The Trial Of The “Walking Doormen”

Brian Carter again comes clean in the New York Press about that dirty business:

The temperature had officially reached 100 degrees. I was walking a heavy-set billboard salesman from a tiny studio on Hudson Street to an even smaller place on the Lower East Side. He already owned a place in Jersey, but said what he really needed was, “a shack up pad.” He asked, more than once, if it was legal to fasten a mirror on the ceiling, and if I knew anyone who could do it.

. . .

Before the Internet, agents had the opportunity to earn their commission. We were the gatekeepers to uncommon knowledge. If I told you there were only three apartments in Gramercy Park, you pretty much had to take my word for it. Trust saved everybody a lot of time, and loyalty was equally rewarded. Of course, it was beside the point if I was lying. Then again, why would I? You were my client, and eventually we would find what you were looking for.

The Internet has reduced the agents, in most cases, to little more than walking doormen. A necessary evil in an already absurd endeavor, we are viewed more as an obstacle than an opportunity. I don’t really have clients any more; I have ten minute meetings in apartments.

We finally made it to the Lower East Side. We were in the apartment less than five minutes when his cell phone rang. It was another broker. It’s common these days for a client to make appointments with one broker while looking with another. But it’s hard to call someone a “client” when I’m only showing him two apartments. It’s even harder to charge him $3000 for doing so.

The Case Against Brokers Part One: Business Had Been Slow, But One Day This Dame Walks In And Hands Me One Of My Biggest Cases . . .

The Case Against Brokers Part Two: Dwayne Schneider As Father Figure.