Let’s talk broker’s fees. I’m so angry about them that I have to vent somewhere.
I said I’d give my friend my advice while she was looking at apartments in the west village. She had already found a few places she liked at reasonable prices (at least there are some good things coming out of the tanking economy!) so we went to see the one afternoon with her broker and every place we went to the broker kept saying, “price plus my fee” Or “landlord pays my fee” or “plus one month’s rental fee.” By the time we’d seen five places I was going out of my mind because I was tired of hearing about how much he was going to charge. OK I get that this guy makes his living by matching people with a place to live, but it just seemed shameful that he would be so focused on it.
I told my friend all of this later and she said she didn’t even notice because it’s normal. I disagree. I think fees are only for people that don’t want to put any effort into where they want to live. It’s not normal and I just don’t understand why anyone would pay a month’s rent for doing something they can do themselves with a little time.
I’m venting on the Jakobson page because I found out that they don’t charge a fee. My friend called them up and we’re going to see places with them next weekend.
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