Are Apartment Brokers only a New York Thing?

For your NYCers, did you use one? How much did you have to pay?

I used one and it was a long while back, but I believe it was one month’s rent.

[quote]Are Apartment Brokers only a New York Thing?

Only no.

90% of the time yes.

I moved to NYC in 1999 for my first “real” job in my career field. Unfortunately that job’s starting pay was shit… $30K. I was moving from Arizona and completely naive to the actual expense of living in NYC.

I answered an ad for apartments and was given an address on 5th Ave. When it came time for my appointment, I was a bit flabbergasted because the building I found at the address was the Empire State.

The realtor was this short, thick, gravelly voiced woman. Think Linda Hunt, but the twice the size. She was patient with me, as it was painfully obvious I was out of my class. The first thing I’d knock her for was encouraging me to lie on the rental application… just so she could show me the apartment.

The unit turned out to be $3000/mo. I’ll never forget her matter-of-factness when she explained to me that I’d have to come up with first and last month’s rent, plus 2 month’s for her fee.

“So, 12 thousand dollars then?” I asked.

“Yes, just that,” she replied.

Ever since then I’ve disliked apartment brokers.

They’re also everywhere. Not just NYC. Anywhere rental housing is in short supply.