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As the desire for real estate and property abroad grows, the Oceano Village project in the Caribbean is perfectly placed to offer the ideal solution for both property and vacation property investors. Offering four types of properties with their own unique sense of style and character, the Oceano Village real estate development can be found on the beautiful island of Roatan.
Perennially viewed as one of the most romantic vacation destinations in the world, the Caribbean is now establishing itself on the “most wanted” lists for property developers. The mix of beautiful beachfront living and being home to some of the premier diving spots in the world has seen the Caribbean continue to gain popularity with real estate property developers and exotic vacation homebuyers. The island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras, is a prime example of how this beautiful part of the world shows no sign of abating when it comes to investing in a new property.
Oceano Village on Roatan is perhaps one of the finest examples of Caribbean property investment. Built on a 41-hectare site, every single property is eco-friendly, whether it’s one of the property’s condos, villas, estates or beach homes. Luxurious design permeates through every property, with features such as semi-private plunge pools, curved white stucco walls, panoramic ocean views, and lushly landscaped private courtyards. This type of luxury is attracting discerning investors and buyers who appreciate the quiet island life and the warm hospitality of the locals, helping Oceano Village establish itself as a key part in the burgeoning Caribbean property development market.
So why does the Caribbean, and the island of Roatan especially, continue to outstrip many of the more traditional real estate investment opportunities in other exotic locales? When you look behind the scenes of the property market there, perhaps it’s not difficult to understand why.
The immediate reason is the location of the Caribbean itself – far enough away from civilization to make you forget about the pressures of everyday life yet close enough to the major business and industrial cities of the US to stay involved in worldwide commercial affairs. Additionally, the Caribbean offers an extremely attractive proposal for those investors looking to buy a property as a retirement home. With excellent medical plans available for pensioners, including discounted medical and health care, the islands offer a persuasive mix for older investors – luxury, comfort and medical peace of mind.
As property development and real estate ownership becomes more than just a pipe dream for many people, islands like Roatan and the development project that is Oceano Village offers more than just a vacation home for prospective buyers. Ideal for families, couples and retirement, the village is the perfect example why the Caribbean is the new property hotspot and proof that an ocean front beach condo or villa can be your new home.

Now that you have earned your real estate license, you may be wondering just how you can go about making sure that you are a complete success. There is a fear that a real estate new agent may have and that is being able to compete with the competition out there. If you are new and just getting started, there are tips and hints to follow in order to make sure that you are going to come out on top. Success will not just happen on it’s own. You have to push hard and keep yourself focused on your goal. Within enough time you will be able to see just how much your patience pays off.

The first thing you want to do is to find the right real estate company for you to hang your license up at. Even though most of your success will be dependent on your personal drive, it is important to make sure that you have a reputable real estate company backing you up. Look around your neighborhood and see which real estate company has their name all over the place. Spot the yard signs, the ads in the newspapers, and the houses listed on the Internet. Discover which local company gets more attention from those wanting to list their house for sale.

Besides wanting to make sure that you end up with a real estate company that gets a lot of business, you want to make sure that you will receive the training you need. The more of a success you end up to be, the more money the office makes as a whole. Companies who are on top of their game will realize this and will invest time and money into making sure that you get all of the training you need to make it to the top.

Now that you have established where you are going to work, it is important to make sure that you are creating a business plan for yourself. The real estate new agent must make sure that he or she is creating a goal for their first year. This means that you will want to set yourself up with goals that are realistic. Discover ways that you will be reaching out to prospects and dedicate a certain amount of your resources to marketing and professional development. By following such simple steps you can make sure that you are off on the right foot towards making your career a successful one.

My grandfather was a developer, my father was a builder, and my mother was an interior decorator. Our family was all about houses and house design. My favorite past time as a child was drawing up house plans on graph paper. I particularly liked drawing in the doors and windows.

I did not go on to become an architect or designer, but I’m still fascinated by house plans. When my friend Jenny decided to build a new house on her riverside lot, I was thrilled to hear about the endless meetings with the architect and the builder. All the details and problems were as intriguing to me as a good mystery. I loved looking at the house plans. In particular, I wanted to know where everything was to go, especially the doors and windows.

Seeing the finished house, with big windows overlooking the river and views from every room, I’m more convinced than ever of the importance of professional house plans. Jenny’s house is small, no more than 1000 square feet, but because of the excellent design it doesn’t feel small. Everything has a place; no space is wasted, but nothing is cramped. She has the ease and convenience of a small house without feeling boxed in.

All houses, not just small houses, benefit from quality designs. I’m renting a house right now and it just makes no sense. The entryway and living room as so dark they are not very inviting. And there’s no air circulation in the dining room, so we’re all sweating by the second course. There’s a window in the shower, so the window frame is rotting away. Very bad planning.

One good thing about this house is the landscaping in the front yard. My rental house is in a hot climate, so the big banyan trees provide valuable natural cooling. This brings up two points about house design: landscaping makes a difference and energy-saving design is essential these days.

Landscaping is part of the overall house design. For good results, the designer should consider the landscape possibilities when designing the house. That doesn’t mean that the details of what gets planted where need to be decided before the house is built. But it does mean that the house design needs to take into account the natural landscaping and the homeowner’s garden desires.

It’s not that difficult to design an energy-efficient house. Extra insulation, thermal windows, and other “green” methods and materials pay for themselves in a few years. Jenny’s house is so comfortable; it’s easy to heat and has no drafts. That’s another advantage of a small house; it’s more efficient and therefore less costly to operate and maintain.

If you are in the market for some furniture for your home or patio then you should seriously be considered rattan as an option when it comes to material. While many people are heading in the direction of steel or plastic there is simply no denying the advantages that come with rattan furniture.

Consider the fact that you are probably looking for some quality furniture that will be sturdy and reliable. Then rattan is definitely one of your best options. Imagine owning a piece of furniture that not only requires very little maintenance but also will stand the test of time. Rattan furniture has the ability to handle every day wear and tear and will be an investment that will benefit you for years.

The actual rattan cane itself is extremely strong and tough. Accordingly, building a piece of furniture out of rattan will produce a very tough piece of furniture. If you are looking to furnish your patio or backyard, then rattan furniture is a great choice as it will ward off the elements and handle all types of weather. Unlike other materials such as steel, there is no fear that your furniture will rust or begin to be drastically affected by the weather. The rattan cane has an uncanny ability to hold its color, shape and strength.

On the other hand, if you are shopping for or refurnishing the interiors of your house, there are still quite a few benefits that are associated with rattan furniture. You will immediately discover such benefits if you have boys running around the house. Thank goodness you have cane furniture around! In other words, even when exposed to rough and negligent usage, cane furniture has the ability to withstand such stress. Furniture that is made from other materials will probably be damaged beyond repair.

Perhaps the most appealing benefit for rattan furniture is the ease of maintenance. Unlike other wood materials which you have to regularly treat and oil, rattan furniture requires none of these additives. You simply need to purchase the piece, set it up wherever you want and leave it. With no maintenance at all, the piece will last for an extraordinary, amount of time. Put away the unnecessary products and allow your furniture to bask in its natural glory.

When it comes to cleaning, there is also very little work required. In terms of steel, plastic or other wood materials you will often need to scrub the furniture constantly and even apply anti rust products on a regular basis. If you invest in some rattan furniture, there is no need for such additional labor. The biggest chore that you will have is to simply get a damp cloth and wipe the piece down to rid it out of dust that may have accumulated.

Go ahead and compare the pricing between rattan furniture and other types of set pieces for your home. You will quickly realize that the price you are paying will be lower than most other home pieces. So the next time you go shopping for chairs, tables, wardrobes, or even bigger furniture sets such as sofa sets and armchairs, don’t write off rattan furniture just yet. It could just be your wisest investment.

“There is no order of magnitude in miracles.”
–A Course in Miracles

I love that quote more than any other. Perhaps because so many of us at one time or another have experienced what we would call a miracle. Having experienced a “miracle” at any level of magnitude, it confirms for us that much greater things are possible, that miracles are really just the working out of Laws that are as yet unknown. So the natural question becomes, how to we begin to access that state more often and consciously? And yet, as feng shui consultants we are doing it all the time, yet perhaps not consciously.

In feng shui, we are working to access a hidden matrix of our space, a hologram, a blueprint, a morphegenic field, the devic consciousness, the spirit of place–by whatever name it is called, it is this hidden energetic LIFE behind the form that our cures and ceremonies are addressing that is responsible for the miraculous changes we observe when we see a shift in an environment. As such, we are accessing what I call the Creative Matrix of a space and learning to shift it alchemically for positive benefit.

The movies “What the Bleep” and “The Secret” have beautifully illustrated that we live in a world of vibrations. All thoughts and feelings can be translated into vibrations. If those thoughts and feelings are of fear and survival, anger and hate, then this is the vibration we are emitting and consequently the reality we are creating for ourselves. However, we can reprogram those vibrations anytime we choose and as such, we then access a new holographic matrix. Our cures do not hold intrinsic value in and of themselves, they are not magical potions or elixers–but hold an INTENT we offer to the space. Since these cures have a long tradition and history of their use, since they have a collective consensus of their potency and effect, there is a matrix or grid established about them and when we use them, we access THAT matrix of possibilities.

However, it is our thoughts, feelings and vibratory essence which these cures and talismen are anchoring and tapping into. WE are the source, not just the agent for the changes we are affecting in our environments. Physicists have discovered that the smallest particle of “matter” in our Universe isn’t matter at all! The electron, which seems to behave as both a particle AND a wave, does so according to how it is being observed! When scientist test it to see if it is a wave, that’s how it responds. When they test it to see if it is a particle, then THAT is how it responds. So the observer not only affects the experiment, the observer actually DETERMINES THE EXPERIMENT! In fact, quantum physicists have now concluded that the electron doesn’t even have an orbit, but circles in a cloud of potentiality. It is not until it is OBSERVED that it chooses a particular orbit. So Flip Wilson’s quirp from the 1970’s “What you see is what you get” is proving more true that we ever knew.

What does this mean to us on a day to day level? Do our thoughts about a space actually affect, and even determine what we experience in a space? Is it possible that our belief in the effectiveness of a particular feng shui cure is AS RESPONSIBLE for the effectiveness we observe as the cure itself? According to quantum physics, yes. We are at the place where metaphysics and quantum physics are sharing common ground.

So then thoughts of love, peace, charity, hope, faith, trust, prayer–all equally accessible to each and every one of us daily– invoke a vibratory energy, one that accesses another vibratory state, the chosen “orbit” of our electron making up our universe. As such, the vibrations we hold in our hearts and minds are the key to what manifests in our lives, not something out there somewhere. The world originates within us despite the outer appearance. The outer is simply the reflection of our inner state.

The ramifications of this awareness go far beyond our feng shui practice, since as “quantum feng shui practitioners” the Earth is our client with each and every situation presenting the same possibility for shifting the holographic matrix of its creation. So, during this time of choosing new leaders, of looking for new, more fulfilling economic models, of healing the ravaged parts of the Earth, and of demanding that America live up to the true spirit upon which this country was founded, our thoughts are of even more importance than ever as they create the new hologram allowing these ideals to express themselves.

We are living in a time when ancient principles that have been espoused for ages from Vedic texts to Native American philosophies are being validated by science–a meeting point between science and spirituality where these principles are being tested and proven to be true.

Many have heard of the research in Japan by Masaru Emoto that revealed water changes its physical and molecular structure when exposed to different sounds, words, thoughts, pictures and prayer. Before and after photographs of the water crystal of a polluted dam revealed that the structure went from a chaotic structure when first sampled, then transformed into a beautiful symmetrical snowflake-like crystal when a group of people sent their prayers to the dam.

Similar events have occurred throughout the world as a result of simple earth healing. Using the power of conscious intent, groups around the world have effectively proven that it is possible to restore balance to distorted weather patterns, crime rates, reduce drug use in cities, reduce earthquake activity, lower water and air pollution levels, restore marine and bird life to formerly polluted areas and even affect political and economic outcomes for positive aims. All of this resulting, not through governmental programs, or massive financial investments, but through the focused intent of small grassroots groups around the world.

Recent “natural” disasters of hurricanes in the gulf, and the tsunami of Indonesia, remind us that we are in a very intimate, and dependent relationship with Nature. The Native cultures throughout the world believed that such catastrophic events are Nature’s response to our collective thoughts and feelings. As such, there can be no better time to access our power of our conscious intent to shift this “creative matrix” of which we are an intimate part.

Evidence of groups around the world working with focused intent alongside the research of Emoto in Japan, Heart Math, Bruce Lipton and others confirm what the ancients have taught for centuries. Energy follows thought; our physical world is merely the reflection of our energy world. By working with this unseen matrix of creation, we can alter the physical manifestations and outcomes. We have the power to affect our inner energy worlds, and in fact we do it with each and every thought. So what do we want to dream? What kind of a world do we want to create? The choice is still ours.