Lets be real, I have been there, done that on targeted apartment shops and typically avoid them like the rest of you who have done the same. However, I am seeing a lot of them in my area, shopping is slow for me right now, I have repainted 2 rooms in my house out of pure boredom, and my mind has me thinking of doing these again. That being said, I hesitate to apply knowing the nightmare of herding squirrels or randomly catching the agent on the phone. Both would be equally challenging. If after a few failed attempts attempts, which most often happen, would it be "legal" to bring out the big guns to trap the squirrel, I mean, agent?
For instance, suppose I had a friend call, ask for the agent by name which resulted in a conversation where they told the agent they were helping a friend who was looking to move pretty quickly. Of course, they got this agent's name from someone they knew who had lived at the community, recently considered it, etc. If asked, they would use a generic name....Amy, Sarah, Mike, John.....Obviously this friend would have to have quick thinking skills on the name thing but then say they would have me call them back. If you follow my weird train of thought on that example, would this be an acceptable way to catch the agent? I hate the way finding a targeted agent can royally screw up my schedule for the week and am trying to think of ways to take this pain out of the shop.

I would be concerned that that approach might tip off the agent.

What I have tried before is having someone else call just before I do, so that a non-target is tied up on the phone when I call, therefore increasing the likelihood that I reach my target. I do shops for a small local company and the scheduler has assisted me with reaching the target in the past with this method.

Great idea! I tried something similar before and ending up finding out the agent was on vacation for 2 weeks. I was ticked off. Had I not lucked up on that info, I would have wasted countless calls and attempts to find an agent who was out of the country on what must have been a spectacular vacation.

When I entered this business in 2003, although I occasionally encountered a difficult target, the overwhelming majority were relatively easy to contact; last yr., though, that began changing for me. In addition, I also began accepting assignments where the phone answerer didn't state a name, which raised more problems. Even the additional fee for a target wasn't sufficient to compensate me for the disruption to my business life.

I decided this morning, after the last 5 out of 6 targets were a very time consuming problem, that I was finished with this phase of shopping. I'm in no manner condemning this variety of work, merely stating, for me, the negatives outweigh the positives. It's also, on occasion, necessary for me to use an alias, which is more difficult for a man, and/or an alternate phone number and E-address.

angela12 has the right idea, here. Her suggestion is exactly what some schedulers will do for apartment and new home shoppers who are having problems getting the target to answer the phone. I love that IR and CE schedulers will do this for their shoppers.

BTW, some targeted shop instruction specifically state that you may NOT have a friend or family member call and ask for the target. When in doubt, read the shop guidelines.

I do this often. I will have my BF call and tell them they spoke to so and so and then if the person is there, I tell her to talk and ask a question like "Do you accept section 8?".

Then I have my brother call and either tie up the phone hog (that perky someone who screens the calls by not letting you talk to them and ask if there is something that she can help you with) while I call back and hopefully get the target.

There are a lot of tricks to the trade but you have to consider the company you are working with.