Whether you’ve been lured in by the promise of a free dinner, free trip, or even free money timeshare presentations can be some of the most intense real estate pitches around. During my tenure with real estate I have experienced many fine and many poor timeshare presentations and here is what you can expect too.
First things first, these people are sales people and they make a living from selling real estate so don’t go into the situation thinking you will not be pressured. Now that we have that out of the way let’s get an understanding of what you can expect.
On the day of the presentation you will most likely meet your representative at the resort, usually in the front lobby where you’ll sign in. From there you’ll either get a free breakfast (wine and dine sales pitch) or you’ll get drinks and a small appetizer. Here is where the sales agent will get a feel for you and your situation. The agent will be extremely friendly, make jokes, ask about family members, your job, and all that fun stuff. You can consider this Phase I.
During Phase II you will get up from the buffet or seat and be escorted on a lovely tour of the resort. Most of the time the resort will actually be quite amazing and this is when your mind will play tricks on you. This is why the salesperson takes you on the tour, to get smiles out of you and get your happy endorphins on high alert. Once they can see you are interested in the property they will keep the tour going and show you various timeshare suites and rooms available. Again, don’t be shocked if they are amazing (after all if they weren’t these companies would be out of business)! Once you have viewed the resort, its facilities (pools, gym, massage, etc), and rooms its time to move on the Phase III.
At Phase III you will be taken back to a sales office but usually not just any “sales office”. Most of the time you will be in an organized room consisting of multiple tables, chairs, and other potential buyers so don’t freak out. The company does this intentionally to add pressure to your decision and influence rash decisions. To the resort rash/quick decisions usually equal money to them so keep your bearings and make only informed decisions. After a usually intense sales pitch (including financials) if your salesperson does not persuade you to make the big leap and purchase then their manager will be called over to speak with you. The manager will reinforce what the initial salesperson said but most likely offer you a better deal while pressuring you harder. If you decide to buy based on a deal they offer you, make sure you get it in writing! If you decide its not for you, stick to your guns and keep saying no…remember these are sales people and they need to eat so the pressure will be there. If you were promised the resort was going to give you something make sure you collect before you leave, else, you will probably never see it.
When there comes a time that you need to deliver a great present to a friend, family member, or coworker, something to keep in mind is the aromatherapy gift basket. There is always something going on whether it is an upcoming birthday and anniversary or a holiday party that requires you to provide a great gift for a deserving individual. Aromatherapy products are perfect for any of those occasions because everyone needs to take a little bit of time to relax and enjoy a little quiet time.
A basket of aromatherapy goods can be a great way to provide many different scents as well as different scented products to an individual. This is perfect if you are not sure what the favorite smells are you the person you are buying your gift for. Also gives them a great chance to experiment with different diffusers and candles and essential oils so that the recipient of the gift may learn or find something that they did not know about before.
There are so many different kinds of aromatherapy products that are great for gift baskets. There are aromatherapy soaps which can be used in the bathroom and will get a daily reminder to everyone to relax and take a deep breath. Also scented candles can be great and be used for different time periods where you just need that one special scent. It is great to have special occasion moments where you bring out your favorite scented candle and allow it to remind you of good memories and help you to find an inner calm.
The benefits of aromatherapy have long been known. Scientists have been able to see how the mind and the body react to different pleasing smells and it is well recorded how pleasant smells are associated in the brain to past experiences. This means that the right scent can easily put you into a sense of relaxation due to the pleasant feelings you experienced when you were younger and first had that smell. Through the use of essential oils and various other aromatherapy products, it is easy to bring your mind to calm and allow the busyness and stress of the day to day to disappear.
This sense of mental well being is the exact reason why aromatherapy products make such a great gift. Not only will you be giving someone the benefit of relaxation and enjoyment, but as the giver those good feelings that were given through the calming sense will also be associated with you. As if in some way you have personally helped to ease someone’s mind.
Aside from the benefit given by the aromatherapy gift, the person that receives the present will get to enjoy the fun of mixing the different scents to create their own personal elixir from the essential oils. It can be an ongoing theme followed up with aromatherapy books and additional essential oils, which will allow the receiver to expand their choices in fragrances, and their ability to be creative with the different products. As you can see, an aromatherapy gift can be one of the best presents for anyone.
With the high number of Phoenix foreclosure listings on market these days it’s hard to go looking at homes and not bump into at least one, two….or more. If you are like many buyers you may be only interested in looking at foreclosure homes, which is understandable given that they are usually the lowest priced homes on the market.
Once you’ve found a bank owned home you like, making an offer on it is very similar to making an offer on a non-bank owned home. You and your Realtor(TM) write your offer on a standard AAR (Arizona Association of Realtors) Residential Purchase Contract, you sign it and he/she sends it over to the banks listing agent. Sounds simple enough, right?
Not so fast!
To illustrate the point let me give you an example. You spend your Saturday looking at homes, having found the perfect one and you decide you are ready to make an offer. Your agent prepares the offer and faxes it over to you for signatures. You go over the offer, sign it and fax it back. Your agent then faxes it to the bank’s listing agent. Since it is the weekend and the selling bank’s Realtor(TM) and asset manager don’t work on weekends the offer won’t be looked at until the following Monday, at the soonest.
Over the weekend several more offers for the same home are submitted to the bank’s agent, not unusual on a foreclosure home in the Phoenix market. In the case of this example let’s say there are 4 offers for the home. One more wrinkle, the bank has hired their agent to list and sell not only the home you made your offer on but a dozen others as well. And over the weekend he/she has received offers on several of those in addition to the home you like.
Monday morning the listing agent sorts through the dozen or so offers received and sits down in front of the computer, logs into the bank’s website, enters the offers into the online form, and submits them to the asset manager.
Here is What Happens Next
Of the 4 offers submitted on the home you like; one of them is complete and ready to be submitted, one has been faxed back and forth so many times it is impossible to read, one is missing the buyers initials on a few pages, and one is missing the buyer’s Loan Status Report (LSR). The one complete offer is submitted to the bank and the other three are set to the side. The bank’s agent continues to submit all the complete offers for every listing in his/her inventory, setting aside the incomplete or unreadable offers for later follow up with the respective buyer’s agents, which could be several hours later.
If your offer was the one complete and ready to go offer you now have the advantage. The bank’s asset manager may look at your offer and accept it without even considering the three incomplete offers. If your offer is one of the incomplete offers you are now, as the saying goes, behind the eight ball.
The clock is ticking!
The bank is reviewing the one complete offer and your agent is scrambling to get the missing pieces of your offer to the bank’s agent. Imagine if your offer is missing an initial and you aren’t able to get to a fax machine until this evening. Or your offer has been faxed back and forth so many times it is unreadable and you have to resign the entire offer. Or you’re missing the loan pre-qualification letter and your loan officer is in meetings all day and isn’t able to return your call until late in the afternoon. A whole host of things could delay your offer being submitted to the asset manager for consideration. And any delay could mean you miss out on a home you love.
Do’s and Don’ts
Be sure you and your Realtor(TM) take the following steps to insure your offer will be presented to the bank without delay and improve the chance your offer is the one accepted:
Make sure that the offer is signed, initialed and dated in all of the appropriate places.
Make sure to include all of the addendums the bank requires to avoid being put on the back burner because something was missing.
When asking for seller concessions be very specific with the language to avoiding confusing the bank’s agent, delaying him or her from submitting the offer.
Use an electronic signature process to avoid faxing the contract back and forth too many times, thus preventing the possibility of the offer become illegible.
Email the completed offer in PDF format to the bank’s agent, as they prefer this and it avoids over faxing.
Whenever possible, meet with your agent when signing your offer. This allows your agent to review the offer with you and answer questions as well as insure that all of the necessary initials, signatures, and date are complete.
With today’s competitive buyer’s market for foreclosure homes, presenting your offer before the competition is paramount and presenting your offer correctly is crucial.
Almost everyone looks forward to the Christmas holidays but many dread Christmas shopping! Buying gifts for friends and family can be a daunting task even if you know the likes and dislikes of the people you are buying presents for.
Gadgets and gizmos make excellent and often unusual Christmas presents, especially for the person who has everything! Most people enjoy the novelty and fun factor that gadgets and gizmos provide. Some gadgets and gizmos even have practical functions so they really can make a great and clever gift.
Some gadgets are fun and inexpensive but there are also desirable must-have gadgets that can cost a lot of money such as electronic and communications gadgets including the iPhone and mini laptops. These type of gadgets generally cost hundreds of pounds.
If you are on a smaller or tighter budget, there is still a wide variety of gadgets from which you can choose. More fun gadgets which have newly arrived on the market include Mr T In Your Pocket. Anyone old enough to know The A-Team will find it irresistible to know you can now take Mr T with you wherever you go. Thanks to this audio voice keychain you will be able to dispense such verbal abuse as “Don’t Gimme No Back Talk, Sucka” “Quit Your Jibba Jabba” “Don’t Make Me Mad ” “Shut Up, Fool” voiced by Mr. T himself!
Other fun gadgets include USB parrot that sits next to your computer and repeats what it has learned back to you – make sure you don’t let your secrets slip and keep the profanity down!
There are also USB MSN Missile Launcher with built in webcam and Integrated into MSN messenger, so you can now aim at your target using MSN messenger and shoot darts up to fifteen feet.
More useful gadgets include sim card saver which can back up 500 phone records from two different sim cards- a useful gift for anyone who changes (or looses) their phone often.
Health and fitness gadgets include a USB Pedometer which allows you to take control of your own weight by showing your daily activity and the calories burned. Upload your data to chart your outcome, exercise log and other details on your daily activities.
The Powerball is a revolutionary new Gyroscope that successfully blurs the line between exercise & fun and is suitable for both male and female, young or old. It generates between 1 – 40lbs of resistance to tone the arms & wrists, build muscle or gently rehabilitate damaged limbs with non impact action.
There are also Toys & Games gadgets including brain trainers, Home & Lifestyle gadgets including outdoor activities such as paintball!
With the downtown in the economy, many retailers are expecting this Christmas period to be slow as shoppers spend their hard-earned cash more carefully. Gadgets and gizmos make perfect inexpensive personalised presents for all ages.