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New renters in Chicago are often confused or misled by Craigslist ads into believing that they’re contacting a landlord or management company when they respond to an ad by one of the many apartment locators / finders / rental services.
Many of the rental service ads on Craigslist are for non-existent apartments or apartments only available at a higher or lower price. When an ad does represent an actual apartment, it’s likely to be advertised repeatedly by scores of rental services, none of whom have any control over the property or knowledge of whether it’s still available for rent.
The apartment locators advertise their service as “free,” and that’s an appealing argument to renters naive enough to believe that they’re not ultimately paying the one month’s rent they receive as a commission.
Finding a good apartment in Chicago is relatively easy – unless you’re using a locator service to find one. In that case, you’ll often be shown the difficult-to-rent dogs that landlords can’t rent on their own. As a bonus, you’ll be pressured into believing that these leftovers are the best available or steered into neighborhoods you’d rather avoid.
If you’re looking to rent along Chicago’s lakefront, YoChicago’s at-a-glance apartment lists make it easy to see what’s available from all the major buildings and management companies. Searching the MLS at a reputable broker site and walking around your preferred area on the lookout for rental signs will expose you to almost everything else.
An earlier version of this rental service do-not call list generated a lot of comments before comments were closed.
If Craigslist is your preferred source, we’ve prepared an updated list of the rental services / locators / finders you should avoid, and a list of the twenty-five things rental services won’t tell you.
- @ Rentals / at Rentals
- American Realty Pros
- Apartment and Condo Center
- Apartment and Home Seekers
- Apartment Connection
- Apartment Friendly
- Apartment Group, The
- Apartment Guys
- Apartment Locators
- Apartment People
- Apartment Savvy
- Apartment Source
- Apartment Vigilantes
- Apartments in Chicago
- Buzzer Real Estate
- Chicago Apartment Finders
- Chicago Apartment Hunters, Inc.
- Chicago Apartment Renters
- Chicago Apartment Seekers
- Chicago Apartment Solutions
- Chicago Real Estate Services
- Chicago Rent Finders
- Chicago Signature Properties
- Chicagoland Property Group
- Chicagoland Rentals a/k/a Meyers Group
- Chicago’s Property Shop
- ChiLife Realty
- Chicago’s Property Shop
- Chicago Residential Experts
- Ciddy of Chicago
- Continuum Brokers
- Core Luxury Real Estate / Core Group
- Crazy Steve
- Downtown Apartment Company
- Downtown Apartment Finders
- Dream Spots
- Dwell Chicago Rentals
- Elan Leasing
- Exchange Apartment Finders
- Fulton Grace Realty
- GoldMark Realty
- Green Ivy Realty
- Homescout
- Homestead Group
- HotSpot Rentals
- HP Realty
- iMove Chicago
- Just Rent Chicago
- Kale Realty
- Lakeside Living
- Linear Realty a/k/a Linear Leasing
- Live Well Chicago Realty
- Loop Apartments
- Luxury Living Chicago
- Meyers Group a/k/a Chicagoland Rentals
- My Chicago Flats
- My Place Apartments
- My Town Realty
- New City Rentals
- New Urban Property Services
- Open Path Realty
- Premier Chicago Rentals
- Prospect Equities
- Quantum Apartments
- Real rentals
- Red Door Realty
- Rent Apartment Leasing
- Rent Here Realty
- Rent Proactive
- The Rent Pros
- Rent Smart
- Renters Refuge
- Rentology
- Second City Apartments
- Shaw Real Estate Group
- Spaces Property Group
- State Street Properties
- T-Rock Enterprises
- Tricap
- Trudo Realty
- Urban Lux
- Vesta Preferred Realty
- VibeRent Real Estate
- We Know Realty Corp
- X Plus Real Estate
New rental services are constantly being spawned, so we’ve doubtless missed some. Add a comment to help us update the list.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
What lands a company on your “do not call” list? Are there any illegal practices, or are they just placing ads for apartments that may or may not exist, then pulling the bait and switch? Wondering if any on the list should be reported for serious bad behavior.
Dana,
You’ve posed a false either / or.
“Just” placing bait-and-switch ads for non-existing apartments is illegal and is “serious bad behavior.” Advertising properties without written authorization – almost all rental service ads – is illegal.
I’ve written many times about serious bad behavior on the part of some of the individual companies on this list. One of the recent additions, for example, has an expired license and is apparently run by an individual who never held a broker’s license. One of the companies on the list had been running an unlicensed business for a dozen years and state sanctions for that failed to put them out of business.
I’m curious as to whether or not you’ve actually researched each of these companies, or just looked up their names. I run a property management company here in Chicago, and while I couldn’t agree more that there are shady locating services out there, I don’t believe them all to be bad. There are a few companies I’ve worked with that are actually professional, legally run and worth using. As a smaller management company with a small staff, locating services are responsible for 95% of my rentals. Its nice to see someone calling out the unethical companies on their BS, but I can assure you there are a few companies on this list that don’t need to be avoided.
Lisa,
I’ve examined in some detail the online behavior of all of the companies on the list, and am familiar with the offline behavior of a number of them.
Every company on this list earned a place there by repeated violations of the laws that govern their business.
I can assure you that none of the companies on this list are “professional, legally run and worth using” if you’re a renter.
If you’re a landlord with a bad reputation and units that are hard to rent you might have a different take on whether the rental services on our list are “worth using.” If you don’t have a solid grasp of what the law requires of a rental service you might think they’re “professional” and “legally run.”
I actually am a landlord with a high renewal rate and a pretty good reputation. I send out resident satisfaction surveys annually, and our overall rating from our residents is 4 out of 5 stars. Yelp of course filters our good reviews, but that happens to almost all of the businesses I know personally.
I’ve also found in my own experience as a renter, going straight through management companies and dealing with their agents can be just as frustrating as going through locating services. I completely agree that there are a large number of companies that don’t practice business in the manner they should (both legally and ethically), we just disagree on a few particular companies. I noticed in a comment you made on another article that there are companies that you would not put on this list, as they practice their business legally and ethically. Which companies would you recommend?
Lisa,
Stop trying to play us. Just stop.
If the email address you supplied is accurate, you actually work for a company with a bad reputation on Yelp. Two stars, not 4. Your filtered reviews are both bad and good, and many of the good ones are suspicious. Your unfiltered reviews are mostly bad.
Am I correct in saying that one of the companies you like shares office space with your company – and has overlapping ownership? And runs illegal ads for properties that have not given it the written authorization required by Illinois law?
You have zero credibility – anyone with any personal integrity would have disclosed the relationship with a rental service.
We never recommend specific companies – beyond making a blanket suggestion to use one of our parent firm’s clients. None of them are rental services.
Mr. Zekas –
Your implication that renters indirectly pay the one month’s commission that locators receive is simply not true. If you are going to make such a bold statement, please back it up with facts. Please. The majority of the apartment buildings websites display their pricing in real time. Regardless, whether you call up as an agent or as a renter, the pricing does not change. That is a fact. Test it out for yourself if you don’t believe me. To say that the renters indirectly pay the locators one months rent commission is saying that the buildings quote different pricing to renters with or without locators. Not true. Get your facts straight please. Thank you.
Scotty,
Some buildings, usually with smaller, less professional landlords, do quote different prices to renters with locators and those without. That’s a fact.
More to the point I was making, renters pay the commission when they pay rent – unless you’d have us believe that landlords pay it out of gambling winnings or bank robberies or with counterfeit currency rather than out of the rent they receive. My facts are straight – what needs straightening is your grasp of economic reality.
Well then why didnt you say that only “some” of the “smaller” “less professional landlords” operate in this way? That is a whole lot different from your original post that implies that this is the norm for all landlords/buildings.
Now to your POINT “renters pay the commission when they pay rent”
So if renters pay commissions when they pay rent, then why do so many (90% if not all) of these high rises in chicago quote renters the same prices as locators? Who is the renter paying commission to if they have not rented with the help of a locator?
Scotty,
You’re obviously having difficulty understanding what I said – and repeated. And it’s not what you’re saying I said.
There’s nothing I can say that will help you get the point. I think everyone else reading this gets it.
Joe,
As you said to another poster, stop trying to play us. Just stop.
Of course I have difficulty understanding because you are retracting on your original statement, which I think your readers can see for themselves. That being said, I also believe that contrary to your false implication, the readers will understand that the vast majority of landlords/buildings will quote a renter the same rate whether or not they are accompanied by a locator. If they don’t, then they should test it for themselves.
There’s no variance from my original statement. You are simply unable to understand it or pretending not to.
Ha…..right. In the end, you’re quite often dead wrong. I just hope that not too many readers believe all of your garbage. Have a good one.
When developers build an apartment building there are a number of budgets that run in tandem, but are in fact separate. Operations, Marketing, Maintenance, etc. Typically, inside these budgets are various line items. One of those items, likely in Marketing, is leasing commissions.
When the developer gets the loan for the property, they borrow based on the expected rental income including the expected commissions paid.
If they pay a commission, or do not pay a commission, they will not waiver on the rent. The rents are calculated with software similar to airlines or hotels, based on occupancy, time of year, rate of leasing, showing activity, etc.
If you bring a broker, or do not bring a broker you will be asked for the same rent. They will not give a member of the public a month free in lieu of a brokerage fee. That may have been the case in the past, but now everything is run on software. The leasing agents just show the units and the rents are provided to them. From time to time for unique large homes, the building manager may grant a special concession. For example, if a baseball player wants the only 5BR penthouse.
The brokers submit their firm’s W-9 and the commissions paid are deducted from the building’s bottom line income for tax purposes. The management companies answer to the developers. The developers answer to the lenders. The lenders answer to no one.
If you hold or don’t a real estate license you answer to the state of Illinois. If the management company is a licensed entity they must only pay licensed agents.
You’re telling only a partial story of limited applicability.
The large apartment buildings do generally charge the same rent with or without a rental service. That’s frequently not true with some of the smaller landlords.
Also, commissions may be budgeted from borrowed funds or developer equity on a start-up. On an ongoing basis, they’re paid from rents paid by renters. And the costs of borrowing / return to equity need to be paid on an ongoing basis – from rents paid by renters. The notion that renters don’t ultimately pay the commissions is just plain silly and flies in the face of economic reality.