[s1artibartfast]

>Demand has outpaced supply, and landlords are happy to outsource the majority of the tenant search process.

This is the part I simply cant fathom.

I am a landlord. Why would I ever be willing to fork over 10K to save a trivial amount of work. Do the brokers take on some sort of liability for tenants?

[sixo]

No, the brokers are extracting value from the excess demand. The landlords get what they want: not doing that part of the work, particularly showings as many landlords do not live nearby.

And the landlord, for a city of predominantly 2 yr-ish-long rentals, benefits from nominal rents being as low as possible--a well-priced apartment sells fast, a poorly priced one does not. (Compare to Ticketmaster and music venues.)

Then brokers extract as much as they can. But since a broker only gets the commission a fraction of the time they do the work (say 1/3), the competitive equilibrium for brokers fees is higher (say 3x)than it ought to be, bc the marginal addtl broker who would undercut them simply left the industry instead.

[s1artibartfast]

I dont think that helps me understand it at all. That still doesn't explain why landlords give up that value. Why let a 3rd party make 10k off renters when you could pay some maintenance man $20/hr and keep the difference. If lazy and disinterested landlords are the answer, why are landlords less lazy in every other high demand city?

The question of if the marginal broker can or cant live off of 10k per transaction is entirely sperate. my guess is that there is some city regulatory barriers to entry here, but I haven't looked into it.

[sixo]

Yeah, fair, it doesn't add up. The landlord gets a potentially-large boost to marketability by offering a lower nominal rent... But so what? Is it just that that sets a lower competitive equilibrium? Idk.