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Massachusetts Has a Huge Waitlist for State-Funded Housing. So Why Are 2,300 Units Vacant?
(www.propublica.org)
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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politics
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While this program doesn’t relate to my situation, I did just move to the Boston area, and know first hand how shitty the rental market is here. I’m not even talking about the overall monthly rents you need to fork over (which is insane), I’m talking about brokers fees when signing a lease. It seems like 90% of the places for rent require first + last months rent, security deposit, AND a brokers fee equaling one months rent. Sure, you can use a broker yourself, so it would make sense that you would pay them for their services, but the landlords are the ones using them, and passing the fees on to the renter.
Coming from the western US, this was shocking. No wonder so many people are at risk of losing their housing - they can’t even afford to move to a better situation.
I almost fell for that on Long Island several years ago. To even think that brokers are even necessary with tools like apartments.com is ridiculous.
I've never dealt with a broker that did anything beyond opening the door and going "here. Apartment. Look." Useless leeches, the lot of them.
A while ago me and my now wife moved out of the country for her studies. We didn't live together at the time so I was hesitant about selling my place. I also didn't want to travel all the way back for showings, maintenance or whatever. So I used a broker/realtor.
And I'm glad I did, as the last people who lived there just stopped paying rent. That economic burden fell on the realtor. They didn't treat my place nicely, and that was my cost to fix. But I still would have been in a difficult situation with potential squatters who refused to pay rent if it weren't for them.
I agree that it's more often than not pointless, but I was lucky to use them.
If Massachusetts was serious about housing reform they'd legislate away the broker's fees. But they aren't, so they won't.
they won't. broker industry is in the pockets of beacon Hill and the suits like how they somehow managed to inflate the cost of their house that's located in an arctic tundra of a state
If renters don't pay the fee, what prevents brokers from charging the landlords, who will increase rent to make it back?
Why not offer a central register where every offer has to be registered which could eliminate the need for brokers entirely?
I mean…most of the states here in the west do it just fine.
Landlords won't increase rent just because their costs go up. If they could increase rent now, they absolutely would. It has nothing to do with costs.
If they could increase rent now, but aren't, they're shit at their job.
Landlords can increase as long as renters are able to pay more. If you remove the broker fees then there is room for higher rents.
As long as renters 'are willing' to pay more. It will take time for the market to adjust. While that happens people win out.
If you rent for 20 month, and pay one month as fee, you save 5%.
How much over construction costs do landlords rent out their property?
If rent can go down much more than 5% I wouldn't focus energy on it but on other means to reduce rent.
I'm also on this boat also. moved here from the West Coast and feel completely scammed here in Boston. it's actually insane too because most of the people here have bought into the completely corrupt politics that have caused the housing market to get to this place. if you ask people here, most will say they prefer Boston housing because of "tenant protections" and that brokers provide an essential service in such an impacted housing market. those guys are fuckin donkeys. the Boston housing market exists on the backs of students who cycle through apartments at a huge rate every year, and the broker industry makes a killing abusing poor college students into paying brokers fees when they move every year. every industry involved in the Boston housing market is in cahoots with this system. they're all criminals in my view. that on top of the fact a broker came into my apartment without permission to show my apartment and walked into my bathroom while I was showering. I was full nude and the dude waved at me and proceeded to show my bathroom to his clients on clients with me naked in the bathroom. criminals.
From Boston to Worcester it is insane. Police are starting to chase away homeless and destroy their camps. It is like They Live out there. I feel like Mass is one bad day from riots.
From someone who’s been here for over a decade: it’s a paywall, pure and simple.
I’ve never hear of a broker’s fee for rentals. That is a thing?
I have had to deal with non-refundable application fees, however. I have gone to war over those fees.
I used to live in Boston and only once did I find an apartment where I didn't have to pay a last month of rent up front. The rental market there is very much predatory upon the droves of college students and other young people who don't know any different or better. And for those who do know different, they basically have no choice.