When we last checked in on Crazy Steve and My Place Apartments they were soliciting deadbeats, felons and strippers as clients. As you can see from the above screen cap, they’ve broadened their marketing appeal to reach out to dump-dwellers, couch-surfers, flunking students and grandma-evictees.
The firm has garnered 49 filtered reviews at Yelp and one unfiltered one, many of them alleging that the firm asks renters for money up front and rips them off. During the past 12 months the Better Business Bureau has received 17 complaints with similar allegations.
A Google search for My Place Apartments surfaces dozens of glowing Google Reviews of the firm.
The Google Reviews reek of fraud, and when you drill in on the reviewers the ineptness of the fraud becomes laughably apparent.
Many of the reviewers also gave glowing 5-star reviews to Superior Eye Care, 2906 N Broadway. If you’re wondering why so many apartment-seekers also need eye care, you might wonder why they wouldn’t visit the Superior Eye Care office at 2451 N Lincoln Ave, where My Place Apartments also has its offices. While you’re at it, you can inquire whether Jack Shaw, the proprietor of Superior Eye Care is any relation to the Shaws who operate Shaw Real Estate Group d/b/a My Place Apartments and Shaw Legal Services.
One of the Shaws, Anne, is vying to become the First Ward Democratic Committeeman, which just adds to the fun. Feel free to add your take on the skill set necessary to become a Chicago pol in the comments.
If you’re looking for an apartment in Chicago, you’d be well advised to steer clear of the rental services that pollute Craigslist with 1,000s of bait-and-switch ads every day. Despite the naively awful advice you’ll find in TimeOut’s recent Apartment Issue, it’s not only easy to avoid Chicago’s rental services, it’s risky not to.
Disclosure: I was interviewed at length for the TimeOut article, but not quoted in it.