[littlemonkey]

I went through a listing agent once to let a place.

supposedly 'my agent' did all you said; however, he failed to inform me what the credit scores meant and that the prospect tenants had filed bankruptcy several years ago and were arrears in cc, car payments, etc.

my first warning sign should have been the fact that they couldn't come up with the full security deposit. long story made short, i lost 6 months rent by the time i evicted them b/c they always had a sob story of mother being hospitalized with diabetes complications, etc.

I later found out this was a common practice for them as I had creditors coming to the premises looking for them.

worst money i spent for a 'professional' realtor and their resources.
i have since leased the place by myself and not had major issues with the same tenants for almost past 4 1/2 years.

I guess it really is the luck of the draw. I have leased about 40-50 condos for both landlords or tenants acting as the listing or buying agent and I have only had 1 tenant who turned out to be an actual fraudster. Unfortunately the agent provided myself and the landlord credit checks and employment letters that checked out but this guy had just gone on a downward spiral of gambling and was actually arrested for fraud. When I was at the LTT on behalf of the landlord, there were so many cases and I would say at least 70-80% were not leases done by agents. I think it's a generalization to say that your past bad experience is based on a realtor leasing your property. It is going to happen regardless and unfortunately it happened to you.

Watch out for the fraudster (as mentioned above) that swindled my landlord out of $5K in lost rent and also swindled at least 4-5 cases of tenants paying this guy for 1st and last month's rent on a property he did not own...

http://www.thestar.com/gta/crime/article/672527

I have already charged him with another case of fraud for giving my brokerage a fraudlent cheque and he plead guilty to that charge in July 2009. He was under house arrest when he committed the fraud as per the article above.

 

[slowtyper]

is having a realtor for rentals a common thing in other cities in Canada? Coming from Calgary it is pretty unheard of. I didn't even see any rentals at all on mls for Calgary.

 

[SunandSand]

Good information but I see this thread is quite old. Any changes? I was just asked by my realtor for 1 months rent plus HST plus 1/2 month rent plus HST if another realtor is involved. High? If it is a medium term rental/executive rental that seems high especially since will likely repeat during the year. With STR and MTR a percentage of lease for the year would be more fair? What is the standard?

 

[DSC]

Good information but I see this thread is quite old. Any changes? I was just asked by my realtor for 1 months rent plus HST plus 1/2 month rent plus HST if another realtor is involved. High? If it is a medium term rental/executive rental that seems high especially since will likely repeat during the year. With STR and MTR a percentage of lease for the year would be more fair? What is the standard?

That still seems pretty standard to me. Of course, if you have the realtor actually manage the rental (collect rent, deal with problems) the cost will be higher. Having a rental at arm's length is, in many ways, MUCH easier!