News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on An easy way for NYC renters to schedule apartment showings. Parent comment

Re:An easy way for NYC renters to schedule apartment showings by bradleyjg on Thursday July 11, 2013 @04:14PM (#6028874)
Who pays the broker is generally a sign of the market conditions. When it's a renters market the landlord eats the fees, when vacancies are down, like now, it's the other way around.

Also, for all the reasons mentioned in potatolicious's other post [1], it's difficult for a landlord that is renting directly (i.e. without a fee) to convincingly communicate that fact to potential renters.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6027785

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An easy way for NYC renters to schedule apartment showings by brigade on Thursday July 11, 2013 @04:29PM (#6028997)
Has it ever been a renter's market in NYC? It seems that NYC's rental market has to have been deeply in favor of landlords for a very long time in order to create a market for these brokers to even exist.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An easy way for NYC renters to schedule apartment showings by bradleyjg on Thursday July 11, 2013 @04:58PM (#6029191)
In 2002-3, I remember landlords not only paying broker's fees, but also offering 1-2 months free. Then in 2009-10 there was another dip after the banks laid off all those people.

I wasn't renting in the Dinkins' era, but from what I hear it was an entirely different story.

[ Parent | on HN ]