Case Study #1

Christopher teaches English at a Chicago high school. Tired of the long commute from the suburbs, he moves into a second floor apartment just ten minutes from work. He pays little attention to what looks like an empty storefront below.

The first Monday after moving in, Christopher returns home with a stack of essays to grade. As he sits at the kitchen table writing comments in the margins, the table begins to shake.  His pen scratches a jagged red scar across the page. He rushes downstairs to find out that the evening Zumba class is in session.

The next day he talks to the property manager, who says nothing can be done since the class ends before 10 P.M. Unable to concentrate in his own apartment, Christopher eventually pays a lease break fee and moves out, but the expenses force him to have to cancel his planned trip to Europe and teach summer school instead.

Case Study #2

Susan looks at over 20 Chicago apartments before she falls in love with a cute studio in a vintage building with a funny little elevator. She signs a lease immediately, unaware that the landlord had recently been fined by the city for uncharged fire extinguishers and improper smoke alarm maintenance.

Six months into her lease, a stick of burning incense in her neighbor's apartment falls from its holder onto a pile of magazines. Her neighbor is out buying snacks at the corner convenience store. Susan is asleep on her futon.

Susan wakes up in an ambulance. She is treated at the hospital and makes a full recovery. However, the cost of replacing her damaged property forces her move back into her parents' house. She later learns from newspaper accounts that the hallway fire extinguishers had malfunctioned.

Case Study #3

Brian and Sarah, newly engaged, move into a fully remodeled apartment on the first floor of a two-flat.  They set up the second bedroom as an office so they can work from home on Fridays and plan their wedding. What no one has told them is that their landlord died the previous month.

As their wedding day approaches, they notice a water spot forming on their bathroom ceiling. As it grows larger, they make multiple calls to the landlord's office, none of which are returned. After extensive calling and research, they learn the landlord's estate is in probate court, leaving no one responsible for the building. By the time they return from their honeymoon, the bathroom ceiling has caved in.

The Problem

There are major flaws in the Chicago apartment hunting process.

1. Our research shows that over 60% of Chicago's renters perform apartment searches without the help of an agent. This gives them access to more listings, but it increases the risk that they will be blindsided by hidden problems with their apartment, property manager, or landlord. Even renters who work with agents may find that their agents are prohibited from full disclosure.

2. Online listings have made it easy to review a lot of apartments very quickly, but it's easy to fall into the trap of believing that they're giving you the whole story. 75% of the renters we surveyed said that issues like foreclosure filings and code violations would be deal-breakers, but only 5% of them had ever done apartment research beyond the price and basic neighborhood data provided by online apartment marketing sites.

3. When it comes to apartments, consumer review sites like Yelp are unreliable sources of information. Only 1% of the online population will contribute to review sites, but over 10% of Chicago apartments had moderate to severe physical defects according to the 2013 American Housing Survey performed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

4. While many renters have been happily accepting online listings as the full story, landlords have been taking a “trust but verify” approach to their tenants. Landlords screen their tenants, looking at their credit history, criminal history, and employment history before they're approved for a lease. Tenants have never had a similar option to screen their landlords... until now.

The Solution

RentConfident is an apartment research service where anyone can quickly obtain a neutral, thorough data snapshot of any apartment or rental home in Chicago. Our skilled team of former property managers have spent months designing clear, easy-to-read reports that cover everything from severe risks to minor flaws.

When searching for an apartment, do you ask:

•  How many times will I have to circle the block to find a parking spot?
•  Has the owner paid the water bill?
•  Will my landlord file for eviction if I'm a couple days late with the rent?
•  Is my porch in danger of collapsing?
•  Is my property manager a sex offender?

We've built a research engine that pulls information from over 60 public data sources to answer questions like these. Our passionate and hard-working researchers organize this information into easy-to-read reports.

We are 100% neutral. We do not accept advertising, nor do we allow landlords to pay to change the content of our reports.

Now we need your help.

We've just launched, and we have some very real and immediate challenges that your donations can help us overcome:

• Protection – Your donation will help us cover attorney fees, accountant costs, and insurance for employees.
• Promotion – Your donation will help us reach renters all around the city to raise awareness of the benefits of apartment research and the dangers we can help them avoid.
  
• Payroll – Your donation will allow us to pay our employees until we're self-sustaining.

Every little bit helps, even if it's just $25. Just click the “Contribute now” button.

Your kindness and generosity not only helps us, but helps all of the people we will help in the future. Thank you so much for your support!

Please share this with all of your friends!

If you have any questions or want to see a sample report, we'd love to hear from you at rentconfident.com.

About us

Kay Cleaves has been involved in the Chicago residential rental industry as an agent and property manager for over a decade. She has worked as a property manager and a Realtor, assisting with over 1200 rental transactions during her time in the field. She spent two years as the author of real estate blog StrawStickStone, which focused heavily on landlord-tenant matters including market forecasts and legal compliance. She is a self-taught web developer who has been building websites and web applications since the late 1990's. She is the developer of the RentConfident research engine.

Jon Hoferle, with over ten years experience in rental property management, has seen just about everything that could make a rental experience go wrong.  He has spent countless hours trying to make it right.  As a part-time freelance writer, Jon appreciates the elegance through which RentConfident organizes hundreds of data points to tell an apartment's story. He brings a creative spark and strong customer service background to the company and knows the importance of getting information to clients in a timely fashion.