Apartment Hunting Advice

I will be graduating from college in a week and fortunately, I have a job lined up. Right now I am looking for an apartment in the Chicagoland area and there is a ton of information out there for finding/selecting an apartment most of which boils down to, make a budget, select apartment that fits. I was hoping that the vast knowledge of HBT might be able to help me.

My questions fall into 2 main categories, but any advice would be appreciated;

Apartment Search:
1) What are the best places to look for an apartment? There are so many different websites, newspapers, etc. that I am really lost at where to look. I don't want to waste my time looking in the wrong places.

Touring:
1)Assuming I find a place I like, what should I be looking for when I tour an apartment? Basically, what would you say are some key give a ways that an apartment might not be as good as it looks at first glance?
2)What are some of the key questions to ask the management?

I have a budget set up and know how much I can spend on an apartment. What I am trying to do now is find a place to live. I will be working in Lincolnshire and have been looking at the Ravenswood and Edgewater areas in Chicago.

Thanks for any help.

Always been in a house, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

I'd say make sure you see the actual space that you will be renting. Places like to show you the blinged out nice "model" apt.

For anywhere on the Northside, I always used to look through the Reader. The Trib and Times for some reason were never that good. An equally good option is to take a day and drive around the neighborhoods. A lot of people won't list their apartments, but just put signs in their windows or front doors.
As far as what to look for, you obviousy want to look for a place that's clean and well-maintained. Parking ANYWHERE around there should not be a deciding factor, as it's always hit-and-miss.
You shouldn't have to drop more than a month's rent equivilant for your security deposit.
Honestly, it's been a LONG time since I've had to look for an apartment, so I can't tell you much more, but I do remember that the buildings that were owned by the older, Europeans (around there, you'll find a lot of Germans, Swedes, Swiss...).

BTW, in Andersonville is the HopLeaf, a GREAT bar for Belgian Beers!!! If you go a little further south, Lincoln Square (my old stomping grounds!) has a lot of good German places, too.

There are also a lot of rental agents, that will do the looking for you, and take you around, but I don't know if I'd recomend them. Personally, I never had good luck with them...although the women were HOT!!!






Usually.

close to work or transit system. Commuting sucks. I have an 8 minute drive to work and the people that spend 45 minutes getting there hate me for it.

Make sure it is also a safe neighborhood. I was housesitting for a friend for a couple years and had to move out because the neighborhood took a quick dive (university built some nice apartments and the students moved to them and welfare moved in). He was a little pissed but after I sent him some police blotters (drive by shootings, etc.) the for sale sign went up pretty quick.

Yeah, I have been looking the reader currently and seems to be the best thing I have found yet.

Accessibility to the city and the different beer bars/restaurants is the main reasons I want to live closer to the city. I am trying to stay away from rental agents since I don't have a lot of money to begin with.

Another question:
What is the best way to find out about a management company? Every company that I have looked up online has gotten terrible reviews. In fact, I am not sure I have found one yet with a good review.

Most rental agents don't charge you...or at least they didn't USE to. They get paid from the building owner or management company.
As far as checking out the management company, can't help you there, but keep in mind that most of the reviews are probably done by former tenents that had a beef, whether justified or not...many NOT. It's the old adage of working in retail. People are willing to write a letter of complaint in a heartbeat, but rarely write one of compliment. You might want to check with neighborhood chambers of commerce, or the BBB.

ALWAYS take picture of the apartment if there is any damage. I would also make note of any damages on the lease. also make sure you get a copy of said lease. just m 2 cents.

friarjohn said:

ALWAYS take picture of the apartment if there is any damage. I would also make note of any damages on the lease. also make sure you get a copy of said lease. just m 2 cents.

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Good point! Take pics before you move in, and the day you move out.

friarjohn said:

ALWAYS take picture of the apartment if there is any damage. I would also make note of any damages on the lease. also make sure you get a copy of said lease. just m 2 cents.

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kjung said:

Good point! Take pics before you move in, and the day you move out.

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+3. I was about to recommend this. You can't be too through either.

I lost half a deposit ($300) moving out of my last house because of some damage to the hardwood floors that was there when we moved in. Couldn't prove it...

Thanks for the advice. I guess I had been misinformed about the rental agencies. I might end up going that route since there is so much junk on the internet for finding apartment and I doubt a quarter of it is accurate.

Don't use an agency. It is not worth it as they are a pain to work with in my experience. We found our apartment through one of those apartment finder magazines you see in grocery stores and in the little boxes on the street.

Here are some things we did:
When we toured we looked at a model and at an actual unit similar to the one we wanted. The model gave us an idea of the space with furniture but seeing the actual unit helped us see the quality of the property. This knocked out a few places right away (one place for example, the model had an updated kitchen but most of the units did not.)

We went around to multiple places to in varying neighborhoods to see what they had to offer.

In the end we got a 1000sqft town house with a washer and dryer and common area furniture (couches, tv, tables, etc.) and internet included for $899/mo. We told the manager we liked the place but other places offered better deals and that is what he came back with.

There is no reason you can't try and negotiate, which is something that rental agents (at least around here) won't do for you.

If your don't mind the stress of waiting until the last minute you can usually snag some deals on craigslist. That's how I got this apt. Waited until 2 weeks until I had to move. They wMt to get it rented asap so they will cut 100-200 offthe monthly rent. Also, since you're first starting out lots of people I work with found aota with random roomates that route to save some cash.