Indeed, I try to avoid the word of mouth thing myself. However, there is a particular agent that I have chosen to avoid, and will therefore not be benefitting from the business that’s being generated. It’s not that I have a personal issue with the agent – I’ve had the phone hung up on me before. It’s just that I genuinely do not trust the agent nor their business ethics. I want our olim to work with straight businesspeople.

Yes, it’s a sellers marlet, but it does not mean that each home has to be taken at face value. Though the vast majority of landlords do not want to spending anything more than necessary on improvements, many do in fact understand when there are issues that need to be adressed and dealt with before a rental contract is signed. It’s almost a given that a fresh coat of paint (whitewash usually) is expected, that some electrical work might be needed, that blinds or windows or other things might need replacing, etc… and this can be added to the contract as a precondition of signing.

There’s is no denial that there is a lot of junk out there, but with some vision and perceverence, (did I spell that right?) a dump can be turned into a nice place.

Now, with regard to driving the agents crazy, well, except for the valid ‘common sense’ advice you gave, the agents should know that they’ll have to be patient with us and that if they have a bit of vision, we’ll be making them a nice buck in the next few years. Sure, they don’t need us, but word of mouth spreads and we can easily ignore those who don’t have patience with us.

Josh