Author: Kay Cleaves

Halloween Special: Top 10 Horror Movies set in Apartments

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If you're faint of heart or under the age of 18, this article might not be for you. Otherwise, stay tuned for a lineup fit for a Halloween movie marathon.

Apartments are a great setting for horror movies. Close quarters, weird neighbors and unknown previous occupants who may or may not have died horribly are all excellent components in a good scary movie. In honor of Halloween, here are some of our favorite ghost films and creep fests where apartments and apartment life play a major role. Continue reading Halloween Special: Top 10 Horror Movies set in Apartments

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Kay Cleaves

Failure to Communicate

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So I've been working on a research project involving Yelp and Chicago landlords. It'll be a few weeks before I have the final results, but I wanted to take a moment to discuss one early piece of data I've already discovered. There's one particular word that landlords and tenants both use, but with completely different definitions. The conflicting use of that word is at the core of nearly 40% of Yelp complaints against landlords, property managers and their ilk. Continue reading Failure to Communicate

Published by

Kay Cleaves

Apples & Pears Property Management Phone Log, Thursday Oct 15, 2015 [Fiction]

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What you are about to read is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the people listed below and lunatics you might happen to know personally is entirely coincidental and unintentional, although also hopefully funny.

Time Building Unit Assigned Details
2:03am Roscoe 19 Martin Locked out.
2:22am Hirsch 32 Martin Hallway smoke detector beeping.
3:01am Chase 3R Pete Lights are out on back porch stairs 2nd to 3rd flr east
3:05am Chase 2R N/A Someone is stomping around on the back porch
3:10am Chase 3R Martin Locked out.
7:09am Cullerton 2F Pete Slow drain
7:15am Damen 28-C Pete Slow drain

Continue reading Apples & Pears Property Management Phone Log, Thursday Oct 15, 2015 [Fiction]

Published by

Kay Cleaves

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fireplace

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This is a picture of a fireplace. It comes from a fireplace manufacturer up in Minnesota called Kozy Heat. To you it may seem like a very normal and nondescript picture. It's relatively bland. There's nothing striking about the composition or content.

For us here at RentConfident it's possibly the most important picture in the world. Continue reading Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fireplace

Published by

Kay Cleaves

70 MPH in the Wrong Direction

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Imagine that you have never taken drivers' education classes or obtained a driver's license. Now imagine that you decide to take a $600,000 CTA bus filled with passengers on a joyride on the highway. You've got limited knowledge of the rules of the road - only what you've observed from being a passenger in other peoples' cars. Oh, and that bus is about 40 years old and in need of some serious maintenance. The AC doesn't work, the engine makes a horrible grinding noise, and the seats are covered in peculiar biological goo from years of use.

This is not something your average rational person would do. However, it serves as a pretty tight analogy for what many Chicago landlords - and landlords across the country - do every single day. Continue reading 70 MPH in the Wrong Direction

Published by

Kay Cleaves