[michaelper22]

I don't understand how this racket is allowed to operate. From my experience (three NYC apartments through realtors), the landlord's realtor provides pre-screening of "desirable" tenants for the landlord, showings, collecting paperwork from the prospect, and handing over the keys. None of this adds value from the (prospective) tenant's perspective, but the tenant must pay the fees (in all three cases, one month's rent).

[tootie]

I recently worked on a financial website that does a full credit, background and fraud check online and in real time for issuing small loans. There's some amount of manual auditing that can happen in the background for anyone that raises a yellow flag, but otherwise you can get a loan approved and disbursed with no fees and it happens in a few days and is fully automated.