Broker fees in NY?

My boyfriend and I are moving from Seattle to New York (probably the Brooklyn area) this summer and we’ve heard a lot of horror stories about how much it costs/how much work it is to move into an apartment. I was hoping that anyone who has been through the process could enlighten us a little bit. We are fully prepared to pay first/last/security and to search for up to a couple of months, as that’s the way things are around here, but what additional fees are we to expect? I’ve heard someone mention broker’s fees, but it looks like you can avoid those by checkin the “owner only” option in the craigslist apartment search. Am I delusional? Is it really that much harder to find a place in NY?