> I never understood why landlord brokers are even a thing in a market like NYC.
NYC is all about optimizing the grift.
Imagine a small-time landlord that owns six 20-unit 6-story buildings across Queens. When 1/3 of their inventory turns over in September (the busy time for apartments in NYC), do you think they want to run all over the borough to 500 showings until they finally get all of the units rented? Do you think they want to hire a staff that will show all the units? Hell no! They can, FOR FREE, just tell one (or several!) brokers, "if you manage to rent this unit out, you get to charge whatever fee you can get them to collect." And then they just need to do some paperwork when the broker finally lands someone.
NYC is all about optimizing the grift.
Imagine a small-time landlord that owns six 20-unit 6-story buildings across Queens. When 1/3 of their inventory turns over in September (the busy time for apartments in NYC), do you think they want to run all over the borough to 500 showings until they finally get all of the units rented? Do you think they want to hire a staff that will show all the units? Hell no! They can, FOR FREE, just tell one (or several!) brokers, "if you manage to rent this unit out, you get to charge whatever fee you can get them to collect." And then they just need to do some paperwork when the broker finally lands someone.