If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, then real estate is a close second. In fact, the deal to exchange trinkets and beads for the entire island of Manhattan was probably celebrated with a few wenches. The two go together like, well, sex and money, and that's the point the Observer's Dana Rubinstein makes in a story headlined, seriously, "Escrow Hos Close the Deal." Is it coincidence that this shocking exposé on hookers being used to entice clients and reward dealmakers comes during one of the slowest news weeks of the year? Absolutely, and how dare you question the newsworthiness! Go right on ahead, Eliot Spitzer's madam.
Says Client 9's supplier (and gubernatorial candidate!) Kristin Davis, "I'd find the most consistent clients were between the finance guys and the real estate guys. These guys were my regulars, my bread-and-butters." There's also the tale of the architect who hired a woman-of-the-night to service a broker in a restaurant bathroom in exchange for client referrals, and this quote from a commercial broker that will send you running for the shower: "Around the Empire State Building, there are a bunch of Korean whorehouses they take people to. For a few hundred dollars, some guy who's in from Cleveland, who thinks he's a much bigger dude than he really is, you set him up with a nice Asian girl. I think it's common as the air." And best of all, they don't demand a 3% commission! We predict a revolution within brokerage hiring practices.
· Escrow Hos Close the Deal [NYO]
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