Free rental referral services (real estate, apartment, rentals)

[greenduck]

Hello! I have been checking Craigslist for rentals and have noticed there are some free rental refferal services being advertised. Are they reputable? What are your experiences with them? If bad - please let me know.

[Me007gold]

They get paid by the complexs the represent. They dont care about helping you, they care about the biggest commission they make, even if it is a terrible complex. Take what they say with a grain of salt. Make sure you use every resource out there,(apartment review websites, walk around the complex and try and talk to residents)

[Hedgehog_Mom]

They are useful to get a good deal, but you need to do your own research about a complex before you move in. I've never met an apartment locator who would tell you anything negative about a complex, even if it's obvious. One time when locators can be helpful is when you don't have a car or aren't familiar with the city, some of them will drive you around to the complexes. They're also good for someone who has bad credit or a criminal record, because they'll know which complexes will work with those problems.

[greenduck]

Thank you for the heads up ME007Gold and Hedgehog_Mom!! I will not use them. I had a hunch they were a bit "fishy".

[kevcrawford]

Apartment locators are not fishy. They serve a great purpose. You shouldn't buy/rent ANYTHING without doing your own research, but using them may make you aware of deals or places that you didn't know existed.

They serve a great purpose.

I'm in real estate, and saying that they don't care about where you end up is like saying that even though a buyer doesn't pay my commission, I don't care which house they buy. Most people in ANY business realize that by taking GOOD care of your clients, you'll get referrals and more business in return. I'm sure most of these places operate under the same premise.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

They're not fishy or seedy...they just make their money from the complexes, so they really want to get you moved in somewhere. I used to use apartment locator services before I had internet access, because they'd have prices and floorplans and sometimes know about complexes I had never heard of. I only encountered one who really cared where you ended up, out of the five or six that I used over the years. The others were in a big hurry to get you moved in somewhere so they could get paid. They were still useful...instead of driving to 20 places to get floorplans, and each place wanting to get your phone number and other info, you could go to one office, fill out a form about what you were looking for, and then get a list of places that met your requirements.

Now, you can find all the same info online, so the only real advantage is that you can usually get pretty good move-in specials when you use a locator.

But they're paid by the complexes, which is why they won't tell you if a complex is an undesirable place to live. You have to do your own research on that and use your own judgement.

A realtor showing houses is a little different, most realtors do their jobs for a very long time and that's where the referrals and repeat business is helpful. Most locators don't seem to stay at their jobs very long...I used to move every two years and would try to go back and find the same locator, and they were never there. Sometimes even the businesses had closed down in the couple of years.

[OpenD]

Most are reputable and helpful, and can save you a lot of time and effort, especially when you are unfamiliar with an area. Yes, they work for the referral fee they collect if you rent an apartment they've found, so you'll only see the ones that pay referrals, but that includes all the large, reputable complexes. They won't deliberately steer you to a bad place because they depend a lot on recommendations from satisfied customers for their business.