For some time now I have been wrestling with my self over purchasing a Lap Top Computer or not. My dilemma is that I am a Portland Oregon Real Estate Broker who loves technology. Unchecked I will buy anything that sounds like a good deal and convince myself that it was a fabulous purchase.

I do this with many things like Cars for an example. I get tired of owning and driving the same car so the next thing you know I Have convinced myself that I need one and Boom I am driving home in a different automobile than when I left that morning.

So Back to my Lap Top Dilemma. This morning I took the Volvo into the shop this morning for an Oil Change. Chris the Owner of the Shop took me out into the shop and showed me that I needed to replace a Hydraulic line to the Turbo. Not all that expensive but would keep me tied up for an additional one or one and a half hours.

Well what are you going to do. So I sat in the waiting room and read every magazine there while I waited. As I was skimming through the articles I read an advertisement about Toshiba_Lap_Top_Computers  . As I was reading about all of the wonderful time saving and innovative ideas my mind started to wander.

I started to think about the different Blogs that I could be writing. I also started to think about the last dozen or so real estate appointments that I had been on. I wondered to myself how much a Lap Top could have helped me. No doubt owning a Lap Top could make me much more productive. Or was I just trying to sell myself on the idea?

Later in the afternoon I stopped by Office_Depot  to pick up on some photo paper. After picking up the photo paper I wandered back by the Lap Tops where I seen a bulletin board with several items posted for sale. Rob the store manager came by and asked if he could help. So whats the Deal I asked. Rob explained that the computers posted here were the display models that had been changed with all the new machines that now were sporting Microsofts new operating system Vista.

I thought that all of the machines had Vista I said. No we have a few of the upper end models that still have XP and we have them slashed to get rid of them. Ron started to read off the features of the Lap_Top  similar to the one featured here. It has a 17 Inch Screen and 2 megs of Ram. It was a very compelling sales pitch and I was a good target showing all of the Buying signs.

The timing seemed right when Ron asked so Deal OR NO Deal ?

I backed off saying that I needed to check with the Wife before making that kind of a purchase. ( WIMP ) I quickly departed the store and decided that as long as I was at the mall I would check out Staples  just to see if they had a better buy. Tom just laughed. Are you kidding me we sold out of those in minutes he said. In fact some people are buying the new machines today and wiping out Vista and doing a fresh install from their old XP discs. 

Moving on I made my way over to Circuit_City  for virtually the same story. The young man Tim there went on to say that if he could get a machine for $1,000 ( was listed at $1400 ) as I just described he could make some easy money. Tim asked why I was talking to him. If I didn't want the Lap Top to let him know where at.

Twenty minutes later I was at the Cash register at Office Depot with my new Lap Top.

So am I just a Tool or do you think that I got a good DEAL OR NO DEAL?

Herb Hamilton is a Real Estate Broker with RE/MAX Preferred Inc. Realtors working in Portland Oregon

                               " A Real Estate Experience with Herb is one YOU will Profit from "

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