If you’ve been searching for an apartment in downtown Chicago, the cookies that track your online behavior result in your seeing banner ads for Luxury Living Chicago. The firm is one of dozens that have earned a spot on our rental service do-not-call list.

Rental services will always give you a misleading impression of what’s available in the market, and they’ll more often than not mislead you in a number of other ways. Take, for example, the three most important things in real estate: location, location and location.

The search for a Lincoln Park apartment at Luxury Living Chicago returns seven ads, pictured above. The ads are for two buildings, SoNo East and NewCity, neither of which is in Lincoln Park.

The search for a Gold Coast apartment at Luxury Living Chicago yielded 29 results. The 29 ads are for apartments in 9 buildings, not one of which is within what traditionalists consider the Gold Coast boundaries or YoChicago’s slightly more expansive Gold Coast boundaries.

Two of the buildings are in Streeterville and four are in River North. Three of the buildings are between Chicago Ave and Oak St, and their locations can fairly be described as on the border of the Gold Coast and River North. When you drill down on the Luxury Living Chicago Gold Coast ads, you’ll see an accurate neighborhood name, e.g. River North, associated with a number of them.

If you’re searching for an apartment in Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast, or any of Chicago’s most desirable near-lakefront neighborhoods, avoid contacting a rental service a/k/a apartment locator a/k/a apartment finder. They can’t and won’t show you everything that’s available, and you’re highly likely to miss out on some of the best apartments and best deals.

Start with YoChicago’s reviews and lists. You’ll find a ton of photos, objective information, video tours, and links to near real-time rent and availability info at most of the buildings.

Chicago neighborhood boundaries aren’t always etched in stone, so it’s fair to give real estate brokers a bit of latitude when they’re describing a property’s location. That’s especially true if the location has a similar character to the neighborhood in which it’s said to be located.

When a rental service broker describes a property as being “in the heart of the Gold Coast,” it’s fair to assume that the location is indisputably in the Gold Coast neighborhood. When a rental service broker advertises a half-dozen different properties as “in the heart of the Gold Coast” and none of them are within the neighborhood’s boundaries, it’s fair to conclude that the broker is lying.

We’ve previously opined that Chicagoland Property Group’s Collin Walker lies about location and property features in Craigslist ads, and we’ve questioned his opinions on value.

As of yesterday, Walker had Craigslist ads describing six different properties as being “in the heart of the Gold Coast:” Chestnut Tower, The Bernardin, The Chicagoan, The Seneca, Asbury Plaza and 1120 North LaSalle. None of the properties are within the Gold Coast boundaries. One of the properties is advertised as accepting dogs – and it doesn’t.

Collin Walker is the managing broker of Chicagoland Property Group, which we’ve singled out as Chicago’s worst apartment ad spammer at Craigslist.

Help me out here – why would any renter contact a firm that lies to them and spams them mercilessly on Craigslist?

You’ll find accurate information about properties in Chicago’s popular lakefront neighborhoods on YoChicago’s reviews and lists, and links to near real-time rent and availability info.

There are 16 real estate agents pictured on the “Meet the Team” page at Homescout Realty, one of the firms on our rental service do-not-call list
.

We’ve singled out nine of the agents in the above photo, all of whom are described as being a “Broker.” In order for that description to be accurate, they’d have to be licensed as a broker in Illinois.

According to the IDFPR online License Lookup, none of the nine holds a broker’s license. One (Melanie Madsen) is apparently too new to appear in the database, and one (Catherine Yager) has an expired leasing student license.

The firm’s managing broker has to know that describing a licensed leasing agent or leasing agent student as a broker is a misrepresentation that most people would consider a lie.

What ought we to make of Wil Meister, Vanessa Griggs, Nicolette Tech, Kyle Licocci, Catherine Yager, Andrew Wright, Melanie Madsen, Clint Currie and Jordan Barkley?

Are these agents aware that their license status is being lied about? They ought to be, but my long experience with leasing agents leads me to believe that they’re too uneducated, too mentally lazy, or simply not bright enough to understand either their legal obligations or the clear meaning of English words.

As we approach the spring rental season, you can expect to see a new crop of rookies signing on at Chicago’s rental services.

If you’re looking to rent an apartment, do you want to trust any of these people?

You’ll find accurate information about properties in Chicago’s popular lakefront neighborhoods on YoChicago’s reviews and lists, and links to near real-time rent and availability info.

Added 2/24

Melanie Madsen is not, despite the claim, a member of the Chicago Association of Realtors.

Update 2/24, 1:15 pm

Homescout has revised its Meet the Team page, changing the inaccurate Broker description to Agent. Melanie Madsen is no longer misrepresented as a Realtor.

My opinion is that deception is deeply embedded in the firm’s DNA, so I’d caution renters to avoid anyone associated with Homescout.

Added 2/24 3:30 pm

As of a few minutes ago Homescout still hadn’t fully cleaned up its act.

WalkScore is a site that many apartment renters implicitly trust. That trust derives, in part, from the fact that many apartment properties link to the “Walk Score” for their address.

Only the most foolhardy, risk-tolerant of renters should click on any “Contact Property Manager” link on WalkScore or follow a WalkScore link that references the source of property information.

The reason: many Chicago apartment listings on WalkScore route you to an ad at Zumper or another site placed by an agent at a sleazy Chicago rental service.

The above screen caps illustrate a WalkScore ad placed via Zumper by Kyle Licocci of Homescout Realty. Licocci is one of the leasing agents we singled out yesterday as allowing their state broker licensing status to be misrepresented by Homescout Realty.

Clicking the Contact Property Manager link at WalkScore gets you a response from Liccoci rather than from the property manager.

The Zumper ad linked from WalkScore invites you to click an Instant Apply link.

If you follow through the Instant Apply process, it results in the advertiser getting your credit info.

We don’t know much about Kyle Licocci, but we do know that a number of the ads he’s placed at Zumper and in other venues are for properties that explicitly prohibit brokers from advertising. Placing an ad without written authorization is a violation of the Illinois Real Estate License Act. Applying to a Homescout / Licocci-advertised property via the Zumper Instant Apply process results in your personal information being given to a serial lawbreaker. Are you comfortable with that?

We’ve noted in prior posts that the State of Illinois grants real estate licenses to individuals with multiple felony convictions, even convictions involving identity theft. We’ve also called attention to a career criminal who worked at a rental service under a false identity. If you use WalkScore or Zumper, you may be contacting an individual with that kind of history. Are you comfortable with that?

Some of the property ads on WalkScore are legitimate. Savvy renters may avoid legitimate ads after having been exposed to fraudulent ones at WalkScore. Are landlords comfortable with that?

Many Chicago landlords make an effort to police and clean up rental service advertising. Other landlords authorize rental services to advertise their properties. Some landlords wink at illegality knowing that the rental services will badmouth their properties if they don’t cooperate with them.

With or without authorization, Chicago’s rental services have systematically trashed Craigslist, Trulia, Zilow, PadMapper and a host of other sites. Talk to experienced rental agents and they’ll often tell you that spamming, frustrating, deceiving and demoralizing renters is the only way to get them to use their “free service.”

With 1,000s of new apartments coming to market this year in downtown Chicago, you can expect to see new rental services popping up and you can count on the existing ones to expand the scale and scope of their already intolerably lawless behavior.

Chicago’s property owners and management firms are, I believe, unaware of the extent of the severity of the risks to which they’re exposing their prospective renters. Those risks are very real.

The only way to ensure that renters are treated decently, and protected from the predatory behavior of rental service brokers, is to prohibit all broker advertising of properties for which they haven’t been granted an exclusive listing. The brokers should advertise their service rather than advertise properties.

It’s time for property owners and management firms to take a deeper look at what the rental services are doing and crack down ruthlessly on their illegal and abusive advertising.

Finding an apartment in Chicago’s prime near-lakefront is easy if you avoid rental service brokers. You’ll be exposed to a broader selection of properties and you’ll often be able to negotiate a better deal on rent when you ditch the brokers and contact the properties directly.

You’ll find accurate information about properties in Chicago’s popular lakefront neighborhoods on YoChicago’s reviews and lists, and links to near real-time rent and availability info.

Chicago’s rental service sharks are gearing up to make your search for a new apartment as difficult as possible this rental season, in hopes that you’ll be frustrated or misled into contacting them.

The primary tactic in the apartment finders’ war on renters is flooding popular websites with many 1,000s of repetitive ads. Many of those ads are deliberately misleading – at best. Many are fraudulent, and very many are posted in violation of the Illinois Real Estate License Act that requires licensees to have explicit written permission to advertise a property.

The agents who place these ads are often rookies who are ignorant of their legal and ethical obligations. Many of them are experienced, cynical veterans who fully understand their legal and ethical obligations and deliberately ignore them. Some of them are managing brokers at rental service firms who routinely lie to their agents about whether the firm is authorized to advertise a property. All of them apparently assume that there are no serious consequences to their illegal and abusive behavior.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is grossly ineffective at policing advertising violations. The Chicago Association of Realtors numbers quite a few leasing agent scofflaws among its members, but has a lax approach to enforcing the advertising provisions of the Realtor Code of Ethics. Property management firms make an effort to police the rental services, but don’t have the time to cope with the sheer scale of their lawlessness. Some of the management firms have a co-dependent relationship with the rental services, and others fear a vicious backlash if they enforce their prohibitions against advertising.

YoChicago declares war on advertising abuses
This rental season we will periodically focus a powerful spotlight on individual rental service leasing agents – rookies, veterans and managing brokers alike. That spotlight is Google search, where our posts often surface on the first page of results.

Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts. The leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time.

With that background, the first entry on our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day” list is Daniel Khomutov of Vesta Preferred Realty, one of the firms on our rental service do-not-call list.

We have forwarded property ads placed by Khomutov to several property management firms, and have received email confirmation that he did not have the written authorization to place those ads that Illinois law requires.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. We strongly caution you to avoid them.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day, but we also encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

Added 2/25 at 2:40
This post was published at 12:45. Less than 90 minutes later a Google search for Daniel Khomutov Vesta ranked #1 in search results and a search for Daniel Khomutov ranked #2.

The Illinois Real Estate License Act requires licensees to have written authorization to advertise a property for sale or for rent.

Leasing agents at Chicago rental services routinely advertise properties without having the required authorization. They violate the law so extensively that Craigslist and other websites are cluttered with illegal ads. That clutter frustrates and confuses renters into using rental services.

A random scan of Craigslist surfaced an ad placed by Hannah Vanover of HotSpot Rentals for a property that the firm does not have written authorization to advertise. We quickly identified four additional properties that Vanover is advertising on Craigslist and at Zumper without authorization, and she’s our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day.”

Ms Vanover is a licensed leasing agent under the name of Hannah Wegmann. The IDFPR License Lookup database doesn’t reflect compliance with the requirement that IDFPR be notified of a name change.

Ms Vanover’s Trulia profile, pictured above, describes her as a “Buyer’s Agent.” Leasing agent licensees are not legally able to represent buyers in a real estate transaction.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. It’s also been our long experience that the principals of many Chicago rental services routinely lie to leasing agents about which properties they’re legally authorized to advertise. If you’re a leasing agent, you need to see the written authorization before you place an ad.

Leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time. Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day. We encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

The Illinois Real Estate License Act requires written authorization before a licensee can advertise a property for sale or for rent.

Leasing agents at Chicago rental services routinely advertise properties without having the required authorization. They violate the law so extensively that Craigslist and other websites are cluttered with illegal ads. That clutter frustrates and confuses renters into using rental services.

Terry F Kraus III, Scofflaw of the day
Yesterday’s random scan of Craigslist surfaced an ad placed by Terry F Kraus III of Fulton Grace Realty for a property that the firm does not have written authorization to advertise. We quickly identified additional properties advertised by Kraus without authorization, and he’s our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day.”

Several Kraus ads contained copyrighted images owned by YoChicago and used without permission.

Kraus was licensed as a leasing agent in mid-November of 2015. Based on his Facebook postings he worked continuously as a leasing agent beginning in mid-May of 2015. The IDFPR License Lookup surfaces no indication that he was registered as a Licensed Leasing Agent Student. In any event, he apparently worked beyond the 120 days that’s permitted under a student license.

Kraus’ Facebook profile and page, and his LinkedIn profile, hold him out as engaged in “Luxury Sales.” Leasing agent licensees are not legally able to represent buyers or sellers in real estate transactions.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. It’s also been our long experience that the principals of many Chicago rental services routinely lie to leasing agents about which properties they’re legally authorized to advertise. If you’re a leasing agent, you need to see the written authorization before you place an ad.

Leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time. Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day. We encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

Google name search for previous Scofflaw of the day awards

Daniel Khomutov, Vesta Preferred

Hannah Vanover, HotSpot Rentals

The Illinois Real Estate License Act makes it illegal for licensees to advertise a property for sale or for rent unless they have written authorization to do so.

Leasing agents at Chicago rental services routinely advertise properties without having the required authorization. They violate the law so extensively that Craigslist and other websites are cluttered with illegal ads. That clutter frustrates and confuses renters into using rental services.

Aysha Hackert, Scofflaw of the day
A quick scan of Craigslist yesterday surfaced an ad placed by Aysha Hackert of Downtown Apartment Company for a property that the firm does not have written authorization to advertise.

We then limited our scan to the 318 abusively repetitive ads placed by Ms Hackert, and verified that she had advertised several additional properties without having written authorization from the properties.

Aysha Hackert is our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day.”

We’re reasonably certain that additional Hackert ads were illegal, but didn’t take the time to verify that with the properties.

Ms Hackert was licensed as a leasing agent in mid-November of 2015. It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. It’s also been our long experience that the principals of many Chicago rental services routinely lie to leasing agents about which properties they’re legally authorized to advertise. If you’re a leasing agent, you need to see the written authorization before you place an ad.

Leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time. Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day. We encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

Google name search for previous Scofflaw of the day awards

Daniel Khomutov, Vesta Preferred

Hannah Vanover, HotSpot Rentals

Terry F Kraus III, Fulton Grace Realty

The Illinois Real Estate License Act bars licensees from advertising a property for sale or for rent unless they have written authorization to do so.

Leasing agents at Chicago rental services routinely advertise properties without having the required authorization. They violate the law so extensively that Craigslist and other websites are cluttered with illegal ads. That clutter frustrates and confuses renters into using rental services.

Renee Pehanich, Scofflaw of the day
Yesterday’s scan of Craigslist surfaced an ad placed by Renee Pehanich of Trudo Realty for a property that the firm does not have written authorization to advertise.

We scanned a few more of the 303 abusively repetitive ads placed by Ms Pehanich, and verified that she had advertised at least four additional properties without having written authorization from the properties. That qualifies her as our “Scofflaw leasing agent of the day.” But wait, as they say in the infomercials, there’s more.

Ms Pehanich was licensed as a leasing agent student from January 28 to May 28 of 2014. As of October 28, 2014 she was granted a leasing agent license. Her license is on a probationary basis due to “prior felony criminal convictions.” That’s convictions with an “s.”

There are several items worth noting in Ms Pehanich’s Linkedin profile, partially pictured above. The first is that her employment history indicates no time gap in her affiliation with Trudo Realty. If she functioned as a leasing agent during the gap in her licensing she would have committed multiple criminal violations of Illinois law.

The second item to note is that she self-identifies as an “awesome Realtor.” The MRED database contains no record of her as a Realtor. If she is not a member of the Chicago Association of Realtors, claiming to be a Realtor would be a trademark violation.

I placed a phone call to Ms Pehanich to inquire about the details of her felony convictions. She declined to answer, and stated “I do everything by the book. Have a good day.” She then terminated the call.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who engage in one form of illegal behavior are highly likely to engage in others. It’s also been our long experience that the principals of many Chicago rental services routinely lie to leasing agents about which properties they’re legally authorized to advertise. If you’re a leasing agent, you need to see the written authorization before you place an ad.

Leasing agents need to know that playing fast and loose with legal and ethical standards can alter the trajectory of their personal, professional and social life in a very negative direction for a very long time. Google search will ensure that the illegal and unethical conduct of a rental service scofflaw becomes known to his or her potential renters, friends, family and prospective future employers and business and social contacts.

As a renter, you need to know that the only safe way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

We’ll be on the lookout for our next scofflaw of the day. We encourage renters and property management firms to nominate individual leasing agents for that distinction.

Google name search for previous Scofflaw of the day awards

Daniel Khomutov, Vesta Preferred

Hannah Vanover, HotSpot Rentals

Terry F Kraus III, Fulton Grace Realty

Aysha Hackert, Downtown Apartment Company

Chicago rental service apartment ads on Zumper.com frequently include an Instant Apply button and a property address and description. A renter could reasonably conclude that following through on the Instant Apply process results in an application to the property for an apartment. Any renter that does so is making a costly mistake.

We sampled a single ZIP Code at Zumper and quickly identified ads from 10 brokers for properties that a) do not allow brokers to advertise on their behalf and b) do not allow brokers to accept applications for apartments. In each case, we have no doubt that the brokers have full knowledge that renters need to apply directly to the properties rather than via an Instant Apply link at Zumper.

If a renter follows through on the Instant Apply process, the renter is charged a fee and Zumper shares that fee with the broker.

In other words, scofflaw brokers are advertising properties in violation of the Illinois Real Estate License Act and attempting to charge renters for something of no value to the renters . In my book, that’s fraud.

Each of the following terrible ten rental service agents has multiple ads at Zumper with the Instant Apply feature:

Fulton Grace Realty – Brad Magnant. Aaron Nowak

Homescout – Catherine Yager

HotSpot Rentals – Stephanie Caine, Casey Miller, Randy Pahr, Barbara Piasecka

Vesta Preferred Realty – Lore Mmutle. Dino Sarancic, Scott Tran

We’ve singled out Barbara Piasecka in the above screen cap for special attention because she holds a Real Estate Managing Broker license in Illinois. That makes her conduct particularly perverse.

To repeat, we sampled a single ZIP Code. You’ll find many more agents advertising illegally and attempting to rip you off at Zumper.

Finding an apartment in Chicago’s prime near-lakefront is easy if you avoid rental service brokers. You’ll be exposed to a broader selection of properties and you’ll often be able to negotiate a better deal on rent when you ditch the brokers and contact the properties directly.

You’ll find accurate information about properties in Chicago’s popular lakefront neighborhoods on YoChicago’s reviews and lists, and links to near real-time rent and availability info.

Earlier today I noticed copyrighted photos I’d shot in ads placed by leasing agents at Exit Strategy Realty, and ads on a website affiliated with the firm. The photos were pirated in violation of our copyrights. In a number of instances, the photos included an EXIT logo / watermark, typically a claim of ownership of the photos.

I’ve notified Nick Libert, the firm’s managing broker, that pirated copyrighted photos of mine were being used on a website affiliated with his firm, but haven’t received a response at this time.

I also noticed that quite a few apartment ads placed by Exit Strategy Realty were for properties which have not given the firm the written authorization to advertise required by state law.

Exit Strategy Realty agents running illegal ads for properties include: Hina Annala, Alexia Kouklowsky, Chelsea March, Cesar Sandoval and Deggi Tsengeldorj.

I reached out by phone to two rookie agents who were using pirated photos in ads for properties they did not have authority to advertise. They promptly agreed to remove the ads. Both seemed like decent kids getting a start in a business about which they are terribly naïve and ignorant. I’ve given them the benefit of the doubt and not named them in this post.

Nick Libert’s Exit Strategy Realty agents have engaged in illegal advertising on a wholesale basis for quite some time. In my view, he’s not merely failing to supervise his agents but is actively facilitating their illegal conduct. Jerome Bressler a/k/a Jerome Bressert, who I’ve named Chicago’s sleaziest rental agent, remains on the roster at Libert’s firm.

From everything I’ve seen, Exit Strategy Realty and Nick Libert are scofflaws. It’s been my long experience that brokers who violate one law are highly likely to violate more, and pose a risk to renters.

As a renter, you need to know that the only safe way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Update 3/10/16: Exit Strategy Realty terminates scofflaw leasing agent

The ad pictured above repeatedly invites renters to contact property manager Cesar Sandoval to schedule a showing at 1116 N Dearborn. A renter could easily be defrauded into doing just that.

The property pictured in the ad is 1111 North Dearborn. 1116 N Dearborn is a fictitious address. Cesar Sandoval is not the property manager at 1111. To make matters worse, he’s violating the Illinois Real Estate License Act by running the ad without written authority from the actual property manager.

Sandoval is a newly-minted leasing agent license student affiliated with Nick Libert Properties Inc d/b/a Exit Strategy Realty.

The ad for “1116” N Dearborn is just one of many deceptive Exit Strategy Realty ads syndicated to Zillow and other websites via Reallyo.com. Reallyo is one of a number of syndication sites that help make Chicago renters’ apartment search a miserable experience – and help dupe renters into contacting rental service agents.

We wrote yesterday about some of the other scofflaws at Exit Strategy Realty. We sent a link to that post to Nick Libert, the firm’s managing broker, and we’ll send him a link to this one. We don’t expect Libert to take effective action to bring his firm into compliance with applicable laws.

What’s Zillow’s stake in this? Ads generate traffic, and traffic enables Zillow to sell more agents into its Premier Agent program.

Is Zillow aware that it’s fraudulently describing rental service agents as property managers? It’s inconceivable that it’s not. A while back, before Zillow acquired Trulia, I had extensive correspondence with the individual responsible for overseeing Trulia’s rental program, and I know that individual was working diligently to clean up exactly this type of misrepresentation, and had done so in several east coast markets. That person is no longer affiliated with Trulia / Zillow.

It’s been my long experience that brokers who violate one law are highly likely to violate more, and pose a risk to renters.

As a renter, you need to know that the only safe way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Note: To any reader who might suspect that we’re competing with Zillow / Trulia for rental service advertising. We consider Chicago’s rental services to be irredeemably sleazy and don’t allow them to advertise on this site.

Update 3/7/16, 4:40 pm: Cesar Sandoval’s ads have been removed from Reallyo:

This is typical of the kind of grudging, narrowly-focused response that you can expect from rental service scofflaws. Hundreds of other Exit Strategy Realty ads remain live at Reallyo, and on the sites to which they’ve been syndicated. That includes ads from agents mentioned in yesterday’s post as running illegal ads. We had sent Nick Libert a link to that post to ensure he was aware of the issue.

Added 3/8/16, 10 am: I received a phone call this morning from a Zillow representative who informed me Zillow considers the headline to this post deeply misleading. I was also informed that Zillow’s fraud team is actively engaged in policing abuses.

Zillow has blocked all ads originating from Reallyo.

Update 3/10/16: Exit Strategy Realty terminates scofflaw leasing agent

We’ve characterized Exit Strategy Realty as a scofflaw rental service in a post yesterday, and one the day before.

Exit Strategy Realty trains its new agents to lie in apartment ads. There’s no other way to describe what you’ll see and hear in the above YouTube video, one of a series created by Exit’s Jerome Bressler a/k/a Jerome Bresssert. We’ve previously referred to Bressler as Chicago’s sleaziest rental agent.

As you watch the video, continue to ask yourself what kind of a firm allows Jerome Bressler to train its new agents. As I watched this and other Bressler videos, I couldn’t help thinking that only a clownishly inept firm would allow the videos to be available to the public.

By way of background, Bressler is instructing new agents in the use of Zillow Rental Manager, formerly known as Postlets, a site that facilitates trashing multiple websites with repetitive ads. The reference to “Total Access” is to a system that Bressler has created to make it easier for agents to trash popular apartment rental websites with repetitive ads.

The video may be taken offline by the time you read this, so what follows is a partial transcript from approximately 0:35 to 3:25.

You want to make sure that everything’s checked here. These are all the syndications that the site’s going to syndicate to. Once you do one ad you’re going to be on all these different other sites.

“Email preferences.” Check that.

“Remind me to post to Craigslist.” We’ll go over that. So now hit “New Postlets,” and what I do is on Total Access I go down the list here.

I start here with One East Delaware. I did studio which I already have done, so I’m going to do a junior one-bedroom, and now the current price is $1,650.

So I’m going to type in “1 East Delaware” and then the address, Chicago, and it should start to come up. There it is. You just click on it and it will automatically put it in and it puts a little checkmark to the right.

Now, for unit number, every building has approximately, you know, between 20 you know 35 floors. Try to pick something in between. We’re not advertising the exact unit. Advertising the idea of a unit being available, so let’s put in like 2105. There’s typically 10 units per floor, so anything between 1 and 10 per floor would work.

Uh, this is for rent, so check for rent, hit “save and continue”

The next page is going to come up with a rent price, so I go back to Total Access and I usually have this printed off here. It says $1,650 so I’m going to go ahead and put in a little bit less. Right now we’re going into the winter months and so I’m going to put in $1,595 or 98. Just something a little bit less because they are changing prices every day in Chicago and you know in the winter months they get lower, so we move on.

Now, the available date you can put in, um if you do put in available date try to go out like a month from now. Um, so I’ll just put in the end of next month.

Rental terms. There’s nothing else to put in there. The property type is an apartment. Bedrooms is they don’t have anything for junior 1-bedroom, so I just put in 1-bedroom, 1-bath.

Square footage. We can go over this. The studios are right around between, you know, 500 to 550. Junior 1-bedrooms are 650 to 750. One-bedrooms are either 700 to 900, and 2-bedrooms are anywhere from 1,000 to 1,350 square feet.

So I’m gonna put in 700 square feet, which is actually at One East Delaware.

We have preserved an audio recording of the transcript portion of the video.

There’s more, in this video and others, but you get the picture. Exit Strategy Realty’s Bressler trains new agents to lie, and not pay strict attention to facts. New agents may not understand that rents can fluctuate both up and down in Chicago’s winter, especially when a low-priced unit is rented and only much higher-priced ones remain available. Renters who need an apartment on short notice may be cheated out of a good deal when a currently available apartment is advertised as available a month out.

As a renter, you need to know that the only safe way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find accurate info about apartments in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Update 3/10/16: Exit Strategy Realty terminates scofflaw leasing agent

Jerome Bressler, who we’ve previously identified as Chicago’s sleaziest rental agent under his current name and Jerome Bressert, his former name, has been terminated by Exit Strategy Realty.

Kudos to Nick Libert, the firm’s managing partner, for terminating Bressler, and for taking action to clean up the sprawling web of illegal and deceptive ads that Bressler spawned.

According to an email I received from Mr Libert this morning, grounds for termination included a) unauthorized distribution of copyrighted photos; b) failure to disclose arrests and criminal convictions to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation; c) “partial closure and near total elimination of our Zillow feed due to false ads being placed;” and d) Bressler’s training video instructing agents how to place false ads.

Bressler / Bressert has a history of convictions in DuPage County and in Arizona. His most recent convictions, late last year in Lake County, illustrated immediately above, were for reckless conduct and driving under the influence. As a result of those convictions he was sentenced to jail terms but placed under 12 months of court supervision (akin to probation). Conditions of his supervision included no driving and no alcohol.

Bressler was arrested on February 23 for reckless driving. The screen cap at the top of this post indicates that he was in custody in the Lake County jail as of this morning.

Bressler’s criminal history, and his failure to report it in full to IDFPR, will hopefully result in the loss of his real estate license, and Chicago properties and renters will no longer be placed at risk by him.

Bressler is not the only convicted criminal who’s worked as a leasing agent at Chicago rental services. One rental service even allowed a career criminal to work for months under a false identity, terminating him only after being informed of his background by YoChicago. As a renter, you need to carefully research any rental service / apartment locator / apartment finder before agreeing to meet with them. Be aware that many positive reviews at Yelp and on Google+ are fraudulent.

The only safe way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Under most circumstances a son can’t be held responsible for his mom’s behavior.

He can be, however, if he’s the sponsoring or managing broker at a Chicago rental service where his mom’s an agent and he fails to rein in his mom’s scofflaw behavior after having knowledge of it.

The son we’re talking about is Chicagoland Property Group’s (“CPG”) Collin Walker. His mom, Joi Walker, is a licensed leasing agent that he apparently recruited into the firm along with his brother Kellen. We’ve come to think of the trio as the spam-family Walker and have written about them several times in the past few years. We’ve previously identified CPG as Craiglist’s worst Chicago apartment ad spammer.

As of yesterday evening, Joi Walker had 654 repetitive ads at Craigslist. Sampling a small number of them surfaced ads for half a dozen properties that have not given CPG the written authorization to advertise that the Illinois Real Estate License Act (“Act”) requires. A number of the ads we checked were unavailable at the time or for the amount of rent specified in the ad. One ad quoted a 1-bedroom as available for over $600 less than the lowest-priced 1-bedroom listed on the property’s near real-time website.

We have no doubt that Collin Walker is well aware of his mom’s violations of the Act. We have no doubt that Joi Walker is aware that she’s violating the Act, since we called both her and her husband some time back to advise them that she was advertising properties without authority.

We’ve saved screen caps of the illegal ads we sampled yesterday. We will send a link to this post to Collin Walker later today. We will document additional violations periodically as they occur.

If Collin Walker doesn’t either make his mom cease and desist, or fire her, we’ll consider that an abdication of the duty to supervise that the Act imposes on managing brokers, and we’ll file a heavily-documented complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Division of Real Estate. The documentation will hopefully be sufficient to result in the revocation of Collin Walker’s license.

Cleaning up after his mom won’t be enough to protect Collin’s license. We’ll be monitoring Kellen Walker’s behavior also, and that of other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own behavior. We didn’t go beyond looking at Joi’s ads yesterday, but we’ve long noted ads from Collin, Kellen and other CPG agents for properties that don’t allow advertising.

You might be wondering why a firm that’s been in business for years, as CPG has, engages in wholesale spamming at Craigslist. Our educated guess is that the firm would quickly die or see its business shrink radically if it operated within the law and Craigslist’s terms of use. It’s a fair assumption that Collin Walker believes that’s the case.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms and will be making their managing brokers aware of them and monitoring their subsequent behavior.

Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Update 3/11: All Craigslist ads with the name Joi Walker in them have been deleted.

Early yesterday morning we published a post about the scofflaw behavior of Joi Walker, a licensed leasing agent affiliated with Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”). Joi Walker is the mother of Collin Walker, the firm’s managing broker. We questioned whether Collin Walker would continue failing to supervise his mom’s behavior, thereby putting his license at risk. We emailed a link to our post to Collin Walker and to Joi Walker.

Our post noted that Joi Walker had 654 Craigslist ads online, many of them for properties which CPG did not have the legally required authorization to advertise. By the end of the day yesterday there were no Craigslist apartment ads containing the name Joi Walker.

Did Joi Walker, a regular church-goer and resident of a small town 50 miles southwest of downtown, suddenly develop a conscience after two years of spamming Craigslist with illegal ads? Did her husband James, a licensed leasing agent with CPG and patriarch of what we’ve called the spam-family Walker intervene? Has Collin Walker begun to take his responsibilities as a managing broker more seriously? We don’t know the answer to the first two questions, but there’s evidence that the answer to the third is “not likely.”

Our post yesterday noted that we would monitor the online behavior of Kellen Walker, Collin’s brother, who is also a licensed leasing agent with CPG. As of this morning Kellen had 564 repetitive apartment ads on Craigslist. At least 190 of those ads were for properties which CPG did not have the written permission to advertise that the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”) requires. Many of the ads were for the same properties his mom had advertised.

If Collin Walker doesn’t either make his brother cease and desist, or fire him, we’ll consider that an abdication of the duty to supervise that the Act imposes on managing brokers, and we’ll file a heavily-documented complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Division of Real Estate. The documentation will hopefully be sufficient to result in the revocation of Collin Walker’s license.

We’ve previously called out Chicagoland Property Group as Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. As of this morning CPG had just over 7,000 apartment ads at Craigslist. Cleaning up after his mother and brother won’t be enough to protect Collin’s license. We’ll be monitoring the sea of Craigslist spam ads generated by other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own behavior. We’ll email links to this post to both Collin and Kellen Walker.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms and will be making their managing brokers aware of them and monitoring their subsequent behavior.

Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Update 3/12/16 3:30 pm: Between the time this post went live and now, 55 of Kellen’s 56 unauthorized Craigslist ads for one property have been deleted. That property had recently requested CPG to remove Kellen’s ads. Craigslist ads for the property from three other CPG agents remain active.

We’ve previously published posts about the scofflaw behavior of Joi Walker and Kellen Walker, licensed leasing agents affiliated with Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”). Joi Walker is the mother of and Kellen Walker is the brother of Collin Walker, CPG’s managing broker. Our posts questioned whether Collin Walker would continue failing to supervise his mother’s and brother’s scofflaw behavior, thereby putting his real estate license at risk.

Our posts noted that Joi Walker had 654 Craigslist ads online, and Kellen Walker had 564 Craigslist ads online. Many of their ads were for properties which CPG did not have the legally required authorization to advertise.

All of the Craigslist apartment ads containing the name Joi Walker have been removed, and 55 of the 56 ads Kellen had posted for a single property have been removed. As of this morning, Kellen Walker still has 508 ads active at Craigslist.

We can only speculate about the reasons for the deletion of the Craigslist ads by two of the members of what we’ve called the spam-family Walker. Is the deletion of the ads a sign that Collin Walker has begun to take his responsibilities as a managing broker more seriously? There’s evidence that the answer to that question is “not likely.” Part of the evidence lies in our discovery of a new member of the spam-family Walker: Collin’s sister, Cassi (Walker) Norman, is also affiliated with CPG.

As of this morning Cassi Norman had 289 apartment ads active at Craigslist. Dozens of those ads were for properties which CPG had not been given the written authorization to advertise that the Illinois Real Estate License Act requires. The ads we’ve documented were for the same properties that her mother and brother had advertised without authorization.

Cassi Norman held a leasing agent student license which expired on December 17 of last year (screen cap at top of post). She self-identifies in her Craigslist ads as a “Broker” or “Real Estate Broker,” but the IDFPR License Lookup database doesn’t reflect that she’s been issued a broker license. There’s a lag between the time a license becomes effective and the time it surfaces in the database, so perhaps Cassi Norman does have a broker license. Holding yourself out as a broker when you don’t have a license is a Class A misdemeanor under Illinois law. We will check the IDFPR database periodically and provide an update if a broker license is issued. We will also cross-check the effective date of that license against the dates of the ads that Ms Norman has been running for the past 30 days.

If Collin Walker doesn’t either make his sister cease and desist, or fire her, we’ll consider that an abdication of the duty to supervise that the Act imposes on managing brokers, and we’ll file a heavily-documented complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Division of Real Estate. The documentation will hopefully be sufficient to result in the revocation of Collin Walker’s license.

We’ve previously called out Chicagoland Property Group as Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. Cleaning up after his mother, brother and sister won’t be enough to protect Collin’s license. We’ll be monitoring the sea of Craigslist spam ads generated by other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own behavior. We’ll email links to this post to both Collin Walker and Cassi (Walker) Norman.

Several days ago Collin Walker took steps to make his online presence at Craigslist more opaque. All of the ads which contained his name in the body of the ad were removed from Craigslist. As of this morning he has 112 Craigslist ads active. His name appears only when one clicks the Reply button at the top of a Craigslist ad.

James Walker, Joi’s husband and the father of Collin, Kellen and Cassi, holds a leasing agent license sponsored by CPG, and Timothy Norman, Cassi’s husband, holds a broker license sponsored by CPG. We haven’t encountered recent ads placed by either of them.

From what we’ve been able to learn, our educated guess is that Joi Walker, Kellen Walker and `Cassi (Walker) Norman don’t meet the renters they solicit online but toil remotely in a spam-family lead-generating spam factory. Apart from their behavior on Craigslist, their skimpy online presence reflects decent, church-going residents of Channahon, a small town 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.

CPG agents have a history of pirating copyrighted photos from YoChicago. We chanced upon another of the pirates yesterday and sent Erik Carlson and Collin Walker an email demand to remove our images. Within a matter of hours, links to the offending site surfaced only a “Site Under Construction” screen.

We’ve been involved in the real estate business in various roles for a long time and have seen a lot of abuses. We’re stunned by the scale on which CPG agents scoff at their ethical and legal obligations in the roughly 7,000 Craigslist ads that CPG currently has online. We wonder how people who participate in such an enterprise live with themselves, and we especially wonder what the members of the spam-family Walker say to each other at family gatherings.

Type the following in your Craigslist search, and you’ll be spared having to see CPG ads: – “Chicagoland Property Group”

Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid the risk of falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms and will be making their managing brokers aware of them, and monitoring their subsequent behavior.

With 1,134 ads, Jon Zolecki is the top dog of individual apartment ad spammers at Craigslist. He’s a standout at Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”), which we’ve referred to as Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. CPG currently has about 7,000 apartment ads at Craigslist.

Zolecki’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as CPG’s Leasing Manager. He blends in seamlessly with other scofflaws at CPG when it comes to advertising apartments without having the written authorization that the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”) requires. We’ve documented 133 Zolecki ads for five properties which CPG is not authorized to advertise. We scanned more illegal ads, but didn’t take the time to save screen caps.

Zolecki stands out, even at CPG, as a bait-and-switch addict. Zolecki ads for each of the five properties materially understated the price of available units – $400 below the lowest-priced one-bedroom, for example. Three of the 5 properties had no availability for one of the unit types Zolecki advertised.

Enough about Zolecki, even though we could go on at great length about how misleading his ads are.

Collin Walker, CPG’s managing broker, has an obligation under the Act to supervise Zolecki’s advertising. As far as the Act is concerned, we’re confident he’s failing to fulfill that obligation. As far as Walker is concerned, it’s our opinion that Zolecki is doing exactly what’s required of agents at CPG: polluting Craigslist in an effort to confuse and frustrate renters into contacting a CPG scofflaw.

We’ve written in the past few days about Collin Walker’s failure to supervise advertising by members of his spam-family: Joi Walker, his mother, Kellen Walker, his brother, and Cassi (Walker) Norman, his sister.

Cleaning up after his mother, brother, sister and Jon Zolecki’s won’t be enough to protect Collin Walker’s managing broker license. We’ll be monitoring the sea of Craigslist spam ads generated by other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own online behavior. We’ll email links to this post to both Collin Walker and Jon Zolecki.

Is there something in the water in Channahon? Zolecki is from the same small town, 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, where the spam-family Walker is based.

Type the following in your Craigslist search, and you’ll be spared having to see CPG ads: – “Chicagoland Property Group”

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who scoff at any legal or ethical obligation are likely to scoff at all. Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid the risk of falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms, and will be making their managing brokers aware of them, and monitoring their subsequent behavior.

Update 3/14 9:15 am: Just received email confirmation from a sixth property for which Zolecki ran 40 unauthorized ads at Craigslist.

Chicagoland Property Group’s (“CPG”) Stephen Seitz had 706 repetitive apartment ads at Craigslist yesterday, a third-place tally at the firm we’ve called Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. CPG currently has about 7,000 apartment ads at Craigslist. Type the following in your Craigslist search, and you’ll be spared having to see CPG ads: – “Chicagoland Property Group”

Seitz’ third-place rank among the prolific spammers at CPG is impressive, given his rookie status. His leasing agent license sponsorship by CPG is less than a month old. He operated under a 120-day student license beginning last September.

Seitz has quickly settled into CPG’s practice of advertising properties without the written authorization that the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”) requires. It didn’t take long for us to identify 99 Craigslist ads for five properties which have not given CPG permission to advertise.

For a novice, Seitz has become adept at the bait-and-switch advertising practiced by CPG leasing manager Jon Zolecki. Seitz ads for the five properties we documented either materially understated rents for available units or advertised unit types that were not available. Do Zolecki’s eyes sparkle when he sees a newbie so diligently following his example?

Collin Walker, the firm’s managing broker, has a responsibility under the Act to supervise the firm’s advertising practices, and risks suspension of revocation of his license for failing to do so if he has knowledge. There can be no doubt that he does, since CPG’s bait-and-switch illegal advertising has been extensive for years, and we’ve repeatedly written about it.

We’ve also sent emails to Collin Walker, with links to our posts about his scofflaw mother Joi Walker, his scofflaw brother Kellen Walker, his scofflaw sister Cassi (Walker) Norman, and his scofflaw leasing manager, Jon Zolecki. Joi Walker deleted all 684 of her Craigslist ads after our post, and Kellen Walker deleted 55 of his.

Cleaning up after his mother, brother, sister, Zolecki and Seitz won’t be enough to protect Collin Walker’s managing broker license. We’ll be monitoring the sea of Craigslist spam ads generated by other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own online behavior. We’ll email links to this post to both Collin Walker and Stephen Seitz.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who scoff at any legal or ethical obligation are likely to scoff at all. Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid the risk of falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms, and will be making their managing brokers aware of them, and monitoring their subsequent behavior.

Michael Hawks is the second most prolific ad spammer at Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”), a firm that we’ve called Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. Hawks accounts for just over 10% of CPG’s insanely repetitive apartment ads at Craigslist. Type the following in your Craigslist search, and you’ll be spared having to see CPG ads: – “Chicagoland Property Group”

A quick scan of Hawks’ ads at Craigslist surfaced nearly 50 for 5 properties from which CPG does not have the written authorization required by the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”). We documented those ads with screen caps. We saw more illegal ads from Hawks in the course of our scan that we didn’t take the time to document.

Hawks engages in the same bait-and-switch underpricing that we’ve seen in ads from other CPG agents, advertises apartments that are unavailable, misstates property features, and posts pictures from one property in ads for another.

The Act imposes an obligation on Collin Walker, CPG’s managing broker, to supervise advertising by his agents. From everything I can see, Walker appears to be supervising his agents to flaunt the Act’s requirements for truthful advertising authorized in writing by the advertised properties.

In previous posts we’ve written about Walker’s scofflaw mother Joi Walker, his scofflaw brother Kellen Walker, his scofflaw sister Cassi (Walker) Norman, his scofflaw leasing manager, Jon Zolecki and scofflaw agent Stephen Seitz. Joi Walker deleted all 684 of her Craigslist ads after our post, and Kellen Walker deleted 55 of his.

Cleaning up after his mother, brother, sister, Zolecki, Seitz and Hawks won’t be enough to protect Collin Walker’s managing broker license. We’ll be monitoring the sea of Craigslist spam ads generated by other agents at CPG. And, of course, Collin’s own online behavior. We’ll email links to this post to both Collin Walker and Michael Hawks.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who scoff at any legal or ethical obligation are likely to scoff at all. Renters need to be aware that the only sure way to avoid the risk of falling victim to a scofflaw rental service leasing agent is to avoid all Chicago rental services and work directly with properties. YoChicago’s apartment reviews and lists make it easy for you to find an apartment in sought-after lakefront neighborhoods.

Managing brokers at Chicago rental services need to be aware that we won’t be focusing all of our attention on Collin Walker / CPG. We’re documenting the abuses of agents in other firms, and will be making their managing brokers aware of them, and monitoring their subsequent behavior.