Verified answer

Someone from the royal society of animal protection whatever rings his bell and says "hello they told us there's a loose snake in this building, can you buzz us in please" and the guy click a button the door "buzzes" and that's the moment you push and pull and one of the two will work. Then you get in.

btw "How to enter an condo" do you really speak like that in the USA? I'd say "How to enter a condo"

The condos I've lived in and visited, most in the northeastern and upper midwestern cities (Chicago, Boston, New York, Albany, Pittsburgh) all had the same entry system. Every single one of them.

There's an exterior door which is routinely left unlocked. It leads to an entry area or lobby where locked mailboxes and buzzers are located. (In a doorman building, this is his work station.) Here's where you can buzz an apartment and either talk to whoever's inside via intercom or have them buzz you in, pressing a button which unlocks the inner door.

Unlike your other answers, the people I've known in the buildings do not buzz in strangers as a matter of course. It's going to take a plausible lie delivered well to get a stranger to buzz you in. Unlike the movies, ringing all the buzzers does not get someone to buzz you in. Residents have been burned by thieves who entered the building this way, and condo association meetings and flyers warn about it a lot.

The inner door is locked with a good deadbolt and a knifeguard which makes it harder to jimmy it. Most are keyed entry, although my MIL had an electronic card which she struggled with all the damned time. Once past this door, your character will have access to the stairs and possibly to the elevator, unless it requires a key or passcard. Some do, mostly on the lobby-level floor only. The smart thief goes up two flights then boards the elevator.

Remember, too, that an increasing number of buildings have closed-circuit cameras and the person inside the condo may be able to see them on TV or computer screen.

So your guy will need not only a plausible lie he tells well, but to look the part. Maybe he needs a uniform and clipboard?

I don't know where you live but I have never seen those buzzer things. All the condos that I have lived in have all different ways to get in. There is the normal key, and the electronic ways to get into a condo. The most Hi-tec I've seen is where you put a card up to the top right corner of the door and it opens it automatically. Good luck!

You press all the buttons, inevitably someone's intercom is broke or they're expecting a delivery or visitor.

And these systems aren't universal at all. You also see doors propped open all the time.

To enter a condo you ring the buzzer Einstein.

@ Sea, this guy can't speak.. if he said "enter an condo" everyone would be laughing.

In my building, all visitors/workmen are supposed to be announced (in-house phone) by the doorman/concierge, but, I notice they don't bother with the food deliveries. If the doorman sees you are carrying a pizza, he asks which apartment you are going to, but very rarely phones the resident.

In most places you ring the buzzer.