Provide more value to residents while keeping your building within reach

Stainless steel kitchens and top-of-the-line appliances may not be enough these days to entice prospective buyers. The marketability of your residential building is impacted by the level of convenience your building offers as well as monthly fees in today's buyer's market. Offering prospective residents Virtual Doorman services adds the same convenience, comfort, and 24/7 security as traditional doormen at a fraction of the cost. Having the right infrastructure and technological upgrades can make your residential building difficult for buyers to resist. It's no surprise that tenants and potential buyers like the convenience of a doorman building. If tenants are ever locked out, they won't have to pay a locksmith, and your building manager won't need to deliver a spare set of keys. Busy professionals that work long hours prefer to have their packages and dry cleaning dropped off and picked up while they're out. They enjoy coming home to their UPS and FedEx packages instead of missed delivery notices. Virtual Doorman allows package delivery personnel, housekeepers, dog walkers, family members, and contractors to be let in while residents are away. Virtual Doorman combines video monitoring and access control in order to provide a higher level of security coverage than in most buildings. The latest generation of our Virtual Doorman service includes an interactive web-based portal that enables residents to communicate far more efficiently and rapidly by streamlining the information exchange such as inputting authorization for guests and visitors, scheduling package deliveries and requesting maintenance. Guests are greeted by the building's designated Virtual Doorman, and once their credentials are verified, they are promptly granted access. The more secure your building is, the more attractive it will be to potential buyers. Virtual Doorman offers a streamlined, fully-integrated system that makes being a landlord a dream. Building management and maintenance functions are also streamlined with Virtual Doorman (i.e. granting access for "meter readers"). Secure access could be granted on a monthly or quarterly basis, for example, as specified by building management. This convenience also translates into an added savings since the superintendent and even the property manager need not be called to handle matters that are easily handled by the remote doorman. Colin Foster is partner and vice president of sales for Virtual Service, New York, N.Y.