Elan Realty Group

Even though we didn’t go with an apartment from Élan Realty, Ted Sdoukos was great. Kept an eye out for apartments with our budget/​requirements in mind and was very helpful. Even when we decided to go with another location, Ted was extremely professional, where in the past other agents would get upset with us. I would definitely reach out to Élan Realty again in the future if we are on the market for a new apartment!

Fred Chubin, thank you.
He found me an apartment within my budget in a very timely manner. He was there to help along with the enitre process, this was great. After my experience with other apartment services, where once I apply to the apt. That particular agent leave the follow up up to you, and the process dept. Which dragged out for weeks before, and no results were reached.
I will definitely refer this company and Fred to other friends and family. Thanks again.

Fred Chubin was a life saver! Not only did he find me great apartment in my budget, he went out of his way to make sure that I got the apartment when the previous tenant was having second thoughts about not renewing his lease at the last minute. He was punctual and made sure to go over all the paper work with me.

My experience with Élan Realty, specifically Merriah Guccione, was EXCELLENT. Without her, I KNOW I would not have found a place nearly as great as she found for me and my fiancé. So if you want the short version, I highly recommend Merriah Guccione with Élan Realty to help you with your living finding needs; apartment, housing (don’t know if she does houses that you’re looking to buy, because she just helped me find an apartment to rent, but I would assume as such)
If you want more reasoning:
First of all, most apartment complexes and landlords don’t call you back, or they get to you way too late, or they don’t make you a priority. I was trying to find places on my own, never knowing about a realtor for apartments and I stumbled upon Élan Realty and Merriah took it from there. She made me feel like I was her ONLY client (even though I know she had more). But that’s how much she put me as a priority in my eyes. She was always answering calls, e-​mails and texts. She dealt with my pickiness: I chose a place, she sent me the application then last minute I told her I was worried about the neighborhood and she assured me it was a good neighborhood, but she still let me find some more places and she met with me again to make sure I found the PERFECT place I was 100% happy with and one that was in a good price range but had EVERYTHING that I am spoiled to have in Iowa that I was finding was hard to get in Chicago: parking, AC, storage, dog friendly, etc.
She was patient with me, and friendly, and great to be around to help you with your apartment finding journey. She definitely gets things done, and not only that, but done right and efficiently. I needed to move in pretty quickly and she made sure things were expedited and I was taken care of. I am just beyond impressed with my experience with Merriah. She listened to my needs and sent me rent listings of places that fit what I wanted. I then chose places and she would send me a list of times and address of where we would be doing showings that day.
I say this part to address maybe some concerns of lower reviews of Élan Realty: sometimes she would throw some out that I requested BUT I’m glad she did because she would replace them with better ones because with me not knowing the area and properties, she replaced them with ones that were in better neighborhoods and had amenities that I wanted. She used her experience 100% and I trusted her with everything, as that’s her job, and she really came through. If it was just her going off the places I requested ALL the time, then 1) It kind of defeats the purpose of working with her and 2) I would have been in an over priced place and a bad location.
Did I mention, the first time I meant her, I WAS AN HOUR LATE?! I am from a small town/​city in Iowa and so I underestimated travel time and she did not cancel on me and give up on me, but insisted I still make it and she would be there whenever I made it. She had to move a lot around and re-​contact properties of showings to get me to come in. And again, SO GLAD I met with her because if she canceled on me because I was rudely an hour late, then I would have just settled with an expensive apartment that didn’t give me 100% everything, and really would have regretted my decision. So again, cannot say how happy I am with everything: service, experience, capabilities, quality, everything. Merriah is attentive, really listens to what you want, TRULY cares about finding you a place that you are satisfied with and she’s squared away.

Ok Readers, I need you to brace yourselves. This is going to be a long one, but an oh so good one.
Ok so I got accepted for this major culinary award, blah blah blah, they moved me (and my boyfriend and two cats) for the job. We started hunting months in advance for apartments, but no one ever responded to my emails and inquiries about places I found on my own through
and the like. We stumbled upon Élan accidentally and were fortunate enough to have Bridget Foley as our Realtor. Guys, Bridget deserves a peace prize or something. This woman is AMAZING. She was attentive from the get, I felt confident she knew what I needed. She found out my BF was a Veteran and made sure to take extra care of us because of it, something we rarely experience.
We had to rent what is called, «Sight Unseen,» which is as it sounds, we would never be physically seeing the apartment before we moved in. Scary right? Not with Bridget, she went around and took videos, posted them to youtube, checked the train times to our jobs… I mean, Wonder Woman. I was leaving a pretty intense private chef job from New York so you have no idea what kind of relief it was to have someone that was truly there for us. It hasn’t been an easy road, but Bridget has been there for us, and we know we are truly going to be able to call Chicago home because of her. Please Élan, give this woman an award.
Élan seems to be a great group that supports each other and its clients. I will be recommending and hopefully using Bridget and Élan Realty in the future.

My roommate and I found our last 2 apartments with the help of Merriah Guccione. She isn’t flaky like a lot of leasing agents and really goes the extra mile to help find something that fits what you’re looking for. She is very polite and incredibly responsive when you’re trying to get in touch with her regarding your apartment search. Not to mention, she was able to find multiple apartments that I was tempted to apply to within just a few days. As for Élan, they seemed to have a lot more listings available and opening up more regularly than a lot of other companies I’ve browsed. If you’re tired of getting the run around just to view crumby apartments, give Élan a call and ask for Merriah!

Merriah Guccione was amazing to work with. She was tenacious and diligently looked for the perfect place for my wife and I. I only had one day to find a place in Chicago and she made it happen. Highly recommend Merriah and Élan Realty Group Inc.

I’ve got to hand it to Elizabeth at Élan… once she found out about my experience, she went the extra mile and a half to make sure my roommate and I were taken care of and got an affordable place in the area we were looking for. She even helped us with a lot of stuff that other brokers might have looked the other way on. I’m glad she stepped in to help turn our experience around, and in light of that I’ve got to recommend you come to them for help finding a place. If at first it doesn’t work out with others in the group, reach out to her and she’ll make it right.

I tried for a little over a year to connect with Élan Realty to lease an apartment with them. Their apartments are little hidden gems in their respective neighborhoods and rent quickly. Determination, persistence and perseverance pays off. Keep at it and start early in the rental season and you will find what you are looking for. I dealt with Elizabeth and she was professional and awesome through the whole process. When I couldn’t get my phone to resend and share an important document we arranged for me to come by the office. Upon my arrival Barb and the office manager were extremely nice and patient with me. I would highly recommend using Élan Realty in search for a rental or purchase.

Lindsay was amazing. Simply amazing.
After booking with a couple of other agencies (not sure I should mention them here) to explore apartments and getting the «THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN AFFORD WHAT YOU WANT IN THOSE NEIGHBORHOODS» spiel from them, we punted and did a lot of searching on our own. We kept finding places on line and finally made a call to Lindsay, who was the agent for one of the apartments. That place ended up being rented BUT, when she heard our horror stories (not surprised, at all) she took us under her wing and showed us places that she knew would be a good fit. All of this with only 24 hour notice that we were coming in town to do this!
She found us the perfect place. She followed through on everything and we cannot speak highly enough of her and Élan.
Will definitely recommend this group to anyone looking for an apartment in the Chicago area.

Timothy W. at Élan Realty got me into a great apartment in WRP. He was incredibly helpful throughout the whole process. Listened to all my concerns and found me exactly what I wanted and guided me through all the paperwork and signings.
Tim great at what he does and I recommend both him and Élan Realty Group to anyone who needs help buying/​renting/​selling.
Thanks Tim!

This place only cares about making money!
This review is about an experience almost a whole year ago but I still thought it was worth mentioning to warn others.
So I need to mention that myself and my roommate had only seen one other place before we saw what ended up being our apartment. Needless to say, we were naïve and did not know anything about leases or security deposits or anything else so we are partly to blame but these people are beyond sneaky.
The agent who showed us the apartment was an older man and we could tell right away he was eager to just get us in there. After I pointed out several things that concerned me, my roommate finally convinced me to at least apply for the apartment. We could always find somewhere better right? Wrong.
We had to fork over a security deposit of 1250 which we thought they would just return to us if we decided not to get. Nope. We somehow got the apartment even though they did not check with ANY of our references including our jobs (don’t they need to make sure we can actually afford it? Or even actually have jobs?). Trust me, we checked with them all. Not to mention the leasing agent suggested we lie on the application to make sure we got it. We should have known better but hey, we were naïve college kids and they definitely took advantage of that.
We get a call telling us we got the place and we called back telling them we decided we wanted to keep looking. Well, image what a big slap in the face it was when they said o well thanks for the 1250. EXCUSE ME?
We marched into the office to at least attempt to get our money back which they did not like since we did not make an appointment (GASP). When we confronted them about not telling us about losing the security deposit they said it was on the contract we signed.
Us: How were we supposed to know?
Them: Well, we can’t tell you everything.
Us: Yea because you get to keep our money!!!
Them: (Silence)
Obviously, we were poor college kids so we had no choice but to sign the lease and not lose the 1250 deposit.
They did not want to give us a copy of the lease because they insisted the landlord would send us a copy when she signed it. We obviously insisted after the stunt they pulled and good thing we did because we never did receive a copy from the landlord.
Bottom line: These people only care about filling up apartments and money. They will take advantage of you. I have recently made a complaint against the landlord and the apartment building in the hopes they warn future renters but highly doubt that. Fair warning. Steer clear!

I worked with Brianna Williamson while I was overseas to find an apartment in Chicago. She was very thorough. Since I couldn’t see apartments in person, she made sure my «must haves» were included and measured to be sure the rental would accommodate my furniture. She also encouraged me not to settle for a place, but instead wait for one I really liked.
Before I went overseas I looked at places and was very frustrated because units were out of my price range and nothing I was interested in stayed on the market long enough for Brianna to show it to me. She suggested we continue the search while I was overseas. She did a great job communicating with me despite the time difference and found a place I love.

As if apartment hunting isn’t frustrating enough, the terrible experience I had with Elizabeth from Élan made it that much worse. After playing phone tag with her for two days, I was finally able to schedule an appointment to see the property I was interested in. The appointment was for 5:30 and she finally showed up at 5:48. There were 8 of us waiting on her and apparently there to view two different places. She took a group of 3 in first to view one of the apartments then came out to retrieve the rest of us.
We she came back to the gate, she was on her phone and stood there chatting for about 2 minutes with 7 people (two of the guys who viewed the first place hung back to see the second as well) standing there waiting. Finally she must have sensed that we were getting restless because she ushered us into the building (still on the phone). When we got to the third floor, she tried the door and realized that it was locked. She stood there talking for another minute before going downstairs and asking someone about the keys. We all overheard this and realized that Elizabeth didn’t even have keys to this apartment. She, however, stood at the bottom of the stairs continuing to talk to the vet about her dog for over 5 more minutes, while 7 of us stood lining the stairs of a sweltering hallway that smelled like wet dog, staring at her.
When she finally got off the phone she led us back to the courtyard and explained that the janitor was supposed to wait for her but apparently left with the keys. (she didn’t bother to explain that she was 20 minutes late and that he probably DID wait for her!) She then told us we could wait for him to show up– but she had no time frame on when that could be– or reschedule. I spoke up and told her that had been almost and hour (it was 6:15 at this point) and I didn’t have another hour to waste like this. I asked her if there was anyone else that could show us the apartment and she brushed me off. Clearly, she was not going to give up her commission and suggest anyone else who could show us the place.
Elizabeth was unprepared, unprofessional and rude. Even if the apartment was gorgeous, I wouldn’t have signed up simply because she did not deserve the commission. I will not hold this again Élan as a company, but folks– if you see Elizabeth’s name on the property– don’t bother unless you have plenty of time to waste!

Well, here I go again. I guess my first review of this place was too harrrrrd for Unilocal’s content standards– that just shows how much I dislike this place.
First off, the agent was late to our showing. Ok, fine. But then he shows us a pretty miserable place and acts really pushy, telling us we won’t find anywhere better in our price range (which was by no means ridiculously low). Of course we did find a great place… With someone else.
And they never emailed me back when I tried to find other places. Guess I didn’t fit into their desired clientele. Go elsewhere!

I stopped in on a whim driving by on a Friday as I heard Linsay say she was going home. She helped me anyway. I had found a place that I wasnt crazy about and they wanted me to sign a lease on Sunday. (Kass Management).
So I wanted to see if I could find anything better before then. Lindsay did not oush me to look at something I strictly was against which another place did. She was informative and set up a showing the next day. She followed up with me on Sunday.

I reached out to Élan Leasing and a few other firms for a June 1 move date. Timothy Wolf from Élan responded immediately and was so wonderful to work with. He hooked me up with several custom searches in MLS (aka the big real estate database in the sky) so I got notice of any apartments that came onto the market that met my specifications. This was great because I was the one who decided which apartments I wanted to visit.
Timothy was also SUPER quick to respond to my dozens of emails and texts about wanting to visit places and other questions. For the place I ended up signing, I saw it on Élan’s website on a Monday afternoon and he set up a visit the next morning!
In the thin rental market this year, having an agent that was on the ball made a huge difference in getting an apartment that I liked at a reasonable price. Come the summer I will be a resident of Lincoln Square and I couldn’t be happier with my apartment, the price, or the neighborhood. Thank you Timothy for all your hard work!

Was the worst experience trying to find a place. If you want to find a place put in your application and after a couple days call them and ask if you got the place to find out no you didn’t cause there was another application approved first this is your place to go. I was told by an agent that i got the place done deal and found out 3 days later after i called him 4 times that we didn’t get it :) And management doesn’t call you back:)

There were two parts to my relationship with Élan, the first being a one or two star experience, and the second a five star, so I averaged things out. Basically, I involved Élan and a few other realtor leasing agents in a relocation housing search for some clients of mine who were relocating from Europe and who were coming in to house hunt for one weekend, in preparation for a later move. I was hoping the staff at Élan could help find us some suitable properties.
In short, my first attempts at contact were like pulling teeth. Unless you are ready to run out the day you call and sign a lease, these folks cannot help you. My first contact was with a young sales frat boy type who was of no help. The second was with a young woman who not only was of little help, but I felt like I was getting the «brush off.» In short, I was baffled at what I thought was short-​sightedness on their part when I am trying to help them make a hefty commission, and just asking for a little help to organized an effective weekend of viewing properties. But I write it off to professional immaturity, lack of training, and experience.
I was finally referred to Mr. Fred Chubin, a highly experienced, informed straight-​shooter sort of guy, and he ended up having a very positive influence on my clients and on the process. My clients liked his properties, which were suburban single family homes. And they trusted that Fred was being very honest and responsive to their needs. I understand the «show my the money» part of dealing with realtors, and what they need to do to assure they are dealing with serious clients, and also that things don’t really happen until the last minute in scheduling viewings, but I was always taught that you need to treat all inquiries as valued customers from the first contact. My clients did apply for one of Fred’s properties, and I hope it all works out for him, ’cause the end of the story was a positive one, and largely due to his expertise, experience and enthusiasm.

I did the usual Craiglist scouring for the annual April move and found quite a dump. It looked a tad better in pictures, but it was priced right for the property. Mark emailed me back about showing the place and asked if I had extra time that day to see other places and asked for our budget and so forth.
The night before we were to go out and see the CL place, he advised that a new place just came on the market and fit exactly what we were looking for and we could see it in the morning.
Oh, it was our dream place and that’s where we are moving next week.
The process was really easy, Mark negotiated the price and was in constant contact with us. Highly recommended.