Apartment Savvy Chicago

Do yourself a favor, go elsewhere. You get what you pay for here. It's just like selling used cars here, they just show crappy overpriced places that they hope to rent out by showing enough people; you're bound to get a sucker eventually. If these were good apartments, the landlords wouldn't need to use a service to show them off to get them rented. They do charge landlords 1 months rent, you can do the math to understand it doesn't even make sense for the landlords who have something good to show you.

At first meeting, all seems great; the staff is young, friendly, energetic and some-what professional. We (my husband and I) found a great apartment in the exact neighborhood we were looking. We were then pressured into a decision to "secure" the apartment and were told that we would risk loosing the great space we had just seen if we did not act quickly. We filled out an application and paid the first month's rent -which Apt Savvy will take as a payment for their service from the landlord. We were told we could sign the lease in the upcoming weeks and had until the 1st of the month to pay the deposit. (I asked several times if we should stay and sign the lease but as it was passed closing time and they said we should come back on our next trip into town).

Through a series of phone calls I discovered (from the landlord) that the apartment was not "secured" as other apartment finders had it on their listings. We are first time residents in Chicago and were not previously familiar with apartment finding services. We were led to believe when we signed the application that the apartment was ours -realizing of course that we would sign a lease in the coming weeks when we were back in town.

During the following week, I had several questions remain unanswered by the staff at Apartment Savvy. Each time I called, I was given to a different agent, had to ask my questions again and was given incorrect answers. I finally demanded to be put in direct contact with the landlord who was able to answer all of my questions.

Apartment Savvy gave us false information regarding parking, utilities, condition of the apartment (painting). Withheld information regarding extra fees for the building (condo association), moving-in costs and the timing of the deposit payment.

In the end, we signed a lease and confirmed that the space was ours - though NO CREDIT can go to this apartment finding service. If we had not followed up with phone calls, emails directly to the landlord, the space may have been rented right from underneath us.

DO NOT TRUST THIS SERVICE!!! I have many friends who have used Apartment People in Chicago - I would recommend them for anyone new to the city and free apartment services.

After spending countless hours searching for apartments on my own, I decided to give this service a try. Everybody in the office was so friendly! I felt absolutely no pressure. They spent as much time as needed with me and I ended up with a fantastic apartment that I love. It was so much easier than doing it on my own. Leon drove me around and was amazing. I also met Paul, Lisa, Dan, Bryan, and Michael and they were all very helpful. This place is highly recommended!

I moved out here from detroit four years ago so I'm not new to the "finding an apartment" game. I've also tried living now in each different area starting off downtown out to where I currently live, Lakeview. I have used a few of the other companies out there, and trust me, I know when someone's being pushy in sales as I'm in sales as well. I felt like Apartment Savvy did a pretty good job about finding some good apartments and deals for me to choose from. The only reason I wanted to post this was I was refreshingly pleased and enjoy my new apartment.

PROS: listened to what I want, saw several good apartments within my requirements
CONS: still couldn't find me a place in the gold coast within my budget