New York City Council Votes to End Broker Fees Squeezing Renters

I never understood why landlord brokers are even a thing in a market like NYC. I live in SF and I've never heard of such a thing here, and we probably have a similar market when it comes to landlords getting to take advantage of high demand when it comes to listing visibility and negotiation.

Why do landlords think they need a broker in order to rent out their units in NYC? I would think demand is so high there that listings on all the regular-suspect listing sites would be more than sufficient to get their units rented quickly and at a price they're happy with.

No-fee listings seem to be a thing in NYC, but appear to be for a small minority of units.

Good brokers serve as a liability shield from being hit with discrimination claims.

> Why do landlords think they need a broker in order to rent out their units in NYC?

In NYC, it probably ties back to organized crime somewhow.

> Why do landlords think they need a broker in order to rent out their units in NYC?

Because they know that the fee will be paid by the tenant, so why not?

> I live in SF and I've never heard of such a thing here

BTW brokers are very common in SF as well, usually called "leasing agent" or something similar. Every non-corporate rental I ever looked at had a broker involved at some level, e.g. organizing open houses, doing private tours, sending out application forms, vetting applicants, sending out lease agreements. It's just that you as the tenant don't have to know or care because you aren't the one footing the bill.

my assumption has been that the landlords noticed how much money the brokers were making and they figured why not bring it in-house and get a cut; i.e. the brokers are sharing the commissions with the landlords, and helping ensure there is no competition. My theory is if the landlords cannot make money doing this, they revert back to independent brokers. I don't have proof, but I'm pretty sure something like this is going on, and this law will do nothing. I think broker fees should be banned, and the rents should reflect the costs; if landlords want to hire broker/agents they can.

> I never understood why landlord brokers are even a thing in a market like NYC.

NYC is all about optimizing the grift.

Imagine a small-time landlord that owns six 20-unit 6-story buildings across Queens. When 1/3 of their inventory turns over in September (the busy time for apartments in NYC), do you think they want to run all over the borough to 500 showings until they finally get all of the units rented? Do you think they want to hire a staff that will show all the units? Hell no! They can, FOR FREE, just tell one (or several!) brokers, "if you manage to rent this unit out, you get to charge whatever fee you can get them to collect." And then they just need to do some paperwork when the broker finally lands someone.