I don't know what it is but dealing with real estate brokers in NY is absolutely terrible. Had one that was so paranoid that me and my roommate were gng to circumvent her and sign a lease directly w the landlord she called me every hour trying to dissuade me, even though I assured her we had no intention of doing anything of the sort. Eventually we just ignored all communications w her as it became too unbearable. A friend of ours told us he paid $90 for a Roomster subscription (as opposed to the crazy brokers fee they would have charged) and found an incredible, affordable place in a much shorter time-frame than the three months we spent working with two different brokers. We checked out the site and were really happy with it. We found something that we absolutely loved and the best part, no brokers fee!