Realtor Charging $1500 Dollars To Change Name On Lease

LOS ANGELES- Hi all! So one of my roommates in my 3 bedroom moved out and my current remaining roommate and I are looking for another tenant to take their place. This is the second time we have had to do this. Should we find someone and get them approved to move in, our realtor is charging us $500 a person, including the prospective tenant, to remove our old roommate’s name from the lease and add theirs. This struck me as an exorbitant amount of money the first time we went through this, and like last time, it is making it incredibly difficult to find someone to move in. Is it legal to charge us this much? And do I have any ability to have this fee waived, at least for our new tenant? I have not been able to find any information at all about a situation like this.