‘So they’re not built yet?’ At least he was starting to bite.
‘No, this is an off-plan opportunity, but the development is covered by a bank guarantee; your funds will never be at risk and we expect strong capital appreciation on this one.’
‘How much do you think it will come up by?’
Tom paused, conscious of Harry’s instruction not to oversell the project. ‘It’s hard to predict exactly, but I’d personally be expecting at least fifteen percent annual growth between now and the completion date. This is the first phase; the later phases will be on offer at higher prices, that’s for sure.’
The man was suddenly interested. ‘So are you buying it yourself?’
Tom swallowed. ‘Of course, I’ve taken two so far; probably take more if I can get hold of the money.’ A little lie never hurt. ‘So, are you interested in a few?’
The man was doing a mental calculation. ‘Yes, ok, can I book them here?’
‘Yes of course, come with me and I’ll pick out the best ones. You’re our first customer, so you get the pick of them.
Tom picked up the sheet that listed each apartment along with its size and price. He turned his back and made ticks opposite two apartments; these would be the two that he was supposed to have bought for himself.
‘These are my own two, that’s one of the best locations, view over the golf course, hard to go wrong with those.’
He was surprised how easy it was; the man was seated at Miguel’s desk in minutes and was writing a cheque for the deposits. Compared to selling timeshare to tourists, this was a pushover. At this rate, he would be hitting the weekend target before tonight.
The woman who had arrived at the same time was hovering around, eavesdropping on his conversation with the first customer; he caught her eye and smiled at her. ‘Do you want to beat the rush, madam; get the pick of the best apartments?’
‘I’m just looking thanks, getting information; it’s a big step you know, buying a place in Spain.’
‘It is and it isn’t, this is a no-brainer in many ways. These are on sale at a pre-launch price, they can only go up. It’s a matter of whether you want to buy at today’s price or wait until they get dearer, that’s all that’s at issue really.’
She looked nervous. ‘But is my money safe? I was left some money by my grandmother, and she loved Spain, so I would really like to own a place there. I’m just afraid of what might happen; you hear so many stories…’
Tom sensed an opening. ‘That’s why you should buy from a reputable Irish company, you know who you are dealing with and your money is safe.’
She was wavering, coming around; he could almost see the cogs meshing in her brain. ‘Did I hear you say that you bought some of them yourself?’
‘Of course, too good to pass up. I’m not going to keep them, just wait until they are completed and flip them.’
‘What do you mean, flip?’
‘I’ll just pay the deposit and wait until they are almost completed, that’s in about two years time, then I’ll sell them on at a profit. All I’ll have invested will be the deposits, and I’ll double what I invested at least.’
‘Can you do that?’
‘Of course, that’s what all the big players do, just roll them over and move on to the next off-plan project and do it all again.’
‘That’s a comfort to know that they are set to go up, but really I just want to have a place there for holidays and maybe for longer times later on.’
‘You could always buy two, one for yourself and one to flip; it would leave the one you keep very cheap.’ Tom was conscious of Harry’s warning, but a sale was a sale.
‘Do you think that would work?’ She was getting greedy now, the ball was on the penalty spot; just a good kick into the top corner should do it.
‘Let’s go over to the desk and pick out the two best ones before the crowds get here.’ It was proving to be easy, like taking candy from babies, and the show hadn’t even started yet.
CHAPTER SIX
The weekend passed in what could only be described as a blur. There was no doubt that Sunspots had hit a winning streak; the market was ready for Spanish property and was reacting accordingly. Long the preserve of the rich elite, anyone could now afford a home in the sun and it was just a matter of getting this message out, and the advertising and publicity were paying dividends. The show was attracting the interested as well as the curious; selling to the first was easy but the second only presented a small challenge for the Sunspots team.
Walter called Tom over to his desk. He was trying to sell an apartment to a middle aged couple who were full of suspicion and sure that they were going to be conned out of their money. They had already taken up half an hour of his time and other buyers were hovering around; it was time to push them hard and make them jump either way, time for the double act that worked so well when a washing machine had to be sold to a reluctant customer.
‘Mr and Mrs Elliot, this is my colleague Tom Murphy; he’s an expert on Spain and all things Spanish, and especially on this development. He can advise you on your best options.’
Giggs to Rooney.
Tom gave them his best smile. ‘Which apartments are you looking at? I know every apartment in this development, there isn’t a bad one in it but there are always a few that are extra special.’
Rooney passes to Giggs.
‘They are trying to get the best value for money.’ This was another way of saying that they didn’t want to spend too much. Giggs back to Rooney.
‘I bought one here myself.’ Tom pointed to one of the cheapest north facing apartments. ‘I always buy north facing, its cooler in the hot sun in Spain, and the Spanish won’t buy anything else. It’s much easier to resell a north-facing apartment on the local market, and of course you’re paying less for it in the first place.’ Rooney boots it up the wing.
Walter caught the pass and ran with it. ‘That’s what I was saying, these four here are underpriced for the local market, you should grab one while you can. The ball was coming across the middle, time to put it away.
Tom looked at Walter, time to go for it even if it scared them off; there were too many buyers still floating around, no sense in wasting time on these two. ‘There aren’t four left any more, I just sold two of them and I know that the other two will go today. You should grab one of those now while they’re available; you’ll have to pay a lot more after today for something that good. Will I put you name on this one; it’s the better of the two?’ He raised the pen and made to write their names on the sheet.
‘Ok, I suppose so, yes, why not?’
Goal!
The team retired to the bar at nine o’clock and Harry ordered the drinks. Miguel was on his way to the airport with a bulging briefcase; he would be very busy for the next few days. The stands were taken down and packed away, and all the material was stored in one of the hotel’s store rooms for use at the next show. It had been a gruelling weekend, but the results had been spectacular.
‘Seventy four I make it, give or take; an amazing run of sales for one weekend.’ Harry raised his pint in a toast. ‘Here’s to the best sales team ever assembled; I never in my wildest dreams thought we could do that level of business, I would have been happy with thirty, ten a day.’
Tom was very content with what he had achieved over the weekend. He had sold more than thirty five himself, and he was being paid for every one sold by Walter as well. He had agreed to give Walter five hundred for every sale, so between his take from these and his own sales he had earned nearly fifty thousand for the weekend, not a bad haul by any means.
‘Of course not all of them will stick; we may have some dropouts when they go home and realise what they have done, but I don’t think we’ll lose many.’ Harry was cautious as usual.
‘Don’t forget that we have a lot of enquiries as well, ones that didn’t buy today. If I’m worth my salt I should be able to squeeze a good few sales from that list over the next few days.’ Tom knew
that he could push a lot of these less decisive buyers over the line in the course of a half hour phone call. ‘As well as that, most of the ones we sold here have already signed contracts with Miguel, so I don’t think we’ll see too much slippage.’
Walter was tired; he was slumped back in his seat. ‘I never saw such a feeding frenzy, never saw so much money cross the table. This caper is a salesman’s dream.’
‘I could sleep right here.’ Tom was putting into words how the others felt; the excitement that had kept them going at full tilt all weekend had drained away and left them all exhausted.
‘So, do you guys want to go and eat something, or take a rain check on it?’ Harry looked shattered too; the few days had worn him out.
‘I think we should call it a day, all I want to do is go to bed, and I’m only the boy around here. I can only imagine how you old guys must be feeling.’ Tom was past being interested in food, and he knew that if he had another drink he would stay at the bar for too long and wouldn’t be able to move in the morning. ‘I’m heading home anyway.’
Harry finished his drink and pushed the glass across the bar. ‘I think we should all get out of here, maybe meet up tomorrow evening for a bit of grub, talk over the few days and see how we can do things better for the next show.’
Walter stood up and drank the dregs of his pint. ‘See you tomorrow so, and thanks guys. I haven’t enjoyed myself so much since I worked in Milton’s. Great to have the old double act back together.’
‘It works well.’ Harry liked Walter and he had observed how the two salesmen could manage to close a reluctant sale with ease. ‘The whole is greater than the sum of the parts and all that.’
Tom pulled on his coat. ‘Ok, amigos, until tomorrow, hasta manana.’
Harry stopped at Tom’s desk, he was carrying two coffees. ‘Have you got ten minutes, in the boardroom?’
The smell of fresh coffee was enticing; the deli hadn’t been open earlier when Tom was coming in to work, and he missed his caffeine fix. He followed Harry into the big meeting room.
‘How are we doing, Tom, are we all set for Friday?’
‘We’re not, but we will be; it’s still only Wednesday. Have I ever let you down?’
Harry smiled. ‘No, but there’s always a first time.’
‘Not when it’s my money too, I want this thing to keep working for us the way it has been. Seems to be rolling along well, how are we doing overall?’
Harry turned on the laptop and peeled the lid from his coffee as he waited for the machine to start. ‘I’ll give you the exact numbers in a second, I was working on them last night, but it’s about five hundred and thirty units so far, still well ahead of target.’
Tom tore off the ends of two sugar packets and sprinkled them into his coffee. ‘That’s about where I figured we were at, not bad for less than six months work.’ He was very satisfied with his move back from Spain, nearly half a million in the bank so far and no sign of a slowdown.
Harry scrolled through a spreadsheet. ‘It’s actually five hundred and thirty three confirmed sales, and another fifteen that still have to have contracts signed, so best case scenario is five forty eight assuming we don’t lose a few.’
He opened the morning paper. ‘Have you seen this?’ He pointed to a colour advertisement that covered half a page.
‘Tom looked at the paper in amazement. ‘Who the hell are Sunny Climes? Never heard of them. Cheap stuff too, but its all up in Alicante, scrag end of the market.’
‘It’s a new player, just started up. The guy that’s running it is Sean Simpson, he owns a couple of bicycle shops, Simpson’s Cycles. You know their advertising jingle from the radio, ‘Simpsons, Simpsons, Simpsons, big wheels in bicycle sales’. Annoying bloody tune.’
Tom had heard it a few times. ‘Hang on; let me check my folder for a minute.’
He returned to the room with his file of contact sheets from the shows. ‘There it is, he was at one of our shows just six weeks ago, I have his details here. I never copped him as being in the business.’
‘That’s the problem; he wasn’t in the business up to now. We don’t have any way of defending ourselves against that kind of competition. We spotted the two others easily enough, but God knows how many spies we have had, pretending to be customers.’
Tom was annoyed. ‘I remember the bastard, wasted half an hour of my time and then bought nothing. Just picking up sales technique for this stuff. Bastard!’
Harry was none too happy either. ‘You remember we thought that we were six months ahead of any competition? Well this guy didn’t exist in this business six weeks ago. They’re snapping at our heels, Tom.’
Tom was concerned as well, but less worried. ‘Look, we are leading the market, let’s stay there. It would be native to expect that we would have it to ourselves without competition, but I’m not worried about Simpson or anyone else. As long as we have good product and it’s well priced, we can stay ahead.’
‘We can do without this kind of thing all the same.’ Harry was a worrier, never stopped thinking the worst.
‘Tom, have you a minute?’ Harry was dealing with a well-dressed blonde woman at his desk.
‘Just a second, this couple are about to buy the best apartment in the project and I want to be there to share the moment.’
His customers smiled and relaxed a bit. They had been dithering around for ten minutes, but Tom hadn’t pushed them; it was Sunday lunchtime and the big rush was still to come. The man was on board but the woman seemed less convinced. ‘Do you really think that this is the best one?’
‘Absolutely. Always buy a west-facing apartment, you get the evening sun, and that’s the time you need your terrace to be in the sun. It’s too hot to be out there at midday, but the evenings are when we do most of our outdoor living.’
The man pulled the cheque book from his pocket. ‘This is exciting; who do we make it out to?’
‘Playa Verde Developments, thanks. Yes, I love uniting nice people with good properties; I still find it very satisfying every time. I know you will get great pleasure out of this property. Now can I introduce you to Miguel?’
Tom left the couple with the lawyer and walked over to Harry and the blonde woman. She had appeared younger from across the room, now he could see that she was older, maybe in her late forties. She was dressed in a smart business suit, and was heavily made up. Harry appeared to be nervous around the woman; he was standing up awkwardly with his hands on the back of his chair, and he seemed ill at ease in her company.
‘This is my colleague Tom Murphy, he knows this project very well and he has lived in that area for the last year and a half. Between us we can answer any questions you might have. Tom, this is Tania Sherry, she is interested in making a large investment in this project.’
The woman stood up and shook hands with Tom; she exuded confidence and appeared to be used to being in charge of any situation. ‘Hello, nice to meet you. Yes, I am interested in the possibility of making a major investment in Playa Verde.’
‘Well, you’ve come to the right place.’ Tom immediately regretted his attempt at levity; the woman wasn’t smiling. He recovered ground as quickly as he could. ‘What scale of investment had you in mind, Ms. Sherry?’
‘I would like to look at the possibility of buying an entire block and then engaging your firm to sell it on for me in about a year’s time. I believe that the Spanish market is showing signs of a re-awakening and that there may be profits to be taken.’
Harry had used Tom’s arrival to give himself a chance to gather his thoughts. ‘We would of course be interested in such a deal, but the only complete block left is block five, and that hasn’t been released yet, so we don’t have prices on it. I am assuming that that phase will command a higher price than the previous phases.’
The woman turned to Harry and responded sharply. ‘No question of higher prices if I buy an entire block; in fact I expect a discount on the total if I buy such volume. I also want to look at th
e project and I expect you to take me there and show it to me, at your expense.’
Tom moved to reassure the client. ‘We would certainly look at escorting you to Spain to view the project. We don’t of course go down the route of paying for inspection visits, that is a ploy used by less reputable companies to sell poor quality investments, but one of us would be pleased to escort you there of course.’
Tania Sherry gave Tom a withering look. ‘We will go on Wednesday, back Thursday, buy the bloody tickets and arrange accommodation and stop pontificating about what lesser firms do. If you want my business, I will see you at the airport on Wednesday morning.’
Harry looked at Tom. ‘Arrange for two tickets, Tom, yourself and Ms Sherry. We can make an exception in this case I think.’
‘Thank you.’ The woman turned quickly and left the room, her heels beating out a rapid staccato as she crossed the hard floor and headed down the corridor to the outside.
Harry ventured a slight smile. ‘Jesus, that one knows what she wants; I wouldn’t like to be married to her. Still, it would pay us well to give her a small discount and to get shut of a big chunk of the project in one swoop with no advertising or exhibition costs. And the beauty of it all would be that we would get a commission again for the sale of the block in a year’s time.’
‘That’s if she’s on the level and not a dreamer.’ Tom was being cautious.
‘There’s always that, but it’s worth a chance. At the worst it will only cost us the flights, and you have to go over anyway. Maybe you could put her up in your place, keep her away from the sales offices around the port and keep an eye on her twenty four seven so she doesn’t get in with any other agencies out there.’
‘Ok, I can do that, good idea.’
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