Some professions have certain taboo attached to it and people(world over) look at people in those professions with skepticism. So when I wanted to rent out my flat, the obvious choice was this site named - 'Nobroker.com'. Remember, how you had always been warned about that local 'broker' who was out to get your money at all cost.
But then again, some names come with their baggage. So, here I was being promised the moon and charged about 1/3rd my monthly rent as the professional fees(Paid upfornt ofcourse). While I waited for some new age 'startup' kind a enthusiastic service, here is what I got -
1) The 'Ground Representative'-GR(yes, that is what they are called) goes into the property when the tenant was packing and clicks some dim lit photos of a shoddily kept property using a 2mp camera phone. The End result is a set of photos which would even deter me(the owner) from shortlisting this property.
2) The GR guy does not believe in the concept of offer-counter offer. He takes an unilateral decision to not shortlist a prospective client simply because they were offering a Rs500 less than what my asking price was. Whoever thought, this industry was all about negotiations.
After quite a few frustrating interactions, when I finally tried to letgo the contract - I get a call from another representative of theirs to say that I should not cancel the contract and that she would give it her all and get me a tenant 'soon'. I naively agreed to give them a second chance and what followed was no different.
a) This lady calls me after 4 days to say- there were 4 interests in total and of which one is 'not reachable', two of them had lesser budgets and there was one person who was interested to view it after 15 days :-).
After a paid charade of 'Professional Rental Service' that I went through for about 4 weeks, finally I got the ad-pulled down and dropped them a note to say why I was doing the same. They did not think it necessary to respond back(so much for customer service).
So the next stop was to reach out to them on Twitter, to which I got a response to say- Someone will look into your matter and get back to you. Its been 18 days of wait........I guess Broker or NoBroker..it is always a case of 'One can never be too cautious'.
So the next time you guys get excited about 'No' Broker....think again!!
But then again, some names come with their baggage. So, here I was being promised the moon and charged about 1/3rd my monthly rent as the professional fees(Paid upfornt ofcourse). While I waited for some new age 'startup' kind a enthusiastic service, here is what I got -
1) The 'Ground Representative'-GR(yes, that is what they are called) goes into the property when the tenant was packing and clicks some dim lit photos of a shoddily kept property using a 2mp camera phone. The End result is a set of photos which would even deter me(the owner) from shortlisting this property.
2) The GR guy does not believe in the concept of offer-counter offer. He takes an unilateral decision to not shortlist a prospective client simply because they were offering a Rs500 less than what my asking price was. Whoever thought, this industry was all about negotiations.
After quite a few frustrating interactions, when I finally tried to letgo the contract - I get a call from another representative of theirs to say that I should not cancel the contract and that she would give it her all and get me a tenant 'soon'. I naively agreed to give them a second chance and what followed was no different.
a) This lady calls me after 4 days to say- there were 4 interests in total and of which one is 'not reachable', two of them had lesser budgets and there was one person who was interested to view it after 15 days :-).
After a paid charade of 'Professional Rental Service' that I went through for about 4 weeks, finally I got the ad-pulled down and dropped them a note to say why I was doing the same. They did not think it necessary to respond back(so much for customer service).
So the next stop was to reach out to them on Twitter, to which I got a response to say- Someone will look into your matter and get back to you. Its been 18 days of wait........I guess Broker or NoBroker..it is always a case of 'One can never be too cautious'.
So the next time you guys get excited about 'No' Broker....think again!!
