot bath with some bubble bath, little scented Epsom salt, drink a beer and smoke a j.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I want to shit down the neck stump of whoever came up with this
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In some cases, arson is morally perfectly justifiable.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Why do we even need people to show us apartments. My best experience when looking for a my last apartment was a place that had a automated system, you scan your drivers license for verification, their app gives you the address and the time to visit, when you get there it gives you a lockbox code that will contain the keys to the apartment, you check the apartment out and return the keys to the lockbox on your way out, this should be the default for every rental apartment visit. Every agent I had to deal with was less than useful, this industry needs to die.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
How do they defend against abuse? Like if someone steals a toaster on their visit how do you know if it was person 1 or person 5 who visited that day? Do they have to have someone to check after each visit? Why don’t they just do the viewing?
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m talking about empty apartments and I assume someone comes to check up the state of the apartment once a day or more
frostysauce@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I assumed the apartments being showed were empty.
TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well I need the 24/7 phone and chat support. What if I have a question about my ability to tour a property at 2am?
Rolder@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
It would be tempting to get that plan and call them at the stupidest hours possible. But it’s probably outsourced to India or just AI
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 3 weeks ago
It’s outsourced to what the company calls AI however it’s just some people in India. Everyone except for you is making money in that scenario.
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.
jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
[deleted]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
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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.
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.
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.
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.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Mao did one thing right
puchaczyk@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Soon you’ll have to buy a subscription to tour rental houses.
nucleative@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This is wild, but I have at least one guess where they might be coming from with this idea.
At one point I had to move out of a house that I owned for a while so I wanted to let it.
People who want to rent can be super flaky and dishonest. Seriously 4 out of 5 or more are like this.
They make appointments then don’t show up and ghost you. Or they call 5 minutes late to say they’ll be there in 3 hours.
Or everything seems good until you do credit checks and find they were evicted from the last place and haven’t made a payment on their credit card for 3 years plus they have a felony conviction from a few years ago for beating up some guy.
Or when checking their income is sufficient, their boss says yeah, they used to work here but not anymore.
Potential renters never tell you this stuff until you already put hours into talking and going out to show the place to them.
I’m just a regular guy with a job (who does pay his bills) so this takes a lot of time, fuck that noise.
Basically charging people $5 will make them not come if they know they won’t qualify, saving everybody the time.
haloduder@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
I don’t even blame that at this point.
Useful idiots were always proud to pay for shit they could be getting for free, why would they all of a sudden get mad about it?
Remember to pay your netflix subscription instead of using free streaming sites that require no sign up, no credit card, and have more content.
ThunderLegend@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Is this real?
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
Is anybody actually going to pay this? I’m limited in how mad I can get over someone deluding themselves.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
This is some immoportal service, right?
Concave1142@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just had to do this a few weeks ago. They have you taken a pic of your driver’s license, provide your SSN & run a credit check on the spot. Then they charge you to tour the place.
A very “fuck you, I’m getting paid regardless” mentality from rental companies.
SARGE@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
My wife and I were looking at realtors and one told us we would need to provide our credit card info to look at properties, and I just laughed and said “go fuck yourself” and hung up.
The only valid response, IMO.
The fact that people actually pay this shit is infuriating.
Booboofinget@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I had someone actually try to get me to pay to see rental property well. Mine were a little mote greedy and wanted $30.
I told them I work too hard for my money to be handing it out like party favors.