All of the rental services a/k/a apartment finders a/k/a apartment locators on YoChicago’s do-not-call list have earned a spot on the list by engaging in illegal or abusive behavior.
The most common form of law-breaking is advertising properties for rent without the written consent of the owner that’s required by the Illinois Real Estate License Act. The most common form of abusive behavior is advertising those properties ad nauseam on Craigslist in violation of Craigslist’s terms of service.
The rental services’ behavior has a simple objective: to frustrate or confuse renters into contacting them to see apartments rather than going directly to the landlords / property managers.
There are lots of things that Chicago’s rental services don’t want you to know about the way they actually conduct their business. We’ve listed twenty-five of them.
If you’re looking to rent in one of Chicago’s lakefront neighborhoods, from the South Loop north to Lakeview, check out our comprehensive at-a-glance lists of managed apartment buildings and our detailed, objective reviews of more than 100 of them.
You can also contact a rental service and gamble that you won’t become one of the very many horror stories you can read at Yelp. Feeling lucky?