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Chicago Apartment Finders
Rating Details »
Categories: Apartments, Real Estate Services [Edit]
Neighborhood: Lakeview906 W Belmont Ave
(between Wilton Ave & Clark St)
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 883-8800
- Nearest Transit:
-
Belmont (Purple Express, Brown, Red)
- Hours:
Mon-Fri. 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sat. 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
87 reviews for Chicago Apartment Finders
This business is a Yelp Sponsor
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One of the Business' Favorite Reviews What's This?
BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!!! JON PLOUS IS AWESOME!!!
CAF WAS GREAT TO WORK WITH AND JON PLOUS IS THE BEST AGENT AT THE LAKEVIEW OFFICE!!!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!!!!!
I was moving from Kalamazoo MI to Chicago and found this apartment finder site through http://google.com. I made an appointment with my roommate and drove down to Chicago from MI, we had an appointment at 11am and came in the lobby area was very nice and clean. The receptionist was friendly and offered us cookies and beverages, we waited for our agent to come and get us.
Within 4 minutes our agent came out and brought us back to his desk, introduced himself and his name was Jon Plous.
Very friendly and upfront with all the details of how the service worked as well as what our price range would get us and we explained what we were looking for in an apartment as well as in a neighborhood.
He drove us around to five apartments and didn't B.S. around or show us crappy apartments, he was so friendly and so upfront and honest about what we would get and what we were in for, when we move to a big city.
The third apartment we looked at was THE ONE! It was on Clark street and in the middle of Wrigleyville/ Lakeview- There were people out and about always doing something, there were great restaurants, great nightlife and close to the Red/Brown line stop at Belmont.
We decided to look at two more places to make sure we weren't jumping into the wrong apartment. We knew that THE ONE was THE ONE and wanted some time to think on it and discuss between my roommate and I , Jon Plous let us go to lunch and discuss what we wanted to do and how we wanted to make a decision. We went to lunch at Big City Tap which was recommended by Jon Plous so we went to lunch and decided this was the one and we wanted to sign the lease right then with Jon Plous.
He never pressured us or got frustrated with all of our questions and comments on each apartment, he gave us GREAT advice and really helped us out, two girls from MI in a big city, we loved interacting and having Jon Plous as our guide for finding an apartment.
We went to sign our lease and it happened that the management company DLG lowered our rent by 50$ !!!!
We also had a difficult issue of having 2 cats and one dog, so when we came in and let Jon Plous know this, we were afraid that we were going to have a large pet deposit or not be able to have all three pets, Jon Plous assured us that we would find something in our price range and we would be able to move in a place that would be cute and nice and in a good neighborhood.
Jon Plous was so friendly and so informed and the best person that I could have ever had to help us find an apartment. I would recommend Jon Plous to ANYONE who needs an apartment or needs to start looking for a new place to live. He was AMAZING!!!!
I am so lucky that I was paired with Jon Plous to find an apartment because it was a great experience and it could have been horrible if I had went to a different apartment search business.
GO TO JON PLOUS if you need a new apartment in the City of Chicago!!! I recommend him to anyone, even friends from Mi that are moving to Chicago I give out his business card to my co workers and let everyone I know that Jon Plous was an amazing agent and so helpful and knowledgeable, I couldn't have dreamed of a better experience.
It seems to me this place is hit or miss. My brother and i went in there a few weeks ago looking for a 2 bed/1 bath in or around lakeview for $1200 or less. We live in Uptown now, and im sick of the beggars, homeless people, and being scared to walk home at midnight without getting raped or murdered.
We scheduled our appointment after hearing so many good things about this place. Our agent, told us he wasn't going to pressure us into signing any papers or be a pesky real estate guy, but thats exactly what happened. He even mentioned reading the reviews on Yelp, and not being able to fathom how people can complain about signing a lease and then realizing later they dont want the apt. After a couple hours with this guy, i know exactly how they felt! The first place he showed us was a complete shit hole, and exactly NOT what we were looking for. I took him almost 10 minutes to open the door. Not cool.
The second place he showed us was nice, but completely out of our price range. The third place was even more out of our price range, $1300 + utilities. WTF? We told you $1200 MAX. After showing us these 3 properties, he reinforced the idea that they might not be there tomorrow, and they were really our only option. So we should really consider them. No pressure right? We seriously considered the 2nd property, even though they wanted a $2000 security deposit (which included 1st months rent). We decided to sleep on it. We went home and looked on CAF's website, finding more than just 3 properties to fit our budget and wants(More like 12). WTF CAF? Then we looked on CL and found even more properties that we could love.
Today, we signed a lease with a super nice landlady paying $400 less in rent per month less than we would with an apt with CAF. AND its in a great area, with everything we wanted. So screw you CAF, for trying to screw me.
DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS. The only thing awesome about this place is the receptionist, who is super nice.
Go see Matt Hicks.
I came to Matt with the following request - "I'm moving to Chicago from Boston in June, I'm available to look at places on this ONE day in April, and the apartment needs to fulfill these 32 criteria, 30 of which I can't quite explain."
Matt was traveling later in the day on the one day I was available, so he obliged me the ridiculous favor of waking up early and picking me up at 7am to go look at apartments. Including a quick and delicious trip to Julius Meinl, we saw seven places in two hours, every single one of which was completely on point. If he had brought me back to the office after that and said, "okay, now we're going to spin this wheel to determine which one of the apartments we saw you're going to HAVE to live in," I would have been totally okay with it - that's how well he had chosen places to show me. By 10am I had an application in on the best of the bunch, and within a week we'd locked it down.
I had planned an additional trip out to "take care of apartment stuff" before moving, and ended up not having to do any of that.
Matt is truly wonderful at his job - very smart and insightful throughout the process, and willing to extend himself to accommodate impossible scenarios. Five stars.
So it seems like CAF has gotten pretty mixed reviews. I'm a bit surprised considering that I had such a pleasant experience, but (as I'd heard) it really depends on who you end up getting as your agent.
I would personally recommend Junior Young.
I initially went to CAF with the idea that I'd have them show me around and then I would probably do some searching on my own as well. It turned out that I didn't need to do any looking alone because Junior showed me some excellent apartments. I gave him a very specific geographic area (I would say a 5 by 5 block radius) and he really stuck to that. He showed me a TON of places (and didn't get annoyed when I wanted to see more and more to be certain even after I found the one that seemed perfect.) I saw studios and 1-bedrooms, but I felt that Junior had a great sense of what I was looking for. I am in an apartment that literally has everything I wanted. And I was able to negotiate the price to an amount that was compatible with my budget. Junior worked hard and really tried to make sure that I got the best deal possible.
My advice? Go to Chicago Apartment Finders but MAKE SURE TO ASK FOR JUNIOR so you don't end up having a bad experience.
Not helpful, clueless about the city and only had shit units to look at. Thumbs down.
We looked at five units with these guys and the person who was showing us didn't really know where he was going. Dude seriously, these guys are suppose to be the local 'experts' not recent transplants themselves.
Out of all the places we looked at, one had paint peeling from a giant wet spot in the ceiling, another looked like the Rolling Stones had just finished partying in it the night before and the worst one smelled like an old litter box.
There are many different apartment search companies in the city. Choose these guys if you want to try your luck, since it is a crap shoot.
I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Chicago Apartment Finders!
I moved to Chicago in the middle of winter and had one weekend to find a place. I made an appointment to spend a Sunday with Chicago Apartment Finders. After a Saturday of scoping out stuff off Craigslist and being very disappointed by "vintage" (read: it looks like someone died in the bathtub) places, I went to CAF.
My sales guy, Rob, was SO funny and helpful! I told him my budget and what area I wanted to live in and within 10 minutes he had a list of at least 8 places for us to check out. Not being from Chicago, he was especially useful in explaining the different neighborhoods to me and where things were located. Not once did he try to talk me into an apartment that was out of my budget or more space than I needed (from what I understand a lot of rental people will do this to bump up their commission). Great experience...I'd definitely use them again!
I knew I was going to to be moving into the city eventually, but I had time to spare. I set up an appointment with CAF and they set me up with an agent (Rebecca (I am not sure if it is ok to use the full name, but I would highly recommend asking for Rebecca at the Lakeview location). I told her right off the bat that I wasn't going ot sign anything that day, and she was completely cool with it. She showed me 8 apartments, some were great, some were not so great. I found the coolest apartment that I would have signed for, but I ended up not needing to move for another month or two (why spend money on rent if you don't need to.) Left feeling very good about the whole thing. Two months later, I called the agent directly and set up another appointment with her. She took me out again and showed me a bunch of really good places, all in my price range. I was going to go with one of the more expensive units and she actually talked me into going with a different one (that was less expensive), because she said it would probably fit my life style better. She was right.
Punchline: My agent was awesome, and put my interests first. There was no pressure put on me to close the deal, she was really knowledgeable, friendly and I would recommend her to anyone that was moving to the city for the first time.
We tried to use CAF to look at a few places when we were thinking about upgrading to a bigger place. They didn't call me back after several emails and calls.
If you didn't want my business, especially in a market like this, then I surely will go elsewhere.
I will give CPF props for being good with appointments, and setting up a large number of places for us to look at. I really appreciated that. I did, however, feel like the whole experience with our particular agent was very.......robotic, for lack of a better word.
It was almost like our agent was reading from a script. He rarely made small talk, even when we attempted to initiate conversation. This made the whole car ride all afternoon almost unbearable.
After each property, he'd unload the same questions: What did you think of that one? How did it compare? What did you like? What did you not like? What about this neighborhood? Everytime.........word for word.
I understand that the agents are attempting to get an idea of how you do like the apartments, but it seemed like our particular agent could really care less.
KATIE was fantastic! one of my friends is moving here from out of state, and came to look at apartments. i brought my friend, along with two others, and we all crammed into her jeep while she took us around the neighboorhoods and showed us about 6-7 apartments. she was so helpful, fun, and full of information. she was also extremely accomadating.
the only beef i have with this place (and this has absolutely nothing to do with katie) was that the only apartments they had listed were expensive, run- down, tiny holes-in-the-wall. being that the apartment i have is bigger and cheaper than the ones they had listed, i know there are better, nicer deals out there. my friend had lots of fun, and did see a couple he liked, but i was a little disappointed for him in the sense that he did not get to see some really nice places in chicago!
It's not easy to find the perfect apartment for two dogs, two cats, four rats, one hedgehog and two people, but Effie at the Belmont location sure did it!
We have an amazing place well within our budget and all the amenities we asked for. Effie was great screening out apartments with bad management, that had pet weight limits or exorbitant deposits, or didn't meet our other criteria, and when we found a place we liked she would call and negotiate the rent. We really appreciate that she was willing to take us out early, late, or twice in a day to see places as well, often with little notice. And I'm sure my mom would appreciate knowing that she gently dissuaded me from certain apartments in less savory areas!
Everyone in the Belmont office was always nice, from the receptionists to the other agents, though some didn't seem to have as much experience or know-how. I definitely appreciated the free coffee and tea when met in the morning!
Our experience with the closing department on Bryn Mawr knocked off a star for CAF -- the building owner threatened to put our apartment back on the market because it was taking so long to get the lease! Naturally, this resulted in a lot of freaking out on our part. But everything worked out, even with the bumbling on the closing department's end.
In summary, closing department = boo; Effie = yay! Secretly, I kind of want her to be my mom.
I have already had to involve an attorney and we haven't even signed a lease through CAF.
Yesterday my two roommates and I went to Chicago Apartment Finders on Belmont and were shown two apartments by an agent (I'd rather not mention names, as this is unfair to the agent). We were originally going to see six, but the agent was unable to locate the key for two, and one had already been rented and the new tenants were *already occupying it.* At this point, we considered walking away, which we should have, but didn't. Additionally, none of the apartments we were shown were in the neighborhoods we requested (Wrigley, Lakeview, or Andersonville)--they were in Ravenswood. They were also at the highest possible end of our price range, and one was higher than our maximum limit.
After finally deciding to just go with an apartment in Ravenswood (our third roommate was in from Nashville and was only available that day), we signed an application and put down the fee to take it off the market, which was essentially one month's rent plus a $50 apiece credit check. About twenty minutes later, we decided we had been too impulsive and called to cancel. The representative in the closing department was extremely rude (and yes, I understand that it was a sensitive conversation, but I am a social worker--I understand patience and the necessity of working well with people). She informed us that there was a 20% penalty for canceling before the apartment was approved, and she was unnecessarily sarcastic with the roommate who had called. We decided to just let the application process go through and accept the apartment if it was approved.
Today, at 6 PM (so too late to actually do anything), the CAF agent called me and said that the apartment we had signed for was RENTED. He then said there was an "identical" apartment in the same building and he wanted us to take it, and we would need to sign something saying this was okay.
It was NOT okay with me, and I called my roommates to talk with them about it. In the meantime, the agent took it upon *himself* to call one of my roommates and try and push the "identical" apartment on her, and get her to sign the form to accept it. I called him back and told him it was not okay, and we were not accepting the "identical" apartment, and were certainly not signing anything without seeing the place. He said:
"You guys called yesterday and tried to cancel. This apartment is identical. You're not going to find anything better anywhere. It sounds to me like you're just trying to get out of this whole thing. You might still get charged the 20% cancellation fee if you don't take the identical apartment."
I told him I don't care what happened on the phone yesterday. All that matters is the receipt I have with my signature on it stating that if the apartment unit we apply for becomes unavailable, we are entitled to a FULL refund. He said, "Take it up with the closing department," and hung up on me. Of course, when I called the closing department, they weren't open.
I immediately faxed the clearly-worded agreement with the words "you are entitled to a full refund if the apartment unit you apply for isn't available" to my mother's real estate attorney, who is going to assist me if CAF tries to keep 20% of our money.
This is absolutely ridiculous and incredibly frustrating. I've rented several apartments in Chicago, through private owners and agencies (Apartment People, SG Realty) and never, ever had a problem. This has resulted in more stress than is reasonable for this process, and I am extremely disappointed..
Our experience transcends the horrific into the comedic. Dear Lord.
I am all about the idea of this place. The cookies on the table, the hip office, very cute. Coming from LA where the idea of an apartment finder service is as likely as going 40 mph on Sunset at 6pm, it sounded like a dream. And let's be honest, Chicago is a big fluffy, dream of a city.
Sadly, our experience was not the stuff dreams are made of. When we arrived, we were led to a friendly bro-estate agent, who entirely too quickly admitted he got the job because his roommate also worked there and his other jobs included selling cellphones at a mall kiosk and construction, but one day was going to make it big (later we got to hear stories about him picking up chicks at clubs. I remember something about pockets...) So after hearing this awkwardly candid life story (which I did not ask for), I told him we were looking for a large 1 or 2 bedroom apartment in a very specific area in East Rogers Park for under $1200. I'm sorry, Rogers Park is ghetto. This is also Illinois. His response of "oh, you can't afford to live that close to the beach AND pay that little rent" was a bit upsetting, but whatevs. So this guy proceeded to taking us to some GHETTO apartments in WEST Rogers Park for prices one should pay in Lakeview. These beauties offered such amenities as blood red walls painted by a blind animal with no thumbs, basement apartment with insecure windows, places without windows, and places that smelled like dead babies.
I study Russian Literature. These apartments WERE Raskolnikov's apartment/coffin. But this wasn't the most hilarious part. The hilarious part was he didn't have the keys for multiple apartments, couldn't find some of the apartments (I had to remind him how numbers work), couldn't get the key to work in some of the apartments and then even admitted to us there were no apartments nicer in Rogers Park than this one winning location with windows that didn't totally close, and it goes without saying you must plastic wrap all of your windows in the winter. This was all great, but then his car wouldn't start because his battery died. Instead of offering for us to take a cab back, or to at least offer for us to leave, he had the cajones to ask us to wait with him until a tow truck arrived. When we reminded him that we were, uh, trying to find an apartment, and the afternoon was a complete bro-tastrophe, he got really upset that we didn't want to live in a filthy, insane Dostoevskian reality.
We ended up seeing a sign across the street and paid $875 /mo for a three bedroom a block from the water with the city's nicest landlord. I read all the Dostoevsky I want in my sunroom and windows that both open and close. The second star is for the cookies.
If they had to find apartments for themselves, I would bet they would all be homeless. My roommate and I went to Chicago Apartment Finders in hopes that they would find a hidden gem that we were unable to uncover. They found anything but a gem,
First we were paired with an older woman who didn't really listen to what we asked for. She went against everything that we had for criteria. We asked for Lakeview, she showed us Gold Coast. We asked for $800 limit she showed us $900 rent. We asked for a June 1st move in date and she showed us May 1st. No one listened to what we wanted which is a terrible way to take care of the customer.
Not only was our time wasted but when you make an appointment they ask you for all of your criteria, none of which they have researched; and needs to be repeated once you get there. Trying your luck on Craigslist will work much better than this group.
I give this two stars rather than one becuase we *did* find a great condo to rent. That said? The process of getting there was pretty miserable. My husband & I didn't want to use an apartment finding service but when a condo building we loved only seemed to be renting through agents we gave in & contacted the Apartment Finders agent listed on the unit.
The good news- we loved the unit as much as we thought we did & AF helped us negotiate the rent down a little bit.
The bad news- the office was less than prompt in getting back to us. They pushed us to pay our first month's rent on a credit card when we said we'd need a day or two to transfer funds around. We gave a list of questions regarding the property (storage units, floor plans, move in policy) and it took them weeks to get the answers with a myraid of tried & true excuses as to why it was taking so long- the best one being a harried "I'm really busy." If I told my boss or clients that it wouldn't be acceptable, but apparently it is ok for leasing agents. Our reciept for our deposit was late because our "email addresses wouldn't work"- nevermind that we have normal gmail addresses that accept attachments. We were asked to contact employees on THEIR gmail addresses rather than their AF email addresses & our lease was first sent to us with glaring inconsistencies (which were eventually fixed). The only information that arrived quickly & without incident was when & where to write them a check.
All in all, it has been an abysmal experience & only reinforces why we wanted to find a place without using a "service".
My experience was soooo awesomely bad, I must mention it.
I spoke with the agent prior to coming in, and she knew my requirements: a 1 bedroom in either downtown or Gold Coast area with hard wood floors, washer/dryer, and $1600 a month. She told me she had 5 apartments lined up.
I walked into AF the next day and immediately grew concerned: she was wearing a leopard dress, leopard shoes, zebra jacket, and a zebra headband! Never trust someone wearing this outfit. I should have trusted my instincts and walked out, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She told me we'd only be seeing 2 places, and that she was still trying to track down the keys to the apartments. I sat at her cubicle for 15 minutes while she looked online and made phone calls.
The first location was in Wicker Park. WTF, I wanted to live downtown. I kept telling her that I wasn't interested, even before we arrived, and she told me I couldn't live downtown for $1,600. While she was parking outside the apartment, she backed into a car and acted like it never happened. WTF. Aside from being in a completely different location that I specified, it was a 2 bedroom (WTF!) and didn't have a washer and dryer. The only requirement she paid attention to was the fact that I needed an apartment. By this point I was getting annoyed, but she told me the second apartment was downtown and amazing. The second apartment was a very worn down studio with carpet. What a waste of time.
The next day I called another agent, looked at 5 great apartments downtown, and signed a lease for an amazing 1 bedroom for $1,400.
LASTLY, look at most of the five star belows towards the end of this page. I'd assume they either work for AF or know someone, because they haven't reviewed anything else on yelp.
Wow. I envy all of the people who have had good experiences with CAF. I went to them because I was lazy and I heard that CAF was the lesser of evils when it came to Chicago apartment finding services. I went to the offices on a weekday (because when I spoke to someone from the office on a phone they said that I could just walk in on a Monday -- no problem, I'd be seen). I went to the location in the Loop and they told me they were booked for the entire day -- I should have taken that as a sign...
I ended up going to the Lakeview location and was seen pretty quickly by one of their agents. Again, once I actually got to sit down with the agent, I knew that I would probably be in trouble.
I said the furthest north I wanted to live was Edgewater and I preferred a one bedroom. However, with my price range ($700/month), I knew that I would probably be seeing mostly studios.
I don't think my agent even listened to me. I would start to say something and I would be cut off. They promised me that we would be seeing a lot of places and I would find an apartment that I loved. Really, I just wanted to get a feel of what an apartment for $700/month would be like.
After waiting for probably an hour, we were finally on our way. We zipped up north...and north...and north...I find out that we're looking at apartments in Rogers Park. *headdesk* (Note: I should say right now, that I don't have anything against living in Rogers Park, but I don't have a car and we weren't looking at apartments in the Loyola area -- they were ALL north of Morse. Not good) Of course, we were driving, I had NO idea where we were and when I found a place that I LOVED (and it really WAS a gorgeous apartment), I wanted it.
I kept hoping to see something better, maybe something a bit further to the south, but after seeing the place that I fell in love with (which was $100 OVER my price limit), the apartments just kept getting further north and worse and worse until I just told my agent that I was finished looking. We went back to the office, I went through the paperwork for one apartment of the day that I had actually liked and I went on my merry way.
It took only one night for me to decide that I really didn't want this place. As I said above, from being driven around (and not given the chance to walk around any of the neighborhood), I was completely disoriented and I didn't realize just how far north the place was. I found some things (through a simple Google search) about the building that made it an incredibly undesirable place to live.
I called my agent the next day and said I didn't want the apartment anymore. And then I called again...and again...and again. I never heard a thing about the status of my application, or -- most importantly -- the whereabouts of my money. It took a couple of calls to the supervisor of the offices (and a couple of calls to the closing department) for me to finally receive my money back.
I consider myself lucky because I think it probably could have ended up a lot worse. It took a couple of weeks for me to work up the desire to look at any more apartments, but once I did, I made a ton of appointments through Craigslist and spent a weekend looking at about 5-7 apartments (all in my price range! Shocking, I know!) in Lakeview (a neighborhood I definitely wanted to live in) and found an apartment -- no problem at all.
I had a pretty unpleasant and unsatisfying experience here a couple years back. Reading the latest review brought back all of those memories. I was looking for a studio and had a certain budget to work with. The guy was trying to bring up all these locations and everything was out of my budget. I mentioned that I saw some stuff on craigslist that fit my budget and he scoffed at them. Finally, he said "I think that we need to take a break and go get some coffee and discuss what you really want in an apartment"..
so we went next door to dunkin donuts and he ordered two coffees (I don't drink coffee much) and when it was time to pay - he pulled the whole 'oh, I left my wallet at my desk' card. So, I bought him coffee and we went our separate ways.
Like most of the people that have written reviews, I did not have a great experience with Chicago Apartment Finders. I'm pretty grateful that it wasn't as terrible as some of them, but terrible customer service is definitely a running theme with CAF.
My boyfriend and I didn't have much time to find a place and figured that using CAF would be the easiest since they could show us several places from several companies. We walked in and, at least when we were there, it was chaos. Anyway, I filled out the form that I had already previously filled out and waited for the leasing agent. He finally came to get us and reviewed what we were looking for. We were moving from out of state and weren't sure what our income would be in Chicago, so our max. rent was around $1,100, which is plenty to find a decent one bedroom apartment. Anyway, the leasing agent kept trying to push us to look at apartments that were well above this range and in areas we had no interest in living within. Finally, after insisting that we were not spending more than $1,100, he stopped and found a few apartments for us to look at.
Great, right? Except that he "couldn't find the keys" for the three apartments he was going to show us. I have seen this in several reviews and it seems a little ridiculous. Shouldn't they keep the keys together or be aware of other agents showing the same apartments?
Basically, we wasted a few hours sitting in an office. We were not shown a single thing and the agent told us that he'd give one of us a call or send an email to help us find a few others but never heard back from him.
We now have a great apartment in the perfect location for $750 that we found independently. Don't let them pressure you into spending more than you want or moving into an area that you don't want, because there are great apartments all over the city in every price range. It may be a little more work for you, but it's definitely worth it.
Let's see.
1. I first worked with them when I was the ad manager at my college newspaper. They placed an ad...then bitched about the design (even though, THEY designed it), then refused to pay. A little college newspaper, and they refused to pay. (This was one of the owners). Classy.
2. I leased apartments (as a leasing agent employed by the building) at a hi-rise downtown. They ALWAYS brought people through. People that didn't want to live downtown, people that couldn't pay the prices, etc. Wasting my time, and the clients. Most of the time the agent was so completey worthless that I didn't even bother pretending they were part of the tour. It ended up being so obnoxious, that my said hi-rise decided it wasn't worth the amount of time we had to spend with them, and quit working in conjunction.
3. There were several that were so unbelieveably obnoxious/unprofessional that when they called to see about availability I would say we were 100% leased so I wouldn't have to talk to them. (hi rises are RARELY full) They were THAT bad. This is what I've found across the board, but moreso with CAF. Honestly, they hire just about anyone...
4. They drive lameass PT Cruisers. With Lame slogans like "my apartments are better than my driving." Well, from what I've heard, both suck
5. My favorite apartment broker is Craig, his list is free. Try it.
Shyster - noun - a person who gets along by petty, sharp practices.
Misleading - adjective - deceptive; tending to mislead.
Misdirection - noun - the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something
That about sums it up.
Sorry so late in posting this... Our apartment/condo search took place during fall '07. After several disappointing "look-see's" on our own, and with a couple other companies, a friend recommended CAF. We made an appointment on a Thursday, late morning.
Upon arrival, we completed a computerized "what we're looking for" list, then sat for 45 minutes. There were cookies, magazines, pop, and water, but still...
Our agent (sorry, can't remember his name) was very young, very pleasant, probably very green. He seemed a bit bewildered by our requests ($1500 to $2000, 2 BR, 1+ BA, fireplace, deck, decent kitchen, cat okay, within walking distance of a major street and some shops, anywhere between DePaul and Lincoln Square). We also had a flexible move-in timeline - between immediately and two months out.
We'd originally been told we'd see at least 5 or 6 apartments, but we were shown 3. The first was a $1300 1 BR sublet in a high-rise on the lake, no fp, no pets, no deck, old kitchen, not much around it - and, ahem, filthy. The agent did not know if there was parking, the cost of utilities, etc.
The second was $1100 within a house with a trashy yard, old bedding in the hallway, ripped carpeting, peeling paint, tacky kitchen and bath, an odd odor of the zoo, etc. The agent had considerable trouble even finding the lockbox among the weeds.
The last apartment was lovely, virtually everything we requested, and for $1500. However, the agent did not know about parking and said there was no deck.
We said thank you, but these were not for us. Would he please keep us in mind if he found anything else? We never heard from him again. And no, we did not smoke, eat, drink, or let stinkies in his car.
In addition, at a stop on Lake Shore, the agent rolled down the car window and hollered at a Cubs player, driving the vehicle next to us. The Cubs player barely acknowledged our agent, who continued to shout rah-rah remarks. Very embarassing.
Needless to say, we were disappointed in the experience - a waste of three hours.
The clincher: When doing another search on Craigs List, I found the above-mentioned apartment 3... WITH parking and WITH a beautiful rooftop deck. Had our agent been aware of this, we would have taken it in a heartbeat.
Don't go there! Me and my husband went to this place few weeks ago.
We had to wait over an hour after my scheduled appointment time!!!
After that, they took us to the 4 apartments but only 2 apartment can look at it! (Key problem, already someone renting)
Takes 3 hrs, Only 2 apartment????
Wasting my time!
Wow, where do I start....
It is like going to a Lexus dealer.... they wave cookies and coffee in front of you and a beautiful kitchen and lounge to wait in. Then BAM you sit down with an agent and they try to tell you there is nothing available for your price range. I had up to $1200 to spend on an apartment with one parking spot and hopefully heat included. I had seen many apartments for around $890 in the same area. Apparently they can't offer listings if they don't have them.
So I guess it really isn't their fault. They just don't have enough options. The woman we got made us feel like we should apologize for having a budget and for needing a parking spot. Like we were asking for favors from a service we would inevitably be paying for.
But hey..... we got free coffee out of the deal, and then we made our way over to the AWESOME apartment people.
(see my review of them if you don't have $1500 to spend on a 1bd)
I had a bad experience with a multitude of apartment search companies as you end up scheduling an appointment with them and then when you get there they can't show you any apartments. With that said, I went to the Apartment Finders the first time and was assigned to an agent, Holly, who looked up the area where I wanted to move and couldn't show me anything. Patiently I rescheduled to come back two days later to see the apartments that she found in her database but did not have keys for that day. Hours prior to our appointment, she cancelled via email (luckily I was checking email) and she didn't even call to follow up and reschedule. I was mortified and ready to swear off all apartment search companies (even though I heard great things about them).
Luckily, another agent, Rich F. was assigned to me and wanted to smooth my experience over. He was extremely helpful and wasn't trying to 'sell' me an apartment like most companies/brokers. He was honest and truthful and I ended up finding a great apartment through him. If you do use apartment finders, I would recommend asking for Rich. Due to my experience with him I will recommend Apartment Finders to more of my friends.
Meh.
My agent was nice, and he listened to all of my requirements. However, it wasn't his fault that CAF had nothing but crappy places. I was also irked at how long it took him to show me 4 places.
On the phone, they said my appointment would take an hour and half tops, so I scheduled it for 2:00, a few hours before work just in case it went over time.
Boy, it sure did. So I got there at 2, and didn't meet my agent until 2:45. We then spent 2 more hours just looking at 4 dumps in the area. My agent was really slow and disorganized, and a lot of time was lost as he constantly drove back to his office (which is on Belmont, a street with heavy traffic) to retrieve more keys. Basically we spent 75% of the time just driving around doing his errands (dropping off a set of keys for another agent, picking up keys from another apartment finding service, etc).
The awful places I looked at were unreasonably priced. $1,000 for a 1 bedroom garden apartment with cockroaches and poo still in the toilet?
If you want to kill time by sitting on your butt waiting for an agent to do 30 minutes worth of work in 3 hours, visit CAF on Belmont.
My boyfriend and I came here on a Saturday afternoon without an appointment. We filled out the online thingy and didn't have to wait long to see an agent. The agent found three apartments for us right away. The key for the last one didn't work so he went back to ICM, then his office. He couldn't get another so we didn't even get to see that apartment!
The info for one said there was laundry in the building. Turns out there wasn't. We kinda liked that place too but thats a deal breaker.
We scheduled an appointment for the following Monday evening. We saw four or five apartments, but none wowed us. Our agent never pressured us into anything which was awesome. He was really nice and went out of his way to help us, but we won't be taking any of those apartments.
The properties were alright. Some needed a lot of work. I looked up reviews on ICM and that turned us off. =/
Larisa!
As its been said on here before, if you go to Chicago Apartment Finders, ask for Larisa! I met with her earlier this week to look for apartments. While we didn't find the apartment I wanted (I am a picky bastard and knew going in it was going to be extremely hard to match my requirements) - Larisa was great in dealing with me, asking all the right questions and being a pleasure to work with. I can't recommend her enough.
Update- Her money was finally returned.
A co-worker of mine used this company to find an apartment and left 1st months rent with them to hold an apartment, they failed to tell her that since she has a dog the landlord of the building requires the dog to be fixed and an additional deposit of half a months rent be left. She then decided not to take the apartment and now they refuse to return her deposit.
This company mis-represented the apartment by failing to give her this information at the time she left the deposit as she wouldn't have done so. I can't believe after several phones calls she has gotten no where with them on returning her money. I looked them up with the BBB and it seems they have had these problems in the past.
I find it's best to find an apartment either through the Chicago Reader or Craigslist. And remember NOT to rent from ICM. See past review on those slumlords.
One of the biggest downsides to using a service at all is that you don't meet somebody who works for the person you're renting from, so you know if they're... you know... crazy or not.
They guy I worked with was OK (kind of a tool...) but I remember a LOT of time waiting in their reception area even when I had an appointment and a REALLY obnoxious receptionist.
Using the reader or craigslist is good. The only time I'd reccomend using a service is if you're painfully new to a city, and even then, I'd use another one.
CAF were not helpful at all. n tried to get me into a more expesive apt. than what i was looking for. n the apts. they showed me were just in terrible condition and was way too overpriced for what it was..
Chicago Apartment Finders is the worst apartment findng company. I tried using them twice, both with little success and sub par apartments. My first attempt with a possible roommate was awful because she bought into everything they did hook, line, and sinker. I was more skeptical. The first time they had no problem with the price range, etc. I felt pressured by possible roommate and the company to move on something right away. I hated that. Ended up with an apartment lease, but couldn't shake the feeling of it not being right. Managed to get out of the everything with a $300 loss, she never paid me back any money.
When I went the second time to use the $300 credit, again felt pressured into something I wasn't sure of. Also told that my price range wasn't good enough. Hated that too. The irony of their increasing the price range is that I have managed to stay within my price range for at least two years with looking on the internet creatively not relying on apartment finding agencies.
Later found an apartment on Craigslist and got $25 knocked off of the rent because of indecisiveness and paying for gas as a utility. My most recent move was a result of Craigslist and independent agents with connections.
Alright, this has been a long time coming.
I work for Chicago Apartment Finders and I always peruse your comments and I have a little feedback.
I am a leasing agent.
I take people out in my truck to look at apartments almost every day. I have had clients change baby diapers in the back seat and had Dunkin Donuts strewn all over my interior. I have college students carousing, the faint scent of beer permeating the air. I'm out there on the frontlines in the dog-eat-dog world of apartment rentals. I like it, because it's a slice of life.
You have to be tough to be a leasing agent. Tenancity is a must, and also knowing when to cut your losses and move-on. It's easy to get "used" to just "see what's out there," like our time/gas is some kind of joke. And there are many clients who are rental service junkies, hopping from one to the next without any loyalty. This part is a little demoralizing for agents.
Naturally, there's a certain amount of calculating one has to do as an agent. But I was surprised to see us referred to on Yelp in such extreme terms, like Shyster. I think if someone had that experience, that's sad for us.
Comission. On one hand, us working on comission assures that you will have us working our tails off to get you what you need. On the other hand, it can translate in to desperation/pressure when time is tight.
I know that CAF has been developing within its core a higher value on customer service, We are trained to show between 5-7 apartments instead of the standard 3 common in this industry. If some agents are resorting to cheap car-salesmanish pressure tactics to achieve their goals, that was counter-indicated in the training I recieved. When I was trained I was told, "Provide excellent customer service and you will do well." It worked for me. Contrary to another review, I wasn't trained to pressure. I'm not going to degrade myself by pressuring. My clients leave happy, not banging down my door for a refund. In the rare cases when it was due, they got it quickly.
In terms of "Don't take too long, apartments go fast." Well, it's true. And it's hard to communicate that fact without sounding "shysty." It's sad on both ends when a client comes back a few days later and what they liked is gone, and the agent has to start all over again but nothing compares to the 1st love -- usually futile. Both parties take a loss.
Obviously, there are some clients whom I cannot satisfy. Sometimes clients have search criteria that can't be accomodated by our database, like a $500 studio in Lakeview. Maybe it exists, but we probrably don't have it! Sometimes it's impossible not to take clients out of their price-range/area of choice. But that has never worked for me anyway -- most people do not rent out of their price-range.
And getting a slightly higher comission...well to me, thinking in those terms would be degrading. 90% of the time I rent at, or under budget.
Are we used to unload dumps? We have all kinds of apartments. One person's treasure is another person's trash. We also have private landlords/condo owners who list excellent properties with us. And some of the management companies who list with us have truly very appealing units. (That didn't sound quite right.) So, we have the full gamut.
Another nice aspect, agents tend to help each other out, suggesting the best listings. I thought it was going to be more competetive, but it's actually company culture to be helpful here.
Now I didn't give CAF 5 stars because being a growing company, I know they are still working out glitches. But other than that....I'm sorry some of you had bad experiences....but I rent to 60% of my clients -- and it's because I showed them something they liked!
They get one star because (a) I can't give them a lower score, and (b) at least I got a can of Diet Coke out of the whole debacle.
My room mate and I moved here from that jewel of the Midwest known as "Metro Detroit". In the weeks preceding our move, we scoured Craigslist and Chicago Reader to find a place. Shortly thereafter, we realized that we didn't know where anything was, and we needed help.
We set aside one weekend to come out here together and find a place. We found Chicago Apartment Finders (CAF) on the Internet and thought all of our problems were solved. My room mate, heretofore known as "P" called and made an appointment and let them know what we needed - 2 rooms, dog/cat friendly, safe neighborhood, $1200 max. 2 years ago, this wasn't an impossibility.
A couple of days later (and about 2 days before we were to go to Chicago to scope out our new place) I called CAF to ask them a quick question. Halfway through the conversation, I realized that they had no record of our appointment. I chalked it up to a little bit of sloppy record keeping, but no biggie. I just gave them the info again.
Cut to Saturday. P and I are in Chicago, looking for our new place (which we were to move into within a month and a half). We go to CAF (luckily, this dude I know who lives here came with us, so he could help point us in the right direction), and lo and behold, they have no record of us coming in or of what we need in an apartment.
Fine, whatever. We give them the info for a 3rd time...in one week.
So we get "R", typical frat-boy-douche-bag-striped-shirt wearin'-Wrigleyville-address-havin'-A-hole. The first (only) place that he took us to (which, BTW, he made us WALK to, even though it was 6-7 blocks away!) smelled like cat urine. And that was just in the hallway of the building! The actual apartment looked similar to the one in "Se7EN". You know...the one with all of the pine tree air fresheners.
We told "R" that we wanted something *nicer* than that. He seemed to take it personally, like I had insulted his mom's house or something. He looked at my room mate and I and said "Well, good luck finding a place with all of those animals, ladies." 2 cats and a 30 lb. dog shouldn't be impossible to find housing for, jagoff. And then he "tootsed" us. You know that sound you make when you are fed up with someone and blow air through your teeth? Yeah, he did that.
P and I beat it out of there, and I have been warning people about them ever since. We moved onto the Apartment People (thanks Russell!), and they helped us find a great place.
The main reason I am writing this review is because I want their score to decrease. I carry grudges like Santa carries presents.
Avoid them at all costs.
I have naively used both Chicago Apartment Finders and Apartment People. I've found Apartment Finders to be the better of the two, however, that's like comparing an awful blind date to a *less* awful blind date.
My roommate and I gave the agent 3 resonable requirements: central a/c, hardwood floors, and provided an extensive list of acceptable areas around the city (all affordable neighborhoods). Giving us the typical schpeel about limited results for our (generous) price range, we were first taken to a carpeted garden unit, at least a mile from public transportation...BUT it had central a/c. Sensing our frustration at his obvious attempt to unload an old unit on two unsuspecting tenants, he proceeded to drive us around town, showing us disappointment after disappointment. He had some rehearsed line about craigslist being for people who can't sign their properties otherwise - oblivious to the irony of working for a place that is paid by landlords to fill their units...
Long story short, we left unsigned and feeling foolish.
Ok, so CAF gets either 5 stars or 1 - love 'em or hate 'em. I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones. It totally depends on which agent you meet with. Ours, Louie, was great. The fresh baked cookies were nice too.
My husband and I were looking to relocate from NYC for 9/1 and had taken an exploratory trip to Chicago in June. Louie spent a lot of time with us, as we weren't familiar with the city, and gave us suggested hoods to check out based on our criteria and price range. He and a few other agents talked to us, gave us suggestions. He was very reachable by cell and communicated with us over the course of the weekend. Obviously we were not signing leases yet -- it was too early in our search. As a cynical New Yorker, I was expecting him to give us the boot and tell us to come back closer to September. He was so helpful.
We kept in touch with him via email from NY and he sent us listings closer to our visit in mid-July. Granted some of the places he took us were eh.. but we didn't waste his time and he appreciated that. We loved the second place we saw luckily so we saw a few others to compare and acted on it. He made the process easy - as it is totally overwhelming to be relocating across the country. Again, the cookies were yummy.
All in all, I'd recommend Louie to anyone who doesn't have a lot of time and needs to move quickly. He didn't waste our time. If you are going to go to CAF, ask for him or one of the other agents recommended. It can be a great experience and it can obviously be horrendous too.
Craigs List is great. I found almost every NYC apt there. But with limited time and searching from a distance it just didn't make sense. If I had seen something listed to be shown the weekends we were visiting I may have checked them out, too. We also didn't know the area that well. I know from experience how places are listed as located in more desirable neighborhoods but are in actuality far removed "vicinity". CAF made this extremely daunting process much easier and it was great to have found the apartment in such a short period of time.
-----Please be sure to see the edit below------
I don't know why it me so danned long to post my review- I used (sort of) these guys back in September '06 when my SO and I were looking for a place.
Let me say that if CAP has a listing that you like, I'm sure that they are great to work with. If they don't have something you like, its a different story.
All my previous apt's I had found on my own (and also were not inside the City boundaries on the North Side.) After seeing the volume of units listed in the North Side, I broke down and decided to use an apartment listing service, which, if they have something that falls within your parameters, is very helpful to use (for us it was a 2 BD unit, dishwashing machine preferred.)
Things started out ok. We went through the steps of signing in, meeting with our touring rep, telling them what we are looking for, and off we went in the CAP-mobile.
We checked out like 5 or 6 places. I can't say that the units that were available at the time were inspirational; I understand that if there aren't any nice apt's per your wants being listed, then there aren't any nice apt's to show. When we get back to their office, we're not too comfortable making a commitment based on the units we saw. We're seated back at the agent's desk and that's when the sales manager/supervisor comes over to the desk to make "the pitch," pressing the impression that we found a place and were ready to sign up. When we expressed that we weren't too interested in what we saw, they started to employ the sales lines: "You're not going to find a place that fits exactly what you are looking for." "These units could be looked at by many people today and may not be available if you decided to come back in a few days." We said we needed a minute to discuss things, and when they stepped away, that's when we started planning how to politely maneuver out of this without being blunt and rude by just standing up, declaring "we're not interested in anything we saw," and walking out. We ended up wearing them down by not giving in and then told them that if we didn't find anything else, we'd come back.
Afterwards, we went to another service located near Broadway and Berry that my SO had used to find her previous apt. As it turned out, they did have a place we liked (and are still living at,) but the experience was much more pleasant and much, mush less pushy than CAP.
I will let it rest at that. I have exorcised my demons, and until they tone down the make-the-sale approach over "we're here to help you find a home" I will ABSOLUTELY refuse to use CAP. Grrrrr. Grr.
------------------EDIT----------------------
I will give some credit, though. I did receive an message via Yelp from Per Klixbull, who appears to be a new co-owner. He openly apologized for the bad experience we had. He explained that they have been training their associates with the mindset of "we will rather have happy clients that we couldn't help that unhappy people who rent from us." I give them credit. He offered to deal directly with me if we should choose to use their service again. I can say that this is a good example of customer service and if I am in the market again, I am likely to take up the offer. For that I am going to up my review to 2 stars (2.5 if I could). If I use them and am happy with them, the rating will go up again.)
The good news is, I have a place to live. The bad news is, my experience with this company was CRAP and I'm determined to tell as many people as possible. I'll try to stick to the main points:
* There is HIGH pressure and a scripted sales pitch to make you apply (and pay) quickly without thinking, because they work on commission. They ignore your search parameters and neighborhood requests if they think they can push you into a more expensive place.
* Our agent was new to Chicago, drove and parked like a maniac, and did not know where she was going. I used this agency because I didn't know anything about the city and I needed advice, not someone else who was brand new.
* The "application fee" was $50 each but they did not use that money to run a credit check, or call our landlords or employers for references. What was it for??
* You have to pay a month's rent to apply and you can not get it back if you withdraw your application. No big deal except... nobody called us for TWO WEEKS. I called processing, I left messages and emails, I called our agent who said someone would get back to us, NO REPLY. Someone finally called back and asked me one question which we ANSWERED ON THE FRONT OF OUR APPLICATION. Then it was a few more days, and they called back to say we got the apartment. Nobody ever apologized for the lack of communication, and I my attempts to contact the managers (conveniently out of town) were also ignored.
I see I'm not the only one who was treated like this. They use classic marketing & sales strategies to take advantage of people who are newcomers and don't know any better or are running out of options. Don't let the friendly receptionist and free sodas soften you up. do not give these people your money.
Worst. Ever. I had a girl, don't remember her name, who sounded and pretended like she was really into what I wanted and was writing it down. But she was probably just doodling, because I told her "I need to be by the el"....an hour later we show up at an apartment by the lake "But the bus is right here..." I didn't ask for a bus, I asked for the el, you stupid, worthless girl.
One apartment she dared to show me was so disgusting, I walked in and just flat out said, "No." After trying to walk out, she tried to sway me into looking longer,etc. And I said NO.
These people DON'T listen, they AREN'T compassionate about the fact that a lot of the people that come to them are NEW to the city, and they just SUCK.
I used CAF out of desperation when I first moved to Chicago a couple of years back. I didn't know very much about the city so I gave them a try. Some guy who was also fairly new to the city drove me around and took me to a few places. He wasn't very prepared and didn't have the correct set of keys to show me one place. He also took me to a couple of dumps in another area which was a no go.
I eventually ended up finding a place I liked and when it was time to sign, I was told that I had to agree to a 2 year contract for this particular place as this was the landlord's policy. Being stupid and naive I agreed and was locked into a two year contract.
Looking back it could have been a lot worse. Luckily my building's management company was excellent and took care of their tenants and kept the common areas clean and well maintained etc. But after moving in, I felt like CAF cheated me with the lie about the 2 year requirement.
A word of advice to newcomers. If you don't know anybody in Chicago, post in online forums for advice. Although this is a big city, people in Chicago are pretty friendly and helpful. Do a little neighborhood research on your own on the Internet. And when it comes time to find an apartment, scour craigslist and the Chicago Reader. Take a stroll in the neighborhood you are interested in and look for signs posted on buildings by management companies and give them a call yourself. Don't waste your time or money with CAF.
