Inside Third & Bond: Week 55
Ever lived in a building with a doorman? What about a building with a self-proclaimed visitor announcer—like a little old lady who would shout down from her window to ask visitors who they wanted to see? How about a building without a doorman or a little old lady? If you answered yes, yes, and yes,…
Ever lived in a building with a doorman? What about a building with a self-proclaimed visitor announcer—like a little old lady who would shout down from her window to ask visitors who they wanted to see? How about a building without a doorman or a little old lady?
If you answered yes, yes, and yes, then you are especially well qualified to lead our nation come November because you are both an elitist and just one of us. You are also especially well qualified to vote in the poll at the end of this post and help us solve the questions of should we have remote access and what kind? Since Third & Bond will have a part-time super but not a concierge or doorman, we are putting a lot of attention into the intercom system. Right now we are comparing two potential systems, Unitone and Aiphone. Basically we want a nice looking system with video that operates without a doorman. And maybe some kind of remote access.
Click through to see the two options and vote on which you like best…
We originally priced the Unitone system, which we used most recently at our projects The Marais and The Clinton. The owner of the company is a gentleman with a gorgeous French accent which means nothing except for that our meeting with him was twice as long as necessary because we spent half the time listening to what he said and the rest of the time listening to how he said it and wishing we were at a little café in Paris…Accents aside, Unitone can easily cover our basic needs. As the photo strip from their brochure explains, 1) The visitor calls the tenant after scrolling through the electronic directory (which is a list of names), 2) The tenant sees the visitor on his screen before answering the call, 3) The lobby camera view helps you ensure that no one is following your visitor inside. This all sounds pretty good and the interface is decent, too.
We also want to be able to use the system for relaying messages from the super to individual units or everyone at once, say if water is going to be turned off for a few hours. We think we want a way for people to remotely buzz in visitors, too.
Unitone’s remote access allows residents to forward intercom calls to their cell phone. Say you’re down the street at Whole Foods, picking up a few items for dinner when your mother-in-law, who is always early, shows up. You can buzz her in (provided that you’ve already pulled that lamp she gave you out of hiding) from the store. Or, say you’re at work and the UPS man shows up with a package, you can buzz him into the vestibule and he can leave your package behind locked doors. This also sounds good to us and we were ready to sign up until…
…our electrician suggested an alternate to our Unitone proposal, Aiphone. He thinks Aiphone is a less expensive option. Aiphone is a common all over New York. It’s also common in Japan and Europe. (This might be a bit of a sore spot with their competitor, Unitone, judging from this Q & A on Unitone’s website:
Is it a risk to do business with a small company?
Not at all. Unitone is nimble, has tremendous research capabilities and presently serves thousands of customers in the U.S. and Canada. Besides, Enron and Anderson Consulting were HUGE and they are out of business. Unitone has been in operation since 1981 and has achieved astounding penetration in the marketplace. When customers choose Unitone they know they are selecting top-line systems solutions that are durable, upgradeable and at the fore-front of technological advances.
Now they can add Lehman and AIG to the list of companies proving bigger isn’t always better.)
Aiphone is similar in what it can offer us, except for the remote forwarding to cell phones. Instead, the Aiphone sales people suggested contracting with Virtual Doorman. Virtual Doorman is a service that provides for oversight of your building’s visitors by a man or woman in a remote location who spends his or her day buzzing people into buildings all over the city. They can see the same video information as you would see if you were home. So, Virtual Doorman will let in your dogwalker (or anyone else) if you like. There are a variety of ways to set this up such as uploading a picture of your dogwalker and the time she’s expected to appear via your Virtual Doorman website, okaying entry for anyone who looks like a reputable package delivery person, etc.
So, which is better and will buyers be willing to pay more to get it?
Inside Third & Bond: Week 54 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 53 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 42 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 51 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 50 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 49 [Brownstoner]
From our lawyers: This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York.”
I actually have experience with all three systems, so perhaps I can offer some of my thoughts.
In terms of intercoms, the AiPhone has a better price point and can offer 90% of the features that the Unitone can provide. I don’t think that currently it can do the call forwarding to a cell phone and I know that it can’t display messages/notifications on its screen. Beyond those two points, both are functionally the same in that they allow someone in an apartment to see the person outside, talk to them, and buzz them into the building.
If I’m clear on your project’s scope, you have 9 brownstones in a row with 3-4 units each. Both AiPhone and Unitone offer a digital scroll panel which lets guests browse through a list of the units and call them. AiPhone also has a direct button panel for smaller buildings, such as yours, where the tenant names are listed with buttons directly to the right of the name. In my experience, a button has always proven to be easier for delivery people to understand and use. People who speak limited english or who have poor eye sight may have problems reading the digital directory and understanding how it is used. The Unitone panel is a smaller form factor, but the AiPhone has an optional module where you can put instructions on how to use the system. With any extra space, you can also put a building logo or the building address.
I believe that both companies also offer the ability for a card reader to be installed in the front door intercom panel. This is nice for tenants because they don’t have to fumble at night to find their keys on the street. It also is beneficial to the management company as most card access systems retain a transaction log which can be beneficial when there are people subletting illegally.
One thing that Unitone does not offer is a postal lock option. AiPhone sells a module which lets the USPS delivery person use their key at the intercom panel to unlock the door. You won’t have to cut in a separate key box below the intercom for the mailman to open and retrieve the front door key from. I’ve found that those always tend to get damaged or vandalized.
The Unitone does offer a method for the Super to deliver a message to tenants via their intercom, but this option is geared towards a full time Super. I believe that there is a computer in the basement of each building that the Super logs into and uses to post the message to the intercoms in the building. For this project, you have 9 buildings which will make it a pain for the Super to repeat this process for each building. You also need a Super that’s computer savvy, which isn’t always the case. Although the feature looks nice as a developer, you have to consider whether the Super will actually use the system once you’ve moved onto the next project. If he doesn’t, then the tenants won’t be happy because they’re not receiving the service and features that the broker probably sold them on.
As far as remotely granting access, both the Unitone and the Virtual Doorman are decent solutions. With the Unitone, the cost is less and there’s no continuing service fee other than the phone line. The Virtual Doorman service has an installation fee as well as a monthly service fee which would need to be totaled up and put into your offering plan.
The problem of a cell phone call from the Unitone is that there’s no video verification. If you buzz in a Fed Ex or UPS delivery person while you’re away, there’s the risk that it’s not actually a delivery person that you’re letting in. There’s also the risk that instead of dropping off a package, they may take one that was delivered earlier that day. I’m also not sure how it works if there’s a roommate situation. Let’s say I’m living with a friend and I’m out for the weekend. She throws a party while I’m out of town. Everyone is enjoying the festivities and no one notices the intercom ring. The call gets forwarded to my cell phone and I have no idea of who the person is or what party they’re talking about when they’re asking me to buzz them in.
The Virtual Doorman service lets the management company or super call up and have notices sent directly to tenants via email and each tenant can be notified in the case of multiple people in one apartment. The system also has a live person verifying all deliveries and watching them as they take place. When a delivery is made or a guest is granted access, the tenant receives an email notification with the details. Tenants have the option of using a web portal, email or phone to let the service know of guests they are expecting. The tenants have the option of uploading a picture of the guest and assigning them a passcode that they need to give when they arrive. These two things are for a higher level of security and aren’t required by the service to grant someone access. The service also has extensive logs which can be referenced if there ever is a question of what happened to my package or who was granted access during a certain time period. The service also serves tenants by giving them a method of reporting building problems to the doorman and having them relay the information to the Super or management company.
Whichever system you choose, both are high quality solutions that I’m sure your buyers will be happy to have. I would consult with the brokers that are tasked with selling the units and get their opinion on which system would provide you with more value based on other buildings in the area and your target market.
Oh I thought it was a door man building that was converting and losing some of those high paying jobs (and I’m not kidding the way you have to tip to get something done in NY). WHen I moved upstate and the maintenance guy came in to fix something I went to tip him and he asked what that was.
Well, it’s not like the jobs existed already…
Anyway, our co-op looked at the virtual doorman but decided against it on price. I wonder if the Aiphone plus virtual doorman would still be less expensive. I voted for the unitone b/c i think the fewer vendors you have to deal with, the better. As for the super sending out messages, how about e-mail or texting? That way people would be covered if they’re not in the building.
There goes another couple of jobs.
I have installed 4 Aiphone systems and they are terrific, cheap and reliable…
one feature that you should look into with the Aiphone system is that they allow you to add cameras from a surveillance system, so that tenants can hit a key within their apartment and not only see the front door, but then scroll through to view other cameras live – add security and a convenience to check out usage in common areas like roof decks and laundry rooms.
The uploading of pics into the system sounds like a real pain in the ass for the Aiphone. I asuume the “virtual doorman” is only used when you are not actually there to see the screen yourself, correct.
The super message relay is very valuable.