“Being the Difference”
“Being the difference you want to see” is a phrase that has come up quite often recently. The more I think about this phrase, the more I love it. The art of consulting is a lot like that phrase in the sense of having to contact, contract, or endlessly search for someone to resolve or at least make a difference in the same problem. We understand the ability to find a difference and use it to make our own progress in one way or another.
I was working the other day on another Bahamas property (Records Request) in which the client contracted (yes, paid multiple hundreds) a law firm to obtain a “Tax Certificate” – this certificate is one of very few documents that showcase the Bahamian government's ability to function (you try calling or dealing with the Bahamian Government) in the hope it reflected an accurate assessment of the current property value. As a fellow member of the not-so-rare “I inherited my grandfather's failed Bahamas subdivision property” club, I was astonished to learn that the certificate, provided annually and easily downloadable to those who pay their property taxes through the incredibly easy and wonderful payment portal (as stated earlier, one of very few things that showcase function and ability – of course, it’s the payment processing!), was the certificate in question that cost so much. If you still don’t understand, this client was paying a couple of hundred dollars for a copy of their tax receipt – aka what any public member could do in the states via the local property appraiser website.
They were quite thrilled with our immediate turnaround and live demonstration via our free consultation meeting, but this is just an example of what I call or label as “opportunities.” The multitude of services are not available to those without a Bahamian VAT (Tax) ID, meaning any foreign or overseas property owner has extremely limited resources without boots on the ground. GIS is not yet available to the public, and the government has just begun Power of Sale auctions for overdue properties, so they are making extreme technological progress as I have been monitoring for the past three decades, but many opportunities remain.
Bottom line is, be careful and do your due diligence – almost anything is at our fingertips today, so use what you can & when in doubt contact Colture Consulting!
