Chicago Property Management Blog

Forget the Zillow estimates. We analyzed every completed lease renewal across our portfolio from 2023 through 2025 to show what's really happening with rents in Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, and the surrounding collar counties.Every month, Zillow, Apartments.com, and a dozen other platforms publish rent estimates for the Chicago area. Those numbers are based on listing prices, which is what landlords ask for on vacant units. They don...

Pricing a rental property is more art than science. After 23+ years of leasing over 5,000 investment properties for other investors and myself  across the Chicago metro area, I can tell you that getting the price right is the single most important decision in the leasing process. Not marketing. Not photos. Not timing. Price.And when we get the price wrong, whether that’s on us or because we couldn’t get on the same page...

Chicagoland real estate investors, how long should it take to handle maintenance on your rental properties? Between operating GC Realty & Development and connecting with listeners from the Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast, maintenance is one of the topics we come back to most. And for good reason. How an investor handles routine and seasonal maintenance sets the tone for how successful those investments will be. Rental Unit Main...

In 2025, we processed 1,019 lease expirations across our Chicago-area portfolio. The data tells an interesting story about where the market stands and how tenants are responding to renewal offers.The Renewal RateOf those 1,019 leases, 72.3% renewed. We’re proud of that number, but the real story is in the context. That compares to a Chicago metro average of 61.1% and a national average hovering even lower.Why Does This Matter?For ...

Managing a rental property in Chicago requires a clear understanding of what qualifies as a lease violation and how landlords are allowed to respond under the law. When a tenant signs a lease, they enter into a binding contract that outlines responsibilities, rules, and expectations for both parties. When those obligations are not met, violations can arise that put the tenancy and the property at risk.For landlords renting property in C...

Recently we published several articles breaking down GC Realty & Development's 2025 lease renewal performance, looking at retention rates, rent increases, and the city versus suburb dynamics. Those pieces generated solid feedback from Chicago investors and got me thinking how did these numbers compare to 2024 and are there any trends we can spot.So I went back into our 2024 data. That gives us eight full quarters to analyze, cov...

Every Chicago investor has had this debate. City or suburbs? More cash flow in the city, more stability in the suburbs. Better tenants out west, down south, more demand downtown. Everyone’s got a theory.We’ve got 1,019 lease expirations from 2025. So instead of debating, let’s look at what actually happened.The Retention NumbersChicago (City): 71.9% renewal rate (297 renewed out of 413 leases)Suburbs: 70.7% renewal rat...

In July 2020, the City of Chicago approved the Fair Notice Ordinance, which significantly changed the notice requirements for landlords looking to non-renew a lease, terminate a tenancy, or raise rent. Then in June 2021, Cook County rolled out its own Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (RTLO) that brought similar protections to suburban Cook County. If you own rental property anywhere in the Chicagoland market, understanding these no...

It’s one of the most common debates among Chicago real estate investors: which property type gives you the most stable tenants? Everyone has an opinion. We have the data.In 2025, we tracked 1,019 lease expirations across single-family homes, condos and townhouses, and multi-family buildings throughout the Chicago metro area. When we broke the renewal rates down by property type, the results told a clear story, and a few surprises....

If you own rental property in Chicagoland or Cook County, you should be aware of several laws that can cause you expensive headaches. At GC Realty & Development, LLC, we stay up to date with ever-changing legislation that affects how landlords operate. Below are just a few of the landmines we see unaware landlords walk into that can cost you BIG TIME.Get insider insights every Chicago landlord should know before making costly mistak...