I was working in downtown Charleston on the battery quite a few years back. Homes on the battery are homes of the elite of the elite.
Anyhow I was working on a house on one of the streets and this guy from California bought the house next door. After he bought it he was complaining about a window location we was installing overlooking his property. He went to the city board and this and that. I do not think he fared to well with the board. It ended up is that he bought the house we were working on outright so he could have control of the design.
I found out a bit later that that guy was so wealthy that he could buy up at least 2 city blocks of homes in that area. Those homes start at about $750,000.00 and up into the millions.
Moral of the story. You never know who you meet.