HOW WE WORK
Online Property Research
Most of what decides a purchase can be established without leaving a desk, and almost none of it appears in the listing. This is the first step and for many buyers it is the only one they need, because it often ends the conversation about a particular property
What we do:
The paperwork
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Pull the land registry extract and check that the seller on the paper is the seller you are talking to, that the boundaries match, and that nothing sits on the title that should not
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Read the urbanism plan for that plot: is it inside or outside the village building boundary (intravilan or extravilan), what may be built there, and what the plan shows for the land next door
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Check whether the planning certificate (certificat de urbanism) says what the seller claims it says
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Map the permit path if you intend to build: planning certificate, building permit, final sign-off, who signs each one and how long each realistically takes
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Look for constraints that only surface when a permit is refused: protected areas, forestry, flood and landslide risk, irrigation and drainage servitudes, monument buffers
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For an apartment: association debts, seismic risk classification, works in progress
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Check the company or person selling against the public registers
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Contact the owner or their agent on your behalf to fill the gaps the listing leaves
The place
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Where it actually sits: real travel time to the town centre, the nearest supermarket, pharmacy, GP and hospital
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Schools within reach, and which ones
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Road access, who maintains it, and whether it is public or belongs to someone
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Public transport, if any, and what that means in practice
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Which internet providers reach that address, at what speed, verified rather than assumed
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Water, sewage, gas and electricity: connected, connectable or neither, with the real cost of connecting
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Whether the town is losing people or gaining them, and what that means for the school and the shop
What you receive:
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One written document: what was verified and where it came from, what could not be established, what needs an attested expert and why, and the questions to put to your notary before you sign. Certified translations of anything you need to read, in-house.
What this is not:
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We do not certify structures and we are not lawyers or valuers. We do not tell you whether the price is right. Where you need an expert tehnic, a surveyor or a lawyer, we say so and we say why.
Fees:
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Quoted per job at our standard rate, agreed in writing before we start.
On-Site Property Inspection
A listing can only tell you so much. We visit the property on your behalf and carry out a full independent assessment.
What we do:
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Inspect the building and the land: structural concerns, damp, drainage, roof, foundations, and anything that affects whether it can be lived in or worked on
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Check that what is physically there matches what the documents describe, including boundaries and outbuildings
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Walk the access road and tell you what it is in February, not in the photographs
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Assess the surroundings: what is next door, noise, traffic, what the place is like at a real hour on a weekday
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Check mobile signal on the plot itself
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Talk to neighbours and, for an apartment, the building administrator
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Photographs throughout, drone footage where permitted, and a video walkthrough with commentary in English or Romanian
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List what concerns us and what should be looked at by a specialist before you go further
What you receive:
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A written report with photographs and video: the condition of the building and the land, what the surroundings are actually like, where the property and its documents disagree, and what we would want answered before committing. Where something needs an attested expert, we say so and say why.
What this is not:
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We are not attested technical experts and this is not a structural survey. What we bring is thirty years of owning and maintaining seven houses in Romania and three US states, which is enough to know what to look at and when to tell you to pay someone qualified.
Fees:
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100 EUR per hour plus travel, quoted as a fixed figure agreed in writing before we start. The number depends on how many properties and how far, so tell us where they are.
Renting medium or long term
Most decent rentals in Romania never reach a site you can read in English. They move through Romanian listings and local groups, and the owners do not answer in English. What is left visible to a foreigner is the part already priced for foreigners.
What we do:
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Search where the places actually are: Romanian listing platforms, local groups, and regional networks that never appear in a search engine
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Ring the owners and ask what a listing does not answer: what the utilities cost in January and February on the actual bills, whether the heating is district or its own boiler, what the association fee covers and whether the flat owes anything to it
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Establish the deposit, what it covers and on what conditions it comes back
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Check whether the person letting the flat is the owner
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Confirm the landlord will register the lease with ANAF, which decides whether it will serve as proof of address for a residence permit, a bank account or a company registration
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Tell you what a local would pay for it
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Check the neighbourhood: travel time to where you need to be, parking, which internet providers reach the address
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Read the contract before you sign it and tell you which clauses shift risk onto you
What you receive:
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A shortlist of places that exist and are free on your dates, with what each one will actually cost you including utilities and deposit, what the contract looks like, and which ones we would avoid and why.
What this is not:
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We do not negotiate for you and we do not sign anything. You deal with the owner directly, which is where you want to be. We take nothing from any owner, so nothing on your shortlist is there because someone paid for it.
Fees:
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100 EUR per hour, quoted as a fixed figure agreed in writing before we start.
Building and Renovating
A house on land you own, a ruin worth saving, a barn that could be something, or an extension that turns out not to be straightforward. This is where budgets go wrong, and usually not for the reason people expect.
What we do:
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Map the permit path for your project: planning certificate, building permit, final sign-off, which approvals each one depends on, who signs them, what they cost and how long each realistically takes
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Write the scope document your builders quote against, so their offers cover the same work and can actually be compared. This needs your technical design to exist first
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Reduce every offer to the same line items and flag what has been left out, what is priced as an assumption, and which terms shift risk onto you
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Check each firm against the public registers: registration status, insolvency proceedings, tax standing, court records, filed accounts
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Read the contract before you sign it, including payment milestones, variations, delay and warranty
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Attend site meetings with you and interpret, so you know what was said rather than what you were told was said
What you receive:
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A written comparison of the offers on identical terms, with the omissions and the risk clauses named, what the registers say about each firm and what they do not, and the questions to put to each one before you choose. You choose the builder and you sign the contract.
What this is not:
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We do not manage your build, we are not architects or attested technical experts, and we do not tell you which firm is trustworthy. We tell you what is on the record and what is missing from it.
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We take nothing from any builder, ever. No introduction fee, no commission, no arrangement of any kind. This is the service where it would be easiest to, which is why it is worth saying here.
Fees:
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100 EUR per hour, quoted as a fixed figure agreed in writing before we start.
Important note:
Our research draws entirely on publicly available information and direct communication with service providers. We do not conduct private investigations, personal background checks, or any activity that requires a licensed investigator.
Doing Business in Romania
Registering a company takes days. Making it work here is the part nobody explains. Some of you need a company because you are buying land, some because your residency depends on it, some because you actually want to trade.
We are not your lawyer, your accountant or your builder. We are the person who works out which of those you need, finds you the right one, and stays on your side of the table while you deal with them. Everyone else you hire has an interest in being hired. We do not.
What we do:
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Set the company up: the tax number a non-resident needs before anything can be filed, the apostilled documents and their certified translation, the registration, the bank account, and the activity codes you will want in two years rather than only the ones you need this month
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Tell you which tax regime your turnover puts you in and what it costs, before the structure is chosen rather than after
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Explain what running it actually involves: the filing calendar, e-invoicing, what your accountant needs from you and when, and what happens when it slips
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Find the people you need and check them before you meet them: accountant, lawyer, architect, builder, manager, caretaker. We look at registration status, insolvency, tax standing, court records and filed accounts, and we tell you what is on the record and what is missing from it
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Do the same on anyone you are about to sign with: suppliers, partners, tenants, buyers
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Tell you whether EU or national funding is realistic for what you are doing, and put you in front of the firms that write those applications
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Look after a property you own here when you are not in the country: contracts, tenants, tradesmen, bills, and someone who answers the phone
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Compare locations where you are placing something physical: power and utility capacity at the plot boundary rather than at the end of the street, access, labour in that catchment, local tax decisions, and how the town hall behaves when you actually need a signature
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Go with you to the registry, the notary, the bank and the town hall, and tell you afterwards what was said
What you receive:
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Depends on the job. A registered company and the papers that go with it. A written assessment of what you asked about: what the record says, what could not be established, and the questions to put to your lawyer or your accountant. Or an arrangement where you simply have someone here.
What this is not:
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We are not lawyers, accountants or immigration advisers. We do not file your returns and we do not handle residence permits. If your permit depends on the company, your immigration lawyer handles the permit and we make sure the company is what it needs to be. We do not tell you whether a person is trustworthy. We tell you what the record says.
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We take no commission from anyone we introduce you to, and no share of any grant. Nobody on our list is there because they paid to be.
Fees:
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100 EUR per hour, quoted as a fixed figure agreed in writing before we start. Ongoing arrangements quoted monthly.
Human Review of AI research
You asked a model something you needed to get right, and it answered well. You have no way to tell which parts of it are true.
What we do:
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Go through the claims one at a time and check each against the source
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Mark what is verified and where it came from, what is unsupported, what was invented, and what the model had no way of knowing
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Check citations exist, say what they are claimed to say, and have not been repealed or superseded
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Check whether the answer is current, since a model trained before a change states the old rule in exactly the same confident tone
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Flag where it agreed with the premise of your question rather than answering it
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Tell you what it left out, which is usually more expensive than what it got wrong
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On Romanian material, add the part no model has: what the record does not say, and what the office will actually tell you
What you receive:
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Your document back, marked claim by claim, with sources for what holds and a plain statement of what does not. Where something matters and cannot be settled from public sources, we say so rather than filling the gap.
What this is not:
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We do not rewrite your work or produce a polished version. We are not lawyers or accountants, and a verified claim is not legal or financial advice. This is verification, not authorship.
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Beyond Romania: the same work applies to research, translation and technical or systems material in any subject where the claims can be checked. Thirty years in technology and daily use of these tools since 2023, which is long enough to know how they fail rather than that they do.
Fees:
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100 EUR per hour, quoted as a fixed figure agreed in writing before we start. Send us the document and we will tell you what it will cost.
