If you need a one-bedroom apartment but can`t spend more than $400 a month, you`re certainly not going to find yourself in a Lake Shore Drive penthouse.
But if you`re willing to leave the lakefront neighborhoods, take a relatively small space, do some fixup work yourself and maybe even furnish your own kitchen appliances, there are bargain one-bedrooms out there waiting to be occupied.
In our search for good apartment deals, we found that most one-bedroom apartments start at about $500 a month. So we decided to look in the bargain basement, and find flats that rent for $400.
Sure, we encountered some snickers and sly grins along the way. As one real estate agent said after hearing our request for low-priced one-bedrooms, ”That`s going to be a pretty short story.”
A find in Wicker Park
But, despite the odds, there are $400 apartments on the market-although you shouldn`t expect to see the words ”spacious,” ”modern” or
”remodeled” in ads for them. Instead, look for terms like ”original,”
”cozy,” ”vintage” and ”garden” (as in basement). And also keep in mind that such apartments are often not advertised, so expect to do a lot of footwork in search of ”for rent” signs.
That`s what Chris Worthington did. After an extensive search for a low-priced one-bedroom, Worthington found a four-room apartment in an older six-unit building in Wicker Park.
”I looked in neighborhoods like Hyde Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Rogers Park and Bridgeport, where I thought I could find something on the low end in a more established area. It was tough,” Worthington says. Then he came across a small ”for rent” sign posted on a building door.
”The landlord said he was really looking for someone who would take care of the place,” Worthington says. ”The apartment was in great shape. It just needed some cosmetic work.” Since moving in last month, Worthington has painted the apartment and retiled the kitchen-a modest investment in what has become a rental bargain. Even though he pays for utilities, Worthington calculates his total cost at less than $400 a month.
According to Yehuda Cohen, president of Amquest Leasing and Sales in Chicago, Worthington`s find is representative of what renters will discover in today`s market.
”The lower-priced one-bedrooms tend to be in unrehabbed buildings and possibly garden units,” he explains. An example is a building just a few blocks from Worthington, also in Wicker Park. The 100-year-old four-flat has two rehabbed units being rented at $500 a month and one ”original” unit for $350. The owner, Joe Hunnewinkel, lives in the fourth unit.
”The one at $350 is in good shape. It`s on the second floor; it just hasn`t been rehabbed,” explains Hunnewinkel.
Bring your own
It`s also common to find low rents for one-bedrooms that do not include kitchen appliances, as is the case with some apartments listed by Combined Realty, which serves the South Side.
”It`s not always practical for us to provide appliances at that price level,” explains one of the agents at Combined Realty.
Size is also a big variable when selecting a one-bedroom. In a modest modest two-room one-bedroom, the kitchen is part of the living room; a three- room one-bedroom has a full kitchen; a 3 1/2-room place will include a small room that landlords may refer to as a dining room or sun room; and a four-room one-bedroom has a ”full-sized” dining room.
What does ”full-sized” mean? ”If it`s big enough to fit a table for six and a hutch, I`d call it a full room. If not, it`s a half (room),” says Deb Russcol, director the Apartment Rental Group of Abels Realty.
So, when looking for a one-bedroom, it can also be helpful to qualify the number of rooms or the square footage desired.
Another clue to finding a $400 one-bedroom is to focus on the neighborhoods where rental rates are generally lower than the citywide averages and where there is a concentration of one-bedroom apartments.
”In the suburbs, you`re going to find them ($400 apartments) in smaller, privately managed buildings if at all,” says Jim Tarr of The Exchange, which offers apartment locator services for the city and suburbs. ”You might find listings in neighborhood newspapers, but for that price, it almost requires a door-to-door search.
”Anything built in the last 10 to 12 years is going to start at around $600,” he adds. ”You really have to look at two- to six-flat buildings in some of the older communities, such as Cicero, Melrose Park, Riverside and Waukegan.”
According to a fall survey of more than 4,000 apartments listed with The Apartment People, a rental agency that specializes in North Side communities, only East Rogers Park, Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village and Uptown had one-bedrooms for $400 of less.
For example, the survey shows that East Rogers Park has one-bedrooms in the range of $400 to $550. By comparison, one-bedrooms in neighboring Evanston went for $600 to $850. This survey is available to renters and a quick phone call to any rental agency should provide a list of properties in the size and price range you`re looking for.
Check the walkups
At City Realty and Development, another rental agency, a computer search of its one-bedroom listings at less than $400 last month turned up 24 apartments in an area from Burnham Park on the south to Evanston on the north. ”Ninety percent of those were in Rogers Park,” says Vic Maniatis of City Realty.
”The lakefront communities don`t offer a lot in that price range, but once you get west of Western Avenue the rates come down slightly.” Maniatis also explains that budget-priced apartments ”tend to be in courtyard or walkup buildings, and they can have nice features, such as hardwood floors, built-in cabinets and high ceilings.”
Looking south and west, the availability of low-priced one-bedroom apartments goes up, but not dramatically. A recent search of the approximately 4,000 South Side apartments listed with Travis Realty turned up only three possibilities for less than $400. ”All three are within a few blocks of each other, around 75th (Street) and Calumet (Avenue),” says Dempsey J. Travis, president of the firm. ”They are all well-maintained buildings with between 16 and 43 units.”
Across the city, most of the buildings featuring one-bedroom apartments are concentrated within a mile of the lakefront and were built during the first half of the century. As the city grew west, the buildings were smaller, featuring more two- and three-bedroom units.
Armed with a clear idea of the neighborhood, the size and price range you are looking for, rental agencies and real estate management companies are good sources for assistance. These companies can provide a quick sketch of the overall market and often produce a computer printout of available apartments in a price range.
But bargain one-bedrooms tend not to turn up on computer lists, or in newspaper ads. ”They may be owner-occupied buildings that find residents through word of mouth or by placing signs in the neighborhood,” says Amquest`s Cohen. So, making a thorough search requires some footwork and an appreciation for the hunt.
