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(a) one day I expect I shall buy a house, but I keep seeing ones I want now. I write them down - cute terrace of houses called orchard bank in one town, half derelict villa for a renovation project in another. I want an agent (not an estate agent, just an agent for me who deals with what I want from
any other agents) who I can leave these ideas with and say 'if ever a house from that street comes on the market, I want to know'. Then for every occasion that one does, out of the twenty places on my wish list, I can think 'hmm, can I afford that? is it the right time to move? can I get a job there?' and if ever the time is right I know that I would be buying one of my dream homes! Also, if this agency was a big national (or, wow, international!) one, and lots of people had wish lists of property, once in a while you could save on surveyors fees and the like, because it would only need to be done once and that data could be held by the agency (probably at a premium, I suppose) and more than one client could use it. But until the angency was really big there's not a lot of chance of two people being interested in teh same house I suppose.
(b) as a more personal example, I would like to travel to Alaska, the Andes, various Atlantic islands and Siberia, but I am not in any danger of having enough money to do it. I would like to save up for this and take the holiday whenever I can. But what if there is a deal on flights somewhere, and it's just at the time when I haven't got enough money, or I haven't got a break from work, or I've just bought something else expensive like a computer... the agent could have had my wish list of destinations and have monitored the ups and downs of travel costs, and know my budget and my windows of opportunity. They could come up with a range of options and itineraries that fit my ideas. How to match this with a list of friends with different wish lists and different holiday time windows... is my problem, not the agents!
(c)there are probably lots of long-term outlays that could use this service. I'll try to think of some more...
Personal Assistant
http://www.fabjob.com/celebrity.asp
Become a celebrity personal assistant [ConsultingDetective, Oct 04 2004]
Corporate Concierge
http://www.bls.gov/...2/spring/yawhat.htm
Hire a corporate concierge [ConsultingDetective, Oct 04 2004]
Wife
http://www.chanceforlove.com/main.php
Get yerself a house spouse [ConsultingDetective, Oct 04 2004]
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Baked in every case, albeit rarely by one person. |
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Wouldn't the agent him/herself be a drain on your spending money? I wouldn't mind this idea in the form of a computer program. The advantages would be less human error, more efficiency, and one time cost (as opposed to monthly/yearly fee). |
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Regardless, it is a good idea. I could certainly use one (prefferably in the program form however). Croissant. |
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I think a lot of these features are around in some form or another. Many estate agents/realtors/etc. will let you register your requirements on their website and email you when a property matching them comes on the market. Other companies offer more or less customised mailings on different topics. Whether they provide a good enough service at present (tailoring it accurately so they're only sending what you want) is questionable, but this is a growth industry, as it offers a lot to both business and customer. |
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your personal agent would probably have to be a few other people's agents as well. maybe they could have a client base of 10 (as an arbitrary figure) or his/her expenses could well mean you not having any cash to spend buy any of your dream houses/holidays/miscellaneous etc.
I very much like the idea of someone keeping a catalogue-esque wishlist and reminding you when something came up.
May I wave this bready produce under your nose ma'am? |
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P.S. Nice classical name, sappho. I like! |
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