Quote:
Originally Posted by drnasserj
Do you suggest that I rent a (unseen) sublet for couple of months
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When I first came to Chicago I did exactly that. Staying in a hotel for a week or so is quite costly even if it's on the cheaper end.
To find a place on Craigslist isn't THAT difficult if you are able to apply common sense and are willing to put some effort into it.
I.e. what I did first was to buy a Chicago travel guide to get an idea of the city and the different hoods etc. This would have already answered your question whether the loop is safe and what it's like.
From my experience I'd say take care of these issues:
1. find out what kinda contract you're getting. I.e. there's several types of sublease you can get:
A) you officially take over a lease from the current tenant to fulfill the rest of the lease. After that you either move out or get a new contract. In that case you'll sign a contract with the landlord, usually you can easily do it upfront by fax or email. However it usually requires a credit check which will yield exactly nothing if you're coming from abroad which some landlords might dislike. Most of the times it won't be a big deal if you let the landlord know about your situation on time.
B) you officially sublease a place while the original tenant is temporarily absent. In that case it's usually the same paper work, however you give the appt. back to the original tenant, which might spare you some hassle if you take a fully furnished apt.
C) you inofficially sublease a place while the tenant is temporarily absent. in that case the tenant just hands you over the keys when you get there and you have to pay all the bills while he/she's away. Not really legal and therefore probably inadvisable, however it's usually quite hassle-free and in a high rise nobody will ever find out anyway. However it's all based on good faith from both sides, so make sure you can trust him/her/it.
2. make sure you get enough info about the place. This includes good fotos of everything, approx. sqft, the exact address etc. If the place of interest is a complex or a high rise you should also be abled to find some info about it on the net, i.e. on apartmentratings etc. You gotta take these reports with a grain of salt since they always tend to be on the negative side, but I think they're still somewhat helpful.
It obviously narrows the filed quite a lot to insist on fotos of the whole place but if you take your time you will find something nice eventually.
3. make sure you're not being scammed. Under no circumstances make any upfront payments via Paypal or Western Union or anything remotely similar to that. The only thing that probably would be ok is putting your cc number on an official, legit contract provided by an existing, legit landlord.
Don't even bother to waste yor time with "landlords" that are unfortunately abroad and offer you to work something out involving escrow, sending keys via Fedex and all that kinda crap. And most importantly: When in doubt, DON'T!
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How long do I need to rent a flat in Chicago
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