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Part 2:
That same day, I received another email from info@escalaproperties that read as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to let you know, that from this day forward, if you have any questions about financial statements, or if you want to know when your next payment is due, you should forward your queries to the financial department from the developers.
We have helped you this far, but from now on the developers will be the ones responsible for assisting you with your questions about payments and financial statements.
Any questions you might have about the project’s updates, photos of the work site, questions about reselling, title transfers, in other words any questions that do not pertain to financial matters you can count on us, as always.
If you want to reach out to the developers, you should use the email address/ phone numbers below:
Vitacon company’s phone #: +55 11 3588 4700
Financial dept:
Ms. Alexandra Oliveira – alexandra.oliveira@vitacon.com.br
Phone #: +55 11 3039.7071
Ms. Anelise Araújo – anelise.araujo@vitacon.com.br
Phone #: +55 11 3039- 7375Vitacon CEO-
Mr. Ariel Frankel- ariel.frankel@vitacon.com.br
Please bear in mind, that it is always in our best interest to keep replying your emails in a timely manner, but given the proportion of emails and requests we have been receiving lately,.this is no longer feasible.
Thank you for your comprehension.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Kind regards,
Escala Team,
About that same time, customercare@escalaproperties sent me a response about the portal as follows:
I have already asked the developers to provide us with the website from the project with the option to access the client’s portal.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Kind regards,
The representative or possibly owner of Vitacon, Ariel Frankel, was slated to come to the Gathering this week. Today I received a set schedule for the Gathering, and his name isn’t mentioned at all. Another named attendee is also not listed (the owner of Always Marbella) so perhaps he’s coming but will not be a “keynote” speaker. We were given emails for all of the representatives who are attending, and told we could email them for appointments because our afternoons will be free. I’ve emailed Mr. Frankel a few days ago but have not received a response. That’s my experience, and I look forward to hearing from some of the rest of you.
Maria:
I’ll share all of my experience, for what it’s worth, so we can all compare notes. A few months ago I received a notice that the new users’ portal was up. I went to try and use it but it was non-functional. For anyone who has trouble reading Portuguese (I do), use Google Translate for your messages in the future and you should be fine. I fairly quickly received a message that the English version of the Portal was still under construction.
Time passed, and within the past month, I received a message from info@escalaproperties telling me my next payment was due. Problem is, I had paid all at one time in order to receive the discount. I responded back, and then received a reply email apologizing, and asking me to disregard the previous email sent in error. That was September 17.
In response, I asked about the portal. Three days later I received the following from info@escalaproperties.com:
Dear Sir/ Madam,I am writting to let you know that from now on we will no longer be using this e-mail address to reply questions about Microcondo sales.
This e-mail was only used during the first steps of your purchase.
To reply questions related to contracts, payments, project updates, we will be using our main customer care e-mail below:
customercare@escalaproperties.com
This way we can follow up on your questions faster.
Kind regards,
Part two next….
Roger, thank you for sending that. The lifetime price is pretty inexpensive, so it’s a low risk investment.
Wow. Can’t see the value in that unfortunately. There had been talk about finding something to replace Tim Price but so far nothing has.
Update: I spoke to the person whose company was advertising it, and nothing about it seemed legitimate: gray market passport at best.
There are starting to be a few more expat-related podcasts online. Unfortunately, the Nomad Capitalist podcast ceased producing, though the owner is still blogging and writing online. http://www.nomadcapitalist.com
Interested in hearing from any current SMC members. Any different feelings on Total Access now that Tim Price has left?
ML, for what little it’s worth, I’ve heard no criticism of this plan in the news in Grenada. I’ve set a search engine to email me links to articles/web posts that discuss citizenship by investment. St. Lucia, which is along with Dominica, the cheapest option currently ($100,000) is constantly criticized by the opposition, with the opposition threatening to revoke some of the economic citizenships if they get into power. I’ve seen criticisms of Antigua as well, and even of St. Kitts. By contrast, I’ve not seen anything appear in the news critical of the Grenada program. Take it for what it’s worth.
ML, no guesses or idea on my end. Unless the “current” U.S. agrees to let P.R. become a state, probably no effect.
Listened to a fund manager discuss frontier markets that go a step beyond emerging markets. He talked about Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire and Bangladesh, among others. Very informative.
I from time to time ask Rancho Santana’s real estate department to send me their latest offerings. Apparently the parent company has set up a loan fund. Previously, if you wanted to purchase a lot or a condo directly from Rancho Santana, it came with some owner financing. Now they’re offering financing for purchase of Rancho Santana properties from third parties within the development. I sound like a shill for it, but it’s a place that has improved every time I went there, and I’m ready to go back.
Roger:
That’s a fair point. So far, what I’ve heard has been mainly “big picture.” However, so far, what I’ve listened to are the (free) podcasts, and a few of the emerging markets videos. They’re supposed to have an entire series on Bitcoin and Blockchain, and frankly the podcast they did on Bitcoin was one of the most informative and easiest to understand that I’ve found. So to answer your question, I’ve not come across anything yet that says something as concrete as “buy this stock up to $X,” but I’ve heard some nice big picture stuff that gives me ideas to go explore.
I’d say that’s a fair statement. Far as I can tell, I’ve not yet seen the investors realize returns yet on their investments in the private investments. With Tim Staermose’s investments, they’re much shorter term and appear to have earned some gains. The problem I have with things like his that I don’t have (or perhaps make) the time to constantly follow, meaning that I perhaps don’t buy when I should buy or get out when I should get out. If I took the time to stay up to date with his newsletter, it looks like I might do alright. Also, his theory seems to often be a sort of value arbitrage, which is something I can comprehend. He tries to find stocks in companies that have more cash in the bank than what their stock is selling for.
