Why New York City Real Estate Brokers Are Losing Their Minds

[Passages]

At a recent street protest, I asked some why they’re so angry.

BY ALEXANDER SAMMON
JUNE 17, 2024

Hundreds of real estate brokers were spilling off the sidewalk and into the street around New York City Hall. “There will be more,” broker Graig Linn assured me, venti iced Starbucks coffee in hand. “It’s 9 a.m. That’s tough for brokers.”

Even that early, all the big real estate agencies were represented. Sotheby’s brokers were there in matching shirts. Douglas Elliman brokers were there in matching shirts. Bond brokers were there in matching hats. Corcoran brokers were there in matching hats and matching shirts. Everyone in attendance was gathered to object to a New York City Council bill that would save tenants from having to pay fees to real estate brokers who were hired by landlords—i.e., brokers that tenants did not hire. In other words, it was a rally for keeping the fees on the backs of tenants.

New York City is one of only two cities in America that allow this practice, and during a time of skyrocketing housing costs, it has become an increasingly loathed, hard-to-explain payment—one that usually falls between 10 to 15 percent of the annual lease amount to the broker who shows the apartment. For example, if you rent a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn for $3,800 a month, you can expect to pay a $7,000 fee to someone who maybe only let you in to see the place and then handed you a lease to sign. The New York City Council bill, called Intro 360 and spearheaded by Bedford–Stuyvesant Councilman Chi Ossé, would force landlords, not tenants, to pay the brokers those landlords hire.

This has infuriated brokers—who, not incidentally, share a muscled-up lobbying group with landlords.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/06/broker-fee-ban-tenants-renters-real-estate-new-york-city-inflation-housing-apartments.html

[Tetrachloride]

1. They got the haircut but not a real job.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Why don't landlords do the showing?

And why should brokers even get that high of a fee?

[Escurumbele]

10. It is OK for the Real Estate Broker to get a fee, because at the end of the day they have gone through the

process of finding a property for the client, taking the time to show it,and sometimes they show many properties before the client decides, or the client finds something on his/her own, or with another Realtor (there is no loyalty in Real Estate), writing the appropriate documents, etc. BUT, the fee should be paid by the landlord, AND the fee should not be that high.

I helped my niece find an apartment in Florida, I took her there, and all the landlord had to pay the Real Estate Agent was $200.00 for finding a tenant. Maybe the fee needs to be a little bit higher in New York, but it should never be more than $500.00

Having the tenant pay for the fee is crazy, they are already paying a very high fee for rent in New York, and I bet the $3,800.00 monthly fee is for a studio apartment.

New York is insane, I could never live there, everything is overpriced, the traffic is horrendous, never a place to park, the subway almost always full and it takes a long time to commute even by subway. Yes, New York has a lot of great things to see, to go to, that is why, for me, it is a one week visit, then go back home, I can always come back to visit the things I could not visit the last time I was there.

[Bev54]

3. No doubt they are really upset because so many of them own rental units. This is really a lopsided

structure and needs to be dumped.

[FakeNoose]

5. Bingo - the abuse of NYC tenants has been going on for way to long

[LymphocyteLover]

4. I thought this was a joke article at first. The bill seems very reasonable.

[Passages]

7. Too often we think we're reading from The Onion but

it's not.

[LymphocyteLover]

9. So true!

We are living in a time of non stop insanity and fuckery

[mountain grammy]

6. Trumper's all!!! pure greed!

In Colorado, rental companies charge an "application fee" of up to a few hundred dollars just to look at a rental. No refund if you don't get it. Greed at it's worst..

[Passages]

8. Outrageous.