[crazygringo]

No, because the broker fees never went to landlords in the first place. They don't need to make up for lost revenue or something like that, with the kinds of schemes you're proposing.

What happens now is that instead of a tenant paying $5K to the broker when they rent the place, the landlord pays $500 to a service which lists the apartment in a few places (like StreetEasy) and handles showing the apartment (which can often be offloaded to the super or similar). It's not even a "broker" at this point, it's just a service. Like how with existing no-fee buildings, it's just one more thing the management office does.

> I do expect brokerage fees to decline somewhat... but this is not going to be a huge change

Decline? Broker's fees, along with brokerages, are practically going to disappear (for the rental market). I don't know a single person who's actually gotten value out of using a broker, because everyone just finds the apartment they want on StreetEasy or whatever first.

This is going to be a gigantic change. And I have no idea why you think it would hurt low-income tenants? You're removing a huge fee they had to pay.