As many of you, Iām flying now. Holidays. Family. āRelaxāā¦ if a three years-old allow you to do so. Before I used my more than 20 hours of flight time to catch up with movies or read that book I definitely wanted to have read before arriving to destination. Now, I have to sync my sleep with the little one and get into the loop of all Disney Cars movies and Bluey shows. Still I have time to think of my next project. My next investment. And not just real estate, but also education and training....
1 day agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Itās a superpower. But people are not interested in the othersā point of view. Just in theirs. We are egocentric by nature. So listening itās a superpower. I let the agent to do the talking. My side, just questions and nodding. Disclosures? Noneā¦ wellā¦ there was some floodingā¦ Price expectations? This property in 2021 would be selling byā¦ Yes, but what are the owners expectations today. Wellā¦ in January, they received an offer by X and was rejected, nowā¦ Iām not sure what they owners will...
2 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Arguments, unfortunately, donāt work. Itās proven. People donāt change their beliefs. At least, not with arguments. The reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas and values without thinking about them. Think of politics. Think of clauses that youāve seen in contracts. Think of people supporting their favourite teams. There is a strong emotional content in their beliefs. They really do not want to have to rework their habits of thinking, and when you challenge them,...
3 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Impossible. Nobody can be that stupid. Wellā¦ welcome to another day. A contractor (letās call him Mr. Optimism) decided to āsave timeā on a warehouse project. How? By installing the roof before securing the steel structure with the final bolts. āDonāt worry, jefe, it holds by itself.ā Famous last words of every construction project ever. The weather app showed light breeze. New Zealand showed: āHold my beer.ā A 45-km/h gust arrived, grabbed the entire roof like a giant frisbee, and sent it...
4 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
In a meeting with an agency not long time ago, I was asked for advice with regards to the team theyāll need to set up for managing a PPP project. Obviously, our conversation started by a āare you kidding meā? Managing multibillion dollar projects required people able to handle multibillion dollar projects. Thatās the basics. If you bring to your team people used to manage projects in the range of 10 millionsā¦ the focus is not going to be on the right things. The nickelling and diamonding...
5 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Imagine that you write your monthly report. Yes, youāre part of a consortium in a PPP project. You write your report. And you send it to the agency, the government, or whatever. Itās subject to the famous review procedures. The agency sends back comments. They disagree with some of your statements. And you disagree with those statements. What to do? Remember, next month, again the j*dido report de miā¬rda. You can be dragged to an endless set of discussions about every single monthly report....
6 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
A terrible clause about Force Majeure. A lawyersā money-making machine with the definition of āSubstantial regulatory changesā A few days ago, I had the opportunity to discuss common flaws to PPP contracts. Lawyers can be really good drafting millions of pages. They have no idea how real people deal with those pages in a day to day basis. That was the conversation I had with a student of the mentorship. 5 clauses. 5 headaches. Easily avoidable. The clauses, the potential solutions, together...
7 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Despite being on a Saturday, I received a few emails asking about yesterday contract! Lookā¦ I have plenty of examples. Yesterday, it was a PPP in the Philippinesā¦ but Iāve been working on a few others PPP project. A fantastic example with nice clauses that are less bankable than a PPP for a data center in North Korea. Kenya. A known highway. The Review Procedure. āDisagreements will be discussedā Literally. Good luck with getting a solution. Discussing can be the more frustrating of...
8 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
These days Iām enjoying some interesting stuff. There is a clause. In particular, 13.3 of a project agreement. āForegone Toll Income & āMutual Agreementā Extensionā** I love the title. It deals with cases where the government prevents the toll road from charging the approved tariff. Then, if this happens, logically for political reasonsā¦ The government must either: Compensate the monthly Foregone Toll Income, or Grant a Concession Extension, the duration of which must be mutually agreed If...
9 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read