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PR E FA C E

he called me a few days later and said, “George, Alex and I would like
you to be our counsel.” I said, “Why me?” He said, “Well, we al-
ready paid $90,000 in the form of lost rent just for the privilege of
knowing you! We’ll make it worth your while if you say yes.” I ac-
cepted their offer.

EVERY PROBLEM HAS A PRICE TAG

Very quickly I learned something that every real estate investor
should understand: There is a huge difference between the legal as-
pects of real estate and the business of investing in real estate. I had
to restructure my whole way of thinking. Whenever I discovered a
legal problem with a real estate deal, Goldman would say, “Is it seri-
ous enough to blow the deal?” If I said, “No.” Then he would say,
“How much can I get off the price for the problem?” Most lawyers
simply advise their clients not to do a deal if they find legal problems;
lawyers cannot or will not make business recommendations for their
clients. Goldman forced me to think like a businessman, not just a
lawyer, and realize that almost every problem has a price tag. He
forced me to look at legal problems strictly as a way of improving the
deal. He’d say, “What can I get if I overlook this problem?” To find
that answer, I had to dig into the problem.
For example, Goldman and DiLorenzo contracted to buy Har-
borside Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, from the railroad that
owned it. The property consisted of a huge cold storage warehouse of
almost two million square feet abutting the Hudson River, right
across the river from downtown Manhattan. The purchase price
seemed reasonable even though it was to be an all-cash deal. How-
ever, the title report contained an exception for possible claims of the
State of New Jersey to a strip of land that the warehouse straddled. It
became clear to me why the railroad was having difficulty finding a

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