Software serves both parties with a win. Faster for LL, cheaper for Tenant.

Is it though? Airbnb is essentially a rental broker, it charges a high fee, and still hasn't turned an annual profit. Plus the landlords add on "cleaning fees" and more that the tenant must agree to pay.

I don't really get where brokers fit in. Most landlords should have the time/employees to take care of such things themselves. An absentee landlord would need a whole property management service to take care of everything, not just one small part.

Brokers should be a niche service at best.

Not really. My parents used a broker for their rental. They manage the maintenance and rent collection themselves, but did not have the time or energy to do marketing/showing/vetting of new tenants.

And the broker they used basically does all the listings in the condo complex, so he has a steady flow of interested and vetted renters as well as standard leases that cover the specifics of the condo complex, as well as a relationship with the management office to get the renters approved quickly and get them keys for amenities and such.

In our case we pay the broker, but I can see a lot of value in their services for the landlord.

Do you know how much it would cost to have an actual employee, just to show the apartments and answer questions? You're paying them hourly or salary, plus payroll tax, unemployment, all of the other added expenses that a blue state throws on top of that. Plus liability, you now have to comply with every blue state law- oops did you not give the employee their exact mandated lunch time under California's very complex, tough to parse lunch rules? Get ready for a six to seven figure fine. The employee could always invent a discrimination lawsuit, wrongful termination, claim they were injured on the job, etc.

The broker is an independent third party to whom you pay a fixed fee, and have no extra cost or regulatory liability beyond that. A no brainer

> Most landlords should have the time/employees to take care of such things themselves.

Do they have to have their own fulltime electrician on staff or are they allowed to contract it out? Why the insistence that the work be done by their own employees instead of contractors?

In NYC, there are often two brokers—one for the landlord, and one for the tenant.

They serve themselves, really.