State Street Properties

Like others who have written reviews I had a poor experience with this business. The apartment we were interested in online was listed as one price and when it came time to sign the lease they told us it would be $ 100/​month more, stating it would only be the cheaper price if we moved in immediately (which it of course said nowhere on the advertisement). After we told them to forget it they told us they «fraught hard for us» and got the advertised price back.
They emailed us the lease but we had to arrange a time to go to their office because they apparently didn’t have a fax machine. When we signed the lease in their office we were contacted the next day because they had written it up incorrectly and needed us to come in immediately to sign again, which as couldn’t do due to work. The following day the boss of the broker we worked with called and blamed things on us and said we were taking too long to sign and that we would lose the apartment.
On top of all that, from the second we saw the apartment they were aware we needed two parking spots and kept telling us they would get us information on parking options in the area soon — until we signed the lease and they cashed our check. After that point the two we worked with, who contacted us via email, cell, and text, apparently decided they didn’t want to respond to my messages anymore.
My girlfriend and I are both expecting a significant pay bump after this year and will certainly be looking to upgrade our living arrangement, but we will certainly avoid working with this group again.

This firm is now apparently doing business as «Chicago Property Genius.»

Called me three times. Asked questions that were on the online form and them laughed when I told them what I was looking for– all details that I have found in other apartments VERY easily. The call was under a minute. What a sham of a business– just bad real estate agents that probably barely passed the real estate exam.

Wow should have looked into Unilocal before I even bothered contacting these people. In one word they are RUDE! Hung up the phone on my family member that was trying to get more information about the apartment for me. Suffice to say I don’t want anything to do with a company that treats their potential renters that way. On a positive note it’s good to know what kind of people you are dealing with earlier on then later. Word to the wise beware.

Although it’s true that SSP seems to list properties that are no longer available or are not representative of individual units, but overviews of entire buildings; that seems to be how the Chicago rental market is. Every real estate broker/​locator in the city is doing it and in some neighborhoods it’s impossible to avoid.
We called on a property and were helped by Mollie at SSP. She quickly jumped into action and lined up 4 appointments the next day. She took us out 3 times, each time showing us several units. She was great at narrowing down our searches based on availability, location, and our needs. Mollie is super friendly, fun and professional.
Mollie helped us find a great place and we’ll be moving in in a month. Call State Street Properties and ask for Mollie to help you find an apartment in the city.

Worst experience ever!
Very unprofessional, no e– mail etiquette what’s so ever. I asked for a studio with a budget 1200 — 1350 and the agent said you won’t find anything in that price range. That was his answer and never heard back. Even though I said I’m open to options.

Nope, just no. Don’t do it. Anything on craiglist is a lie — so don’t feel tempted to contact them about that «AMAZING!!!» «SPACIOUS!!!» «!!!» apartment. You may want to because its an apartment available for your time frame, neighborhood, budget, but they use a bait and switch ploy that they fundamentally use to conduct their business. I don’t think any relationship should be started on a lie. I originally was set up with 5 apartments. Three were «meh» (no exclamation points in my reaction) and two were cool so I set up a time to view. When I found out the addresses for the showing, I knew immediately that they were not in my price point, and would not accept my dogs (even though previously I made her confirm they were within my budget and accepted my dogs.) Why did I know this information? Because they were luxury rental buildings, and anyone with 5 minutes to research apartments in Chicago could contact the building directly, and not waste the time, energy, and money on an agent. During this exchange, I also inquired about two properties that had been updated a couple hours beforehand on Craiglist. She said that they were no longer available, and the units available in the building would be more. But… but…they were literally updated hours before? She gave some b.s. excuse that literally insulted my intelligence. If a business that professionally uses craiglist as a marketing tool daily does not know how to delete a post, you are the most incompetent individuals that I have ever met, and you should seriously consider using another function for marketing. (but like i said, they don’t want to delete posts because of their fundamental business practice of making an already stressful process even more stressful). Wouldn’t anyone that uses craiglist on a daily basis know how to delete posts? I know and I’ve posted an ad once on craiglist to get rid of a tv. Thinking about the experience literally makes my blood boil.
Some pointers for searching for an apartment in Chicago: if there are more than three exclamations in the listing, and the post has more pictures of the amenities than the place you will actually be living in, just next the post. Also, anything with statestreetproperties watermarked on all of the photos, and a name ending with ssp, please for your sanity– do not contact.

Moving is a stressful process itself but this company makes it worse. They list prices incorrectly and when you call and give exact listing numbers they deny the listings existing. No matter what price limit I gave them they said they had nothing for me in the area I was looking for (the very next day I signed a lease in the West loop for less than the rent I had given SSP).
Basically they lie and falsely advertise, at the same time make you feel like crap for not having a big enough budget. I won’t name any specific names of the realtors I have had to deal with, but overall I would avoid them.
I will concur with the rest of the reviewers that Craig’s list should ban them. Everytime I see them advertising a place I just close that tab! Not worth even reading…

Having been a renter in Chicago for 10+ years I have had many experiences with apartment rental companies. I hate them with a passion but found myself in need of one recently and was glad I found Jill. She answered my questions about the apartment, did not force others on me unless I wanted to see them, and was prompt and professional.
It is hard having a good experience with any Chicago rental agent so I was super impressed with the one I had with Jill

I wanted to take time out to express how happy I am with how well I was treated by Jill Allen! She helped me rent my condo in less than a week and advised me collect a little higher rent on it as well. I really didn’t have to do a thing accept sit back and relax as she helped with the screening process and found me a great renter who pays on the 1^st of every month without fail! She is a true professional and one of the friendliest people I have ever met! If I were you I would specifically ask to work with her, she is amazing!

This is a review from my sister, who doesn’t Unilocal.I offered to post her review since she was adamant– she insisted I had to post her review since she had such a wonderful experience with Jill.
I contacted Jill from one of her ads in Craigslist. She answered right away and was eager to help me with my apartment search. I was moving to Chicago from out of state and wasn’t too familiar with the Chicago neighborhoods. She spent some time on the phone with me to help me narrow down my search. We set an appointment up for the following week. She followed up with every few days about new apartments that came available on the market. She spent about 3 hours with me and drove me around the city to show me different places. Jill was very knowledgable and a pleasure to work with! I recommend working with her if you need to find a place in the Chicago area!

terrible service! when i told them that our badget is 1700 $(which is good money for 1 bedroom apt) they told me that this is not enough money and we will never find an apt. stay away from this company

The MOST unprofessional company. I agree whole heartedly with the other reviewers… Craigslist should ban them. I have been responding to Craigslist posts looking fora rental and with the last inquiry, they sent a rude response… no name… attached; and when I called to find out the managing broker name, they didn’t want to give me any info. Calling the BBB on this company and contacting Craigslist as well. I would never want to say negative things in the event this were a fluke and involved one bad employee, but it is obviously their mode of operation. BEWARE!

Found a listing on Craigslist today, emailed them and they responded back «Give us a call, we don’t do anything via email.»…it’s 2014 — everything is done via email. There are plenty of other agencies out there that work with business professionals.

Avoid at all costs.
They write fake ads on Craigslist just to get your info and be your «concierge» apartment finder. So let’s breakdown how apartment finding in Chicago works. All of the websites including SSP, @properties, Berkshire, Urban Real Estate etc. just put up the MLS listings. Some websites are easier to navigate than others. Where things get sketchy is when agencies such as State Street Properties and Nick Nastos at Chicago Property Shop list fake ads on craigslist that are cheaper than the MLS listing in a classic bait and switch manner.
The recommendation is to avoid these «agents» at all cost because what do they really do? Well you’re the one doing the work of finding a place — they get to collect your first month’s rent and split it with the listing agent. Many would say these guys don’t have real jobs — and many of them work in other jobs and just do this on the side to collect commissions. If you can, just directly approach the listing agent, apply and submit your offer (lower than list and note that there is no agent you’re going through). This way you’ll save money and be rewarded for the time you spent searching through listings.
So my story — I worked with Brad Kaplan, the owner of SSP. Many times he tried to sell me units that did not exist but would say it has been scooped up — you were too slow, you should take the next one we find. He tried to put me in a building that was brand new since incentives for agents are higher — meaning more for him. He lied about being able to rebate money if I moved in, he would give me a $ 1000 rebate but when asked to put it in writing and sign in front of a notary, he backed off. I spent hours combing MLS and found the listing I wanted — it happened to belong to a 3^rd degree mutual friend that lived in Chicago. I applied, submitted deposits and forgot about Brad completely.
2 days later she’s freaking out, refunds the deposit and says something about a lawsuit. Mind you, I’m in the middle of operating on a pregnant woman and I get hammer calls from Brad (3 in a row). The OR nurse freaks out thinking its an emergency and has to put on the speaker so I can answer. In front of all my colleagues I have to listen to my future landlord talk about how he is creating a ruckus and threatening to sue her. Long story short, it becomes a mess, we decide to say screw it and pay the agents their fees (even though we met through mutual friends) and it ended up costing me an extra $ 2200 for the year. This was all because Brad felt entitled that he was my «agent» despite not doing anything — then using frivolous litigation as a threat. I don’t doubt SSP has lawyers on retainer and it would cost us more to hire our own. Plus I’m moving to Chicago to work and operate on uninsured people — I don’t want to take away from that time stuck in a meaningless lawsuit by some sleazy agent, I just needed a place to move in. The paperwork to move in the building was a joke, I did everything on my own and sent it to the building directly — he had to ask me to CC it to him so he could send it to them in order to feel involved.
I don’t know how these guys sleep at night.

When i received the call from SSP i was excited because i needed a broker to show me apartments. Sadly, I was stood up after an appointment was confirmed. I then emailed and texted the broker, Jeff, to get an update and was ignored. I gave one last email attempt and he finally responded with a very lame excuse. Needless to say, I would never use a company that blatantly ignores clients. my goodness, it’s just common courtesy to call and cancel.

I was very interested in a unit and called them and spoke to a guy named John who said he was the owner. The guy blew me off on the property, lectured me about contacting him off of Craig’s list (the add was on Craig’s list???). His emails were rude, and his in person tone was totally unprofessional. I ended up not getting called back and never seeing the unit — which I was very interested in. Worst experience I have ever had.
My second experience with these guys was seeing a condo on Dearborn and Ohio. John did not even show up for the apt. He also did not let the door guy know we were coming. Luckily this had happened before so the door guy let us up. The owner was there and we knocked and told her what had happened and she let us see the unit. She told me that she had to deal with John on a few occasions and that she now refuses to speak to him on the phone because she «absolutely can’t tolerate him».
To rush home from work, arrive at a building where the seller agent is not there, does not inform the door man, or the tenant is ridiculous.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE GUYS!

I really wish I could give SSP no stars. This place needs to be banned from Craigslist! The SPAM the site with apartments that aren’t available, or put list prices that are significantly less than the real price to get people in.
Do not waste your time with them!

I know most people think SSP is garbage, so one might look at this review as unnecessary. However, the overall star rating is still much too high, so hopefully this will help bring it down to what it should be – one star.
Basically, a unit became available at SSP that I was extremely interested in. I immediately called the number for the listing the day it was posted, left a message for «Jeff» and waited. And waited some more. Finally, I called Jeff again and actually got a hold of him. However, he had no idea what unit I was talking about, as I couldn’t give him the address because, well, SSP doesn’t list the address. Based on my description of it, however, he said he would check into it and get back to me later that day.
So I waited. And I waited. And then I waited even more … again. Finally, gave the number a call at about 9 p.m., left a message AGAIN.
The next day, I noticed that SSP posted the listing for the apartment again. This time, I sent an e-​mail. And then I waited. And then I waited some more. The entire day went by, and once again, I heard absolutely nothing.
This morning, low and behold, the unit was posted AGAIN! So I sent another e-​mail, this time a little more stern, asking what was going on, that they keep reposting this unit even though I’m interested and they haven’t made ANY attempt to contact me.
And what do you know, I received a phone call from my good friend «Jeff,» who had informed me that he had been waiting to hear back from the landlord which is why he didn’t contact me, and that the unit is no longer available…
Um, so why was it re-​posted this morning? Don’t know for sure, but I can imagine it’s because they want people to e-​mail them so they have more e-​mails on record…
Then I come on here, notice how horrible the majority of the reviews are, and how most of the filtered reviews are 4 and 5 stars, yet all have similar writing style and most are from outside the Chicago area. Seems like SSP is trying to scam some people, and luckily, I found out before it was too late.
STAY AWAY FROM STATE STREET PROPERTIES. I’m embarrassed that I got this deeply involved in the first place…

I have to agree with the majority. I contacted them through a craigslist ad and received a call within 15 – 20 min. They were going to arrange for me to see the apts. I asked about the next day. Someone called me back and asked me what time I was available and the next day called and only had one available for me to see and it wasn’t either of the ones I saw on craigslist. I told her I was open to seeing it, but not that day. Never heard back from her.
They are the worst.