“If you could pay all these for me, I would also love you”

Part 3 of the post:

“100 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and “3.000.000 Euro” = 102.000 Euro lost…”

(to read part 1 please press here)
(to read part 2 please press here)

“If you could pay all these for me, I would also love you”
My “teacher” was clear: “He is not a professional, he doesn’t know”. The “old guy” and the “Greek smecher” confirmed: “Yes, he was a weak, pathetic crook. He didn’t have answers to all the justified questions we asked him”. I didn’t participate in the discussion. I tried to leave but I was asked to stay. A new lecture was on the way…

“You know, women do love me. They really do. I was married to the most beautiful woman of my city. Once there was a conference and in the end the speaker said “unfortunately we could not focus on our discussion, due to the presence of Mr … ‘s wife. But I am also tough with them, if they do something, bye bye”.

“Now I am with a Romanian girl, who really loves me. I came to her home and saw it. What is this? My bathroom is bigger. I took her to Greece. I let her drive my Audi. We stayed at my 1.000 sq.m. villa. We went to “Escada” and I bought her clothes worth 10.000 Euro. Then to a famous jeweler, friend of mine ofcourse, from whom I bought her some jewels, not much, just 4.500 Euro. We also went to all expensive restaurants of the city, eating the most expensive fish. At the airport, I also gave her 20.000 Euro to buy her new apartment. And she loves me, she really does”. (I couldn’t stop myself and I opened my mouth…) “Nice. But if you could pay all these for me, I would also love you”…

(Thank God he understood I was joking, even if this made him a bit upset).

Nothing good enough for him…
Time was passing by and I realized that the gentleman didn’t really want to invest in anything.

• He asked me to find him opportunities, I found him but after delaying 2-3 months without a reply, he accused me because the properties were sold (by me or someone else).
  I found him excellent lands for development in the semicentral areas of the city (as he asked), but he complained that they were not central.
  He didn’t like the central lands either, because “they are too central, they don’t provide you the peace of the suburbs”.
  He asked for technical due diligence and we ended up discussing with each and every architect or engineer if he would like to co-invest together with my “teacher”.
  2 super opportunities were lost because he assigned the “Greek smecher” to negotiate with the owners. He asked me to talk to them without my presence. Then the price got higher, “by coincidence”…

I was not as busy as nowadays, but I was still feeling that my time was consumed for nothing. Yes, client is the king, I am the first who always says this. But was he a real client?

“I will teach you how the real professional earns money from a project”
Apparently there was one property which looked to be ideal and soon he ran out of excuses. He had even found a co-investor from his city, everything was perfect for him to make the first step in this country. But then there was a problem with my money…

“Are you crazy? Do you want to be paid 3%?” “But this is the normal commission, I receive nothing from the other side, plus I succeeded in all the tasks you assigned me regarding this”. “Still, in Greece the brokers receive 1% by me or 0,5%. Some don’t even want to be paid, as I introduce them to several other clients”. “I fully appreciate all these, we can discuss about them, we can also negotiate the fees, but I am a professional and I should be paid for my work”. “Look, because you are a small boy, I will teach you how the real professional earns money from a project”.

“You should charge me nothing, because you will be entitled to help me to start building. You will learn so much during this procedure”. “But I know”. “I strongly doubt. For example, my architect, introduced by the “old guy”. I chose one nice serious guy, who didn’t charge me in order to check the property and finish the due diligence. He will earn something by handling my file to the authorities and also he will have more projects for me. Maybe I will also give you the right to sell the apartments and to receive commission from the buyers, then you can charge them even 100%, I don’t care”.

Not intelligent enough to process this information…
Unfortunately I was not intelligent enough to process this information. I thanked the gentleman and informed him: “If this is the way you wish to do business with me, then include me out of your deals”. The mistake was mine, not his.

The excellent investment…
As he didn’t even pay the accountants and he was causing several minor problems with small bills, I had to follow the activity of my “teacher” for some more months. Finally, in 2007 he probably got inspired by a lady living in the worst part of Bucharest, this is why he decided to buy a property there, worth 100.000 Euro. His architect didn’t check anything, because the “Greek smecher” had arranged all. (Actually, why should he check? He would not be paid anyway).

He bought about 350 sq.m. in an area where the price was 400 Euro / sq.m. He was proud of having bought with 300 Euro / sq.m. and he did not care to find out that 70% of the property was cut by a new street, approved by the municipality. What remained could not be built. It was just a question by an architect…

“Greek smecher” confessing…

I met my “teacher” again after several years, at Thessaloniki airport. He was expecting someone and just told me that Romania is dangerous for serious investors. The “old guy” appeared in front of me many times and I was sad to discover that he lost his fortune, due to his vices. I came across the “Greek smecher” again after 2 years, we happened to eat in the same restaurant and he addressed to me by himself: “That stupid, that …, he made me spend so much time and in the end he didn’t buy anything at all. I lost 1.000 hours of my life and he just paid me 2.000 Euro for that stupid land he bought for 100.000 Euro. I am so happy that he lost his money there”.

Conclusions:

• If you come to Romania for tourism, please don’t spend the time of the people around you, let them know.
  Of course you should be treated by the maximum respect of everyone, this is not negotiable. Especially if you are a real investor.
  If you wish to do business without paying something, don’t be upset if things will not prove to be how you expect them to.
  If some “clever intermediars who promise you women too” are your chosen collaborators, then be ready for the worst and don’t blame Romania for this, it was your own choice.

English people say it better than anyone else: “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.