I live in Boston, and while I have some familiarity with rental markets in a couple of other spots in the US, I can only really speak about Boston. Here, it's m

I live in Boston, and while I have some familiarity with rental markets in a couple of other spots in the US, I can only really speak about Boston. Here, it's much more common for the tenant to pay the broker fee than the landlord when one is used. There are no-fee apartments, but they're often being shown directly by the landlord without a broker. Occasionally the landlord pays the fee (for example, sometimes a former tenant will agree to pay a full or half fee in exchange for breaking out of the lease or a landlord will pay during the slow season), but it's a minority. Among my friends, it's certainly more common to end up paying a broker fee than to have the landlord pay it (personally I've had it happen to me both ways.)