When I fought with… “Diego Armando Maradona” (part 2)

Major problems MUST be solved before we invest on a property

http://http://www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro/english/?p=158

“More possible for Nicoleta Luciu to love me next week”
Perhaps I was a malakas, a big one. My client’s order was to finalize the transaction without to mention at all the part of the sports base problem. “Our lawyers will take care of it, this is not your business” he told me several times. “In the end of the day, you will be paid your commission, A LOT of money, why do you care? It is OUR problem, not yours”. “If your lawyers will be wrong, you will not blame them for their mistake, you will accuse ME for selling to you a property with problems”. “Everything will be ok, young man, try to learn how to do business and don’t be so sentimental”.
Too bad. Although many times I was accused of having a heart of stone, this time it must had been softer than a lettuce. I must have asked more than twenty experts, of all kinds. No one could guarantee that the result would be positive, that a sports base property could become a land with authorisation to host a major Real Estate project worth over a hundred million euro. As I always do when I am selling a land inside a city, I had paid for legal and technical due diligence, so as to provide the client with.
One of the experts I paid told me “Why your client doesn’t go to a serious big firm of lawyers? Because they told him they have big connections? So what? Because he pays them a very small amount of money? I don’t know how he expects to change the urbanistic destination of the property, but it is very difficult. It is more possible for Nicoleta Luciu to love me next week, than this property to change status. On the other hand, you never know…”
In the same time, several unexpected expenses had made my life a nightmare. With zero loans and all profits invested in properties, I was stuck without cash. I really needed that contract…

“If you know anything about Romania, I am Diego Armando Maradona”
My client simply asked me to step aside (= he tried to bypass me but as he didn’t manage to achieve this, he came back and asked me not to interfere anymore). I continued talking to his lawyers, collecting and showing them papers. I guess it was not convenient for them to delay, because they were more focused in saying to the client all the time that “let’s buy now and we will find a solution to build after”. In the end they told me “he wants to buy it, why don’t you let him?” (I had even missed the “typical” lawyer’s style, who manages to find problems even where they don’t exist…).
The owner (or someone who said he was the owner) was very upset when he called me over the phone and gave me a lesson of manners: “This is the first and the last time I talk with you, you piece of s…t. (there were more “nice” words like this, but it does not make any difference if I write them all) If you don’t stop interfering, you may have big problems in your life”. “Why don’t you simply change the status of the land yourself and all of us will be happy? You will get so many millions?”. “You are a peasant; you don’t know anything about Romania. If you know anything, I am Diego Armando Maradona. But, to finish, how much do you want so as to forget this bloody status?” I hugged up the phone, knowing that the problem would not be solved.
The owner did not have patience, plus (like many others) did not have problem to take back his word. Very soon some very serious investors appeared and bought the property, paying +10% than our agreement. They finished all the controls in few days, less than one week. They bought the property without asking the “sports base” status to change. My client did not bother talking to me. I was informed never to contact him again, he refused to cover the expenses I did for him (despite our agreement) and later on I found out that he was talking with the worst possible words about me.
Needless to mention that the collaborating agent called in our office and asked my assistant to transmit to me very beautiful words, while my agent resigned immediately, accusing me as someone who knows nothing about business. The only ones which didn’t leave were the expenses we had to cover…

Nicoleta didn’t love him…
In 2007 I happened to meet some of the people of the company which had bought the land. I was very surprised to find out that I had in front of me (in a conference) some arrogant young ladies and one gentleman, without any knowledge about business, but with salaries over 5.000 euro / month for each of them. These “golden girls and boys” who appeared the last years in Romania, asking huge amounts of money without any proofs that they can really do the job, can be found in many companies. The specific ones wanted to give me a lecture (which I managed to listen for around 15 minutes). In the end of the year I found out that most of them were fired from the company, for reasons that can be called only “jokes”.
Nicoleta Luciu did not love my expert (unfortunately for him). The famous Romanian model and actress is with a handsome Hungarian millionaire, expecting these days their baby (if I don’t know correctly the story, please forgive me, I am not the best in this “news”). But as Nicoleta did not open her heart to my expert, wasn’t this a bad sign for the property too? The company which has bought the land was many times in the media, presenting its plans for the plot. But…

“Whatever starts nice, ends up with pain, only the broken hearts know it”
In 2008 this company was expecting the authorisations so as to start developing the project its people had announced many times. Unfortunately for them, all papers were rejected, because they received the following reply: “THE LAND IS A SPORTS BASE, YOU CAN NOT BUILD ON IT”. I am sure that the previous owner laughed like crazy, when he heard the news. Why to care? He took so much money while he had avoided changing the status of the land. If that decadent “representative” was also paid something, I am positive that he laughed as well.
The company’s executives, previously arrogant and sure for the glory of success which was expecting them, probably entered into big trouble. A land which was paid with so many million euros, appears today to be suitable for playing football, tennis and basketball. The “most aggressive” exploitation that is allowed at the moment would be to grow vegetables on the land. As it has an excellent location inside the city, it will help the transportation costs to be low. Definitely the lawyers, the architects and the consultants of the company have declared that it is not their responsibility. We can all guess the… “happiness” of the bank too, having financed a “project” with Real Estate destination, but with possibility for the moment just for…. Sports or agriculture!
I heard about the news over the phone, while driving. I don’t know why, but after I finished the call, a very old Greek song came to my mind: “What starts nice, ends up with pain, only the broken hearts know it. It is bad to build palaces on the sand; the northern wind will turn them into pieces”.

“Yes, I know, in the end you were right. I will buy you a dinner”
After two years of silence, I called again my “client”, to announce to him the result. “Yes, I know, in the end you were right. When I will come back to Bucharest next month, I will buy you a dinner” was his reply (do I look THAT fat and he thought that a dinner was the reason I called him?). But not even his words could not destroy my pride that moment. I chose to lose a lot of money so as to protect him and I do not regret it now. If he would have bought the property, trust me, he would not say that he did a mistake, he or his lawyers. He would say for sure that I was the one to blame, that I tried to trick him and I earned money while I destroyed him. Keeping our company’s name out of this kind of problems and protecting the clients (even when they are blind themselves) is always my principle and it will never change.
But please take a lesson out of this case. When you want to purchase a property with any kind of “problem”, don’t believe easily what people tell you, especially when we don’t talk just for a normal authorisation, or increase of the urbanistic parameters. For example, about a major legal issue in the titles, or a problem like a land characterized in the City’s General Urbanistic Plan (PUG) as a green zone, ask all things to be solved and arranged 101%, before making the final payment. It is very rare that you can do it better, faster and with less cost than the initial owner of the property.