When you ask a real estate agent to find you a rental home, they will most likely only look at the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which only the agents can reach. In reality, the other day I asked an agent how he considers clients rental properties. He said they were identified via the MLS. Here's the issue with looking at the MLS for rental properties only: Because only agents can list properties through the MLS, real estate agents are losing out on all property owners like me. So if your real estate agent is losing out on non-agent listed assets, you're losing out too. You're better off to advertise rental property online when you're searching for a rental house. Lots of rental homes are likely to be found by searching at different property sites on your own, more than what your real estate agent can find by using just the MLS.

You can, of course, still locate properties and send them to your representative, but then why not simply contact the person on the listing? Related: The only 3 websites you need to list a property for sale. Agents expect Real Estate agents to be paid to deal exclusively with clients who buy and sell houses. For such situations, the seller usually charges the agent for the real estate by giving the agent a percentage of the sale price of the property. And the requirements for most real estate agents that support a client trying to rent is that the landlord should pay the agent for locating a buyer, usually a month's rent (similar to having a cut from the selling of a home).

But the landlords have no incentive to pay an agent in a rental market where most applicants find a rental property without an agent. In other words, if I have five applicants for a house, four who represent themselves, and one who comes along with an agent who wants me to pay them a month's rent, guess who I am not renting to? If you use an agent in a market where most people are finding properties on their own, you will likely be taking yourself out of the running to land a rental property.

Agents just don't want to work with you, I've always believed that assertion to be valid, and now I've got a few storeys to back up that. I assume this is actually what a lot of agents think. A real estate agent called me the other day on behalf of her client, and when I told her I don't pay an agent commission, she let me know that she doesn't know what to tell renters who call her for help. She wants to help them find a home, but she is not interested in working for free if the landlord won't pay her fee. Another agent told me he generally doesn't deal with clients looking to rent but occasionally he'll do it to help a friend out by referring them to for rent by owner websites. As it is not the practice for homebuyers to pay an agent (usually home sellers do), tenants and agents expect the landlord or property owner to pay the agent just as home sellers do. But while most home buyers are using and charging agents for real estate, most small-time property owners do not use agents to rent their land, so they have no interest in paying your agent.

If you really want to use a real estate agent to help you find a rental home, you might want to consider paying your agent yourself. Perhaps the agents do more harm than good landlords who know their business figure out what market rates are in their area for comparable rentals. (I use the Cozy rent estimate tool in addition to keeping up with rent prices in my area.)

But when a real estate agent comes along, they are usually loaded for bear and ready to negotiate rent price — it's just part of their job, like offering less than asking price for a home to buy. While this is the common practice for the process of home buying, it is not typical of landlords like me who expect to rent the property for the price mentioned above. Just like I don't pay a fee to the brokers, I'm not interested in taking less for my rental property than my advertised cost. If you're paying an agent for their great negotiating skills,