Chapter 42: 42, Real Estate Mystery Box - Open!
Thanks to Xiuxiu's excellt driving skills, the two of them arrived before the landlord did.
Yang Hao looked a at the bottom of the building, noticing that although the neighborhood was quite old, it was theless well-maintained. The garbage bins in front of the unit door were neatly arranged, and some elderly were rummaging through them, looking for recyclable bottles and cardboard boxes that could be sold for cash.
Wang Xiuxiu parked the electric bike, and th sneakily sized up the impressive figure of Yang, who was wearing a Fila tracksuit, with a noticeable bulge a his waist, a doz or so ctimeters below.
A faint blush tinged her cheeks as she reminded herself that she hadn't meant to look there on purpose.
"Yang, ev though the apartmts in this neighborhood are years old, the property managemt company was replaced a few years back. The infrastructure maintance and cleanliness are quite dect, and the property fees are very cheap, only one yuan per square meter..."
Xiuxiu started describing the neighborhood's situation, taking advantage of the fact that the landlord had yet to arrive.
"Mm."
Yang Hao nodded, although those details were not of his concern.
After waiting for a while, a middle-aged woman in her forties approached them.
"Miss Xu, this gtleman here is Mr. Yang, the buyer."
Wang Xiuxiu introduced Yang Hao.
Miss Xu unconsciously sized up Yang Hao, and upon glancing at his waist, a smile immediately spread across her face: "Yang, right? Let's look at the house first, th we'll talk."
Yang Hao felt that Miss Xu's smile was a bit odd, but couldn't quite put his finger on what was strange about it, so he didn't give it much thought.
The three of them tered the building together. The apartmt was on the third floor, which, for these older six-story buildings, was considered prime real estate.
The interior decor of the home was basically consistt with the photos, and it came furnished with esstial appliances. As Wang Xiuxiu had said, the actual area inside this 65 square meter old apartmt was akin to that of a new apartmt that was over 80 square meters, and ev the balcony was quite spacious.
"Yang, let me tell you, if it wer't for the divorce settlemt, I wouldn't sell this apartmt. Ev if I didn't live here myself, rting it out would be a great value for money."
Seeing that Yang Hao hadn't said anything since tering, Miss Xu took the initiative to speak up.
"780,000, cash."
Yang Hao made his offer directly. The listing price for the apartmt was 830,000, and he felt that cutting 50,000 wasn't excessive. Moreover, it was a buyer's market, and old apartmts like this one were indeed hard to sell.
Despite average housing prices in Jiangchg hovering a 5,000 per square meter, these older apartmts were esstially unsellable at that rate. The actual transaction price was about ,000 or 3,000 per square meter, ev just over ,000 at times.
Miss Xu's expression changed slightly wh she heard the offer. Frowning, she said, "Yang, you can't cut the price like that. The whole place is only worth a little over 800,000, and you've slashed 50,000 just like that, it's killing me!"
"Miss Xu, I'm sincere about buying, and I can pay right away."
"You know better than I do what the market is like right now. The price is final, so maybe you should think it over."
Although it was Yang Hao who was the more anxious one, naturally, if he could save some money, he would prefer to do so.
Hearing this, Miss Xu displayed a troubled look. Her apartmt had be listed for over two months; initially, it was priced at 880,000 but didn't attract any atttion. Gradually, she reduced it to 830,000, but ev th, before Yang Hao, there had only be two pottial buyers—one offered 0,000, the other didn't ev make an offer.
"It's not that I'm taking the buyer's side, Miss Xu, but there's not just your apartmt for sale in this community. There are three others with asking prices creeping up to a 800,000. The advantage your unit has is newer decor, but some buyers want to rovate themselves, so to really close the deal, the price has to be competitive."
Wang Xiuxiu spoke up, attempting to mediate.
"Yang, let's talk privately on the balcony for a momt," suggested Miss Xu, giving Yang Hao a cue with her eyes.
"Uh?"
"Sure."
Yang Hao was initially tak aback, not understanding why Miss Xu would need to speak with him privately, without Wang Xiuxiu. However, he agreed.
Xiuxiu, on the other hand, was utterly confused. With the buyer and seller interacting alone, were they looking to bypass her as an intermediary?? She wanted to interve but felt too embarrassed to speak up, so she could only watch helplessly as the two stepped onto the balcony, with Miss Xu carefully closing the sliding door behind them.
"Yang, the price you mtioned is fine, I'll sell it to you, but could you do me a favor?" Miss Xu started the talk.
"Let's hear it."
Yang Hao wasn't sure what Miss Xu was getting at, so he kept a respectful distance.
"Could you pretd to be my boyfrid for a few days?"
"I want to give my ex-husband, who I just divorced, a bit of a shock."
While speaking, Miss Xu deliberately thrust out her chest, as if to emphasize her assets, as though that might prove her attractivess. Despite her efforts, her belly was still more promint than her chest, which was likely one of the reasons her husband had divorced her.
"Miss Xu, I can't help you with that, I'm afraid my wife might divorce me."
Yang Hao flatly refused with a face full of dismay. He was known in the area as a dect man and certainly wouldn't gage in such affairs. He made up an excuse on the spot.
After speaking, Yang Hao promptly oped the sliding door and stepped back into the living room, thinking, buying a house and having to deal with something like this was utterly absurd.
"Xiuxiu, let's go to the next place," he said loudly to Wang Xiuxiu, th started heading for the door.
"Okay, Yang," she responded quickly, th turned to Miss Xu, who had just stepped out of the balcony, "Miss Xu, I'll be going now; I'll contact you if there's another buyer."
"Wait a minute."
Seeing that they were about to leave, Miss Xu suddly became anxious. She cast a somewhat aggrieved look at Yang Hao: "780,000, I'll sell it to you, consider it a deal betwe frids."
"Can we complete the transfer today?" Yang Hao asked.
"As long as you have ough money, yes," Miss Xu replied.
"Th there's no problem!"
Yang Hao shrugged, th turned to Wang Xiuxiu: "Let's proceed with the formalities."
"Alrighty!"
"Let's head back to the agcy to sign the contract!"
Wang Xiuxiu was beaming, not expecting things to have gone so smoothly.
The three of them headed downstairs, with Miss Xu going home to get the property deed and her ID card.
Wang Xiuxiu drove Yang Hao back to the store.
Wh they arrived, the door Wang Xiuxiu had locked wh she left was now op, and two m in work uniforms were chatting inside.
The older man, seeing Wang Xiuxiu ter the store, immediately frowned and said, "Xiuxiu, do you know you're on duty today?"
"How come you're so late!"
This man was the manager of the real estate agcy. Wh he got to the store and found that Wang Xiuxiu, who should have be there, had not yet arrived, he felt somewhat annoyed. Of course, that was not the main reason. The main reason was that Wang Xiuxiu had refused to go to a motel with him to play cards.
"I wt to show a property to a clit!" Wang Xiuxiu replied righteously, already planning in her mind to quit her job and switch to another agcy once she received the commission from this transaction.
Goddamn it, ev a real estate agcy wants to play by the unwritt rules of the workplace – she couldn't bear it!
It's not like it's a job worth its weight in gold!
Some people just like to wield their little power like a commanding baton, always looking for ways to make life difficult for others and secure befits for themselves.
"Xiuxiu, do you think I have a face that's easy to fool?"
"There are no clits looking at properties so early in the morning!" Manager sneered back in disdain.
At that momt, Yang Hao, who had just finished a call with Liu Zifg, walked into the store. His childhood frid had invited him out for drinks the next day, but Yang Hao wouldn't have the time, so they had agreed to meet on Sunday instead.
"Xiuxiu, can the property transfer be completed by noon?" Yang asked.
"I'll pay extra for a rush service," he added.
Yang Hao just wanted to complete the task as soon as possible to avoid any unforese circumstances.
Upon seeing Yang Hao ter the store, the manager, who had intded to ask whether Yang Hao was there to rt or to buy, was tak aback to see him discussing a property transaction with Wang Xiuxiu. He looked at Yang Hao with surprise; this person didn't seem familiar and probably hadn't visited the store rectly.
In other words, Wang Xiuxiu had just tak him to see a property, and he had bought it!
"Sir, it's no problem to expedite the process. Two thousand yuan, and we at the store can find a proxy for you, guaranteeing you get the property title by lunchtime!" Manager Liu Qiang said, beaming, eager to get a piece of any profitable action.
However, Yang Hao didn't pay him any mind and instead looked at Wang Xiuxiu: "Is that true?"
Turning her back to Manager Liu Qiang, Wang Xiuxiu th held up a finger towards Yang Hao and whispered, "Yang, it is possible to expedite it."
Understanding her, Yang offered, "Two thousand is too expsive, one thousand is more like it."
"Sir, there's no such price," Liu Qiang shook his head.
"Th let's just go through the normal process."
Having said that, Yang Hao sat on the guest sofa and began playing with his cellphone, looking completely indiffert.
In truth, whether it was one thousand or two thousand was not important to Yang Hao; his main issue was that he found the store manager a bit unpleasant.
"Sir, here's the thing: out of the two thousand yuan, one thousand five hundred goes to the clerks at the governmt service hall. Our store would only make five hundred."
"In this case, we won't make anything off of that; you just pay one thousand five hundred," Manager Liu Qiang persisted, still smiling.
Yang Hao waved his hand dismissively, "Nevermind th. I don't want to trouble you for nothing; let's do it by the book."
"Uh, well..." Manager Liu Qiang's mouth twitched, thinking to himself that Yang was bizarrely considerate.
Wang Xiuxiu was secretly delighted, barely able to contain her smile; after all, she wouldn't make a ct from the expedite fee—it was all orchestrated by Liu Qiang.
Seeing Yang Hao's attitude, Manager Liu Qiang felt awkward about lowering the price immediately, so he grumbled and said, "I'll try negotiating again."
He th pretded to make a phone call in the back.
A little while later, Miss Xu arrived at the store with the necessary paperwork.
After signing the contract, transferring the funds, and going through the property transfer at the governmt service hall, by elev o'clock, Yang Hao had already received the property title that bore his name.
Of course, he had paid a thousand yuan as an expedite fee.
Manager Liu Qiang evtually lowered the price because ev with a thousand, he'd still make two hundred—and naturally, he wouldn't let the money slip away.
Ding!
Congratulations, host, for completing the time-limited mission [The Tycoon's Property]
Time consumed: 3 hours and minutes!
Rewards distribution in progress...
Ding!
Congratulations, host, for obtaining a property blind box.
[Yes][No]Op it now?
Yes!
Yang Hao made his choice immediately.
Ding!
Congratulations, host, for a suite, a storefront, and two parking spaces.
Please come to the Star Cloud Bay sales office to claim them after one o'clock in the afternoon.
A series of system notification sounds rang out in his mind, and upon hearing the final reward, Yang Hao couldn't help but excitedly pump his fist.
Star Cloud Bay!
One of the most expsive neighborhoods in Jiangchg!
Back wh he owned five hotpot restaurants and had bright aspirations for the future, one of his dreams was to own a property in Star Cloud Bay.
And now, that dream had actually come true!