Grafft Group

Although I did not have my own realtor, John was as good as they come on the seller’s side. It was an extremely difficult property to close on with a pending litigation against the property, but John was highly responsive and communicative through the entire 6 month process.
It was a learning experience for both of us, and for his continuous effort to help smooth out this home purchase for both me and the seller I am very grateful. When the time comes to buy or sell again, there’s little hesitation in my mind that I wouldn’t call John to help out.

John brings a level a knowledge that is not typical of a local real estate agent. I had a complex real estate deal and John knew what to do and when to do it. Highly recommend his services.

I don’t think we would be in our dream home without the help of John! He clearly understands the market and has excellent negotiating skills. He always worked with our schedule, listened to our needs/​wants, budget, and deadlines. The knowledge he shared with us throughout the process was invaluable. I would recommend John and the Grafft Group to all my friends and family.

I worked with Mariana to help me find a place for rent,
I am very satisfied with the place that I got with her help. I needed something fast since I was moving in for a new job and she only had a week to help me find one. The pricing was reasonable and Mariana was able to help me negotiate the move in fee down a large percentage (50% down original move in fee, which is incredible).
She was very friendly and she provided extremely valuable advise on general things concerning the locations I wanted to pick (I didn’t want to have to travel a lot back and forth from work).
I ended up with a place that was a 10 – 15 minute walk from work and the apartment from the inside is clean and well maintained. I would recommend her group to anyone looking to settle with only what they are comfortable with. They earned their 5 stars!

I worked with Mariana Davis. She was such a help and professional, she showed me a place Wednesday and had a lease inked and signed on Saturday. Not to mention the place is incredible, in a great area, and at a very reasonable price. Just a side note, I worked with Chicago Apartment Finders for 3 weeks and they couldn’t seem to help me find a hole in a wall.

John was very professional, always eager to help and understanding of my requirements.

I worked with Johnny and Andrew to find a renter for my first apartment in Chicago this past month and had a wonderful experience. I was impressed with their knowledge of the market and ability to negotiate rental terms/​price. In addition, Andrew was prompt and always followed through on each of the day to day tasks (there were a ton of them in this case) involved in dealing with a few move-​in date issues we had with a difficult renter.
It would have been a tough situation to manage on my own so I appreciate them going above and beyond to make it as smooth of a process as possible.
I recommend that any first-​time renter searching for a tenant give the Grafft Group a call and I look forward to working with them in the future.

I was stood up by Renter’s refuge. Over the phone, we had set up a date and time to meet at an apartment, but they never showed up to meet me. I called and there was no answer. I left a message, but nobody ever called me back. No explanation. No apology. If you can’t manage the most basic function of the service you offer, which would be showing up to show your apartment (not to mention returning my phone call regarding not being there) then I don’t trust you to do much else.

I had the sincere pleasure of working with John when looking to purchase my first condo. I was obviously new to the process, and he was always available and open to answering any and all questions I had (no matter how big or small they were). I don’t have a vehicle, and John would pick me up from my apartment and take me to all showings… as well as dropping me off thereafter (sometimes at various places I was needing to be at the time). Personally, I enjoyed conversing with him and enjoyed his company and truly felt that I couldn’t have found the ‘perfect’ place without his knowledge and understanding of my wants and needs. There was also a logistical issue in which I needed someone to be at my new property to turn on People’s Gas, and he had an associate be there all day to handle… as I could not take off time from work. I can’t say enough about the great experience I had and would highly recommend him and his team for all realty needs!

I had the pleasure to work with John Grafft when I 1^st moved to Chicago. I needed to find a place within 4 days that I could move in right away. John and his team were very knowledgeable and helpful during the whole process. I ended up renting a beautiful timber loft in the west loop within my budget and within my tight time frame!
That could have been the end of my relationship with the Grafft Group, but I was recently in the market to buy my 1^st condo and again ended up working with John. This time the process was a little longer since we had to 1^st find the condo of my dream, which took nearly 2 months and again John was very patient and resourceful when it comes to find good deals in the area we wanted.
After we did, John was really impressive at handling all aspect of the transaction from the initial offer, through the attorney review and the closing process.
Can’t say how much I love working with the Grafft Group! Very knowledgeable, always ready to help and not afraid to do the extra mile in order to make sure that my deal closed smoothly.
We love our new home and are still amazed by how easy the whole process was, thanks to your attention to details and your negotiation skills!
Thanks again John!

John and his team are first rate! They have helped my landlords find qualified tenants for their empty apartments and I have worked with John on numerous purchases and sales.
I always look forward to working together.
Always informative and friendly.

John helped me find my apartment quicker than any other Realtor in the market. His ability to understand exactly what you want saved me a lot of time. I had a few restrictions and didn’t demand a lot, but location was on the top of my list. He did not only find the place where I wanted, but with a few more perks I wasn’t even counting on. He exceeded my expectations and saved me a lot of time.

I am writing this review from the perspective of a real estate agent, so I have a pretty high bar of expectations and what it takes to deliver 5 star service. As an agent, I could have handled my own personal properties, but I am a huge believer in specialists, and the best leverage of time. John and his team did not disappoint — they found me outstanding tenants quickly, took care of all the paperwork expertly, and took the stress out of the process. I always say, «peace of mind is priceless» and this was certainly the case. He’s an agent’s agent!

I had the pleasure to be on the other side of the table with John Graft. I found that he gets the job done quickly, efficiently, and has systems in place. Overall, he was very professional to work with, and all parties involved were very satisfied.

John did an excellent job leading my search for an apartment. He has a very strong knowledge of each of the Chicago neighborhoods. I had very tight time requirements and John was able to provide multiple properties in different neighborhoods that met my expectations. I was extremely impressed with his attention to detail, professionalism, and response time. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending him to anyone looking to rent or buy in the Chicago area.

John is a breath of fresh air in an understandably difficult industry. I have lived in Chicago for 10 years and had countless bad experiences with leasing agents from Chicago Apartment x, y, z. I worked with a number of agents and finally decided to take the search upon myself. That didn’t work great and I was lucky enough to meet John a few years ago and he has found me my last two apartments. Both times John worked diligently to not just find me a place but find a place that really worked for me and my girlfriend. My current apartment is amazing. The listing showed a higher cost and was listed as furnished. John was able to work with the owner to get almost everything out of the apartment and was able to persuade the lister to offer some concessions and get us an amazing place within our budget. John is an anomaly in the industry. Only thing that upset me was my plan for my future place is to buy and I was disappointed that I would have to switch to a new real estate agent but guess what. John handles sales as well. What a transition he has already started helping me narrow my search for when the time comes to buy. A+

Contacted through a message on their website 3 weeks ago and left a voicemail two weeks ago. Never heard back. Very unprofessional of them.

I had a great experience. My realtor did a great job learning what I wanted. He looked out for me like a friend and not a customer

This review is for Andrew Fung. Andrew returned my call when I was struggling to get in to see properties over Memorial Day weekend. I was only in town for a few days to find an apartment (I need to nail one down in a hurry) and was frustrated to find that no one seemed to be showing anything over the holiday! Well Andrew was working, and he did his best to find someone who could show me one of the properties I was interested in. Ultimately he wasn’t able to get anyone to help out but he still followed up with my by email to check in and see how my search was going. He was very helpful and answered my questions about Chicago neighborhoods in detail, all without ever standing to make a commission off of doing so! His knowledge of the neighborhoods and rental properties out there was very impressive and spanned a range of areas. He was very helpful to me and I am so thankful that he went out of his way to offer his input. The fact that he came to work over Memorial Day weekend also speaks volumes about his work ethic!
If you work with Andrew, I’m sure you’ll have a positive experience. He really goes above and beyond to offer his expertise and truly cares about helping people find what they are looking for.

I worked with Perry Crawford to find a new apartment in the West Loop this past September. My requirements were very specific as to what I wanted, and he was able to come up with a few places that were very nice & not easy to find in that neighborhood.
Perry did a very good job of acting quickly to secure an apartment that we knew would go very fast, and get it off the market before anyone could take it out from under me. Best part was that he was very active in tracking down all of the paperwork I needed from the broker who was very difficult to get a hold of at the time. I would definitely use Perry in the future.

Had the pleasure of working with Brett. He was very patient, attentative, and also easygoing. Conversation with him was not uncomfortable or forced — genuine guy. Also, big thumbs up for great communication. Out of all the apartment hunters I got into contact with, Brett was the only guy that got back to me reliably, showed up on time, and kept tabs on the process even after I had already put in my application.
I’ve subtracted one star for Renter’s Refuge’s access to apartments. Not Brett’s fault. In comparison to other apartment hunting agencies that I worked with, Renter’s Refuge seemed to have access to a smaller selection of apartments at the same sub $ 1200 price range.

We had an absolutely fantastic experience with Renters Refuge! Everyone who works for the business was completely professional and helpful.
As someone who is moving from a small city in Michigan to Chicago; it can be quite an unnerving experience. Having a company that doesn’t sugar coat the market and honesty answers your questions was soo nice!
Gus was AMAZING! He drove us all over the city and set up nearly 6 showings in different neighborhoods. He was super friendly and funny and answered any question we had honestly.
If you’re looking for a new apartment this is the company that you should go through.

I had a showing set up for 11:40AM today with Kaitlin Ochenrider. We showed up but she wasn’t there so I called but no answer; I left a voicemail but she never called back. When I got home, I noticed that she had left me an email at 10:13AM to cancel. An email an hour before a showing isn’t what I’d call sufficient notice. If she had at least CALLED that would be one thing but are people really checking their emails every 5 minutes while out apartment hunting? I don’t think so.
Edit: There was a miscommunication about phone number however, I do still find a problem with cancellation within 1 hour of showing so I will leave the rest of the review up.

I was moving to Chicago and used Renter’s Refuge to help me find an apartment. Not knowing the Chicago area very well, I wasn’t really sure what neighborhood I was interested in — they were very helpful and even came and picked me up and drove me around to a few different areas to view some apartments in my price range.
Their site was easy to use and had some really good photos of apartments and a map that comes up to show where it is located… Great service! I would definitely use them again.