Trash Pick Up Service For Apartments

[Bushi23]

Living in an apartment for the first time, I've realized that bringing trash to the dumpster is kind of a hassle, especially if its far away.

Now I know there are a ton of junk removal services, but what about a service that just takes your garbage bag and dumps it into your own, previously assigned dumpster?

I was thinking of charging around $12-15 a month, and perhaps 2 visits a week.

Is this feasible at that rate? What do you guys think about the need?

 

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[wade1mil]

Is this feasible at that rate? What do you guys think about the need?

They do that in the apartments I live in. They charge $30 per month. Sell it to the apartment managers and have them include it in the price of the rent. Give them a $5 kickback per door.

 

[Bushi23]

They do that in the apartments I live in. They charge $30 per month. Sell it to the apartment managers and have them include it in the price of the rent. Give them a $5 kickback per door.

Interesting..So the apartment managers add the $30 to the rent they collect(obviously only allowed to when signing new tenants), and then I go to the apartment managers and effectively collect $25, giving them a 5$ discount per door?

 

[wade1mil]

Yep. It's in the contract $30 for trash valet. For existing clients you could put a flyer on their door or have the apartment managers send them a flyer. The trash valet provides a trash can and they go around picking up every can Sun-Thur between 8pm and 8am. Fri-Sat no pickup.

 

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[Bushi23]

So they pick up the can every single day except weekends? Seems a little excessive no?

Also, how do you go about offering the $5 kickback? Is that something you just bring up with the managers? "Hey, add $30 a month to the rent and then I'll swing by and give you $5 cash for each door"? Is that something you can just bring up? Legal?

 

[wade1mil]

I don't run the service, I just use it.

I'm not sure the legalities, you'd have to ask an attorney. And I don't know anything specific about the kickback. All I know is it's a line item on the contract that says Trash Valet $30. If it were me I would go to the apartment managers and say something like, "Hi my name is Wade. I'm with Trash Valet for Lazy Asses, and we offer a trash service where we go door-to-door for apartment complexes and take out the trash for the renters. We charge $30 per month and we take out the trash everyday of the week except Friday and Saturday. Renters love this service and I'd like to partner with you and offer it to your renters. What we normally do is give you a $5 kickback for every tenant that uses our service."

You're offering the apartment managers an additional source of income and you're offering the apartment renters a way to get out of taking out the trash.

 

[Runum]

You need to check with your local city for laws/fees/permits restricting this.

 

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[CommonCents]

I came up w/ this idea years ago and didn't pursue it completely. I think w/ the right apartments(ones w/ exterior entrances) it can be a great business. I did a mailing to a few large apartment complexes and got a great response. I got a couple of em to let me put on door hangers on all units (100's) with a questionaire for the tenants on such a service.

I agree the only way this will work would be get buy in from the complex to do your billing for you, and cut them in. The challenge I came up with however, is that the apartment management or even their garbage service picking up the dumpster will wise up very quickly and cut you out faster than you can say, pooof. They'll just put their own hourly workers on it. You could try getting an exclusive contract for a year or 2 to prevent this, but you'd be lucky to get one IMHO.

The other tack in just doing the billing direct to the tenants will work better today w/ recurring CC charges once you sign them up, but you'll have to really hustle and hit right price point to get a critical mass of customers at each complex.

I couldn't imagine doing the service more than 2x a week. It takes a helluva lot of effort to hit hundreds of apartments, some being up a couple flights of stairs. Other challenges you'll have is educating the tenants to NOT put their garbage outside their doors except for on pickup days. That will be a tough one and apartment managers will shut you down in a hurry if only a few tenants now keep their garbage outside their doors at any time. One way is maybe put smaller bins outside clusters of buildings early on pickup day so the tenants put the garbage in there relatively close to their doors.

The numbers if it works could be truly fastlane staggering. Many complexes have hundreds or over a 1000 units. However, the biz is not real defensible. The trick is to make it somehow defensible w/ some ideas of barriers to entry whatever they may be. But the investment is low enough (some uniforms and a logo truck, maybe bins) to give it a try. I chose not to as I went on to a better biz op at the time for me, self pay parking lots in night club areas.

There were no regulation/ordinances to worry about when I checked since the garbage was only transported on the property to their regular dumpster onsite.

good luck!

 

[mimarsinan31]

I am planning to do the same thing...would be nice if we could share the information we gathered so far...I will take all my vacation days in sept 10th, then give my 2 weeks notice. I'll give you my number if you're willing to give some input...I'd really appreciate that. Check you inbox

 

[DeletedUser12]

A friend used a service similar to these at his apartments -- what was key was the trash bin was more a piece of furniture, like a wooden crate / bench with a lid that swung up. It matched the decor of the outside of the apartments and you would never know trash was in there. You could drop your trash there anytime.

I would think this would be best at higher end complexes ($1000/month+), below this, I don't think tenants would go for it.

 

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[Breaking Free]

This is one of those services I never would have thought of, because when I lived in an apartment complex I just kind of accepted that taking my trash to the dumpster was a part of life.

One thing I noticed is that many apartment complexes don't offer a recycle service.

 

[funkj25]

This is one of those services I never would have thought of, because when I lived in an apartment complex I just kind of accepted that taking my trash to the dumpster was a part of life.

One thing I noticed is that many apartment complexes don't offer a recycle service.

Recycling, exactly why I came in this thread. The complex I'm in doesn't offer it even though the city I'm in offers curbside pickup. It might be a harder sell for recycling vs trash pickup. Haven't though it out completely, but possibly some opportunity there.

 

[jamyron14]

I am planning to do the same thing...would be nice if we could share the information we gathered so far...I will take all my vacation days in sept 10th, then give my 2 weeks notice. I'll give you my number if you're willing to give some input...I'd really appreciate that. Check you inbox

Did you get started with it

 

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[jamyron14]

I'm looking to getting into this I know these posts are really old but if anyone could help me out or point me in the right direction I would appreciate it

 

[Reo]

Jamyron14 any luck with the business. I am interested in starting the same business.

 

[MoneyDoc]

Don't all apartments/condos have the garbage rooms on every floor?

 

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[Reo]

depending on where you live.

 

[contract]

Most people who'd pay for that service live in apartments that already offer that and pack it into the monthly rent, or force it.

 

[Reo]

Apartment management will hire a company to provide the valet trash service.

 

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[brickco]

At my buildings, I provide this for free for 2 reasons:

1) I don't need a dumpster in the parking lot. This means idiots that don't live in my building don't cost me a fortune by filling up my bin in the middle of the night.

2) When people move, they don't have the option of throwing their furniture in the bin.

Landlords might not like the idea of having garbage in their halls, but in reality, it actually makes the place neater. The bin in the parking lot makes the place look trashy (pun intended) and if people put their garbage outside their door, it's public, and more reasonable (perhaps people are embarrassed to put too much or something, I don't know, but the volume of garbage is less than half what it was with a bin).

I would suggest trying a full service approach and take the garbage from the doorsteps to the dump. This means the landlords don't need a bin, they will be open to this.

 

[DaRK9]

\
I would suggest trying a full service approach and take the garbage from the doorsteps to the dump. This means the landlords don't need a bin, they will be open to this.

This would cut out the need for the kickback. They don't pay anything, they just act as a median for the money. Interesting.

 

[eric jackson]

I'm looking to getting into this I know these posts are really old but if anyone could help me out or point me in the right direction I would appreciate it

I'm looking into the same thing as hat state are you from. I want my own valet trash business as well. Hit me up ASAP maybe we can start together it is a very lucrative business

 

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[eric jackson]

I am planning to do the same thing...would be nice if we could share the information we gathered so far...I will take all my vacation days in sept 10th, then give my 2 weeks notice. I'll give you my number if you're willing to give some input...I'd really appreciate that. Check you inbox

I know this is and old post but if u are still interested I want to do the same thing.

 

[Harchitect]

I came up w/ this idea years ago and didn't pursue it completely. I think w/ the right apartments(ones w/ exterior entrances) it can be a great business. I did a mailing to a few large apartment complexes and got a great response. I got a couple of em to let me put on door hangers on all units (100's) with a questionaire for the tenants on such a service.

I agree the only way this will work would be get buy in from the complex to do your billing for you, and cut them in. The challenge I came up with however, is that the apartment management or even their garbage service picking up the dumpster will wise up very quickly and cut you out faster than you can say, pooof. They'll just put their own hourly workers on it. You could try getting an exclusive contract for a year or 2 to prevent this, but you'd be lucky to get one IMHO.

The other tack in just doing the billing direct to the tenants will work better today w/ recurring CC charges once you sign them up, but you'll have to really hustle and hit right price point to get a critical mass of customers at each complex.

I couldn't imagine doing the service more than 2x a week. It takes a helluva lot of effort to hit hundreds of apartments, some being up a couple flights of stairs. Other challenges you'll have is educating the tenants to NOT put their garbage outside their doors except for on pickup days. That will be a tough one and apartment managers will shut you down in a hurry if only a few tenants now keep their garbage outside their doors at any time. One way is maybe put smaller bins outside clusters of buildings early on pickup day so the tenants put the garbage in there relatively close to their doors.

The numbers if it works could be truly fastlane staggering. Many complexes have hundreds or over a 1000 units. However, the biz is not real defensible. The trick is to make it somehow defensible w/ some ideas of barriers to entry whatever they may be. But the investment is low enough (some uniforms and a logo truck, maybe bins) to give it a try. I chose not to as I went on to a better biz op at the time for me, self pay parking lots in night club areas.

There were no regulation/ordinances to worry about when I checked since the garbage was only transported on the property to their regular dumpster onsite.

good luck!

I am looking to begin this business very soon. Were you able to get apartment management to include this service for current tenants as well? I assume it needs to be on their leasing contract, thus having to make existing tenants sign an amended contract?

If anyone else can provide more info or advice, it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Deleted20833]

Seems like a good idea for people who have a little bit of time

 

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[fhs8]

Not too sure about this idea. Only way to know for sure if it would work would be to try it out. There's a couple of problems with it.

Are they just going to leave trash outside their front door? That would be so ugly and people won't like it with a bunch of trash outside doors. Also if they left trash inside wouldn't that stink up the place? What if the people aren't home? Then you have cost. It would be very labor intensive at a time when minimum wage is going up. Are you targetting single floor apartments or multi-floors? I think think the problem isn't as big as you think. I would sure would walk a bit to dump my trash in the dumpster rather than having it stink up the place. Multi-floors usually have trash shoots that are conveniently nearby.

What if there are dogs? You know some apartments may have gates and then a dog.

Also a lot of trash at least in some cities is recycled. There are people at trash processing facilities who are employed to go through the regular trash to find recyclables. Also recyclables need to be in seperate containers for paper, cardboard, aluminum, etc... or it's just a big waste of time. It would still have to be processed.

I was just thinking that you could target senior housing and maybe have trash pick up more often? I wonder how they handle this problem? What about offices? What if you offered paper recycling and pickup? You could even offer a shredding service for paper.

Hey if it works out maybe I'll get into this business. I'm currently on the sidewalk, struggling, and looking for something that works.

 

[rc08234]

So they pick up the can every single day except weekends? Seems a little excessive no?

Also, how do you go about offering the $5 kickback? Is that something you just bring up with the managers? "Hey, add $30 a month to the rent and then I'll swing by and give you $5 cash for each door"? Is that something you can just bring up? Legal?

At my apartment they did it everyday but fri and sat. Trash had to be at the outside of the door by 7PM. They did it for all 300+ apartments. I'm not sure what it use to cost me but it would piss me off as it was not optional. I'd rather just have taken it to the dumpster myself

 

[rc08234]

Also, I would check about insurace. Numerous times I came across a raccoon in the middle of the day eating trash from where people put it out to early. He was mean as shit, and I was deff more scared of him then he was of me.

 

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[T123]

I am looking to begin this business very soon. Were you able to get apartment management to include this service for current tenants as well? I assume it needs to be on their leasing contract, thus having to make existing tenants sign an amended contract?

If anyone else can provide more info or advice, it would be greatly appreciated!

Curious to know how the trash bin for each apartment unit works. Is this provided by the apartment community or the valet trash company? That would include some additional fees for starting up a valet trash company...

 

[robertsmith]

These pickup services are really very good. Their services are very fast and quick.