Chicago, a city in the US state of Illinois, is one of the favorite destinations for a large number of students from around the world. As a matter of fact, Chicago has gained popularity for various aspects for several decades. It is also one of the esteemed travel cities for tourists.
For students, Chicago boasts numerous educational institutes. Furthermore, it has many places where international students can book accommodations for their stay during their years of study in Chicago. There are different types of accommodations available for international students such as PBSA (Purpose-Built Student Accommodation), private rental apartments, and homestays. Among them, PBSA properties are becoming more and more popular; however, private rental apartments and homestays are also rented a lot by many students. In PBSA properties, they can book student apartments, studios, and rooms.
While searching for and booking student housing in Chicago, a major concern of many students happens to be to save brokerage fees, which they have to pay to brokers. So, many of them want to know whether it is easy or difficult to get brokerage-free student apartments in Chicago and how difficult it is to find them. Here you will get the answer to this question, which seems to be tough but is very simple, in fact.
Is It Really Difficult to Get Brokerage-Free Student Apartments in Chicago?
Getting brokerage-free student apartments in Chicago seems to be difficult when you search for them through conventional methods such as visiting brokers, reading newspaper ads, etc.
But, if you use the advanced online method, you can easily find brokerage-free student apartments Chicago with Universityliving.
How to Find Brokerage-Free Student Apartments in Chicago
There are some online student accommodation service platforms, which are available in the form of websites and mobile apps. On these platforms, you can find lists of student accommodations available in different cities in the world including Chicago. There, you can find the accommodation of your choice and can get brokerage-free apartments. One of the best and leading platform is Universityliving.com.
The Process of Online Student Accommodation Service Platforms
First, you are required to visit the website or mobile app of an online student accommodation service platform. There, you will find a search box, where you need to enter “Chicago” to find a list of student housing properties available in Chicago.
On the website of the platform, you will reach a page where you will find some properties available in Chicago listed. You may find separate sections for PBSA properties (student housing), private apartments, and homestays. You can read the details of every PBSA property, apartment, or homestay by clicking its name or image.
On the dedicated page of every property, you can find details like prices, amenities, types and subtypes of accommodations available, distance from universities, and more. Similarly, you can see the details of private rental apartments. On the pages of homestays, you can read the names of owners, rules of the houses, prices, and some other details.
You also find an option on such websites to save your time by filtering the properties or apartments according to your budget and preferences. You can filter according to price ranges, amenities, room types, shared/private bathrooms, shared/private accommodations, and more. The list of homestays can be filtered according to guest preferences, homestay types, etc.
Besides, some of the online platforms provide a special comparison feature for students through which they can compare multiple PBSA properties and private apartments available in a city on a single platform. However, you cannot compare a property or apartment of one city to that of the other city. So, if you want to compare properties/apartments available in Chicago, you can compare them with those available in Chicago only and not any other city. You can compare a maximum of 4 properties on a single webpage. The aspects that you may compare may include prices, distance (from universities), amenities, and more.
After all this, if you need to ask some questions, you can do it through these websites. You can find the option on these channels to contact the accommodation owners. Besides, you can also contact the webmaster or executive of the website with the help of the live chat option available.
On the dedicated pages of all types of accommodations, you find a booking option with the help of which you can start the booking procedure.
The procedure on the mobile app is almost similar except for some required differences for the mobile platform.
To Sum Up
In Chicago, obtaining brokerage-free student apartments can initially seem challenging through traditional methods like broker visits or newspaper ads. However, utilizing online student accommodation platforms simplifies the process. These platforms offer listings, detailed property information, filtering options, and comparison features, and ultimately facilitate easy access to brokerage-free options. You need to follow an easy process on these platforms from searching for Chicago’s accommodations to booking.
