While on the beach or the golf course, you strike up conversations with several people and you learn that they live “up north” (undoubtedly you meet Minnesotans and Michiganders), they visit 2 or 3 times every year, and they own vacation condos in the area.

The 3 R’s
So you talk it over and decide to start exploring the idea of purchasing a vacation condo in SouthWest Florida. Why not, after all, combine the best of all worlds: Rest, Recreation, and Return on investment? Why give the money to someone else when you could be helping yourself with an investment and be vacationing in the comfort of your own home? And how about that difference in space and convenience? A two bedroom, two bath condo with a full kitchen, lanai, and great view is quite a bit more comfortable than a tiny hotel room with a 2 cup coffee maker. It makes sense, you think you’re quite brilliant, and so you dive into the search.

It sounds simple at first, but alas you soon discover there are so many factors involved. Buying a vacation condo—even for experienced buyers—can be a bit overwhelming at first. What location is best? Beach? Golf? Boating? What features are most important to you? What about condominium fees and policies? Can you rent out the condo when you are not using it? Can you bring Sparky the family dog?

Location, Amenities, View, and Price
The first step is determining which type of view and location is the priority for you. You can always drive to the beach or a golf course or a marina or boat ramp or shopping center or amusement park. If your priority is beach, sunsets, and expansive water views you’ll be in the category of beach condo buyer. You of course still go boating or golfing, it's just that the boat is not in your backyard or the golf course is not in your front yard. Likewise, if you are an avid boater or angler, but just a casual golfer, then your priority is a waterfront property on a canal or in a community with marina facilities.

To keep it simple, let’s generalize three classifications of condominium properties:

• Planned gated communities: There are many gated communities that offer a wonderful blend of all the amenities many condo shoppers are looking for: golf, tennis, clubhouse, fitness rooms, walking trails, and the like. These communities are a mixture of single-family homes, villas, and condos. Some also have marinas, boat storage, and on-premise restaurants. In this category, properties on the waterfront will have views of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlotte Harbor, or a large lake-like saltwater basin.
• High-rises: In SouthWest Florida, the majority of high-rise condo towers are found in downtown Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples). Additionally, some gated communities have high rises among other property types. Examples are Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral, Gulf Harbour and Mastique in Fort Myers, and Burnt Store Marina on the Charlotte Harbour.
Loans Against Senior Life Settlements
A senior life settlement enables a senior citizen (over age 65) to sell his life insurance policy to a third party for more than its present cash surrender value. This settlement is referred to as a life settlement or a senior life insurance settlement. When a policy is settled, the third party gains all rights to it. In return, the original owner receives a lump sum amount in cash. However, if the sellers want to keep the policy and yet requires some emergency funds, a simple solution is to borrow a loan against the life settlement policy.An important thing is that the borrower is required to clearly indicate the financial need when seeking a senior life settlement loan. A fixed period of time is allotted for repaying the loan in monthly installments. During this time, the policy remains the owner’s asset, so long as they payments are made.To obtain this type of loan, the senior person should approach the company who they have the policy with. The owner is also required to fill out an application form with his personal information, as well as the details of the insurance policy. The loan amount is generally calculated on the basis of a percentage of the face value of the policy, but it differs from company to company. The company has the power to fix the terms for the loan and the dates for installments to be paid. The company keeps the policy papers until the loan is totally repaid. Insurance brokers or agents help to speed u
> So you talk it over and decide to start exploring the idea of purchasing a vacation condo in SouthWest Florida. Why not, after all, combine the best of all worlds: Rest, Recreation, and Return on investment? Why give the money to someone else when you could be helping yourself with an investment and be vacationing in the comfort of your own home? And how about that difference in space and convenience? A two bedroom, two bath condo with a full kitchen, lanai, and great view is quite a bit more comfortable than a tiny hotel room with a 2 cup coffee maker. It makes sense, you think you’re quite brilliant, and so you dive into the search.

It sounds simple at first, but alas you soon discover there are so many factors involved. Buying a vacation condo—even for experienced buyers—can be a bit overwhelming at first. What location is best? Beach? Golf? Boating? What features are most important to you? What about condominium fees and policies? Can you rent out the condo when you are not using it? Can you bring Sparky the family dog?

Location, Amenities, View, and Price
The first step is determining which type of view and location is the priority for you. You can always drive to the beach or a golf course or a marina or boat ramp or shopping center or amusement park. If your priority is beach, sunsets, and expansive water views you’ll be in the category of beach condo buyer. You of course still go boating or golfing, it's just that the boat is not in your backyard or the golf course is not in your front yard. Likewise, if you are an avid boater or angler, but just a casual golfer, then your priority is a waterfront property on a canal or in a community with marina facilities.

To keep it simple, let’s generalize three classifications of condominium properties:

• Planned gated communities: There are many gated communities that offer a wonderful blend of all the amenities many condo shoppers are looking for: golf, tennis, clubhouse, fitness rooms, walking trails, and the like. These communities are a mixture of single-family homes, villas, and condos. Some also have marinas, boat storage, and on-premise restaurants. In this category, properties on the waterfront will have views of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlotte Harbor, or a large lake-like saltwater basin.
• High-rises: In SouthWest Florida, the majority of high-rise condo towers are found in downtown Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples). Additionally, some gated communities have high rises among other property types. Examples are Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral, Gulf Harbour and Mastique in Fort Myers, and Burnt Store Marina on the Charlotte Harbour.
How to Find the Right Career
The search for the right career is a delicate process. You shouldn't rush into anything. Take your time, and really examine all of the necessary aspects of your career before you decide that you want to stick with it for a long time.The first thing you need to examine is yourself. What are your interests? What are you good at? What are the things you enjoy doing? Take the time to list or journal these things over the course of a couple of days. You may even think of more things that you can do as you go on in this process, but this is a start. Think about what is most important to you in a job. Do you value money or enjoyment more? Which is better, job stability or speedy promotion? Would you like and office job, or do you need to move around during the day? Give these things plenty of thought. Then, you can move to the next step.After taking a good look in the mirror, answering all the questions listed above, go ahead and make another list of all the jobs that you think meet your value system. Also, list jobs that you know you are capable of doing, and those things you would truly like to do. Make the list as long as you can, then rank the top three. Take those three jobs, and match them to your values, interests, and skills. You can narrow this down to two if you would like, but three options will broaden your search for available jobs.Now that you have considered these things, update your resume. Make sure th
over there are so many factors involved. Buying a vacation condo—even for experienced buyers—can be a bit overwhelming at first. What location is best? Beach? Golf? Boating? What features are most important to you? What about condominium fees and policies? Can you rent out the condo when you are not using it? Can you bring Sparky the family dog?

Location, Amenities, View, and Price
The first step is determining which type of view and location is the priority for you. You can always drive to the beach or a golf course or a marina or boat ramp or shopping center or amusement park. If your priority is beach, sunsets, and expansive water views you’ll be in the category of beach condo buyer. You of course still go boating or golfing, it's just that the boat is not in your backyard or the golf course is not in your front yard. Likewise, if you are an avid boater or angler, but just a casual golfer, then your priority is a waterfront property on a canal or in a community with marina facilities.

To keep it simple, let’s generalize three classifications of condominium properties:

• Planned gated communities: There are many gated communities that offer a wonderful blend of all the amenities many condo shoppers are looking for: golf, tennis, clubhouse, fitness rooms, walking trails, and the like. These communities are a mixture of single-family homes, villas, and condos. Some also have marinas, boat storage, and on-premise restaurants. In this category, properties on the waterfront will have views of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlotte Harbor, or a large lake-like saltwater basin.
• High-rises: In SouthWest Florida, the majority of high-rise condo towers are found in downtown Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples). Additionally, some gated communities have high rises among other property types. Examples are Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral, Gulf Harbour and Mastique in Fort Myers, and Burnt Store Marina on the Charlotte Harbour.
Small Business Blog: You Can't Ignore It
Setting up a small business blog is not that difficult. In fact it’s pretty simple. With the growth of business blogging over the past few years you can’t afford not to have a small business blog. Blogs provide an additional means of communication with your customers and help to deepen the relationship between you and them. In this article we will discuss some tips for setting up and maintaining your small business blog.The first tip when blogging is to not sound to professional or wordy. Write the way that you talk. Blogs tend to be a bit more informal so try to write the way that you would normally speak. It makes the communication seem more like a conversation which is what you want.The second tip when running a small business blog is to make frequent posts. Try to stick to a schedule that will work out for you. Whether you want to post everyday or every other day or even once every three days, it doesn’t really matter. Just make sure that you do it consistently. Remember the more you post the more reason the reader has to come back to read some more. So be consistent.The third tip is to select your keywords carefully. This tip is more geared to the traffic benefit you can potentially receive by blogging. By choosing keywords related to your business you will be able to attract targeted traffic from the search engines. People will type in a keyword phrase and based on a number of variables if your site is relevant the
of beach condo buyer. You of course still go boating or golfing, it's just that the boat is not in your backyard or the golf course is not in your front yard. Likewise, if you are an avid boater or angler, but just a casual golfer, then your priority is a waterfront property on a canal or in a community with marina facilities.

To keep it simple, let’s generalize three classifications of condominium properties:

• Planned gated communities: There are many gated communities that offer a wonderful blend of all the amenities many condo shoppers are looking for: golf, tennis, clubhouse, fitness rooms, walking trails, and the like. These communities are a mixture of single-family homes, villas, and condos. Some also have marinas, boat storage, and on-premise restaurants. In this category, properties on the waterfront will have views of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlotte Harbor, or a large lake-like saltwater basin.
• High-rises: In SouthWest Florida, the majority of high-rise condo towers are found in downtown Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples). Additionally, some gated communities have high rises among other property types. Examples are Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral, Gulf Harbour and Mastique in Fort Myers, and Burnt Store Marina on the Charlotte Harbour.
Marketing Research Effectiveness
Marketing research can be used to meet nearly all the marketing information needs of the small businessperson. Every area from developing a business plan to designing an effective advertising program can benefit from the use of carefully planned and executed research. How Is Marketing Research Used? Let's take the example of developing a business plan. When you first sit down with that blank piece of paper and dream of owning your own business, you should be asking yourself questions such as: What am I going to sell? Will people buy what I sell? How much should I charge? Where should I locate? How much competition is there and who are they? Questions such as these should be at the heart of any effective business plan, and marketing research can help you answer them. Let's say, for example, you've decided to turn your passion for fishing into your livelihood, and you open your own tackle and equipment store. You feel there is a need for such a service and are ready, willing and able to jump at the opportunity. One of your first steps might be finding out how many other tackle shops are in your area to get a feel for the level of competition. A quick glance through your local Yellow Pages would readily supply you with this information. Congratulations! You've just completed your first marketing research project. As the questions become more difficult to answer, how
, villas, and condos. Some also have marinas, boat storage, and on-premise restaurants. In this category, properties on the waterfront will have views of the Caloosahatchee River, Charlotte Harbor, or a large lake-like saltwater basin.
• High-rises: In SouthWest Florida, the majority of high-rise condo towers are found in downtown Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River and on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico (Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples). Additionally, some gated communities have high rises among other property types. Examples are Tarpon Point and Cape Harbour in Cape Coral, Gulf Harbour and Mastique in Fort Myers, and Burnt Store Marina on the Charlotte Harbour.
• Smaller condo complexes: Smaller complexes, say 8 to 100 total residences and 3-5 stories high, are available in centrally-located areas such as central Fort Myers, along the waterfront (canals, the Caloosahatchee River, and the Gulf of Mexico) and are common on Sanibel and Captiva islands. There are also small waterfront complexes on canal systems, often with boat docks for use by residents or their tenants. On the beaches, there are corporate-owned condo-hotels and small owner-association operated condo-hotels.


Price is of course a key consideration and will play a factor in the location, view, and amenity options from which you have to choose. There are very nice options in the $200,000 - $400,000 range. The majority of options are in the $400,000 - $600,000 range. Luxury condos range from $700,000 to $4 million, plus.

Boating & The Gulf of Mexico
For boaters there are several considerations with respect to the boating and water access. Planned, gated communities with marinas offer slips for rent or for sale, often both wet and dry (rack storage) slips. Rental rates average $12 per foot, per month.

Condo complexes situated on canals have dock space available one of three ways: deeded, where the dock space is legally attached to the condo unit, assigned space (assigned to the unit), and common space (space is not assigned or deeded to any units). The ideal scenario for convenience of the owner and future value is a deeded dock. But common dock space is okay too, and rarely are these docks full, meaning that dock space any time of the year is not likely be an issue for the residents of the complex.

Golf Communities
If your priority is golfing, it will be no surprise that there are many golf communities in the area. In fact SouthWest Florida boasts the most golf holes per capita that anywhere else in the nation. Some golfing communities surround semi-private or public courses. Others are entirely private and offer equity golf membership, sports membership (tennis, fitness, swimming), or social memberships. Most common are "bundled" golf communities, where the golf membership is included with title to the property and residents pay an annual membership fee ($1700 - $4000).

Association Fees
There are two types of association fees: HOA (Home Owners Association) fees and Master HOA fees. The HOA fee covers insurance for the structures, grounds keeping, water, sewer, trash remove, cable TV, and management. Larger communities might have multiple subdivisions, in which case the subdivision association charges the HOA fees and there is in addition a Master HOA fee that covers the common grounds and services for all subdivisions, such as guarded entrance, entryway landscaping,