The Contingency Plan

When I woke up this morning I didn't expect to become something I loathe - a real estate property manager. It's hard to think of a worse job.

But we want to move and break our lease so I'm happy to do whatever it takes to find another tenant.

I don't know what it is about the real estate industry here, but we've only dealt with three good agents in all our years of renting. And in that time we've had agents hold inspections without informing us, miscalculate our payments and issue a lease termination when we were a month ahead and even an open house viewing (we weren't renewing the lease) without letting us know.

But the worst was when our agent neglected to fix our hot water system leaving us without hot water for over a month. In winter. We refused to pay our rent, he took us to the Fair Trading Tribunal without informing us, where he lied and we were forced to move. When we found out what had happened afterwards, argued against the decision, won and moved out anyway.

I get along with our current agent really well and she thought I did such a good job of showing our property today that she offered me a job.

I don't think so.

Hehe. I thought you accepted.

On a personal note, I find that moving can be very traumatic, especially when one is a kid. When I was growing up, I experienced 7 moves, and all these are international (My dad is a diplomat). And three months ago, I moved again, this time, on my own, for graduate school. I remember I hated the fact that I will leave my classmates in school before. Now, I think after all those moves, I'm numbed already.

LIW

Well, I suppose it's still a compliment. I know I won't be getting any job offers from showing our house, I just don't do a great job because I think it's kind of crappy the real estate agents get us to do it. On the other hand, however, I also like the fact that the showings are centered around my schedule.

Wow, that sucks. I was pretty lucky as a renter here in FL. I only rented my first apt. by myself for 7 months. Other than that I lived with friends, boyfriends, etc. until becoming a homeowner.

Wow LIW, that's a lot of moving around! I really loathe moving house as well but only because it's a logistical pain the ass. I've already started strategising ways we can stay here (in our current home and in Australia), but that's material for another post ;)

How are you settling in after your last transition?

And Bente I think it's slack how your real estate agent makes you show the house! I offered only because I know the place and our neighbours better and the agent is happy because she says I do a better job. After my experience with the industry though, I don't think that's very hard.

And Junebee I'm jealous. I'd love to own my own house by now. BTW, how's Big K going?