Apartment Locating and Real Estate Sales (where you help people buy/sell houses) are radically different ways to work in real estate. There is little overlap between the two niches. 

This section is about dissecting what it's like working in both. 

High earning potential. Same goes for all real estate. 

High failure rate. For a wide variety of reasons, most people who enter real estate don't make it very far. 

Pure commission. Real estate is an eat-what-kill professional. Close no deals. Make no money. Close deals. Make money. 

Lot's of competition. There's a fuck load of real estate agents. 

Pros

Traditional real estate sales is like hitting home runs. 

Bigger/Giant Commissions (Home runs)

Guaranteed to get paid on deals. Unlike apartment locating where not all deals pay. 

Very Higher earning potential. Top agents can get into the 7 figures. 

Cons

Expense

You need access to the Multiple Listing Service and join your local board of realtors in order to work in real estate sales (aka a realtor). This alone costs thousands each year. It's hard to justify the expense if you're not going to go into this full time. 

Fewer transactions

Each transaction has a bigger impact on your bottom line. 

There is more at stakes on each transaction going through. Transactions are a bigger deal when each one can make up 10-20% of your yearly income. 

Stressful

Because each deal impacts your bottom line more, the stress becomes that much higher. 

Plus, people freak out when buying houses. Their freaking out becomes your freaking out. 

Here's a few reasons why people freak out. 

Complex transactions

Contracts

lot's of room for error when writing up contracts

Financing

Can your client actually get the money they need to buy the house?

Appraisals

The house doesn't appraise for what the offer says and they need to come up with more money to close. 

Inspections

Realize the roof/foundation/plumbing needs to be fixed/replaced. 

Negotiations

Back and forth negotiating can be super stressful. Who pays for what? 

Professional negligence

It can be your and your broker's ass on the line if you make a major mistake. Failed to disclose that really important thing that needed to be disclosed? Uh oh.

Legal battles

 When shit really goes wrong things can turn into ugly legal battles

Long Sales Cycles  

Sometimes buying a house can be quick, but usually not. Buying often takes months of showings, offers, rejections, and more offers to get a house under contract, and another month for closing before the money comes in. 

Few repeat clients 

People tend to not buy houses very often. 

Tons of competitors

There are a fuck load of traditional real estate agents. It's what almost all agents gets into when they enter the business. 

Market squeeze - when there's more agents than houses. 

This is happening all over the country, especially in big cities. 

A single property may have dozens of offers on the table at any given time. 

You could have dozens of qualified clients looking for houses to buy, but if there are no houses to buy then you're dead in the water. 

This alone is why many competent experienced agents have to leave the business. 

Pros

Cheaper

You don't need the MLS in order to be an apartment locator. The database you need here is only about $40-$50 per month. 

Simple transactions

No contract negotiations, inspections, financing, addendums, etc. People apply online. Get accepted or rejected. Move in. You get paid. That's it. 

Economically durable

Say the economy goes to shit and people have less money. They means they aren't buying houses anymore. If they aren't buying houses anymore, they're renting apartments. In my experience I've seen apartment locating do well in both up-markets and down-markets. 

Lower stress

No deal will make or break your bottom line. In my case no deal makes up more than 2% of yearly income. 

People don't freak out about apartments like they do with houses. It's a lower commitment so the emotional stakes are lower. 

Market Turnover

Frequent turnover. People stay in homes for years or decades, people stay in apartments for 1-3 years. This means there is always a lot of apartments coming back onto the market at all times. 

Inventory

A single apartment complex might have over 300 units. That's 300 opportunities in a single building to make commission. 

Now multiple that times hundreds of buildings. 

Always demand

People AWLAYS need a place to live no matter if they can afford a down payment or not. 

Does not depend on interest rates

Nobody is applying for financing to get a loan on an apartment. 

Cons

Lower commissions & income potential (Singles & Doubles)

A typical apartment deal is around $1500 versus the $10,000 on a $300,000 home. 

You're unlikely to get into the 7-figures if you're only doing apartment locating. 

High Volume Transactions

The only way to make good money in apartment locating is by closing a lot of deals. This means keeping track of a lot of leads, phone calls, notes, follow ups and invoices. 
This will burn you out unless you have the right systems and processes to handle this. 

Not guaranteed to get paid. 

Your client can sign at a building that pays little/no commission which means all the time you spend with them goes to waste. 

Payment can take a long time. 

Invoicing and getting paid is a pain in the ass. Apartments typically pay commissions 30-90 days (sometimes more) after a client moves in. This also requires constant follow up and tracking down payments. 

Apartment Locating is an easier and lower stress way to get into real estate. Traditional sales has a higher income potential, but also a higher stress load. In my case I choose to focus 100% on apartment locating specifically because it's almost nothing like traditional real estate. I like not-living with the stress that comes with it. 

But here's the thing: You can do both!

Some agents I know treat apartment locating as their full time "salary", and close a few houses which they treat like bonuses. I've seen the reverse too. Traditional real estate agents dabbling in apartment locating to smooth out their income. 

It's all up to you! 

No matter what you do in real estate, Apartment locating can be a useful niche to know no matter where you are in real estate. Apartments will always be in supply and demand.