Many Realtors don’t bother working on leases, but I enjoy them.

I get to meet new people, and I keep my finger on the pulse of the real estate market by seeing building after building.

But when “routine” becomes “extraordinary,” It’s time to re-evaluate…

Melanie and Katrina found the condo that they could call “home,” and just in the nick of time.  It was October 15th, and they had a little more than two weeks to tie up a new residence and move in.

Most leases are somewhat routine, since they are much smaller scale than a purchase/sale of a residential property.  There are thousands upon thousands of condos being used as investment properties in the downtown core, and lessees come and go every day.

As a Realtor, you usually just get your clients to have their paperwork in order (credit check, employment letter, rental application), sign the Agreement to Lease, and away you go.

But this lease was anything but routine.

I asked the listing agent, Lucinda, if we could “wrap this thing up tomorrow morning” when I faxed her the offer that night.  She said it shouldn’t be a problem, and that she had a good relationship with her client.

Sure she did…

The next day, Lucinda called me and told me that there was a “minor complication.”  She said that her client had re-thought the price of $1750/month, and now wanted MORE.  She suggested that $1850/month was more “reasonable,” and asked me to go back to my clients.

The truth is, I was astounded at the value for $1750 including parking, since I thought this unit could easily get $1900, so I told her we could split the difference and call it $1800.  My clients were fine with that since they just wanted this to be over already, and since they knew they were still getting a deal.

Wednesday became Thursday, and I asked Lucinda why we hadn’t received a sign-back at the new price.  She told me that her client had “concerns” about my clients, their jobs, and their incomes.

Let me say this: $1800/month for two people is really not that much in today’s Toronto.  I personally know individuals that rent on their own for $2500/month, so why were we making this little lease so complicated?

The listing agent called ALL of the references my clients provided, as well as their current AND previous employers.  The irony is, I always tell my clients, “Don’t worry, they never check.”  You know what?  They usually don’t…

On Friday afternoon, three full days after we submitted our offer, the listing agent told me that she would have the paperwork that evening.  I breathed a sigh of relief, which turned out to be somewhat premature.

At the time, I had no idea who this listing agent was, and how long she had been in the business.  As I learned later on, she had absolutely no influence on her client, and was simply taking orders from an overzealous, pompous, 25-year-old condo investor who owned the unit that my clients wanted to rent.

She called me back on Friday and told me that her client was “not happy” with the potential tenants, and that her client wanted one of them to provide a guarantor.

I have done more than my fair share of leases over the past few years, and only once has my client had to provide a guarantor.

We agreed, since we didn’t have much choice at this point and were about ten days from my clients being out on the street, and the listing agent told me she’d get me the paperwork on Saturday morning.  One of the girls’ parents would act as the guarantor, and away we’d go.

Saturday early evening, I received a text message of all things (very professional!) from the listing agent that read, “I’m going to Madonna with my girlfriends.  Let’s do this tomorrow.”

I was beyond frustrated.

On Sunday, the listing agent told me that after conferring with her client, they would like for BOTH of the girls to provide guarantors.

Now this was just getting ridiculous.

But the best (or worst!) was yet to come.  On Monday morning, five full days after we started what should have been a routine deal, the listing agent called me and said that her client, “Wanted further employment details, and income confirmation.”

I told her that was okay by us, and that we had already provided employment letters with income data for both girls.

That’s when she replied, “Nuh-no….income confirmation….for the guarantors.”

That’s when I blew my top.

“Lucinda, are you f*cking kidding me?” I said.  “I have two girls with stable government jobs who are unnecessarily going to provide their parents as guarantors and you want MORE?  Are you telling me that you want Melanie’s father, who is the vice-president of a major company and lives in a multi-million-dollar home on the water in Oakville to fax you a copy of his T4?”

There was complete silence on the other end of the line.  The listing agent was embarrassed, and rightfully so.  She had crossed the line between ridiculous, and flat-out insulting by asking for the parents of two 25-year-old girls to provide their personal income data for a simple lease.

The listing agent told me, “Hey, don’t be mad with me, it’s my client,” but I told her that it was 100% her fault.  She was letting her arrogant little client play games with her, and was taking orders from the start.  At some point she had to use her expertise (did she even have any?) and tell her client what is logical and what is ludicrous.

I’m still insulted, and I wasn’t even the one being violated here.  The idea of some 55-year-old man providing a letter of employment from his Fortune-500 company so his daughter could secure a lease that he was acting as guarantor for anyways was just so ridiculous that I wanted to track down the owner of the condo we were trying to lease, and smack her upside the head.

I told the listing agent that I wanted her client to submit to a drug test, and I wanted the results faxed to me.  Then, I wanted a list of every single person she has ever slept with.

If she and her client were going to be ridiculous, so was I.

She should have been embarrassed to be a Realtor that day, and embarrassed to be in business for herself.

Call this an anti-climax if you will, but eventually she talked some sense into her client, and we got the deal done with both girls mothers signing as guarantors.

But I’m still steaming about the audacity of asking for the parents income confirmation, when they never should have been involved in the first place.

Did I mention that this agent is 27-years-old and works out of Ajax?  Maybe that has something to do with it.

I always think of that statistic: 95% of all persons who receive their real estate license are out of the business within five years.

I have two words for the listing agent in this latest deal: “Buh-Bye!”