[General] Do you have an intention to sell your apartment

[Silverobama]

Hi.

Today I received a phone call from an agent. I didn't know where she got my number and she asked me "Do you have an intention to sell your apartment"? I was a bit annoyed and said "No".

I wonder if the italic sentence is natural.

 

[tedmc]

any intention

 

[emsr2d2]

"to sell" doesn't work with "intention".

Do you have any intention of selling your apartment?

More naturally, "Do you plan to sell your apartment?" or "Do you plan on selling your apartment?"

 

[tedmc]

"to sell" doesn't work with "intention".

Do you have any intention of selling your apartment?

More naturally, "Do you plan to sell your apartment?" or "Do you plan on selling your apartment?"

I do prefer "intention of selling" to "intention to sell", but I don't think the latter is wrong. See below:

https://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?q=Intention+to&l=0

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/have-no-intention-of-to.2358273/

 

[emsr2d2]

You'll notice that in the fraze.it link above, "the/its intention to + bare infinitive" is preceded by "announced", "indicated", "made known" and others. What makes the original sentence unnatural, for me, is the use of "have".

Instead of "have + noun", we tend to use the relevant verb, where one is available. "to have a/the intention" > "to intend". Regardless of what follows, "I intend ..." is more common and natural than "I have the intention ..."

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I like Ems's suggestions in post #3.

In the US, just saying "agent" would be confusing. We'd say "real estate agent" or "realtor."

 

[GoesStation]

We'd say "real estate agent" or "Realtor."

See above. It's a trademark which should properly be capitalized.

 

[Tdol]

How about Do you intend to sell?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

See above. It's a trademark which should properly be capitalized.

I just Googled it and saw it both ways. (Which, of course, doesn't mean much.)

Anyhow, thanks! I didn't know a Realtor was a member of the National Association of Realtors.

 

[Raymott]

The original is the kind of phrasing you might hear on the phone from a cold caller.
They aren't concerned about grammar. They say it hundreds of times a day, and the intention is clear. It's not entirely natural, but I don't think you could misunderstand the message in the context.