“If you don’t trust me,just change your lawyer”!
Disappointing a collaborator and “bamboo girls”
The price for this commercial space was “less than 500.000 euro”. Then (when we appeared with the client) the Real Estate agent representing the owner considered that it was the time he expected so as to purchase a new Bentley, thus he increased the price to “1.000.000 euro negotiable” (he was so stupid, that he was discussing this with almost everyone he knew…). I can imagine him, dreaming… “as the stupid Greeks came with the cash, I will blackmail them, get extra money from both sides, buy this Bentley I’ve been dreaming of and then I will go to Bamboo and other clubs and will have any girl I want from there“.
Too bad… for him and all the nice, serious, lovely and innocent ladies who search for men with money to absorb (especially in this difficult period, as some of my friends tell me). I made myself clear enough: “Either we talk for real prices and you take us to the owner, or stay with the property and we go with the client to buy something else”. He refused my offer, but after 2 days he called back, as probably the owner stressed him and forced him to bring us to the table of negotiations.
“Why do you want all these documents? Don’t you trust me?”
The deal was not difficult to seal. Both sides wanted to agree, so when two parties are reasonable, the result is usually successful (we didn’t know the rest of the story then…) We celebrated the outcome of this meeting together with the client, by having a nice dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. The next day we went to our (very good and careful) lawyers and asked to start the procedures of legal due diligence. Happy faces, smiles, warm atmosphere. What do they do in this case? Their first step is to identify the legal documents they have at their disposal and create a list with what is missing. And in this case there were plenty of missing documents…
The lawyer sent to us the list and we handed it over to the owner and the collaborating agent (who was upset on me personally, “the bastard who forced me to remain just with my normal commission, as he says that he did too“). The next day the owner asked for a meeting: “Are you crazy? Why do you want all these papers?” “Because this is what the lawyer asked us for” “Why? Don’t you trust me?” “It is not about trust, it is about business here. So, please prepare all the documents, so as to proceed to the contract next week”. He left without to give me a positive reply…
“If you don’t trust me, then just change your lawyer“!
The days were passing by… The owner didn’t provide to us any other documents. Finally I called him and stressed out: “Mister, will you give us what we want? What is your problem?” “I will not give you, why does your lawyer want them?” “He needs them, so as to finish his due diligence, his reports”. “If you don’t trust me, then just change your lawyer”! Find a better one, who doesn’t want so many papers, who doesn’t ask so much”. “But is it normal to invest in something without all the documents to be in order?” “This is it. Do you buy how it is, or not? Ask your client and tell me” “I don’t need to ask him. We don’t buy. All the best. Pa” (pa = bye). My client confirmed my decision and we moved on to the next case.
Needless to mention that the collaborating real estate broker started saying that we are not serious and many more bad things about me. It was also predictable that the owner cursed me in all possible ways. Last but not least, the price has been risen again to “800.000 – 900.000 euro negotiable”. They will continue searching for a victim…
Now that the market has plenty of opportunities to offer you, make sure that you will be extremely careful in what you buy. You were supposed to be in the past too, but now even more… A good, honest Real Estate consultant together with the right lawyer, architect and notary create a “must have” team of people for all times, but especially now. Work with them and… sleep peacefully during the nights!