Apartment rental service misdirection, Luxury Living Chicago edition

If you’ve been searching for an apartment in downtown Chicago, the cookies that track your online behavior result in your seeing banner ads for Luxury Living Chicago. The firm is one of dozens that have earned a spot on our rental service do-not-call list.

Rental services will always give you a misleading impression of what’s available in the market, and they’ll more often than not mislead you in a number of other ways. Take, for example, the three most important things in real estate: location, location and location.

The search for a Lincoln Park apartment at Luxury Living Chicago returns seven ads, pictured above. The ads are for two buildings, SoNo East and NewCity, neither of which is in Lincoln Park.

The search for a Gold Coast apartment at Luxury Living Chicago yielded 29 results. The 29 ads are for apartments in 9 buildings, not one of which is within what traditionalists consider the Gold Coast boundaries or YoChicago’s slightly more expansive Gold Coast boundaries.

Two of the buildings are in Streeterville and four are in River North. Three of the buildings are between Chicago Ave and Oak St, and their locations can fairly be described as on the border of the Gold Coast and River North. When you drill down on the Luxury Living Chicago Gold Coast ads, you’ll see an accurate neighborhood name, e.g. River North, associated with a number of them.

If you’re searching for an apartment in Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast, or any of Chicago’s most desirable near-lakefront neighborhoods, avoid contacting a rental service a/k/a apartment locator a/k/a apartment finder. They can’t and won’t show you everything that’s available, and you’re highly likely to miss out on some of the best apartments and best deals.

Start with YoChicago’s reviews and lists. You’ll find a ton of photos, objective information, video tours, and links to near real-time rent and availability info at most of the buildings.

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