Time to turn the tables.
Chicago Renters, I have to confess something - landlords these days hire as much for my skill in background checking as they do for my ability to market their apartments. Renters have this crazy reputation of being uniformly unemployed former sex offenders with bad credit who skipped out on their last lease. If you're applying for an apartment chances are good that you will be subjected to a security check more thorough than those they apply to new police officers. I encourage this behavior - it helps to keep neighborhoods clean.
However, landlords have an equally unsavory reputation for being layabout shady shysters from foreign countries who are just a single late payment away from foreclosure and/or running off with your security deposit. It's only fair that you should be able to do some background checking of your own, and fortunately a lot of the information is available free of charge.
When I'm representing renters I normally perform all of the following background checks as part of the service, but if you're renting without representation in Chicago (or you're working with an apartment locator instead of a real agent) you'll have to do it yourself.
A quick disclaimer before we begin: this info pertains to Chicago renters only. Much of it works anywhere in Cook County, but if you're renting elsewhere I'm afraid your situation is beyond my expertise. However, you're welcome to try the techniques below and let me know if they successfully transferred to your state or city!
