A client I occasionally work with recently purchased a nice house in a desirable location of the French Riviera (Mougins). He didn’t even go there before buying, relying solely on images to determine whether he liked it. He paid eleven million euros for it. However, when he came, he felt the view was not ideal due to another property on the way.

So he sent his lawyer to make an offer to the owners for 4 million euros. But they declined. So he doubled the offer, and they again declined. So he doubled again, and they agreed to sell. He had the house demolished the day he received the keys, and instead erected an underground parking lot for the cars he “won’t be using much here.”

So effectively, the guy spent more for that remote house than for the one where he intends to spend his summers, only to have it go because it upset him. He laughed the entire time he told me the story.