First Time Relocating Help (Chicago, Lincoln: apartment, rent, movers)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by weizilla

I just checked southwest to midway and got ~$240 which isn't any cheaper than what i was getting on kayak.com for united or some of the other airlines.

Then go with Southwest anyway. Flying into O'Hare (where United flies) is a PITA; flying into Midway (where Southwest flies) is a breeze by comparison.

[youngurbanprofessional]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I definitely don't think you need a car to apartment hunt, but I agree that it would be easier since you'll be zagging this way and that. If you knew one neighborhood you definitely wanted to live in I'd feel differently.

But I wouldn't live here with a car- for most people it just isn't worth it.

You do not need a car to apartment hunt. I've lived in two different apts since I moved her and I did not have a car to find any of them.

First one I found on craigslist and it ended up sucking at an apt overall. Bad security, overpriced, too small, horrible customer service from the management company.

The second one I used a an apt hunting service and they drove me to the places to view, so I didnt need a car. That was a much better apt as I told them what I was looking for weeks before hand, they gathered a list of places they know that would fit, we looked at the first one and it was perfect and I signed.

[obsurd]

^^^^^just curious...


what apartment hunting service did you use?

[weizilla]

Originally Posted by youngurbanprofessional

You do not need a car to apartment hunt. I've lived in two different apts since I moved her and I did not have a car to find any of them.

First one I found on craigslist and it ended up sucking at an apt overall. Bad security, overpriced, too small, horrible customer service from the management company.

The second one I used a an apt hunting service and they drove me to the places to view, so I didnt need a car. That was a much better apt as I told them what I was looking for weeks before hand, they gathered a list of places they know that would fit, we looked at the first one and it was perfect and I signed.

for the apt hunting service, did they only show you entire apartments for rent or did they show you places where people were renting out single rooms like the ones on craigs list? I'm also interesting finding out what service you used

[summerain25]

Are you a male or a female and how old are you? My friend and I are moving to downtown Chicago June 1 and we've been also looking at Lakeview/Lincoln Park. We are both young professional females, 24/25, and after doing our initial search this weekend we are considering a third roommate to get a better deal for the money. I'll give you more details and share some more info on what we've found out so far if you are interested. We spent this entire weekend driving around looking at neighborhoods and places. We used a free agency the first day, apartment finders. I highly recommend to do this first thing you get to Chicago to get a great basic idea or what quality/location best fits your budget, and also see the neighborhoods you are interested in with someone else driving you around. NOT recommended to rent from them, you'll find a much better deal on your own, sorry if any agents are reading haha. We did our own driving the second day and saw about 15 places total. Two days were definitely not enough (we are not that picky, it's just that prepare to see some cheaper but crappy places or nice places that are way overpriced, or streets that are supposedly in a good neighborhood but don't seem that safe, so all factors considered, we are willing to put in more time to find a clean/safe/reasonably priced place). We are getting ready for another round the first weekend of May. As for your driving question, I'd say definitely rent a car for your apartment search, you'll get a better perspective of the neighborhoods and see more places in a shorter period of time. Also, with Chicago weather, it might get freezing cold/windy/rainy all day, which will make your experience walking around miserable. It rained/snowed all day Sat. and I don't know what we'd do without a car. Oh and if you do rent a car, get the small one, you'll have to squeeze into a lot of tiny spots! Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions or are interested in the roommates suggestion.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by summerain25

We used a free agency the first day, apartment finders. I highly recommend to do this first thing you get to Chicago to get a great basic idea or what quality/location best fits your budget, and also see the neighborhoods you are interested in with someone else driving you around. NOT recommended to rent from them, you'll find a much better deal on your own, sorry if any agents are reading haha.

This doesn't make any sense. The agent does not determine the rental price. That is determined by the individual landlords / management companies who contract with the agency to find tenants. I have used an agency for two apartment searches now and I was shown some fabulous apartments for very reasonable prices. You might get a better deal by striking out on your own because mom-and-pop landlords who have owned their buildings for decades and have paid them off (read: can charge you very reasonable rent and still get very good cash flow) are less inclined to use a rental agency than the big management companies are. But some mom-and-pops do use rental agencies. I found a great, cheap mom-and-pop-owned apartment through a rental agency.

[dragoro]

Love the one an agency found me.

[summerain25]

We found a lot of mom-and-pop owned places when we searched on our own, but the agent didn't show us any of those. It is just one personal experience. The agent showed us six places I believe, and all were through management companies. I didn't say the agent determines the price, I meant that searching on your owns opens a much wider range of options in your price range.

[chet everett]

No mom&pop landlord is going to pay Apartment Finders their "referal fee" so Apartment Finders ain't going to show you any mom&pop buildings. Mom&pops that survive for years probably own a building that is so easy to rent they don't need Apartment Finders. A lot of the building that do get shown by Apartment Finders are not bad deals, some places just go for "volume volume volue" and to keep them rented the not-that-big finders fee the landlord pays is worth it...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by chet everett

No mom&pop landlord is going to pay Apartment Finders their "referal fee" so Apartment Finders ain't going to show you any mom&pop buildings...

Again, I was shown a few "mom and pop" apartments by a rental agency, including one I eventually signed a lease on. Some really are willing to pay the fee because it's cheaper than having the unit sit vacant for months while the ad is ignored in craigslist because they don't know how to showcase it there.

My current landlord did their own marketing and advertising on the unit above me. The unit sat vacant for 4 months. (In fact it's still vacant though they finally have a tenant lined up starting in May.) They probably would have saved money on the net by going with an agency.