Am I getting scammed by broker?
My husband and I finally think we’ve found our dream apartment, but we had to use a broker in order to do it. Up until this point, we’d been applying and either getting rejected (husband is rebuilding credit) or the listing would already be gone once we were at our computer. We initially inquired about a listing, asking our usual questions of whether or not the landlord would take third party guarantors considering my husband’s credit, any fees we should note, availability, etc. and we were connected with a broker. That listing didn’t end up working out, but the broker offered to show us other options IF we wanted to work with him, which would involve becoming a client.
We were in a tough spot, so we agreed to work with him, but we were upfront that we couldn’t pay 1st month rent, security deposit, an Insurent fee, AND a broker fee, to which he replied that he could simply show us places where he knew the landlord would pay his broker fee. We agreed and he showed us our dream place.
Here’s where it got weird. Before sending us the application for the apartment, the broker called us, saying that after speaking with the landlord, the landlord would only cover 75% of the one-month-rent broker’s fee, so we would need to agree to pay the remaining 25% in order to proceed. We felt like we had no choice, and since this was an amazing apartment, we decided to bite the bullet and sign an agreement for that amount. We were then sent the application and applied.
To our delight, the landlord accepted our application with only the standard first month’s rent and security deposit fees (no need for Insurent). Yay! 🎉 Or so we thought.
After signing the lease and sending everyone their money, the broker called us AGAIN requesting more money. His reasoning was that the broker’s fee was initially reduced to one-months-rent as a “favor” to us, since we had expressed concern about too many upfront costs. Now that the upfront expense of Insurent is actually not being required by the landlord, the broker wants us to pay his “standard” rate of 15% of the annual lease! He basically said we no longer merit the “favor,” offered to us in our written agreement. But that written agreement is the ONLY document we received! It said that we would send him 25% of one month’s rent, which we agreed to do. Nowhere did it say that the initial amount requested was somehow contingent on us also paying Insurent. Ugh !!!
To make things even stickier, nothing has been cashed. While we have sent the broker his 25% fee and the landlord first rent and security, nothing has been withdrawn from our account. Additionally, the landlord has not returned our countersigned lease. 😬
We’re a little panicked, but also don’t want to be suckered into something we are not obligated to do. At the end of the day, yes, it’s our dream apartment, BUT had this broker given us the standard quote from the beginning, we would’ve just said no because we can’t afford it (15% of the annual lease is more money than Insurent ever was). I’m sure he knew this, so instead of walking away with $0, he settled for getting 25% of one months rent out of us. Now that he deems we have more money to give, he wants a bigger cut. But isn’t that a scam? What do you think? Are we even getting this apartment?