Income Restricted Apartments

Plain answers backed by official sources

How our free apartment locating service works, and how to check our license

What we do, what the community or agency decides, how we get paid, and how to look up our brokerage on TREC’s site.

How we check our information. Before you apply, confirm application status and unit details with the property or agency.

The short answer

Our locating service is free to renters. Participating communities pay us a referral fee. We talk through possible communities with you and look at each community’s screening criteria before you apply. The community or agency decides on your application.

Our locators hold Texas real estate licenses. You can check that on the Texas Real Estate Commission’s own site, and this page shows you how.

How a search with us works

  1. Use our housing inquiry to tell us your city, move date, budget and monthly income, plus any rental, credit or background issues. It takes about five minutes.
  2. We get back to you to talk through possible communities and next steps.
  3. We look at each community’s screening criteria and put together a community list for you. If you have a voucher, we ask each community about its voucher policy too. Our goal is to send your list within 24 to 48 weekday hours of your housing inquiry.
  4. We help with tours and next steps. You get the current application steps, fees and document list from the community.
  5. The community or agency reviews your application and makes the decision.

A first talk with our team doesn’t replace the community’s review. Public housing and assistance programs each need their own application, separate from your search with us.

What we don’t do

Here’s where our part ends and the provider’s part starts.

  • We aren’t a housing authority, and we don’t certify program eligibility.
  • We can’t hold a unit for you, and we don’t give legal advice.
  • We don’t promise a lease, a particular vacancy or a set date for your matches.
  • The community or agency decides eligibility, screening, fees and approval.

How we get paid

You don’t pay us anything. Our fee comes from participating communities, which pay us for the referral.

Our public property finder is a research directory, not a list of our referral partners. You can use its records, official assistance links and checklist without sending us an inquiry. If you’d rather apply for public help directly, use the assistance contacts.

Check our license with TREC

Our sponsoring broker is Spirit Real Estate Group. Don’t take a number on any website at its word, including ours. Open TREC’s license holder search yourself and follow these steps.

  1. Search for “Spirit Real Estate Group” as the broker.
  2. Search for the name of the locator you’re talking with.
  3. Compare the name, the current license status and the sponsoring broker that TREC shows.
  4. If anything doesn’t match, stop and ask before you send documents or money.

TREC’s live record is the one that counts. What we post on our site doesn’t replace the regulator’s current record.

Read the TREC notices

We post two TREC notices on our site. You can read them here.

The Information About Brokerage Services form explains the ways a broker can work with you. TREC has more about it on its IABS form page. The Consumer Protection Notice has TREC’s contact details if you have a question or a complaint.

Check who you’re talking to

Confirm the person’s name and contact details match the business you checked on TREC. If someone calls or emails out of nowhere saying they’re with us, call the number on our website to check. A copied license number doesn’t prove the sender holds that license.

Don’t send money to hold a unit before you’ve confirmed who you’re dealing with. The FTC’s guide to rental listing scams lists warning signs to watch for.

What a license doesn’t tell you

A real estate license doesn’t guarantee a unit is vacant or an application will be approved. It doesn’t make a locator a housing authority either. Public programs still have their own official ways to apply and pick tenants.

Pick your next step