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.”