I come from Katerini, a medium sized Greek city, so I think I understand all these Romanian people who come to Bucharest from a smaller home town. I tend to know their psychology and maybe even their approach to life. Maybe this is the reason why I have several friends belonging to this category. Now I have one less. And I am not ashamed to share the reason with you, so as at least maybe to protect someone else… Double or triple size of apartment… He works in a big company, with a salary of 5.000 euro / month. He started from very low and his wife is also coming from a poor family Today, [...]
“Finally, you can really feel the heat!” Selling villas on the slopes of an active volcano
(Sorry, folks, but it is time to train the sales departments of residential projects how to respect their real client, the end user) He was probably around 26 years old, but he was feeling like a Real Estate veteran. Having worked for the last three years in a “big” Real Estate agency, he felt he knew ALL and he could not help showing it. He was feeling soooo important, so intelligent and (most of all) so superior than you, the client. He was a typical seller of residential projects in Bucharest… Residential: A new market was born in few months, but just for investors… I came in Romania [...]
When I fought with… “Diego Armando Maradona” (part 1)
Major problems MUST be solved before we invest on a property I never met an old, low class bureaucratic officer of Ceausescu times. I was not around that time (my first trip abroad without my family was at the age of 14, back in 1989, when I travelled as part of a folklore dancing group to Italy and France). But as I was looking to this gentleman, I was sure that if I would be able to travel back in time, lets say to 1978, I would have found him in front of me, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, in the back of an old desk, holding the title of “very important – vital deputy officer, taking [...]
Gossiping 2
A really successful businessman… Sunday afternoon, in Radu Beller area, Bucharest. The coffee places are half full, thus lots of parking lots are available. A young guy leaves driving his Maybach (I guess he wanted to feel more secure, this is why he bought a 600.000 euro car – hopefully not by leasing…) and now there are three available parking places. Two seconds after, a big Mercedes illegally turns left and now it is in front of the three parking plots. After mature thought (I guess), the driver chooses to reject all three and to park his car exactly where is the line of pedestrians, [...]
All agriculture lands are not “extravillant” and miracles happen once in a lifetime…
Billionaire without realizing how, Taran without understanding why… (Taran = peasant) 480 years b.C., history says that 1.000.000 soldiers from the Persian Empire invaded in Greece. This was one of the biggest armies in the history of mankind, for sure the biggest of the ancient times. If only Greeks would not have beaten Persians in the end, now the World history would have been totally different. Back then, it was the Greek admiral Themistocles, who had the brilliant idea to trick the Persian fleet and guide them to a very narrow gulf. There, in the gulf of Salamina island, the 1.000 [...]
Welcome to the avant premiere of our new film!
“Greece 1999 – Romania 2008: This reminds me of something…” The set and script of the film: 1999, Greece. It was a hot summer, probably one of the hottest in the last 20 years, in terms of temperatures. But it was for sure the hottest summer in the recent history of Greece, in terms of economy. The stock market was in an “upwards wave” since the spring of 1998, but that summer almost every day we had new records coming. The artificial wealth spread in the Greek society was beyond any expectation. Almost 2 million Greek families (out of estimated 3 million) were gambling in stocks, [...]
Easier to get Scarlet Johansson in your bed…
… than selling a land in Butimanu with 30 euro / sq.m. It was 2006. Almost 2 years ago and we were in the middle of a very hot summer. I was in Athens, for my usual monthly visit so as to meet with clients, media people, politicians etc. After a really tiring day and 8 meetings, I had a last one in a so called “bad” area of the city. I was invited to meet there some clients, introduced to me by another investor who was satisfied by my advices. Having in my background almost 15 years in the Greek media, it is normal to have quite a few connections and some very good friends. One of them, working [...]
Pipera: An accident waiting to happen…
As we have entered in the summer, I decided to enter in… “hardcore” discussions this period too. Starting with next week, prepare for my approach about various areas and projects. Unfortunately I will not make many people happy, because in many cases the prices are not justified at all. Ok, I know that there are lots of investors who have placed their money in specific zones and today they search for the exit strategy, but I have decided that I prefer to have some enemies (because I will say difficult truths) than to have only “friends” who are convenient with formalities and theoretical [...]
Q: How did 2012 start for the residential market in Iasi?
Dan Mihoci: The real estate market is headed towards normalcy, without “sentimental” pretentions of the seller or unfounded requests from buyers with an evident need for consultancy, for both buyers and sellers. Despite the bad weather and the economic and political instability, the real estate market is an interesting chapter for everyone.
Q: In 2011, the year started with a high level of interest but few transactions. How did the market evolve ... 
