Getting an apartment around here is hard enough with the constant ups and downs of the real estate market and the ridiculously low vacancy rate. Then, every time you find a place that you just love, you forget about the broker’s fee and don’t plan well enough to not skip meals for three or five months to make up for what you had to pay. Now there’s a handy calculator that will tell you your effective rent each month if you add in what you’re paying a broker.
The website, WithFee.com works pretty simply: put in what the rent is on the apartment you want. Then, add the broker’s fee in either percentage, dollars or how many months rent you have to pay. Your result is the rent you’re paying all year thanks to all the hard work your broker did. So for instance, a $1400/month apartment with a broker’s fee of 15% will actually cost you $1610/month effectively. Sure it’d be nice to have a website that zaps broker’s fees from space, with a laser, but for the moment, at least you won’t be taken by surprise anymore.
View Comments (4)
Dude, real estate agents work incredibly hard. They're supposed to list apartments, deal with landlords/mgmt companies, and show apartments for free? People are so entitled. Just suck it up and pay the fee, "no-fee" apartments are typically smaller and the landlord makes up the difference by jacking up the monthly rent $200-$300.
really, who needs a website for this???
just do the math.
divide, add. not. hard.
Or just use any calculator
Real estate broker and daily Brokelyn reader here. You make it sound like my job is a hoax. I work my ass off for almost nothing. I could say that blogging about being broke, but then making most of your company's revenue on real estate listings most of your readers can't afford is worth questioning also.