[jurassic]

It’s basically impossible to rent a place worth living in Boston without paying a broker fee. Even the listings you find yourself on craigslist won’t rent to you unless you pony up the fee.

When I rented a place in Cambridge in 2019, the rent was $3200/month. To get the lease signed I had to write a check for 4x that amount (first+last+security deposit+broker fee). $12,800 before even dealing with any moving costs.

The worst thing about it is that it increases the cost of moving very significantly. So people are coerced into accepting large rent increases as long as the increase is less than forking out another broker fee to move to a cheaper apartment.