A leak might have been coming from my old loft in Portland. I was living in New York, somebody else was staying there, and the building needed to get inside quickly.
The first call did not reach me. The email did.
I wrote back that I would make a call and report back. Two minutes later, I had texted the person staying in the apartment and told the building that I could open the door remotely if somebody nearby was ready to check.
That was why the lock was useful. It was convenient when I visited, but the better feature was being able to give somebody access without mailing a key or waiting for me to travel to Maine.
I also called a friend in Portland. I sent his number to the building, corrected the number when I realized I had typed it wrong, and reached him directly. He ran over to look at the apartment.
He did not see water anywhere.
I connected him with the building manager in case they needed a deeper investigation. The urgent part was done in about half an hour. Somebody had entered the loft, checked the obvious places, and confirmed there was no visible water inside.
That did not prove where the leak came from. It only ruled out the easy answer and gave the building a person nearby who could help with the next check.
The loft was the first apartment I bought. I had lived there when I was working in Maine, and I kept it after moving away. Owning it from another city meant the problems arrived without much concern for where I happened to be.
Some of that work was planned. There were payments, maintenance, and the ordinary parts of keeping an apartment in decent shape. A possible leak was different. It needed a response before anybody knew whether it was small or whether water was moving through the building.
Nothing dramatic happened. I did not drive to Portland or repair a pipe. The useful work was a few texts, the remote lock, and a friend willing to run over.
The exchange ended with the apartment looking dry. The building had a local contact, and I went back to the rest of my day.