Urban Apartment Locators

Martin was such a delight to work with… I was really amazed at how he handled working with all 6 of us! All of the instructions were clear and if we needed to bug him with a dumb question he was patient and polite! I would recommend him to anyone!

Martin was an integral part of finding my two roommates and I our first apartment in Chicago. After initially reaching out to Martin while he was in a business training program, he returned my text message immediately following the training and went to work right away on finding a time to visit the location we called about. When this apartment was taken off the market that day, Martin communicated this to us and was up-​front about the whole process. Martin also found us a list of other apartments, and when I called to set up a time to visit these apartments, Martin mentioned that the original apartment we called about was back on the market. After visiting this apartment and making it clear that we wanted to rent, Martin accommodated us in every way, shape, and form possible, and we were able to get the apartment rented in one day. He was extremely helpful and professional throughout the entire process, and I will definitely be reaching out to him to find more apartments to rent in the future.

Martin was hired by the apartment building management company (not me) and he did a great job of earning my business. After a unit I had put an application in on was unfortunately rented to someone else who had put their application in just the night prior, Martin stayed in touch and sent me other units.
He was very professional, provided all the necessary information about the unit (s) and was patient with all of my questions.
He is extremely responsive and really seems to enjoy his work.
Although I did not hire Martin (he represented the building), I really enjoyed my experience with him.

I’ve been putting off writing this review for a year, but Martin Medenica at Urban Apartment Locators deserves our praise for the help he afforded us in finding a new apartment last winter. During the Polar Vortex of 2014 we had to leave our apartment of 17 years when the building sold. Martin showed us an apartment that is perfect for our family and was constantly available throughout the process. At first I was nervous about making payment before the lease was signed, but Martin was completely responsible with our money. Martin is an honorable businessperson and looks out for the best interests of all of his clients. During a stressful time he made finding a new place stress-​free. I would not hesitate to do business with Martin again and hope those of you reading this review will consider reaching out to him. Thank you, Martin.

Although we didn’t end up renting a place through these guys, Martin was super helpful with our search for a [large] dog friendly place in a specific area. He was the ONLY one who followed up with me out of the various rental agencies we were contacting. Thanks!

Saw an apartment shown by some lady who works for this company, she had no idea what she was doing. She blew us off once, and showed up late the second time. She knew nothing about the apartment and was on her phone the entire time. When we left, we asked if she had any more places and she said no, yet they are «one of the hugest chicago apartment finders in chicago.» I spoke of craigslist and she said we should check there or be more prepared on room measurements if we call them back.
She was very rude, disinterested, and apparently did not want to bring more business to the company. I will avoid using this company at all costs.

My roommate and I are do not enjoy moving nor searching for apartments. As is usual we left finding a new place until the last 10 days. We were using an agent from century 21 who didn’t seem to care if we found a place.
I found a property Wednesday night on craigslist and fired off an email asking to set up a time to view. Martin responded by lunchtime Thursday and we set up a viewing for that evening. We met Martin at the building and he was right on time which was refreshing. He showed us the 2 floor plans available and understood the property intimately. We decided to offer on one and he asked if we could meet at office. (No fill out app and email to me so I can get back to you). We met at office, completed application and he pulled credit and background while we sat with him. He verified previous landlord and income by lunch the next day. The only delay was because current landlord didn’t respond until 6 PM. The landlord contacted us that night to schedule meet to pick up keys! We were moved in by Saturday night. Absolutely amazing! If you need an apartment or condo hope that Martin has one of the property owners with an open place. The experience was very positive, professional and efficient. Thanks Martin!

if only every apartment locating and move-​in experience was as professional, considerate, thorough, and reasonable as this experience. Martin is a gem in this market!
We got lucky that Martin was our point of contact for the unit we were interested in and have now moved into. We were even luckier that we were able to use UAL for the majority of our move-​in process. UAL has some of the best technology for lease-​signing that I’ve ever seen. My roommate, who was across town, and I were both able to sign a lease separately, online, and have it appear co-​signed, along with the owner’s signature, all in a matter of minutes. The terms were clearly and thoroughly explained, and I was never made to feel that I asked too many pointed questions (which I tend to do). He treated the privacy of myself and my roommate with respect, not allowing our Social Security information to be made public in any way. The process for the credit check was brilliant – we never had to give our SS# publicly in the process.
His recommendations for the move-​in process also helped us make the smoothest transition between living spaces that I’ve ever had. Martin has great interpersonal tact and professional charm. If you want an experience in which:
you are treated with respect,
your time, money, and personal security are as valuable to the other party as they are to you,
every step of the process is clear,
your decision can be based on complete knowledge/​disclosure,
and you feel you have a friend on your side,
then UAL is as good as it gets.

At the time I hired Urban Apartment Locators this spring, this page had about 10 or 11 Unilocal reviews — nearly all favorable. Don’t know what happened to them, but based upon my experience, I wonder…
I hired Martin toward the end of May to help me rent my $ 2k/​mth condo. He seemed very professional. He was very good about touching base with me on the phone and was always pleasant.
The unit, however, sat on the market for some 2 months. He had a number of showings, but did not do any open houses. He had said those don’t usually work for rentals; I had said don’t worry about that then. (This becomes important later.)
So I flew back to Chicago to meet with other leasing agents since my verbal contract with Martin was non-​exclusive. After meeting separately with two other agents, I left their contact info as well as my old work laptop (with company logo on the screen saver) sitting out on what had been a completely pristine granite counter top. There was no mistaking the fact that I was home.
That night, while cleaning out my old office, Martin called. Suddenly, he has renters who coincidentally saw the place while I was out and absolutely insisted on filling out applications immediately. I found the timing very interesting.
The problem, however, came when I tried to clean the kitchen counter before flying out of town again. After wiping the surface down, I turned on the disposal. Nothing. I turned it off… reached inside… and pulled out a 4−¼″ metal nut pick!!! Huh? I did not even remember owning a nut pick. I know everything in that unit worked — including the disposal — at the time I left Chicago.
The next day, I spoke with Martin. When asked if he could explain how a nut pick could have ended up inside the disposal when there had been absolutely nothing on the counter top, he did not sound surprised at all. He said in very calm, measured tones «I cannot.» He then suggested that perhaps, since I had asked him to water the plants on my balcony, the pick had been outside and gotten stuck to the bottom of the watering can.
I said «Let me see if I got this straight. You are suggesting that the metal pick somehow adhered itself to the hard, molded plastic underside of the watering can, and when you put the can in the sink to fill it up the pick went from completely horizontal to completely vertical and dropped down the center of the disposal. That’s your position?» He said «yes.»
Even if it had happened that way, that still doesn’t explain why — when the disposal was turned on and made that awful sound they make when they break — he did not call to tell me there was a problem. But I digress.
Since internet sleuthing did not turn up a link between him and his potential renters, I went ahead with their application. I flew back to Chicago a few weeks later to pack up. As I was packing the kitchen drawers, I found another nut pick. Turns out I did own a set of nut picks (I’m in my 40’s; I may have gotten these 10 or 20 years ago as a gift — who knows?).
The problem here was that I found this other pick — identical to the one in the disposal except the handle was not ripped off — wedged at the very back of the drawer, underneath the shelving paper. Almost like it was hiding, you might say…
In all fairness, I will say that it does not appear that anything was stolen. I remain, however, completely creeped out by my experience. You can choose to believe the plastic watering can story if you wish. In my mind, however, I can connect a much straighter set of dots by imagining that Martin was using my condo for an unauthorized purpose. If he truly doesn’t know what happened, it means he allowed someone else to use my unit and rummage through the kitchen drawer until s/​he found a particular item, which is even more disconcerting. At the very least, it would seem that Martin allowed someone who had been viewing the unit out of his sight, to rummage through my kitchen drawer and slam a nutpick into the disposal. Seems like a stretch, but regardless, not an attractive option either.
The disposal was $ 150 to fix. Not enough to be worth filing a small claim, not enough for a prosecutor to pursue a criminal charge. So here I am. Unfortunately, my moving company — whose roughly dozen glowing Unilocal reviews formed the basis of my decision to hire them — was not particularly better. If you have nothing else to do, read on at LT Moving in Chicago.

When we first moved to Chicago, we were looking for someone to help us in our quest to find a townhouse in the South Loop. To our luck, we ran into Martin who not only found us three great options — all three exceeded our expectations in different ways — but was willing to go the extra mile for us. He met us on-​site at the first location and was willing to drive us around to the other houses.
On our moving day, the leasing agent refused to even help as it seemed that giving us the keys to the place were on lowest on priority list, Martin was able to meet up with her, and bring by the keys for the house 10 mins after we got in. Now that is full service!
So, if you are looking for a place in the city check out Martin! Even if you don’t see what you want on the website or craigslist, he will search out the possibilities and find you a place you’ll love.