Bob the "The Downtown Power Broker" Picks (Idiotic) Email Fight, Threatens Career

I absolutely love it when psychotic man-children (i.e. self-proclaimed ‘Power Brokers for Upscale LA Living’) decide to pick a fight with you over email.

The Boyfriend and I are in the process of attempting to find a new spot somewhere in Los Angeles… preferably a gigantic live/work loft we can turn into a fine art gallery ON the ocean…  our sights are as full as our gigantic wine glasses.

March 3rd, 11:45pm, Mid-Wine: I’m sitting on a windowsill, sipping Pinot (as per usual), and find this gorgeous industrial loft downtown in a rather famous building. It’s for sale. I decide to take a cordial shot in the dark.  I decide to email the broker with a proposal.

“Hello there, Bob*,” I type, eyeballs widening with fear at the gigantic snowflakes catapulting themselves around outside my window, “Just saw the lovely loft you represent… random, so please excuse — but would the owners be at all interested in doing a rental arrangement while it’s on the market?”

Keep in mind — as beautiful as this loft is — it’s not exactly a penthouse, either. Whomever is selling is not doing it because they “don’t need the money”.

I send the email, continue sipping my fermented grapes, and staring at the monster snowfall occurring in central Connecticut.

Ping!

I hate the sound of the iPhone email. However, I had one. From Bob, the ‘Upscale Power Broker’.

“We DO NOT DO short term rentals,” screamed the email in capitals, “NO ONE ELSE in Downtown does either. BOB.”

Well $*@! you, I grumble, mentally banishing him from my real estate search.

I have a bit of a problem, though. I have a hard time letting assholes like this — and their idiotic  ’self proclaimed’ (read: fabricated) brokerage credits — go:

I had to. And I thought that’d be the end of it.  Bob would realize he should — from this point forward — talk to clients with a Santa-inspired benevolence, understand further he’s also a client-mutilating dumbass — we’re obviously looking for exactly what he proclaims to be his speciality – and either apologize or go sit in the pool of sorrow that is his single, shitty studio apartment in East LA.

Bob replies:

Dumbass. Really? You’re in the people business and you’re REALLY risking pissing someone off — for absolutely no reason — to get in the “last word”?

Perhaps it was the wine — or the fact that I’m just EXTREMELY confrontational when it comes to dealing with idiots — OR the fact that I was the highest grossing agent at Corcoran/Citi-Habitats when I was in real estate, and I HATE pompous real estate agents like this in general:

Then this mole of a human being goes and Googles me. He unearths my Backstage blog from ‘07-’08.

Wow. I’m just absolutely amazed that a grown man — who doesn’t sound like a young kid, from my perspective [he sounds like a crotchety late 40-something that tried to be an actor, got a shitty job paying minimum wage in the William Morris mailroom instead (if that's not a delusion of his warped noggin, too), and got fired because he didn't have the intelligence or people skills to survive in the entertainment industry --] would further an email fight.

My final email, before blocking the guy — considering it’s now Thursday morning, I’m happily sipping on coffee, and I’m realizing what a ridiculous vat of shit this has gotten stirred into:

And… close the book on Psychotic Not-So-Powerful-’Power-Broker’-Bob. I won’t throw in his first last name, because I’m kind of afraid he’ll do more Googling, find this, and come stab me in my sleep.

At this point, I’m seriously considering whether I should move back to Los Angeles.  There’s too many people out of their f-ing minds.

Perhaps I’ll move to Alaska and build an igloo. Might have trouble with the coffee, though…

– Ashley