Real Estate Agents – The scum of the community.

This post is concerned with a particular breed of real estate agent – the property manager. Not that I have any respect for anyone in the profession, don’t get the wrong idea, but it’s property managers who deal with people who are trying to survive in Sydney’s private rental market, and so it’s property managers that I associate with bullying and discriminatory behaviour towards people who are socially, politically and economically disadvantaged.

I have lived in rented housing for my entire life, and am intimately acquainted with the attitude that property managers have towards people who are tenants. Not only are we the invisible clientele, the mere appendages of the ‘real’ clients who own the properties being leased, but in a country like WhiteAustralia where property ownership is such a strong cultural norm, renters are a minority that are often looked down upon as being socially deviant. This is particularly true here in the socially unenlightened Sutherland Shire where only about 17% of household groups live in rented premises. Those in the RE profession (if you can even call it a profession) see us as the scum of the market, and take it from one who knows – that’s exactly how they treat us. Cultural narratives about “renters” and “the tenants from hell”, perpetuated by Today Tonight and other divisive tv shows such as Renters, help enforce prejudice and discrimination.

It doesn’t help that the Property Manager is typically very young, from a sheltered middle class background, and as far as qualifications, they might have a Cert III in real estate management if they have any formal qualifications at all. They certainly have no training for dealing with people who are structurally disadvantaged- in fact, I’d be very surprised if any property manager I have ever come into contact with even knew what the term even means.

Landed middle class pigs Baby Boomers may have read in the news recently of the ‘rental crisis’. That is the severe shortage of rental properties. Sydney’s population is growing faster than housing infrastructure is growing. The gap between Haves and Have Nots is widening, a climate of neo-liberalism encourages the rich to squeeze the life out of the poor, to profit through the exploitation of one of the most basic of human needs/rights, that of shelter or a roof over the head – and still sleep soundly at night.

The two-bedroom unit I rent is just one in an investment property portfolio belonging to my landlord, Dr Richdude – he has just increased my rent for the second time this year. He’s allowed to do that – he can jack the rent up any time he feels like it and by as much as he wants – that’s legal! So long as it’s not inconsistent with similar rental prices for similar properties in the area – that’s how they rationalise it – that’s the only regulatory force there is to keep his greed in check. Of course the problem with this is 1) I have to know that, and 2) I have to have the means to find out what the rental is for similar properties in the area. This is where it gets tricky – because there are asking prices and there are actual rental prices. The asking price is what is meant by RE agent’s practice of ‘talking up’ rents. The agents can ask for any old damn rental price they want – they overshoot the mark in order to get the maximum rent for a property. So it can be confusing if you’re trying to find out what the average rent for a property in your area is – asking prices are not an indication of what is actually being paid. So you can’t just look in the local paper or on domain.com to get an idea of what the rents are like in the Sutherland Shire – you need to be able to ask other tenants what they’re paying. The onus of uncovering the rents that are currently being paid and getting concrete proof is totally on the tenant, who probably doesn’t have the means to do this since it would involve asking RE agents for help – see above about how RE agents see tenants as the scum of the market.

While landlords are enthusiastic about increasing your rent, they’re not so keen on maintaining the property you’re living in. Most of the rental units in this building, which has 118 units all up, are ‘managed’ by one RE agency – ReMax. Getting repairs carried out around here is like pulling teeth, most of us have had the experience of reporting a minor repair and getting one of about three standard responses.

Tenant: “The xxxx needs fixing”

Property Manager Standard Responses:

1. “What did you do to it?”
2. “Can’t you just jiggle/fix it yourself?”
3. “Why didn’t you report this earlier?”

Then we’re told to expect a phone call from a tradesperson or as is more often the case now, a ‘handyman’ who knows you’re just a tenant, not a human being or anything, and will dick you around about days and times, and will also talk down to you as if the fact that you don’t own property means you’re probably a bit dim-witted. A couple of years ago I had the horrible experience of reporting a broken shower head to the agent, who, because she knew the approved plumber was in the vicinity at the time and thought she’d save him another trip, called him and gave him a key to my apartment and told him to just come on down!

The same thing happens during the quarterly inspections, because as you probably know, people who rent are slobs and most likely won’t look after the place or even bother to clean it because it doesn’t belong to them. Those people need to have an eye kept on them every twelve weeks lest the landlord’s investment property end up being strafed. When the property manager arrives to do the inspection, which you have been told will take place on this date between the hours of 9 and 5, they have a key with them. Some of them do a token tap on the door before letting themselves in to stroll around your home for five minutes, opening your cupboard doors and making notes – I cannot even begin to describe the humiliation of having some snot-nosed kid on a power trip poking around my home to see if I’m keeping it clean enough. Over the years, in order to bring in extra cash to support my kids, I’ve done home cleaning – right now I clean three houses a week (as well as doing ‘official’ paid work and full time study while I’m raising two kids single-handedly) and I can tell you, people who own property can so be absolute fucking dirty slobs.

My friend/neighbour/uni colleague who also lives in this building has just been given notice to move out. The apartment she’s lived in since escaping an abusive marriage, has been sold and the new owners want to live in it. Her landlord knows that he has to legally give her 60 days notice but he’s told her that the new owners want to move in in a month and it would really help him out if she can be out by then. It’s the middle of the uni semester – she has three kids (who don’t want to leave their home) a full time job and is undertaking full time study – and she needs to find a new home and move four people into it, fast. We heard that a unit is about to become available in this building, so we went up to ReMax to ask for an application form so that she can hopefully get in early and secure the place – being able to stay in the building sounded like a dream come true to her. The guy at ReMax listened to about ten seconds of her story before cutting her off:

RE Agent: “But you haven’t seen the place; why do you want to rent it??”

My Friend: “Oh well I…

RE Agent: “It might be a dump”

My Friend: “Oh no I’ve seen…

RE Agent: “You’ll have to go to the open inspection and get an application form like everyone else – it’s a bit like a job interview”

My Friend (almost in tears now)”But couldn’t I…

RE Agent: “I’ve got work to do, excuse me”

With the worsening ‘rental crisis’ goes a worsening of already entrenched attitudes and behaviours towards tenants, of RE agents and landlords/property owners. We have no support in dealing with this. If my rent keeps increasing at this rate I won’t be able to afford to stay here and there is almost nowhere else for me to go. Almost half my income goes on rent as it is…

Know your rights