There was big news coming out of the New York real estate market this week - the New York Department of State clarified a previous regulation stating that brokers can no longer charge rental tenants a “broker fee” if they are hired by a landlord to market the rental unit. Instead, the landlord must cover the broker fee. The only case in which a broker fee applies to the tenant is if they personally hire an agent to help them find a rental apartment. The repercussions of such a shift in who will the broker could be manifold. Some suspect that landlords will just raise rent to cover this added expense for them. Others say this will have a positive effect on tenant’s ability to move because their expenses in doing so will be less.
Read MoreThe thought of rent control often evokes strong emotional reactions regardless of whether you support or oppose it. Anyone who has ever rented a home can relate to the feeling of disappointment (or even frustration and anger) when you receive notification of an impending rent increase. Rent control is often discussed in politics as a social issue. But when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, there are many economic consequences when rent control is implemented and/or ceased, many of which end up hurting the very people that rent control was intended to help. This Freakonomics episode discusses exactly why rent control does not work and we highly recommend you take a listen.
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