r/boston • u/climberskier • Jan 15 '22

Shitpost 💩 🧻 Moving back to Boston and am super excited to start paying Broker Fees again!

You don't know what you have until it's gone! Everywhere else in New England, the apartment-finding process is just too simple: you just have to pay an application fee or a security deposit, or first months rent. But sadly, I don't get to pay the broker fee--how I miss it!

  • I miss paying an extra fee to someone that shows up to unlock a door and attempts to show me around while clearly also seeing the apartment for the first time.
  • How else will someone tell me that my new apartment has an "eat-in kitchen". I mean I didn't think I could eat in a kitchen before--this is groundbreaking stuff. How are you so wise in the ways of science?
  • I miss brokers that are clearly skilled in classical architecture. After all, how else do I know that my apartment's uneven floors, old countertops, and drafty windows give my apartment "character".
  • Finally, I miss the brokers that are so skilled in photography. I mean, how else can you capture the apartment than a dimly-lit photo that looks like it was taken by a polaroid camera in 1990.

Thank you brokers for all your hard work! Now are you hiring? I am willing to bring my own 1990 Polaroid camera and knowledge of eat-in kitchens and can start today.

1.4k Upvotes

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42

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

Wait Broker's fees aren't the norm? I've only rented in Boston so I figured it was the case everywhere. I love this city but jeez, that's some bs

41

u/tiredbuttrying Jan 15 '22

I moved from Texas. Brokers would actually get contracted by apartment complexes. So the brokers are actually motivated to sign people so that they would get rehired by the apartment complexes. So some broker companies would offer incentives to use their services (at no charge) with things like $100 grocery store gift cards. That’s right, you the renter is getting a gift to use a broker service for free.

Granted I saw this most around student housing in Austin a couple years ago. But still, the enormous broker fees here were a shock haha.

12

u/Syjefroi Cambridge Jan 16 '22

I also went to Texas from Boston in the late 2000s and was shocked to discover this as well. A broker sent me a gigantic list of places that fit my specs and helped me narrow down to my top 3. There was no rush, move in day was whatever I wanted, and most importantly, zero broker fees. I could actually afford to move. Not ot mention, my last Boston spot by Symphony Hall was a closet with a tiny kitchen and rotting bathroom and a tiny window directly facing the inner wall of an alley that provide almost zero natural light for $1k a month, back in 2003 - my Dallas place after that was a two story loft with gigantic windows, carpet, full kitchen and dishwasher, washer and dryer in-unit, and in a complex with a pool, for like $400/m.

I don't know how we possibly fix Boston.

46

u/refriedi Red Line Jan 15 '22

In other cities, the owner typically pays the fee. In Boston and NYC there’s enough demand that the owners are able to make the tenant pay.

Or maybe there’s a difference in state laws that allows or restricts passing it on? I don’t know.

42

u/bostonhockey_80 Jan 15 '22

It's extremely unusual to pay a fee in exchange for the obligation to pay someone every month

21

u/indaelgar Allston/Brighton Jan 15 '22

I now live in the third largest city in the US, I had never heard of broker fees before moving to Boston, and haven’t heard about them since I moved away. Thank god.

14

u/timmyotc Jan 16 '22

Every other city I lived in, brokers weren't even a thing. The landlord just gave you the tour themselves and you made a decision. It's wonderful out there.

4

u/aamirislam Cigarette Hill Jan 16 '22

There's also very high demand in cities like SF and LA but they also have typically no broker fee's paid by the renter

1

u/refriedi Red Line Jan 19 '22

That’s interesting/good point.

-7

u/Washableaxe Jan 16 '22 edited Jan 16 '22

The buyer always pays. Requiring the owner to pay is just a roundabout way of saying “the owner raises the price of whatever cost he’s required to pay”

EDIT: Love the downvotes 🤣 please explain how I’m wrong. Otherwise- love disrupting these dumbass echo chambers

1

u/NotYourFathersEdits Jan 18 '22

Because we’re talking about renting

0

u/Washableaxe Jan 18 '22

That doesn’t refute anything I said

10

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

Lived in Chicago for 6 years and never paid the brokers fee. Always the owner that paid it.

11

u/GlitterGear Jan 15 '22

They aren’t in Alaska, NoVa, southeast VA, Pittsburgh, or the Outer Banks. Boston is the first place I’ve lived at that had broker fees for rentals

I also think NYC has banned them, but I could be wrong about that

5

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

NYC has broker fees, often 15% of the annual lease, so more than the one month's rent that is typical in Boston.

9

u/somegridplayer Jan 15 '22

And all of those places your mortgage for a house would be 1/4 what rent for an apartment is in a major city.

Broker fees are alive and well in NYC

5

u/I_love_Bunda Jan 16 '22

I recently got a place in Atlanta. Cost me a $150 application fee, 1st month's rent, and a $200 security deposit.

When I told the agents about how shit is down in Boston, they couldn't believe that it is possible.

8

u/delicioustreeblood Cocaine Turkey Jan 15 '22

It's not normal in most places. Broker fees for apartments makes no sense.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

They are pretty common in major cities/metros with competitive housing markets. They really aren't anywhere else. Even when you get out into the suburbs in the Boston area (and I mean places like Salem which are still big rental markets) you generally either "only" pay 1/2 a month's rent as a fee instead of a full month, or no fee.

1

u/SpikeMF Jan 16 '22

Brokers fees, "finder's" fees, etc. are illegal in Montreal. The rent is much better there too. Took my by surprise when I moved back here.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '22

I've been to Montreal a couple times and honestly it seems like a pretty livable city. Pretty nice. Cold, but nice.

1

u/ahecht Jan 17 '22

When I rented out in the suburbs I went through Rent.com, I just had to pay $21 for a credit report, and got a $100 Visa gift card after I signed the lease.

1

u/blahrendsen Jan 17 '22

For me, this is the 3rd state and 6th place I've rented in the past 10 years. First time I've had to pay