Inquiry Dialogue

So we’re looking for this apartment.

We see the post we call the phone number within the listing within the post and somebody picks up and says hello.

Well the first thing you need to do is confirm that this is the right person.

Right.

So you might start by saying yes is is this the owner of.

Is this the owner of the or is this the landlord.

You could also say landlord of the apartment in Greenpoint.

That’s listed on Zillow.

Dot com.

Or you could say I’m calling about the.

And then you can say what you’re calling about.

I’m calling about the one bedroom apartment in Greenpoint.

That’s on Zillow dot com.

Is this the.

Is this the owner.

Is this the landlord.

You could say the newly renovated one bedroom Greenpoint apartment.

Hello.

I’m calling about the renovated one bedroom apartment in Greenpoint.

That’s posted on Zillow dot com.

Is this the owner not Are you the owner.

If we’re on the phone we should say is this the owner.

OK this is when you say your own name.

And is this when you’re on the phone.

This is how we say it basically.

We usually don’t say I am I am OK.

Yes this is the owner.

Yes.

This is the owner.

OK great.

Well I’m just wondering first.

That’s the first thing I want to say.

If the apartment is still available because I’m very interested in taking a look at it.

If so if we use if so when we want to say if this thing is true.

Right.

You look tired.

Are you tired.

If so you should take a nap if so if you’re tired it’s a way to say if this thing is true and it’s pretty common actually now it’s important not to say I really really really want to live here.

I want to rent this apartment because then later you can’t talk about the price probably.

Maybe it will be harder for you to negotiate.

Which means to get maybe get a better price so it’s better to just say that you’re interested in the apartment.

OK great.

I’m just wondering if just wondering if the apartment is still available because I’m very interested in taking a look.

If so we’re taking a look at it.

If so a few people have come by for showings but it’s still available.

So if somebody comes by that means you go to a place for a short time.

My friend came by yesterday and we talked for an hour or I’m going to stop by the bookstore for a few minutes before I go home.

We often use come by stopped by and we talk about going to a place usually for a short period of time for showings showings.

It’s when you actually show an apartment to somebody who might live there but it’s still available.

So people saw it but they haven’t yet decided to rent the place.

OK so maybe that gives me a feeling of pressure.

Maybe I need to hurry up a little bit.

OK that’s great.

That means it’s still available.

So the first thing you should do when you call is make sure that from the time that you saw or the time that the listing was posted and the time you’re calling from that time to this time nobody has actually rented the apartment.

You need to make sure about that first.

Usually that’s the first thing.

Then you can get into some of the details.

OK that’s great.

Do you think I could ask a few questions.

Could I ask a few questions.

I’d like to ask a few questions.

Do you think I could ask a few questions is really really polite.

Maybe it’s too polite.

Maybe it’s very polite.

You can also.

It’s just fine to say I’d like to ask a few questions or can I ask a couple questions.

I’d like to to ask a few questions then they might say go ahead go ahead go ahead.

That means please do.

Please do.

If we ask a question do you think I could ask a few questions.

Yeah absolutely.

Or maybe.

Sure.

Or.

Okay.

And then that means you need to say what your questions are.

Well I’d like to know more about the neighborhood.

I’d like to know more about the neighborhood and also whether or not pets are allowed.

I have a cat.

Now notice this is not a question really but it kind of is a question even though it’s not said as a question because you are making an inquiry or an inquiry.

You’re getting more information.

We could easily say this as a question do you think you could tell me.

Or could you tell me if the neighborhood is safe or not.

Or could you tell me a little bit about the neighborhood.

And also do you allow cats in the apartment.

Are are cats allowed our cats allowed.

I have one.

I have one so it’s still kind of a question even though it isn’t really a question because it doesn’t have a question mark but we could very easily ask this as a question.

We would just use some of the phrases that we learned at the very beginning of this lesson.

So now we have our answer from the landlord.

As for the neighborhood.

As for the neighborhood when we use as for something as for you.

Well as for the report you wrote yesterday means this is the topic I’m going to talk about.

As for the neighborhood it’s relatively quiet.

It’s pretty quiet.

It’s pretty quiet.

It’s it’s kind of quiet ok which is a good thing usually but there are a lot of great places to eat nearby.

Why would the landlord say.

But he could say and I guess.

But maybe that landlord is thinking a quiet place.

Maybe suggests that it’s not very interesting and there aren’t a lot of things to do.

I’m saying it’s quiet it’s peaceful and at the same time there are lots of things to do.

Lots of places to eat but there are lots of great places to eat nearby.

The school is within walking distance walking distance is kind of a subjective word that means maybe different people have a different idea about what that means but we can say it’s probably less than 10 minutes.

And the subway is just a five minute walk away a five minute walk here.

It’s quite interesting we can make our own adjectives a five minute walk thirty two page book The short book a three hour bus ride a 15 year old maybe a 15 year old movie.

OK so we can make our own adjectives by adding a hyphen ups a hyphen hyphen is this one that goes between the number and the noun.

Take away the S and then it makes an adjective.

So it’s a five minute walk away.

Albert Park is a made up park name is right across the street right.

Gives us a feeling of it being very close right across the street doesn’t mean this right doesn’t mean that right.

It just means directly.

So it’s a great location and totally safe.

Oh so I’ve just remembered your other question.

Your other thing was about if your cat is allowed right.

Oh and cats are allowed but no big dogs no big dogs no big dogs allowed.

So when you remember something you go Oh yeah.

And about cats.

As for cats.

As for your cat we use as for when we want to mention a topic.

So the landlord has answered my initial inquiries about whether or not the apartment is available.

About whether or not I can bring my cats and about the neighborhood.

The landlord has told me about how nice the neighborhood is.

But I still have a few more things I’d like to know once we get into the conversation a little bit.

Then we can start using more direct language.

If you use too many of the polite phrases that we learned at the beginning of the lesson then sometimes the conversation won’t flow so it’s okay.

Once you get into it to start using some more direct questions.

Now I’m going to get a little bit more information and we’re gonna start talking about the rent and when we talk about the rent we need to do a little bit of negotiation.

So to negotiate means to discuss price.

Often you can negotiate about lots of different things but often in America when you negotiate you need to give up something so that you can get something you need to make an offer.

You need to make an offer.

Rarely in America do people just say can you give me a lower price.

Can you please give me a discount.

There has to be a reason.

So we’ll look at that.

We’ll look at that in the rest of this inquiry situation.

That’s great.

That’s great.

Thank you for the information and about the rent.

So now I’m changing topics to talk about.

Talk about money how much I will need to pay.

OK.

Are the utilities included are the utilities included so utilities are the things you need to pay that your apartment runs on so electricity may maybe gas water Internet.

These things are utilities if they’re included that means you don’t need to pay any extra if the rent is one thousand five hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars.

I don’t need to pay more than one thousand five hundred.

They’re part of that.

Heating and water are included.

This is pretty common.

Heating and water are included but electricity and Wi-Fi are not.

So that means you don’t need to worry about heating and water but you do need to pay for the electricity.

Depending on how much you use and of course Wi-Fi you would have to pay for those yourself.

OK.

No problem.

Now we get into the negotiation one thousand five hundred is a little over my budget over my budget.

OK over my budget means it’s more than I really want to to spend it’s more than I planned to spend.

We can also say out of my price range that out of my price range a bit over my budget.

OK so we’re sort of expressing a bit of pain.

This is common in an English negotiation.

First you say oh I don’t know I can’t.

And then OK.

And it looks a little high for the area as well.

So that means in this neighborhood maybe I saw some other apartments that were cheaper or maybe I saw one that was a little bigger and it was the same price.

I think it’s too expensive.

This high means too expensive a little high for the area as well.

So I’m sort of trying to get to some point I’m trying to say can you give me a lower rent but I don’t want to just say can you give me a lower rent.

Would you consider one thousand three hundred if I sign a two year lease so a lease is a rental contract when you rent an apartment.

We call it off in America we call it a lease.

We say Would you consider when we want to offer something when we want to offer maybe what we will do.

And we are suggesting that we pay a little bit less.

Would you consider thirteen hundred if I sign a two year lease if I signed a two year lease.

Then you don’t have to worry about finding another person to live in this apartment.

Another tenant tenant is a person who lives in usually in an apartment.

My tenants my tenants the people who live in my in the houses I own or the apartments I own.

So would you consider it’s really common.

But the landlord doesn’t really want to talk about it on the phone.

The landlord wants to show the apartment first and then talk about price stuff.

We could talk about that once you’ve come by for a look.

We could talk about that once you’ve come by for a look.

So the landlord is putting it off put it off.

That means to push that back for for a later discussion.

Maybe I might be willing to be flexible on that.

I might be willing to be flexible on that.

I know that sounds a little bit weird but flexible means that my my position on something or what I think about something might change a little bit.

We can negotiate more.

I’m really trying to get you to come to look at the place to look at the apartment and then we can negotiate about the rent.

About the the price right.

So I’m okay with the idea of talking about it later.

When do you think I could stop by.

When do you think I could stop by.

And this is pretty polite.

When do you think I could stop by.

Would tomorrow afternoon work.

Remember from our class our lesson about inviting.

We use work in this way to suggest a time.

Does that time work for you.

Would tomorrow afternoon work for you.

Yeah.

Yeah that would be perfect.

That would be perfect would be perfect.

3 pm now you could say is 3 p.m. okay.

Is 3 p.m. OK but to make it shorter sometimes we’ll just say 3 p.m. 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. 4 p.m. whatever.

Great right.

Could you text me the address text here is a verb that means give me exactly where I need to go.

Send it to me in a message to this number maybe.

Could you text me the address.

Yes.

See you tomorrow.

Yes.

See you tomorrow.

So this is a very common very normal situation.

This kind of thing happens all the time.

And if you find yourself in a situation where you need to ask for information.

Remember start with some of the phrases that we learned early on at the beginning of the lesson and then once you get into the discussion into the conversation don’t worry too much about using them.

You can ask direct questions like are the blah blah blah blah blah.

Does the apartment have furniture.

Does the electricity work it’s OK to use those questions.

Once you get in it and then maybe when you’re going to say goodbye then you can start using some more polite language again like when do you think I could stop by.

Right.

That’s very polite very very respectful beginning an end pretty polite pretty respectful the middle just go through the details and ask what you want to ask.