Went behind a brokers back and rented a unit broker showed me

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by Kefir King

I got an apartment long ago (Jersey City Heights 1970...4 rooms, eat in kitchen $130) from an ad in the paper. I met a broker there who showed me the place (while tenants were eating.) After I said yes, the broker mumbled about his commission and so I gave him, I think, a half month's rent.


After I got to know the owner a couple months later, he said "You mean that son of a ***** charged you a commission? I paid him." Apparently the only function the broker performed was to pass only "suitable" tenants since the 32 unit building was lily white.


So boo-hoo for poor innocent brokers. For every one that gets screwed there are probably 3 who screw their clients.

i don't know about jersey but on rentals here in nyc it is the tenant who pays the fee not the landlord . i had brokers call me all the time when we had apartment ad's in the ny times to ask if they could show the apartments no charge to me .

in fact our building retains a dedicated broker and the tenants still pay

[Kefir King]

i don't know about jersey but on rentals here in nyc it is the tenant who pays the fee not the landlord

I doubt that has been the case in all markets. I can well imagine landlords paying the brokers in the "first two months free" eras (two recessions of the '70's and the housing recession of the early '90's that affected even Manhattan.
Tenants climbing over one another to get an apartment, wasn't always the rule like it is now.


A broker taking from both landlord and tenant should be imprisoned for fiduciary fraud or at the very least lose his license.

[leelowe1]

Kenstar, yes you need to pay the broker and it's quite dishonest that you didn't. This person did your leg work for you but yet still you reap the benefit? It's things like this that make renting hard for everyone.

If you couldn't afford to have a broker or wanted to cut corners, you should have apartment hunted on your own

[mathjak107]

he would complain bitterly if he did everything he was supposed to do to earn his living and then the boss or customer stiffed him

[Kefir King]

I probably could have gotten out of paying my broker because I had signed nothing except a one-year lease. But I didn't want to screw anything up because I had been living for months at the Y and was getting sick of it.
The Apartment was old work charm, 4 rooms, with crown and picture moldings, French Doors, glass knobs, EIK, oak floors, circa 1918, easy street parking and 15 minute drive to work and the rent was $138 and Jersey City had universal rent control at 4% or the CPI whichever was less.
After 15 years, when I moved to the Waterfront, I was STILL under $200 but I got "an offer I could not refuse," so I moved to a new "luxury" apartment, aka doorman and electric heat.
<Having a trip down memory lane..>


That was my only experience with a broker.