When Jan Somers' book is a hindrance

[asy]

Wow Geoff...

Have her ears stopped ringing yet?

When I was a teenager, I was allowed ONE phone call per night, and then only after my homework was finished, and then only if it was before 8pm (because you don't ring ppl after that, it's not civilised, and you can scare them as they think it's an emergency...).

The only time this was lifted was if a call was required to do with homework, and then this was strictly policed, and if non-homework-sounding discussion ensued the phone was hung up.

Oh, and if it was within 3 blocks (or so) of the house, the bike, not the phone was used.

Jacque, I can understand your stance with regard to not giving mobiles to teens, but I think the safety factor outweighs any others. I feel it gives a degree of safety, and there's no excuse as to why someone's not where they said they would be (no- I didn't have coins for a phone, or the phones were all broken...). It means your teenager is contactable at all times, and this is a good thing.

Skater has the right idea with regards mobiles and teens, imho.

So Geoff, at your figuring, how long will it take her to pay the $500?

Jakk, you are my hero, as ever..

asy

 

[Jacque]

Asy,

Now I'll be the first to admit that safety is an issue with mobiles. However, if a teenager really doesn't want to call home or be contactable, they can come up with a mumber of excuses:
They didn't hear it
They were out of range
The batteries were flat
The voice mail didn't leave any messages (strangely!)
They misplaced it, lent it to a friend, left it somewhere etc etc

As for being somewhere without a phone (no landlines, no other mobiles etc) then, as a last resort, I would lend them mine (with a pre-paid card, naturally). Not all teens need their own mobile phones. I really believe that they are overused by all of us. I mean, how many times have you been in the supermarket and heard some hapless person asking their partner what brand of milk was it they wanted again?
Sometimes I feel that the lost art of clear communication has been eroded somewhat by the usage of all these mobiles....

*Jacque checks her rave odometer*

Skater,
You sound like you have sensible children. Well done!!

 

[geoffw]

Originally posted by asy
So Geoff, at your figuring, how long will it take her to pay the $500?

Her owings are $300 as a result of some latitude. That's $50pm. She still gets $20pm for work performed which she will continue to get. And I have two units in my flock of bats which are becoming vacant and which will be needing reno, so she has the opportunity to earn some extra there if she wants.

The home phone can be blocked to mobile & long distance calls (with a pin override). You can set up a quick dial for up to 8 numbers which overrides the blocking- say to our mobiles.

 

[geoffw]

Originally posted by Jakk
C'mon Mr. Geoff,

It really is a very nice house and from your own words I can see that it has impressed you..........Lets see......you yourself said

"It is quite nice. Good space, good design, views, pool, spa..."
.......but there is this tiny factor that you feel that the childrens bedrooms are a tad on the smallish side.
Now lets face it, kids nowadays basically mainly use their rooms for sleeping in and having a smallish room could possibly encourage them to spend more time being active outdoors, which is really what they should be doing. ........and you also said you feel that the asking price is possibly also a tad high..........Well why don't we just go back to the office and put alll the positives that the house has down on paper and then compare it with any negatives that you feel that it presently has, which by the way, I personally feel a person of your calibre and astuteness could quite easily change.........and then we'll run the figures, take a good look at them, and with my assistance of course, communicate that all back to the vendor....and if we all work together, I'm sure we'll be able to secure this beautiful home for you and your family.........Cos let's face it Mr. Geoff, at the end of the day, it is the happiness ofyour family that is most important, isn't it?...........and I can see that someone like you wouldn't deny his family the happinesss that they deserve for maybe a couple of thousand dollars........would you?
OK then, meet you back at he office in 15 minutes and we'll run over everything then..........I'll have a cuppa waiting for you......how do you take it sugar? milk?......ok I'll see you in 15 minutes.

Regrads

Now, I've just had this spiel today as a result of looking at more houses...


Jakk Jakk Jakk, you forgot something very important- you're slipping mate...

"MrW, what are you planning to do with your present house? Are you selling or renting? We can give you a free appraisal of its value, or we can have one of our specialised Property Managers give you a good market estimate of its rental potential".

 

[Jakk]

Originally posted by geoffw
Now, I've just had this spiel today as a result of looking at more houses...


Jakk Jakk Jakk, you forgot something very important- you're slipping mate...

"MrW, what are you planning to do with your present house? Are you selling or renting? We can give you a free appraisal of its value, or we can have one of our specialised Property Managers give you a good market estimate of its rental potential".

Mr Geoff, I paraphrased all of the above into the line.........

.........and then we'll run the figures, take a good look at them, and with my assistance of course,..........

Because information overload is a bad thing at the initial meeting and tends to make people uncomfortable...... and the most important thing was to get you back on my turf, in my office........that way, I avoid the costly mistake that is made by many agents.............The one where the buyer says to the agent..."Ok then, I'll have a think about it and get back to you".... and then hops into their car and drives off into the sunset.

I would always prefer to have the buyer doing the thinking in my office, where I could be of most assistance in making sure the buyer makes the right decision, ....for all concerned

By the way Mr. Geoff assuming that the vendors accept this ridiculously low offer that you are trying to steal their home with, were you looking for a 60 day settlement period or would a 30 day settlement period suit you better?

Regards

 

[geoffw]

Jakk,

If that was information overload (to ask what I was doing with my present house), then I had two agents overload me in one day

I should just say it's an investment, then at least I won't get that part of the crap.

 

[Donna L]

If you you add up all the phone bills (including internet cable) in my house it comes to around $700 a month. You could pay off a nice IP with that! Fortunately my son pays for his (around $250 p.m.) Let's add that up - four mobile phones, one land line, one fax line, one internet cable line and probably a freeloading partridge on the telephone line in the street. After my first or second meltdown and tirade on how my phone bill used to be $90 a quarter my husband pointed out that it was indeed outrageous. However, so was our electricity bill at $350 per quarter. His grandmother never spent anything like that on electricity. Of course, it was 1898 and very few homes had electricity. The horse feed bill was enormous, however. I do get considerable satisfaction that I can reach my teenage children at any hour of the day (or more recently, the night) and immediately put my fears to rest that they have not been brutally murdered at a dance party. You may find there are a considerable number of other costs that have decreased over the years but we do like to fight technological change. I also remember the first portable hard disk I bought for my computer - it was the size of two large housebricks, stored 80 mb of data (yes that's megabytes folks) and all for the very reasonable cost of $2000, on sale, in 1990........

 

[Jakk]

G'Day all,

Since this thread has quite a few postings about phone use, I thought I'd share this.

Today I got a phone call on my mobile from a bloke called Vinny, he said he was from "Orange Network" and asked if I would be interested in saving money on my mobile phone account (which is currently with Telstra BTW).

I am usually wary of these phone calls, but I have been feeling sorta on top of the world lately and thought I'd have a bit of fun with him and as he was paying for the call and I had some time to kill ....... etc etc. (geez it's a hard life), I thought I'd hear him out.

Anyway, long and short of it, seems that Orange has a plan where you pay $99-00 a month including GST and you get unlimited phone calls to any network mobiles and also fixed lines, at any time of day or night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as long as the duration of each call is 10 minutes or less.

Now this interested me greatly, my last Telstra Mobile group plan account was $1,100 for the month, admittedly that includes 4 mobiles, but it's mine that accounts for over 75% of the usage on that account.

Anyway I am meeting with this guy at 10 am tomorrow morning and if it is exactly as he has said, I will have a new number by 11 am.

Will report back, when I get all the lowdown.

regards