May 31st.

Pei Qian was having lunch at Slackin’ Internet Café’s Hangdong University branch when he received a call from Xiao Sun.

“Mr. Pei, I’ve found the buildings you asked me to look for. When would you like to come see them?”

Pei Qian thought for a moment: “Let’s say 2 PM. Go to the hotel first to pick up Mr. Liang, then come to the internet café to get me, and we’ll go together.”

“Also, send me the information about the two residential areas. I’ll take a look first.”

It had been a month since Pei Qian moved into his new residence.

After living there for a month, Pei Qian was very satisfied with the Sloth Apartment model, which managed to discourage other tenants while still ensuring his own comfortable living experience.

So far, Pei Qian was still the only resident in the first building of Sloth Apartments, with no other tenants at all.

This was partly because Sloth Apartments hadn’t done much promotion, and partly because the high prices and numerous rules directly discouraged the few customers who happened to discover it.

In short, everything was going well so far!

So Pei Qian was thinking it was about time to continue.

He hadn’t spent all the money from the movie box office yet, and buying buildings could quickly consume this money. Considering that fixed assets were calculated at 10%, Pei Qian thought it would be appropriate to control his budget for buying buildings this cycle to around 60-70 million. He had already spent 30 million, so he could spend another 40 million.

This time, Pei Qian planned to buy two more buildings for around 35 million, with the remaining money going toward renovations, adding more if necessary.

Some successful experiences needed to be passed down, such as the buildings needing to have major flaws.

For instance, buildings with bizarre layouts could be given priority.

Square, well-ventilated apartments with north-south exposure could easily be rented out with just a little bit of nice decoration, while bizarre layouts often meant poor living experiences and wasted space, offering poor value for money.

With slightly higher prices for such buildings, no one would want to rent them.

At the same time, successful practices like prohibiting tenants from adding their own furniture, arranging butlers and cleaning services to increase premiums, and implementing minimalist decoration styles were definitely all worth carrying forward.

Besides these, Pei Qian also considered supplementing some shortcomings in the current model.

Previously, he had bought fully furnished apartments, mainly because he was eager to move in himself and wanted to quickly see if the Sloth Apartment model could make money.

So, the previous renovations had spent most of the money on soft furnishings, equipping the apartments with large TVs, high-end furniture, various smart home devices, smart-tinting glass, and so on.

This time, Pei Qian decided to buy more dilapidated buildings and do the hard renovations as well—wouldn’t that allow him to spend even more money?

After all, he wasn’t going to live there himself and had no intention of renting the places out. A longer construction period and worse living experience wouldn’t be a problem at all.

With the same amount of money, one option was to buy high-priced, fully furnished buildings, while the other option was to buy low-priced, undesirable, dilapidated buildings and then spend all the saved money on renovations.

The second option would result in fewer fixed assets, having less impact on the settlement.

This time, Pei Qian wanted to buy two more buildings. Considering that it wasn’t wise to put all his eggs in one basket, he specifically chose two styles completely different from the Urban Dawn building, asking Xiao Sun to find buildings in two specific styles.

One was a commercial-residential building with fewer units.

The other was an old building in a remote part of the city, long uninhabited.

In short, the principle was to pick up trash in various ways.

Nowadays, most properties can be found online, not to mention all the intermediaries trying to get money from your pocket. Finding such places wasn’t difficult. After Pei Qian assigned this task to Xiao Sun, he ran around Jingzhou for two days and quickly found suitable places.

At the beginning of the month, Xiao Sun was supposed to be responsible for receiving Liang Qingfan, but after a few days, Liang Qingfan felt it would be better to freely explore Jingzhou on his own. So Xiao Sun didn’t accompany him anymore, and Pei Qian arranged for him to look at properties instead.

Until today, Liang Qingfan had been officially roaming around Jingzhou for nearly a month, and Pei Qian felt it was about time to arrange for him to start new work.

After finishing lunch, the server cleared away the dishes and brought a cup of coffee.

Pei Qian sipped his coffee while calling Liang Qingfan.

After several rings, Liang Qingfan finally answered: “Hello? Mr. Pei?”

There was a nasal tone to his voice, as if he had just woken up.

Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel pleased.

This was most likely because he had been playing freely for a month and had overdone it; otherwise, why would he still be sleeping at noon?

Taking a nap? There was no reason to nap at around 11 AM.

Very good! This was exactly the kind of talent he admired—someone who traveled and slept late when not working, never thinking about work!

Pei Qian didn’t ask further, afraid that Liang Qingfan might misunderstand and think he was urging him to work.

“I’ve been thinking, Sloth Apartments is about ready to enter the second phase. What do you think, ready to start work?”

Liang Qingfan: “Of course!”

Pei Qian was satisfied: “Good, then get up quickly, have a meal at the hotel, and Xiao Sun will come to pick you up. Then we’ll go look at the properties together.”

After hanging up, Pei Qian began to examine the detailed information about the two locations Xiao Sun had sent him, and then searched for general information online.

One was Shundong Garden commercial-residential building, conveniently located in the city center and recently completed. But because it was a newly developed commercial-residential building, not many units had been sold yet.

The other was Binhu Residential Area Building 9, built in 2001, located in the suburbs of Jingzhou. The only notable feature was that it was near a park with a small artificial lake, offering lake views. But in terms of layout, its bizarreness rivaled the never-setting-sun layout of Urban Dawn.

The rental prices of both places were significantly lower than other residential buildings in the same areas, clearly very unpopular.

As for why they were unpopular, each had its disadvantages.

Pei Qian was pleased—Xiao Sun was indeed reliable!

……

At 2:30 PM, Pei Qian and Liang Qingfan first arrived at the Shundong Garden commercial-residential building.

The sales consultant was very enthusiastic, but Pei Qian very politely left him at the entrance.

With a professional architect present, why listen to sales talk?

The entire commercial-residential building had 11 floors excluding ground floor shops, with 2 elevators and 7 units per floor, a ceiling height of 5.5 meters, and an apartment area of 38.5 square meters. At 7,000 yuan per square meter, each unit costs nearly 270,000 yuan, making the entire building just over 20 million yuan.

As soon as Liang Qingfan saw the layout, he immediately understood: “Mr. Pei, you want to buy a commercial-residential building?”

Pei Qian nodded: “That’s right.”

Liang Qingfan didn’t say much more; since Mr. Pei had decided to buy a commercial-residential building, he must already understand its shortcomings.

Pei Qian did indeed understand, but these shortcomings were precisely why he decided to buy a commercial-residential building.

Compared to ordinary residential buildings, commercial-residential buildings had shorter property rights periods; water, electricity, property management, heating, and other fees were all calculated according to commercial standards, resulting in higher living costs; the overall residential density was higher, the units were smaller without north-south ventilation, and the comfort level was often relatively poor.

Pei Qian reasoned that although commercial-residential buildings were generally 30-40% cheaper than residential buildings, they had poor appreciation potential, high daily expenses, and short property rights periods. If he spent a lot of money on renovations, wouldn’t it be easier to lose money?

As for why he wanted to buy a new building…

There were indeed some older commercial-residential buildings, but since Sloth Apartments would need to arrange building managers and cleaning services, it would be more convenient to buy an entire building. With old buildings, unless they were unwanted and the residents were eager to sell, it would be very troublesome if one or two stubborn residents refused to move out.

So buying this kind of new building was more worry-free. Even if a few units had already been sold, he could consider buying them back at a slightly higher price.

Pei Qian walked around; the layout was square, basically no different from a typical loft layout. The lower level contained the living room, dining room, and kitchen, except there was no natural gas, only ovens, microwaves, induction cookers, and so on.

Pei Qian nodded silently; yes, this was another satisfactory aspect.

The second floor’s layout was relatively simple, used purely as a bedroom.

Pei Qian walked around and found that the overall living environment was quite good, but the entire area was very small. This also meant that if he continued with the minimalist style from before, the entire house would not be able to hold many things, and the actual living experience would not be good.

Combined with building management, cleaning services, and daily utilities, Pei Qian was confident he could raise the rent to a level that even artistic youth would be reluctant to pay.

After walking around, Pei Qian felt quite satisfied and turned to ask: “Mr. Liang, do you think this price is appropriate?”

Liang Qingfan thought for a moment: “It’s a bit high, but still within an acceptable range. However, the biggest problem is still…”

Before Liang Qingfan could finish, Pei Qian had already turned to Xiao Sun and said, “Good, I’ll take it. Notify Assistant Xin, and then let’s continue to look at the next building.”

Liang Qingfan: “…”

The agent had been waiting at the entrance and hadn’t come in. Seeing Pei Qian walking out after just a brief look, he hurriedly approached: “Sir, if you’re not satisfied with this property, there are others to consider…”

Pei Qian walked straight out: “I’ll take this building. Someone will come to sign the contract with you this afternoon.”

Liang Qingfan followed behind Pei Qian, silently swallowing the shortcomings of the layout he wanted to remind Mr. Pei about.

The agent watched the three depart, blinking, unable to react for a moment.

Buy it? The entire building?

Was he being made fun of??

……

After leaving Shundong Garden, Pei Qian and Liang Qingfan went to the second address, Binhu Residential Area Building 9.

Because it was in the suburbs, it took a full 40 minutes by car to arrive.

Near the Binhu Residential Area was a park with an artificial lake. From the upper floors, one could see the scenery in the park, with better views from higher floors.

Building 9 had 8 floors with 2 units per elevator, and both it and the adjacent Building 8 had semi-cylindrical protruding parts facing the park and artificial lake.

Each apartment was over 60 square meters, with two bedrooms and one living room, at an average price of 8,000 yuan per square meter. Each unit costs 500,000 yuan, making the entire building over 8 million yuan.

This price was also significantly lower than the average housing price in Jingzhou city, partly because it was in the suburbs, and partly because no one had lived there for several years or even rented it, so the price had naturally dropped continuously.

The agent led Pei Qian and the others to the top floor of Building 9, where directly opposite was a 180-degree curved floor-to-ceiling window, offering a panoramic view.

Pei Qian frowned and immediately wanted to retreat.

However, when he noticed Liang Qingfan also frowning, he instantly changed his mind.

“Is there something wrong with this building?” Pei Qian asked.

Liang Qingfan had an “eye-searing” expression: “Of course there are problems! Otherwise, would this entire building still be vacant now?”

“The entrance door and corridor are only 70 centimeters wide, making it difficult to move furniture in. And this old building from ten years ago seems to have damaged waterproofing layers—the ceiling is covered in mold spots, and the corners show signs of water accumulation. To make it habitable, it would need to be completely redone.”

“The kitchen is in a small corner of the living room, and the bathroom is also very small, which would result in a poor user experience.”

“And these curved floor-to-ceiling windows have the same issue as the Urban Dawn apartment: irregular shapes result in low utilization rates.”

“But the Urban Dawn apartment was large, so it wasn’t noticeable. This apartment is already limited in space, and if these areas can’t be fully utilized, the living experience would be several notches worse than at Urban Dawn.”

“Moreover, this building seems to have some structural issues as well, which is certainly why it’s selling cheaply. If ordinary designers and renovation companies were willing to take it on, someone would have bought it for renovation by now. But the fact that no one has moved in or renovated it until now indicates that this building is difficult to modify—ordinary renovation companies don’t dare to take on this job!”

“In short, the structure of this building is mostly unsuitable for large-scale transformation, or the difficulty of transformation is very high.”

“Rare scenery only has value in the luxury housing market; in the ordinary housing market, it’s a classic white elephant—not only does it not add premium, it might be a detracting factor.”

Pei Qian nodded: “I understand. Xiao Sun, I’ll take this building and the adjacent Building 8 as well.”

Liang Qingfan: “?”

After everything I just said, did Mr. Pei not listen at all?

Buying one unit would be understandable, but buying two buildings at once? Directly throwing away 16 million yuan?

If Liang Qingfan thought the previous commercial-residential building was barely acceptable, this building was completely unacceptable. He had to say something!

“Mr. Pei, I just explained that renovating this building would be extremely difficult, and whether it could even be successfully renovated is an unknown…”

Pei Qian smiled and patted his arm: “That’s precisely why it will showcase a designer’s skill level, isn’t it?”