While I do agree with the spirit of this, doesn't this mean that any fees that brokers require will be included in the rent?
replies(7):
If it's in the rent, it's better to amortize the cost of the broker fee over a year vs. pay upfront.
Between the fee + first month's rent + security deposit (+ sometimes an additional month's rent) it is common to have to front 10K - 20K just to get into an apartment here.