Realtor Commissions on Finding Tenants and More...

[Gary Libero]

Hello! I'm about to sign my first tenant possibly tomorrow! I bought a duplex back in November and am living in one side and renting out the "apartment" side. In CT (and from what I hear all over), rentals are few and far between. It's taken me a good month and a half to find a renter. I'm actually surprised this unit hasn't been scooped up yet. A LOT of interest in the unit, but nothing has really panned out, until this past weekend.

A realtor responded to my Apartments.com listing to tell me her client is very interested in my rental and that if I was interested there would be a commission fee, paid by me to the realtor. The agent I work with offered to help me find a tenant if I had trouble listing it on my own (which was my original course of action). I posted it on Facebook Marketplace, RentRedi and Apartments.com and nothing much has come through other than a lot of messages and a handful of showings. My agent said their commission rate for finding a renter is equal to one month of the rental cost I list the unit at. Is there an "average" commission rate for something like this? The realtor who reached out to me didn't mention what her rate was and I explained the situation with my agent and that I wasn't interested in giving up one month of rent money. She agreed to half (and this tenant *seems ideal, so I'm happy to spend a little $$$ on that). What I'm asking...are commission rates for realtors finding renters like the wild west? This particular agent (I think) works for herself, not an agency, so maybe in that case she can ask for whatever she wants. I don't know.

Second thing to unpack...

The tenant mentioned above already has a list of things she wants to "change" about the apartment (keep in mind, we haven't signed anything yet...not sure if this is a red flag or not, but she seems awesome). She's an interior designer, which is great and she may become a player in my future plans with upcoming purchases that need a little updating. At any rate, she wants to 86 the blue carpets in two of the rooms and lay down some inexpensive/ mid-range hardwood flooring (she has allergen issues and an aversion to the color blue). The unit she will be renting is move-in ready. A few cosmetic things needs to be fixed here and there and she's offered to take care of much of it (after we discuss and approve everything of course). This is almost the ideal situation, however replacing floors in two rooms isn't in my budget right now. I'm meeting with her tomorrow and will update as to how this goes, but I think she's looking for me to pay for materials and she'll take care of labor (or maybe we split everything, I'm not sure yet). Has anyone ever run into a situation like this? Where does a landlord draw the line with tenant requests like this? She's looking for a long term rental and I have to look at this as anything that is potentially done to the unit has to be in the best interest of renting this space out to future tenants. We already discussed no crazy colors and she's fine with neutrals. Hoping to sign this lease with her tomorrow and start this journey!

Thanks in advance for any input.

G