In cities like NYC is common for a landlord to own 8-9 buildings with multiple units, they tend to be older and don’t want to deal with tenants, so they hire property management offices, their work is simply to rent the place and maintain the place. To maintain the place they hire a super and to rent the place they get brokers that “volunteer” to bring them quality leads. They get paid by the tenants an unofficial broker fee that amounts to 10-15% the total annual rent. It has worked so far for the landlords and the demand mostly pay the price