There are many costs associated with living in an increasingly expensive New York City, but the broker fee might be the most detested one.
Moving into an apartment in the city can easily cost more than $10,000 in upfront costs, including a security deposit, first month’s rent and a fee paid to the broker. The fee is typically more than one month’s rent, and right now the median rent is roughly $3,400.
I was a landlord in Boston, 2 bedroom, river view,quite nice. I lived there for 4 years then rented it for 40, and it was interesting to see the movement of rental power from owners to renters and then back again.
In our final years the rent was $3500, and we required first month, last month, and security deposit. If there was an agent fee the renter paid it, because that’s what the market was doing. I did not feel bad for those people, as we had advertised the rental in the Boston Globe and Zillow, so they could have found it themselves by just opening a newspaper or clicking a website. But they were apparently willing to pay someone else $3500 to do that for them, and that made their total entry fee well over $10,000.
There was a decade when it became important to “find” renters, I honestly don’t remember why, but we did it and paid the agents, but that day passed.
Deposits should be paid by the renter for sure, that is not a fee. When I rent out my condo, I pay the broker fee which is a month rent for each contract year, but I hire the broker to find a tenant. If my tenant renews for 2 years, she will charge me 1 month.
But my broker takes care of so many issues between contracts that it is will work for me to pay the broker.
If a tenet hires a broker, then the fee usually gets split between the renter broker and landlord broker but paid by the landlord.