I'm obviously a fan of the apartment locating business. Otherwise I wouldn't have spent the last 5 years building Taco Street Locating or built these courses.  

But I'd be lying to you if I told you this business was all sunshine's and rainbows. The truth is that sometimes all business, even the most glamorous businesses suck sometimes. Apartment locating is no different. For the sake of transparency I'm going to highlight a few of them.

Ghosting

Ghosting is a part of all sales businesses - apartment locating included.

Ghosting is when clients just stop communicating with you. It's one thing when a lead you've only contacted once ghosts you. That's no big deal. That's all par for the course. It's a totally different thing when somebody you've been working with for weeks, or months ghosts. It's another thing when you've met them in person multiple times.

It's another thing when you think your client is about to sign a lease at an apartment that might pay you $3000 to wondering why your client just disappeared.

It's another thing when I've spent dozens of hours on research for a client only to watch them disappear without ever saying thanks.

It's another thing when you've gotten to know each other and even built a friendship. Still, five years into the business I still get ghosted - and it still sucks.

But ghosting happens. Some people don't have the courage, maturity, or decency to communicate with you or even thank you for you work.

The truth is that some people suck no matter how good of a service you provide.

Lost Deals

Apartment deals can call apart for any number of reasons. All of them feel like being stabbed. Your client can choose to rent at a place that pays you zero commission. Your client can choose to stay in their current apartment. Circumstances outside any of your control can intervene - family matters, career changes, relationship changes can impact the decision about where your clients lease.

I've had clients back out of deals right before they were going to sign. Their job offer gets rescinded. They break up with the partner they're about to move in with. A stupid pandemic breaks out and all of their plans change.

I've even had deals fall through because the client moved out before 30 days of moving into the building. Apartments typically only pay commission after a client has lived in the building for 30 days.

Apartments delaying invoice payments.

Hunting invoices is the biggest pain in the ass in apartment locating. Apartments will regularly take months and months to pay out on a single invoice check. In some egregious cases I've seen buildings delay invoice payment for over a year.

In this post I describe some strategies on how to make sure you get paid quicker on invoices.

Apartments refusing to pay invoices

Nothing grinds my gears more than when apartment buildings find sneaky ways to avoid paying invoices - even when your client puts you down as their referral to the building.

Didn't send a guest card before your client toured? Some buildings will use this as an excuse to not-pay you.

Didn't join the client in person? Some buildings will only pay you if you went to the building in person to tour. These are called escort only properties.

One of the great and terrible things about apartment locating is how much of the money you make has nothing to do with how hard you work. I've made thousands of dollars in just a few hours of work.

I've made zero dollars from clients I've worked with for months.

Often the difference between making $0, $250 dollars, and $4000 has nothing to do with you. A client can choose between a building that pays out either of those totals.

Takeaway

Overall, the apartment locating business has been very good to me. But so far the suck has been worth it. The reason I've gotten this far in the business is because I've made the pros far outweigh the cons.