Reborn as a landlord in Shanghai

Chapter 11 Meeting the Homeowner

"Dad, should we call that retired doctor first before we head over? After all, he doesn't live there anymore, and he'll have to come over if we want to see a house!" Sitting on the back of the electric scooter, watching her father ride, Mao Xiaoyu asked cautiously.

"No need, let's talk about it when we get there. If the retired doctor lives far away, we can just go and take a look around the area around the hospital. After all, I want to see the environment you mentioned," Mao Jun said, refusing his son's question.

In Mao Jun's view, this morning's events were simply about looking at houses and checking out the landlords around the hospital. If the houses were real and the landlords his son mentioned were also real, then this morning's events revolved around negotiating the houses. If the negotiations went well, they could always go back to the bank in the afternoon to get a mortgage.

Therefore, Mao Jun felt he had plenty of time today, so there was no need to rush to call the retired doctor who was selling the house. After all, Mao Jun hadn't even checked the location of the retired doctor's house yet, and if the location wasn't good, he might not be able to find one he liked.

If he didn't like the place by then, and had to call the retired doctor to open the door, it would be difficult to discuss things further. It was better to go and take a look at the place himself first, see what the environment was like, and if it was acceptable, then they could talk about viewing the house. It was precisely because of this mindset that Mao Jun rejected Mao Xiaoyu's suggestion.

Hearing her father's answer, Mao Xiaoyu didn't raise any further objections. After all, her father was the one who had the final say today, and she couldn't rush things. So, Mao Xiaoyu patiently sat on the back of the electric scooter and gave directions along the way.

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Because Mao Xiaoyu's barbershop wasn't too far from Changhai Road, Mao Jun only rode his bike for about twenty minutes to reach his destination. Then, following Mao Xiaoyu's directions, he finally arrived at the neighborhood where the retired doctor was selling his house.

"Dad, it's over there, building 1, 3rd floor, 301." After arriving at the residential area, the two parked the car in the parking lot, and then Mao Xiaoyu pointed to the location of the house and said.

Following Mao Xiaoyu's directions, Mao Jun took a look around. It was quite nice. The community was a planned community, with shops selling groceries and daily necessities at the entrance. The community was very clean, clearly maintained by professional cleaners. The buildings didn't look very old, given the architectural style; they looked much newer than buildings that were twenty or thirty years old.

"Do you have the landlord's phone number? If not, we'll have to go look for him." Seeing how nice the environment was, Mao Jun's heart suddenly filled with anticipation.

"Yes, I already copied down the landlord's phone number." Because she had already done her homework, Mao Xiaoyu said as she pulled out the phone number she had just obtained two days ago from her pocket.

Mao Jun took the slip of paper from Mao Xiaoyu, glanced at it, and saw a phone number and a name written on it. While doing so, Mao Jun simultaneously pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket and dialed the number his son had provided.

"Hello, ... Are you Dr. Tao? Um, ... Who am I? ... My surname is Mao. ... I heard you have a house you want to sell. ... Yes, yes, yes, so I came to take a look. ... Where am I now? ... I'm downstairs from your house. ... Okay, okay, ... I'll wait here for a bit."

After the call connected, I saw Mao Jun holding a mobile phone, talking and walking around at the same time.

There's no way around it, that's just how PHS phones are. Sometimes the signal is good, sometimes it's bad, and you have to keep moving around to make a call. If it weren't for the cheap phone bills, it would have been replaced by mobile phones long ago. But now that mobile phone bills are getting cheaper and cheaper, PHS phones don't have many more years left.

"Alright, Dr. Tao said he'll be there in half an hour at most, and asked us to wait a little while. In that case, we can use this time to go and see the landlords of those houses you mentioned." Mao Jun said to Mao Xiaoyu beside him after hanging up the phone.

"When you go to see those landlords later, don't say too much. Just ask about the price for one night's stay. Some landlords are quite sensitive. Also, many patients come to the hospital in the morning, so few are interested in renting out rooms. Therefore, landlords are rarely at the hospital in the morning, since the rooms were rented out the day before and the tenants are still there. Whether the tenants will stay or not will only be known around noon. So, many landlords only come to the hospital around noon." Hearing that her father was going to check on the landlords, Mao Xiaoyu quickly explained the situation, because there were some things her father wouldn't understand if she didn't explain them clearly.

Mao Jun nodded without saying anything. After all, it was enough for him to keep the matter in mind. The two then went to the hospital and had a brief check-up.

Because it was morning, although there weren't many landlords, even so, they were still quite conspicuous among the hurried crowds, holding signs for renting rooms. Therefore, Mao Jun spent about ten minutes getting to the bottom of things and confirmed that these landlords were indeed doing business here. This also served as a confirmation of what his son had said.

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"Dr. Tao, hello, hello."

"Mr. Mao, hello, hello."

When the Mao family father and son arrived at the community, they waited for about 10 minutes before the retired Dr. Tao finally arrived. Since it was their first time meeting, Mao Jun and Dr. Tao greeted each other warmly.

Then, the two introduced themselves and went upstairs. When they arrived on the third floor, Dr. Tao opened the door.

Upon opening the door, Mao Jun and Mao Xiaoyu were very satisfied that there was no strange smell inside the room. This showed that although the house was unoccupied, it was regularly ventilated. Houses that are not ventilated tend to develop various odors over time. The fact that Dr. Tao regularly ventilated the house indicated that he took good care of it.

When the group entered the house, all the large pieces of furniture were gone, making the house feel somewhat empty. Even so, it was clear that the house had been renovated, and the renovation was quite nice at the time. However, after more than ten years of weathering, it looked a little old.

"This house was provided to us by the hospital at the time... The property certificate says it's 115 square meters... It has 3 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 1 kitchen, and 1 bathroom... You can see that the rooms are all very large... The kitchen and dining room are located at the entrance, where we usually eat... There is also a bathroom on the left side, which has a wet and dry separation."

"The whole house has three bedrooms for sleeping... and here is a living room... we usually watch TV and entertain guests there... but now the sofa is gone, and the TV is gone too... so this living room looks like a guest room. You can use this as a living room or a guest room in the future." Dr. Tao led the way, explaining the layout of the house to Mao Jun and Mao Xiaoyu.

To be honest, after looking around, I'm quite satisfied with the house. Since it's a company-provided apartment, there's no shared area, so the house looks really big. It's 115 square meters, and each bedroom is over ten square meters. The largest main room is about 20 square meters, and even the small living room inside is over ten square meters. This small living room could be used as a bedroom.

Moreover, the room layout is quite good, with good ventilation from north to south. Two of the three bedrooms in the house are on the south side, so you can feel the abundant sunlight when you stand in the bedroom. More importantly, the environment here is very quiet, much better than those houses near the road.

Therefore, Mao Jun and Mao Xiaoyu looked around the house and were quite satisfied with the whole house. However, it was a pity that because all the furniture had been moved out, there were no chairs to sit on, so they could only stand and talk.

"Dr. Tao, your house is quite nice, it's just a pity that it's completely unfurnished. By the way, how much are you planning to sell it for?"

The three of them went to the balcony of the house and stood on the edge of the balcony looking at the crowd outside. Dr. Tao and Mao Jun lit cigarettes for each other and started chatting.

"I moved the furniture to my father's place. After all, I used to work here, and my father lived here with me to take care of him. He was used to the furniture here. Now that I don't work here anymore, I've moved back to my father's house, so I moved the furniture here to use there. Therefore, there is no furniture here. But this is good. At least after you buy it, you can do whatever you want with it, and it will save you the trouble of moving it back and forth."

"As for this house, I plan to sell it for 450,000. This price is much lower than the market price. After all, some houses of my size sell for 500,000. If it were a newly opened development, a house of my size could sell for 700,000 or 800,000. If you don't believe me, you can ask around the area. The reason it's so low is mainly because I don't accept mortgages or anything like that. I always feel uneasy about paying a deposit first and then using my house to get a loan. I'm a bit old-fashioned. I'd rather sell it at a lower price and have cash on delivery. So, I don't accept mortgages for this house sale," Dr. Tao said candidly.

Hearing Dr. Tao's words, Mao Jun nodded involuntarily. After all, such a price was really not expensive, much cheaper than the market price. After all, the current price of old houses is 4000 to 5000 yuan per square meter, which is the market price. As for new houses with elevators, they are generally 7000 to 8000 yuan per square meter, and those in better locations can be more than 1 yuan per square meter. If it weren't for such strict requirements, such as not accepting loans and having to come up with 45 yuan all at once, this house might have been sold long ago.

After all, it's still too few ordinary people to come up with 45 yuan at once. Those who have the ability to afford that amount generally won't buy old houses, since new houses now have elevators, while old houses require climbing stairs. Some people would rather spend an extra one or two thousand yuan per square meter to buy an apartment with an elevator than buy an old house with stairs.

Of course, it's not that old houses can't be sold. After all, the price is still there, and some people aren't afraid to climb stairs. So, as long as the price is right, old houses can still be sold. Take this house for example, it's over 3900 yuan per square meter, less than 4000 yuan, which is much less than the market price per square meter. If Mao Xiaoyu buys it, she'll have gotten a pretty good deal.

"Do you have any other property disputes with this house? If you can't transfer the ownership at the last minute, that would be troublesome," Mao Jun asked.

"No, there's no property dispute at all. This house was allocated to me by XX Hospital in 1989. It was a staff-allocated house, and I bought it for more than 6 yuan. Since I was a hospital employee at the time, the property certificate only has my name on it. Therefore, if I want to transfer the property, I only need to agree, and I don't need anyone else's consent," Dr. Tao said.

"Since there's no problem with the property certificate, then this price..." After confirming that there was no problem with the property certificate, Mao Jun wanted to lower the price further, but then he thought about the market price and felt a little embarrassed to say it.

"This price is non-negotiable. After all, I'm selling it for tens of thousands of yuan less than the market price. And I'm not afraid to tell you, I have a retirement pension, and I'm not in a hurry to sell this house. If I wanted to sell it, I would have sold it long ago. As for why I want to sell it, it's mainly because I won't be living here anymore, and it's a waste to leave it here. So if you want to lower the price, then there's no need to talk about it. After all, according to market rules, the house price will rise again in the second half of the year." Dr. Tao wasn't so easily fooled. Seeing that Mao Jun wanted to negotiate the price, she directly refused.

Upon hearing Dr. Tao's words, Mao Jun immediately abandoned his idea of ​​negotiating the price. After all, Dr. Tao wasn't stupid; the price was already very cheap, and if he lowered it further, Dr. Tao definitely wouldn't sell.

Moreover, this house is really good. At least in Mao Jun's opinion, this house is much better than his own house. Although his own house is a new house and he has only lived in it for 5 years, neither the environment nor the floor is as good as this house.

Although his wife had told him to haggle before they arrived, sometimes you can't just lower the price like that. After all, the market price is what it is, and nobody's a fool. So Mao Jun hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded and said, "45, we'll take this house."