Forum Replies Created
- Hum…a fun debate turned ugly, can we talk about Global Warming? I love conspiracy theories myself, like the pictures of the moon landing, but lets stay on topic.Global Warming!! Love it!
Now strictly speaking, the name "global warming" is an oxi moron (pun intended) since the globe can not get warmer, you have winter in the north and summer in the south. Just in case, in summer it gets hotter. In winter colder. No surprises there.
So almost at the same time that we get a hot summer, Alaska experiences the coldest temperature records since 1904. Well it makes a lot of sense, sort of balances out.Since by using reliable data records of temperature and discarding the data were someone rubbed the thermometer or dunked it in his Caffe Latte, it is easy to see that average temperatures have remained the same for a decade or so. The Bishops and Cardinals of the Global Warming religion, have changed the name with such alacrity from Global warming to Climate change that it seems they are following orders from Albove.
In fact you hardly ever hear global warming anymore unless it is in the headlines of some newspaper during a heat wave.I tell you I don't mind a iota, climate change is not an oximoron, conceded an improvement, but is a tautology. Climate buy definition is and can not be steady and must change. It would be like saying "multicolored rainbow".
So in principle I have no conflicts with the expression "climate change", besides the fact that it screams ignoramus from the roof tops. I can not but think of Alexander Pope and his famous sentence "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", but hey…who am I to judge? There are those who believe in ghosts and zombies and I can live with that too. I am a very tolerant 4wdriver
The problem then is not to debate the changes in climate, are they there or not?… is the polar cup melting?… Will Polynesia be underwater? can we feed the polar bears chopped up cat carcasses?, or any of those interesting speculation…The only REAL topic of debate in this whole idea of global melting or climate steadiness or lack of it, is CAUSE and EFFECT.
Al the great, since losing the election has been given a new task. Convince the earth the sky is falling and we are the makers of such catastrophe. Simple.
Nothing better than a good disaster to bolster politicians power and the crowd willingness to oblige to further screws or tighteinig of the said.How to do it? How to convince us that we are at fault? Nothing better than the car. If the car and the aircon are at fault we must be all in it.
So big Al decided to resurrect Margaret Tatcher's old fabricated theory of CO2. Theory she paid for her own scientist to make up in order to discredit coal in favour of nuclear power during the coal miners strike.
It all snowballed from there and we are all experts in all of this, except one small little detail. Just like its origin were false and a fabrication, the rest we heard at nauseam is also false and just as fabricated.And if CO2 is not the CAUSE of the real or imaginary changes in climate, changes that are just as natural as they have ever been and have been occuring for the last xx million years, the EFFECT of reducing our minuscule contribution to a gas that is marginal as a greenhouse gas will be NIL. If no cause then no effect. Rather basic concepts. So if we did not contribute to the changes, we can not affect their natural course, like it or lump it.
And before you jump to post tables of percentages with CO2 listed as the TOP greenhouse gas, please consider including in the list of gases, water. Yes, it seems water is absent from most climate alarmist data yet is responsible for the vast majority of the greenhouse effect.As a side thought, please spare a spark or two for the fact that CO2, far from being a pollutant is in fact the very gas that makes life possible on this planet. No CO2 no photosynthesis, no photosynthesis no life, no salads and no T bone stake. The increase in CO2 from human activity has resulted in higher than average crops and faster growth in forests. Not bad, so keep on driving 4wd the larger the better, specially if diesel, and don't be embarrassed if you need to burp. It is all for a good cause. More CO2 = bigger crops larger forests. (I await eagerly the comment that will contribute data with the gaseous mix of a burp)
As a final thought let me say also that "greenhouse effect" has had a bad wrap really uncalled for. If it wasn't for the greenhouse effect we would be all dead, and the earth scorched to a cinder during the day and frozen stiff during the night just like on the moon.
Having said this or rather having written this, I am well aware that it is not reason that keeps the preachers in their pulpit since they themselves have never seen God, it is faith.
Equally, for the preachers of this new world religion of Al Global warming, the end justify the means and since we are all unbelievers in need of educating, they will stop at nothing in order to achieve unified response from the faithful and ridicule and deportation upon the unbeleiver who will only see fire and brimstone as the result of their lack of faith.Please check your emails for the next 4wd burning ceremony.
Of course it would be possible to set up a real estate network marketing company.
And not necessarily selling property even when that would be interesting too.One could have building and maintenance services for sale, building materials, white goods. All dutifully overpriced of course and covered with a thin veneer of extra quality aura, in order to accomodate the multiple layers of commissions to be paid to me…I mean to the up line, plus the advertising gig to Robert
Makes me dizzy just thinking about it.
Now where oh where did I leave that fake rolex and the zirconium cuffs to wear at the meating?
Joke of course couldn't resist.PS
Trev: "However if N21 operated without the product which happens to be amway then it would be ."My father had a say that translated would go like this: " If my grandfather had wheels and a trolley he would be a tramway"
Mamma mia!
A few good points from some and a lot of bias from others.
Let me add my 2 cents.First, I worked a network marketing company (no NOT N.21) and made real money. I not longer do, found an easier way to make money.
To your comments. Network 21 is an organisation founded by Amway distributors who branched off with a new name in order to make recruiting easier. The word Amway tends to be for people like Aerogard for mozzies.
Network marketing or MLM like the American call it are companies that sell their products to their own members in stead of through a shop. They are no different from a wine club, tapperware or Avon. Direct selling from the company to the consumer where the consumer receives a commission from his own products and what ever else he sells to his own customers called "down line".
What tends to get MLM companies caught in this cloud of suspicion of being a "pyramid scheme" is their complicated commissions system, and they are complicated. I use to give seminars about the different systems and their advantages and disadvantages. Also the fact that on your whiteboard you tend to draw a sort of pyramid. Very suspicious!Actualy Network 21 learend not to do so and draw the pyramid on a side. Clever!
Another aspect of MLM companies that makes them unpalatable to a business minded person is their recruiting methods. Most of them are stuck in methods that worked in the fifties yet today are a joke. Only someone with zero business experience would even consider getting into business with them.
And so they actually target those with zero experience, with a spiel that would make Jimmy Baker proud, they will tell you a series of lies in order to get you to sing up seriously thinking that they are doing you a favour and that you have all the chances of becoming a millionaire.
Now for the positive.
If you can actually go past the moronic presentations by this self appointed pretend expert, and if you realise in time that the first big fat lie "this is not selling" is in fact a lie and that you are there to sell products or services whatever the company does, you may be able to make some money if you apply yourself as you would to a serious business, with a budget for advertising and factoring in a substantial risk.There is money to be made with MLM, it is well suited to the one with selling talents and enthusiasm with lots of connections. It is a waste of time for 99% of those recruited en mass by the likes you have seen who tell you -"if you don't have experience better", -"this is not selling", or that -"you have to ask for favours to your family to join". Your chances of success with such concepts is the same chance you would have to succeed in any other business applying the same ridiculous assumptions.
There is a very good book by a Canadian author Ann Siege, "The renegade network marketer". Worth reading if you consider getting into this line of business.Ah!
And please don't go repeating the "pyramid scheme" line. Pyramid schemes or Ponzi or chain letters or any other scam of the sort that relies on passing on to other ten people a mathematical concept in order to obtain profit from nothing at all are illegal and have nothing at all to do with MLM. If network marketing companies are a pyramid scheme then so must be Telstra and BHP.To conclude, from someone who made a living for many years from MLM, the reason 90% of people fail to make any money at all in MLM, 5% make some money but lose more, 3% make modest sums and 2% make good money, is one and one only:
The recruiting method stinks and targets the wrong people. This enourmous mass of disgrunted poeple who have been promised success by default and who should have never been pushed into it in the first place, go away bitter and with good reason and then discredit the industry and rightly so, and then post millions of negative post on the internet and some dedicate years to maintain hate-MLM websites with similar religious fanaticism to those who promote MLM as the panacea.MLM is just one more form of selling products or services, and needs a lot of time and dediction and real talent and love for selling and teamwork just like proeperty investing, or running a restaurant.
But this of course is only my personal opinion not to be taken too seriously.
PS
To the author of this discussion: the choice of words in the title could in theory attract a defamation case. I would change it or delete commercial names.
Just a suggestion.What predicament?
You own a property you don't like.
You live in another.You don't say anything about owing money.Sell the one you dislike, keep the one you like, pay the mortgage if you have one.
From the comments you make about dealing with tradesman, forget renovations unless you are a sucker for punishment.
Keep some money for a down payment and go hunting for an investment property you like.
Alternatively if you have no money worries, buy a beach house or a rural property in need of some care and enjoy doing your own thing.
Fishing or golf?Take good pictures and post them on e-bay. with a low start up price.
As for your new retaining wall, consider the 'keystones' from Boral. I built 40 meters with them and you can not beat the look and the easy to build.
http://www.boral.com.au/Images/common/mdg/BOR11999_SA_Manual_Bk4.pdfHi young investor.
Some time ago I took up cooking. I really enjoy it and the people I cook for think I am a real chef. Go figure.
What I noted as soon as I started, was that even if I followed the recipe to the letter, using a scale and accurate measurements, the end result was slightly different every time. Some times even very different.
So I realized that I have to actually learn to cook. To do this I had to investigate what the ingredient do and how they act and interact to produce what I want. I am getting real good at Balti chicken, a form of light curry chicken and malfatti. A real chef told me I have to do the same recipe 20 times to learn it….but anyway, that is not what you asked.However I suggest you research where the housing commission palces are. It is public domain and will teach you how to research this for the next suburb you want to look up. As for the agents and PM they are like my cooking recipe. They results are erratic and don't follow any particualr pattern. You must learn to use them by yourself. I'll give you one advise. Use plenty of acid (lemon juice) when you deal with them.
I was in manufacturing for 20 years and had my ears full of 'advise' from the supplier's salesman. Even my accountant all of a sudden played the expert in my line of business. My wife's surgery accountant bought a medical center for God sake and crashed it in 2 years.
We all have our talents and expertise in some field or another. I tend to listen to those who are playing the same game I am playing, particularly if they are making good progress.
No offense intended, I am sure you have valuable advise in your own field.I own two properties in Campbelltown. Prices went up and down and up again. You have to watch it to who you rent in Campbelltown since there is a good proportion of housing commission houses and tenants doing the rounds and the runs. The agents in Campbelltown are the pits, avoid large rental property portfolios like the plague. Look for the small family affair agent and then watch them very closely.
If you are looking at Sydney market, don't get hung up on suburbs as if Campbelltown is better than Marrickville or Bankstown or Manly. At the moment ( been so for a while and will stay so for a while) Sydney market is an opportunity market and as such you may find a cheap waterfront property and an expensive Campbelltown property. You have to find the person that MUST sell in this market. That is the opportunity not this or that suburb.
As for development in residential….with no growth, I don't know how many will go for a property just because of DA approval.
If you are talking about converting a residential to a commercial then, yes, that is real good.GlobalMark wrote:…………If your strategy is to stay in for the long term say 30 years then you can guarantee that your property will have significant gains regardless of relatively short term fluctuations in the market.
Kind Regards,
Mark Leith
Property AdvocateInvestors, nota bene, just buy and hold on to it for 30 years and you will be set, guaranteed.
Now lets see….I am 50 plus 30 = 80 jee looking forward to this remarkable strategy.wealth4life.com wrote:So who is to blame "the banks" or "greed"Our parents lived in 3 bedroom homes when they started ….etc
D, you are probably right with your comment.
I am interested only in one small passage in your post, the mention of the word "greed".Now when I read the word greed in a newspaper, particularly the one with small pages, I realize they are trying to sell more newspapers to their audience, and the same goes for TV like a current affair and ABC news for example.
Yet divesting oneself from political convictions, I would like to know how can "greed" be defined in a business environment.
Or in other words, how can you say "I will not buy more of this shares (at bargain price) or I will be too greedy. (?)Do we use the concept of greed for ourselves as a way to justify minimization of risk and for others to blame them for the harm to the market their profit making has done ( and we missed out) or to blame them for their own demise if the strategy failed?
When is it greed and when is it maximization of profits?
Since the damage happened whilst the pool was covered under the old policy, the "Read renewal policy carefully" is certainly good advise but has no bearing in your case.
The only thing to keep in mind in this case is the insurance company name, and to list it in the "avoid like the pest" list.
Too bad for all those pesky defamation laws.Decking material is designed to be out in the elements and last a set number of years, say 10 years.
Anything you do additional to doing nothing, will add life to your deck.
Hardwood decks are usually oiled once or twice a year with decking oil.
Treated pine deckings particularly if from inferior grade and out in the open need some extra help to last the distance, so some resort to exterior paint, certainly not very nice.
The enemy of decking is water and fungus.
Previous to oiling you should wash it with a decking cleaner. Cabot sells one that really works. Some sware that Oxiclean, (Nappisan) in hot water and a pressure cleaner works miralces.
Decking oil is outrageously expensive for what it is, linseed oil with turps and a few drops of dryier. If you buy "diggers" linseed oil
they have a formula for applying it for exterior applications.
As for painting the underside, if the access is easy I would do it. Decking actually rots from below were the board meeds the joist.
PS
For further reference, technical information in the form of "how to" may be better addressed in this forum:
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/forumdisplay.php?s=c97d1dd999584943eee7314b6fe3b5dd&f=75Thank you Cozi, it is always easier to have an idea of where to look, coming from a local.
I noticed a few nice houses in Campbell.What about acreage going out of town via Northborn? Or would you look somewhere else?
“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcI agree with the 240v alarm. I have a sunroom that has cathedral ceilings (no space for wires) and is 5.5 meters high at the highest point and the fire alarm, installed by the electrician and approved by the council is up the wall at some 3 meters off the floor.
As for tenants breaking the alarm because the battery is flat, I hate to see what they do if the burglar alarm goes off, take with an ax to the housing?
Replace the alarms with a model who’s battery can be tested with a torch, they cost only $9, and charge the tenant for the damage otherwise next time the window sticks in summer and they cannot open they will break the glass and blame you.[baaa]
Last week a tenant in a block of flats I have in Queensland committed suicide. The agent refused my offer of legal advise from the local solicitor since “He ( the solicitor) has only lived here for the last 2 years, we now better”, yet added that the rent was paid of until the 9th of September and there was nothing they could do since the police wouldn’t let them in for cleaning up.
Moronity seems to be innate in most real estate agents and their managers.The more residential properties I have the more I love commercial properties…
“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcI find some of the answer amusing.
Since when is the word “fair” factored into the price of something? Is the price of a pizza fair? What about the price of petrol? Is that fair? An Armani suit? now that is clearly not fair!!
Renting a property is supposed to be a business, the price of such comodity is regulated by offer and demand.
If you rent under the market value and do not lift the price, you are doing bad business for you and others. If you are renting under the value yet cannot lift the price whitout losing the tenant you are either NOT under the market value or you have a tenant you need to lose fast.How much can you lift your rent? As much as you legaly are allowed to, and fast!
Your limit is how much the average tenant is prepared to pay. To bring in sentimental fairness and personal assessment of the tenant situation is realy bad for buinsess. What are property managers there for?
The best you can do is not knowing anything at all about your tenants. Leave it up to your PM.“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcOriginally posted by wayneLSo wez, give me a call and we’ll start up an options seminar co. LOL
But I have to be honest. There is NO WAY I would give away my best strategies for less than 20k each.
Cheers
Wayne, spot on. Why would you give away your hard earned “secret” for cheap?
Unless you do much more money telling others you should stay home and apply them yourself. After all when you unleash the punters on your system, you may as well pack up and find yourself another neach. So much for “Is it worth $5,000” For Wayne it is worth 20k, and good for him.Wez, My previous post was not “aimed” at you, but a general whinge about people whingeing.
I know there are scams, I understand you point that you could put together a scam yourself, so could I. I go much further in saying that this and other previous threads about “all seminars are a scam unless they are free or $50”, reflect a way of seeing or thinking about other people success.
To question the price of a seminar is like questioning how much the specialist charges you. After all why does one knee specialist charge $200 and the other $400? The answer is simple, because he can, and he would charge $600 if his patient are willing to pay.
The seminar presenter must cover the cost of marketing and hosting PLUS the loss he will incur by making whatever he is teaching public knowledge, IN the case of Wayne, this is worth 20,000 a head. Others are more modest and are happy with $5,000 others are real philanthropist and give it away for free …[cigar]“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcHi Foundation
If I understand you correctly, you are currently chasing the opportunities that arise from a flat market and perhaps also hoping for a crash to have even better opportunities. Correct? Can’t blame you, I do the same.
Yet, if I understand this right, the logical course of action then is to “talk a crash up”. The crash is coming the crash is coming may get the snow ball rolling, after all a crash is more people selling than buying. Sell! sell! the sky is falling …. hum.
I’ll start myself……
Ladies and gentleman, (drum rollll) your investment strategies are garbage, you are all mistaken, you will lose money unless you sell all you have and … well you figure it out what to do with the money you get. Just sell will you? Please?“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcOriginally posted by wezwaz:Kerwyn
OK, so five people…ten people maybe ask for their money back and it is granted. That’s five or ten out of a few hundred probably. Net profit from the seminar still stacks up very nicely.
Things are not always as they seem. Promising a money back guarantee is a marketing ploy to get people in, because it makes people think they have absolutely nothing to lose.
Hum, marketing ploy?
ploy, noun [C]
something that is done or said in order to get an advantage, often dishonestly:I disagree.
Warranties, Money back guarantees, advertising claims, writing books, dressing in Armani suit, are all marketing tools, certainly not ploys. Success and dishonesty are not related.When no one can say all seminars are squeaky clean, the implication here are that
a) it is dishonest to make money with seminars since they should have a philanthropic motivation.b) Seminars should be a guarantee of making money or they are a scam.
a, and b, are both misdirected thoughts.
Unfortunately it is a deep rooted anti-value that making money is somehow, something to be ashamed off and a) is just a consequence of such subconscious anti-value. On a similar line are the post that come up from time to time abut the host of this web site and his alleged obscure ulterior motives. Would it shock you if he made money directly or indirectly with this site? Does money stink?
b) Is just a preemptive excuse for our own failure. I run personal development groups and hear this over and over from many people usually from left wing political confession. When confronted with the principle of goal settings and “we are what we think” ideas, they start questioning on this line: “But if EVERYONE did what you say we should, everyone would be successful and everyone would be the CEO of the company and since this is not possible it means your principles do not work”, this is a scam.
Its the same with business seminars who teach marketing or investment strategies. They work, but guess what? surprise surprise, they do not work for all.
So are they a scam? Not for a minute, they work for the 5% that bother applying the principles learned and have the tenacity to stay in the market and overcome difficulties for the years ahead. Just 5%.
What would happen if EVERYONE did apply the principles and kept at it with winner’s tenacity?
Who cares! That would be science fiction not reality!That is why seminars can be run over and over and survive. Only 5% bother getting out of their comfort zone, the rest 95% will attend another seminar and another and perhaps more 5% will surge yet the rest will go home disillusioned that they were not able to purchase the magic pill that will turn them overnight in instant millionaires.
What a shame.
I for once am very happy that the success rate of seminars is so low, otherwise opportunities would be as scarce as hen teeth.One guy told me once, “If duplication worked we would be all in Amway, enlisted by the nurse at our birth”. How true, duplication does not work because people fail to apply it’s principles, yet certainly not because the concept is somehow flawed. It is the people we deal with that choose not to follow the marketing ideas, and when this is all fine since it is a free world, it is wrong to blame the presenter. Perhaps we should buy more mirrors?
Are all seminars good? Probably not. Are all seminars good for you? Even more improbable, so please research a bit before you jump in and then blame all seminars as bad.
Just my thoughts.“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
Marc…..but even where I thought I had been dudded, more value came out later than I had really paid for.Aaah… I though no one would ever say it.
Among the cacophony,(Dazzling and other few honourable exception excluded) a tuned sentence by a tuned in person.
Isn’t it true that many go to music lessons before they buy their instrument and feel therefore cheated that they cannot play?
The day you grow and buy your saxophone, all of a sudden the lessons start making sense, the reed stops squealing and produces that nice tune….
Here, enjoy. http://www.sueterry.net/music.html[biggrin]
“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
MarcOriginally posted by kay henry:wezwaz said:
“Show people … that you don’t need the money to fund your investment program. Tell people exactly why you are doing this.”
wez, I think I know where you’re coming from here… but the most annoying thing I have heard is when seminar presenters say, “I don’t need to do these seminars- I make [insert fabulous figure here] per hour, and I am only doing these seminars to HELP people.” I think that is insincere rubbish- the seminars are held to make money for the presenter- of course they are. To suggest otherwise is a marketing ploy.
If people want to present seminars and can find an audience for them- well, if they have found a unique product- no issue there. But it is the tales of “I don’t need your money, I am just doing this seminar to share the bucks around” stuff- I find that to be embarrassing.
I reckon presenters should wear a Trump hairdo- that’d pack ’em in. [biggrin]
kay henry
I partly agree. (Not with the Trump hair do that does not merit any comments)
Yet if someone feeds people this line of the philanthropist seminar presenter, it is because that is precisely what people expect.
Why?… beats me.
Do teachers work for free? Do professors work for free? Is business and marketing knowledge less valuable because we must pay for it?
The image of the magnate that wants to re-pay his debt to the society (he clearly robbed to become a magnate) by letting some gold coin slip out of his hand for free so that the peasants can pick them up and come out of their misery is a product of the masses victim mentality.
To actually use this as a way to the seminar audience is pretty pathetic I admit.The only seminars that are free, are so because they are advertising for a product or service.
Wrong?
Not necessarily and depending on the product of course.A seminar that offers business or marketing knowledge must be paid for and the presenter should get more money out of the seminar than he would just by applying the information provided. If this is not the case, he is wasting his time since all he needs to do is stay home and apply what he knows. The seminar is a way to extract additional profit from his findings.
Wrong?
Why?
Do you offer rent free properties as a way to repay society from your success (obviously achieved by robbing your tenants from their hard earned dollars just to live there)
THere are plenty of shonky seminars and there are plenty of good ones.
There are lots of seminars that are good for me yet may be of no use to you, and vice versa. And there is a huge majority of people who attend perfectly good seminars yet put none into practice, either because they do not have the appropriate vehicle to do so or are just plain lazy, and will claim for the rest of their life to have been ripped off.“What you want in your life occasionally shows up…
what you must have… always does.” . . . . . Doug Firebaugh
May God Prosper you.[biggrin]
Marc
