 On Houses and Estate Agents- [Friday 22nd April 2011]
It has been more or less 4 or 5 months that I have started to look seriously for a house to buy.
I think that it's one of those experiences that many other people had during their lives, some people even more than once, so in a way it gives me the chance to comply to the society and be stressed yet about another thing that probably stressed many others.
I started off with a very easygoing approach: "easy peasy lemon squeezy, I am by myself, how hard can it be to find a decent place?"...
Well history says that it is bloody hard, I thought it was going to be much easier to find a nice place to live, I am not looking anything special of course, I am single, and this house doesn't have to be the home of my life.
This is a wrong approach, I have soon learnt, because no matter how shitty a hole you want to buy but you will inevitably look at all details and pros and cons with great care.
After all the money that you are giving is good, whatever the amount is, and the house cannot be really changed like you change a pair of shoes.
So in the end after making and offer for one place (the offer was turned down), I am still on the look.
It's really hard work, getting all the appointments, trying to understand if you saw already THAT house (some agents do not post pictures of the flats), rushing away from work to dive yourself into the real estate market having to reason with people that overvalue their properties, just because there is this is how we are taught...
Yes, since we are kids, our parents told us that "the house always gains in value", it's a "safe investment"... WRONG!
Like any other market it can collapse, but it seems that this part of the Economic theory is not quite grasped by many of my fellow countrymen...
And there are Estate Agents... I am sure that there are a lot of professionals, but the ones that I have met, saving from a few ones, are really CRAP. There are people that don't take appointments because they are on a lunch-break (at 14:30 PM!!), people that "it's too late in the evening to see a house at 18:00", people that don't know what they hell they are talking about. Most of them would try to sell something just by adopting the standard technique that you can find in the preface of any salesman "oh, I shown this house to 10 other people yesterday, must make your choice quickly...".
IF they only knew that I am in sales myself (fortunately my bullshitting is much higher grade than "be quick because I have another client who's interested...").
Rule N.1 when you buy: ONLY listen to the technical talk, to understand if the person is knowledgeable and knows what he/she's on about. All the rest should be considered "white noise".
Anyways, I am getting fed up. I WANT A BLEEDING HOUSE, and cannot find it...
Main reason is that I need to move back closer to Florence, my social life is there, I need to go closer to it. And the countryside place is quite great but also very lonely at times, and I am by myself now, so it's not that great to be there...
Oh well, keep looking, this afternoon 2 more appointments, I am sure I'll find it, the time has come to be a house owner...
Scary...
[5 comments]
- 36th Birthday
- [Saturday 2nd April 2011]
 The genensis of birthday goes a long way. First of all this year I made a point to be in Italy for my birthday, as usually I am always travelling and I cannot be with my friends or anyone else to have some sort of party...
Anyway, I have tried to organize some sort of dinner at my place with the Thai specialities that I brought back from Bangkok, but to my dismay I only got a string of refusals for various reasons... I do not know what bell rang in my head but from Thailand I wrote to them that "in case you are planning some surprise party, DON'T do it"... Ok maybe not in these words but the message was that.
Anyways days passed and I woke up today feeling quite uneasy, probably because it seems that I have a cold.
Then around 10ish in the morning there was a great deal of noise and commotion outside my hose and there they were, in 3 seconds they were all in the house for this "surprise" that in a way I had predicted, but to be honest I was expecting something "at night" rather than in the morning...
Well the plan was to go out for a picnic and come back in the afternoon, all went extremely well despite my cold which did turn down a little my mood, and it was a great surprise party.
I even got this little chick as a present, this has a long story behind, so I will not venture in the explanation, but of course it is something that was designed to make fun of me.
These are the days when I realize that I am not alone and that I understand what got me back to Florence 5 years ago. I am lucky to have some friends like them, I guess that they all know that recently things haven't been that great, so that made it much a better day than it would have been anyways.
Shame that some did not manage to come, but there will be other occasions to party, starting from the next weekend!
Thanks everyone who was part of the process even if they couldn't come, I really appreciated!
[1505 comments]
- Business Trip to Asia
- [March 2011]
Not much to say about this trip to Asia, the whole thing was changed at the last moment after what happened in Japan on the 11th of March, and therefore I could not go there.
Went to Thailand instead, a place that after Japan is my favourite country in Asia.
Nothing much to talk about, did a lot of shopping, went to some interesting markets, met a lot of people as usual.
Business trips are really getting more and more empty for me... I'll let the images speak!
[2 comments]
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- Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!
- A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
- Pictures
- A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good!
- History of this Blog
- A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year.
I have had the bad idea of writing my e-mail address on the board before, so this time I'll try to prevent some spam to get to me by putting this little image.. Let's hope it does the trick!
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A reminder to Myself
Left and right
Like day and night
That's what makes the world go round
In and out
Thin and stout
That's what makes the world go round
For every up there is a down
For every square there is a round
For every high there is a low
For every to there is a fro
To and fro
Stop and go
That's what makes the world go round
You must set your sights upon the heights
Don't be a mediocrity
Don't just wait and trust to fate
And say, that's how it's meant to be
It's up to you how far you go
If you don't try you'll never know
And so my lad as I've explained
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
You see my boy it's nature's way
Upon the weak the strong ones prey
The human life it's also true
The strong will try to conquer you
That is what you must expect
Unless you use your intellect
Brains and brawn, weak and strong
That's what makes the world go round
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