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Tricking My Way Into NYC's Billionaire Penthouses | Fakes, Frauds and Scammers - YouTube
Channel: VICE
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<i>As a real estate agent,</i>
[1]
<i>you never really know
who youāre dealing with.</i>
[3]
<i>She could have been
an actual billionaire.</i>
[6]
<i>She could have been a scam artist,</i>
[8]
<i>and I would never
know the difference.</i>
[10]
This project is kind of like
a Robin Hood project.
[13]
I pretended to be a billionaire
[14]
so I can get into the most exclusive
apartments in New York.
[18]
We're not just selling a building.
[20]
The reason why
people are living here
[22]
is because of the lifestyle
that weāre offering.
[25]
Eighty-five million.
[26]
Ten million.
[27]
Sixteen million.
[29]
These people are the 1 percent
of the 1 percent.
[31]
I think itās really obscene
that these buildings exist.
[36]
<i>Your maid would be
getting ready with dinner</i>
[39]
<i>while youāre just having
one of the finest champagnes</i>
[42]
<i>in a soaking tub with your husband.</i>
[45]
<i>Imagine waking up every morning
to these views.</i>
[49]
<i>Gabriella...</i>
[52]
<i>I really see you living here.</i>
[57]
[FAKE BILLIONAIRE]
[60]
The cheapest property
Iāve been to was 10 million,
[63]
and the most expensive
was 85 million.
[66]
They manipulate the cities
[69]
to the disadvantage of
everyone else in the cities.
[74]
My name is Andi Schmied,
[75]
and in 2016, I spent three months
in New York
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at an artist residency program.
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Basically, this whole idea
started with the biggest clichƩ
[85]
that I went up to
the Empire State Building,
[87]
and I saw the views.
[89]
And I basically realized that
there are lots of buildings
[93]
that are as tall or even taller than
the Empire State Building.
[97]
And I just basically was
really curious about
[101]
what the view from those buildings
looked like.
[104]
Thatās when I started to work
on my book and my project.
[107]
I chose 25 buildings, high,
which were luxury towers.
[112]
<i>Ninety-three stories above the city,</i>
[114]
<i>this is what $81 million gets you:</i>
[117]
<i>a full penthouse,</i>
[119]
<i>8,400 square feet with floor to
ceiling views of a metropolis.</i>
[125]
My goal was really
to show those views
[129]
that are considered to be
the best views
[132]
you can privately own in New York.
[134]
First, I really just wanted to
photograph the views for the book.
[137]
As I was going deeper
and deeper in this world,
[139]
it became more and more obvious
[141]
that itās something
totally bizarre and crazy.
[146]
I was laying in bed,
and really I was just thinking,
[150]
āHow could I get in those buildings?ā
[152]
I remember I talked about the project
[154]
to the curator who was working
at the residency, and she told me,
[158]
āNo way they would ever let you in
without a credit check.
[161]
The only way for that
is to pretend to be a billionaire
[166]
who is searching for an apartment.ā
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From the moment that
I started to work on the project,
[172]
this was pretty much
the only thing I could think about:
[175]
write it down, check the address,
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go home, check if thereās
any real estate available,
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call the agency,
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and usually, next day, go and see it
and take a picture of the view.
[186]
And so really, for three months,
[188]
I was living in between
this Gabriella,
[191]
which was my billionaire persona,
and myself,
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back and forth on the A line
from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
[199]
My name is Daniel Rosenstein.
[201]
I've worked in real estate
for four years.
[204]
I met Andi two years ago
[206]
when she was infiltrating
New Yorkās most exclusive properties.
[210]
I was doing Airbnb in my apartment
in the Upper West Side.
[214]
And first, I remember
that he asked me,
[216]
āWhat are you doing in New York?ā
[218]
And then he said
heās a real estate agent.
[220]
I was actually a bit hesitant
to tell him what I came here for.
[224]
She told me that
she was making a book.
[226]
So I think at first, I was like,
āOh, is she mocking our profession?
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Iām just a pawn
in your project here.ā
[232]
And then the more
she was talking about it,
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the more I saw her point of view,
[236]
which is almost nobody
has access to these apartments.
[241]
You have to go through a doorman.
[242]
You have to reach out
to a real estate agent.
[243]
Itās not a normal real estate market,
[245]
where you can show up
to an open house.
[247]
She asked a few questions,
[250]
I think how to navigate
getting into buildings.
[255]
I told her to use the term,
āWeāre looking for a pied-Ć -terre
[257]
or second home in the city.ā
[260]
A lot of really wealthy people
look for second, third,
[263]
fourth, fifth homes,
[264]
and she at that point had essentially
created her whole persona.
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Gabriella is my actual middle name
because, at the beginning,
[272]
I didnāt know if they would
check my passport ever.
[275]
And actually, at some of the
properties, they did check it.
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And I remember, back then,
I got really obsessed by
[281]
many of these small detailsā
that I need to do my nails,
[285]
and I need to have proper shoes,
proper bag.
[289]
In order to do this project,
[290]
I needed to bring my camera
and photograph the view.
[293]
This made me obviously very
unusual in the eyes of the agents.
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But I also realized that
the stranger I act,
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the more convincing it is
that Iām actually a billionaire,
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and I just donāt give a shit.
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I was really, really nervous
at this very first viewing.
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The agent started to ask me
if I have a chef, if I have a nanny,
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if we have a private chauffeur.
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So I just randomly
answered yes and no.
[322]
And all of these answers kind of
became part of what Gabriella was.
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<i>Tell your husband every morning</i>
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<i>that this is really
where you want to be.</i>
[332]
There are a few different
types of agents.
[335]
There are the ones
who are very natural
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and just showing you,
here is the kitchen,
[340]
here is the bathroom,
[341]
this is the price.
[342]
And there is the complete
other end of the spectrum.
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<i>You will feel, Gabriella,
it is like going on a journey</i>
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<i>from the sidewalks of
19th-century, old New York</i>
[353]
<i>to the sidewalks of Florence.</i>
[356]
I actually might just
prefer the 21st century--
[358]
<i>Imagine your daughter running around
saying words in Hungarian.</i>
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It was really hard to keep
a straight face in those viewings.
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I mean, it was really bizarre
what they were telling me.
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<i>Sit down, Gabriella.</i>
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<i>It really is a moment for you.</i>
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<i>Just tell your husband.</i>
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<i>He loves you,
and he wants you to be happy.</i>
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<i>Iām sure he will not say no to you</i>
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<i>if you let him know
this is really your first choice.</i>
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Because this ultra-luxury segment
of the real estate
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is actually now
not really going that well,
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the newer the development,
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the crazier the amenities they have
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because thereās really
this huge competition.
[403]
One of the things that became an
absolute standard for these buildings
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is the golf simulator room,
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Michelin-starred private restaurant
in the building,
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theater, swimming pool, obviously.
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Equinox gym.
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They have a childrenās playroom,
a billiards room,
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a conference room,
and everything in between.
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In one of the penthouses,
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it was that they would
give you a yacht as a present
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when you buy the apartment.
[430]
A yacht.
[432]
So you mentioned the number of people
who are actually living in poverty,
[436]
according to the federal
poverty numbers.
[439]
But we all know, living in New York,
itās a whole different ballgame.
[443]
<i>The average rent across the city</i>
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<i>has returned to
nearly pre-pandemic levels.</i>
[448]
We built fewer homes in the 2010s
[450]
than in any decade
going back to the 1960s.
[453]
I think the way poverty is usually
portrayed is from the bottom.
[457]
So, talk about homelessness,
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or you talk about people
who cannot afford housing.
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I think when you see it
from this very top of the sphere,
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it somehow is also very telling.
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The buildings that you can see
from every single corner of the city
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are these ultra-luxury real estate,
[476]
which are not accessible
for anyone, really.
[479]
Apartments and buildings
are standing 60 to 70 percent empty.
[486]
<i>Commercial and residential wonderland</i>
[488]
<i>featuring some of the cityās
tallest buildings</i>
[491]
<i>and most expensive
restaurants and condos.</i>
[495]
<i>If you are looking to
call Steinway Tower home,</i>
[498]
<i>studios start at $7.7 million.</i>
[503]
Listen, not to be not sympathetic
to the homeless,
[505]
but if you live in One57,
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youāre paying millions of dollars
to live there.
[509]
Do you want a homeless shelter
in your building? I donāt think so.
[511]
We are not building enough housing
[513]
for everybody who needs
a place to live.
[515]
Hereās what itās like living in
the smallest apartment in New York.
[519]
Wherever your expectations are,
lower them.
[522]
So these buildings are kind of
really soulless, in a sense.
[526]
They are super standardized.
[528]
The trends that I see
in these properties
[530]
are a lot of the same finishes
and materials used.
[535]
Some of the floor plans
are the exact same.
[537]
I think itās
a really challenging task
[541]
to create something different
[542]
when youāre working with
essentially the same floor plan,
[544]
which is a tall square
or a rectangle in the sky.
[549]
Oh, wow. Who was
the interior designer?
[551]
<i>Deborah Berke.</i>
[553]
<i>There is no one better in design
at the moment.</i>
[556]
So you have always some very special
type of marble in the apartment
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that the agents
would always highlight.
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<i>The marble is Siberian,</i>
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<i>which is now
the best on the market.</i>
[569]
Then you would have the oak floor,
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which is always
the best type of oak floor.
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And thereās really nothing
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that would make any of these
buildings stand out, to be honest.
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But itās not really surprising
when you realize that
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itās solely a form of investment,
most of the cases.
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So itās really not about living,
and itās not about having a soul.
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And it shows.
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Itās really obvious
when you are there.
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One of the most striking things was
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how agents are trying to
always go out of their way
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to tell me that
no one else lives in this building,
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that I'm not going to
have any neighbors.
[606]
A lot of these
Billionairesā Row towers
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are investments for overseas
and local people,
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so theyāll rent them out
or theyāll just own them,
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have them sit empty
for a number of years
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and resell them.
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Itās a safe investment.
It holds value over time.
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But what that translates to
is buildings sitting empty.
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Thereās a trickle-down effect,
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so once the hyper-expensive
properties
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become even more expensive,
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it raises the value of
everything else beneath it.
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I get very often the comment
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that this project is kind of like
a Robin Hood project,
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in the sense that Iām getting
the views which other people
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or most people cannot see
to the public.
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And itās like being so high up,
itās cool.
[649]
But then it didnāt feel good
to be there, in a way.
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One of the very big problems
of these buildings,
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they are casting sometimes hundreds
and hundreds of meters of shadows,
[660]
for example, over Central Park
[662]
or over other peopleās
up until then sunny living rooms,
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or just over the streets.
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And so, somehow, these buildings
that are not even lived in
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are taking away such natural things
from the rest of the city
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as sunlight.
[679]
Thereās a lot of money in New York.
[681]
And I think there will
always continue to be
[683]
a lot of money in New York.
[684]
I do think itās going to be
more segregated.
[686]
What Iāve learned from this project
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is really just how obscene
differences are in society, I guess,
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and how this can translate into
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this very literal physical form
in the city
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and how that is impacting
everything around it.
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