Advice re: renting and real estate agency

Submitted by Odd-Cartographer-379 t3_11hi63n in providence

Hi everyone,

My roommate and I are looking to move. We currently live in Providence, and really love our neighborhood. We saw a spot through a real estate agency, and they asked for first months rent with the application. Has anyone experienced this before? Never ran into this, and it sounds off.

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NoMoreCircles t1_jatm1tr wrote

I’ve known people who have had bad times renting with Samson. Not known to be a good company.

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StonksGuy3000 t1_jaxtj6g wrote

An agent from Samson represented the seller when I bought my house and gave me kinda weird vibes. Didn’t feel like the most trustworthy people

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_jathfl9 wrote

A security deposit before you’ve even applied/ seen it? Seems odd, what agency?

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Odd-Cartographer-379 OP t1_jathp2a wrote

Oh I should’ve clarified that I did view the property in person. It was through Samson Realty.

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waninggib t1_jatlr7n wrote

I had to do this with Samson as well. Also felt weird to me, but I’ve been here for almost a year and haven’t had any issues.

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_jatmag4 wrote

So they wanted a check before you said yes please let me sign a lease? Sure it’s not the deposit? So you want the place yes? If you toured and want it and want them to take it off the market taking a deposit isn’t weird. Then when you actually sign lease after you’ve read it and first months rent gets paid…. Are they suggesting first months and deposit before signing?

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waninggib t1_javgmbs wrote

The check was the deposit. I gave it before officially signing the lease, and they confirmed it would be returned if I didn’t take the unit after all. I live in a newer building with high demand on the East Side, and it was to hold my place until all the docs were signed. Then first month was due before move in day.

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punkbookjockey t1_jatk250 wrote

Had to do that with my current place. Seemed off to me as well and ideally in the future I wouldn’t do it again, but we were told the place was pretty much ours and it would be refunded if our application was denied.

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Jerkeyjoe t1_jatw5z3 wrote

Yes , but try to get that in writing. It's common but not universal to have to pay something upfront. I hate that it's a thing but it's to ensure you are serious/ can afford to rent a place.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_jb7w5q6 wrote

This is actually super atypical for the area until maybe now. Source: lived here for a decade in rentals.

Be warned, I've heard of one situation where someone is shown a better apartment and then (nameless company-- Not Samson) suddenly doesn't have that unit available/someone else rented it and they won't return your check or cashed your check and "want to show you what else they have." So do be careful with who you pay upfront.

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