Surrounded by stacks of cardboard boxes in his two-bedroom apartment in Chapel Hill, N.C., Mike Chernoff’s life in recent months had been nothing less than hectic as he made a few of those momentous life changes that, although positive, are guaranteed to cause stress.
First, Chernoff was graduated with a master’s degree in business from the University of North Carolina. Then, he moved nearly halfway across the country to Chicago, where he started a new job and settled into a two-bedroom apartment in Lincoln Park.
Like explorers who once struck out across seas and mountains to find new lands, Chernoff has been on a journey of discovery.
The territory he has been exploring is Chicago’s rental housing market. Chernoff, 27, has learned it’s as different from the southern, college town he left behind as a midwestern twang is from a southern drawl.
One of the discoveries he made during his apartment search is that he would pay significantly higher rent.
“I’m paying about 50 percent more (in rent) for my (Lincoln Park) apartment,” he said. “Living in the city, I have a smaller apartment with fewer amenities (than in Chapel Hill). But, you pay a premium to be in a (desirable) location.”
A new job, an adventuresome spirit or a desire for a particular lifestyle may prompt many people to pack their bags and move to a city they may have seen before only in picture postcards or in the movies.
A change of geography means not only seeing a new view from your window, it means a difference in the rental market in terms of price, fees and amenities, says Kathryn Romanelli, director of referral services for Relcon Apartment Finders in Oak Brook.
“Things you have in the South or in California, you don’t find in Chicago,” Romanelli says. “A lot of times in California, they don’t supply a refrigerator, which is common in Chicago.”
In the South, however, she notes, “apartments often come with washer and dryer hookups, which a lot of apartments in Chicago don’t have. People come (to Chicago) from the South with their washer and dryer, and it’s like, `Oops, maybe we should have sold this.’ “
People who move to a new city may find they have just days to visit the city to find an apartment. The key to pinpointing a neighborhood and an apartment they will like starts before the visit with research, says Dianne Hickey, director of operations for Universal Relocation in Whippany, N.J.
Hickey’s company offers apartment- and home-finding help to people who are being relocated either nationally or internationally by their employers. Hickey says she advises people to try beforehand to get a general feel for their new community.
“One of the things I tell people to do is to start getting the newspaper from the community they are moving to,” Hickey says. “You can glean a lot of information from the real estate section and you can get a feel for the city (its general atmosphere) from the lifestyle section.”
A look through the rental ads gives an idea of what the market is like and what an acceptable range is for rents, but it may not prepare you for specific fees that are common in one geographic area, but unheard of in another.
For example, in a tight rental market such as New York City, brokers often charge a fee of one month’s rent when they find someone an apartment.
“Everything depends on supply and demand,” explains Hickey, who says it’s a good idea to seek information from people who already live in the community.
“The best thing is to talk to people, talk to other co-workers (who live where you will move),” she says. “They know what communities are safe, they also may know about the peculiarities of a market, like the broker’s fee.”
Romanelli suggests that people call several of the apartment communities listed in the rental ads and start a conversation about differences between the city they live in and the one they are moving to.
Climate, for example, plays a substantial role in everything from utility bills to whether you can start your car on a winter morning. In Minnesota, for example, it is not uncommon to find battery heaters in parking lots, a feature that is unheard of in Chicago.
Talking to people, whether friends, co-workers or apartment-leasing professionals, may amount to brainstorming sessions that uncover useful, but unforeseen nuggets of information.
“Think of all the things you are familiar with in your apartment,” Romanelli says. “These are the norm. Tell them (at the apartment community), `This is what I’m used to. How does it compare to what you offer?’ Start a dialogue.”
Another way to learn about a city or to get even more specific information about rental apartments is to log on to the Internet. That is how Jenni Doebereiner, 21, of Glendale Heights began her apartment search when she moved recently from Racine, Wis.
“It (the Internet) gave me a basis, a place to start from (in her apartment hunt),” she says.
On the Internet, Doebereiner found maps, photos and other pertinent, general information about Chicago and the suburbs. She works as a human resources trainee at a large retailer in Lombard and knew she wanted to be in the west or northwest suburbs to be close to her job.
Even more specific information, such as photos, floor plans and price ranges for specific apartment communities also could be found on the Internet through a service called Rentnet, she says.
Although she did not move to any of the communities she viewed on the Internet, Doebereiner says it gave her a good idea of what she could expect from a one-bedroom apartment in her price range of about $600 to $650 a month.
Other people, often those who are being relocated by a large corporation, have the luxury of finding a new apartment with the assistance of a relocation service. The fee for such a service is usually paid for by the corporation.
Chernoff, for example, was helped by Relocation Associates Inc. of Chicago. Mollie Meyer of Chicago was helped by Premier Relocation, also of Chicago.
Meyer, 25, who moved from Newport Beach, Calif., says Premier Relocation helped her identify what she wanted in an apartment and neighborhood.
“They had an evaluation form,” she says. “They asked about specifics, such as my age and interests.”
Premier Relocation also scheduled appointments for her to look at apartments and drove her to those appointments. Safety was a primary concern for Meyer, who moved to Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood a year ago and then recently relocated to Lincoln Park.
“(The Streeterville) apartment was a good match in terms of safety,” Meyer says. “But it’s a little older (in age of residents). There are not so many retail (outlets) or restaurants that stay open late. In Lincoln Park there are more restaurants and bars and I like being near the park and lake.”
Jason Jones also works for Chubb Corp. and was helped by Premier to find his apartment on Ontario Street. He and his wife, Stephanie, spent two long weekends in Chicago, first to get a feel for the city and then to find an apartment.
Jones suggests that a visit to any new city should include at least one weekday in it.
“Come on a weekday, where you are going to live will look a lot different at 10 in the morning on Thursday than it will at 1 a.m. on Friday coming home from a bar,” he says.
A weekday visit also will give an idea of traffic patterns that might affect your trip to work, he adds.
Chernoff says working with Relocation Associates eased the stress of his move. “At the beginning, they walk you through it,” he says. “They talk about everything (about) living in Chicago from the sights and neighborhoods to what you’ll need, like a vehicle sticker.”
Chernoff’s move to Chicago means an increase in rent and has other financial impacts. But, as a newly employed member of the work force, he is excited about his relocation.
“My car insurance is going up, too,” he says with a sigh. “But, I’m looking forward to living in Chicago.”
