Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

Many people don't understand why the Lihua Group started to shrink its operations while rapidly expanding in the real estate sector, at a pace that is puzzling.

Many people only see that the Lihua Group is shrinking, but they don't notice that the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates on June 29 this year.

Since the attack, the Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates, reaching an annual rate of 1% in its last cut, with the real estate sector benefiting the most.

The Lihua Group has been accumulating cash reserves, but it has simply kept a low profile.

The Fed's interest rate hikes are like boiling a frog slowly. Every time the rate hike cycle begins, it's time to reap the benefits globally. Those who have saved up cash before the harvest season arrives are the ones who will pick up the sickle.

As for why we invested in real estate, the money invested this year will be recouped in 2007.

Why does Zhang San have such vivid memories of 2007? It all started with his several painful stock trading experiences. He entered the market in 2006 and experienced the "530" stock market crash in the middle of the night, which was incredibly disastrous. He also failed to catch the rebound and was wiped out once when the market was at 6,000 points.

Therefore, he now needs to prepare for 2008 and clear out his dozen or so projects in North America as soon as possible.

Half of them have been sold, but it's still not enough.

"Tell them to talk to the agents that we'll increase their commission, and ask them to recommend more of our properties."

In North America, most homebuyers have their own real estate agents or are introduced to them by friends, and they listen to the advice of these agents.

For example, Zhang San's project in North America has only 300 villas. This villa area is located in Silicon Valley. Although it went through the dot-com bubble, it is now slowly recovering.

In order to sell them as quickly as possible, they hired real estate agents and gave them high commissions of 2-3%. In just three months, 300 villas were sold out. The speed was so fast that even Zhang San was shocked.

These 300 villas, with an average price of six million US dollars, generated $1.8 billion in sales, and commissions alone amounted to more than 50 million US dollars. It's truly phenomenal.

Originally there were thirteen projects, but now two more have been added. If all fifteen projects are sold out, they will recoup $12 billion.

The total cost of these projects is over ten billion US dollars. Why is it so high? Don't ask why. It's just a gross profit margin of a little over ten percent. The rest uses imported building materials from around the world, which ensures the quality of the villas.

These imported building materials, including cement, steel bars, various types of stone, and furniture, are very popular.

As for whether it's an Italian or Alpine publication, you can have it tested. If there's a difference, then Zhang San loses.

What's the difference between European truffles and Yunnan's pig truffles?

Those ingredient suppliers are making a killing by using Yunnan's "pig truffles" as European truffles, aren't they? What difference could there be? The price difference is sixty times.

Currently, half of the projects need to be cleared out by 2006, or Zhang San is preparing to sell Stephen Realty.

Regardless of who takes over, he has already recouped his costs through various expenses, such as design fees, consulting fees, and hiring supervisors.

Speaking of this, Zhang San perked up. That's how people are; when they talk about something they're proud of, they get excited, like showing off their glorious achievements and boasting about their masterpieces.

He learned this trick from someone else.

He established a design company, A, in Europe, and then hired a well-known design company, B, to design fifteen villas, including interior design. Each project would have one such villa. He then bought all the relevant copyrights, including the redesigns, and signed a promotional contract with them to leverage their reputation for publicity.

He outsourced the remaining work to his own design company, which was essentially just a shell company in Europe.

The redesign work was handed over to designers on the mainland, who then made slight improvements.

When the project was launched, the marketing materials stated that each community would have one villa, designed by the European design firm B, ensuring a comfortable and enjoyable lifestyle from the outside in.

What he said in GG was absolutely right: one villa in each community. There was no exaggeration, no lying, it was perfect.

As for building materials, it's even simpler. Their advertising claims include using the best overseas cement (without mentioning the origin), the best Alpine stone (brand name: Alps), top-quality wood from the frigid north (originating from the northern region), and environmentally friendly materials... to give you a warm and cozy home.

There's a reason why they're so expensive. Villas here, which would sell for tens of millions of dollars in Beverly Hills or other villa areas, are naturally sought after because the average price here is only six million dollars.

At this time, the real estate boom in North America had already begun. In an era where anyone could get a loan, even the wealthy would make impulsive purchases, and they made money quite quickly.

Buying a house can deduct some taxes, but of course, there is still property tax to pay. This is a villa, not an apartment.

So, Zhang San's speed in selling houses in North America was astonishing. Although he sold houses quickly, there were also things that made him unhappy.

"What did you say? We bought two billion dollars worth of CDS?"

When the overseas financial group reached its mid-year review, its accounting firm reported to him some unusual items that had been added in the past year.

Zhang San was naturally familiar with CDS, a type of betting agreement. One of the reasons for the subprime mortgage crisis was that the loans could not be recovered, which caused such agreements to collapse.

"I don't care what methods you use, get rid of these CDSs for me. If you can't get rid of them, whoever originally bought them can go to Africa to expand their business."

What kind of business can you possibly have in Africa? That's a recipe for disaster.

Where did these two billion dollars of CDS come from? They were offered by HSBC's North American bond issuers and marketed to overseas financial institutions. With the real estate market booming and the financial sector active, these CDS are naturally popular. However, they only focused on the present and were unaware that the Federal Reserve was preparing to raise interest rates.

They thought they had made a good deal, but ended up getting the wrath of the major shareholder (the sole shareholder), so they were naturally confused.

However, since the shareholders had said so, they had no choice but to start liquidating these CDS. Fortunately, the real estate market was doing well, and one part of these CDS was sold to HSBC, while the other part was sold to North America. But that's another story.