@Joey Nakayama I'm in between on this as I see value in both. My managing brokerage does a lot with rentals so I come across this quite a bit. It seems that the big property management players have bypassed security deposits all-together because of the CLTO. I've commonly seen between $250-400 for a move-in fee for each adult applicant in lieu of a security deposit. Not only does this alleviate a lot of the potential legal headaches, but cuts down on their administrative upkeep as well. Furthermore, that's now their money.
For me personally, I'm one guy and simply collect a security deposit at this point. These large property management companies all have professional staff and there's much less at stake for them if their guys need to go in and make repairs. It's much more costly for me to do so.
In any event, in each case, it all comes down to tenant screening. I'm interested in seeing what other folks around Chicago have to say about this.
