Chicago Property Management Blog

Tim finally got his hands on the first full draft of Mayor Johnson’s Protecting Renters Ordinance, so this week we went past the headlines and into the actual details being discussed.Some parts of the proposal surprised me. There are actual tenant responsibilities and consequences for blocking lawful access. But there are also new fee limits, longer notice requirements, and relocation payments that could completely change how Chic...

Recently, my team and I have been getting a steady stream of property management inquiries from Chicago investors, both in the city and out in suburban Cook County, who all have some version of the same problem. They have an eviction that has been going on forever. And these are not owners sitting on their hands. They have been aggressive at every step, doing what they are supposed to do, and the case still will not move. After hearing ...

Mayor Brandon Johnson's Protecting Renters Ordinance is being framed as a major win for Chicago tenants. This article lays out five specific ways it could end up hurting the very renters it is meant to protect. First, the context.On June 29, Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Department of Housing proposed the Protecting Renters Ordinance, or PRO, described by the administration as the biggest update to the Residential Landlord and Tenan...

I recently joined Stacey Salyer on her podcast to talk about something property management companies are historically pretty bad at.Marketing.I will say that as someone who has been in property management for almost 23 years.Most property managers are busy operating. They are dealing with owners, residents, maintenance, leasing, accounting, and whatever fire showed up that morning.Marketing becomes the thing they will get to later.That ...

A resident walks into your leasing office, or sends an email, or mentions on a phone call that they have an assistance animal. What you do in the next minute matters more than almost anything else in that conversation. Handle it right and it is a non-event. Handle it wrong and you have the opening chapter of a fair housing complaint.Here is the good news. The process is not complicated once you know it. After leasing over 5,000 units in...

Last week I walked you through Mayor Brandon Johnson's Protecting Renters Ordinance. What is in it, and where I think it backfires on the renters it is built to help. At that point it was still just a proposal.This week it went to City Hall. It got its first public hearing, and the fight is officially on.So let me give you the facts. What happened at City Hall, what is actually in the bill now, and what the people pushing back ...

On a recent Straight Up Chicago Investor podcast with Jason Wagner, we dug into who should actually be buying right now. The episode felt timely because I have been getting this exact question nonstop. People want to know if they should be aggressive and chase deals, or sit on the sidelines until they have more clarity.I get some version of this every year. But I am hearing it way more right now because the market feels funky. Inventory...

This episode was heavy on Chicago landlord policy, but we also covered the Bears stadium rumors, the state junk fee law, flooding and sump pump backups, Chicago’s air conditioning rules, and one important LLC issue that can hurt landlords during eviction if they miss it.The big theme was simple: a lot of these laws are being sold as tenant protections, but many of them could make housing more expensive, harder to provide, and hard...

In working with our 500+ clients and talking to listeners of Straight Up Chicago Investor, I get this question more than almost any other one in the ESA category. Owners assume the law draws a clean line. Dogs and cats, yes. Anything weirder, no. That is not how this works.After leasing over 5,000 units in the last two decades across Chicagoland, I have seen requests for emotional support pigs, birds, lizards, ferrets, and yes, more tha...

I try to stay on top of every proposed change to local rental laws. Not because I enjoy reading ordinances, but because we manage for more than 500 investors, and it is my job to spot what is coming before it lands on them. Lately my desk has been busy. In just the last several months, a handful of towns across the Chicago area have moved on rental rules, some big and some small. So I pulled them into one place for you.Below is a quick ...