Where’s My Bike?

#9 Real Estate Man

Because the Center City and University City districts in Philadelphia are home to many large educational institutions ,young people gravitate to those two areas. The majority of their housing needs are for leases that start August 1st or September 1st to coincide with the school year. Real Estate Man learned early on that it was efficient to start everyone’s lease August 1st or September 1st. As a notorious bank robber once said about banks “That’s where the money is.” In this bit of real estate marketing, substitute “when” for “where.” The hectic days between June 1st and July 31st were always super busy. Ofttimes there would be 20 or 30 people accompanying an agent to see a single ,well located apartment. Because of the abundance of prospective tenants in those summer months, Real Estate Man always hired additional help to show apartments. Usually a university student. One of their own, so to speak.

In the early 2000’s Real Estate Man was able to hire a 4’ 9”dynamo. whose husband was a postdoctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. The couple had just arrived in the US on student visas (from Nepal) to enable him to further his studies at the U of P.

Her lack of knowledge in showing apartments was more than compensated by her smarts and enthusiasm. She was an immediate success.