Tag: Advice
More enforcement capability for new Illinois Division of Real Estate
Chicago's rental services have a long history of advertising abusively on Craigslist and in other venues in flagrant violation of a number of provisio [...]
ApartmentList.com is still a garbage dump
Just over a year ago we spotlighted ApartmentList, a website that claims the following mission:
As renters and landlords ourselves, we understa [...]
Rising prices and thin sales volumes spell danger
If you've been an observer of Chicago's real estate cycles for an appreciable amount of time, you've seen the current script played out repeatedly [...]
How to avoid the rental service wait-and-switch
If you're working with one of Chicago's rental services and renting in one of the large, professionally managed apartment buildings on our at-a-gl [...]
Slim pickings on an East Village apartment hunt
I drove part of the East Village neighborhood yesterday looking for FOR RENT signs, and found only three. One was from a known scammer, another h [...]
Craigslist’s top ten Chicago apartment spammers
Craigslist doesn't allow ads to be posted more than once every 48 hours and prohibits keyword spam, i.e. the use of irrelevant terms in ads to draw at [...]
Rental service quote of the day – kill granny
Yesterday I added a new name to our do-not-call list of Chicago rental services a/k/a apartment locators a/k/a apartment finders.
All of the fi [...]
Irish student programs offer differing takes on Chicago
It's the time of year when Irish students post housing wanted ads on Craigslist:
Looking for a 5 bedroom house to rent from the start of June ( [...]
Lies Chicago rental services tell – nothing in your price range
There are lots of things Chicago's rental services don't want you to know about the way they operate, and we've previously posted on twenty-five o [...]
The smart way to search for South Loop apartments
A search for South Loop apartments on Craigslist will return over 700 new ads each day, almost all of them from Chicago rental services. Many of t [...]
Search for your next apartment at a Facebook page
BJB Properties, one of our advertisers, recently added an apartment search tab to its Facebook page.
The search couldn't be easier: select a ne [...]
The smartest way to find a Streeterville apartment
A search for Streeterville apartments on Craigslist will return over 500 new ads each day, almost all of them from Chicago rental services. Many o [...]
The smart way to find a River North apartment
A search for River North apartments on Craigslist will return about 1,000 new ads each day, almost all of them from Chicago rental services. Many [...]
Vesta Preferred, where raw rental rookies rate rave reviews
Vesta Preferred bills itself in Craigslist recruiting ads as the "Highest rated Real Estate Company on Yelp."
That statement simply isn't true, [...]
Are websites increasing racial and economic segregation?
It's been 10 years since journalist Bill Bishop began writing about "the big sort" and five years since the publication of his book. Amazon summar [...]
High-rise spider talk starts early this year
Dan Goodwin, a/k/a SpiderDan, perched high on the John Hancock building's façade only once, but spiders of another species do it annually.
If [...]
Is Flats Chicago practicing review fraud?
YoChicago has zero tolerance for the comment fraud and review fraud that some inept landlords and rental services seem to find attractive. Our Pri [...]
Do smoke-free apartment buildings outnumber unicorns?
Yesterday's email included the following from a resident of a River North high-rise with a smoke-free policy:
I have had smokers on my floor fo [...]
Don’t respond to blind real estate help wanted ads
You'll frequently see help wanted ads on Craigslist from real estate firms seeking to hire leasing agents or experienced brokers.
If the ad wa [...]
Is Quantum Apartments vandalizing your neighborhood?
Can there really be a business brain-dead enough to document acts of vandalism on its behalf on YouTube? There apparently can, and its name is Qua [...]