| There are actually a host of similar web sites. The business model for all of them is very similar. Some offer money ($100-$200 per customer) some offer other incentives (limited free move for instance). Basically, an apartment community interested in acquiring a new tenant will pay a commission (usually 50%-100% of a first month’s rent) to any licensed party (apartment locator or a web company) when a tenant moves in and tells a property that they found out bout their apartments through one of those referral companies. As long as you tell the apartment community (and make sure the apartment manager writes it down on your lease) that you used a specific locating service that service will be able to get a commission for you (see above) and then share a small portion of it with you. There is one big problem with all these sites. They only list properties that PAY commissions and usually those are property that are ether having difficulty filling the units or those that might not be desirable by the general public. Basically any commercial apartment locating site will only show you properties they are working with. That in turn will limit your choices to a comparably small number of properties. I actually worked with one of these companies for years. Make sure you read their terms and conditions and make sure you talk to them any time you have questions and you will get your money or some other perk. On the same topic, if you are not looking for any added value, but rather looking for apartment information I might suggest you visit my site (http://www.everyaptmapped.com) as to my knowledge it is the only site on the net that actually lists all apartment communities rather than only those that pay commissions. | 
