The following anonymous e-mail was received earlier in the day:
If you want a REAL interesting story that (to my knowledge) has not been reported on, check out Exchange Apartment Finders.
Word has it the company does not have a real estate license at all, and operates without providing their agents with 120 card.
Essentially, in the eyes of the IDFPR, their agents do not exist.
How do they get away with this?
Pretty smart strategy, actually.
They don’t work with any of the well-known pproperty managers (PPM, Draper Kramer, Cagan, etc.). These firms require that their locator services be licensed.
EAF goes out and solely obtains their own listings (condo owners looking to rent, small investors who own apartment buildings, etc.). That way they are not really on anyone’s radar.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think the fine for something like this is approx 25k per transaction. They probably do 200 transactions a year.
Amazing – because they’ve been doing this for years.
Just check it out!
Here’s what I’ve been able to learn after some preliminary checking.
A corporation named The Exchange Apartment Finders Inc was involuntarily dissolved by the Secretary of State’s office in 2002. The typical reason for this is failure to file annual reports and pay franchise fees. There is no other record of incorporation of Exchange Apartment Finders in Illinois or of any corporation with that name registering as a foreign corporation in Illinois.
Exchange Apartment Finders is not licensed as a real estate broker in Illinois although the activities it engages in through its Web site would require licensing. If it does have a license under a different name, it’s in violation of state law for not disclosing that name on its Web site. At least one Web page on the company’s site bears a 2005 copyright notice, indicating it has been doing business for years.
Exchange Apartment Finders (EAF) currently has nearly 800 apartment ads on Craigslist. No real estate license can be found for any of the agents named in those ads. A number of those ads, and listings on its Web site, are for apartments managed or owned by major companies. It’s almost inconceivable that those companies would pay a commission to an unlicensed broker. Doing so would risk their brokerage license. Either EAF is doing business with major landlords under a different name or the ads are bait-and-switch.
There are several scathing reviews of EAF at Yelp, and several glowing ones of individual agents that appear to be planted.
Whois searches on the domain names are unrevealing.
The Better Business Bureau has had mail to EAF returned “addressee unknown” at four separate mailing addresses.
EAF’s phone number, listed at its Web site, is 773-296-2000. A search on that phone number turns up DC Dalai Lama tickets for sale by Ticketman. Ticketman.org’s phone number and address are identical to EAF’s. A “U.M. McGee” from Ticketman.org is featured at EAF’s Web site as having given EAF a glowing testimonial. U.M. McGee has left no other traces on the Web.
On the face of what I’ve been able to learn thus far any renter who contacts this company has to be brain dead. You’re giving up your credit card, Social Security #, etc. to – who? If you’ve rented an apartment from this company, are you comfortable with them having keys to it?
If you’re a landlord who has done business with this company, a current or ex-employee, a renter who’s used them, or a competitor who has knowledge of their operations, post a comment or send an e-mail to yojoe at yochicago dot com. If this company is what our anonymous tipster alleges, let’s see if we can put it out of business.
If you’re a principal of Exchange Apartment Finders, I’d be happy to meet with you and hear your story.
Exchange Apartment Finders has been added to our rental service do-not-call list.
A bit of the real world for all you kiddies out there who are playing leasing agent without being licensed – it’s a shame that more of you aren’t being hauled off in handcuffs:
(225 ILCS 454/20 22)
Sec. 20 22. Violations. Any person who is found working or acting as a managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or leasing agent or holding himself or herself out as a licensed sponsoring broker, managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or leasing agent without being issued a valid existing license is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and on conviction of a second or subsequent offense the violator shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony.
sadly in Chicago and Illinois, consumers have to take matters into their own hands as consumer protection in this state is awful.
honest brokers suffer at the hands of dishonest brokers as much as renters and need to call-out this kind of fraud as Lisa Madigan’s office will never do it (especially if a principal at Exchange “knows” the right people in Cook County)—
I worked at the Exchange for several years and it is a great company. Everything the company does is legal. If it weren’t, how would it be able to operate since 2005 (at least)? In addition to negative reviews on Yelp, there are also several very glowing positive reviews. If you yelp any apartment rental agency you will find the same. There are applicants that get disgruntled at any agency when they back out of deals and the agency won’t let them. Happens at every agency as most of them have the same contractual obligations to the landlords which are usually on any application that prospective tenants sign (which is the case with the anonymous emailer).
I have personally seen many people get great apartments through the Exchange. Their network of available units is quite large and there is a reason for that. They have a great rapport with landlords all over the city for the work they do in matching the right tenants to the right landlords.
The personal information that applicants give is kept guarded and there has yet to be one incident of any sort of stolen identity through personal information provided by the applicants…after many years in business. Their credit is run through a reputable company with very strict security rules to even let a company use them.
“Well-known” property management services also work with them, including and not limited to PPM and Cagan. Next time you write a story on a company you should at least try contacting them to get their side or at least letting them know that you are running a libel story on them.
anonymous,
The e-mail you supplied traces to a real person and that person has never held a real estate license of any sort in Illinois.
All of your anonymous – and not credible – touting of the company doesn’t change the fact that it is doing business without apparently having the required license. That makes it a company that no one should go near under any circumstances.
I’ll contact PPM and Cagan see whether your claims are true.
The fact that the company has been around for a while is zero evidence for anything other than that it has been around for a while.
anonymous,
As I suspected, you’re just making stuff up. Planned Property does not cooperate with Exchange. Haven’t called Cagan because what’s the point?
EAC currently has our apartment listed. We received a knock at front door in the middle of day with one of the agents (thats featured on yelp reviews frequently) stating that she had texted me to warn me. She had not. After showing our apartment and leaving we decided to take a look to see if our apartment was listed on craigslist. It was, along with photos of all our things. It was a shock since we never were contacted about anyone coming to our apartment or coming to take pictures. When we contacted the agent to verify she had the correct numbers she got pretty rude and defensive on the phone. All this sounds semantical if it wasn’t for the fact that our apartment has already been rented to someone else who apparently signed a lease. Currently our apartment is listed with 2 different prices and sometimes as a 2 bdrm and sometimes as a 3. Its unfortunate that yelp has filtered a majority of the comments as they all seem to align with my experience and with each other.
They are so legit that they are now doing business under a new name a phone #. “Apartment Locators”. 773-312-3000. Check it out on Craigslist!
anonymous,
I did check it out. See my follow-on post, and thanks for the tip.
I went to view an apartment this Su day and met with a building rep and a leasing agent. We liked the apartment and the agent said, write a check for an application fee and first month rent, making it out to “the exchange” when we got home we did some scary research . So on Monday we called and they said they were just waiting to hear from the landlord. Tuesday we get an email thread that the landlord had decided to renovate and pull off the market. We were reassured that both checks would be voided. Sure enough, today my bank shows both checks cashed. They claim we can pick up a refunded check tomorrow after 3. My stomach is in knots. Do I believe it? And yes, I am a fool to tryst a seemingly honest situation.
My first job in “Real Estate” back in 2002 was at the EAF. I had just finished my pre-licensing course to be a sales agent.
After interviewing at a few traditional brokerages and not having a “sphere of influence” to speak of I decided to check out a few apartment finders, maybe get my feet wet for a couple years and build up a clientele. The Exchange was the first apartment finder to call me back and offer a job.
I had not yet taken the state licensing test, but I could start with a 120 day temporary leasing license. I filled out the paperwork for the the temporary license, but I later found out it was never filed with the state.
With my zero experience in Real Estate the office, although very casual seemed legit enough to me at first. At the time The Chicago Reader print version and website was the main way people found apartments in Chicago, The Exchange had plenty of ads there. At the time the major management companies were probably not on to The Exchange and co-oped on rentals with them.
I quickly became the top agent in the office and did what I thought was a professional job of leasing apartments. I became suspicious when I had a legitimate beef with an agent at a major traditional brokerage and instead of backing me up the owner of The Exchange advised I not push the issue.
I became more suspicious when I spoke to the owner about getting my sales license sponsored through The Exchange when my 120 days were coming to an end on the temporary license. I was told to just stick with the leasing and when I mentioned my 120 days was soon up I was told the IDFPR doesn’t care about his business and they just allow him to do his thing. I must have made sure they paid my last check before I hit the bricks and brought my business elsewhere.
After I left The Exchange there were some crazy stories about growing marijuana in a room that was always locked and even stories about prostitution being run out of the place. All hearsay, but nothing that seemed unbelievable given the character of the owner.
The craziest thing about that place is 75% of what they did there involving leasing apartments was legit. There didn’t seem to be any good reason to not do things by the book to remain in business.
The owner seems like a Rod Blagojevic type of character- big talker, know-it-all, blow-hard, un-touchable, arrogant, with an amazing amount of audacity. It doesn’t make any sense, he could have easily run a legit business if he put forth the effort.
I feel sorry for the agents that are just looking for a job and make this bozo money before they realize the place is a sham. Any of the agents that have been there more than a year are just as guilty as the owner, or dumb as a brick if they don’t realize something is seriously wrong.