Got to find an apartment. Got to find it quickly.
The prospect of wading through hundreds of classified listings and following up to inspect a dozen or more vacancies is daunting and the thought of plodding endlessly up and down unfamiliar streets looking for signs in windows is equally off-putting. If you’re a stranger to the Chicago area, finding an apartment and neighborhood that meets your needs can be even more difficult. What can you do to make it easier?
One way is to follow the example of the many apartment seekers who let a locator service narrow the search. A service can zero in on available units that meet your requirements in a neighborhood of your choice and within your price range.
When Marc Intagliata arrived here to take a new job, he knew very little about the city but he also knew he had to find a place to live right away.
“I transferred here from New York,” he says. “I needed space immediately and I wanted it to be convenient to my work as well as within my price range.” Intagliata’s company referred him to a locator and gave him a contact name there.
“The service supplied me with all the information I needed to make a quick selection from among a number of units,” he says. “It was a lot more simple than trying to search on my own.” He selected a one-bedroom unit in a high-rise near Navy Pier.
Scott Bawinkel is an ex-Marine from Freeport, Ill. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, he accepted a position with Motorola Inc. in Mt. Prospect. He also used a locator.
“A consultant supplied me with a packet including brochures, floor plans and information materials from 12 or 14 complexes which fit my requirements,” he says. “I chose about six to inspect and it was fairly easy to make a choice from those.” He chose a one-bedroom unit in a Wheeling apartment community and moved into it June 1.
Both men are pleased with the services of the agencies they used and say they wouldn’t hesitate to use locators again the next time they’re apartment shopping.
However, before you decide to go that route, you need to know exactly what a locator can and cannot do for you. A finder service is not for everyone. For example, if you prefer space in the more homey, and often less expensive, setting of an owner-occupied two- or three-flat building, you’ll probably find a lot more choices if you search on your own. Most locators and management firms mainly represent larger buildings and complexes. As a representative of one of them noted, the owner-managers of smaller building can usually rent their units very easily simply through a sign in the window or a classified ad. They don’t have to pay a service to find tenants for them.
A locator can’t negotiate the lease for you either, or guarantee that a specific landlord will accept your application. If you want to bargain or trade a service, such as doing your own redecorating, for a reduction in rent, you’re on your own.
“When a satisfactory space has been located our consultants will help the client with the application and will go over the lease with him or her to clear up any questions,” says John D’Ambrogio of Apartment People Ltd in Chicago. “But the final decision on accepting or rejecting the tenant is always up to the landlord.”
If you’re considering a locator, you shouldn’t have to pay for the service. Locator services normally receive their fees from the owners and management companies whose properties they represent.
That will usually include a wide selection of properties. D’Ambrogio says his company has from 40,000 to 50,000 listings in its computer system and, of those, there are usually around 10,000 units immediately available. Apartment People represents properties from Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood north to Evanston.
Kathryn Romanelli, manager of relocation services for RELCON Apartment Finders, headquartered in Oak Brook, says her firm has a comparable number of listings, but they range over a wider area. RELCON has seven offices covering Chicago and its suburbs.
There are also smaller agencies, representing properties in specific suburbs or specific areas of the city. In addition, most large building management firms have in-house location services but, of course, using one of them will restrict your choices to properties they manage. You can locate locators under Apartment Finding and Rentals in the Yellow Pages.
To make sure you have chosen a reputable one, both D’Ambrogio and Romanelli suggest you check to be sure the company displays an Illinois real estate license.
“The license tells clients that all the service’s consultants have taken the required real estate courses and are knowledgeable about fair housing laws, building codes and other rental regulations,” Romanelli explains.
On your initial visit to the agency, before seeing a consultant, you may be asked to fill out a questionnaire, revealing some of your more basic requirements such as the date you hope to move, location preferences, unit size, rental range, pet ownership and number of people who will be occupying the space. In no case should you be asked to sign anything obligating you to the agency or its services.
With or without preliminary information, your consultant is the one who will explore with you the more exacting details that will ultimately govern your choice of space and your consultant is the one who will present you with appropriate units to preview in person. It helps, therefore, if you are as specific as possible about your preferences, however quirky.
As soon as he or she knows all those things, your consultant will launch a search of the company’s listings to locate available units that most nearly meet your requirements. Service representatives, however, stress that you must be realistic. It’s not always possible to locate your “perfect” apartment within your price range.
“We’re not going to send a client making $20,000 a year to view an apartment which rents for more than $1,000 per month because we know that the application would never be accepted,” Romanelli explains.
Even within the realm of realism, there will always be a number of promising options from which to select space you’d like to preview in person. After you’ve made your selection, the process will vary from agency to agency.
At RELCON, for example, the consultant previews appropriate apartments with the client through detailed computerized listings with specifics on various complexes, neighborhoods and individual units, including floor plans. RELCON also has videos detailing layout and amenities in some of the larger apartment communities.
Your consultation will last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more and will conclude after you have selected a number of sites for personal visits. Though the consultant will set up appointments if you wish, you visit the locations at your convenience and handle rental applications and lease negotiations yourself.
“We let the client and owner or manager work out application and lease details because the procedure varies and both parties have to agree to the final arrangements anyway,” Romanelli explains.
If you prefer a more personalized approach, consultants at The Apartment People drive clients to the selected locations and conduct personal tours, as do consultants at The Apartment Seekers, a smaller agency representing the area from Montrose Avenue on Chicago’s North Side to Evanston.
These two agencies are also among those that will handle most of the paperwork for you.
“When a satisfactory space has been located, our consultants will help the client with the application and will go over the lease with him or her to clear up any questions,” D’Ambrogio says. “Of course, the final decision on accepting or rejecting the tenant is always up to the landlord,” he adds. “We’re simply the middle man, who does all the preliminary work.”
