In my market, with the high cost of home ownership, renting is sometimes the only way to go. In most markets it does not pay for agents to do rentals. They are very time consuming and most of the time 
we spend a lot of time, energy and gas driving renters around only to end up with them disappearing and not even thanking us. It has happened to me many times. But with the high cost of rentals in our market and a decent commission structure it can be worthwhile for Los Angeles Realtors® to work with renters.
I generally don't mind doing rentals at all and have met some wonderful people in the process. However, I have a huge problem with agents who are either too lazy, too uninformed, or too "above it" to draw up the lease when everything has been approved.
I am actually a renter, and never in my life have I, the tenant, drawn up a lease with all its terms and conditions.
For some godforsaken reason there are agents who think that the lease is the same as the purchase contract, something to be approved and accepted by the landlord. No it isn't . The application, credit and reference checks, etc. are the equivalent of the purchase contract. The landlord has to approve the prospective tenant after all conditions are met - price, credit-worthiness, etc. At that point the landlord (read landlord's agent) draws up the lease with the respective conditions - where to send the check; how much the charge is for late checks; how many keys will be given; if storage is included; what is included, and so on.
How on earth is a tenant (read tenant's agent) supposed to write up the lease? When I ask this question they tell me to ask them all those questions and fill in the blanks. Huh?
I swear the next time a landlord's agent tells me to draft up the lease I am going to do filling in those blanks with a bunch of ridiculous conditions favoring the tenant.
I have been boiling over about this for a long time but a recent experience sent me over the edge.
Rant over - for now.
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