18A — November 28 - December 11, 2014 — Green Buildings — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
G reen B uildings By Lee Wasserman, LEW Corporation The biggest environmental property mistake ever made, and made and made again I f you are like most of my clients you’re involved with “Property”; buying,
expert is; Too little and Too late and Property Oriented Environ- mental concerns (POEC’s) never work out well for people involved with Real Property. Property Oriented Environ- mental Concerns (POEC’s) from little to big can and will make OR break a good real estate deal and I mean Make it $$$$ or Break it $$$$. But they don’t have to if you just accept the world is the world, Environ- mental issues are part of it, we are not going to change it so we will just have to “Manage it”. As one of my favorite figures Sir Richard Branson shares, if
RiskManagement! Today is not yesterday and tomorrow will be different than today. Today Property Oriented Environmen- tal Concerns are Regulatory and Media Hot! This means before you own, during your management and prior to get- ting involved in a regulatory enforcement action or suit over the concern be more aware of your environmental surround- ings. When you do something for over Twenty (20) years you have to learn something!! One of the many things I have learned over my 20 years as a nationally re- spected environmental subject
you want to make a billionaire a millionaire have them buy an airline (LOL). Well the same concept applies to Real Estate if you don’t thoroughly evalu- ate, understand and manage existing POEC’s. I have liter- ally seen, Environmental issues can and will quickly change your situation by sucking up your resources (time, money and energy) if not properly as- sessed and managed prior to an unfortunate event or a lack of knowledge. POEC’s (Lead, Asbestos, Mold, Underground Storage Tanks, Radon, Vapor Intrusion,
IAQ…) are traditionally very regulated, typically a public health concern, commonly pub- licized via media, and as we all fear, highly litigious. If you don’t exercise your rights to full due diligence and turning over as many stones as you can and the second you are suspect of POEC’s immediately devoting the appropriate resources to address the environmental risk PRIOR to it becoming a Prob- lem, YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU GET!! All too often I see and share with property owners, by trying to save a few dollars you truly end up spending, wast- ing and stressing substantially more. It has also been shared for numerous years as “Penny wise but pound foolish!” Not to sound like a perfect individual (LOL), but I too frequently get called to assist property where they had the opportunity to address their POEC’s and didn’t or don’t! As another old expression goes, “There is another fool born ev- ery day.” Don’t be the fool, don’t buy or accept responsibility for someone else’s environmental problems (Unless you are sure it is part of a good deal), don’t be the nice guy, don’t waste YOUR opportunity to decide if this is truly the property you perceived it to be, and if not, how it might impact your success. Unfortu- nately, and all too often on all size deals, I see people trying to save a few and it ends up cost- ing a lot (Penny wise, but VERY pound foolish). Don’t believe, “What you don’t know, cannot hurt you.”, I know many property related people who did not know, but they still got sued for lead poisoning of a child, had abandoned leaking underground storage tanks on site that eventually started bubbling up free product on an adjoining property . I have seen disgruntled staff and co-workers complain to OSHA and other government agencies about asbestos and mold disturbances when performing their jobs that their employers expressed they had no idea it existed. I have seen real-estate deals go down with HUGE environmental concerns not properly addressed because it was a really good deal, because it was part of the package, because how bad can it be….. Because they did not exercise their due diligence and it cost them big time. When it didn’t have to!! WELL guess what, it can be really bad, not continued on page 20A
selling, man- aging or all of the above. Regard l es s of the prop- erty role you s e r v e , t h e single Biggest Environmen- tal Property
Lee Wasserman
mistake I see being made over and over and over again is NOT enough time and resources are devoted to Environmental Due Diligence and Environmental
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