Chicago Apartment Solutions

Don’t waste your money! I’ve never been denied housing. Paid $ 100 application fee and gave them a check for first month’s rent to Victor Pedroza. I also signed a form stating I would get the check back if the app. was denied. With a 727 Fica, and proof of income and assets that proved I was creditworthy, I was denied. Victor gave me an option to shred the check or mail it to me. Of course I wanted the check back. 4 weeks have passed and I still don’t have the check.

I don’t understand why this place has such negative reviews, I had a very pleasant experience working with David. My boyfriend and I responded to a post on Craigslist and saw the apartment the same day. David was very responsive, accommodating, easy to talk to, and was even willing to stop by my office downtown to pick up the security deposit! That’s some pretty awesome customer service.

These people are SCAM ARTISTS. Do NOT sign the application, not even the lease, because then they will charge you «one month’s rent» even if you tell then you don’t want the place before they charge you.
Regardless of whether their agent reassures you that these fees are refundable, they will NOT refund you, and will instead unprofessionally sass you and direct you to their contract that you carefully read, which is the reason you asked their agent if they strictly complied with it. These people are scam artists.

Awful. Avoid at all costs.
I’ve tried contacting them about 2 apartments for over a month. After calling and leaving voicemails, no one ever called me back. I did manage to get a text (not a call, but a text… because apparently dialing my phone number was too difficult?) 3 days later saying that they wouldn’t show me anything unless I «promised» I had good credit and verifiable income. Not a great way to start a business relationship.
Even after assuring them that my credit is great and I have 2 sources of verifiable income, I never was able to see the apartments I was interested in. I made an appointment to see the one apartment, to which I was told «they probably have better options for me.» How about I decide what options interest me, okay? Thanks. I insisted on keeping the appointment, but they canceled it saying it «would likely be rented before my appointment.» Never heard whether it was rented.
Oh, and I’m going to go ahead and call out Stan Corpier. I see his Craigslist listings ALL. THE. TIME. yet despite my phone calls, emails, and texts, I have never once gotten a response. Best thing? His listings are all fake. He lists units on Craigslist that are not actually available.
This company is trash. STAY. AWAY.

Reached out via email about an apartment listed on craigslist. Didn’t hear anything back, ok things happen people get busy. Followed up again a few days later… still nothing.
Never got a reply for 2 basic rental questions.
For an industry that relies on heavy foot traffic and constantly filling the funnel, this is a pretty sh*tty way to do business.

Hopefully you’re reading this before you became the victim of their latest scam! $ 50 application fee, said they would run my credit (which is a 720 fica score) and they would be in touch with me within 48 hours with several options to fit my criteria as I’m a busy exec who reached out to these scammers to help because I don’t have the time. Never heard back, after 3 days I called them and they made some excuse and said they’d have options and contact me in the next 24 hours. Never heard from there. They will take your money but not deliver any service whatsoever. Work with someone else, you’ll be glad you did!

Do not give any money to these greedy, amoral scammers!
I applied for an apartment because my girlfriend and I broke up. In addition to the $ 50 application fee, I gave them the first months rent.
Later that day they called and told me I was approved. That night my girlfriend and I had a long conversation and decided to stay together. First thing in the morning I told them I could no longer move in. They never gave my first month’s rent back.
At no point did they remove the listing from online. I went above and beyond to communicate with them clearly and ensure that my actions did not prevent them from renting the apartment. I tried to reason with the owner, Jeff Fender, and he exhibited zero signs of reason or compassion.
I wasn’t expecting the application fee back. They can understandably keep that. But robbing me of $ 1,000? That is simply wrong.
They will be seeing me in court.

I am so annoyed with this company. The agent was late to showing. Multiple agents show up with craigslist listings. No communication between them. Then we make it very clear we want the place and I am told it could be rented talk to the other agents. How many agents work one property??? Kevin never asked it he could help us find another place. We are still in need of an apartment and obviously they are not in need of commission? Horrible service

Even though I didn’t ultimately rent with this company, I worked with Chris and he was great. He was very accommodating even though he had other things to do he made time for me on the weekend to show an apartment and let me fill out an application. He even worked with the landlord for me over some discrepancies in my credit.
I can only speak from my experience but Chris was great to work with.

STAY AWAY! Was interested in a place in Bucktown and tried to set up a showing. Didn’t get to see the place until 2 ½ hours after the original showing time that was set up the day before (and confirmed about 2 hours before). Finally saw the place that I was interested in and wrote a check for the first months rent. I was told by an agent (Stan) that it was to «hold» the apartment and take it off the market until I signed the lease. Wanted to see the place for a second time before I signed to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. After a second look I decided it wasn’t the place for me and declined to sign the lease. Little did I know that these people had some kind of scam going where if you give them a check to «hold» an apartment and decide not to move in, you’re SOL on getting that money back. Also, Jeff is no help at all. So yea, STAY AWAY!

I worked with Jon Yelton. I was down to the wire to find a place during my relocation. I read the reviews. So I had some ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ going on in the back of my mind. I want to let everyone know that they worked hard for me on a very tight time line. I needed a place in less than a week. They not only found me a great neighborhood, they found me a really great landlord. I am very pleased with Jon and his do what ever it takes attitude. He worked on Saturday and Sunday for me. He was professional, and gave me A+ service. They can work with you to find you a home not just a place to stay. Thanks Jon and I will send anyone and everyone I know to him that may be relocating to the Chicago area.

Had to create a Unilocal account just to let people know that they should stay away from this place at all costs (and those costs will be VERY high if you do choose to go through this company, just FYI).
Without getting too long-​winded about the unnecessary specifics of our situation, I’ll just point out that at the time that you apply for an apartment with this company, every applicant is required to pay a $ 50 application fee. However, interested parties are also required to pay what we were told was a security deposit, or, I quote directly, «basically your first month’s rent.»
Naturally, we took this to mean that they wanted a security deposit that was the equivalent of the first month’s rent, which is not unusual, in case we decided to accept the apartment when our applications were checked out. Because every landlord asks for a security deposit and that’s not really weird.
Turns out, what you’re actually paying IS the first month’s rent (I know, what?). We were told one day later that our applications were approved, but within an hour of finding out we were approved, we decided that we didn’t want the place (we were on the fence anyway and just interested in applying at the time because there was another group looking at the apt. and applying, also), thinking we’d just have to eat the $ 200 application fee.
The real kicker is that once you give them both checks, they get to keep them as long as your application is approved, even if you decide not to sign a lease. So, despite having only stepped foot in the apartment for all of 15 minutes, we had to pay a whole month’s rent — nearly $ 2000 — on a place we didn’t even want to live in. Basically, applying for the apartment just to see if you are even going to be allowed to live there is the equivalent to accepting the place and moving all of your stuff in for a whole month. Despite the fact that we never asked them to «hold the apartment for us,» they still charged us this fee simply because we applied.
Granted, it was our mistake and looking back on the paperwork it’s clear that we agreed to these terms (though unknowingly, and any of my roommates will tell you that we feel like we were intentionally mislead), so I’m mostly just here to warn you about how this organization operates and just what you’re getting into for simply applying for a place that you may be interested in. Oh and here’s the best part: The entirety of that «first month’s rent» that we paid goes to CAS, not even the landlord of the apartment. When my girlfriend dropped off the check they told her it was a «finder’s fee.» Funny, we actually found the apartment on Craigslist and contacted them. So what did they «find,» again?
Kevin O., the agent that we dealt with, is a really nice guy, and we appreciated his help (consider that the one star). Jeff (the owner/​dude who will probably angrily respond to this post) is kind of a toolbag, though. Which seems unnecessary, considering he just made all of that money for literally not doing anything beyond being a bully via email.
EDIT: For more information, you can read this article on Yo Chicago —
— that explicitly lists CAS, along with many other similarly scuzzy, morally questionable services, that you should avoid when looking for an apartment. Hope this helps!

I try to not stay so focused on negative Unilocal reviews, because its either you have a great experience or a horrible experience. Just reading the comments from Jeff F makes me want to stay as far away as possible from this agency.
You do not seem like you are treating your clients right at all, very unpleasant with rude sarcastic remarks. All you’re doing is back talking, not resolving.
I wont ever be using this company.

Had a very bad experience here. Problems:
1. We gave them a price range of $ 1000-​$ 2000 a month. They then sent us several emails full of listings which had mostly apartments in the $ 2000-​$ 2400 range. That concerned us quite a bit.
2. My roommate and I are both moving to Chicago from the west coast, and were going to be in town for 2 days only. To hedge our bets, we were planning on meeting with another apartment finding service the next day if we didn’t like what we saw with CAS. (Again, we were concerned because of the prices on the places they were sending us.) We were forthcoming with CAS, letting them know that if we found something we liked on Sunday, we’d put in an application and stop hunting, but that if we didn’t, we’d look elsewhere on Monday. We were really hoping to find an apartment Sunday.
3. When we originally called, we asked if they had appointments on Sundays. The guy we talked to said yes, that he could show us places on Sunday. We hadn’t received any confirmation of an appointment by Saturday afternoon, so we emailed them to make sure they knew how to contact us. Then on Saturday evening we received a very unprofessional email from Jeff at CAS, who was angry that we might work with someone else on Monday. The email was a guilt-​trip about how he was taking time away from his family by even being willing to show us places. He cancelled our appointment for the next day.
Thank goodness The Apartment People could fit us in on Sunday and showed us some great places, so we found something on Sunday like we hoped. But not a good experience with Chicago Apartment Solutions.

CAS is showing our apartment to people before we move out and we’ve had several problems with them.
At first, everything was fine and they always notified us at least the day before about people coming in. My roommate and I have opposite schedules and they always contacted both of us. This is important since I work from home several days a week and she works late nights and often sleeps in since she doesn’t get home until 1 or 2am.
Then, we got a voicemail from one of the agents saying «someone stole the keys out of the lock box» that they needed to get into our apartment and asked if one of us could come let them in. One, no – we were both at work. Two, even saying that is extremely unprofessional. If that was the case, you CALL OUR LANDLORD FIRST. Not only did my roommate take off work and lose money for the day because she was worried about having to change all of our locks, but as it turns out — THE LANDLORD HAD THE KEYS. Unprofessional.
Then we had an agent come in WITHOUT CALLING. Claiming that the number he had was incorrect. Interesting because we’ve had several agents come in here after calling us just fine so I’m quite sure the number would be somewhere in the office. If you were giving us at least 24 hours notice it wouldn’t be hard to get the number. He also called our landlord, allegedly, and didn’t even ask for our number. He claimed he had the go ahead from our landlord. Who knows, and regardless, you still need OUR PERMISSION to come in our apartment. And again, I was working from home and was interrupted by potential renters asking me questions.
Then we had them call us and leave a voicemail, telling us they were showing the apartment in an hour (with no prior notification) and when we tried to call back only EIGHT MINUTES later to tell them today was not a good day, they didn’t answer at all.
I understand you have a job that may involve «walk-​ins» but you need to give someone notice if you’re coming into their apartment. Especially since I work from home several days a week.
Oh, and they’ve left our back door unlocked three times. Thanks but no thanks.

Initially David was very nice and accommodating to our last min apartment needs. We found a place he had listed on Craigslist and he showed it to us same day. We filled out applications and gave the $ 50 per person application fee. ($ 100 for two people seemed excessive to us but whatever) and also gave him a $ 1650 deposit to hold pending our credit approval. When another apartment came up the next morning and was a better fit for our last min needs I told David immediately that we would not be proceeding or signing a lease. And apologized for the inconvenience. He then became very unprofessional saying that «he didn’t understand because he had put all this time and work into this» it had been less than 24 hrs since our initial contact. I reiterated that it was nothing personal just a better fit for us and cheaper better location, etc… and apologized AGAIN for the inconvenience. He then replied with «the landlord is pissed at me know. Thanks «so unprofessional. I stopped payment on the check. Would not recommend at all. One star.

Do not pay attention to any listings by this company – they are false advertisements. They show you beautiful pictures (of a place that probably doesn’t exist at all) and list great amenities, and then when you ask to see the place, they will show you a completely different, lower quality place with less amenities. It’s bait and switch to get you to see whatever run-​down place they have available. I do not recommend working with this company or responding to any of their ads.

I was relocating to Chicago from Nashville, TN a little over a month ago and was referred to Jessica, at Chicago Apartment Solutions, by a friend who also used her in the past. Jessica was great! I was unable to fly up to Chicago to look at apartments and had to lease an apartment sight unseen. Jessica went above and beyond. She sent me a bunch of apartments via e-​mail along with her comments – steering me away from a place that looked great online but was close to the train line. She toured several of my favorite apartments and she event took iPhone videos of the apartments and sent them to me. She literally could not have done more to make my relocation easier. I would definitely recommend using Jessica and her firm.

If I could give ZERO stars I would. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! I sent the company an email last month after seeing a few apartments I was DEFINITELY interested on their website. 3 Days passed and I never received a follow up call or email. Still interested I call and spoke with with an agent and set up a time to see a couple places.
We schedule a time and he shows up 15 minutes late and his excuse is he had a late night and starts naming off all the bars he went to and drinks he consumed. UNPROFESSIONAL. To top it off he was unable to even get INTO the apt to show me the place! So on to the next apt, complete craphole, the pictures shown were COMPLETELY different then the actual place. 3^rd Apt, it’s decent, it fits my needs, we need to just find a place, I fill out applications for it, give him a 1 month deposit and $ 80 cash for applications fees, listen to him invite me and my friend out. He says we have the place, he just needs to talk to the landlord.
2 days pass, I hear from him and he says he’s still waiting to hear back, 4 days pass I have to hound him to get an answer, no call back. 6 days later he calls me back and says the unit I APPLIED FOR was already RENTED.
So basically I applied for a unit that wasn’t even available.
I ask if I could be refunded all my money, apparently the owner will only refund back the monthly deposit but not the $ 80 application fees. That’s the policy.
So basically watch out, they’ll try to rent you a unit that isn’t even available and then NOT give you your money back.

They are scam artists. Viewed an apartment they advertised on craigslist the same day they posted it, liked it and put a deposit down.
Three days later they called to say it was rented by another tenant in the building before me? Yet offered another more expensive unit down the road from the same management company. Yeah right.
Why was the unit I wanted even listed at all then? Wouldn’t the management company have had to contact you to list it? Why would they if they knew it was already rented?
Got my sec. deposit check back but they refused to give me my $ 40 credit check fee back saying that they already paid the management company the fee. BS the check hadn’t cleared yet so I put a stop payment on it just to make a point.
As a side note I should have known better when the college kid who was showing the place showed up in cargo shorts a t-​shirt and sandal’s. Everyone at their office seemed to be a college kid dressed the same way. Try not to judge a book by its cover but in this sense it just smelled of unprofessionalism and I should have just ran.
STAY AWAY!