This Craigslist ad is a classic of the Chicago apartment rental service genre, illustrating several of the time-wasting traps that anyone foolish enough to search for a high-rise rental on Craigslist will encounter.
The ad describes an apartment at Alta at K Station and is illustrated with pictures from that complex. Alta has an online availability check from which you can quickly determine that no 3-bedroom apartments are currently available for rent.
The ad was placed in the name of Michael Britton of Chicagoland Property Group, a company that’s on our rental service do-not-call list. According to the state licensing database, his Leasing Agent license expired two days before the ad was placed. It’s possible that Britton has renewed that license or achieved a different level of licensing and that the state database hasn’t been updated to reflect it. It’s also common to see Craigslist ads placed by unlicensed agents.
If you’re searching for an apartment in downtown Chicago, YoChicago offers comprehensive at-a-glance lists and maps of major apartment complexes, many of which have near real-time availability information online. Why would you plunge into the more than 10,000 bait-and-switch ads placed daily by Chicago’s sleazy rental services when you can connect directly with landlords and get accurate, up-to-date information from their websites?
You can also check out YoRents, our online speed-dating service for renters and landlords.