Reborn as a landlord in Shanghai

Chapter 17 Renting a Storefront

"Xiao Liu, I'm here. Anyone want to rent my storefront?"

Mao Xiaoyu waited in the store for about ten minutes when she heard a loud voice outside asking questions, and the person asking the questions walked into the store as they did so.

"Old man Ge, this young man wants to rent your house." Although Xiao Liu, who runs the shop, is already in his forties or fifties, he looks more than ten years younger than Old man Ge who came in. So Xiao Liu didn't get angry when he was called "Little Liu," but he didn't show much respect to Old man Ge.

The old man who came in looked quite similar to Ge You, who was in his sixties or seventies. He was thin and almost bald, with only two tufts of hair remaining on his head, fluttering in the wind. The only difference between him and Ge You was that he wore glasses, which made him look very energetic. He looked like he could live for another ten years or more.

Saying he could live for more than ten years is not an insult, but a fact. After all, it was understandable that she didn't see him earlier, since she didn't know who the landlord was. But now that she saw him, Mao Xiaoyu realized that she knew this old man Ge!

After all, in her previous life, when she opened a barbershop, she rented a storefront from his family. Of course, not only his family's storefront, but also another storefront because his family's storefront wasn't enough. This rental lasted for several years, and even when Mao Xiaoyu left the barbershop, she was still paying rent for his family's storefront every year.

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"Young man, are you the one who wants to rent my storefront?" Upon hearing Xiao Liu say that Mao Xiaoyu wanted to rent his storefront, Old Man Ge turned to Mao Xiaoyu and asked.

"No, actually it was me, but I rented it for my friend. My friend is planning to open a shop nearby, so he asked me to help him see if there were any storefronts for rent. So I was just wandering around and happened to come across this place. I saw the 'For Rent' sign on your storefront and I thought it looked pretty good, so I rented it for my friend so he can open his shop."

Looking at Old Man Ge, who looked a few years younger than in her previous life, Mao Xiaoyu said with a big smile, "I was originally thinking about ripping off the landlord, but I felt a little guilty. But seeing Old Man Ge, hehe, I'll definitely rip him off. It would be a shame not to do it this time."

Thinking back to my past life, I worked hard to earn some money in my shop, and every time it was time to pay rent, he would come to collect. Fine, he'd collect rent, we wouldn't object. But the problem was, the rent increased every year! From the initial 8 yuan a year, it rose to 20 yuan a year by the time I closed down. He was even more ruthless than Zhou the Skinflint! Remembering the over 5 yuan in rent I paid this old man over five years in my past life, I was determined to squeeze some money out of him in this life.

"Xiao Liu just told you, right? My apartment is 2000 yuan a month, no discounts. If you want to rent it, you'll need to pay at least one month's rent as deposit and three months' rent in advance. Also, the contract is for one year. I'm not going to sign a long-term contract with you. After all, as you can see, this area is in the old city, and it might be demolished at any time. If the contract is too long, I won't be able to make any promises to you in the end."

Old Ge didn't care whether Mao Xiaoyu wanted to rent a house or not, and directly stated his requirements. As for the rumor that the old town was going to be demolished, every old town has such rumors. Even the old folks don't believe that this place will be demolished, but it is still a hope. Therefore, these old folks always like to talk about demolition, such as how much money they will get when their house is demolished, or how much money they will get when their house is demolished. Everyone is happy. Although they have this idea, no one really expects it.

"Hmm, 2000 yuan is about right. It's 30 or 40 square meters, which I can accept. As for a one-year lease, that's fine too. But you have to let me go in and take a look at the house. I don't know what the house is like inside, or whether it meets my rental requirements. If it looks okay and I feel it's alright, then we can talk about it more later. What do you think?" Although Mao Xiaoyu wanted to rent his storefront, she didn't want to agree so readily, so she asked to see the house.

"Looking at the house? Sure, no problem. The house is right next door. I brought the key with me. Let's take a look first. Come on, I'll take you there." With that, Old Ge turned and started walking out, and Mao Xiaoyu followed behind him.

When the two arrived next door, Old Ge opened the door to his storefront. "Not bad," she thought, "at least the walls are painted quite clean, there are tiled floors, and the plumbing and electrical systems seem complete." Seeing this, Mao Xiaoyu silently nodded in approval. If she didn't mind the simplicity, she could easily set up two or three desks, find a printer, and hire two or three people, which would be enough to run an office.

"How is it? My storefront is alright, isn't it? I painted the walls myself, and it has plumbing and electrical systems. You can use it for whatever you want, it'll be fine." Old Ge showed Mao Xiaoyu around. Actually, there wasn't much to see in a 30 or 40 square meter storefront, since you could see the whole thing at a glance. So, the two of them stood inside the storefront, and Old Ge started promoting it.

"I've looked at the house, it's fine, I can rent it, but we have to sign a contract," Mao Xiaoyu said, nodding.

"Signing a contract? No problem. We'll go to Xiao Liu's place later to sign a contract with you. From now on, you'll be my tenant, and I'll let you do whatever you want. As for your friend, you can deal with him yourself." Old Ge was also afraid of trouble and was prepared to sign a contract with Mao Xiaoyu right away.

"In that case, let's go sign the contract in a bit. But how do we calculate the start date of the lease? You know, your house is all empty. I need to invite my friend over and buy some things, so shouldn't you give us a few days to renovate? I don't need much. How about we start the lease at the beginning of next month?" Mao Xiaoyu said, pretending to be shrewd.

"Why would you need to renovate for so long? Didn't you see that I've already painted the white paint and laid the flooring? You just need to buy some things, and you can open for business in three to five days. Besides, it's only April 20th now, and there are still about 10 days until the end of the month. No matter how much you renovate, it shouldn't take that long. Here's the deal: I'll give you 5 days. The rent will start from 5 days later." Old Ge did the math in his mind and felt it wasn't worth it, so he directly compressed the renovation time from 10 days to 5 days.

"Sigh, to be honest, this location isn't very good. I've been here for almost an hour, and it seems like there aren't many people around. With this kind of foot traffic, how much business can you make in a day? It looks like this shop won't make any money for at least the first few months, and might even lose money. It seems like if you want to do business here, you need to do it long-term." As the two of them talked, they walked out of the storefront and stood at the door. Mao Xiaoyu pointed to the flow of people on the street and said to Old Man Ge.

Hearing Mao Xiaoyu's words, Old Man Ge had no choice but to say to Mao Xiaoyu: How much foot traffic can there be in the storefronts in this alley? It's not a main street. On the main street, a storefront this big would cost at least six or seven thousand a month. How could you possibly rent it to me for only 2000 yuan?

But you can't say that, since the tenants also pay money. If a tenant finally comes and then leaves, who will you rent the house to?

"Young man, that's how business is. You don't get a lot of business at the beginning. You have to wait and see. The foot traffic here isn't big, but even so, it's still a good deal for you. The prices here are so cheap, don't you think?" Old Ge had no choice but to comfort him.

"That makes sense. But if I work hard for half a year and finally get the business up and running, what will I do if you cause trouble? Of course, you might not be like that, but this is the first time we've dealt with each other, so we should both be a little cautious."

Therefore, I want to make sure that when we sign the contract, there's a clause stating that if you want me to leave within a year, you have to compensate me at least 1 yuan. That way, I can feel more at ease, since making money here for the first few months was really difficult.” Mao Xiaoyu finally stated her conditions.

When Old Man Ge heard Mao Xiaoyu's request, he fell into deep thought. He felt that the suggestion was a bit inexplicable. How could he ask him to leave for no reason? But adding this clause to the contract was actually fine. After all, adding this clause would not be detrimental to him. Only if he was out of his mind would he kick out the tenant.

If I really kick the other person out and they haven't made any money, then it seems reasonable to compensate them a little. After all, although there is some foot traffic at this alley entrance, the rent is not easy to find. If I rent it out now, I can still make some money. If I really have to kick them out in the middle of the term and the profit is greater than 1, then I can pay 1 myself.

However, such things are unlikely to happen by chance, so it wouldn't hurt to agree. Old Ge just didn't believe that he would kick someone out for 1 yuan.

"Fine, add this one then. I don't believe it, young man, that you look down on me. My character isn't even worth 1 yuan." Old Ge said defiantly.

"Boss Ge, you're so generous." Mao Xiaoyu gave him a small compliment.

"Let's go sign the contract." Old Ge prepared to lock the door and go next door to sign the contract.

"Boss Ge, when we sign the contract later, I think we should sign it this way because I didn't expect to be able to rent this place today. So after we sign the contract, I'll give you a 2000 yuan deposit. That'll secure the storefront. Then you give me the keys, and I'll arrange for someone to come over in the next few days to renovate and buy office supplies. At the beginning of the month, you can come back to collect the rent. I'll pay you three months' rent then, and also pay you the rent for the last five days of this month. This way, you can come to collect the rent on the 1st of each of the three months. It's a good time for both of us. What do you think?"

As the old man locked the door, Mao Xiaoyu suggested that since she only had 1 yuan, she needed to buy furniture for the apartment near the hospital. If she paid 8000 yuan in rent for the apartment here, she would only have 2000 yuan left, and she would definitely be very frugal with 2000 yuan.

To have more money on hand, Mao Xiaoyu plans to postpone the rent payment for 10 days. With this buffer period, she can buy beds for her hospital and officially open for business in the next couple of days. This way, she will have a steady stream of income, which will allow her to pay the rent in full and have some extra money to buy desks and chairs, making it easier to recruit staff later.

At this moment, Old Man Ge had already locked the door. Hearing Mao Xiaoyu's suggestion, he thought about it and it seemed like a good idea. After all, the other party didn't bring enough money today, so it was impossible to ask him to pay for everything.

Besides, the other party has already paid 2000 yuan. If he can't pay back the money by the beginning of the month, I can just tell him to get lost, and I can still pocket more than 1000 yuan.

Thinking of this, Old Man Ge said, "No problem. It's normal for young people to be a little short on money. Here's what we'll do: I'll come and collect the money at the beginning of the month. But if you don't pay me by then, don't blame me for turning on you and kicking you out of my house."

"No problem. After all, I still need to invest some money in the next few days. If I really stop paying and you kick me out, wouldn't I lose even more? So don't worry, even if my friend doesn't rent it, I will definitely rent this house. After all, I handed over 2000 yuan to you with my own blood and sweat. If I don't rent it, wouldn't I be losing money?" Mao Xiaoyu quickly patted her chest and assured her.

"You know what I mean, let's go, let's sign the contract next door." And so, Old Man Ge once again led the way to the store next door.

He borrowed paper and pen from Xiao Liu, the shop owner next door, and then started writing the contract.

The rest was much easier. As we had discussed earlier, it took about 10 minutes to draft the contract. The contract was for one year and stipulated that if Old Man Ge allowed Mao Xiaoyu to leave the store midway through the contract period, he would have to pay 1 yuan for moving expenses.

并且写上了今天毛小雨只要付2000块钱定金和1号当天来拿6000块钱房租，再加这个月5天的房租300块钱，并且以后收房租都是1号那一天来店里面收房租。

After the contract was written, both parties reviewed it, confirmed that there were no problems, and finally signed the contract. They also had the store owner, Xiao Liu, sign his name on it as a witness.

After the contract was signed, Mao Xiaoyu rode her electric bike to an ATM and withdrew 2000 yuan to give to Old Man Ge. Old Man Ge then handed over the keys to his shop to Mao Xiaoyu. At this moment of exchange, the rental for the day was considered complete.