If you’ve been scanning real estate jobs at Craigslist you’ve probably seen the above ad for a rental service that currently goes by the name of iMove Chicago.
The ad copy asks prospective agents whether they “want a database of listings that you can be assured is accurate, up to date and available?” The ad goes on to promise that “our database is maintained with strict controls, is accurate and reliable.”
When I look at the ads (some would call them listings) for properties at iMove’s website, I see data that’s wildly inaccurate and unreliable. It may have “strict controls” – to convey a misleading impression to prospective renters.
As an example, iMove has ads on its website for 5 separate listings at 1420 N Lakeshore Dr. You can see a screen cap from one of them, above.
According to Draper and Kramer’s website for the building, you won’t find any apartments at 1420 N Lake Shore Dr that match the descriptions at iMove’s site.
Yesterday morning I found 76 (!) ads at iMove’s website for individual units at 1225 Old Town, the sponsor of our Old Town Apartment Guide. The property’s accurate and up-to-date website listed 21 units as available.
I randomly (based on images I recognized) sampled a half-dozen additional ads at iMove’s site, and couldn’t find a single one that accurately reflected the information available at the property’s website.
Is there any reason to believe that the promises iMove makes to job seekers are any more credible than the property information on its website?
iMove is just one of the scores of rental services – also known as apartment locators / apartment finders – on YoChicago’s rental service do-not-call list. My opinion, informed my many years of watching and hearing about these firms in action is that you’d have to be exceedingly naïve or desperate to begin a real estate career with any of them.
NOTE: YoChicago’s parent firm represents a number of Chicago’s reputable major brokerage firms and YoChicago competes at the margins for landlord marketing dollars with rental services. Make of any of that what you will.