Is the 15% broker fee history?

A client asked me this recently, and the short answer is no. There are still plenty of people paying the 15% fee for the right apartment, and 15% is still the standard on which negotiations and concessions are based.

HOWEVER, negotiations and concessions are much more popular that they were a year ago. (Though they are not as popular now in the high season as they were a few months back.) This results in half-fees, 10%, 8.3%, one month, 1.5 months, and finally everyone's favorite - no fee. You can hope to get some sort of discount in many (but not all!) cases, but the magnitude of that discount depends on who has the listing, what type of listing it is, who the landlord is, and how flexible/desperate that landlord may or may not be.

Too confusing for you? Throw me any questions you might have.

Jake
917.280.4546