There's no denying that "green" construction and housing practices have popped up everywhere. In fact, Illinois has long led the country in eco-friendly housing, with the most LEED-certified square footage per resident. Even small private landlords are taking steps to retrofit their properties for the sake of the environment.

It's our opinion that "green" construction should be a top selling point to all renters, even if they think that climate change is a load of malarkey. Modern environmentally-forward housing doesn't have to mean stinky compost heaps and weird fluctuating solar power. Much of it is actually less expensive and more convenient for renters. If it makes it easier for you to stomach, think of "eco-friendly" as a codeword for "better housing." Here's why.

Pro Tip, renters: every sentence that comes out of your mouth in a showing should end with a question mark! Agents and landlords know what aspects of their business are profitable but unpopular. They won't volunteer such information without you asking.

With the goal of helping renters know what to ask, back in December I posted a collection of questions that renters could use during showings. That article focused on the subject of applications and fees. Today I'm back with more questions, this time designed to help you find out about the landlord's maintenance and hiring policies.

One of the biggest causes of friction between landlords and tenants is the quality of maintenance. In my years working in property management, the tenants who had the biggest problems with our maintenance and customer service were the ones who spent their apartment showings just looking at the apartment itself without asking any questions about our business practices.

About Hiring

• What sort of background checks do you run on their staff before hiring?

Read on for more questions!

Growing up in the suburbs, I'd chat with neighbors while out walking the dog or taking a break from yard work. Since moving to the city, I'm not so forthcoming. If a neighbor starts talking to me in the building lobby, it makes me wonder when the stabbing will start. The news industry is determined to make Chicago seem like the most crime-ridden city in the United States. Even if you see no personal evidence of crime in your life, it's easy to fall into the trap of expecting to be the next victim.

This kind of pervasive culture of fear can make renters shy away from interaction with their neighbors. As a result, the first encounter between two city neighbors is far too often a screaming match over small annoyances that have built up and boiled over. Meanwhile, structural problems affecting large groups of renters are never brought to the management as none of renters realize the extent of the damage.

There's a better way to go about city renting. Today I'll be explaining the basics of forming a tenants' association. Renters who participate in these groups can find better safety and great social benefits. Organized renters will also find that they have much more clout when problems arise with landlords and property managers. Read on to find out how to start your own!

Google auto-complete has once again helped me to create a great blog article! This time I entered the phrase "Why does my landlord need..." and let it suggest things that have made tenants curious or suspicious. Nearly everything on the list has a reasonable explanation, so today I'm here to clear up some of the confusion.

1. A key to your apartment

While it may not seem like it, your landlord does want to make sure that both you and the apartment remain intact while you're living there. Although some landlords break the law by coming and going from your apartment at will, in most cases the key is to be used in only a few cases:

• to make repairs that you've requested without you having to sit around and wait
• to make emergency repairs that may affect other renters or the whole building (i.e., gas leaks, water leaks, etc.)
• to check on your well-being if your loved ones raise reasonable levels of concern
• to show your apartment to new prospective tenants, after notifying you first

If they use your key for any other reason, you should probably be on the phone to your attorney or local legal aid provider.

2. To do an inspection

If you're a voucher holder then you know that the city must inspect your apartment before you move in and every time your lease expires. For the rest of you, it may be somewhat new and jarring to have a landlord that wants to make regular inspections. Not all of them call it an inspection - some of them will instead come in to change the furnace filters on a regular basis, but it's still a scheduled walk-through of your apartment. Continue reading 10 Weird Things Landlords Demand From Their Tenants (and why they want them)