Manhattan Real Estate: Apartment Shopping Nighmares

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Manhattan Real Estate: So many apartments, so many stories.

Manhattan Real Estate: Apartment Shopping

Apartment shopping is a wild card- sometimes everything is going well, everyone’s getting along, and the place looks nice when- Doh!- something unimaginable happens. Sometimes it’s trivial and hits a nerve for the shoppers, sometimes it’s so glaring it’s like showing up with a shiny zit on your nose.

NY Mag put together some stories that made me slap my forehead and cover my mouth gasping- laughing and thankful that they didn’t happen to me.

The stories note such deal-breakers as a wastebasket full of used feminine-hygiene products and wigs hanging on the bedposts. Another culprit? The walls- one wall full of Republican memorabilia kept interest at bay, and another apartment with nothing on the walls struck people as so curious and strange that they didn’t pay attention to the rest of the place. There are the classic variables- laundry, unwatered plants, messy beds or bathrooms… there was even a story of a showing going south because the apartment’s owner forgot about the showing and met them at the door, yawning, in pajamas. At 11 a.m.

Of course, I did have the time when a disgruntled neighbor unhappy we were repeatedly showing the patio his studio overlooked decided to set up a porn movie screening from his window. Then there was that time when I ventured to open a window next to the bed and found used condoms on the window ledge.  

The showing can be the wild card in an otherwise normal business interaction. It’s a first impression, a human connection, and, sometimes, a story not to be forgotten.

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