Tips – YoChicago

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Her name is Erin Harper, but we’ll call her “Erring Erin Harper,” because erring seems to be her core competency.

Erring Erin is affiliated with Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”), a firm we’ve called Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer. Erin Harper accounts for just over 10% of CPG’s abusively 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”

How does Erin err? Erring Erin errs in not complying with the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”) requirement that she have written authorization before advertising a property for rent. Erring Erin errs by pirating copyrighted photos from the properties she’s not authorized to advertise. Erring Erin errs by advertising as “available now” apartment types that aren’t currently available. Worst of all, from a renter’s standpoint, Erring Erin errs by quoting rents as much as $500 below actual rents, and she does it in quite a few ads. We’ve saved screen caps documenting a total of 66 unauthorized ads for four different properties. We encountered more in the course of scanning Erring Erin’s ads.

In our opinion, Jon Zolecki, CPG’s leasing manager, is a firm believer in the bait-and-switch school of advertising, and he appears to have found an apt pupil in Erring Erin Harper.

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 scoff at the Act’s requirements for truthful advertising that’s 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 agents Stephen Seitz and Michael Hawks. Joi Walker deleted all 684 of her Craigslist ads after our post. Kellen Walker deleted 55 of his but has since added more. Cassi (Walker) Norman has not posted ads since the date of our post and only 5 of her ads remain on Craigslist.

Cleaning up after his mother, brother, sister, Zolecki, Seitz, Hawks and Harper 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 Erin Harper, with an invitation to respond in a comment.

It’s been our long experience that leasing agents who scoff at any legal or ethical obligation are likely to scoff at all of them.

Scofflaw agents need to be aware that a Google search on their name by their mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, prospective social contact or employer, is likely to surface our post about them high on the first page of search results. If “Scofflaw” is personal branding that you cherish (and we know that some of you do), we’ll help your branding efforts.

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.

For years now, Chicago property managers have taken a lax approach to the well-known, rampantly illegal behavior of Chicago rental services. They’ve spoken softly and occasionally wagged their fingers at scofflaw companies that advertise illegally, employ unlicensed agents and convicted felons, play bait and switch with renters, lie to renters, destroy the utility of websites that renters frequent, create fraudulent Yelp and Google+ reviews – and a great deal more.

The local property management industry has tolerated such extensive disorder and contempt for legal and ethical standards that Chicago’s rental services a/k/a apartment finders a/k/a locators, have recently begun to ratchet up their abusive behavior to new levels. The risks are apparently perceived as minimal, and the reward is a pot filled with millions of dollars of commissions, a pot that’s substantially enlarged this year by a flurry of new high-rises coming to market.

Renters at risk of identity theft
Chicago’s rental services are spamming two relatively new websites, Zumper and RadPad, with 1,000s of ads, many of which are designed to deceive renters into believing they can apply online and submit their credit report to the properties that are being advertised.

No serious management company that I’m aware of in this city allows rental services to accept applications on their behalf. Renters who click an Instant Apply button at Zumper or an Apply Instantly button at OnRadPad.com are being played for suckers. To make matters worse, they may be being played by an identity thief. Many ads on these sites name individuals who don’t hold real estate licenses in Illinois, and don’t have identifiable phone numbers or places of business. A Google search on these names returns no results – the people are fictitious and may very well be identity thieves.

What can be done?
Renters should totally avoid Zumper and OnRadPad. Renters in Chicago’s prime lakefront neighborhoods can easily connect directly with properties, and should avoid rental services. The risk of dealing with Chicago rental services is high and the benefits are negligible – at best.

Chicago’s property managers need to get serious about ensuring that their prospective residents are treated fairly and dealt with honestly at every step of the rental process. They need to start shouting at rental services, and swinging hammers. No other reputable industry allows its independent sales force to abuse its customers. Management companies would fire an employee in an instant for behavior that they routinely wink at from the rental services they cooperate with.

Management companies need to set some bright line rules, and enforce them ruthlessly. Rental services that advertise at Zumper or RadPad, or on sites that syndicate ads to Zumper or RadPad, should be terminated. Rental services that advertise anyone’s property illegally or engage in bait-and-switch tactics should be terminated. Rental services that pollute Craigslist and other sites with abusively repetitive ads should be terminated.

We’re in a “broken windows” scenario where what’s been perceived as merely pervasive low-level offenses is about to erupt into widespread harm to renters.

Will we see business as usual this rental season, or will Chicago’s management companies step up and begin to show their renters more respect?

Note: The issue of how and why management companies deal with rental services is more nuanced and complex than the manner in which I’ve presented it here. I’ve treated it simplistically because I see a bad situation for renters and for management companies rapidly becoming far worse.

Six members of a single family hold real estate licenses affiliated with Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”), a firm we’ve singled out as Craiglist’s worst apartment ad spammer based on its 1,000s of abusively repetitive ads at Craigslist. We’ve repeatedly referred to the family as the spam-family Walker, but now consider it more appropriate to call them the “scofflaw-family Walker.”

The outliers
The family has two outliers. Patriarch James Walker posted a single ad at Craigslist two years ago and hasn’t, to our knowledge, advertised since. We haven’t seen any ads from son-in-law Timothy Norman.

Ma Walker
Joi Walker is the mother of Collin and Kellen Walker and their sister Cassi (Walker) Norman. We first wrote about Joi’s scofflaw ads two years ago. Joi had 654 Craigslist ads online on March 11. All of those ads were removed the same day, following our post. A number of those ads were for properties that had not given CPG the written authorization to advertise required by the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”).

Joi Walker resumed posting Craigslist ads on March 17 and has 45 ads online as of this morning.

Kellen Walker
Collin Walker’s brother Kellen had 564 Craigslist ads online on March 12, many of them in violation of the Act’s requirement for written authorization. Fifty-five illegal Walker ads were removed following our post and he paused for several days before resuming posting. As of this morning, Kellen has 436 ads at Craigslist, some of which are illegal.

Cassi (Walker) Norman
Collin Walker’s sister Cassi Norman had 289 ads at Craigslist on March 13, some of which had originally been placed nearly a month earlier. At least 31 of those ads lacked the written authority to advertise that the Act requires. All 289 ads cycled off Craigslist over a matter of days, and there are currently no apartment ads containing the name Cassi Norman at Craigslist.

Our post noted that the IDFPR License Lookup database did not show Cassi Norman holding an active real estate license as of March 13. Her leasing agent student license had expired on December 17 of last year. Per the above screen cap, Cassi Norman was issued a broker license on March 18.

Engaging in activity which requires a real license without having one, or holding oneself out as being licensed without having a license, is a Class A misdemeanor under the Act. If the dates in the IDFPR database are accurate, Cassi Norman appears to have committed criminal violations.

Collin Walker
Collin Walker is CPG’s sponsoring broker and managing broker. One of the duties the Act imposes on a managing broker is to supervise the firm’s advertising. Can there be any doubt, based on our reporting, that Collin Walker has risked suspension or revocation of his managing broker license by failing to supervise advertising by his mother, brother and sister? If any doubt remains, consider the scofflaw ads placed by sponsored licensees Jon Zolecki, Stephen Seitz, Michael Hawks and Erin Harper.

We’ll be writing about more scofflaw CPG leasing agents in coming days, and continuing to monitor and document the online behavior of the scofflaw-family Walker and other CPG leasing agents. At some point we’ll present our documentation to IDFPR and ask for a determination of whether Collin Walker’s license should be suspended or revoked.

Advice for renters
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.

Rental service agents and brokers
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. One firm fired its top-producing agent following a series of YoChicago posts. Many, many more need to be fired.

Note: Consult our more up-to-date 2017 list.

The City of Chicago publishes a list of problem landlords, and updates it twice a year. The list has no properties in the prime near-lakefront neighborhoods where YoChicago concentrates its coverage.

A list of bad landlords isn’t very helpful to renters, who are typically far more interested in finding a good one than in avoiding a bad one.

We know some bad landlords. We don’t allow them to advertise at YoChicago, and we don’t include their properties in our reviews and at-a-glance apartment lists.

We also know some very good landlords – some of the city’s best. The properties they manage range from vintage walk-ups to the newest luxury high-rises. We know them because they’re current or former YoChicago advertisers. We’ve been in their buildings, met their staff and informally debriefed residents about their experience living in the buildings. We’d recommend them to prospective renters without hesitation, and would rent “site-unseen” with confidence at their properties.

Atlantic Realty Partners has developed over 3,000 apartments, including The Parker in the West Loop and 1717 in Evanston

Aviation Lofts is a recently-renovated loft apartment building in the South Loop.

BJB Properties and its affiliates own and manage about 40 buildings in the Gold Coast, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park, Streeterville and West Loop.

Bozzuto is a national developer and property manager. Bozzuto’s Chicago offerings include OneEleven in the Loop, Atwater in Streeterville, Parc Huron in River North, and Lofts at Roosevelt Collection in the South Loop.

The John Buck Company is a Chicago-based national development firm that has acquired, developed or redeveloped more than 41 million square feet of property. Its most recent addition to Chicago’s skyline, MILA, is a 41-story, 402-unit Loop apartment tower on Michigan Avenue that welcomed its first residents in May of 2016.

Crescent Heights is a national developer of condos, apartments, offices and hotels. The company’s Chicago offerings include Astoria Tower (South Loop), Burnham Pointe (South Loop), Echelon (Fulton River District), Park Michigan (South Loop), The LEX (South Loop) and North Harbor Tower (Loop).

DK Living is an affiliate of Draper and Kramer, a Chicago-based firm founded in the 1890s. DK Living’s Chicago management portfolio includes Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores (South side), pictured above.

Golub & Co is a Chicago-based international builder. Golub manages Chestnut Place and One East Delaware (Gold Coast / River North), Marquee (Loop), Moment and Sienna in Streeterville, 1001 South State (South Loop) and a portfolio of fully-renovated neighborhood properties.

Greystar manages more than 1,500 apartment communities throughout the United States. Greystar’s Chicago buildings include 1225 Old Town, K2 and Kenect (Fulton River District), One Superior Place (River North) and The Seneca and 420 East Ohio in Streeterville.

Group Fox owns and manages dozens of renovated apartment buildings in prime locations, including The Lofts at River East, the only loft rental building in Streeterville, and Axis in Streeterville.

The Habitat Company has been building great buildings, many of which have been converted to condos, for more than 40 years. Properties currently managed by Habitat include Kingsbury Plaza and Hubbard Place in River North, the new 1000 South Clark in the South Loop, Columbus Plaza on the Loop’s New East side, and McClurg Court in Streeterville.

Lincoln Property Company is the second largest property manager in the United States, with over 163,000 units currently under management. Lincoln’s Chicago properties include West 77 in River North, JeffJack, Circa 922, Arkadia, Gateway West Loop, and The Madison at Racine in the West Loop, 215 West in the Loop, K2 in the Fulton River District, North Water in Streeterville, and Mondial in River West.

Magellan Development Group is one of Chicago’s most experienced developers. Magellan’s Chicago offerings include Wolf Point West in River North, and Aqua, Coast, The Tides and The Shoreham in the Loop’s Lakeshore East.

Morguard owns and manages office, industrial, retail, apartment and hotel properties in North America. Morguard’s local offerings include Alta, a high-amenity, two-tower community in the Fulton River District.

Planned Property owns and manages more than 3,500 apartments in prime River North, Gold Coast, Near North, Lincoln Park and Lakeview locations.

Reside Living and its affiliates own and manage about 30 buildings, including the new State & Chestnut tower, in prime Buena Park, Fulton Market, Gold Coast, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Old Town, Rogers Park and Wicker Park locations.

RMK Management. RMK manages rental properties with more than 10,000 apartments in Illinois and Minnesota. RMK’s Chicago offerings include the new Scott Residences in Old Town, Halsted Flats in Lakeview, 73 East Lake in the Loop, and Residences at New City on the Near North Side.

Suite Home Chicago rents more than 300 furnished apartments in luxury buildings in city and suburban locations.

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Village Green manages more than 40,000 apartments in ten states. Village Green’s local communities include Eugenie Terrace, the only full-amenity apartment tower in Lincoln Park. Cobbler Square (Oldl Town), Randolph Tower (Loop), The Bernardin (River North) and The Streeter (Streeterville).

Wirtz Residential has more than 80 years of residential ownership and management expertise in the Chicago area. Wirtz has dozens of properties in prime near-lakefront locations, including a broad selection of apartments in Lakeview at 2970 N Sheridan, 529-41 W Wellington, 535 W Cornelia & 634 W Stratford, 3000 N Sheridan, 422-24 W Melrose, 3240 N Lake Shore and 3260-3270 N Lake Shore. Wirtz’ latest offering, 2950 North Sheridan in Lakeview, will begin occupancy in April of 2017.

ZRS Management. ZRS manages Chestnut Tower in River North.

Chicagoland Property Group’s scofflaw-family Walker is vomiting up about 1,000 fewer active spam ads at Craigslist following our posts on Joi Walker, Kellen Walker and Cassi (Walker) Norman. Joi Walker’s ads have tumbled from 654 to 67, Kellen’s from 564 to 436 and Cassi’s from 289 to 0.

We’ve previously noted that many scofflaw-family Walker ads sharply understated rents, advertised unavailable apartments, infringed copyrights, and advertised properties without the written authorization required by the Illinois Real Estate License Act (the “Act”). Cassi Norman’s 289 ads were placed at a time when, according to the IDFPR License Lookup database, she was not licensed to hold herself out as a licensed real estate broker. If the dates in the IDFPR database are accurate, Cassi’s behavior might involve the commission of Class A misdemeanors.

Joi Walker, Kellen Walker and Cassi Norman are based in Channahon, a small town 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Based on their location and other publicly available information, it’s reasonable to infer that they don’t personally conduct the showings their ads invite renters to arrange, but refer those renters to other Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”) agents.

The Act, 225 ILCS 454/10-35 (a), provides that “Licensees intending to sell or share consumer information gathered from or through the Internet or other electronic communication media shall disclose that intention to consumers in a timely and readily apparent manner.”

Scofflaw-family Walker ads contain no disclosure of an intent to sell or share renter information. Disclosure in the ads themselves can be considered the only way to satisfy the Act’s mandate of “timely and readily apparent” disclosure. If Joi, Kellen and Cassi in fact share or sell renter info with other agents, every single ad they place is in violation of the Act.

We’ll send a link to this post to Collin Walker, CPG’s managing broker who is charged by law with supervising advertising by CPG agents, requesting clarification. Collin Walker has not acknowledged or responded to prior invitations to comment on our posts, and we don’t expect a response to this one.

We’ll continue to monitor and document the online behavior of the scofflaw-family Walker and other scofflaw CPG leasing agents. At some point we’ll present our documentation to IDFPR and ask for a determination of whether Collin Walker’s license should be suspended or revoked.

Advice for renters
You can avoid all Chicagoland Property Group ads at Craigslist by typing the following in the search box: – “Chicagoland Property Group”.

A mere four agents at North Star Real Estate Group had over 4,100 apartment ads active on Craigslist yesterday evening. Three of them accounted for nearly 3,900 ads.

Michael Longo ranks second among North Star’s steroidal spammers with 1,373 ads. We quickly identified six properties that accounted for 870 of those ads – an average of 145 ads per property. Many of Longo’s ads were for properties from which North Star has not received the written authorization required by the Illinois Real Estate License Act. Quite a few ads were for types of units not currently available at a property, and available for later dates only at rents hundreds of dollars higher than advertised. Bait and switch.

A veteran property manager at one of those 6 properties replied to my email inquiry as follows: “I have never even heard of this company. This is really amazing.”

I’m not amazed, but I will concede that I can’t recall any spammer matching Longo’s 180 active Craigslist ads for a single property.

We’ll take a closer look at North Star’s other spammers in coming days. We’ll also focus in on North Star’s non-advertising managing broker, who appears to be just some random rent-a-license dude based in Omaha, NE.

We’ll continue to report on the scofflaws at Chicagoland Property Group, Craigslist’s worst apartment ad spammer. You can search Craigslist without seeing any of the more than 10,000 North Star and CPG apartment ads by typing the following into the Craigslist search box: – “North Star Real Estate” – “Chicagoland Property Group”

Update, 3/24, 2 pm: After being directed by a property manager to remove ads from Craigslist, and agreeing to do so, Michael Longo proceeded to renew ads for the property and add more. What kind of treatment do you think a one-time renter can expect from Longo, when he treats a property this way?

Update, 3/26, 11 am: Longo is still publishing new ads for this property, after reportedly agreeing to delete all of them.

When we began our recent spate of posts on Chicagoland Property Group (“CPG”), back on March 11, twenty-two of the firm’s agents had just over 7,000 repetitively abusive apartment ads at Craigslist.

Just before we began this post, the same 22 agents had just over 3,300 ads at Craigslist. CPG’s leasing manager, scofflaw Jon Zolecki, reduced his spamming from 1,134 ads to 196.

The ad volume of the Channahon-based members of the scofflaw-family Walker is down over 85%. Joi Walker has gone from 654 ads to 145, Kellen Walker from 564 ads to 41 and Cassi (Walker) Norman from 279 to 0.

Casamiro “Cas” Prime has a small dip in his ad volume, from 143 to 132. If the dates in the IDFPR License Lookup database (screen cap above) are accurate, Cas Prime was committing a Class A misdemeanor by holding himself out as a licensee on March 11. Cassi (Walker) Norman also advertised at a time when she was apparently unlicensed.

Mike Britton has more than doubled his Craigslist ads, from 140 to 364.

Many of CPG’s current ads are for properties that haven’t given CPG the written authority to advertise that the Illinois Real Estate License Act requires. Units are being advertised that aren’t available for rent or are available only at materially higher prices. You might call them bait-and-switch ads; I call them Zoleckis.

An apt unit of measure for CPG’s Craigslist ad volume is “a shitload.” No matter how you slice it, 3,300 ads is still a shitload – in quality as well as quantity. Far fewer but fresher ads can waste just as much time for renters as many more ads many of which are days older.

Advice for renters
You can avoid all Chicagoland Property Group ads at Craigslist by typing the following in the search box: – “Chicagoland Property Group”.

As of this morning Zach Gotkin at North Star Real Estate Group had 1,257 abusively repetitive ads online at Craigslist. Four days ago he had 1,602 ads at Craigslist.

We examined virtually all of Zach’s 670 ads for Edgewater apartments and couldn’t identify a single one as actually being in Edgewater. The three properties we could identify are all in Uptown.

A hundred ads for a “prime Edgewater location” in the “heart of Edgewater” illustrate the view from the Uptown Regency apartments, 5050 N Sheridan in Uptown. The property is managed by Horizon Realty Group, a group we’d strongly recommend you avoid.

Over 100 ads for another Edgewater property “steps away from … Loyola” illustrate a model apartment at 5051 N Kenmore, a property in Uptown managed by Flats Chicago. That’s another company we strongly recommend you avoid. As for “steps away,” divide your average stride into the 1.7 miles from 5051 N Kenmore to the south end of Loyola’s Rogers Park campus.

Gotkin has over 100 ads for other Horizon and Flats Chicago properties that are properly identified as located in Uptown.

Hundreds of additional Gotkin “Edgewater” ads contain photos from Somerset Place, 5009 N Sheridan, in Uptown. I haven’t been in the building since it’s been renovated. You can easily find attractive apartments in far more appealing locations at less than the quoted rents at Somerset Place.

The three properties identify their location as Uptown. Zach Gotkin is no rookie rental agent. He’s been a licensed real estate agent for nearly 8 years, so there can be no doubt that he’s deliberately lying about the location of the properties in these ads.

Zach Gotkin doesn’t use his full name in his Craigslist ads. If you’re unfortunate enough to call or meet Zach Gotkin, ask him how many apartments he’s been evicted from and whether he’s currently a named defendant in any fraud litigation.

We’ll send Zach Gotkin a link to this post and invite him to respond in a comment.

We’ve previously written about Michael Longo, a scofflaw leasing agent at North Star Real Estate Group you’ll want to avoid.

To avoid seeing any Craigslist apartment ads from this company, type the following into the search box: – “North Star Real Estate Group”.

It’s been nearly two years since we’ve written about the prolific Craigslsit apartment ad spammers at State Street Properties.

Since our post the firm has amped up its spam volume and adopted a new name: Chicago Property Genius. With more than 4,000 abusively repetitive ads at Craigslist, Chicago Property Genius has overtaken Chicagoland Property Group as Craigslist’s worst apartment ad spammer. Chicagoland Property Group shed several thousand ads after we began writing about the scofflaws at that firm.

It doesn’t take a genius to discover that Chicago Property Genius continues State Street Properties’ practice of advertising properties from which it doesn’t have the written authorization to advertise that the Illinois Real Estate License Act requires. And the firm still seems addicted to bait-and-switch ad tactics. We scanned dozens of unauthorized, i.e. illegal, ads for half a dozen buildings, and focused on one to illustrate the bait and switch.

Chicago Property Genius has 879 “Gold Coast” ads at Craigslist, including ads for immediate-occupancy studios renting for $1,525 and 1-bedrooms for $1,800, both with in-unit washer / dryers.

The lowest-priced studio available at the property illustrated in those ads is $1,780. The property has 1-bedrooms available for $2,405, $2,505, $2,610 and $2,670. The property is in River North, several blocks from the Gold Coast.

Chicago Property Genius ads at Craigslist have the same thin copy and photo content, lack of contact names, atypical presentation of phone numbers and nonsense word strings that we were used to seeing in State Street Properties ads. You’ll also find URLs, several of which are illustrated above, that redirect to State Street Properties.

It’s astonishing to think that there are actually renters naïve enough to respond to an ad from the bait-and-switch bozos at Chicago Property Genius.

My attention was drawn to Daniel Zager when I saw copyrighted photos I’d shot in an ad he’d placed for a property that doesn’t allow brokers to advertise. Two strikes against Zager, a leasing agent at Chicago Apartment Leasing Group (“CALG”). Strike three: the ad did not, as required by the Real Estate License Act, include the name under which his firm is registered with IDFPR.

Zager has 100s of ads at Craigslist, many of them for properties which haven’t given CALG the legally-required authorization to advertise.

Zager ramps up his scofflaw behavior at Zumper by advertising properties without authorization and with a fraudulently deceptive Instant Apply link. Any renter foolish enough to follow through on the Instant Apply feature may provide Zager their Experian credit report. None of the properties Zager advertises at Zumper accept applications through brokers, and there can be no doubt that Zager is aware of that fact and is deliberately misleading renters.

Last April 1, after outing a career criminal working as a leasing agent, we abandoned our practice of writing hoax posts on April Fools’ Day, posted a somber warning to landlords, renters and prospective leasing agents, and proclaimed the day Chicago Rental Services Day, Chicago Apartment Locators Day and Chicago Apartment Finders Day.

Chicago rental service scofflaws have ratcheted up their abusive advertising and deceptive business practices since last year. If you’re a landlord seeking tenants, a renter looking for an apartment, or someone considering working at one of these firms, don’t be a fool.

Don’t be a fool on Chicago Rental Services Day, Chicago Apartment Locators Day, Chicago Apartment Finders Day – or any other day.

In a previous post we noted that we consider North Star Real Estate Group’s Zach Gotkin an abusive liar.

Gotkin had 1,602 abusively repetitive ads at Craigslist when we first began alerting management companies about his ads. Four days later that number had dwindled to 1,257. As of this morning his ad count was down to 307. That’s a lot less poison, but it’s still a lot of poison.

Our previous post focused on Gotkin’s lies about location. Some renters might consider that sort of bait-and-switch fairly harmless when they’re receiving a “free” service.

We compared the rents at two of the properties Gotkin is advertising with the rents quoted in his ads. Any renter who pays the Gotkin-advertised rents is being ripped off, since those rents are higher than the ones actually available at the properties.

Charging renters a higher rent when they work with a broker is a common practice in a number of Chicago neighborhoods. It’s not a practice that honest brokers or honest management companies will engage in without clear disclosures, but Gotkin is not an honest broker. The properties we checked are managed by Flats Chicago – not, in our opinion, an honest management company.

We’ll send Zach Gotkin a link to this post and invite him to respond in a comment.

We’ve previously written about Michael Longo, a scofflaw leasing agent at North Star Real Estate Group you’ll want to avoid. Longo had 1,373 Craigslist ads at the time of our post and had 158 as of a few minutes ago. Michael Richman, another spammer in the firm, had 910 ads 10 days ago and currently has 33. North Star spammer Sara Mock has reduced her Craigslist ad count from 251 to 53.

North Star Real Estate Group’s Craigslist ad count has declined by more than 85% since we began writing about the firm. Again, a lot less poison, but still a lot of poison.

To avoid seeing any Craigslist apartment ads from this company, type the following into the search box: – “North Star Real Estate Group”.

YoChicago knows some very good landlords, some of the city’s best. The properties they manage range from vintage walk-ups to the newest luxury high-rises. We know them because they’re current or former YoChicago advertisers. We’ve been in their buildings, met their staff and informally debriefed residents about their experience living in the buildings. We’d recommend them to prospective renters without hesitation, and would rent “site-unseen” with confidence at their properties.

If you’re looking to rent near Chicago’s lakefront, from the South Loop north to Rogers Park, visit our 2016 list of Chicago’s best landlords. We’ve recently updated the list to reflect management changes at a number of properties.

We’ve also expanded the list to include Wirtz Residential. Wirtz has more than 80 years of residential ownership and management expertise in the Chicago area, and dozens of properties in prime near-lakefront locations. We recently visited five Wirtz properties in Lakeview: 2970 N Sheridan, 529-41 W Wellington, 535 W Cornelia & 634 W Stratford, 3000 N Sheridan and 422-24 W Melrose.

You can tour furnished model studios at 422 W Melrose and 535 W Cornelia in the above videos. You’ll find video tours of more than 50 Lakeview apartments at our YouTube playlist, and more are in the works.

Apartment communities try to maximize their rents – no surprise there. One element in rent maximization is timing lease expirations into periods of high demand.

It’s not uncommon for high-rise apartment communities to display a pricing matrix that varies the amount of your rent based on your move-in date and the length of the lease term you select.

A near real-time rent and availability check at a Streeterville apartment complex this morning surfaced the matrix you see above.

If you opt for an 11-month lease on this studio apartment, you’ll pay $1,686 a month. A 12-month lease on the same apartment will set you back $1,851 a month. The 11-month lease would save you $165 a month, or $1,980 during the 11 months. A 7-month lease costs $1,762 a month.

The variance in rent prices based on lease length typically changes throughout the year, sometimes on a daily basis, and differs from property to property and among unit types within a property. There’s no general rule you can apply, but the closest you can come to one is that you’ll often get a lower rent quote during the late fall and winter in Chicago than you will for a lease starting in the late spring or summer.

If you’re working with one of the rental service brokers on our do-not-call list you’re unlikely to learn about all of your options. Saving you money reduces the broker’s commission and may eliminate it entirely if you opt for less than a 12-month lease.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (“IDFPR”) is responsible for licensing real estate professionals. In our judgment, IDFPR has exercised that responsibility irresponsibly many times in the past, and is likely to continue to do so.

The most recent IDFPR enforcement actions report (PDF) notes that the license of Dan Dantuma has been “indefinitely suspended for a minimum of two years” due to felony convictions and his failure to report prior criminal convictions to the department.

The IDFPR action against Dantuma comes two-and-a-half years after we first wrote about his lengthy criminal history, and more than a year after we noted another heroin bust.

The IDFPR report also lists several licenses that have been issued in probationary status due to a history of felony convictions.

Over the years, we’ve written about far too many leasing agents with criminal records, including a career criminal working under a false identity and a scofflaw agent working from the Lake County jail.

Do you know who has the keys to your apartment? Do you know who you’re getting in the car with to view apartments? Are you comfortable giving your Social Security # and other identifying information to a convicted felon?

Your safest bet is to work directly with landlords and management companies, and avoid rental service leasing agents and brokers entirely. If you opt to work with a rental service, be aware that the odds of finding an honest, experienced agent are heavily against you, and the odds of your getting the best deal on an apartment are even lower.

Section 20-22 of the Illinois Real Estate License Act provides that:

“Any person who is found working or acting as a managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson or leasing agent, or holding himself out as a licensed sponsoring broker, managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or leasing agent without being issued a valid existing license is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor …”

It’s easy to check whether an individual or firm holds a valid active license. Simply go to the License lookup page at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).

If Jeff Garver, a part of whose linkedIn profile is pictured above, can be taken at his word, he committed multiple crimes during his tenure at AptAmigo. According to the IDFPR license lookup, Garver has never been issued any license.

AptAmigo’s co-founder and CEO Dan Willenborg is a licensed real estate broker. Is it conceivable that he was unaware that the activities Garver (and others) engaged in on behalf of AptAmigo required licensing? Did he ever advise Garver that he needed to be licensed? Is he unaware of the License Act’s requirements that the name of AptAmigo’s affiliated brokerage firm be disclosed on AptAmigo’s website and in Craigslist ads? Is he unaware of the License Act’s requirement that a broker secure written authorization before advertising a property for rent?

We first wrote about AptAmigo in August of 2015, noting that it had engaged in wholesale piracy of our copyrighted images and images owned by others. In September of 2015 we noted AptAmigo’s vandalism of CTA property and violations of Federal Trade Commission guidelines on endorsements, and wondered whether it’s an outlaw enterprise.

Since our original post AptAmigo has periodically pirated our copyrighted images and displayed them on its website – including some of the same images that it had previously removed after our complaints.

Willful and conscious theft of intellectual property is only one of the ways in which Dan Willenborg and AptAmigo flaunt their disregard of legal and ethical standards. We could go on at length on this topic, but we’ll spare you.

In our considered judgment, AptAmigo is an outlaw rental service. Any renter who contacts AptAmigo or its agents is exhibiting extremely poor judgment and taking a risk. Any landlord or management firm doing business with AptAmigo needs to be zealous about ensuring that only licensed agents are bringing renters to their property. Anyone who goes to work for the company needs to consult a knowledgeable attorney about the scope of their employment.

Willenborg is a licensed broker whose managing broker has informed me that her firm is terminating Willenborg’s legally-required sponsorship. Will Willenborg find a new rental service to host his license? We have no doubt that he will. Chicago has far too many of them, and many of them will view his apparent contempt for legal and ethical requirements as a positive attribute. If you’re looking to rent an apartment, go directly to landlords and management companies.

The City of Chicago publishes a list of problem landlords, and updates it twice a year. The list has no properties in the prime near-lakefront neighborhoods where YoChicago concentrates its coverage.

A list of bad landlords isn’t very helpful to renters, who are typically far more interested in finding a good one than in avoiding a bad one.

We know some bad landlords. We don’t allow them to advertise at YoChicago, and we don’t include their properties in our neighborhood apartment guides.

If you’re looking to rent near Chicago’s lakefront, from the South Loop north to Rogers Park, contact the following before heading to Craigslist or any other source. You’ll find floor plans and near real-time rent and availability info at almost all of the sites listed below. You can see links to narrated video walk-throughs of 100s of apartments on our downtown, Lincoln Park and Lakeview grids.

Atlantic Realty Partners has developed over 3,000 apartments, including The Parker in the West Loop and 1717 in Evanston

Aviation Lofts is a recently-renovated loft apartment building in the South Loop.

BJB Properties and its affiliates own and manage about 40 buildings in the Gold Coast, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park, Streeterville and West Loop.

Bozzuto is a national developer and property manager. Bozzuto’s Chicago offerings include The Sinclair, an exciting new Gold Coast tower, OneEleven in the Loop, Atwater in Streeterville, Parc Huron in River North, and Lofts at Roosevelt Collection in the South Loop.

Draper and Kramer is a Chicago-based firm founded in the 1890s whose management portfolio includes Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores (South side), pictured above.

Greystar manages more than 1,500 apartment communities throughout the United States. Greystar’s Chicago buildings include 1225 Old Town, Kenect (Fulton River District), One Superior Place (River North) and The Seneca and 420 East Ohio in Streeterville.

Magellan Development Group is one of Chicago’s most experienced developers. Magellan’s Chicago offerings include Wolf Point West and Exhibit on Superior in River North, and Aqua, Coast, The Tides and The Shoreham in the Loop’s Lakeshore East.

Planned Property owns and manages more than 3,500 apartments in prime River North, Gold Coast, Near North, Lincoln Park and Lakeview locations. See video tours of Planned Property apartments.

Suite Home Chicago rents more than 300 furnished apartments in luxury buildings in city and suburban locations.

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ZRS Management. ZRS manages Chestnut Tower in River North.

If you’re looking to rent in a prime near-the-park location in Lincoln Park or Lakeview East, the worst mistake you can make is to work with one of Chicago’s rental services, a/k/a apartment locators a/k/a apartment finders.

Even if you’re lucky enough to avoid the know-nothing rookies, the convicted felons, the bait-and-switch sharks, the take-your-deposit and hold onto it sleazes and the habitual liars, it’s a near-certainty that you’ll miss out on many of the best deals on Lincoln Park and Lakeview East apartments.

Some of the largest and most professional management companies in these neighborhoods don’t cooperate with rental services and won’t allow them to show apartments. If they do cooperate with rental services, they may not allow them to show occupied apartments and typically unwilling to negotiate any deals with a renter who’s working with one of the them. Professional management companies that do cooperate with rental services often work with only a limited number of firms and even then don’t allow them to show all of their apartments.

Your best bet is to work directly with the properties listed in our Lincoln Park and Lakeview apartment guides. You’ll find accurate rent and availability info at the linked property websites. You can preview many apartments in YoChicago’s Lincoln Park and Lakeview narrated video tours.

Suite Home Chicago, a provider of short-term, fully-furnished luxury apartments, was given the “Company Member of the Year” award by the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA) at its recent annual conference in Huntington Beach, CA.

The award recognized Suite Home Chicago’s commitment to excellence within the corporate housing industry and its emphasis on building strong relationships within the hospitality sector.

“Our team is thrilled,” said Suite Home Chicago Owner Jennifer Breen. “To be recognized among your peers is an incredible feeling, and I am so grateful that we can celebrate this company honor.”

Breen continued, “We truly love doing what we do, and we have the best partners in the world. This is a testament to our passion for temporary housing and our industry as a whole.”

Join YoChicago in the recent videos, above, for a narrated walk through two of Suite Home Chicago’s furnished apartments.

CHPA is the only trade association dedicated exclusively to the corporate housing industry.

Established in 2005, Suite Home Chicago offers luxury furnished corporate apartments with flexible leasing terms throughout the Chicagoland and Milwaukee areas. The units are fully equipped with modern furnishings, luxury linens, and all the housewares needed for a temporary stay. The Suite Home staff strive to provide guests a “home away from home” experience, and are equipped to handle large corporate groups, project work, relocation, medical travel, entertainment crews, interns, and government travel.

Note: Suite Home Chicago is a YoChicago advertiser.

If you’re apartment hunting in the prime near-lakefront areas of Lincoln Park or Lakeview, working with one of Chicago’s apartment finders (a/k/a rental services, locators or brokers) is a guarantee that you won’t see some of the best apartments in these neighborhoods. You also won’t get the best deal on the apartments you do see, and a part of your rent check every month will pay for what you were told was a “free” service.

The first thing you need to know is that a number of landlords and management companies who have great apartments don’t cooperate with finders and don’t allow them to show apartments. There are also landlords and management companies that only cooperate with brokers on their hard-to-rent apartments. Work with a finder / broker and you can be certain that you won’t see some of the best apartments in Lincoln Park and Lakeview.

Landlords who work with brokers typically pay them a month’s rent (or more) as a commission. Your rent covers that cost. Your finder / broker has likely agreed, in writing, not to negotiate rent or fees on your behalf. Work with a “free” rental service and you’re not only paying for it, you’re surrendering your ability to negotiate a better deal on your own.

There are lots of additional pitfalls in working with a rental service, and we’ve outlined 25 of them for you.

The smart way to find a great apartment is to start with our linked Lincoln Park and Lakeview guides. They list scores of buildings from professional management firms, link to the building websites and near real-time rent and availability checks, and to review pages that provide objective information about the properties and their immediate surroundings. Our Lincoln Park and Lakeview guides also link to video tours of many of the properties.

We’ve been a keen observer of Chicago’s rental service industry for many years, and have yet to see a single company that consistently operates with an acceptable level of integrity and compliance with applicable laws.

We haven’t updated our rental service do-not-call list since last year, and since that time a number of new rental services a/k/a apartment finders a/k/a apartment locators have begun doing business. Every company on our list deserves, in our opinion, to be studiously avoided by anyone searching for an apartment.

It’s also been some time since we illustrated the reasons that companies have warranted inclusion on our list by singling one of them out. Chicago Residential Group (“CRG”) made multiple appearances in my LinkedIn feed recently, so I took a fresh look at the company, which has been on our list.

Here’s some of what I found, starting with Ryan Grober, the self-described “Senior Partner” at the firm, which bills itself as “Downtown Chicago’s #1 Boutique Real Estate Brokerage.”

According to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (“IDFPR”), Grober is a licensed Leasing Agent. According to his Zillow profile, part of which is pictured above, his specialties include being a “Buyer’s agent.” That’s a role that requires a broker’s license, and there are criminal penalties for acting in that role without proper licensure. Now, it’s possible that the IDFPR database is not completely current and Grober has been issued a broker’s license. It would be interesting see whether that license, if it exists, was in effect prior to June 22, the date of a Zillow review touting Grober’s representation of a buyer.

Grober touts the number of 5-star reviews he’s received at Zillow. The phrasing of those reviews, and the almost complete absence of spelling errors, makes me wonder how many of them were written by actual clients.

Grober has a bait-and-switch ad at Zumper for an apartment that’s not currently available for rent. The ad invites you to “Instant apply” for the apartment at a building that does not allow agents to accept applications on its behalf. We’ve written about the risk of identity theft associated with the Instant Apply feature at Zumper.

Meet the CRG team. According to IDFPR records, the Leasing Agent Student licenses of Iva Kita and Brooke Bressler expired on July 30, 2017, Andrea Grober’s Leasing Agent Student license expired on November 14 of last year. Brandon Smith’s Leasing Agent Student license expires on September 4, 2017.

Matt Wagnitz, according to the CRB website “has worked with hundreds of clients, locating apartments …” That’s quite an accomplishment since he has only been licensed as a Leasing Agent since July 12 of this year and held a 120-day Leasing Agent Student license from mid-June to mid-October of last year.

Consult our list of 25 things rental services won’t tell you before contacting one. Better yet, make your apartment search faster and easier with the YoChicago resources you’ll find to the right of this post.

ADDED: CRG’s Team page was updated less than three hours after this post was published. Here’s the current version:

ADDED 3:45 pm: Grober’s bait-and-switch ad at Zumper has been deleted.

ADDED 5:45 pm: Grober has stopped characterizing himself as a buyer’s agent at Zillow. The CRG Team page has gone missing.

Trudo Realty, which has been on our rental service do-not-call list and our top ten ad-spammers list for years, currently has more than 5,100 apartment ads at Craigslist. Some of those ads violate the Illinois Real Estate License Act requirement that brokers have written authorization to advertise a property.

More than 2,500 of Trudo’s ads were placed by agents whose name cannot be found in a search of the IDFPR licensing database. It’s possible that some of those agents are so new to the business that their licenses haven’t yet appeared in the database.

According to their LinkedIn profiles, Absalom Givens (324 ads) and Kyle Kaspar (84 ads) have been with Trudo since April of this year, and Brandon Tudisco (343 ads) has been with the firm since August. On July 2 of this year, Nathan Stoll (389 ads) reported on his Facebook page that he was working as a leasing advisor. Gerry Romero (462 ads) received a Yelp review on August 29. According to Trudo’s website, Yonatan Aguilar (74 ads) has been with the firm since 2016. We found no record of how long Mariah Butler (305 ads), Victoria Golden (266 ads) or Kenny Petitfrere (344 ads) have been associated with Trudo except for their having posted Craigslist ads 24 or more days ago.

In our view, contacting any of Chicago’s rental services amounts to placing yourself in jeopardy. Work directly with management companies and landlords when you’re looking for an apartment.

If you work at Kirkland & Ellis, Quarles & Brady, The Boston Consulting Group, or one of the other major employers at 300 North LaSalle, you have a great selection of apartments at 18 towers that are within a 10-minute walk of your office.

The closest apartments are at EnV, a scant 2-minutes away per Google Maps.

The posh OneEleven is four minutes away, and has a great view over the Chicago River to your office.

A 5-minute walk will take you to the new HUBBARD221 or to Oakwood 200 Squared and AMLI River North. You can walk to Jones Chicago or the new Linea apartments in 6 minutes.

Randolph Tower and the new apartments at 3Eleven are a 7-minute walk.

Hubbard Place, across from the East Bank Club, and River North Park are 8 minutes away. A 9-minute walk takes you to 215 West, and to Wolf Point West, which has some of the most spectacular views in the area.

A 10-minute walk takes you to Grand Plaza, and the new Marquee at Block 37 in the Loop.

The new SixForty and Gallery on Wells apartments are in River North’s gallery district, 10 minutes away.

Just beyond there you’ll find The Hensley, a boutique-sized option, and the new Exhibit on Superior.

You can see all of these options, and more that are just beyond Google’s 10-minute walk pace, at YoChicago’s River North and Loop apartment guides. The guides include maps and link to building websites, to near real-time rent and availability checks, and to narrated video tours of 100s of apartments. They’re a faster, easier, safer and more reliable way to find a great apartment than working with one of Chicago’s deceptive rental service brokers.

If you’re relocating to Chicago, renting a short-term furnished apartment from Suite Home Chicago can ease your transition.

Note: Many of these apartment communities are YoChicago advertisers.

If you work at Winston & Strawn, Leo Burnett, or one of the other major employers at 35 W Wacker Dr, you have a great selection of apartments at 15 towers that are within a 10-minute walk of your office.

The posh OneEleven is a short block west on Wacker Dr.

A 4-minute walk takes you to the new Marquee at Block 37, sandwiched between Macy’s and the Daley Center in the Loop’s theater district.

The new MILA tower, 73 East Lake, and MDA City Apartments are 5 minutes away. Add a minute to reach AMLI River North.

A 7-minute walk will take you to Oakwood 200 Squared, just around the corner from the new Linea apartments.

It’s an 8-minute stroll to EnV, Randolph Tower and Millennium Park Plaza, 9 minutes to Grand Plaza, and 10 to Columbus Plaza.

Google places Wolf Point West and HUBBARD221 11 minutes away, but a brisk pace might get you to either one in 10.

You can see all of these options, and more that are just beyond Google’s 10-minute walk estimate, at YoChicago’s River North and Loop apartment guides. The guides include maps, and links to building websites, links to near real-time rent and availability checks, and links to narrated video tours of 100s of apartments. They’re a faster, easier, safer and more reliable way to find a great apartment than working with one of Chicago’s deceptive rental service brokers.

If you’re relocating to Chicago, renting a short-term furnished apartment from Suite Home Chicago can ease your transition.

Note: Many of these apartment communities are YoChicago advertisers.

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Our featured management company, Village Green, is one of the nation’s largest privately-held, third-party-only apartment management companies. Throughout its nearly 100-year-long history, Village Green has maintained a culture focused on exceptional customer service and helping people live better, live social and live green.

The service-oriented leasing professionals at each of Village Green’s apartment communities have up-to-date familiarity with all of them. When you call, email or visit, they’ll offer suggestions about available alternatives if they don’t have an apartment that fits your needs. View video tours of Village Green-managed properties.

We know some very good landlords – some of Chicagoland’s best. The properties they manage range from vintage walk-ups to the newest luxury high-rises and suburban communities. We know them because they’re current or former YoChicago advertisers. We’ve visited their buildings, met their staff, and informally debriefed residents about their experience living in the buildings. We’d recommend them to prospective renters without hesitation, and would rent “site-unseen” with confidence at their properties.

We also know some bad landlords. We don’t allow them to advertise at YoChicago, and we don’t include their properties in our neighborhood apartment guides.

BJB Properties and its affiliates own and manage about 40 buildings in the Gold Coast, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park, Streeterville and West Loop.

Bozzuto is a national developer and property manager. Bozzuto’s Chicago offerings include The Sinclair, a new Gold Coast tower, OneEleven in the Loop, Atwater in Streeterville, Parc Huron in River North, and Lofts at Roosevelt Collection in the South Loop.

The John Buck Company is a Chicago-based national development firm that has acquired, developed or redeveloped more than 41 million square feet of property. Its most recent residential additions to Chicago’s skyline are MILA (Loop) and 3Eleven (River North).

Crescent Heights is a national developer of condos, apartments, offices and hotels. The company’s Chicago offerings include Astoria Tower (South Loop), Burnham Pointe (South Loop), Echelon Chicago (Fulton River District), Park Michigan (South Loop), The LEX (South Loop) and North Harbor Tower (Loop). View video tours of Crescent Heights-managed properties.

Draper and Kramer is a Chicago-based firm founded in the 1890s whose management portfolio includes Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores (South side), pictured above.

Greystar manages more than 1,500 apartment communities throughout the United States. Check for available apartments and view video tours of Greystar-managed local properties.

Lincoln Property Company is the second largest property manager in the United States, with over 163,000 units currently under management. Check available apartments and view video tours of Lincoln-managed Chicago properties.

Vancouver-based Onni Group is one of North America’s leading private real estate developers. Onni recently opened The Hudson in River North and is nearing completion of Old Town Park.

Planned Property owns and manages more than 3,500 apartments in prime River North, Gold Coast, Near North, Lincoln Park and Lakeview locations. Check available apartments and view video tours of Planned Property apartments.

Suite Home Chicago rents more than 300 furnished apartments in luxury buildings in city and suburban locations.

The Parker is one of the newest high-rises in the West Loop.

ZRS Management. ZRS manages Chestnut Tower in River North.

Chicago’s apartment rental brokers a/k/a locators a/k/a finders would like you to believe that it’s difficult, time-consuming and frustrating to find a suitable apartment in downtown Chicago. They’ll tell you that you need their help, and that their services won’t cost you anything. Taking any of those claims at face value is a serious mistake, and relying on them can be costly.

Here’s YoChicago’s take on the top five reasons to avoid apartment brokers. It’s based on our decades of in-depth familiarity with how they operate, and our knowledge of the downtown apartment rental market.

#1 – It’s faster, easier and safer to find apartments on your own
Before you begin looking for an apartment, it’s critical to decide where you want to live. If you’re new to Chicago and will be working downtown, we strongly recommend that you rent within walking distance of where you work or within a short walk of public transit that gets you to work in a reasonable amount of time. If you work in the suburbs, rent in a location that has convenient train or expressway access to your office.

Once you have a solid fix on where you want to live, head to YoChicago’s neighborhood apartment guides in the right column on this page. We list every major building in the downtown neighborhoods (except for a very few that you’re better off not knowing about). Our guides have links to near real-time rent and availability info, video tours of many apartments, and links to reviews with objective info about what’s available in the immediate area of the buildings. In a very short time you’ll be able to identify the buildings you consider worth visiting. The building websites make it easy for you to set up appointments to visit, and many of the buildings welcome walk-ins.

If you can’t find the type of apartment you want at a rent you can afford, give some serious consideration to trading down on apartment size, features or building amenities before considering less convenient neighborhoods with more affordable rents. You’ll find that where you live is a lot more important to your enjoyment of the city than the actual apartment you live in.

#2 – You’ll get more accurate, up-to-date info from the buildings
Broker ads are larded with misleading claims, bait-and-switch come-ons and inaccurate or out-of-date information about vacancies. The brokers flood websites with repetitive ads designed to frustrate and confuse you into contacting them. Avoid the time-wasting clutter and use YoChicago’s guides to go to building websites where you’ll find accurate info about the building, and near real-time rent and availability info.

#3 – Brokers can’t or won’t show you some of the best apartments
Brokers tell you that they can show you everything. That’s simply not true. Some buildings don’t allow brokers to show their apartments. Other buildings only cooperate with a limited number of brokers.

Apartment brokers routinely – and often illegally – advertise buildings that they’re unable or unwilling to show you.

Apartment brokers are likely to steer you to the buildings paying the highest commissions. A broker who takes you to an MLS-listed apartment is likely to receive a half-month’s rent as commission. Most managed buildings pay brokers a full month’s rent as their commission, although some pay a flat fee of less than a month’s rent and some pay 125% or 150% of a month’s rent.

#4 – Brokers can’t get you the best deal
Brokers tell you that they can negotiate a better deal for you. That’s not true.

The agreements that brokers sign with apartment buildings typically require that they agree not to negotiate rents or terms with the building on behalf of renters. You can negotiate on your own when you’re working with a broker, but you might not know that, and the building is far less likely to give you a deal when it has to pay a month’s rent (or more) to your broker.

#5 – You risk working with a rookie, a shark or a criminal
If you’re daunted by the prospect of finding an apartment on your own, you should know that finding an honest and knowledgeable apartment broker on your own is far more difficult. There aren’t very many of them, and they typically don’t rely on ads to attract clients.

The apartment rental service industry in Chicago is a high-turnover business with many rookies and many unlicensed agents. It’s a criminal offense to operate as a leasing agent without being properly licensed. Over the years I’ve spoken to many rookie agents who are stunningly ignorant, callously ignore relevant laws, and will do just about anything to make a buck.

Almost all of the agents who’ve been in the business long enough to know anything useful about the buildings are accomplished con artists, and some of them have criminal records for everything from drug dealing to identity theft.

Most positive reviews of apartment brokers at Yelp, Google+, Facebook and other sites are fraudulent. Ignore them.

If you’re determined to work with a broker, ignore everyone associated with a rental service on YoChicago’s do-not-call list. Contact one of Chicago’s brand-name, major full-service brokerage firms and ask the office manager to refer to you an experienced agent who works with renters.

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