I found an apartment I liked on Craigslist, and I scheduled a time with someone at Patrick Jeffrey…read moreRealty to show it to me. We were supposed to meet at the nearest main intersection (because they wouldn't give me the address of the apartment for some weird reason). So I got there. Waited, and waited, and waited. After 30 minutes, I called them and got voice mail. I was pretty pissed off about being stood up. I was grateful that I lived 2 miles away, but I wasn't happy with how they had no respect for their prospective renters. What if I was someone who drove in from the suburbs? Or worse yet, from another state? Just to spite them, I walked around the neighborhood and found the place I wanted to look at. The "For Rent" sign had all the right descriptions, and I called the landlord myself. Took a look at the apartment, and liked what I saw. If I decide to sign the lease, I will definitely NOT do it through Patrick Jeffrey.

Please note that all of my interactions with this company were for the apartment leasing end of…read moretheir business. My first impression of the leasing agent my roommates and I worked with was that he did not know what he was talking about. At least he was honest though - for the questions we asked, he told us point blank that he "did not know." Better than weaving some lie to get us to sign a lease. Unfortunately though, he was not so good about returning phone calls or emails.. meaning that if you want a response, you better keep calling and hope that eventually he actually answers the phone. He also kind of had an attitude the second time I went to see my new place. Maybe others can sum up a place that is to be their home in one 20 minute showing and just sign their lease right away, but not me. I'm sorry if you don't like that, Mr. 1.5K Commission. I also got attitude while on the phone with another agent from their office because my only available times to drive all the way to the other side of the city to sign the lease were not convenient for him. Although they say they have been there for years, both the office and the website look like they are still in the initial set up phases, or, as their site states, "our website is currently be updated." I really don't understand "services" like this, from the lessee point of view. In the future, I will be avoiding rental agents, period. A little leg work on my own is far worth not having to deal with third parties.

I tried my best finding a place on my own for a few weeks until I finally gave up and start…read moresearching for a leasing agent. I worked with Ben to find my dream apartment and he was fantastic. He was very professional, very helpful and friendly. He never made me feel bad with my limited budget. He, instead worked with my budget within the areas that I wanted. I'm happy to recommend him to anyone apartment hunting in this city. I plan on using him again when I decided to upgrade my apartment next year.

I was in search of an apartment during the off-cycle leasing season and at a complete loss as to…read morewhere to turn. I ran across the listings Adrien had online and suddenly I knew I was in the right place! After sending him 30, yes 30, emails in a single weekend with all these random thoughts I had about what I wanted - he spent a majority of his Saturday walking me through several places. It's quite obvious he'd listened to everything I wanted because these places had it all and were in my budget! I've sent 6 friends to him and he's been able to work his magic for all of them, as well! His response time is lightning fast and his honesty and integrity are unmatched. I would never go to anyone else ever again!

Zach Gotkin was amazing, like spectacularly amazing. After an unpleasant experience with another…read moregroup, I came across a post on craigslist and messaged him about a specific unit. He got back to me fairly quickly and gave me the specifics and when he could show it to me and my partner. We met up with him and he knew everything about the unit and was able to answer all my questions. We liked the unit and didn't want to lose it but wanted to keep our options open so I put in the application to hold the unit in question he quickly rounded up additional listings to look at before I was approved and had to decide yes or no. I narrowed the list to one unit that I was really interested and he put together a showing really fast. He offered some insight on each unit that even I hadn't thought of and weighed out pros/cons with me. In the end I went with the original unit and am in the process of moving in now. I'm definitely keeping his information handy should I decide in a year to find somewhere else to live.

Working with Troy Marr from North Star Real Estate Group was the absolute best experience. He was…read morefriendly, extremely knowledgeable and very personable! He really listened and paid attention to the type of apartment I was looking for and never pressured me to increase my budget or settle for something I didn't completely love. Trying to find a place was becoming stressful, until I found Troy! He actually made it fun to look for an apartment! There is nobody else I would recommend to work with to find a place. I look forward to his help in the future. I cannot thank Troy enough for everything! Hands down the best in the business.

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, my wife got a job in Chicago. She had 2 weeks to find a…read moreplace to rent that was close to her future work location. I started looking for agents on the internet. You would think that being one of the top-5 biggest cities in the US, Chicago is an easy city to find an agent in. WRONG! Every agent I called turned out to be a either a douchebag who "did not do rentals" or an asshole who "had nothing in my price range". After a few hours of looking for an agent, I was convinced that I will end up having to rely on outdated Trulia data and take my chances with open houses during our 1-day house-hunting trip. I ended up cursing at myself, Chicago, and all its real-estate agents and did what I typically do when I want to cool down: filled a bowl with plain yoghurt and took it to my bed to eat in peace. After devouring the first spoon of plain yoghurt, I came across Stephen's number on Yelp. I was pessimistic, but that one spoon had un-pissed me enough to give another agent a chance, so, I said, what the heck, I'll call this one too. Now, this was a cold depressing Sunday afternoon, so, nothing could really cheer me up and I wasn't expecting anyone to answer anyways. Still I called anyways. He answered the phone asking me the exact kind of questions I was expecting "how close do you want to be to the loop?", "how do you feel about spending $100 more to get a place that's closer". He then took time to explain to me how real-estate market works in Chicago (it is VERY different than Boston and San Francisco!). We exchanged emails and he put us through the smoothest apartment-hunting experience anyone in continental US has experienced.

Had an awesome experience working with Steve at Missirlian Properties! He had contacts at every…read moreproperty and ensured I was totally happy with my new place. Will definitely be working with him in the future.

Can't say enough good things about Martin Medenica. I've been in the real estate business since…read more1991. Martin has been both a colleague and an agent for me. He's perfect & nothing is perfect. However, Martin Medenica has been perfect...for me. Martin leases and sells homes. Not only is he knowledgeable, but his professionalism is at the maximum peak. For years (about twenty) I've had conversations with Martin and I just listed my building with him, and it went under contract in a month. Martin was able to entice two buyers, and ultimately there was a bidding war. I doubt another realtor could've done that. Again, I've been in the real estate business since 1991, and I know HUNDREDS of realtors. I picked Martin out of hundreds, and I couldn't have made a better choice.

At the time I hired Urban Apartment Locators this spring, this page had about 10 or 11 Yelp reviews…read more- nearly all favorable. Don't know what happened to them, but based upon my experience, I wonder... I hired Martin toward the end of May to help me rent my $2k/mth condo. He seemed very professional. He was very good about touching base with me on the phone and was always pleasant. The unit, however, sat on the market for some 2 months. He had a number of showings, but did not do any open houses. He had said those don't usually work for rentals; I had said don't worry about that then. (This becomes important later.) So I flew back to Chicago to meet with other leasing agents since my verbal contract with Martin was non-exclusive. After meeting separately with two other agents, I left their contact info as well as my old work laptop (with company logo on the screen saver) sitting out on what had been a completely pristine granite counter top. There was no mistaking the fact that I was home. That night, while cleaning out my old office, Martin called. Suddenly, he has renters who coincidentally saw the place while I was out and absolutely insisted on filling out applications immediately. I found the timing very interesting. The problem, however, came when I tried to clean the kitchen counter before flying out of town again. After wiping the surface down, I turned on the disposal. Nothing. I turned it off... reached inside... and pulled out a 4-1/4" metal nut pick!!! Huh? I did not even remember owning a nut pick. I know everything in that unit worked - including the disposal - at the time I left Chicago. The next day, I spoke with Martin. When asked if he could explain how a nut pick could have ended up inside the disposal when there had been absolutely nothing on the counter top, he did not sound surprised at all. He said in very calm, measured tones "I cannot." He then suggested that perhaps, since I had asked him to water the plants on my balcony, the pick had been outside and gotten stuck to the bottom of the watering can. I said "Let me see if I got this straight. You are suggesting that the metal pick somehow adhered itself to the hard, molded plastic underside of the watering can, and when you put the can in the sink to fill it up the pick went from completely horizontal to completely vertical and dropped down the center of the disposal. That's your position?" He said "yes." Even if it had happened that way, that still doesn't explain why - when the disposal was turned on and made that awful sound they make when they break - he did not call to tell me there was a problem. But I digress. Since internet sleuthing did not turn up a link between him and his potential renters, I went ahead with their application. I flew back to Chicago a few weeks later to pack up. As I was packing the kitchen drawers, I found another nut pick. Turns out I did own a set of nut picks (I'm in my 40's; I may have gotten these 10 or 20 years ago as a gift - who knows?). The problem here was that I found this other pick - identical to the one in the disposal except the handle was not ripped off - wedged at the very back of the drawer, underneath the shelving paper. Almost like it was hiding, you might say... In all fairness, I will say that it does not appear that anything was stolen. I remain, however, completely creeped out by my experience. You can choose to believe the plastic watering can story if you wish. In my mind, however, I can connect a much straighter set of dots by imagining that Martin was using my condo for an unauthorized purpose. If he truly doesn't know what happened, it means he allowed someone else to use my unit and rummage through the kitchen drawer until s/he found a particular item, which is even more disconcerting. At the very least, it would seem that Martin allowed someone who had been viewing the unit out of his sight, to rummage through my kitchen drawer and slam a nutpick into the disposal. Seems like a stretch, but regardless, not an attractive option either. The disposal was $150 to fix. Not enough to be worth filing a small claim, not enough for a prosecutor to pursue a criminal charge. So here I am. Unfortunately, my moving company - whose roughly dozen glowing Yelp reviews formed the basis of my decision to hire them - was not particularly better. If you have nothing else to do, read on at LT Moving in Chicago.

My husband and I moved to Chicago three months ago. We had a month to find an apartment and we…read moreknew what we wanted and what neighborhoods would be best for us. We worked with Stephen Seitz from CPG, and it was a great experience! He was professional but very friendly. He really listened to what we were looking for and didn't waist our time. He drove us around on a rainy day to see a couple of apartments and in the same day we found the perfect apartment for our family. I was very happy with the way things worked out! I can't speak for the other leasing consultants working for this group, but I highly recommend Stephen. Great customer service!

I could not speak more highly of my experience with Chicagoland Property Group. I worked with Ali…read moreRozina. She took time to get to know me and understand what I was looking for in an apartment. Ali pulled a fantastic list of places for me to look through and numerous showing throughout the city so I could see different neighborhoods and types of buildings. My apartment search process would have taken a great deal longer had it not been for Ali and CPG. I recommend this company/Ali to everyone looking to move in the Chicago area.

Erik helped us buy our first home and we could not have chosen a better person for that journey…read more We looked for a house or condo for about a year before finding "the one" and over the course of that year, Erik patiently searched with us and gave us an education of what to look for when buying. We saw a lot of homes during that year and met a lot of other agents and I can't believe how lucky we were to have someone that was so knowledgeable and down to earth to help us on our search. He walked us through all aspects of looking at potential properties, making an offer, negotiating, and all the little steps we needed to take before finally closing on our house. He always responded right away to the thousands of little questions we asked and we really trusted his opinion. I would recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell their home.

We used Erik to sell and buy condos in Lincoln Park a few years back. Our experience was so…read morepleasant that we recently used him again to sell our (outgrown) condo and to find our dream home on the North Shore. Erik truly understands market trends and current inventory which helped us price our condo competitively and get it sold within a week. His strong negotiating skills and market knowledge helped us sell our place at a price above our expectations. When searching for our new home, Erik listened carefully to our "must haves" and made some excellent recommendations in an effort to help us focus our search area. He was completely engaged in our house hunt and extremely responsive to our calls, emails, and texts. Erik is very accommodating and worked around our (and our infant's) schedules when making appointments. It was easy to trust him with issues and have him help make decisions on our behalf. We appreciated his initiative and willingness to help, especially since the buying/selling process can be time consuming and complicated. Quite simply, Erik made us feel at ease throughout the entire process. On top of the superior client service Erik provides himself, he also surrounds himself with a wealth of industry resources. He referred us to an excellent mortgage broker, lawyer, and home inspector which made our home buying and selling process so easy. We will continue to recommend Erik to all our family and friends looking for a top notch realtor in the Chicago area.

John did an incredible job. The units he found for me were all exactly what I was looking for. He…read morereally helped me understand the pros and cons of each. Once we found the perfect place he did an awesome job negotiating the deal. Found my wife and I the perfect place and saved us money negotiating the deal!

I had a showing set up for 11:40AM today with Kaitlin Ochenrider. We showed up but she wasn't there…read moreso I called but no answer; I left a voicemail but she never called back. When I got home, I noticed that she had left me an email at 10:13AM to cancel. An email an hour before a showing isn't what I'd call sufficient notice. If she had at least CALLED that would be one thing but are people really checking their emails every 5 minutes while out apartment hunting? I don't think so. Edit: There was a miscommunication about phone number however, I do still find a problem with cancellation within 1 hour of showing so I will leave the rest of the review up.