[pbeale24]

My job is to find housing for foreign students coming to work and travel in the USA. I need a contact person in each area we send students to find accommodations, collect money, and maintain the property.

Your responsibility would be to find housing opportunities. You would find a place that would accomodate 10 people or more (2-3 people in each bedroom so usually 4-5 bedroom houses) and you would receive a portion of the monthly rent. If you meet the demand of about 100 placements per area your income would be about $3000/month ($30 per month per student). In some areas there will be more demand. You would also be responsible for cleaning the property once a week or having it cleaned once a week, basically you can pay yourself to do it or pay someone else.

The key is to be creative and find opportunities that other people don't see. If it was just a question of looking in the classifieds or rental.com I would do it myself. Finding accommodations for 10 people or more takes some smarts but basically the negotiation with the property owner is done by me. If you feel more capable or know the person then I encourage you to do it, I am plenty busy as it is. There is a lot involved but 100 placements is easy, we were doing 3000 before we decided to externalize the process, so the potential to place 200 students isn't far fetched and of course your income would double. Granted we were having trouble meeting the demand so here I am writing this message.

If you think you can find properties, make connections, be creative, and make a lot of cash then let me know that you are interested. I don't have a list right now of where we are sending students so when you contact me I will see if we are sending anyone there, if we aren't, we can, and you have a chance to make even more money by securing contracts for jobs and housing so let me know. There is always a good chance though that we are sending students your way because we send people to most major cities as well as tourist and resort hot spots.


Thank You,

Patrick McCafferty

[rogercbryan]

It bothers me that people like you want to pack foreign students 2-3 per bedroom. My ex-wife came from one of these programs. It was atrocious how her and her roommates were forced to live. Are you also negotiating contracts to pay them four dollars an hour for the work they do cleaning hotels?

[pbeale24]

Rogercbryanb, I only take the time to respond to you because the accusations you make are quite maddening and the other people who read your post might not know that you are an idiot and that what you say is inaccurate.

The students don't work for less than anyone else, often they are paid more because of their reliablity and hardwork. As far as housing, I will put them in the penthouse suite at Trump Tower if they wanted to pay that much, but as they stay where they can afford, they stay where I would stay if I were only able to pay what they do. I have seen students leave the US with $16,000, 16 times what they could make in a year in their country of origin. With that money they pay for homes for family members, they start families, they take care of sick family members, or even blow it on a car or consumer electronics. Either way I am sure it is quite worth 3 months of sharing a room with someone. I am proud of what I do, and these people are happy with the services I/we provide.

Rogercbryan, when you replace the floors in your house with wood where there used to be dirt, buy a mattress instead of sleeping on straw, or move a family member from a state run hospital/dump to a private clinic where the sheets are cleaned more than once every 6 months, and you had to share a bedroom with 1 or 2 other people for 3 months to do it, then you reply to this thread, in the meantime kindly keep your mouth shut. Finally if you want to put your money where your mouth is then sponsor a student, dont you have a spare bedroom? I will forfeit any sort of commission.

Everyone else, I would love to hear your thoughts. Rogercbryan, not so much.

[rogercbryan]

Everyone should take note of the level of professionalism shown by this poster. Anyone capable of using the word ‘idiot’ in defense of their position is not someone you want to do business with. I take great concern with the fact that you say these foreigners were sleeping on dirt floors and on straw beds. You are showing them a great deal of disrespect.

You should also ask for qualifications before negatively responding to a poster. I have helped 6 different immigrants secure citizenship in the US. I have also helped countless people on work visas to get out of situations like the one you are offering. You are not doing anyone a favor piling them into living quarters and in many cases you may be harboring illegal immigrants.

Please all these people deserve better so do not support anyone that makes offers like this.

[pbeale24]

Wow, you truly are an imbecile if that is a more palatable word for you. I have better things to do then get in an internet fight with an imbecile.

One last thing imbecile. I am not disrespecting these people by talking about the reality that is their dirt floor or straw bed. I am in Romania right now and just stood on a wood floor that was dirt a year ago. I am sitting beside a friend, in her apartment in Cluj, who came to the US and made the money to replace that floor. That is where I actually got the example. She didn't have a mattress made of straw though, they were cushions made from lambs wool. She actually did pay for better medical care for her mother once but I didn't have her in mind my last post, that was someone else. She didn't become an illegal immigrant and left the US as agreed so she could come back and finish her PHD in medicine. She lived in a room with 4 other people and she agrees that you are an imbecile. You may have the last word. Does anyone want to talk business?

[pbeale24]

For anyone else, please forgive what seems like a bad attitude. Hopefully you are not put off by me calling an imbecile an imbecile. I don't do it often because I am fortunate enough not to run into too many of them. My intolerance of people like this has served me quite well in business and elsewhere and would serve you well to if you decide to work with me.


All the Best,

Patrick McCafferty

[clp11479]

what areas are you looking to find people in? shoot me a PM with more info.

[pbeale24]

Update: I just got back from a meeting today to further define my responsibilities this year, there are many, double what I expected. I will be responsible for jobs and housing. They should come in a package. My commission is $80-$100 for each package. I will give you 75% of that for each opportunity you secure, plus there is the opportunity to make a commission from the accommodations. I am completely honest about my cut for the job and housing package I am not quoting you a lower price then I would actually receive. I will place hundreds of people myself and receive the full commission but I can't do it all so you will make 3/4 of the commission. If you place 100 students you should make approximately $3000/month in housing commission (as I stated earlier) and an additional $6000-$7500 one time for securing jobs and housing.

I should have a list of locations by the end of the day. I also have been given the ability to add locations if we can establish even a moderate demand. Demand being defined as areas that need employees. Contrary to our friend the Imbecile's opinions, we find emloyees markets, where there is a tremendous demand for workers, so our students get paid generously. That is really the only qualification to become an area of interest. I will PM you the list if you are interested, proposals for locations are welcome with reasons as to why they would be worth the effort. Chris, your PM is on the way.

I just want to further reiterate this is a great opportunity and your conscience will be clear I assure you. We help people, we don't exploit people, and everyone makes money doing it. Minimum wage here in Romania, as an example, is about $1.25/hour, actually it is 140 euro/month which I translated into $1.25/hour based on a 40 hour work week, and the minimum wage goes down as you go east. We have students that work as dishwashers that make $12/hour in the USA, 1000% of what they would make at home, so this is a great opportunity for them. I would love to put these people up in the Hilton if I could, but they just don't have the resources. I have had 12 students live at my house for $150/month which just about paid for their 24 showers a day and the food they accidentally ate because with a fridge with food for 12 people you don't know what belongs to who. It wasn't a sweatshop, it was the best summer of my life, the company was fantastic and the comradery was immeasurable.

Think of it this way, America's minimum wage is $6.15/hour (I think), would you share a room with 1 or 2 other people if you had the opportunity to make $61/hour and get to work as little or as many hours as you wanted, and at the end of the three months you were there in one of the most beatiful places in the world you could travel around and see as much of it as your budget will allow before you return home? That is the dream that these people have. Some do it just for the money, some do it as a chance to see America, the vast majority do it for both.

The first student who I ever met who came through or program has since performed heart surgery. I would not be so arrogant as to think that wouldn't have happened without the program but I know for a fact it played a huge roll. She is a dear friend to this day and my wife and I are going to meet her for dinner at 8. Which brings me to the most valuable benefit of all, dear friends from all over the world. the 12 people that lived with me I communicate with frequently and I don't go home to the states without visiting each one of them, actually one goes home with me as she is my wife and she takes great care of our beautiful 9 month old son. Of course I don't credit the program with this I credit God, but again, the program played a roll.

I make a good living, my superiors make an ever better one and you would make just above average money at first, but there is always more opportunity and it is what you make it. Some people are bad at it, some people are born for it, it is really fun either way so show me some interest and I will get you paid.

[rogercbryan]

lol.. You don't even know what minimum wage is... you're off to a very professional start!

[paul2145r]

Once again, I had a 1500+ character response, and POOF!, it disappears, lol.

I wasn't going to get involved in another "Debate" tonight, but I figured I'd add my own 2 cents to the topic.

Profiteering off of foreign travelers is a practice that has been around for centuries. It can be said that this is one of the original forms of commercialism. Communities that would ordinarily barter and trade amongst each other would often require foreign travelers to trade in some sort of legal tender or commodity, at an inflated rate. Even in today's economies, tariffs, taxes, and fees are often placed on any goods or services originating overseas.

When it comes to temporary, seasonal, and student workers, there are a very limited amount of options available when it comes to housing. If you know someone in your host city, then you're in luck. Otherwise, you have three foreseeable options:

1. Rent a Property- This is the most difficult (and very expensive) of the three options. While it may be nice to have your own flat or rental home, it is unrealistically out-of-reach for most individuals coming to the US to work. Most landlords and property managers require a minimum of 2x the first month's rent as a deposit to anyone without a US citizenship. Rent runs $600+/month, plus utilities.

2. Hotel- In some cases, foreign workers luck out and find hotels that offer monthly rates (usually around $500/month). These places are generally found in larger cities and in tourist communities, but are usually overrun with rough neighbors and infested with bugs. Others have to pay for a hotel room. As we all know, hotel rooms run anywhere from $50/night, and up. That is what most students generally start earning, per day. In order to have money for food, clothing, and bus/trolley fare, they are forced to find roommates to help foot the bill. This eases the burden some, but still places 2-5 people in a cramped hotel room with little to know privacy, and an angry hotel manager.

3. Sponsored Housing (our current example)- Students and Temp/Seasonal workers find homes and apartments that are leased by US citizens, and are sublet for small fees. These places are generally advertised in online forums, newspapers, and local trade magazines. The biggest downfall to this situation is that it can vary (greatly).

One of my past employees described to me a company that sponsored temporary workers in South Carolina. These workers were forced to live in and pay rent for cheap, rundown trailers. There were as many as 16 people per trailer (3 bedrooms plus a living room with a sheet used as a divider).

The situation as described by pbeale doesn't seem all that bad now, does it, lol?

The biggest problem that I have with his proposition is that it is rather unfair. 'Partners' and affiliates (whatever you choose to call them) get a very small cut for all of the work that they will be doing. Housing and job recruiters don't have much of a job to do. The primary reason that they are around is because of their connections and networking skills. If you offer a bigger piece of the pie, I think that others would be willing to join you in this venture.