OCTOBER 2009 OLU DENIZ
BLOG 5: meeting the big guys
Here we are sitting in Infinity’s head office in Fethiye. The two storey building is impressive, spacious, simply but elegantly furnished and in a fabulous location overlooking the beautiful Fethiye harbour.
We realize we are being given the hard sell in a soft sell manner by S, a charming young woman and one of the family owners of the company, but the facts seem to speak for themselves. The company has built many individual villas and large complexes throughout the area over many years and we have been shown some of them. Prices seem extraordinarily cheap to us, bearing in mind that the villas include marble floors throughout, fully fitted kitchens and all the basic furniture. Other than the sincerity and believability of this charming woman telling us about their various buildings and developments, and what a great team they have (we are introduced to some of them), what really appeals to us is the fact that dealing with this one company, which we are becoming convinced is solid, long-standing and reliable, they could easily manage and let out the villa when we are not there.
There is an arm of the company, the ‘Express’ part – that used to be a separate letting and management company called ‘Express Holiday Rentals’- which Infinity bought in for this purpose. We are introduced to the lead guy of this department, B, who speaks good English and is a jolly sort of chap, someone I feel I could get along with and his assistant, L, an attractive English girl who now lives permanently in Turkey. Some years ago, we used to own an apartment in Spain and a time-share in Portugal, both of which gave headaches in regard to maintenance and letting.
As we listen and drink our tea, I glance at OH. I can’t believe it! He is paying full attention and I can see the idea is growing on him. We make a time tomorrow for a further meeting to be followed by an area sight seeing trip and a visit to the proposed site where Infinity is planning to build a small complex of five villas with individual plots and pools. We had been planning to sight see anyway to visit Fethiye harbour and the old city, so this would kill two birds with the one stone. And as OH is suffering a bit of back pain, being ferried around to local tourist attractions is appealing. When we go, we take away floor plans of the proposed group of villas and another glossy brochure showing computer generated images. OH is quiet and thoughtful as he reads through the brochure. To say I am excited is an understatement.
