Are You Kidding Me?!? [OPINION]

Ok, so here's the deal...

I'm moving my family here to Missoula from Spokane next month when the kids get out of school.  So I'm simply looking for a half way decent house we can rent.  Pretty simple, right?  Don't answer too quickly!

Yes, there are a lot of places listed on Missoula property management company websites and Craigslist.  Even though the large majority of available homes on Craigslist are posted by property management companies and not private individuals, there's no shortage of choices.

I plan for my wife to come over on a weekend so we could look at a couple of promising potential new homes together.  Then the entire bottom falls out of that plan as I try to arrange times with a few property management companies around town.  In just about every instance I was chuckled at and told in a somewhat demeaning tone, "we don't work on weekends!"

Really??  What do you mean you don't show rental homes on weekends?  A time when most people who work during the week can get out and do it.  A time when someone like my wife, looking to move to Missoula, can join me here to look at properties YOU are managing?

Granted, I've been a home owner for close to 20 years and speaking with a company managing rental properties is something new for me.  But I'm having real hard time wrapping my head around this.

To make matters even worse, I asked one of the people I spoke to if anyone ever calls and asks to see rental houses on the weekend.  She said, "no there isn't".

Are you kidding me?!?!  I call complete and utter you-know-what on that answer!  Missoula isn't so small that the sidewalks roll up on the weekends.

Seeing no other option, I decide to make a weekday appointment to look at a rental.  On a Tuesday afternoon I take two hours off work and go without my wife.  When I arrive at the scheduled time so do fifteen other people.  The walk through was self guided and uncomfortable.  No one from the property management company was there.  The current tenant was totally caught off guard by the "cattle call" they had arranged.

Is there a rather large customer service issue here?

Has this happened to you?

Do you work for a property management company and can shed some light on this?

Am I missing something?

What do you think?

Please leave your comments below and I'll post them in the near future.