Apartment shops

I've done almost everything else, but feel daunted by these. Should I? There's a couple on a route I'm planning for next week for $30 a piece.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the type of person who would keep a parrot." Mark Twain

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Depends. Target shops can be difficult, since you have to keep trying until you reach the correct person, and sometimes the person you are assigned to shop isn't even the leasing agent, so they will just transfer you to the leasing agent. Sometimes, they want the manager to be shopped, and it is very awkward to try and insist you want to deal only with the manager, when showing apartments isn't even their job. Many of the apartments I've done have waiting lists, so there is no reason for them to try and get you to come see an apartment, and they often don't have anything to show. I usually wait until they get desperate and pay $50-$60.

$30 is too low for most of the apartment shops I've done. I'm happy to take them for $50 and up.

"The future ain't what it used to be." --Yogi Berra

I enjoy them and since I've never seen one of those top pay apartment shops some talk about here, $30 works well for me. If it's a targeted shop, you have to make sure your target is available on the day of your route. If it is a random shop, no issues. They're pretty easy especially have you've done one or two and have the requirements in your brain. After that, you just need to learn what is specific to a certain company as there can be a handful of special requirements.

Thanks all. Decided to pass. The pre-application instructions say assignments "may" be targeted. Then I read elsewhere on the boards that the company is one that has a lengthy period before they pay. While I'm shopping in a more remote area, I'll take the number of assignments that remain on the board in a major city as another negative sign.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck....

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the type of person who would keep a parrot." Mark Twain

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2015 07:19PM by BackwoodsBC.

Just one more note. These shops are repeated several times. You can usually tell when a shop is having trouble being completed because they will add bonuses to it, usually at $10 a pop. It keeps on rotating, though, and that same shop will reappear for the new month or however many times. If you see the bonus, you know it is an overdue one or one with a deadline for completion very soon. If you see it at regular price (usually in the $20 range), then it's on schedule with no issues. That's been my experience, anyway.

Apt shops are my bread and butter. In my area, most start at $35 and go up from there. I usually take them when they're bonused to $50-60. One time I was able to pick up one for $80! If they're close by, and I have a short week, I'll take a couple at $35, but that's the minimum. When another MSC had some at $20, I was still laughing long after I had hit Delete!

@ wrote:

Then I read elsewhere on the boards that the company is one that has a lengthy period before they pay.

I did a couple of apartment shops for that MSC a few years ago and had to wait for months for payment. The shops were easy but the wait for payment interminable.

It all depends on where you live I guess. I belong to a ton of MSCs and the company with the slow pay is the one who has most of them. I wait for them to be bonused and it works out well. There are maybe two other MSCs they have them with some regularity where I am, but they pay less. Another one using the ISS platform seems to have one or two on occasion but not regularly, so for me, this is all I've got. I have never seen a shop start at more than $35 so either there's a MSC I'm not a member of or they just aren't offering those high priced shops where I live. What MSCs are offering those higher priced apartment shops? Anyone care to share?

One time, after 18 phone calls, three messages and two site visits to see if anyone was there, I eventually determined that they did not currently have anyone working there. They had someone from a sister property checking messages, but no one was staffing the office. Luckily, they paid me for my work.

One one occasion, I arrived at the assigned property only to find out from the mailman that the leasing office was not on-site. It was in a different city nearby. So, apartments can be a pain, but they can also be very simple if they don't have anything to show you and you just have to show up and request to be put on a wait-list, and take a brief tour of the property amenities.

I did 2 shops on 6/16-17 and was paid on 7/22 - it works for me! I know of 2 MSCs in my area, and I only work for one. If the slow-paying one is the low-paying one, no wonder I see repeated e-mails from them!

@ wrote:

If the slow-paying one is the low-paying one, no wonder I see repeated e-mails from them!

You've apparently come full circle, Lisa!

I will do apartment shops in my immediate area for $55, but travel requires a much higher fee.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

$30 is actually not too bad - with that being said, that all depends on the amount of questions and/or narratives required. I personally do not do any with more than one narrative for $30.. I would do it for $60 or more. I have done multiple choice apt shops for $20 - I like those ones because they never take long. Easy, quick bread and butter :-)

Silver Certified ~ Shopping all of Toronto and beyond

Well again, it all depends on what is offered to a person.

Do you guys ever get recognized from previous shops? I would think the landlord, or property manager, would recognize you if you shopped the same apartment like 3 months ago. All the ones I've ever seen ask you to provide your real information...which leads me to believe, they flag you as the shopper in the database. I'd love to start apartment shops, if anything just to keep abreast on what the going rents are.

The shops around here usually have a rotation of at least six months to a year. I just stay away from repeats anyway as a precaution.

Some are even 18-month rotation. I actually got recognized by a leasing agent who had transferred to a new property. He asked if I had ever been to his previous property. Thinking quickly, I said I had friends who lived there (it was true)! I also said lots of people think they recognize me (also true).

In addition, the agents are often quite young and use that job as a stepping-stone to other careers or a fill-in while finishing school. The likelihood that they will still be around 12-18 months from now is remote.

If you wait 12 to 18 months regardless of the MSC rotation being recognized isn't a deal breaker. Just have the name of another complex ready so you can say that's where you moved the previous year. You are not happy there and your lease is up for renewal soon.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I don't even think that. It's not their business to know where you moved to. I've always thought if that happened to me where I shopped a property with a familiar face, I would say either I chose another complex or something happened and I actually didn't move at that time but am moving now. I came up with that decision on my first shop when I saw the lady I did the shop with turned out to be the manager of three different complexes, two of which I was shopping over a two-week period. I never ran into her again, but I was prepared and that possible scenario is in my mind as a result of the potential of it happening.

I will not do targeted shops, basically ever. That aside, I was grounded in lengthy report writing before I started doing apartment shops. It LOOKS intimidating. If all you've done so far is fast food, it may be over your level just yet. If you've been doing some fine dining and even hotel work, you'll figure it out quickly. I did some $40 apartment shops and never got any clarification requests, which surprises the hell out of me.

Of course it's none of their business and often that would be my reaction. IMO, it would make for a smoother interaction if the shopper has a potential community they might have moved to instead of the one they are shopping. Saying circumstances changed and the move was put off for a year is also a good out.

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