Rent between Roscoe and Downtown (Chicago, Lincoln: middle-class, apartments, rental market)

[GHA188]

I'm a 23 year old single gay male moving to Chicago at the end of this month from Miami.
My job is going to be in Roscoe Village but I plan to try to hop to another job which would be more professional since I work in retail now. So I'd imagine it would be in Downtown.

So I'm trying to figure out where to rent that would be somewhere between the two and would be max 800 for a 1 bedroom.

I guess my other question is would it be possible and a good idea to secure the apartment before I move over or should I see them all in person? This is my first time apartment hunting from out of state.. I pretty much have a week and a half between my end date in my current job and the start date of the next.

Any advice would be really appreciated

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by GHA188

I'm a 23 year old single gay male moving to Chicago at the end of this month from Miami.
My job is going to be in Roscoe Village but I plan to try to hop to another job which would be more professional since I work in retail now. So I'd imagine it would be in Downtown.

So I'm trying to figure out where to rent that would be somewhere between the two and would be max 800 for a 1 bedroom.

Welcome. Quite a move, lol. $800 for a 1 bedroom will probably push you probably north of Roscoe Village (or west)...What kind of neighborhood are you looking for? Are you looking to be closer to some sort of gay community or does that not matter to you too much?


I guess the closest thing you'd have a sure shot at with $800/month for a 1 bedroom is the Edgewater neighborhood..

I guess my other question is would it be possible and a good idea to secure the apartment before I move over or should I see them all in person? This is my first time apartment hunting from out of state.. I pretty much have a week and a half between my end date in my current job and the start date of the next.

Any advice would be really appreciated

Well, I think anytime you can see a place in person is good. I moved here out of state and I didn't see my apartment beforehand, but I did a lot of research. What really helped was that I used a site like Rent.com which only shows listings from buildings with more than a few units and are legit management companies. With something like padmapper, domu, etc you run a higher risk of running into a scam.

If you find some place on rent.com or mynewplace.com or whatever it might be, you can research the particular building elsewhere (sometimes through apartmentratings.com or whatever) or just research the management company. Calling and/or emailing back and forth really helps too of course.

Unless you have a bunch of money saved up, I wouldn't recommend moving here without a place lined up if possible.

[GHA188]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Welcome. Quite a move, lol. $800 for a 1 bedroom will probably push you probably north of Roscoe Village (or west)...What kind of neighborhood are you looking for? Are you looking to be closer to some sort of gay community or does that not matter to you too much?


I guess the closest thing you'd have a sure shot at with $800/month for a 1 bedroom is the Edgewater neighborhood..

Thanks lol. I guess what I'd like in a neighborhood is access to nature like trees and parks and also if possible German or Scandinavian influence. I was looking into Lincoln Square since I saw it was German influenced and I've visited before. Though I remember my sister (who also lives in Chi) telling me that it had more families and was far from downtown. I also saw old town and that looked nice too. Andersonville I thought would be cool but I heard it has older people and older gay couples.

I def don't want to live in Boystown or anything like that.. But somewhere that isn't far from it would be nice.

Originally Posted by marothisu

Well, I think anytime you can see a place in person is good. I moved here out of state and I didn't see my apartment beforehand, but I did a lot of research. What really helped was that I used a site like Rent.com which only shows listings from buildings with more than a few units and are legit management companies. With something like padmapper, domu, etc you run a higher risk of running into a scam.

If you find some place on rent.com or mynewplace.com or whatever it might be, you can research the particular building elsewhere (sometimes through apartmentratings.com or whatever) or just research the management company. Calling and/or emailing back and forth really helps too of course.

Unless you have a bunch of money saved up, I wouldn't recommend moving here without a place lined up if possible.

Ok cool I will check out those sites. I do have my sister over there that could maybe check out the place for me. Thing is if I have the place lined up before I go over then I won't have to rent a hostel for a week while I apartment hunt. I do have the savings to do that though but rather not if possible...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by GHA188

Thanks lol. I guess what I'd like in a neighborhood is access to nature like trees and parks and also if possible German or Scandinavian influence. I was looking into Lincoln Square since I saw it was German influenced and I've visited before. Though I remember my sister (who also lives in Chi) telling me that it had more families and was far from downtown. I also saw old town and that looked nice too. Andersonville I thought would be cool but I heard it has older people and older gay couples.

I def don't want to live in Boystown or anything like that.. But somewhere that isn't far from it would be nice.

Yeah, Lincoln Square has some of that influence and is a cool little part of town. A little older but not bad. It's not terribly far from downtown. It's about a 25-30 minute ride on the train (Lincoln Square is on the Brown Line) which isn't really terrible. My girlfriend used to live near there and while I live "downtown," it wasn't a huge deal. Old Town is OK. It's honestly too frat-like. There's some stuff there like the famous Second City comedy stuff, but I wouldn't live there. I think your budget is out of the range of those two areas too. Your only hope MIGHT be with a studio, but IMO...not really.

Andersonville is definitely a nice place and there are a number of gay couples there. It's a quaint section of town. It's one of my favorite parts of town really. It's more of a small town in a big city feel. The thing is that you will have hard luck finding a 1 bedroom in Andersonville for under $800/month. You might find one or two, but on average, one bedrooms are over $900/month there.

So that's kind of why I mention Edgewater. Technically speaking, Andersonville is part of Edgewater (some people on this forum will tell you it's not, but it technically is). I know for a fact that there are 1 bedroom apartments in Edgewater for under $800/month. It's really not that far from Andersonville, so if you want to hang out there it's not really a big deal. Your commute to Roscoe Village would mean riding the red line down to Belmont and then transferring to Brown Line a few stops.

And if you ever wanted to go to Boystown (lol), you could easily do that too from here..lol..

A few:
Thorndale | Chicago, IL Apartments for Rent | Rent.com®

Kenmore Gardens | Chicago, IL Apartments for Rent | Rent.com®


These are near a beach too (Beaches in Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Ok cool I will check out those sites. I do have my sister over there that could maybe check out the place for me. Thing is if I have the place lined up before I go over then I won't have to rent a hostel for a week while I apartment hunt. I do have the savings to do that though but rather not if possible...

Yeah, probably best case situation is to keep the money if possible IMO. Sometimes it's hard but since you have your sister in town, can she check out a few apartments for you and tell you if they're legit or not?

[jgardener]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Yeah, Lincoln Square has some of that influence and is a cool little part of town. A little older but not bad. It's not terribly far from downtown. It's about a 25-30 minute ride on the train (Lincoln Square is on the Brown Line) which isn't really terrible. My girlfriend used to live near there and while I live "downtown," it wasn't a huge deal. Old Town is OK. It's honestly too frat-like. There's some stuff there like the famous Second City comedy stuff, but I wouldn't live there. I think your budget is out of the range of those two areas too. Your only hope MIGHT be with a studio, but IMO...not really.

Andersonville is definitely a nice place and there are a number of gay couples there. It's a quaint section of town. It's one of my favorite parts of town really. It's more of a small town in a big city feel. The thing is that you will have hard luck finding a 1 bedroom in Andersonville for under $800/month. You might find one or two, but on average, one bedrooms are over $900/month there.

So that's kind of why I mention Edgewater. Technically speaking, Andersonville is part of Edgewater (some people on this forum will tell you it's not, but it technically is). I know for a fact that there are 1 bedroom apartments in Edgewater for under $800/month. It's really not that far from Andersonville, so if you want to hang out there it's not really a big deal. Your commute to Roscoe Village would mean riding the red line down to Belmont and then transferring to Brown Line a few stops.

And if you ever wanted to go to Boystown (lol), you could easily do that too from here..lol..

A few:
Thorndale | Chicago, IL Apartments for Rent | Rent.com®

Kenmore Gardens | Chicago, IL Apartments for Rent | Rent.com®


These are near a beach too (Beaches in Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)




Yeah, probably best case situation is to keep the money if possible IMO. Sometimes it's hard but since you have your sister in town, can she check out a few apartments for you and tell you if they're legit or not?

I would definitely look at apartments in person if you are able to. Do a thorough investigation of any apartment over the internet: read reviews of the property management company (look up reviews of their other buildings), BBB complaints, and check bed bug registry (especially for Edgewater). Edgewater is a great neighborhood close to the lake, public transportation, great restaurants, and is really well priced. The downside is that Edgewater and Rogers Park (the neighborhood directly to the north) have had high numbers of bed bug infestations over the last few years. I bring this up because that link from the post above shows my old bed bug infested apartment (Thorndale) which still has problems as units throughout the building, including some on the Winthrop side have them. That property management company is an absolute nightmare and I hired an attorney to get out of it. So, be very careful where you rent and make sure you do your research.

[marothisu]

^ Good points (especially about bed bugs). You will want to do a thorough investigation for sure if you or your sister can't see these things in person. What's the link to the bed bug registry?

[jgardener]

Originally Posted by marothisu

^ Good points (especially about bed bugs). You will want to do a thorough investigation for sure if you or your sister can't see these things in person. What's the link to the bed bug registry?

www.bedbugregistry.com

Sometimes I just type an address or the property management company plus bed bugs into google to see what comes up. Bed bug registry isn't always comprehensive. Also look for multiple reviews of any property management company across multiple addresses. In my most recent apartment search I found a building that didn't have them, but 10 other buildings owned by the same company did, which told me they didn't have any idea how to deal with them if there was a problem or just didn't care. Do research no matter what as you won't find much evidence of bedbugs during the day or in an empty apartment as they tend to be nocturnal and can go dormant for up to a year without feeding (so you won't see activity in a vacant apartment).

[Larry Siegel]

I agree that areas with a German heritage or influence tend to be very pleasant, solidly middle-class areas with nice architecture. Are you personally German? I am descended from German Jews among others.

So, Lakeview, Roscoe, North Center, Ravenswood, Lincoln Square. $800 for a one bedroom strikes me as a little light. But I am not in the rental market.

I don't agree that you need to have a place before coming here. You need to have a job before coming here. With a job, and a friend's couch to crash on, you can rent a place in a few days. This isn't San Francisco. Good luck and welcome to Chicago.

[Aleking]

Even in edgewater 800 will be a basement unit or a total dump..forget about anywhere south of Irving unless you want to live with roaches.

Even in Edgewater/Uptown non-roach box studios are over 800.

[trailblazer33]

If you are uncomfortable apartment shopping over the internet, check out airbnb. com for a short term rental. Then, you can see apartments in person without feeling super rushed.