Hit the sidewalks
Many Chicago apartments are seemingly not advertised; instead, the building owner places a flyer in the door of the building describing the apartment available. If you find a neighborhood that you like, walk down the streets and look for these flyers.
This is what people told me when I was looking, but I didn't really want to do that. It takes alot of time. But this advice is true. I always see "apartment available signs" on doors in Wrigleyville/Lakeview.
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Relcon apartment finders
Relcon produces those free monthly apartment books found in newspaper boxes around the city. All those apartments are the ones with the big bucks. AKA, huge apartment complexes. If you don't want to live in one of these, don't even bother going to Relcon. They don't have any listings for smaller places.
But if you want a REALLY nice map of Chicago with all the streets marked, make an appointment at one of their offices just so you can get this map. I tell ya, the map is worth the trip. Ask for several maps while you're there. Make it worth your while.
(actually, it's kinda funny, I almost ended up working there for my first job out of college. I would've been designing their apartment books. Thank God I'm not doing that!)
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Apartment People
The best place to go to BY FAR is "The Apartment People". Yeah, that's the actual name of the company. You go into their lobby, fill in a form with your info and where you wanna live. Depending on the day and time, you may end up sitting there for like 30 minutes 45 minutes, but the wait is by far worth it! When they call your name, you go upstairs with an agent assigned to you. Your agent and you sit in front of a computer and the agent looks at your form. You discuss what you want, the agent gives you advice on where to live. Then they look up your criteria in the computer. A list of apartments come up. The agent will either call the landlord right there and set up an appointment for that day, or they will got to the back room and grab the keys. Then you go in their car, and they drive you to the apartment. Unbelieveable! What service! Your agent will double park their car while you hop into the apartment and look around.
Now, don't feel pressured to sign up for a place. I sure did. It depends on what agenct you get. Some are like car salesman, but some are very cool. I went two times, and I got each type.
Plus, here's another big point. You don't have to pay apartment people anything for this service. Yeah dude! You only have to pay like $30 for the credit check. Which you would have to do anyways if you found a place on your own. Apartment People get paid by the landlords. The landlords don't have to make schedules, they don't have to get off their butt and show the apartment. All they do is sit back in their Lazy-Boy and take it easy.
Another thing, make sure you ask for apartments that are open in like 1 month or 1.5 months. If you ask for an apartment that's open in the next week, chances are that this place has been looked at by a bunch of other people, and it has been passed over. But if you look at a place that just became available, then you'll have better chances at finding a better place.
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Spacefinder Website
Spacefinder from the Chicago Reader where you enter your zip code and cost range, then Z-I-N-G, Z-A-M, B-O-O-M! You've got all your ads together in one page. Very cool.
This website is done in conjunction with "The Reader" the newspaper that is prevalent in the North Side. This paper comes out every thursday. It's got the best listings of apartments for the North Side. Better than the wimpy Tribune.
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Apartment forms
• Lease Analysis Worksheet
• Location Checklist and Area
• Net Rent Gross Rent Worksheet
• Schedule
• Truth-in-Renting
• Telephone Checklist (highly recommended!)
These forms came from a neat-o book on finding apartments and dealing with landlords. "The Renters' Survival Kit" by Ed Sacks. You can buy it here
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