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The article explains that they are pre-vetting renters and handling showings and such. They add value for the landlord, not for you. But, they are also probably

The article explains that they are pre-vetting renters and handling showings and such. They add value for the landlord, not for you. But, they are also probably extracting the maximum amount of blood from you, because they can...

euroderf 3y ago
> they are pre-vetting renters Equifax, check. Ten minutes and done. Maybe also all those things you did in high school that went on your "permanent record" ?
koolba 3y ago
They also kick back some of the fees back to the landlord. Not openly or directly of course because that would be illegal. But only an idiot would think that landlords are not getting a cut of those fees.
karaterobot 3y ago
The last time I hunted for apartments, the landlords did all that themselves for no money, so I guess things have changed. I guess I can see charging some money, but pre-vetting renters is probably just a matter of submitting their application to some service, and maybe doing a Google search, right? How much would you pay someone for that? About $7500? And I imagine that in an $1100 rent-controlled building, you don't have to do too many showings before someone bites, so how much of a burden is that? A few hours? Would you pay me $7500 for that? I guess I could see $1000 being a generous amount of money for brokers fees in this situation, if everything was being fairly run. So, in my view, the difference between the asked-for $15000 and the generous $1000 is the amount of inefficiency in this process introduced by what amounts to greed. Greed is to be expected, but when it starts to look predatory, regulators sometimes step in—which means it may be short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive greed. To be fair, probably nothing will come of it, and the market will just dictate these costs. But, it's still a shitty thing to do.
rsstack 3y ago
> handling showings Sometimes, especially in peak season when they do open houses for a whole afternoon. Many times the broker told me to pick up a key from the doorman and let myself in and let them know if I was interested.

euroderf 3y ago

> they are pre-vetting renters Equifax, check. Ten minutes and done. Maybe also all those things you did in high school that went on your "permanent record" ?

koolba 3y ago

They also kick back some of the fees back to the landlord. Not openly or directly of course because that would be illegal. But only an idiot would think that landlords are not getting a cut of those fees.

karaterobot 3y ago

The last time I hunted for apartments, the landlords did all that themselves for no money, so I guess things have changed. I guess I can see charging some money, but pre-vetting renters is probably just a matter of submitting their application to some service, and maybe doing a Google search, right? How much would you pay someone for that? About $7500? And I imagine that in an $1100 rent-controlled building, you don't have to do too many showings before someone bites, so how much of a burden is that? A few hours? Would you pay me $7500 for that? I guess I could see $1000 being a generous amount of money for brokers fees in this situation, if everything was being fairly run. So, in my view, the difference between the asked-for $15000 and the generous $1000 is the amount of inefficiency in this process introduced by what amounts to greed. Greed is to be expected, but when it starts to look predatory, regulators sometimes step in—which means it may be short-sighted and ultimately self-destructive greed. To be fair, probably nothing will come of it, and the market will just dictate these costs. But, it's still a shitty thing to do.

rsstack 3y ago

> handling showings Sometimes, especially in peak season when they do open houses for a whole afternoon. Many times the broker told me to pick up a key from the doorman and let myself in and let them know if I was interested.