I'm looking for a good Chicago apartment and landlord ... and also, thoughts on how to practically avoid stinkers when you can't talk to and/or don't know the tenants.
To break down the question to both a specific-to-Chicago aspect, and a wider generality for everybody ...
Specifically for Chicagoans, I'm in the search for a Chicago studio or one-bedroom in the $550-800 range, in a well-developed area preferably on the North Side (but I'm open to elsewhere). I'm able to move out of my apartment at the end of October or the end of November (but preferably October). The last time I looked, my credit rating was in good shape and I have a solid eight-year history at my old building. So, if you're a Chicagoan who is happy living in a building with good, solid infrastructure and believes their landlord/management company to be responsible, responsive, and professional, I would very much appreciate your recommendation!
In a more general sense, for anybody, I am wondering how one can be alerted to bad conditions in a potential apartment, or bad behavior in a potential landlord, without personally knowing the tenants. The story that prompts this question ...
When my supervisor learned of my search, he suggested I inquire with a colleague's client, a certain Chicago apartment management company. Their website looked quite professional, and as I skimmed through their availability, I began to think of this entity as a concrete possibility.
As I read through it, though, I recognized my best friend's address as one of the properties. When I inquired with him about his experience as a tenant, he shared with me experiences of significant problems with the building's pipes and wiring, and also how both the response quality and response time for needed repairs was pretty poor.
However, the physical appearance of the apartment is nice and new — if I hadn't known someone living there, I probably would have thought very well of this building and would have rated it highly on an initial survey. (Believe it or not, I'm still halfway considering this particular company for other reasons, but they're going to be very low on my list, unless I find a
lot of other stinkers out there.)
How can someone avoid similar pitfalls? Where can people, essentially, find "reviews" of landlords — or at least get fair warning to such situations? When you're being shown about, you're usually in the presence of the landlord or their representatives, and tenants probably aren't going to give you the unvarnished truth in the landlords' presence. Also, tenants might not be objective, either, and I imagine with every landlord you could find someone willing to diss them.
I've also considered using an apartment finding service, but since they are free to the tenant, they must be paid by the landlord. That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be dishonest, but it does mean they are motivated to "make the sale," so to speak. Still, I used an excellent job placement service to find my current position, and although she was of no cost to me, she was excellent in taking to account my preferences and desires in a potential employer — so I imagine I might be able to find a similar apartment finding service who wants its clients to be reputable ones.
Any thoughts about the above requests would be quite sincerely appreciated. I imagine there have been other AskMeFi threads about apartment-hunting and even Chicago apartment-hunting, but I'm not sure how specific to this query they've been; if I've been entirely duplicative, please feel free to show me the light.
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posted by trevyn at 12:58 PM on September 6, 2005