As winter approaches and the number of apartment-hunting renters drops, Chicago rental services typically ramp up their year-round efforts to flood Craigslist with bait-and-switch ads. This year I’m seeing what appears to be a tidal wave of misleading and unauthorized ads. Many of those ads tout much higher rents than are actually available at the advertised properties.
One example. If you use the near real-time rent and availability check at Elm Street Plaza, the property in the above Craigslist ad, you’ll find only one 2-bedroom available, renting for $2,242 on an 8-month lease or as high as $2,412 on a 12-month lease. The rental service ad lists a 2-bedroom for $2,698 on a 12-month lease. How does that happen?
You’ll find many 1,000s of rental service apartment ads at Craigslist that are unauthorized, misleading or downright fraudulent. If you use YoChicago’s comprehensive at-a-glance apartment lists, you’ll find links to near real-time availability checks at property websites with accurate information about what’s available when and what the rent is.