Hacker News Reader

You can also avoid rental fees by moving into newer buildings that have in house rental offices. I've never actually had to pay a broker fee in the 10 years / 4 apartments I've had here.

Brokers are the worst. Their incentives are not aligned with yours on anything besides wanting to get it over with asap.

View on HN

That is for sure -- I cant recall a single positive experience with a RE broker. I realize this is a city-specific example, but for the new yorkers - i was looking for an apartment in the upper west side (which is generally considered to end at 96th st, perhaps 100 or 110th.) The broker said sure, and started pitching me on something at 135th. If i was an out-of-towner, I would not have known better, and what does 1.5mi matter anyway? In town, this is like comparing night and day.

How do brokers have the gall to straight-faced sell people on this stuff?

I pray that technology can disrupt this market.

> Their incentives are not aligned with yours on anything besides wanting to get it over with asap.

To be fair, that's occasionally exactly what you want - if you've just moved into town for the first time, for instance, and want to mitigate uncertainty (and hotel expenses) ASAP.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com