Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 933 Selling the House

At that time, there was no real estate sales model in China. Showrooms didn't exist; there was just an office, and no building models, only blueprints and brochures. There was a negotiation room and a finance (payment) room, but there weren't even invoices, just a small receipt.

Xiaowei's arrangement was more formal, with a proper purchase contract.

The requirements for homebuyers are to provide a household registration book and a certificate from the local police station, mainly to prove whether the family has any criminal record. Xiaowei doesn't want to bring in any vagrants or drifters.

Hao Dawei arrived early, along with Xiao Wu, and they were busy making arrangements inside and out, directing the employees to hang colorful flags, arrange mascots, put up promotional posters, and even put up some colorful balloons, which looked quite festive.

The buildings have already been cleaned; all six buildings are bright and clean, and the stair railings are spotless.

It turns out that in order to block people, each building entrance had a large door made of welded iron pipes, but that has now been removed.

Back then, the ground inside residential buildings wasn't paved; it was just dirt. Xiaowei had stone slabs laid out paths, flower beds were built, and enclosed bicycle sheds were installed. There were many such enclosed bicycle sheds in Fengtian's residential areas, and bicycle theft was rampant in the early 90s.

These enclosed carports are made of welded iron pipes with a roof of colored tiles. The doors are usually locked, and the person parking their car has to provide their own door, which is free. However, these carports are not completely safe.

The weather hasn't gotten completely cold yet; during the day, a shirt and a light jacket are enough. So, the tables are set up in the bicycle shed, with three locations set up across the six buildings—essentially three separate venues. If it gets too cold and we just move into any room on the first floor, that's fine.

There's no phone installed here. The number listed on GG is for the headquarters office, and two people have been assigned to handle it.

"I don't know if it will work. If not many people come, we can consider broadcasting it on Fengtian TV for a few days." Xiaowei and Hao Dawei stood by the carport smoking, and Xiaowei looked around as he spoke.

Hao Dawei said, "It should be about right. Every household buys the radio and television newspaper. We printed half a page, so it's definitely going to be available."

Xiao Wei asked, "How was the final price determined?"

Hao Dawei said, "The cadre housing here sells for 1,300 yuan, and there it sells for 1,100 yuan. Actually, this one could sell for 1,500 yuan, but the key is that it's not public housing, so we're afraid of being criticized if the price is too high."

Xiao Wei asked, "How much are these old buildings worth now?"

Hao Dawei said, "A little over seven hundred, maybe seven or eight hundred."

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "1100 is fine. Have you considered how to handle things with the staff inside the Construction Bureau?"

Hao Dawei said in a low voice, "Yes, after all, this house was built by his work unit. He came to buy it with a letter of introduction from the Construction Department office, and afterwards they charged him 800, and the extra money was refunded to the unit's finance department. He could then collect the money himself with our receipt."

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "What can I do? My workplace used to pool money for two or three hundred yuan."

Hao Dawei said, "What's there to refuse? He's not getting any work, is he? The company is losing money on him, so are we losing money too!"

In Fengtian in 1992, the average development cost of a building was around 500 yuan, referring to a walk-up apartment building. Collective-funded housing didn't have land costs, so the average cost was a little over 300 yuan, net cost. Private sales also had to consider taxes, labor, permits, advertising, and other costs, bringing the price to around 500-600 yuan. Honestly, 800 yuan was a very reasonable price.

The years 92 and 93 were two years of significant fluctuations in housing prices across the country, especially in Shanghai, eastern Guangdong, Fujian, and Beijing. Liaodong was also affected, but not as much. Then, prices steadily rose until 98, when the national real estate market was fully liberalized, welfare housing was completely eliminated, and housing prices began to soar.

As we all know, real estate developers formed their own upstream and downstream chains, and then worked together to drive up housing prices starting in 03, which became unstoppable.

The two people stood to one side and talked for a while. After the site was set up, the employees entered the carport and prepared to start work.

Actually, some people had arrived early and stood by watching the commotion. Now that everything was ready, they started cautiously approaching to ask questions. The people of Northeast China in this era were very simple and honest, living cautiously and warily, always on guard against everything.

"Are you selling houses here?" an older woman asked cautiously.

"Yes, we're selling houses. These six buildings over here, painted yellow, would you like to buy them, ma'am?" The Construction Bureau had only applied a cement layer, while Xiaowei had someone paint the exterior walls to differentiate them. Residential buildings in this era were mostly bare cement, rarely painted.

The windows were different too. The Construction Bureau's windows were the kind of wooden lattice windows common in those days, painted green, while Xiaowei's side had all PVC windows, large panes of glass that were clearly transparent. Even the interior doors had been replaced by the same ones from Lao Xu's side. The third-floor cadre quarters, on the other hand, had their floors completely tiled.

"It looks really nice, with that big glass window. How much does it cost? Can I ask?" the older woman asked curiously.

"Yes, this one is 1,100, and these three buildings are 1,300. They're all tiled."

The older woman turned her head and looked upstairs: "It's not cheap at all. Isn't this a building owned by the Construction Bureau? Why is it being sold?"

"Our company bought it. We originally planned to use it as dormitories, but then we built our own elsewhere, so we sold this one." This is the standard explanation given by the authorities. They can't exactly say that the Construction Department couldn't collect the funds for building the houses, can they?

The older woman asked with a smile, "Can I come up inside and take a look?"

"Sure, wait a moment, let's gather a few and go up together."

The older woman turned to the entrance of the bike shed and called out, "Mrs. Wang, Sister Xie, come over here, let me see if you can go up." It turned out she had been sent to be the first to go.

Suddenly, seven or eight elderly men and women came over, and the staff hurriedly got up to greet them and led them upstairs to see the house.

Hao Dawei said, "I guess most of them are just watching the show; none of them are actually buying anything."

Xiao Wei said, "Take it slow. This is just practice, to familiarize the employees with the house-selling process, so we won't be caught off guard next year. Did you send someone to the riverside area yet?"

Hao Dawei said, "He's gone, he's already at work, don't worry."

Xiao Wei said, "Are you sure you can succeed? Don't stay there any longer and sell us out."

Hao Dawei said, "No, the pay he offers isn't much, and it's just one neighborhood. He's just a temporary worker. They made it clear when they were hiring that if he does well, they could consider him for other departments later. Everyone knows that stuff; there's no guarantee."

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "We're going to learn from someone, so let her put in some effort."

Hao Dawei said, "I already told you, don't worry, you can definitely trust me."

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, you guys go ahead with your work. I'll go take a look around Zhongjie Street. Tell everyone to be patient and explain things clearly. We can take turns looking at the apartments; we don't need to climb anything, just look around on the first and second floors. We'll find a restaurant around here for lunch; you can make the arrangements."

Hao Dawei agreed, and Xiao Wei glanced around before getting into the car and heading to Zhongjie.

(End of this chapter)