Here's the plan. Get in anyway you can
When the Grunt first started out in real estate he was always told to get into any apartment by any means necessary. That means calling supers, begging for keys, making copies of keys and making a general nuisance of yourself.
What really sucked was when keys ended up missing and you had a client showing up in 5 minutes. Or you had a key hog that would grab as many keys as they could and you were unable to track them down or the borrower made sure they could not be tracked down by not leaving a cell number.
Things got really interesting when the front door of a building was locked but the apartment door was open and it was our job to get in. If the apartment building had multiple buzzers, the Grunt often employed the push and drag method which meant placing the palm of his hand on the buzzers and sliding them down which ultimately pissed off a lot of tenants because they would ask on the intercom who it was only to hear a real estate agent begging to get inside the building.
One time when the Grunt did that, he got buzzed in with his client and a tenant came down informing the Grunt in front of his client that the building had experienced a rash of robberies so they wanted to make sure who was entering the building.
The story was of course BS. The tenant’s only intention was to scare off the client as retaliation for, the Grunt suspects, was interrupting tenant’s session of self-abuse.
Usually if it is a doorman building the doorman requires a business card and for the agent to sign in. If you treat a doorman with respect they will treat you the same way.
Supers are hit and miss. Sometimes you have to call them in advance to hammer down a time. Then you show up and they are not there either because of an emergency or they just hate brokers. Sometimes you get lucky and they are around to show the apartment.
Sundays are the worst days to work with supers because that it is usually their day off and they do not want to be bothered. The Grunt remembers one super who was overwhelmed by a bunch of brokers after coming home from church. The Grunt felt so bad for what happened that the Grunt bought him a cheesecake. What makes it worse is that Sundays are when clients come out in droves to look at apartments.
Sales are an entirely different animal. Unless otherwise noted, the seller's broker is the one responsible for gaining access to the apartment. When a broker is hired by the seller, the broker is responsible for the seller's property while the seller is away and must be present at all times when the apartment is being shown. This is a trust that is taken very very seriously and there are severe repercussions if this violated.
Recently the Grunt encountered an agent who attempted to gain access to one of the Grunt's exclusives. According to the doorman on duty, the broker claimed that they had access to the apartment and were on the list. The doorman laid the hammer down since they were not on the list. However that broker is now on the Grunt's bad list.
If you are an agent do not attempt to lie your way into an apartment because there will be hell to pay.
What really sucked was when keys ended up missing and you had a client showing up in 5 minutes. Or you had a key hog that would grab as many keys as they could and you were unable to track them down or the borrower made sure they could not be tracked down by not leaving a cell number.
Things got really interesting when the front door of a building was locked but the apartment door was open and it was our job to get in. If the apartment building had multiple buzzers, the Grunt often employed the push and drag method which meant placing the palm of his hand on the buzzers and sliding them down which ultimately pissed off a lot of tenants because they would ask on the intercom who it was only to hear a real estate agent begging to get inside the building.
One time when the Grunt did that, he got buzzed in with his client and a tenant came down informing the Grunt in front of his client that the building had experienced a rash of robberies so they wanted to make sure who was entering the building.
The story was of course BS. The tenant’s only intention was to scare off the client as retaliation for, the Grunt suspects, was interrupting tenant’s session of self-abuse.
Usually if it is a doorman building the doorman requires a business card and for the agent to sign in. If you treat a doorman with respect they will treat you the same way.
Supers are hit and miss. Sometimes you have to call them in advance to hammer down a time. Then you show up and they are not there either because of an emergency or they just hate brokers. Sometimes you get lucky and they are around to show the apartment.
Sundays are the worst days to work with supers because that it is usually their day off and they do not want to be bothered. The Grunt remembers one super who was overwhelmed by a bunch of brokers after coming home from church. The Grunt felt so bad for what happened that the Grunt bought him a cheesecake. What makes it worse is that Sundays are when clients come out in droves to look at apartments.
Sales are an entirely different animal. Unless otherwise noted, the seller's broker is the one responsible for gaining access to the apartment. When a broker is hired by the seller, the broker is responsible for the seller's property while the seller is away and must be present at all times when the apartment is being shown. This is a trust that is taken very very seriously and there are severe repercussions if this violated.
Recently the Grunt encountered an agent who attempted to gain access to one of the Grunt's exclusives. According to the doorman on duty, the broker claimed that they had access to the apartment and were on the list. The doorman laid the hammer down since they were not on the list. However that broker is now on the Grunt's bad list.
If you are an agent do not attempt to lie your way into an apartment because there will be hell to pay.
posted by Grunt at
1:06 PM
