American Realty LLC.

I had an excellent experience with Bridget and with American Realty LLC.
I found a place online and texted the number on the page. Bridget and I discussed my requirements for a place, and she scheduled a showing that day. I saw three apartments, and decided on one. We went back to the office where I signed paperwork. She drove me across town to my current landlord’s office to fill out some paperwork, to a FedEx to send a fax to my landlord (they only take verification forms by fax), and then back to my current apartment to get the first month’s rent check. Her willingness to drive me around saved me a great deal of time and effort, since I do not drive.
I could not be more impressed with Bridget and with American Realty.

Sent multiple requests through some of their online adds. Generally speaking, it can be tough to search for apartments online by yourself. However, when you contact a «professional service» like American Realty, you expect a response in some sort of timely manner.
This was not the case with American Realty. All communication seemed to have a 5 day delay. I was able to find a place faster without their help. In fact, 12 days after I signed a lease without their assistance I received a poorly written email (typos and grammatical errors included) asking if I wanted to see a property they had. This property was one that I initially requested a visit at but never received a response from them on. Overall, terrible service and a complete lack of professionalism. Would not lease any property that they represent.

Nothing but good words to say about American Realty! Shout out to Jeff Prost who made our apartment hunt quick and effortless. He met with me minutes after I called and was able to show the apartment (that we got!) that very night.

I walked into American Realty LLC this morning in a panic trying to find an apartment for a June 1^st move in date (5 days to spare). As soon as I walked in a leasing agent by the name of Nestor greeted me, we started to work together to find an apartment. Not only was Nestor quick and efficient, he was polite and you could tell by his energy that he truly wanted to help and he loved his job. Nestor kept me informed through out the application process and had me approved for the apartment within a couple of hours.
I have moved several times in my life but this truly was the first time I had worked with a lease agent who made the process quick and painless.
Thank you Nestor for your help I will be sending my friends and co workers to you for their rental needs!

Had an excellent experience with American Realty. Filip showed us several apartments in the area we’d requested and in our price range. He was very courteous, knowledgeable, professional. We were approved for our apartment of choice and signed our lease the same day.

I am seriously thinking of moving from a nice apartment with roommates to living on my own in a one-​bedroom apartment. If I find a place I like, I could move into the new place tomorrow and find a replacement roommate for my current place. I contacted an agent by the name of Tim Harstead via a Craigslist ad not knowing that Tim worked for American Realty. Both times I spoke with him, I left the short conversation being frustrated and having an elevated heart rate due to the anger he caused while he poorly attempted to answer a few simple questions. I’ve never in my life taken the time to write a Unilocal review, but due to his horrendous way of dealing with a potential customer, I felt it to be necessary. I hope the rest of the employees at American Realty are much better at their jobs.

Calvin was a great help in our search. He was exceptionally diligent and tenacious despite our many requirements for the perfect apartment. He also responded quickly and kept in constant contact with us via text and email. I always felt like he was on our side during showings and interactions with landlords and other realtors. We would do business with him again!

Crystal Banks is seriously the best!!! If you’re looking for an apartment she is your girl! She is so knowledgeable about Chicago neighborhoods and what to look for in an apartment it will blow your mind. She is available ²⁴⁄₇ and very personable. She showed my boyfriend and I a place and we instantly fell in love with it! She answered all my questions before I even had a chance to ask them. It felt great not having to ask about where to get supplies, what the recommended bars/​restaurants were, etc. because Crystal told us all that before we even walked in to view the apartment. Crystal was so prepared, she had the applications in her car and we filled them out on the spot. She told us that she would let us know, possibly even in that same day, if we were approved or not. We left and barely 3 hours later Crystal called and said we were approved. A few days later we signed the lease and now have a great apartment. You can tell Crystal loves her job and is great at doing it! Even if we didn’t get the apartment I would use Crystal to help me get another apartment. She is very genuine and already knows what you are looking for before you do!

I used Apartment Finders last year to find an apartment and it ended up being a bad experience, so I was sort of nervous at first when I found out we’d be working through another one after I contacted an agent through an ad I had found on Craigslist. Turns out, everything about the apartment and application process was as easy as it gets. Jeff was up front with me when I first inquired about an apartment saying that there had been a lot of interest in the place so the sooner we could meet the better. We were able to meet that day. He was very friendly and helpful — he answered as many questions/​concerns as he could. We signed the application the next day, and a couple days later we signed a lease and the apartment was ours. I was very happy with my experience. I would recommend working with Jeff!

This company is a COMPLETE SCAM. Wish I could give it 0 or negative stars.
PLEASE please read if you are even considering joining the company or doing business with them.
The «hiring» process — They call you, set up and «interview», and once you come in, instead of interviewing you, the creepy tech/​HR dude (Dan) basically gives you a whole shpeal on why you should join their company. In other words, scam. Since they have such an insanely high turnaround rate after getting hired, they need to hook more and more people because tons of people quit. I was too young in my professional career to know this yet.
Then he continues to tell you how you’ll get to show property immediately, get properly trained, etc. Lies. Once you get «hired» you will be asked to do bitch work — go take pics of units and spam every avenue online — craigslist, postlets, etc. Now that would be fine if they explained the process to you, but they don’t because they probably know they won’t get anyone if they told the truth. No one trains you and to you basically need to fend for yourself.
NOW get this! Here is the crazy part! So you get hired and are asked to pay an upfront fee of $ 200. Their «reasoning» is that this is an attorney fee for liability purposes. Clearly another scam because until you can officially show property (months if not more), there is no form of liability because all they make you do is post pictures online (literally).
Here’s the best part, they hire like 10 or more people «every round» so your looking at thousands and thousands of dollars this company probably collects a month on just upfront «attorney» fees. Absolute insanity.
They are disorganized and half the time when they send you out to take pics of units, they give you the wrong address or there is no lockbox at the unit.
They take roughly $ 20-​$ 60 out of your account every month (can’t remember exact number, maybe more) as well. I quit a couple months later and they continued to take money out. When I emailed them, they «apologized» and stopped. I told them they needed to reimburse me for the money they took out when I was no longer employed there. Once against, creepy HR/​tech dude Dan said he would and never did. Eventually he stopped replying to my emails.
I hate dishonest companies and my hope is this company gets shut down. They are anything but American or professionals, as their name claims. There is nothing more unAmerican than a company exploiting out-​of-​college kids and taking their hard-​earned money and lying to them.

We used Calvin & American Reality during our recent apartment search. Calvin was the first realtor we have used that listened to our needs and didn’t try to convince us into properties we were uninterested in.
Calvin really took the time to find us exactly what we were looking for and made the apartment search process a lot easier. We have already recommended Calvin to our friends and family.

Shawn helped me work through and expedite my approval process for my new home in Chicago while I was in Lafayette, IN in a professional manner. I would recommend giving these guys a shot, it was quick and clean!

We worked through American Realty to find our new place and Tim and Crystal were both awesome to work with. Besides both of them being personable, they were extremely easy to work with.
Tim was our main leasing agent who showed us our place, was quick to turn in our applications, and was very responsive and always in communication with us about the process and status of our application and every question we had along the way. He also notified us right away as soon as we found out we were approved for our place.
Crystal was who we signed our lease with since Tim was out of the office and she was so knowledgeable about the neighborhood we were moving in to and had a lot of insight to offer. She really seemed to know a lot about the management company too which was a bonus.
I am not sure why the office is listed as closed on another site on Unilocal as they are open on clark street!!!
Work with them if you have the opportunity to!

I had the pleasure of working with Shawn at American Realty, LLC. After having absolutely no luck finding an apartment on my own (I’d make an appointment, but it would always be canceled because the apartment was rented before I got there), I was referred to Shawn by a friend who had previously used his services. I called Shawn around 10A, and by 4:30 that same day, I had an apartment.
During that time period, Shawn was diligently searching for apartments and checking in with me about possible apartment complexes. He never suggested an apartment in a neighborhood I wasn’t looking in or an apartment far outside my price range. I explained what I was looking for and what my deal breakers were, and he found me the perfect apartment. He even dropped everything in the middle of the day to view an apartment with me, which was the apartment I ended up renting.
After weeks of unsuccessful searching on my own, he relieved all my stress and anxiety in one day. I have highly recommended Shawn to those looking for an apartment, and I will continue to do so. If I need to relocate in the future, I will definitely use him again.

ARP was FANTASTIC! It is my first time moving to the city and Jennifer Jones made it happen! Not only was Jennifer knowlegaable, but she catered to all my needs. She gave me tons of information and was patient with working around my schedule to show me many locations. In not even two days I found the most amazing place and couldn’t be more happy:)I will definitely be recommending ARP to anyone looking for great service and a perfect place to live!

I had a great experience with their agent Shawn when trying to get an apt. I saw their craigslist ad for an apt in the gold coast and set up an appointment with him to see the place. The apt definitely lived up two it’s description. All the procedures related to the lease and facilities were well explained. Shawn’s very polite and always got back to my calls and messages immediately. He also promised a reduced rate for this unit and he actually came over to my place an handed me a check containing the prorated amount for the entire lease term. Would definitely recommend !

We used American Realty to try and find an apartment in Chicago. We emailed and spoke to our agent extensively about our needs and requests. He emailed us pictures of a unit outside of the area and asked us what we thought about the unit. It was great except for the location.
After more phone and email conversations, we set up an appointment with him to go see units in person. He had several for us to look at that he swore we would love. None of the units were anywhere close to the requests we wanted-​simple things like large kitchen, updated unit, near the lake (We didn’t need anything brand new!). Simple requests. They had horrible kitchens, very outdated units, and some had mold! It was painted over, but you could see the mold though the paint! The units also had extremely worn out floors that needed to be resurfaced. Some were so scratched up, it appeared to have stains and grease ingrained in the wood. The unites, I believe we saw 5, seemed to be managed by what I would consider «slumlords», people who just want to turn the unit uninterested in keeping up with the units. Maintenance people would just paint over light switches and cover plates. Apparently it was too much effort to remove them.
We did see one unit we liked however after discussing the management company with the current tenant, he told us all the horror stories of he has had with them getting simple issues fixed.
I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone. What a waste of an afternoon.

In a last-​minute frenzy to find an apartment, I was lucky enough to have gotten in touch with Sue Yanki, with American Realty LLC. I reached out on Thursday and Sue immediately scheduled showings for the following two days. By Saturday evening, all my paperwork had been turned in. Sue advocated to have my application reviewed early by the property management system, pushing the process along in a timely manner.
Sue is a terrific agent and I would highly, highly recommend her to anyone! She had been extremely resourceful, professional, and incredibly enthusiastic, making my apartment-​hunting a painless, pleasant process.

I enlisted the services of Crystal Banks from American Realty Pros to handle my condo showings and place the right tenant for my unit. I must say, Crystal did not disappoint and she exceeded my expectations! I would definitely hire Crystal again to handle my condo showings and tenant placements in the near future. She is like the eharmony of leasing agents — no joke!
This was my first time renting out my condo so I was not sure what to expect; however, Crystal made my first experience hassle and stress free. She was always available to answer any of my questions as well as give me daily updates on the unit showings and potential candidates.
I was trying to rent out my condo during the late fall/​early winter months (the lowest period of the rental market) and Crystal was able to find the perfect tenant for my condo in less than 2 weeks. I can only imagine how well Crystal would do if I was trying to rent out my condo during the peak of the rental market (spring/​summer months).
Crystal really looked out for my best interest and is very business savvy. For example, I initially wanted to issue the standard 12-​month lease but Crystal recommended it was best to go with a 18-​month lease signing for my tenant. Therefore, this will target the lease to end in May 2015 — right at the peak of the rental period in which I can then be able to charge a higher premium for my next tenant.
If anyone out there is looking for a leasing agent to manage your condo showings and finding you the right tenant for your property, then I highly recommend going with Crystal Banks from American Realty Pros.

If possible, I would give 10 stars for one of their agents, Percy! He’s awesome. I found a listing on Sunday afternoon, called and texted him on Monday morning. My husband and I viewed the unit that evening at 6:15 p.m., and fell in love with it. Percy explained the application process, we applied Monday night, and were approved Tuesday evening. Percy communicated thoroughly throughout the entire process, from the online application, through the signing of the lease. He is great!
I highly recommend Percy Davis for your apartment search! He’s a rock star!