When you rent an apartment in Boston, you often end up renting it through a real estate agent and have to pay a broker fee. Because this is not commonplace outside of the area, I occasionally had leasing clients of mine ask me the question, “What am I paying for with the broker fee?” For anyone who actually asks this question, I’m sure there are many more asking themself, “What is the purpose of a leasing agent?” or “What does the agent do other than show the apartment?” Since agents, especially leasing agents, can often seem like a glorified door opener, I thought I’d try to clear up some confusion and shed some light on exactly what leasing agents do as well as why they can be worth the broker fee.
Marketing
Marketing is the first step an agent takes to help their client. Although it may not seem like a benefit to their future or potential clients, there are two main reasons it is.
The first is that agents make apartments much easier to find. Agents want to get as many clients as possible and because of this they post apartments anywhere they can. While a small landlord might just rent their apartment through word of mouth or on one website such as craigslist, real estate agents often use 10-20+ listing sites to market their listings. When you search for an apartment, the more options you have available to you, the easier and more successful your search will be. Without agents, you likely wouldn’t be able to go to a single listing site such as apartments.com and have tens of thousands of listings to browse through.
The second is that agents are heavily involved in creating media for apartment listings. Agents can spend a significant amount of time taking photos and videos to help them market their listings. Many listings wouldn’t have photos or if so, would have low quality or outdated photos if it weren’t for agents working to get better media for their listings. Same especially goes for video. Having quality media on the listings you are seeing online can save a lot of time and prevent unnecessary tours in person. They are also extremely useful for out-of-state and international clients.
Search Assistance
More obviously, the search assistance agents provide can really help renters with their search. When you work with an agent, they will take your search criteria and run thorough searches through thousands of listings in order to hand pick potential apartments for you. Not only does this save clients a lot of time and work, many agents are skilled at searches and know how to run them in ways that produce more, higher quality options and less low quality options.
In addition to manually searching, agents can set up an automated search (so long as their office has the capability). An automated search can be extremely useful for both the client as well as their agent. It’s impossible for a human to continually check for new listings every minute of the day, however a computer can! With an auto-search, a real estate agent can set it up to send their client listings that fit their criteria whenever they come on the market. While the tenant focuses on their life and the agent is busy with other duties, the auto-search is working 24/7 to make sure the client is aware of all listings that might work for them. An auto-search also allows clients to find listings much faster which is extremely important in a first-come, first-serve market like Boston.
Answering Questions and Support
Although it’s not rocket science, renting an apartment can be complicated at times. Experienced agents can be an amazing resource for those who aren’t familiar with the rental process. Regardless, it’s always nice to have someone who can address even simple questions. If you are working with an agent and want to know more information about any apartments you see online, it’s super convenient to be able to just text or email your agent and have them look into it for you.
In addition to answering all your questions big and small, agents can provide advice and support to help you in your search. Your agent can offer advice around how the market works and how you should operate in your search. They can use their experience to tell you if an apartment is priced well or if it’s a good time of year to be looking. Agents can also be a logical voice during tough decisions or provide an unbiased second opinion. Don’t underestimate how helpful logical advice from a professional can be during a stressful decision making process.
Apartment Tours
Tours are the most obvious job of a leasing agent as they are in-person with their client. Although the client only sees the work on the tour itself, they do not see what goes into a showing behind the scenes. It depends on the listing, but it can take a lot of time and effort to set up a showing. The agent may have to balance the schedules of themself, their client, the tenant and the landlord or listing agent. The agent may also have to obtain showing instructions. Doing all of this can sometimes be for five or more units for a single showing with a client. It’s a lot of communication back and forth between multiple parties which requires significant time management skills to do efficiently.
A good agent provides value on the showing itself as well. Ways I personally would provide value included asking specific questions to the tenants to give my clients valuable information, pointing out upgrades or defects they may miss, measuring rooms/walls, and offering considerations of what to look for and think about as they view a property. I also typically provided additional information not found on the listing such as local points of interest in the neighborhood and commute/travel information including their exact commute time for each property we are viewing.
Application Process
The application process has a lot of different pieces. A great agent will clearly lay out full instructions and answer any questions quickly. An application package typically includes a completed application, photo ID, proof of income and a deposit. If you are a student, you will also need a guarantor to submit these items in addition to yours and your proof of income is replaced by proof of enrollment. If you are on a work or student visa, a J1 or F1 along with your I-20 will need to be submitted. The application process can vary greatly from landlord to landlord, but agents may have to set up e-signatures for all forms, collect all documents, review all forms and documents, run credit/background checks, call landlord, work and/or school references, as well as receive and then deliver payment of the deposit to the landlord. If the prospective tenant is looking to negotiate an aspect of the lease such as the rent or move in cost, the agent will also work to mediate negotiations between the landlord and their clients. Agent assistance with negotiations will be a much better situation over negotiating alone. A good agent when reviewing your application package will confirm everything is properly filled out and make sure it looks as good as possible for your best chance at approval.
Not only can an agent make the application process easier with their guidance, they can also give you the nudge you need to turn everything in quicker. It’s easy to procrastinate, however applications are almost always first come first serve around Boston. You may feel like you are moving fast, but units can get rented any moment and if you want to move forward with applications, moving as quickly as possible allows for the best chance at approval. Every agent knows this and will educate you on this point. They will motivate you to move quickly, ultimately giving you your best shot at winning the intense application race many applicants find themself in. Even when clients have turned in everything immediately after touring, I’ve had countless times where someone else applied hours or even just minutes prior and secured the apartment. A quick application process is crucial to a successful apartment search in Boston.
A lesser known piece of value agents offer with applications is the affect their relationship with landlords and management companies has on the outcome of the application. In my career I’ve seen many instances where an applicant that otherwise would have gotten rejected or beaten out by another applicant was approved due to the agent’s close relationship with the landlord. The landlord wants the agents they like to continue to bring them tenants and so they purposely will do them favors to maintain their relationship. This means that working with a well-connected, well-liked agent can really help you get your applications approved.
Leasing Process
After a landlord approves a new tenant, the agent begins the leasing process. Again, the agent should provide detailed instructions and preferably, they would have actually previewed some of this process in the application process instructions. The landlord or agent then drafts the lease and the agent sends the lease for e-signature.
After approval is also when any outstanding deposits or payments are due. The timeline on these can vary significantly depending on the landlord and how much time there is until move in. So long as the move-in date is not within 30 days from approval, 30 days after approval is the most common timeline I’ve seen. It’s not uncommon for all funds to be due along with the lease just a few days from approval or have the payments spread out over 2-3 months where one month’s rent is due every month. An advantage of an agent for these payments is that they may have more payment options than the landlord. Instead of having to deal with mailing or dropping off checks, a modern brokerage will have easy, online payment methods for you to use. This also is extremely helpful during the application process. In both situations the tenant can sit at home and send funds online while the agent likely has to drive over to a management office to drop off checks. The final part of the leasing process is only for those with guarantors (cosigners). Most landlords require the guarantor form to be notarized and the original to be delivered to them. As with the lease and payment, the agent is also responsible for instructing on, collecting and then delivering the forms.
Although they are not an attorney (a real estate attorney should be consulted for any questions regarding a lease), an experienced agent will review a lease and can find issues that should be resolved. This is very helpful to someone who is not familiar with standard practices and/or real estate laws.
Move In
Although agents are not always involved in the move in process, they can be involved. This can be as small as giving their client proper instructions for picking up their keys, all the way to working closely with the landlord to make copies of keys and handing them directly over to their tenants on move-in day. Helpful agents will not only provide clear instructions on moving in, but offer information on how to set up utilities, how to obtain a moving truck permit or give referrals to internet providers or moving companies.
When it comes to moving, it’s not always a smooth process. Having a professional to call if something goes wrong can take a lot of the stress away. Generally your landlord is the best contact if something goes wrong with your move in, but there are scenarios where your agent can be a resource. A simple example of this is if you can’t reach your landlord in a timely manner and the agent has additional contact information to reach them.
Once you’re moved in, the agent’s job is finished. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t be helpful and check in. I always checked in with my clients a bit after their move in to ensure everything was going smoothly. Sometimes if they were having issues I could direct them to the correct resource or help them get in touch with their landlord.
Other Tasks
Despite being generally outside the typical scope of most agent’s work, some agents are open to some additional tasks upon request. Something I did quite a bit that was time consuming was going back to the apartment I already rented to take measurements for furniture. Many of the additional tasks I personally did were for out-of-state clients. Two I quickly remember off the top of my head are bringing a mattress that was delivered early into a vacant apartment so it wouldn’t sit out in the street and posting moving truck permits in front of a building a few days prior to my clients’ flight into town. Something else I personally offered is driving clients between showings. With so many clients in the city living without a car, it’s very beneficial to offer a ride between units. On top of this, I really enjoyed turning these drives into unofficial tours for my clients unfamiliar with the area. Many of them really appreciated the rides/tours and I personally would often have a lot of fun doing them.
Why the Fee is Worth It
So now that you understand all that goes into helping clients find apartments, I want to briefly close with adding a huge reason why you should work with an agent for your apartment search. I think this topic deserves its own article, so I won’t be going very deep on it here (stay tuned!). Not only do agents conduct all of the aforementioned work to help their clients successfully find, secure, and move into apartments, but they offer something extremely valuable: Safety and peace of mind.
When you work with an agent, you don’t have to worry about being scammed. Apartment scams are a real risk and so a major benefit of going through a licensed professional is that you are protecting yourself from scams. When you browse listings online, there is no easy way for you to tell that the landlord you are speaking to is real. This is opposed to working through an agent who you can go meet in person, look up their license number online or even just look them and their company up. I’ve personally been in a situation where a client of mine found a listing without me and because it seemed fishy they had me look into it just before they paid a deposit. It ended up actually being a scam and they were extremely glad they reached out to me. Soon after they ended up renting a different apartment with me.
In addition to avoiding scams, brokerages protect you by creating a paper trail. Since funds are usually paid through the brokerage, the brokerage holds copies of all payments. When I was new to leasing, my first manager spoke of a time when a landlord ran with the deposits and the tenant was able to use the documentation of funds through the brokerage to successfully pursue the landlord in court.
The peace of mind and protection that working with a broker offers, in my mind, is a huge justification for the expense of the broker fee. My hope is that after reading this article, you better understand the many tasks an agent is responsible for and the value they provide. As always, this was written based on my own personal experiences and every agent and brokerage operates differently. Not all will be the most helpful, however an excellent agent can offer a ton of value and have a hugely positive impact on your apartment search.
*Please keep in mind that the information in this article is based on my personal experiences and may not accurately represent the entire Boston Real estate market*
Author
Evan Bilton
Written: 03/22/2024
Contact Information
Evan@realty20.com
