Forum Replies Created
You’re tooooo clever Simon! Not fair!
Others can try too, of course.
DO you know the one about the wolf, goat and cabbage already?
If you don’t, then here it is.A farmer is on its way to market with a wolf, a goat and a cabbage.
He comes to a river where he finds a boat that will hold only himself and one item.
THe wolf and goat are too weak to swim across but strong enough to eat each other. If you put them all together, the wolf will eat the goat, the goat will eat the cabbage.
How can the farmer get himself and all the other items across the river in the boat?
I have one for you Mortgage Hunter, gee took me ages to solve this one, but then I’m not that good at solving problems like this.
4 people have to cross a wonky bridge. One of the people is a rescuer and has a light.
THe rescurer needs to take the 3 other people across the bridge.Only two people at the same time can walk over the bridge because it’s weak.
It’s really dark and there’s only that one light to share. THere’s no way they can cross the bridge without the light.
In 17 minutes a bomb will explode so they all have to make it in 17 minutes to the other side.
The rescuer is fit and healthy and can make it across the bridge in just 1 minute.
THe next person is a bit unfit and needs 2 minutes to cross the bridge.
The 3rd person is injured and needs 5 minutes to get to the other side.
The last person is very old and injured and cannot do it any quicker than in 10 minutes.
So how do all 4 people get to the other side with just one light and the bridge holds only 2 people at the time?
Good luck.
Originally posted by yack:<<<<<Real estate is different because it has sleek operators and marketers who specialise in hiding the truth, manipulating people’s emotions and painting a false picture. They do it with a degree of sophistication not seen in car yards>>>>>
I agree
I got caught once by a slick insurance salesman 20 yrs ago. I had just finished Uni and wanted a 10 yr savings plan. I think it was like an insurance bond that expired after 10 yrs.
On signing the paperwork it said 25 yrs. I said I wanted 10 yrs – he goes dont worry, they are all like that – thats the way it is. So I signed it. After being overseas for a while I came to understand that the higher the years the higher the commission. Thats when I realised I got wrapped/ripped off. Fortunately I explained my circumstances to the Insurance company and I did the 10 yrs with no penalities.
But I got ripped off. It can be difficult to do the research and understand how some industries work. Banks, real estate sales people, solicitors etc should be held accountable for MISLEADING behaviour.
Not disclosing the truth is misleading behaviour. Really what purpose do these people serve to the community. NOTHING.
I so agree with you, Yack!
Glad it had a good ending for you!Celivia’s replies in maroon.
Originally posted by MiniMogul:I didn’t watch it.
Sounds all very sob story, poor little battlers even better if they’re ‘low status’ i.e. little old lady battlers, crying, makes great television.Yes it is indeed a sob story, but I think it is better to broadcast this then do nothing at all, because stories like this, as you say, ‘make great television’ and will appeal to many people. THe more people know about scams, the better!
Like with all ‘advertised’ investments, a la property investing expo, darling harbour.
‘We take the guess-work out of investing!”
‘sleep well tonight, knowing your money is in safe hands!’
‘financial advisor with 8 years and 60 million dollars experience!’
‘guaranteed returns for 6 years!’
blah blah, designed to appeal to people who don’t have time, inclination, or brains to figure out a good deal from a bad.
Yes mostly designed to appeal to people who don’t have time, inclination, or brains but that doesn’t mean that the time-poor, and people with an under-average IQ should loose all of their possessions to conartists. They have feelings, too!
target of VO by the sounds of things.
In the end you have a businessman inventing a ‘service’ which he makes money on when he sells it. Not a crime? He can mark it up as far as he wants. If there’s a buyer who wants to pay that.
Like how much is a cup of coffee? And then there’s starbucks. But people will pay it. good marketing, perception, vibe. maybe VO had all of those things.
Little things like a cup of coffee or a bag are items people buy regularly, property is something that many people only get to buy once or twice during their lifetime. People are more aware of prices when it comes to items that they buy freqently. You also won’t loose all of your possessions when you pay too much for a bag or coffee.
And you have consenting adults who aren’t being coerced into anything signing up to buy, I don’t get what the big deal is. Yes, someone bought something over-valued. But every time I buy designer ‘anything’ you could say that is true.
These people weren’t probably buying an ‘investment’, they were buying a dream. They didn’t care about numbers I don’t think and couldn’t have told a good investment from their a**hole.
Yes very sadly this is true, but not everybody is as investment-sevvy as people here on this forum, and therefore they trust and rely on “experts”.
Just as buying a car hire-purchase isn’t that good a deal, people who ‘should’ know better still go for it.
Agree with carlover
what am I trying to say here? That sob stories make great television. but really, victims, or stupid? Scammer, or smart businessman?
Ethical? What does that mean and what are you allowed to do and be ‘ethical’ and what aren’t you allowed to do?A smart businessman can make his fortune without having to rip people off. Being smart doesn’t make it right to take advantage of others.
SO we need a variety of techniques to expose scammers. So be it if it has to be a tv program like this. Isn’t that what a lot of people watch?
Exposure…exposure…exposure…Is someone who bought rip-off fake Louis Vuitton bags in Bali for $20 bucks each and sells them for $100 in paddo ethical or unethical? What about the person who sold the bali bags? What about the person who copied the design off the original $5000 Louis bag and had them manufactured, ethical or not?
Unethical, but let’s concentrate on the big fish first. People have lost their houses over dealing with these scammers. Not good enough!
What about the fact that the bag seller in Paddo is not trying to pass them off as ‘real’ Louis Vuitton bags? Does that make him ‘ethical’?
It’s just all a bit of a…..philosophical question. if the solution was to put legislation and training in place so that everyone was educated and protected, there would STILL be people who got hurt. Didn’t bother with their free education.
I agree that this wouldn’t be a solution, but perhaps one step in the right direction.
ANother step in the right direction is to expose these so called ‘smart businessmen’. It can take forever to find a solution, and may be we never get there. But that doesn’t mean we should give up tying or take little steps to do at least SOMETHING about it!If prices were set by the government communism style, then humans would find other ways to try and elevate themselves from the guy next door.
I don’t know what the answer is to stop most of the world spending more than they earn and getting in a bigger financial hole every year, apart from what I can do in my own life and helping others get into it.
THat’s a great thing: help yourself and others around you. If everybody did that it would make a big difference. It certainly would be a big step in teh right direction!
The free trip Chan and SIS went on did sound fun though.
I’m still alive, I didn’t see you there CHan and Sis!
Seriously, OOOHHH I felt really sorry for the people affected![glum]Even if it was-kindof- their own fault for not doing enough research etc, don’t forget that the scammers made sure the victims were really hyped up and excited, and also if EVERY single person they meet is in on the scam, from stewardess to bankmanager, then people, as carlover says, do trust that it is safe, that if the bank is involved as well then it will be safe.
Sis and Chan also have a good point, they were there and saw that the people were being warned when they went on that bustour, but I wasn’t under the impression that this was also the case with the QLD deals, that these people were warned about paying too much.
Have I missed something and were they warned?WHether it is the victims own fault or not can be debated or argued but aside from that I think it is a good thing to expose these scams and con-artists as much as possible so more people will be aware it’s going on, and I think everyone surely must agree with that.
There are so many lovely and trusting people out there, especially elderly people and they should be protected and warned as much as possible.
That would be soooooooooo funny!
You will all have to come to my funeral when I die of lauging!No really you’re too funny, Chan![party]
And Kay thanks for reminding us, I forgot all about it and don’t want to miss it!
Thanks Chan!
[cowboy]That’s a good idea, too, Acey, that way it can be ‘spread out’ over the year and not so much spending all in the one week.
Pisces:
Een ei hoort erbijI was wondering, what do bunnies and eggs really have to do with Easter? Is there a legend or some history behind it?
Gee Simon, how did you guess, I look exactly like that![blink]
Are you sending your photo in too? Pleeeeaaaase?
My guess: [army]Chan looks like[cowboy]
PPPPGGGG come home, we need ya!
AAWWW I forgive you investorgirl, if your intentions were only to get honest feedback.
I don’t mind reading your book and will put it on my ‘to read’ list.But on this forum, you won’t have to worry about people holding back, I have found!!!
Anyway, Acey, you’d make a damn good private investigator![thumbsupanim]
Hi, just want to say that I’ve been trying to send my picture to you (I used the email address mentioned on the first page) a few times but I’m getting them all back saying they’re undeliverable.
Is this email address still valid? Are there problemoes?I think a good PM is worth every cent.
I read between the lines and have the impression that you don’t REALLY want to be called at night and having to organise fixing all sorts of problems, from plumbing to electrical.
You may also have to listen to every little problem under the sun.
You may even have to take a tenant to the tribunal one day.
A PM can do all that for you.
Yes it will save you some money, but it will take away your time.
Your decision will have to depend on what is more precious to you: your time or your money.
About your inspection report, Gatsby, on my report it has a column that the PM has filled in, and checked off all the points and made comments.
Next to that I find a column that the tenant has to tick, so that he can either agree or disagree with the PM. THe tenant can also make comments on the state that the property is in. There’s a special space on the form for the tenant to fill this in.
Then both parties signed it.
Is that tenant-column not on your form?If not, ask your pm why not, and demand it next time you get a new tenant, or with the next inspection report.
That’s FANTASTIC Chan, congratulations!
[party] [strum][xmas] [thumbsupanim]I’m reading the new Margaret Lomas book at the moment and she actually recommends to buy a property sight unseen!
SHe even advices you should not even see photo’s of the property!!
She says that it is enough to do a lot of research (like Kay mentioned) and go from there. This way you won’t get emotionally involved.I dunno…
Not sure if I ever would or wouldn’t. I am a bit reluctant, but on the other hand, I am certainly getting sick and tired of going from a to b and all the other letters of the alphabet without results.
It’s very tempting to use a good spotter. We are just thinking about it at the moment and have to discuss it some more.That’s terrible, Nathan, what a bunch of idiots![axe]
I am with CGU, so thanks for the warning!
Chan do you mind telling me which insurance you found that was better than CGU, so I may join them before I need to renew my insurance.
I will watch them like a hawk from now.
I wish you luck, Chan! And others.
Please try coz “Smoking’s bad, ankay!”Have you a plan or strategy to quit? (Geez I sound a bit like Steve, hehe).
There are some good books that can help you quit. My brother, who quit over 2 years ago, said a book by an author called Carr helped him a lot.(Don’t know the title {probably something obvious like Quitting smoking, dah}but I saw it in Angus and Robertson a while ago).
I think that Carr’s strategy is to stop without patches, and he uses natural foods and drinks I believe to combat the habit, and heaps more.
There’s also a book by Deeprak Chopra, I may be called: Overcoming Addictions. I gave it to my other brother’s girlfriend.
It’s about all kinds of addictions, from smoking to alcohol abuse to gambling.
I have never read this myself but my brother’s girlfriend said it helped her a lot and she has been ‘clean’ for about a year now since reasing the book and applying it.All I know about this strategy is that Deeprak goes easy on you, I think he will let you quit in your mind first and taking the steps only when you are ready.
His method allows you to smoke at first, but only if you smoke mindfully. If you smoke, you do nothing else but smoke. No reading while you smoke. No watching TV either.
So that you really take the time out to light up a cigarette, that you feel the smoke enter your lungs consciously, notice your heart rate perhaps increase, all the time when smoking observing what you are really doing to your own body.
It sounds a bit like a smoking-meditation, doesn’t it?Be aware of the taste, your body, the feeling the smoke causes.
As soon as you lose awareness, you should stop the smoking period and go back to what you were doing before yo lit up.THis will make you more sensitive to what you are really doing to yourself and you will desire less.
Not sure what else is involved.
You have to read it for yourself if interested, as I said I haven’t even read it myself.I quit 18 years ago, hadn’t discovered any books and help, but as soon as I found out I was pregnant I decided I didn’t want to poison my own baby, this was a great incentive and have never started again. Cold turkey did it for me! Was very hard, though!
If I smoked now and wanted to quit, I would like to quit this way, I think.
May be I should start smoking heavily for a year just to reap the benefits of applying this method.[cigar] and finding out if it works for me.
Then, on second thought, better not, if it doesn’t work I’ll have to get pregnant again to help me quit! No thanks!It’s weird how years after you quit (well I should say I, just speaking for myself) you get a real, terrible dislike of the habit, really sensitive to smoke.
I can’t stand it to be in smokey surroundings, really makes my physically unwell, nausious etc.[sick3]
Lucky for me my husband quit too just before I did.Gee CHan, you gotta look for another job now!
Thanks, Kay, hehehe, hope you won’t mess up your sheets tonight from eating all those eggs.[puke]
By Gramyere: “I wonder if getting out will take her to a hotel room where they leave chocolates on the pillow for their customers, or to restaurants who provide after dinner mints gratis. Plenty of examples of chocolate giving in a professional manner.
chocolate mmmm”SO funny, Gramyere, you’re cracking me up! It’s good to bring some humour into this topic at this point!
Still, Yack and qwerty might have a point about professionalism.
I really never thought about it, how some ‘measly eggs’ could mess up things for the PI. It sounds like such a small thing to do, how can it have such a big effect?
Inexperienced I am!Really it is my first IP with my 1st tenants and may be more experience will tell me whether it is or isn’t a good idea to bother about gifts for tenants.
I suppose for people with 5 or more IPs they won’t dream of sending all these tenants gifts. Time will tell whether in my case I made a mistake or good choice.I don’t expect it to make any difference either way, it’s merely a gesture for the sake of it, and I doubt it will have any effect on how the tenants regard me as a landlord. (Let’s hope!)
Anyway the eggs and bunnies are on their way so there’s no turning back now.[wink]
JohnO I like your wise insight about purpose.
It can be a struggle to find your purpose, many people find their true purpose only by accident.
