So much for the realtor.

We thought hiring a realtor that was also a property manager would be a good idea.  We thought so anyways.

One day during the rehab, the realtor stopped by and I asked him for the property management contract as we had not seen it yet.  His wife emailed the contract a couple of days later.  After fourteen pages of legal jargon, it needed to be changed.

Apparently, this is a standard contract that is used across the state with a bunch of fill in the blanks.  Much of it has nothing to do with us, and there were several things we did not like at all.

Some of those things where: we had to pay them for every little piece of office supplies they used.  We also had to pay for all mileage, even if someone was driving from the office on the other side of the state.  The contract also stated that we had to give him $500 a month extra for anything related to the property, no questions asked.

Found the original document online, downloaded it, and rewrote it.  All of the mumbo jumbo that was irrelevant to our home was removed, printed it out, signed and initialed all of the pages, and sent it back to him for his signatures.  And then heard nothing.

Many days go by and still not a word.  So I called him up and told him the contract needed to be in place before I left town.  After a long pause, he says “About that contract.  I looked over the changes and really don’t see them as being all that major.  All of our out of state owners use the same contract and we have never had a problem.  Plus, since this is a state wide standard contract, it is illegal to make any changes to it and has to remain the way it is.”

Illegal….  Oh really.  (Remember, this is the same guy whose maintenance man tried to sell us stolen paint.)  Told him I would call him back after checking with my attorney.  Long pause…. “um…. ok”.

Called my attorney and he just laughed.  He said that no, it was not illegal to change any contract, that is why it is called contract negations.  Plus, if this guy is trying to tell me that, fire him now.

Called the realtor back, told him that on the advice of our attorney, we would not be using the original contract.  If he could not accept the changes, we understood and would find someone else.

Needless to say, he was upset and tried everything he could think of to get me to sign that contract.  At the end of the conversation he angrily said, “Fine, you want to be long distance landlords, you just go ahead.  You will never find anyone to work for you.  Have a nice life.”  Then he hung up.

When I got back to my computer, I sent him and his wife a nice email and wished them the best in their future endeavors.  Now to look for a property manager.