Jonathan Cohn: "Between first and last month’s rent, a security deposit, and the broker’s fee, “it’s like a down payment” just to secure an apartment." -- Kathy Brown, Boston Tenant Coalition #mapoli www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/12/b...

"Between first and last month’s rent, a security deposit, and the broker’s fee, “it’s like a down payment” just to secure an apartment." -- Kathy Brown, Boston Tenant Coalition #mapoli www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/12/b...

Brokers’ fees for rentals may soon be shifted onto landlords - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com The fees, normally equal to one month's rent, are a common point of contention among the state's increasingly cost-burdened renters.

They always should’ve been the landlords expense. The renter isn’t the one hiring the agent, it’s the landlord who is.

‘Bout effing time.

When I moved back to Boston, I had already spent a bunch of money to ship my key things (I got rid of most of my big stuff), and then apartments were asking for 4 months rent up front to move in - first, last, 1 mo security, broker fee. I ended up moving somewhere that didn’t have a broker fee but..

…when they raised my rent $300/mo after the first year, I was just switching positions (and from contractor to FTE) with costs for COBRA and a big tax bill from my company messing up my withholding. I felt I HAD to accept the increased rent because I didn’t have enough to pay 4 mo up front elsewhere

Luckily this /mostly/ ended up lining up with a pay bump for state workers (after I took a pay cut to become an FTE and get benefits), but it really sucks to feel so much at the mercy of landlords, especially when I live alone.

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