Help me make sense of this, please, and figure out if there is anything I can do.
We are rental shopping. I posted on a local military spouse group what we were looking for in case anyone had something coming up. Someone responded. She is a tenant, moving out because she bought a place. (My impression is that maybe she has broken a lease and needs to find a replacement tenant to get her off the hook, but I could be wrong about that.) We messaged back and forth a few times and it seems like a great prospect, so when she offered to show it to us this past Saturday, we jumped.
The house is great. She told us what they paid and said she wasn't sure if they plan to raise the rent, but it's well under budget so even if they increase, it should be fine. She gave me the info for the PM. (Owner lives in Australia, though as it turns out he works for the same organization that DH will be starting at.) Tenants aren't entirely sure when they will be out (putting in a new kitchen in the place they bought), but seemed confident
it would be sometime between April 1 and April 15, all of which work for us.
I messaged the PM saying we were extremely interested. I asked what the rent will be, asked if the pet policy will be the same as what the current tenant told me, and asked about the application process.
She responded asking me to email her my contact info (phone and email address), which I did. She responded saying, "Thank you for your information. I will keep your information close by for when we list the house. I think we will be listing in February (beginning/Middle). I can then send you the applications at that time. "
We definitely aren't willing to wait 5-7 week, for a place that would then be openly listed so we might not even get it. I can't understand why she and the owners wouldn't jump at an interested tenant. They'd have no stress of even a small vacancy, and no expense and work of creating a listing. And we don't have a tenant's agent, which is a common thing here. Most places offer incentives to tenant agents, so it costs them between a month and a month and a half's rent, which they would save. There are other reasons we are a very attractive tenant, too. (Only 2 people in a house that is likely very family-attractive, so less wear and tear, for example.)
I messaged the PM back today and told her we couldn't wait until Feb., that we are ready to sign now, and then asked if there was any way to make that possible.
Any thoughts on this? Based on the timeline, I'm not even sure she presented our info to her buyer. I could ask the current tenant if she felt comfortable providing their info. (Current tenant and DH are also in the same profession and have several friends in common, which we learned during the tour as they chatted, so they would likely be more comfortable with us than with a totally random stranger.) We could reach out and express our interest, name drop a bit so he knows what job DH is going to at his organization and ask around if he'd like, and maybe gently plead our case. Also, if the current tenant is responsible for finding a replacement because they are breaking the lease, then this lady blowing me off is kind of unfair to them, so it might be worth mentioning.
Or do I need to suck it up and move on?