While the big cities are ready to empty due to Monday’s national strike (which is transformed to “3 days vacation” by many people), I remain in Bucharest, thinking about two stories. They happened this week and really fascinated me (although did not surprise me, everything is possible in the Balkans…) Two thieves in Arad were arrested, because after the robbery they went to a disco and started dedicating songs to each other. What kind of dedications? “To the biggest bank robber” was one of them (!) Just because they stole from a bank 15.000 Ron (not even 4.000 Euro) they felt [...]

Low Cost proposals to help Romanian economy exit the crisis: Romanian economy has faced better times than nowadays. While the following period will be difficult for everyone (and especially the weakest ones of us), it is more than necessary to restart the “economic engine” that can move the country. Having this in mind, it is time to choose and implement some simple, low cost proposals in order to see things improving in the following months and the near future. 1. Give added value to the old buildings Today’s facts – The “miracle” of Romanian economy during 2004 – 2008 was driven by the [...]

In April 22nd, I had presented to you my opinion about how to get the most profit out of 50.000 Euro. You can find that post here Just 5 weeks later, you can check what I had proposed to you and knowing what happened, you can extract your own opinion. But many of you had asked me to present to you options for higher sums of money. This is why today we will talk about a sum of 100.000 Euro. Deposits: The corner stone of every investment No matter what you want to do with the rest of your money, a minimum of 20 – 30% should be kept at a bank deposit. For 100.000 Euro this means about 20.000 – 30.000. Why? – [...]

Investment in a new house (some call it a villa too) is more difficult than an apartment inside the city. It requires more personal involvement and the resolution of many problems which at first glance appear as “easy”. After the “first wave” of investors in this segment (2000 – 2004) and the second one (2005 – 2008), during 2010 the market clearly heads to a new direction. People are more careful and “opportunities” are analyzed thoroughly by everyone. Many times investors have the chance to buy a land close to a forest, a lake or on a hill. The temptation is big, as we have all heard stories [...]

In the beginning of February, I had described at a press conference what I expected to happen throughout this year. I had spoken about the last phase of crisis, which will bring us the biggest problems. If you remember, it was the same period when the vast majority of people were expecting the prices to rise and things to improve. During that press conference, I had analyzed to the journalists that unfortunately many developers will face insolvency, with the spill over effect influencing their banks too. This week was full of bad news. – The last Real Estate exhibition can not be described [...]