Finding an apartment from out of state? (Chicago, Lincoln: real estate, 2013)

[wearapaperface]

I'm moving to Chicago in the next couple months from Pennsylvania and wanted to know if anyone had any positive experiences finding an apartment without actually seeing the units in person?

Is there a management company that's especially helpful with this? Or is there a private landlord that you can refer me to?

A few details, if it matters: I work from home and am looking at one bedrooms in the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area, my budget is $1,400 and I have a dog.

Thanks for any help in advance!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by wearapaperface

I'm moving to Chicago in the next couple months from Pennsylvania and wanted to know if anyone had any positive experiences finding an apartment without actually seeing the units in person?

Is there a management company that's especially helpful with this? Or is there a private landlord that you can refer me to?

A few details, if it matters: I work from home and am looking at one bedrooms in the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area, my budget is $1,400 and I have a dog.

Thanks for any help in advance!

I did this when I moved to Chicago. It's not easy but if you are good at research then it will be easier. The thing is that it really helps in this particular case if you go with a company that actually is a large enough management company. Specific buildings do have reviews at sites like Apartment Ratings :: The leading source of apartment reviews by renters for renters. However, you need to take some of these with a grain of salt sometimes.

There's a lot of private and independent landlords in Chicago along with larger ones. Your budget of $1400/month in Lakeview is very doable, though it depends on what kind of housing you want (high rise versus low rise) as some high rises in Lakeview have condos for rent that may actually be more than $1400/month. You can find 1 bedrooms anywhere from $900 on up in Lakeview though. It will matter how luxury you want it. As far as the dog goes - not everywhere accepts dogs, and some that do have a limit of 40 lbs.

For your own research of places, I'd use Apartments for Rent & Homes for Rent - Rent.com® Apartment Finder (and other things like that such as MyNewPlace.com) for the larger buildings, and sites like Domu Chicago | Chicagoland Apartments and Zillow: Real Estate, Apartments, Mortgage & Home Values in the US for more private listings (though Domu does have management company postings).

How I found mine was through Rent.com. I actually found a place in Lincoln Park and contacted the management company. They told me they didn't have anything available, but had another building in the Gold Coast that was. I used Apartment Ratings and it had like an 80% recommendation rate, so I took the chance and the building has really been perfect so far.

[SubconsciousMe]

I'll tell you what worked for me. I moved here in May 2013 from Phoenix. I sent an email to all my contacts... and asked if anyone know anyone that lived in Chicago as I'd rather spend the money I'd be staying in a hotel to look for an apartment on an actual apartment. And you know what? It worked. That email eventually landed in the hands of someone moving out of their apartment in May. I would have never found this on my own and I've been pleasantly surprised.

So the moral of the story is that I got what I wanted, in my price range, by sending out an email with absolutely no pride and explaining my situation in detail. And it worked.