"The Downswings of Property and Poker"

[the sicilian]

Not as old as me...

[Marky147]

Ohhhh... belated happy birthday mate!

Vinny didn't turn up for dinner, as a gift?

[Eso Kral]

Middle-aged though, Nursery-Fee man will mock relentlessly.

Well he has admitted to being old now himself so I can take it from him

Ballers in Leigh on Sea dont worry about nursery fees it's more whether the Au pair takes them or we do!

As part of my birthday pressie Petra arrange for us to go and see a play yesterday at the Garrick in London just by Leicester Square and had arranged for my mum to have the kids at ours to give us a very rare kid free day together so we headed off to the smoke at 9.30.

I have a real love hate relationship with London but I thinks it's mainly due to a lack of knowledge about the area so we decided to mooch around and have a stroll along the thames having got off at Fenchurch Street and took the short walk to Tower Bridge, I do love the mix of modern and traditional in London and it's so much the money area as you see by the number of cranes ontop of the buildings.

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Selfie of us at Tower Bridge

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then we headed along the Thames and walked up to get the tube but was busrting for the loo so conveniently found a Paddy Power shop and Petra got ID'd under their "think 21" and as she didnt have any ID had to wait outside which was comical although she didnt see the funny side of it but I said she should take it as a compliment.

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Having wandered around the outside of Buckingham Palace and then through Green Park we ended up having lunch just by Picadilly circus before heading off to "The Garrick"  to see "12 Angry Men" which was really good and had some familiar faces in it including Robert vaughn (of hustle fame amongst others) Tom Conti and Jeff Fahey.  Would defo recc to anyone to see it!

Whilst walking through Leicester Square I saw this which made me smile

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[rfgqqabc]

Middle-aged though, Nursery-Fee man will mock relentlessly.

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Rich gets maxed at 6.38

Happy birthday ya old git! Good to see the businesses have kicked into gear. The live poker score is coming!

[Eso Kral]

Well it's been a while since an update and normally that means that the diarist is knocking it in and I'm sad to report that it is not the case here!

I have been unbelievably busy over the past month with everything in my life and if I could add another couple of hours to the day it would really help me out.

Cliffs would be
Had a promotion at work
Some staff leaving so working most days
Spending time on both the businesses

Essex Countryside
I now have a role whereby I am based in the same office but take a helicopter approach to the running of the other two offices leaving my MD to deal with the networking and marketing side which he is really good at, this in essence is a really good position as if I get a good group of people in the offices then we should progress and grow our market share as the brand already has a really good name and with a turnover target for the 3 offices this year of £1.25million in fees and 2015 looking to achieve 1.5million it's important to have the right team around you.

One of the offices had a few plodders in there and on being promoted, within a couple of days the manager who has been with the firm 15 years resigned but had already secured a new role so it wasnt just because of me and he was starting to come under some pressure as his office was number 1 by a long way when I took over here in 2011 and we were 3rd but went 2nd, 1st, 1st and he was in danger of being 3rd this year so it has given us the chance to have a clean sweep in the office and recruit a guy who I worked with at my previous company and works like we do and is the 5th member of staff I have taken from the old company so we are not flavour of the month back there.

The property market is still really bouyant down in Essex and properties are selling at obscene amounts of money with loads of panic buying going on and not many properties coming to the market which further fuels the prices around here and I do wonder when it will stop if it ever does...

This week we took on an interesting property called Bannister House

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Here it was being extended 40 years ago

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The history dates back to the 15th century with some amazing features still within and can be yours for a mere £930'000


This property here is just down the road and has been on the market for over 1 year and started at £750k which was £100k over the top and if they had been on at £675k from the start the chances are they would have sold and having been very patient with their initial choice of agent and having received x number of letters for me touting for their business they finally succumbed 10 days ago and gave me instructions at £650k and having only had 5 viewings in 1 year and 1 viewing this year I managed to get 2 viewings in the first week of marketing and tied up an offer late this week at £617.5k bagging a £10k fee and also sticking it in the eye of the other agent which is always nice but happens to us as well obviously but in a small village they will see that it is ourselves who have agreed the sale and should lead to more business going forward.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30423858.html?premiumA=true


LONDON KIDS CLOTHES SHOP

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Has now been open for 2 months and showed £1k euro profit in the first month and will do £1.5k profit by the end of this month and has gone really well so much so that we are now sending stuff every 2-3 weeks instead of 4-5 weeks and have started to send toddlers toys and prams/pushchairs that are picked up for as little as £2 and then given a good clean and sent over which then retails at between 20-40 (push chairs etc) euro and sell as soon as they hit the shop and shows there is a demand for the stuff so long may it continue.

MAX'S FIRST FOOTBALL COACHING
Today this little man has his first coaching session and here he was at 15 months so hopefully he has some of the Blacklock ball/eye co-ordination and can take it a touch furthe rthan I did, here he was at 15 months in the garden.


I'm looking forward to a dusk visit next weekend for the deepstack and in a warm up played the Luton £20k monthly yesterday and managed to make day 2 with 42bb's going back tomorrow so hoping for a bit of rungood for the next week or so.

Be lucky punters.....

[Eso Kral]

Today was the first time I have logged into blonde in a week and having read 3 pages of threads I wanted to catch up on I can now update what has been going on in my little world.

The pokerz was pretty lol worthy with having chipped up nicely in the early levels of day 2 at Luton I tried to get a lady to fold QK on AKJ 8 T when I had 67dd and she didnt feel like folding funnily enough and then outflopped someone for my last 8bbs with A7 vs AK but didnt hold to the river to exit and it was GG!

Managed to iron out 4 bullets at the £250 deepstack in a combo of online legs where I never got started then got some chips before I spewed off and over bet bluff jammed a river with K9cc in a 3b pot with us the 3b'or from the btn to see a runout of 369hh 10h losing to JQhh and then used the other 2 bullets in the 1pm leg at Dusk and left with the hump deciding to play the £220 at Luton instead of another couple of bullets at Dusk if it didnt go well.

Luton didnt go well either as having opened utg with JJ and found the obligatory 4 callers a wizard in the bb who was tilted from a combo of hands decided it was a good time to ship 50bbs and whilst against an older gentleman this is borderline I felt pretty confident in my read of him in general and called and it was "off to the races" against  and we didnt win and then I ground 10-17bbs for 4 levels I exited for 11bbs after an open and 2 callers I got K9cc in vs A10hh vs the OR and didnt do a get there so it was back home early and a family day Sunday instead of a day2 but reminded me of even when I'm losing I'm wiinning!!



These are now the 3 offices under my wing with Thorpe Bay, Rayleigh and Leigh on sea and I have only managed to have one person resign in the past 2 weeks so I cannot be doing too bad.  The person who left was expected to leave and follow another leaver from last month and it has meant I can put a team of people into all the offices that I have worked with before and will work in the way we want to moving forward and we are about to launch a summer promotion where we hope to scoop up loads of business but that is a bit edgy and unique to this area at the moment but buyers might not be happy with us, we also feel we need to do this promotion before any other agents pick up on it so being first to market with it is key...







This little man has his 3rd footie session today and here he was this morning

The first week he didnt want to do any dribbling or stopping the ball instead he wanted to be by the goal and ping it in constantly with his left peg.  I love the fact he is completely left footed at the moment as am pretty sure as an average left footer he could make it due to numbers and then last week he was better and included himself more in the group doing stuff the other kids do so hopefully he keeps listening and learning.

I have to say a big big thank you to Little Dave who as the absolute star that he is jumped on a train from Leeds at the un-earthly hour of 845am to meet myself and Dubai so I could show them a possible business venture for the 3 of us or another couple of faces if the figures work out and having gone for a coffee first we played "Lil Dave thinks" re properties around from Hornchurch to Southend which was pretty comical and LilD's std answer after he was miles out on the first few was £700k whether it was a penthouse appt or a detached mansion.  He also found out that "darn Sarff" the weather is much better and it wasnt long before he took off 2 of the layers he had left Leeds in as Southend baked in the sunshine at late 20's by the sea.

Having shown them what could be an absolutely iconic building just off the seafront (cannot really say too much here yet but news may follow...) I am trying to secure which could have a really long term potential as part of a portfolio of business we eventually resided for a spot of lunch at "The Boat Yard" in old leigh and had something to eat before I showed them "chez Kral" and then dropped them back to Romford to continue their night out with some London hero's before the crab flew to Marbella.


Obv I lost the dinner flip

Another person I dont flip well vs and a fellow Malteser Vincent Callenti has a big week ahead so muchos love/thoughts will be with you big man and your school girl gf ofc.

[Karabiner]

Love this diary, it never fails to lift my spirits.

Glad to see that you're all well and looking forward to the next installment.

Also waiting with bated breath for Vinni's news.

[tikay]

Rich,

I see you have not logged on for over a week, hope it is just pressure of work/earning loads of money.

[celtic]

Rich,

I see you have not logged on for over a week, hope it is just pressure of work/earning loads of money.

I've just spoke to him. He's well and very busy. Will be on blonde soon to update.

[tikay]

Rich,

I see you have not logged on for over a week, hope it is just pressure of work/earning loads of money.

I've just spoke to him. He's well and very busy. Will be on blonde soon to update.

Good news.

It's odd how when some regulars go AWOL, we notice straight away, but others disappear & nobody notices.

For the record, I never noticed Rich had disappeared.

[Eso Kral]

Rich,

I see you have not logged on for over a week, hope it is just pressure of work/earning loads of money.

Hi Tikay

thanks for noticing I had gone awol for a bit

It has been vvvv busy on all life fronts with some interesting developments which I shall come back to soon.

[BorntoBubble]

hope everything is going well and you are crushing the life scene

[Eso Kral]

hope everything is going well and you are crushing the life scene

Cheers Callum, the life scene has been good and I will update over the next couple of days but I have been reading your ventures with interest

Just incase anyone does not see it Petra took Vinny and Amanda's newborn shots of their handsome boy Archie which were taken at Chez Kral last week so I have cut and pasted this from the Gratz Vinny thread in the rail....

 Petra was lucky enough to be chosen to do Vinny and Amanda's baby photos (lucky or unlucky I suppose if you wanted paying for doing some work ) and I am sure he wont mind me sharing a couple of the photo's from the day last week.

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My favourite shot of the day though is this which for those that know Vinny and his backstory is a really poingant photo

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[tikay]

Rich,

I see you have not logged on for over a week, hope it is just pressure of work/earning loads of money.

Hi Tikay

thanks for noticing I had gone awol for a bit

It has been vvvv busy on all life fronts with some interesting developments which I shall come back to soon.

I was actually hoping you had gone for good, tbh.

It's weird, but I'm like a fretting parent, when blonde regulars go missing, I notice it straight away, & worry. Not in your case, obv.

[Eso Kral]

Well this is really likely to be a TL;DR but I will split it into two parts and also give cliffs if you cannot be bothered to read the full update 

Cliffs of the past few weeks are

1) I have spread myself way too thin!!
2) We are now a standard 2.4 kids family with an extra addition
3) I am a clothes bank for a couple of local schools which means we buy clothes for the Slovak shop at £1 per kilo and export or give the unusable stuff to charity
4) I am still walking the streets for my leaflet firm
5) Running 3 offices is not easy, especially when we are about to launch a really edgy promotion
6) Petra is giving something back to families that I am not sure I could ever do!!
7) Hypnotherapy for me
Seafront Venture
9) 10 years of property developing ahead.....


A couple of months ago I realised I was spreading myself really really thin and something had to give. That something was Blonde and having been around here for about 4 years I have seen many people come and go as I am sure those have with much longer memberships than my goodself, so for the first time since I started posting and reading I had to stop trying to read every post (I am fortunate that my job means I can browse whilst being on the phone and working at the same time) and for days even didnt read at all then would have a quick catch up beofre going back to my self induced exile.

Instead of browsing whilst working I was using the time to write down other ideas or things I needed to do for the businesses etc etc as there just is not the time in the day to do everything I would like plus with having a young family it's impossible to work late every evening so at least 3 evenings per week I leave on time with the rest of my week looking like this
5.15am - Get up and ither try to do some exercise or reply to emails (some mornings the snooze button wins)
6.30 - The kids are awake so thats me and them before we all go down to breakfast as a family at 7.45am
8.10 - Off to work
6.45 - latest am back home and it's bath time before story time and I put Maxwell to sleep before getting back downstairs about 7.45pm.
8pm - bit of dinner and some time with Petra or some joint work related stuff and bed between 11 and midnight
Rinse repeat

As you can see spending loadsa time browsing just does not fit with that as a general day.

2.4 Kids and a new addition
Petra is 32 next week and has never needed a car but with going to various kids groups now and all the businesses requiring her to be mobile we had to invest in a motor, surprisingly she has never owned a car before so it was a pretty big deal for her and we wanted something to last a good 5 years or until we decided to change again plus with various members of her family coming here for the summer and other times of the year we needed a 7 seater to enable us all to go out for the day so we strapped ourselves up with a bit of finance bought a decent spec late 2012 S-max

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Here it is, nothing sexy really about it and it sometimes feels like a boat when you are in it but it will suit her well for now...

I on the other hand have never been a petrol head in the slightest and where we live parking is at a premium and I travel between 3 offices which are 5 miles apart so when this little beauty came available I decided I would try it out and changed from my sporty golf to a little mini which is like driving a rally car but gets around quicker than I did before and I love it except I look a bit ghey in it!!


SLOVAK SHOP
At the firm I work for we sponsor a few schools summer fetes and Christmas bazaars so I have a good relationship with the head teachers and fund raisers with the schools which reside in our fairly monied area so as we are always looking to purchase clothes for the shop as cheaply as we can asked them if they would like to be a clothes bank for me which they gladly accepted and sent letters out to the parents so last week I collected my first lot where we gift the school £1 per kilo of colthes which exceeds the standard 65p max in the area and means the school get to choose what they wish to spend the money on.  We realise that we will get a load of clothes that are unsuitable for the shop so we then give to local charities over here on in Slovakia that we know will put them to good use and so far this is working well.

Petra still devotes about 3 hours per week to the sourcing of clothes from bott sales or free cycle, facebook etc so doesnt invest too much time and on average since opening the shop has cleared £1k profit per month which is great as a little sideline.

SWIFT LEAFLETS
This is my little baby and is so simple once you have droppers and an ability to sell to people/trades that should use the service as part of their brand awareness/marketing strategy in fact as scary as it is if I had a big enough kitty today to enable me to give up the estate agency work I 100% believe I could earn £45k plus with as little as 2 droppers and myself pounding the streets and the more people you get the less walking you would need to do personally and more management/new business developing but at the moment I am not in that position so some days off are based on the development of this business or some dropping myself as the firm I work for on the Agency side are my main contributor of leaflets/magazines and I just over sell to other firms as a bolt on.  I am just about to go live with my website for this firm but wanted the infrastructure to be right before doing so even though we have been trading since April and have just come off the back of dropping of 6000 A4 magazines which as a one off drop the firm paid £720 for as it is a no brainer to outsource it rather than their staff lose time selling on the phones when we can do that and my dropper earnt £360 for 4 days work.

I dont even employ the droppers as they all come self employed and just invoice me for their work so the admin side is pretty straight forward, I am going to post in the lounge about GPS tracking but if anyone reads here first and knows a low cost GPS tracking kit that I can add to a badge or attach to the dropper so that my customers can see on a daily basis where the dropper is via an app or web browser please holla as that is a service I want to offer but have not looked into yet...

TBC