In New York City, majority of New York City Apartments are Fee Apartments but some landlords made few changes to attract the tenants to rent in their buildings by hiring an agent for their building and advertising the building as No Fee NYC Apartments which means if any tenant approaches the agent to get the rental deal to that apartment than the owner pays the agents commission for bringing the tenant to that building that way the occupant can save money by not giving any commission though seeking help from an agent. If you hire an agent to look for the apartment you need to pay him commission, they charge you around one month's rent or 15%of one year's rent. But if you get the agent who works for the building then you can save the money because the owner pays the agent.
There are two ways to go about avoiding paying a fee, if you are able to find the rental apartment directly through an owner then there is no fee involved you can rent the apartment. And the other way is find No Fee NYC Apartments where the agents get OP (owner Payment) for finding apartment for you, so that you can save money by not paying any agents commission.
An OP is normally equal to one month's rent, or 8.33 % of a year's rent. The purpose of an OP can indicate no fee to the tenant is because the agent is being compensated for their work by the owner, not by you.
The owner offering an OP to the agent allows the agent to advertise the apartment as "No Fee". So with the invention of No Fee NYC Apartments many new comers are happy to get a living place with the help and not paying any extra money for finding the apartment.