The landlords in NYC don’t like to do anything so they hire property managers, and those are approached by brokers/agents that work for “free” and bring leads to them. In reality whoever brings a solid lead to the property manager wins. I have rented all my apts without paying broker fees by finding who’s the property manager, called them directly, and sign a contract at their offices. Of course I have good credit/finances. I just automated that manual process in software