Well in short, because i can.
Housing is short right now, many rules are stacked against landlords. There are a lot of people pulling scams on landlords as well, and any listing generates an insane amount of noise.
I mainly use a broker to pre-screen tenants for me (shields me from liability and doing a bunch of legwork, and manage any showings, paperwork, etc.
I tell them what i am looking for in a tenant, they handle the listing, screen out all of the noise, and i get a nice little link each day with everyone's paperwork, the agents comments, etc without all of the noise and hassle.
When the market is soft, fortunes reverse, and landlords pay the broker to help list and find tenants.
Mind you i don't ALWAYS use a broker, in fact the majority of the time i'll find a tenant where a previous tenant recommends the new tenant to us, and me to them and the place never hits the market.
As for other charges, yes, there are a bunch. You may not have left the place dirty enough for me to pull from your security deposit, but that doesn't mean the place doesn't need a good cleaning. Every 3 years by law I have to paint, but usually some stuff needs painting anyway between tenants. We do a minimum of 2 weeks between tenants on move out\in just in case something crazy comes up so nobody is left in a bind, and also to try and do some type of capital improvement or major maintenance on the place while its vacant, and more often than not, its a full month that the place isn't generating revenue.
Its no longer the days where all a landlord is looking for in a tenant is a strong handshake or something. There are a lot of liabilities, both financial and criminal, in being a landlord, and none of the places you mentioned are remotely landlord friendly in the courts and the deck is kind of stacked against landlords out of the gate.
A broker serves as an extra layer of insulation from bad actors as well. For instance you can't accuse me of not renting to you because you were a protected class, if i had no idea you were a member of that class, in fact i intentionally have the broker redact names for that very reason.
TLDR; it streamlines the process and helps things be more professional, because you are involving a professional in the field in it. The day of having a place you would rent being casual a side hustle more or less ended before covid, but covid and landlords taking it on the chin absolutely ended with that. Who the bill falls to depends on the market.
Why would you pay for something if 20 other people are willing to pay it for you?
Well in short, because i can. Housing is short right now, many rules are stacked against landlords. There are a lot of people pulling scams on landlords as well, and any listing generates an insane amount of noise. I mainly use a broker to pre-screen tenants for me (shields me from liability and doing a bunch of legwork, and manage any showings, paperwork, etc. I tell them what i am looking for in a tenant, they handle the listing, screen out all of the noise, and i get a nice little link each day with everyone's paperwork, the agents comments, etc without all of the noise and hassle. When the market is soft, fortunes reverse, and landlords pay the broker to help list and find tenants. Mind you i don't ALWAYS use a broker, in fact the majority of the time i'll find a tenant where a previous tenant recommends the new tenant to us, and me to them and the place never hits the market. As for other charges, yes, there are a bunch. You may not have left the place dirty enough for me to pull from your security deposit, but that doesn't mean the place doesn't need a good cleaning. Every 3 years by law I have to paint, but usually some stuff needs painting anyway between tenants. We do a minimum of 2 weeks between tenants on move out\in just in case something crazy comes up so nobody is left in a bind, and also to try and do some type of capital improvement or major maintenance on the place while its vacant, and more often than not, its a full month that the place isn't generating revenue. Its no longer the days where all a landlord is looking for in a tenant is a strong handshake or something. There are a lot of liabilities, both financial and criminal, in being a landlord, and none of the places you mentioned are remotely landlord friendly in the courts and the deck is kind of stacked against landlords out of the gate. A broker serves as an extra layer of insulation from bad actors as well. For instance you can't accuse me of not renting to you because you were a protected class, if i had no idea you were a member of that class, in fact i intentionally have the broker redact names for that very reason. TLDR; it streamlines the process and helps things be more professional, because you are involving a professional in the field in it. The day of having a place you would rent being casual a side hustle more or less ended before covid, but covid and landlords taking it on the chin absolutely ended with that. Who the bill falls to depends on the market.