Chicago Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
FL nestie relocating
Hi girls. DH and I will be moving to Chicago in late May/ early June. We are soooooo excited! I was wondering if any of you rented and could recommend websites/companies that we could use to find a rental home/apt. We're looking in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area if that makes a difference, but we're open to other areas north of the loop.
Also, DH is in the construction industry with a masters in business. Do you all know of any positions or companies he might contact about a job? Or any job search databases he can look at? I know the economy is awful right now, esp for his industry so we're trying to cover all our bases.
TIA. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all as we make the big move north.
Re: FL nestie relocating
Can I switch with you now? You can take my condo and my job, it's freezing here and I can't take it!! Good thing you are moving in May, if it was now, I'd say WAIT!
For apartments, I have always used craigslist.com, it's the only place that I think people can post for free.
As for jobs in construction, I wouldn't be much help in that area. I know there was a building boom in 2008 and most of the new condo buildings in my area (Rogers Park/Edgewater) have been sitting there waiting to get purchased for almost a year. For looking for jobs, I use indeed.com. It searches a bunch of databases for key words. It can sometime be a lot of info.
For apartment finding I recommend using The Apartment People or Apartment Finders. Both are pretty similar but you can see apartments for rent in their database and they will drive you around to all the ones you want to see.
When we were trying to rent my DH's condo, we listed it with both and Apartment Finders found us a lessee.
Below are their websites - HTH!
http://www.apartmentpeople.com/v2/
http://www.chicagoapartmentfinders.com/
BFP 12/31/12 ~ EDD 9/13/13
BFP Chart
Welcome to the board! DH and I just moved to Chicago 3 weeks ago and are living in Wicker Park and so far we really like the area. It seems to be a fun place even now when it is freezing, so I am looking forward to getting out more in warmer weather.
We used both Craigslist and the Apartment People. I was not impressed with the Apartment People, but I think that was only because of our agent. Overall, it seems like a good company to use especially when you are not familiar with the area.
Good luck with the move and enjoy the beautiful Florida weather while you have it!
Welcome! I moved up three years ago from Florida! I'm glad you're moving up in May, and not now.
I would search Craigslist. We are currently renting from a private condo owner and we found him through an ad. I would not recommend any of the apartment search companies locally. I have found that when I tried them out I was able to get a much better deal and apartment on my own.
Welcome! Chicago is a great city. Where are you coming from in Florida?
You can have our apartment
DH and I are actually moving back to Florida at the end of May.
I would check out Apartment People and craigslist. I found my first Chicago apartment with Apartment People and it really helped to work with them since I didn't know anything about the city. DH and I found our next 2 places on craigslist, which was much easier once we knew where things where and exactly what areas we liked.
Good luck with your move! On a related note, how are you moving up here?? I had no idea it would be so expensive to get back home, but some of these quotes are nuts!
I would not recommend any of the apartment listing people either. We went through a ton and none of them listened to our needs/wants for our fairly reasonable budget.
Craigslist did the trick each time.
We lived in Lincoln Park before venturing out to the suburbs. I also lived in Logan Square and Edgewater as well. I wouldn't necessarily recommend those areas.
Wicker Park is a great area!
I agree that the apartment listing people have a mark-up, but I still think it's useful to go, especially if you don't know the areas of the city as well. You really don't have anything to lose but an afternoon. For me, it helped narrow down the Craig's list search because it highlighted the areas I wanted to focus on and it showed me when prices were reasonable or not.
I just think that Craig's list can be a little overwhelming if you don't have a solid idea of what you're looking for/at.
Just a thought!
I agree about craigslist, its a great source to find both apartments and sometimes even jobs. I think I've gotten more calls back about jobs that I applied for through craigslist then any of the ones I went through careerbuilder for.
I also agree with the previous poster, its probably a good idea to use an apartment search company to at least get an idea of the areas and prices, then check out craigslist for reasonable apartment deals. Another search company that hasn't been mentioned is the Homestead Group. I found one of my previous apartments through them.
Oh, I forgot about Homestead, I found my first apartment through them.
We're in Gainesville, about 90 minutes north of Orlando.
We're selling most of our stuff, packing the rest in the smallest UHaul we can manage and towing my car up. We have a dog, so we'll be driving up with him. Otherwise, I'd be trying to find someone else to drive the Uhaul and fly ourselves.
Good luck with that drive! I moved from Orlando once upon a time and it was a long one. Good to have another SEC girl around the boards.
I second (or third) the vote for Homestead Group. I've used both Homestead and Apartment People... great experience with Homestead but not so much with Apt. People. Other folks I know loved Apt. People, so I think it depends on who you get, and the time of year!
Definitely recommend starting with an apartment search agency just to see where you stand on price and location.
Good luck! You'll love it here (despite the weather)