Consider the Craigslist recruiting ad recently posted by T-Rock Enterprises a/k/a Chicago Apartment Renters. The Craigslist ad doesn’t include, as required by law, the name of a brokerage firm registered with the IDFPR‘s Real Estate Division – perhaps because T-Rock Enterprises’ broker license is shown in the IDFPR database as having expired on October 31 of last year. The ad doesn’t mention any educational requirements or mention a criminal background check.

Imagine, if you will, the typical respondent to a semi-literate ad promising $1,000s a month for part-time work-from-home employment and requiring no qualifications beyond a smart phone and a car. Do you want that person showing you an apartment, or showing your apartments? Do you want to see the type of apartment that allows that person to show it? Are you ready to hop in a car with that person?

Have you ever wondered why, if being a leasing agent is as financially rewarding as the recruiting ads suggest, licensed agents and brokers aren’t competing for those positions? Why does the rental service industry need to hammer away on the “No license required” theme? Why is it such a high-turnover business? Why are there so few non-owner veteran leasing agents affiliated with rental services?

The answer, in my take, is that signing on as a leasing agent with any of Chicago’s rental services is almost invariably a bad bet.

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