Marsa Alam

[alx]

Hi guys,
I am pretty new in investment, i am not a lawyer, but i am not a complete idiot.
I got today a reservation form from IPI and i concluded that there is no chance to purchase the apartment (at least for announced price), and there is the only chance to save your deposit - to cancel reservation. But i even do not expect that you will be given such a chance by IPI. It is only the beginning. I imagine what will happen to lucky beggars trying to sign a contract and paying the compleyte amount.
The terms and conditions are below.
I have following questions:
- when the project will launch? May be it is already launched?
- seven days before launch is no later than 15 March? or may be earlier? The y will send me another guide then. What happens if ten people will select the same apartment?
- whish or not wish to proceed - in which for i t should be? I just wil say "yes" by mobile phone?
- contracts will be prepared and sent immediately - what it means? 1 second? 1 hour? 1 week?
- since when i have 14 days? Since i say "yes" by phone?
- if i am not in time - what will be the price increase? 5%? 50%? 100%?
- what will be the forfeit - i know the answer: i will lose the deposit. Very nice Escrow account!
- The Agent for and on Behalf of the Vendor: fine! who is Agent? who is Vendor? no name...


Good luck with your Luxury Apartments!
Full text:

Marsa Alam Beach Resort
5 Star Luxury Apartments : Sales Reservation form

ull Name of Investor (s):
Mr X (As stated in
passport)
PLEASE SUPPLY COPY OF PASSPORT AND COPY OF ONE RECENT UTILITY BILL – TO BE SENT WITH RESERVATION FORM
resent Address:



he above Investor has placed a fully refundable option deposit under the following terms and conditions:
roperty Type: One bedroom Apartment
erms and Conditions:
. ˆ1,500 fully refundable deposit to be paid to Escrow Agent made under the following conditions: Investors will need to return the signed reservation form to IPI, with a copy of their passport and a recent
utility bill. The option will be placed ONLY when the funds have been received into Escrow. The order in which funds
are received will determine the order in which Investors will be offered an apartment. Investors will be placed on a waiting list based on their apartment preference and the time the funds show
in Escrow. The project will be officially launched no later than 22 March 2008. Seven days before the launch, those Investors who have pre-reserved will be sent a site map, location of
individual apartments and a full list of facilities.
A telephone call will be scheduled for each Investor on the official launch date, in list order.
Investors will be called by a representative of the Developer and asked which apartment th
wish to reserve from the availability. The Developer will take all reasonable measures to contact the Investor during their 15 minute windo
if for any reason the Investor is unable to take the call then they will be moved further down the list. Should the Investor not wish to proceed then they will be sent a form to fill out where they will ne
provide their account details for refund and written confirmation of cancellation. Should the Investor wish to proceed, contracts will be prepared and sent immediately. The Invest
then have a period of 14 days to complete the purchase and pay the balance into Escrow. Shou
Investor not complete by this time then they will be subject to the increased price. The Investor wil
be given a further 14 days to pay their full balance (property now at the increased price). How
should their full balance not be received into Escrow in this period the property will be placed back o
market and the deposit will be forfeited at the Developer’s discretion.
All monies paid by the Investor are paid directly to the Escrow Agent’s Account.
The details of the Escrow Agent’s Account for the deposit payment are :

[samui13]

Hi Alx, welcome.

If you have contacted an agent they would advise you on how the situation works. You get the plans on the 15th and then pick a handful of apartments that you like best (obviously everyone is not going to get first choice)!!!!

On the official launch day they call everyone at set times and you pick your allocation (based on what is left after the people before you chose theirs).

Its simple, you get your choice in order of how far down the list you are (so you will know the day of the phonecall which exact apartment you want) and can then say Yes or No so everyone that wants their deposit back can have it back.

If you did your research into the earlier development Zafarana you would see that this worked in exactly the same way (and yes, it did work!)

Lou

[kc67]

Originally Posted by samui13

Hi Alx, welcome.

If you have contacted an agent they would advise you on how the situation works. You get the plans on the 15th and then pick a handful of apartments that you like best (obviously everyone is not going to get first choice)!!!!

On the official launch day they call everyone at set times and you pick your allocation (based on what is left after the people before you chose theirs).

Its simple, you get your choice in order of how far down the list you are (so you will know the day of the phonecall which exact apartment you want) and can then say Yes or No so everyone that wants their deposit back can have it back.

If you did your research into the earlier development Zafarana you would see that this worked in exactly the same way (and yes, it did work!)

Lou

Hi Lou,
You say that the Zafarana did work - did you buy an apartment there? If so, I presume that before they asked you for all the money up front that they made sure that the due diligence had been completed and they had all the proper licences and approvals in place. I'm a bit worried that we are so close to having to sign contracts on Marsa, however just yesterday when I asked my agent about due diligence I was told that it was not complete yet.

[alx]

Hi,

I read the guides. They're quite logical. Nevertheless there is a remark - they are not binding. What else do you have except guides and telephone calls? Only reservation form.

But it is not a reservation form because you do not reserve anything. You reserve the right to bid in a lottery. The reservation form is not binding as well. From this form it is not clear what will you get, how, at what date, what will be the price. But it is clear from the application that you have to make a decision under time pressure (within 15 minutes window?), then you undertake to pay within 14 days (since what date? what value? - they will tell in the way they like to). If you do not pay - you loose your deposit.

I am not a lawyer, but as i am working with contracts, i see that it is just a swindle. It is not defined who is vendor - no Essential Elements, no address - simply Vendor. Just imagine - when you will say "yes", will get a contract like that and sign it - you are in big trouble. If you dislike it, want to chage it - you have 14 days (since when?). If the money is not transferred - deposit is lost. As refund procedure is not clear as well (they will send it later) - you have no chance to get the money back.

[alx]

Originally Posted by kc67

Hi Lou,
You say that the Zafarana did work - did you buy an apartment there? If so, I presume that before they asked you for all the money up front that they made sure that the due diligence had been completed and they had all the proper licences and approvals in place. I'm a bit worried that we are so close to having to sign contracts on Marsa, however just yesterday when I asked my agent about due diligence I was told that it was not complete yet.

My opinion - even in case due diligence is OK - it is not a big deal. The land in this area costs nothing - governement sells it for 2$/sq.m. I even can assume that Zafa and Marsa will be completed. However i have no doubts what will happen to private investors - they will suffer a lot. It is just a question of how much they will loose.

P.S. just got this by mail: (do you feel how easy launch date is shifted, now there is complete vagueness - where is the true? The true is that your commitment to pay in 14 days is still in force) :

The official launch will be on Wednesday 26th March 2008, just after the Easter weekend.
Please also note, due to a hold up with the notarising of documentation in Egypt, we do not expect to have the due diligence ready by the launch date. Developer will now be asking reservation clients to choose apartments, however, they will not be required to pay further monies nor sign contracts until the due diligence has been supplied by the developer. This is now expected around the mid April 2008. This is obviously good news for some clients as it allows them an extra couple of weeks to organize funds.

[kc67]

Hi Alx, I don't think that I will suffer or lose any money - if I do not like the apartments which are left when they phone me, then I will ask for a refund of my reservation fee. I had been told by my agent that we would get our info pack, plans etc., through by 15th and then would be contacted about 7 days after that (Sat 22nd - as this falls over the easter weekend, I presume that they will leave it until business opens again on Tuesday 25th). As they have over 200 people to telephone, I also presume it may take them a couple of days (until 26th) then they would launch. That is entirely expected in my opinion and is not something I intend to get stressed about. The only thing I don't really like is handing over all my money at once - I would be happier handing it over in stages when I could see that the developer was doing his bit. Lets also hope that the escrow agent is trustworthy (by the way who gets all the interest from the money they are holding?) Other than that I'm only interested in whether they own the land and have all the permits, etc., to build on it, that they complete on time and transfer the ownership of my apartment to me and that I am able to get out there and enjoy myself after that!

[Rivermead Global Property]

Originally Posted by alx

My opinion - even in case due diligence is OK - it is not a big deal. The land in this area costs nothing - governement sells it for 2$/sq.m. I even can assume that Zafa and Marsa will be completed. However i have no doubts what will happen to private investors - they will suffer a lot. It is just a question of how much they will loose.

P.S. just got this by mail: (do you feel how easy launch date is shifted, now there is complete vagueness - where is the true? The true is that your commitment to pay in 14 days is still in force) :

The official launch will be on Wednesday 26th March 2008, just after the Easter weekend.
Please also note, due to a hold up with the notarising of documentation in Egypt, we do not expect to have the due diligence ready by the launch date. Developer will now be asking reservation clients to choose apartments, however, they will not be required to pay further monies nor sign contracts until the due diligence has been supplied by the developer. This is now expected around the mid April 2008. This is obviously good news for some clients as it allows them an extra couple of weeks to organize funds.

Surely the due diligence should be in place months before a product launch? We don't even take properties on to market unless the due diligence is in place as no doubt do other agents.

I also believe there is a 10% rental guarantee? Can i just give a bit of advice to anyone buying one of these, make sure the guaranteed rental is written in your preliminary contract.

We have heard of similar guarantees in Bulgaria and once the developments were sold and completed the rental guarantees disappeared and no one had it in their contracts.

So please do not sign anything unless it is in black & white and do not fall for any nonsense about it will be added later.

Just a word of caution, not trying to put anyone off, i have just seen people stung by this and don't want to see anymore.

[alx]

Hi kc67,

Do not worry - they will not press for money at once. You may ask for payment by stage or developer funded morgages. They are flexible and will try to get from you as much cash as they can without any pressure.

Just be prepared to complete vagueness. You will ask for a refund? Do you already know how? You will call and ask them? You will request it by email. Do you have an idea what kinf of cancellation form it will be? What will be the conditions, fees and extra payments?

I have no doubts - cancellation form and contract itself will be unfair and invalid like reservation form is.

[kc67]

Hi Alx - As far as I am aware there is no option of staged payments or developer funded mortgage - they want all the money at once! I wonder if anyone who has already bought from this developer on the Zafarana Resort has experienced any problems (or tried to pull out and had trouble getting their reservation fee back) - maybe we should start a new thread and get their comments?

Hello Neil, Thanks for your good advice - I intend to have my contract gone over with a fine toothcombe before I sign anything. Anything else we should specifically look out for?

[samui13]

The escrow agent gets all the interest on the monies (this is the norm apparently)

There will be payment plans, but as I understand it, you will have to pay 10% more for this allocation of property(and only certain blocks are allocated for payment plans)

On the phone call day, if you dont like what you are offered, you tell them, they email you a form and then you give them your bank details of where you want the cash refunded and they refund you.

In the information packs there will be full details of all properties, together with their prices. You will then know which apartments are left before you go ahead.

If you look on eyeonworldwide at the Zafarana project there are a lot of happy customers on there who have followed the whole build and are happy with its progress.

I think at the moment all we are reserving is our name on a list for a certain type of property - never once did I expect Marsa Beach Resort to guarantee me a specific number of apartment before the plans were even issued.

If you are not happy Alx wait until the plans are launched so you can see what is available for sale yourself and then you can decide if you think the information is sound. We just wanted our names on the list to get an earlier allocation.

I have also been advised that the rental agreement is an annex to the Contact and will be referred to in the main contract.

Hope this answers some questions.

Lou