Financing Your Used Car

When selecting a lender to finance one’s car, one should conduct or perform some extensive research over the internet. This assists in finding the most suitable lender to obtain a loan. One may use search engines to locate the lenders by keying in their company names. The financing options vary depending on the type of vehicle. The financing options for brand new cars are different from those of used cars. One should acquire value for their money when financing their used vehicles. A car begins to depreciate the moment a person purchases it and commences to drive it. There are three main options that a person has when planning to finance their vehicle.

They include contract plans, used-car loans and hire purchase. Hire purchase is a traditional means, which aids in spreading the costs thus easing the payment process. When selecting hire purchase as a means of financing one’s used car, one should budget accordingly to accommodate the monthly fees that the seller may deduct until the agreed period is over. Hire purchase is the most popular, mainly because the initial deposit is quite low. Compared to contract plans and used-car loans, this means is cheaper in terms of the payable interest. One may also negotiate the interest rates with the seller in order to obtain the best financing deal.

Contract plans require the buyer to deposit some money as a way of securing the car for purchase. After paying the deposits, the seller deducts the agreed monthly installments from the buyers account. After completing the monthly payments, one has the option of maintaining the vehicle while under the sellers care, or one may make a balloon payment. When a buyer makes a balloon payment, it means that they obtain full ownership of the vehicle. Contract plans have lower monthly fees, as compared to the hire purchase method of financing one’s used car. When one fails to meet the monthly payments of both the contract plans and hire purchase means, it means that the seller reserves the right to repossess the vehicle. Therefore, people should organize themselves financially before purchasing a used car.

Alternatively, one may obtain a loan from their bank as a means of financing the used vehicle that one intends to purchase. The benefit of obtaining a car loan is that it secures the vehicle therefore, meaning that the seller cannot repossess the said vehicle. Bank car-loans have competitive rates and this ensures that their customers have various repayment options. They are also easy to manage and organize, in terms of finances and this makes it an efficient means of financing one’s vehicle. Once a person obtains a bank loan, they may fully purchase the car, by making balloon payments. The bank deducts money from their customers account depending on the agreed interest rates. The buyers may sell the car before completing the loan payments and accomplish something else with the money. When looking for a suitable lender to finance a used car, one should compare the rates and benefits before selecting a particular means.

Cashing in on the Chinese Cash Cow and How Realtors Can Win Business ‘Made in China’

Growing Chinese interest in investing overseas was a top global business trend in 2014. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the U.S. real estate market attracted $3.1 billion of capital from Chinese investors last year – an increase of more than 900% from just $264 million invested the year before.

The headline figure could exceed the $10 billion mark this year, although the reported numbers by themselves are a small fraction of the true number.

This phenomenal growth has been driven by two key drivers: First, the Chinese government is now actively encouraging outbound investment thanks to a new ‘go global’ policy introduced by them last year. Second, diminishing yields on domestic real estate investments are making international ones seem more attractive.

Chinese investment hotspots at this time include New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego, and Detroit – where investors have been busy snapping up vast swathes of distressed industrial real estate.

But it’s not just Chinese institutions that are investing: as all those cherished only children reach maturity, their parents want them to have the best education that money can buy. Since the United States remains home to the best Universities in the world, so it therefore comes as no surprise that Chinese parents are looking to acquire property in which their offspring can live whilst studying.

So, the opportunities are clear. But how can you start reaching out to this colossal growing market? Given the significant cultural and linguistical differences, this is no easy task. But, hey, we all now know that there’s no such thing as easy money anymore, right?

Well, due to the global architecture of the internet, creating a Chinese language section of your website is probably a good place to start. For this, it is best to engage in the services of a native since automation tools like Google translate usually do more harm than good.

Next, you should ensure that any inbound inquiries are dealt with in the prospect’s native language. Whilst hiring a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker ‘in house’ is an option, it also poses a risk: once trained, your intern might just one day decide to acquire their own realtor’s licence and compete against you.

To mitigate this risk, it can be more effective, as well as cost effective, to engage in the services of a ‘virtual assistant’ located in China itself. He or she can then take inbound calls on your behalf, make outbound ones, receive and send emails, source data, and other administrative tasks. Two birds, one stone: Not only will your new assistant will act as your gateway to China, they can also help in a back-office capacity – leaving you free to get out there and grow your business.

Irrespective of whether you elect to go down the insourcing route or the outsourcing one, make sure that Chinese prospects and customers can reach you by calling a regular Chinese telephone number. Making an international call still remains a psychological block for many people, not only in China, but also in the USA and elsewhere too.

Once you have your Chinese contact infrastructure in place, you can begin the herculean process of reaching out to this massive market.

One way to do this might be to task your Chinese assistant with reaching out to realtors in China who might have clients interested in overseas property. Your listings could then appear on theirs. As with anywhere, identifying the good ones will take time.

Another strategy might be to start reaching out to potential customers directly. Like us, the Chinese are voracious consumers of social media. However, ramping-up your existing campaigns in an attempt to win more business from China is an exercise in futility since Facebook and Twitter have not gotten any traction there.

The good news is that agencies exist that will grab your existing social media content and check that it is compliant with Government guidelines, and then publish it across popular Chinese social media networks such as Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, RenRen and WeChat. This is a neat way of hopping over the almost mythical great Chinese firewall and being on the inside.

Of these, WeChat, has become defacto a standard way of communicating in China. An English version is available for free, and should be downloaded to your smartphone as part of your new armory of tools to help you win more business from China.

Whilst the Chinese might share our love affair with social media, a face-to-face meeting in Chinese culture holds perhaps even more significance than it does in ours. Any hard selling will be counterproductive. Whilst relationship building is important in any culture, it is of utmost importance in this one.

Bear in mind also that the Chinese are avid researchers and might end up knowing more about the property than you do. Be patient, and treat them with respect.

When it comes to setting pricing, bear in mind that the Chinese are a superstitious people. Try and avoid the number 4 if possible. Instead, be liberal with the number 8.

Prior to viewings, you should consider engaging in the services of a Feng Shui consultant who can advise of the best way to present property using the Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing human existence with the environment.

This will be a slow burn. Do not expect results overnight. It’s all about relationship building. It will take time. China’s a tough nut to crack. But if you do crack it, he rewards can be truly enormous both financially and, given the esoteric propensity of the Chinese mind-set, possibly spiritually too.

It would seem that now is indeed the perfect time to start looking eastwards and reaching out to this enormous market.

Working in the IT Sector

Over the past two decades IT recruitment has become a huge industry in and of itself. The growth of computers and digital infrastructure in the modern workplace has been profound and this has driven a greater intake of qualified professionals for development, maintenance and implementation of IT systems across organisations of all sizes and scales.Today, it is believed that over three quarters of those in employment make use of IT as part of their job role’s central duties. This is particularly so in administrative roles, where 90% of managers, professionals and secretarial/admin staff cite the use of computers and computer systems as central to their daily activities.This use of IT systems is supported by the 900,000 people in the UK who work directly in the IT sector as well as the 600,000 people working in IT or telecoms in other industries. Overall it is estimated that one in twenty (5%) people in employment work in IT, working in roles that are often unseen by other members of staff but which are vital to the continued performance of everything from individual workstations to network security and cloud data storage systems.Despite the wide range of IT-based qualifications in existence, recruitment to the sector places more emphasis on experience and ability than academic education. In fact such qualifications are generally earned on-the-job rather than in academic study prior to employment and as such, most IT-related degrees have a heavy emphasis on vocational studies.Often selection is based upon the individual’s knowledge of a network system, a programming language, or other such case-specific disciplines within IT. However existing familiarity with the proposed system is not always vital. Like any other industry, the candidate’s personal ability in technical and analytical skills. Of particular importance, according to the 2008 TARGET jobs report on IT, are skills such as problem solving, analytical thinking, flexibility and adaptability, as well as perseverance and motivation.The key to successful progression and advancement in IT though is communication – the ability to make technical issues and other details understandable to outside departments – and the ability to understand how IT relates to the company’s overall strategy and can affect profitability. Whilst these are almost exclusive to the ability to actually work with the complexities of IT systems in practice, they are vital to progression to the management and consultancy roles which make up the upper end of the IT sector.