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Welcome to another episode of 
Golden Nuggets Tips & Tales 

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powered by Property Finder. 
This is where we uncover the 

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untold stories behind the 
region's top real estate 

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professionals. 
And because there's a great 

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story behind every lead and 
listing, we're shining a 

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spotlight and going behind the 
scenes with Property Finder 

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Super Agents, whose journeys are
packed with hard earned lessons,

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bold moves and powerful 
takeaways you won't forget. 

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Joining me on Golden Nuggets, 
Tips and Tales is Lorenzo and we

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couldn't let you go without 
telling us a tale. 

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Lorenzo, a SuperAgent from 
Strada. 

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Let's hear the tale the deal 
that you nearly lost and how you

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saved it. 
I'd be lying if I said there 

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wasn't a few that we nearly 
lost. 

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I'm sure most brokers have gone 
through the same thing with 

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that. 
What's the one that sticks out 

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in your? 
The one for me was relatively 

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recently actually, it was at the
back end of last year where it 

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was a client I've worked with 
for a long time now, three or 

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four years now. 
It's actually first met him 

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through a rental, stayed in 
touch, got him really well and 

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then we've helped with a few 
investment options since. so 

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important. 
I love this message that you're,

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know, because people do take 
leasing for granted or they see 

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it as a stepping stone, but it 
is fundamental. 

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The people that you meet, in 
leasing, whether it's landlords,

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whether it's tenants, will 
eventually turn into buyers, 

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landlords themselves, and 
sellers. 

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So you'll find as well, lot of 
tenants, especially over here, 

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will already be buyers. 
It's not just that in the UK, I 

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think we're quite fixated on 
getting on the property ladder 

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and get away from renting. 
But here, a lot of people, it 

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makes more sense, the 
opportunity costs to rent their 

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own place. be fairly flexible 
with that, but then they've also

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got investments too. 
So yeah, that's quite normal 

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here to be a renter and also a 
landlord. 

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Definitely. 
So don't turn your nose up at 

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tenants because you never know. 
Okay. 

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So tell us the story then. 
Yeah. 

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Got a bit side-tracked though, 
didn't we? 

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It was my fault. 
That's all good. 

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Take us back to the tenant that 
turned into a buyer. 

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Yes. 
So we bought a lot together um 

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over the past few years now and 
We actually signed on it. would 

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have been at the end of 
November. 

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It was a cash to cash deal. 
Should have been easy. 

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Should have been easy. 
I it got signed on the 24th of 

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November. 
So generally speaking, what will

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happen, the contracts will be 30
days, just in case there's any 

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issues at all. 
We didn't really think that 

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through too much. 
And it's probably a bit of a 

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learning curve from my side as 
well to make sure that you don't

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leave contract end dates. our 
uncertain dates. 

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Christmas Eve. 
Yeah, this was the 24th of the 

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12th. 
So didn't really think it 

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through because we thought it 
would have transferred within 

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the space of a week. long story 
short, there was a block on the 

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property. 
So we weren't able to transfer 

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on it, which meant that I was 
meant to be traveling back for 

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Christmas. 
So was the buyer. had to 

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postpone it to try and get it 
sorted because there was a risk 

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that if we weren't to go ahead 
and we were to default, we'd be 

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liable for 10%, which was a 
substantial amount of money. 

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So I think to begin with, it was
just explaining to him what had 

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actually happened. 
And I was quite lucky that it's 

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not a client that I just met as 
a one-off. 

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We're almost more friends now 
than just. 

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So it's easier to deliver bad 
news. 

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Yeah, exactly. 
So just called him and look, 

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this is what's happened. 
I'm meant to be traveling back 

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on the 17th or 18th, but what 
I've done is I've changed my 

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flights. 
So I'll be here to get it sorted

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as well, but this is what's 
gonna happen. 

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You don't need to be here. 
I can sort it for you, but if 

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you want to, think because of 
the amount of money that it was,

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he wanted to be here to get it 
sorted too. 

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And so that was the 24th of 
November, you agreed the sale. 

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At what point did you find out 
there was a block? 

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There was a block. 
So it would have been about a 

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week afterwards when we went to 
transfer, because the process on

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how it works is you get the NOC,
the non-objection certificate 

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from the developer. who will 
then say everything's been paid 

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service charges, there's no 
blocks, and then we can go ahead

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to transfer. 
We weren't able to get it at 

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that stage. 
The developer were delaying it 

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and we found out that it was 
because there was a block. 

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Right, so you didn't hear it 
from them? 

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No, exactly, it was from the 
developer. 

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But the issue with it is, 
technically speaking, there 

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could have been an extension, 
but because it was quite a 

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substantial amount of money, 
there wasn't, we didn't want to 

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risk it at all. 
No room for errors. 

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Especially during that period, 
because if we were away from 

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Christmas to New Year's, you've 
got a week or so of just sort of

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being in limbo where you didn't 
want to leave him leveraged in 

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that position. 
So it actually worked out quite 

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well in the end, but before 
that, where it wasn't so great 

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and was quite a memorable sort 
of moment for me in real estate 

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was I was meant to be traveling 
back on Christmas Eve. 

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We thought we'd managed to get 
it sorted. 

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Christmas Eve going into 
midnight, going into Christmas 

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day. 
That was your 30 days, wasn't 

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it? 
Exactly, that was expiry. 

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I was in Deira outside the 
conveyance's office, trying to 

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get the check back, trying to 
get it all sorted, thinking, 

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this is Christmas now, how am I 
here? 

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Rather than back home with my 
family or my brother was over 

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here thinking, how am not having
a drink with him? 

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But we managed to get that 
sorted and luckily this would 

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have been about 1 a.m. by this 
point when we got it back. had a

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look on Emirates and there was a
flight at 3 a.m. 

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So I went back to my home. 
Luckily I lived in downtown, so 

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it's not far from the airport. 
I went back to mine, got to the 

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airport and within about half an
hour I was waiting in the 

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lounge. 
There you go. 

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So it wasn't the Grinch that 
stole Christmas in No, it worked

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out well when I was back for 
seven. 

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With the way that the flights 
are here, the 3 a.m. flight I 

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think got me back at about 
seven. 

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So I was actually... home for 
Christmas morning, got it all 

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sorted. 
But I was still there on having 

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my Christmas dinner. 
And for my family back home, 

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they understand what we do, but 
not to the same sort of extent 

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where they're not used to the 
Dubai work culture, where during

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Christmas dinner, I was actually
having to sort the contracts 

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out, an extension sent through 
and everything else, which they 

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couldn't believe that we'd be 
doing that on Christmas day. 

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But I think what the benefit out
of it is, there's no way of 

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getting away from uh mistakes 
happening in the industry 

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because there is gonna be human 
error and there's components 

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that you can't actually plan 
for. 

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But the benefit of what I found 
out of it is my relationship 

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with the buyer then got a lot 
stronger because he saw that if 

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something went wrong and he 
actually said to me, if you 

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hadn't have told me, I wouldn't 
have worked with you again, but 

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I understand mistakes happen. 
If you're there to try and 

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correct it and. working in my 
best interest and I've got no 

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problem with that. 
And you made a sacrifice, 

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personal sacrifice of delaying 
your trip to solve the problem. 

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Exactly, but in the schemes of 
things, mean, it's with the way 

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that the industry is here and 
how cutthroat it can be, you've 

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got to do that to then be able 
to build the long-term 

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relationships. 
That is the definition of going 

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the extra mile, isn't it? 
Yeah, definitely. 

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I mean, I didn't expect myself 
to be in Deira at midnight on 

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Christmas, but... 
Yeah, it's all part of it. 

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Laugh at it now, but just make 
sure that you don't make the 

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same mistake twice. 
So I guess the only thing you 

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could have done differently was 
just give yourself a little bit 

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more leeway on the, even though 
it was cash to cash. 

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Exactly. 
Just making sure that what I 

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would have done differently is 
now it sounds so simple because 

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looking at it now you're going 
hindsight, well, surely you 

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would have known, but a cash to 
cash transfer usually takes a 

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week, maybe two weeks. 
It doesn't take that long at 

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all. 
So you're not even thinking 

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about the end date. 
Everyone wants to get a 

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transfer, the seller wants their
money, the buyer wants to start 

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the renovations or moving into 
it. 

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But just taking a little bit of 
time to make sure that it 

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doesn't fall on a certain 
holiday or if we need that 

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extension and we've got it 
there. 

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And another part of what you do,
as you just mentioned, is 

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delivering bad news. 
So you could have just sat on 

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that information for a while. 
How did you decide, right, this 

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is how I'm going to deliver the 
bad news. 

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This is how quickly I'm going to
do it. 

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I think that the best way to do 
it is just by giving the truth. 

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My dad's always said to us, 
there's a thousand lies and 

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there's one truth. 
So it's very easy to get caught 

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up in it here. 
And I think the problem we have 

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in the industry, everyone's so 
fast paced, everyone's 

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constantly working on something 
that you won't remember what 

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you've said yesterday. 
I don't remember some of the 

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conversations I had this morning
in the detail. 

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So it's far easier to just tell 
them the information to begin 

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with if they don't want to hear 
it. 

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And the money is made in those 
difficult conversations as well.

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Okay. 
How would you say this 

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experience has shifted your 
approach as a real estate agent?

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There's a few things I would 
say. 

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First of all would be to be on 
the ball with the dates. 

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The finer details. 
Yeah, exactly. 

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The finer details. 
But also just to make sure. you 

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genuinely do have your client's 
best interests at heart because 

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learning from that now in 
hindsight, it was actually, I 

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wish we hadn't have gone through
it, but it's quite a good thing 

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that we did because it made the 
relationship that much stronger 

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that now there's a lot more 
trust there to say that if 

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something goes wrong, you're not
just going to leave me in the 

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firing line. 
You're sort of there to help me 

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through it. 
And even if it's something small

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like holding the client's hands 
through the process where they 

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can feel that support. it helps 
build the sort of long-term 

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foundations of the relationship.
Brilliant. 

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There you have it. 
SuperAgents going the extra mile

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for their clients. 
Thank you for that, Lorenzo. 

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Hope you enjoyed that. 
Catch the rest of Lorenzo's 

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episodes. 
And while you're at it, why not 

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00:10:04,018 --> 00:10:05,018
binge the whole season?