Venegas World Star Realty Kicks Off Christmas Fundraiser
Venegas World Star Realty is collecting toys until December 22 to bring happiness to hundreds of Puerto Vallarta children this Christmas. Additionally, the donation of non-perishable food products, as well as personal hygiene items is highly encouraged. Venegas World Star Realty manager, Mark Venegas, feels strongly about community involvement. After a highly successful toy drive last year, he decided to organize a yearly event. This is the ideal opportunity to do some early Christmas contribution! Venegas is also working in the construction of a pet shelter, as well as helping find homes for pets available for adoption. Please call 222-2111 for more information and to learn how you can participate in this worthy cause.
Playa Mita Furniture
Playa Mita Realty opens new furniture division. With the growing number of luxury homes in Punta Mita and the entire bay.Playa Mita Realty is now offering to the public one of the most unusual and luxury collections of furniture and home decorative accessories from Mexico and around the world. On your next visit to Punta Mita and the North Bay, stop by our Playa Mita office and see the area’s largest selection of antique doors, incredible and unique ceiling lamps, table lamps, tables, chairs, benches, cabinets, beds and much, much more.
Team Volleyball!
Prudential has two new sales associates who have just joined their large family: Brissa Castro of Mexico City and Ed Rogalski of Vancouver Canada. Prudential California Realty Vallarta Division also held their “Kick Off to a Good Season’ party on November 4th at the Playa del Sol Costa Sur. The party was a great success and spirits were very high. The event was organized by Nicole Martin of Prudential who included personalized gift bags for each person, games, and music, food, and water sports.
Highest residential loan in Mexico closes
Vallarta-based MEXLend, in partnership with GE Capital and PV Realty, closed a record-breaking loan on the famed lower Conchas Chinas home, Casa Carol Ann — one time home to the Wilson Family (of Wilson Tennis) and once a getaway for President Nixon. With the closing of this sales, this is so far the largest residential loan placed for the Puerto Vallarta area. MEXLend has forged partnerships with banks, private lenders, title insurance agencies and attorneys giving them the ability to streamline the mortgage process in Mexico.
Introductory Real Estate Course
Taking a course over the Internet may be a growing phenomenon but it doesn’t hold a candle to the recent classes of the Introduction Course in Real Estate. Organized by AMPI and sponsored by Prudential California Realty Vallarta Division, this year 52 students took advantage of the five-day 40-hour series. Instructors were Architect Francisco J. Estrada and Licenciado Eduardo Garcia of CIE (Corporativo Inmobiliario Estrada), federally certified assessors, who also give the CONOCER series for certification.
I asked several students to explain why they decided to take the course.
Denise Rosenfeld, who has two-and-a-half years with Prudential and certified earlier in the year, says, “I think that continued training is crucial to keeping on top of the industry as well as offering the best service to the client. I was also interested in reviewing the evaluation technique for estimating property values step by step.”
Claudia Gallegos, on board just ten months, agrees that “having a solid base is most important. Even though I’m already certified, I continue to work toward offering the most efficient methods to the public. Within our profession, it’s important to not only learn the code of ethics but to learn to practice them.”
Abigail Fernández, office assistant, saw in real estate “a real opportunity for my future with continued growth and expansion.” The course offered her the option of “beginning from a starting point that made good business sense.” Not born in Vallarta but raised here, Abigail feels positive about being in an industry that she has observed as it changed the face of the area.
Victor Solis Carmona of McFadden Group in the Hotel Zone is just eight months with the company. His outlook, an international one, includes visits to London where his daughter studies and works. His enjoyment of the class is directly related to his involvement as a sales assistant in the real estate division.
Shannon Beston of Shannon Beston Properties is at the cutting edge of the rental industry as she expands within an increasingly important sector. “No man is an island, so in this (Banderas Bay) area, what one realtors does has an effect on the entire world of real estate. It’s crucial that our training increases with the demand and that we raise the level of professionalism and awareness.”
Fátima Vázquez Martínez, sales assistant and in-house graphic designer for Prudential, adds “The rental agencies are also selling the same product for the purchasing clients.” Fátima and Elena Andrade organized the course and arranged for the instruction. Since the course is required to be given in Spanish, they also contracted the services of a simultaneous translator, Bryan Henderson Jaimes of Vallarta Visión Y Misión A.C., for translation into English.
While the induction course is not a requirement, AMPI continues to work toward the certification of the real estate industry at the federal level. The certification itself, offered in May and August of this year, was taken by 68 local real estate agents, some of whom decided to review the material in this annual induction course. Fátima stresses that in addition to the information and the methods of arriving at the property values, what AMPI strives for is the recognition of the shared objectives within the industry. “It’s important to unify the profession, to offer a strong front to the public. It’s about using the same forms for contracts but even more so, about respecting one another.”
