There's very little comedy in apartment research. That's probably for the best. I don't think anyone would find it funny if our reports ended with "Ha ha, just kidding." However, it's important to laugh sometimes, so this week I've scoured the internet to find funny quotes about apartments and apartment life. Here they are. Continue reading 14 Awesome Quotes about Apartments (From Comedians, Authors and Philosophers)
A couple of week ago, Politico Magazine covered a recent study about how search engines could change opinions in a big way by changing the order of their results. The research focused on something called the "search engine manipulation effect," or SEME. In a controlled study, over 20% of test subjects with no prior opinions on a given candidate wound up choosing sides based only on the order of search results presented to them. The article was focused on how this could affect political elections, but it made me curious as to how search engines, independent of the sites they catalog, could be affecting our decisions on where to live.
I decided to do a little study of my own. I took a list of 234 Chicago neighborhoods, generated by the Chicago Department of Tourism. I ran searches for all of them on Google and analyzed the first page of search results. I was looking for key words that could sway a city newcomer's opinion.
Over the next few Mondays I'll be reviewing some of the things I found. Today I'll be talking about my research methods. I'll also be looking at the 55 neighborhoods for which I could find no data at all - Chicago's imaginary neighborhoods.
Continue reading Chicago’s Imaginary Neighborhoods Chicago Neighborhoods According to Google, Part 1
Apartment hunting can be difficult and exhausting. The average renter has to research apartments, make appointments, deal with weather, make small talk, climb stairs, and enter a bunch of strangers' homes, each time not knowing what is waiting behind that apartment door.
Without a lot of luck, renters have to repeat this process several times before they find the right place. We can't make that any easier. We can make it slightly more fun.
Introducing RENTO. It's like bingo, but the letters actually stand for something: Residence (Apartment), Environment (Building), Neighborhood, Tour (Showing), and Owner (person who shows the apartment). Get five squares in a row to win. It's fun for all ages! Refresh this page to get new cards! Thousands of combinations are available.
$2 per laundry cycle", "rooftop deck is closed", "Keurig in leasing center", "fake flowers", "fire doors standing open");
shuffle($hoptions);
array_push($noptions, "car with boot", "car with ticket", "loitering kids (summer) / dibs (winter)", "graffiti", "someone walking dog", "someone pushing stroller", "someone yelling in a non-emergency", "sidewalks in disrepair", "blue light police camera", "Starbucks", "man in tight pants", "siren", "drunk or high person", "nearby vacant house", "someone talking on cell phone", "taqueria", "street construction", "man wearing pastel shorts", "parking permit sign", "bus/train sounds", "liquor store");
shuffle($noptions);
array_push($doptions, "car with ticket", "double parked UPS or Fedex truck", "bike lane", "graffiti", "divvy station", "someone walking dog", "someone pushing stroller", "someone smoking", "siren", "someone talking on cell phone", "nail salon", "dry cleaners", "convenience store", "billboard", "Starbucks", "street construction", "chocolate smell", "car horn", "someone wearing a tie", "utility spray paint on sidewalk");
shuffle($doptions);
array_push($toptions, "tenant not home", "tenant home, displeased", "tenant home, friendly", "awkward moment ", "one room off-limits", "you explore apartment unsupervised", "neighbors audible", "phenomenon defying explanation", "shoe removal required", "unexpected loud sound", "cat present", "two people speak at the same time", "floor creaks", "ceiling fan rattles", "living insect appears", "something gets broken", "everyone present laughs", "a phone rings/vibrates", "unscheduled guest", "rain or snow", "water sounds behind walls");
shuffle($toptions);
array_push($ooptions, "disheveled, confused", "checks phone", "can't answer question", "says something offensive", "too much perfume/cologne", "is late for appointment", "mentions local restaurant", "wears glasses", "has hairy knuckles", "has key trouble", "forgets your name", "smiles constantly", "mentions CTA", "shares neighborhood trivia", "trips", "apologizes", "mentions previous appointment", "has food/beverage", "mentions street parking", "asks where you're from", "has a cold");
shuffle($ooptions);
?>
| R | E | N | T | O |
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| Free | ||||
| R | E | N | T | O |
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| Free | ||||
Inspired by Chicago Apartment Hunting Bingo on Kay's old real estate blog StrawStickStone.
