“I am strong, look at my muscles, I should be paid double than the old man”

Part 3 

• to read part 1, click here
• to read part 2, click here

A villa in Pantelimon for an ugly two rooms apartment in the center

I decided to send another colleague of mine, as the first one was informed the next day "not to appear again without 55.000 Euro per apartment". This second guy was advised to ask for documents and papers, in order to evaluate what was for sale. He managed to find out that the old man had bought one of the apartments and the rest 6 were rented by ICRAL, with the owners owing money even for the rent of 20 – 30 Euro / month.

He tried to negotiate with them offering properties instead. People started asking apartments of 3 or 4 rooms. Then some of them asked for villas. Then three of them asked for a villa in Pantelimon in order to sell their right. Until 2 more clever guys asked for a villa in Cotroceni or Dorobanti. (The mistake was clearly mine: Both these colleagues of mine disagreed with the project and I didn't know. Their approach was: "If you are an investor, you should pay as much as they ask you. If not you are "cheap", trying to steal properties. Mine was exactly the opposite, so our lives split quite soon. I never claimed that all my choices were 100% correct…)

"70.000 Euro, I am the only real owner here"
My female colleague tried to sort out the mess. I had decided to stay away from their sight, because a foreigner would make them ask for even more. She went and met the old man, owner of his apartment. He was very polite to her: "Miss, look, I am the only owner here. If all these gypsies want villas just for their rights, I want at least 70.000 Euro and I am sure you will agree it is a fair price". We were back to money again… And all the others knew it too.

"I am strong, look at my muscles, I should be paid double than the old man"
She tried to talk with the four families. "I am not sure… should it be money or an apartment… You know… I have been thinking… wouldn't be nice to have an apartment for my family plus one more to rent it and live without working? I think it would be, don't you agree with me? I had a tough life so far… why not to relax now?"

She almost ran away and decided to have a final attempt with one of the single guys. He was about 1.75 tall, wearing old jeans and a white tight t-shirt. He was very polite and started flirting her too. But when she tried to negotiate with him, he got very upset. He stood up, took off his t-shirt and presented to her his well trained muscles. He was a body builder. "Look, woman. I am 28 years old. Do you see my body?" (he punched his belly in order to emphasize) "Do you see these muscles?" (he continued punching himself…) "I am full of life, ready to squeeze a stone. What are you talking about? If the old man wants 70.000 Euro, I should get at least double. I have a whole life to live and to enjoy this money" (he was screaming now…) "What will this half dead bastard do with his part? Buy a better coffin for his funeral?" (he was beating his chest now). She thanked him, opened the door and almost… flied to the car, where another colleague was waiting her (ready to protect her if necessary… I had taken protection measures)

Failure…
The project had failed. We had tried our luck in a straight forward way, without blackmails, threats etc. Result? We had been smashed… They had asked almost one million (over 3.000 Euro per sq.m. of land) for seven apartments and a land which was less than half than the one we had bought for 840 Euro / sq.m….

Where are our "heroes" today?
In 2008 my client asked my opinion: "I have an offer for 1.250 Euro / sq.m. and I was thinking to ask for 2.500. What do you think?" "I think that you should take 1.400 Euro / sq.m. and sell immediately. As I told you, I expect a Real Estate crisis to hit Romania starting with autumn". Although he didn't believe me 100%, he agreed and sold at this price, gaining a decent profit of about 50%. (Ofcourse all Romanians whom he knew made fun for him for selling "so cheap", but now the price is much cheaper…) During 2010 he started investing again.

• The owners of the rights of the apartments appeared again after eight months, asking "only" 50.000 Euro each. Then two of them called one of my colleagues in 2009, offering him their right for 25.000 Euro. He said he was not interested, so they counter offered 15.000. No luck for them…
• I got wiser, having learned to avoid situations like this. I am not able to be bad enough in order to force people to be logical…