I was disappointed with the CAF experience from beginning to end.

1.) When we went in to meet with them, we were explicit about the fact that we needed a pet-friendly building.  The agent showed us places that were not identified as pet friendly and said, let s go see the place and if you like it, we can see if the owner will then accept pets.  We said no - we wanted to be honest upfront and also did not want to see apartments that we could potentially fall in love with and then not get because we had pets.

2.) While we were out with the agent looking at apartments (being driven in the agents car), she got a call on her cell phone and asked if we wouldn t mind going to pick up her son from the babysitters.  Not wanting to be rude, we agreed.  It added a half hour to our time and we felt it would have been more awkward had we said no - we felt trapped.

3.) We finally picked a place and went back to fill out all the paperwork.  Then we made an appointment with CAF for 3 weeks later to sign the lease and give them the first month rent and security deposit.  Well, they forgot to tell the landlord about our pending appointment, so with a week before move in, CAF called us and said, the landlord changed her mind and decided to rent to someone else. - This I came to find out was an outright lie from CAF.  Since I had a copy of the lease to review, I had the landlord s number and called her.  She advised that CAF did not tell her about our appointment and since she did not hear anything further from them she did not think we were serious about the apartment.  So, had I not called her to clarify, we would have lost the apartment!

When I contacted CAF to tell them about the miscommunication all they said was, well, why don t you just come and sign the lease now. There was no apology for the situation nor did they take ownership of the mistake.

I would not recommend CAF and suggest people look elsewhere when trying to find an apartment in Chicago.

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