Wooooo Hooooo!!!

So. I didn't write this when it happened, but I can be a little superstitious sometimes and strangely calm and reaction-less when something exciting is happening.

Saturday I made a deal.

I thought this girl was going to be a real drip. The first thing is that her budget for a studio in a good part of downtown was $1200-1800. I just ignored the $1200 right off the bat. MAYBE you can live on the upper east side for that or definitely in Harlem, but you ain't getting no halfway decent studio in the West Village for $1200. You can barely get one for $1800. But I lined up some things to show for a sunny and blustery Saturday afternoon. The first apartment kinda sucked, I'll admit that. It was a dark but decent sized pre-war studio in a landmark doorman building on Washington Square park. She said, "It isn't quite what I am looking for." I wanted to kill her, but I wouldn't have taken the apartment either.

Next we were meeting another broker to see some cheapy junior 1BR's on MacDougal Street. I had low expectations, as I am sure she did too. He had explained to me on the phone that one apartment was seven flights up, the second only six. We hiked all the way up to the top. She loved both apartments, the sunnier, higher up, Southern exposure one had an application on it already. I convinced her to put in an application in on the other one, so she'd be guaranteed something if the other one indeed turned out not to be available. She went for it.

Fast forward to today. I had a rough start this morning, involving an angry/bitchy email to the snotty agents representing this property on Fifth Avenue I am scoping out for $8000, parking my car twice, getting gas, arriving at the office just as the morning meeting was ending. I had on my mind the customer from Friday who had such a positive attitude. I had wanted to show her an open listing in the West Village Monday for which my company would pay me 65% of the collected fee. A nice payoff. She canceled. Haven't heard from her since.

I am in touch with Ms. MacDougal, who is faxing everything in on schedule. I go see some great properties in the Central Village, new stuff. Back at the office I make some calls, send some emails, have some back and forth with Mac and the other agent. Everything is fine, but they want some kind of more recent job letter. That's a bit of a problem, but eventually we get it all straightened out via some website her company uses to verify employment and salary. Weird middle step but whatever--big corporation.

Around 3 pm I go see a loft on 14th Street for $8000. It has some major pros and some major cons. Price is okay, maybe a bit high, location is okay, not great, move-in date is not great (mid-May), space is very nice and gets lots of light. The agent was nice enough, owns in the building herself. Allowed me to bring $8000's "assistant," who is actually my partner in this client's case, so we could screen the apartment for her. Following the appointment I wrote the client a detailed email describing the apartment and gently asking her HOW she would like to compromise. She has been looking for at least a month, maybe more, and it is time to introduce this idea, rather than lose her to some other living circumstances. Haven't heard back yet.

I forced myself to place ads on the new apartments I saw today. Did a bunch of searches, made more phone calls and wrote more emails in the late afternoon. I did a little look on craigslist at the end of the day too. Usually I look in "by owner" for places from $6000 to $10,000. This time I lowered it to $5000 and found something on Lexington Ave in the 30's. J and I are going to see it tomorrow. Sounds good and would be a full fee for us. NO CO-BROKE! When you are talking about $5000-8000 that's a big difference! While I was on the phone with the owner of the Lex place, the MacDougal agent called and left a message saying the top floor girl's application fell apart and did my client want it? I left her a message to decide ASAP since he is going to have an open house tomorrow to get the place rented and he needs to know which one is rented, which is available. She's going to be thrilled!

One of the emails I wrote today was to some former clients. They had talked about getting a house in the Hamptons this summer and I wanted to help with that for two reasons. The first, of course, being money. The second is that I knew I'd have to give them to another agent for a referral fee, since I hear no one will co-broke out there. The other agent I know out there is my estranged (now ex) boyfriend's stepmom, whom I used to work for in the Hamptons. I am a little curious and would like to reach out to this lady, but since her son and I broke up, obviously I haven't felt like I could do that. But now I have the perfect excuse...Business!!

Anyway, I get an email back from one of these guys. It seems they have been ROBBED TODAY!! I find this shocking and just don't know what to say, but I find some simple, sorry words and fire back an email. I bet I'll never hear from them again. Oh well. On to the next one.

And the next one responded to one of the ads I posted today. $4500 2BR/2BA!