Realtor refusing to show rental condo unit
My boyfriend and I have decided to move in together so we're apartment hunting, specifically for a condo in North York.
Neither of us has gone through the apartment hunting process recently - mine was the most recent pre-covid.
We were told to work with a realtor so I reached out to a friend who referred me to a realtor she uses to find renters for her own condo. This realtor asked us to fill out a rental application before showing us a unit?!?!
Isn't the entire point of a rental application to apply to rent a unit that you want to live in??? How do you know if you like a unit if you haven't seen the inside of it yet?
And how are we supposed to be okay with providing personal details like employment history and income verification like employment letters, paysubs, and bank statements to our realtor, a faceless landlord and their realtor without being under any kind of contract with either party??? Am I the only one who sees this has a huge personal data/privacy risk??
Do people actually do this?? Before covid you could go see apartments and then decide which ones you wanted to submit an application for.
We told the realtor our budget and gross household income. Are they going to ask for a blood sample next???