Reborn as a landlord in Shanghai

Chapter 29 Negotiation

Hearing Mao Xiaoyu agree so readily, and even offer to give her the titles of chairman, legal representative, and business license, Guo Xiaoyan was a little confused!

After all, even if you, Mao Xiaoyu, are short of talent, you wouldn't give the whole company to someone else, would you?

Could it be that I asked for too many shares and angered the other party?

So the other person was just being sarcastic?

Otherwise, why would the other party say such a thing?

"If 30% of the shares is too much, we can discuss it, but you don't need to use such a harsh tone to talk to me." Thinking of this, Guo Xiaoyan glanced at Mao Xiaoyu and felt that Mao Xiaoyu was not very big-hearted, so she said angrily.

"What nasty things did I say?" Mao Xiaoyu was completely bewildered and didn't understand what the other person meant.

"All I want is some shares. You say I want your brokerage firm and your legal representative? Doesn't that mean you're trying to take over my place?"

Guo Xiaoyan felt that Mao Xiaoyu was pretending too much. She had already said it all, and now she was still pretending not to know anything. Since that was the case, Guo Xiaoyan told Mao Xiaoyu what she meant.

Upon hearing Guo Xiaoyan's words, Mao Xiaoyu suddenly realized what she meant. It seemed like she hadn't meant it that way!

"Stop, stop, stop! You don't think I said an antonym, do you?" Mao Xiaoyu asked back suddenly, realizing what was going on.

"Could it be a word of justice?" Guo Xiaoyan was a little skeptical.

"Of course it's the right word. Who would use the opposite? Besides, this agency just rented the apartment, so it's practically empty. Why would I use the opposite to trick you? If I were really trying to trick you, I wouldn't have rushed to see you so late at night."

My first priority is to open this agency and see if it can make money. I'm short of staff right now, and you want shares. In my opinion, I'll give them to you, it doesn't matter. After all, as I said, the road ahead is dark, and no one knows which way to go. We might fall into the water without even knowing it.

As for changing the business license to your name and the legal representative to your name, it's because I'm too young and it's not suitable for me to be in the public eye. After all, a young, inexperienced person is naturally less trustworthy, while you are more suitable than me to be the external boss of this agency.

Moreover, even if the business license is changed to your name and the legal representative is changed to your name, it will not affect my status as a shareholder of this agency. So these are minor issues that I think can be discussed. What we need to discuss now is that since you have decided to take 30% of the shares in this agency.

And I agree that you should get shares in the agency. Now let's talk about the next step: when will you start work? You know, this apartment has been rented for several days and has been vacant. We're paying about a hundred dollars in rent every day. The sooner you start work, the less rent we'll have to pay each day.

Mao Xiaoyu quickly explained, and in order to get over the unpleasant conversation, she changed the subject and asked when Guo Xiaoyan could come to work.

Hearing Mao Xiaoyu's explanation, Guo Xiaoyan felt a little embarrassed. She had misunderstood Mao's words and taken them as sarcasm. Fortunately, Mao didn't dwell on the matter, otherwise it would have been quite awkward.

When the other party asked when she could start working, Guo Xiaoyan replied directly, "Tomorrow, I can start working tomorrow. If you need an employee, I can also help you find another one. Although that employee has only been working as a real estate agent for a little over two months and isn't very efficient yet, he's still better than a newbie."

"Okay, tomorrow it is. I'll come over first thing tomorrow morning and take you to the agency to change the business license operator and legal representative's name. We'll also split the shares of the intermediary company. First thing tomorrow morning, make two copies of your ID card and prepare two one-inch photos. I'll pick you up in the morning, and we'll go to the agency together. We can just hand them over there."

Since Guo Xiaoyan has decided to come to work tomorrow, Mao Xiaoyu will definitely not be polite. After all, time waits for no one, and it's almost May, so she immediately started arranging what to do tomorrow morning.

"Do I need to go? I'll give you the copies and photos, and you can go to the agency, right?" Guo Xiaoyan asked.

"Of course you need to go. I don't have time. I can just take you to the agency. Then you can pick up the business license. When you get it back, just put it on the wall so the agency won't accuse us of operating without a license if they don't see it," Mao Xiaoyu said speechlessly.

"I understand." Guo Xiaoyan felt that getting the business license was the intermediary company's responsibility, and since they had entrusted it to her, it really was her responsibility, so she nodded in agreement.

"Let's also talk about the division of assets. After all, I never thought that the agency would partner with someone else. But since we're partners, some things still need to be divided. After all, business is business and private is private, don't you think?" Mao Xiaoyu said.

"Then you go ahead and say it," Guo Xiaoyan said, adopting an attitude of being all ears.

"Let's talk about the rent first. I signed the lease. When I said I was helping a friend rent a shop, the landlord said he only recognized my word and it was none of his business whether others rented it or not. So, this place can only be considered as rented by me. Therefore, the rent paid by the agency you and I jointly run should be given to me, and then I will give it to the landlord."

The rent is 2000 per month, with a deposit of 1 month's rent and 3 months' rent paid in advance. I won't ask you for the deposit back; I'll ask the landlord for it when I leave. The 3 months' rent is 6000 per month. The agency is a joint venture between you and me, so the rent will be split according to our shareholding.

The landlord collects the rent every three months on the 1st. Of course, the agency will keep the record in the company account, and the rent can be paid in the company's name. However, the first rent has not been paid yet, so on the 1st, you need to bring 1800 yuan and I need to bring 4200 yuan to make up 6000 yuan to give to the landlord.

"As you can see, today is the 27th, and there are only 3-5 days left in this month. Rent is due on the 1st of next month, so I'm reminding you again here: make sure you bring 1800 yuan on the 1st. Otherwise, if the landlord comes and you don't have money to pay the rent, that will be a big problem." Mao Doudou explained the rent issue.

"Okay, I understand. I will definitely bring the money on that day and won't make things difficult for you," Guo Xiaoyan nodded in agreement.

"The second thing is your salary. Although you are a shareholder of the company and own 30% of the shares, you still need to be paid your salary, and the salaries of the people you brought in also need to be paid. As for how much to pay, I'm not an industry insider, so I'm not too sure. But in my opinion, you can just ask for the average salary in your industry. Of course, don't ask for too low a salary, after all, I'm not an exploitative boss," Mao Xiaoyu said readily.

"Then I'll thank you here, Boss Mao."

Guo Xiaoyan's only thought in partnering with Mao Xiaoyu to open a real estate agency was to earn this salary. Otherwise, she would have wanted to run her own agency long ago. So, she felt it was only natural for her to receive a salary. However, hearing Mao Xiaoyu say not to pay too low a salary made Guo Xiaoyan look at Mao Xiaoyu with new respect.

After all, most bosses are heartless and would rather their employees work for free, so it's a bit strange that this Boss Mao is able to offer higher wages!

"The third and most important point is this: take a look at this map, which is a map of the area surrounding our store and also a map of the entire Yangpu District. Our store is here. I'll give you three days to find all the houses for rent and for sale within a 500-meter radius of our store and write down the prices for the houses for sale."

To help Guo Xiaoyan make a more accurate judgment, Mao Xiaoyu stood up and showed Guo Xiaoyan the map when she was explaining this point, pointing out the location of her shop and the area that needed to be investigated.

As for this map, it has been purchased at least ten days ago. Mao Xiaoyu has already flipped through it countless times in order to study it. Moreover, in preparation for what's to come, Mao Xiaoyu has already taken the map to the real estate agency. Now she can finally start making plans.

"I know that. It's like running around the area. If a real estate agent doesn't even know how many houses are for rent and how many are for sale in their own territory, what kind of agent are they? But isn't three days a bit too short? After all, it's such a big area." Guo Xiaoyan didn't realize the importance of what Mao Xiaoyu was saying and thought it was just a normal property search by a real estate agency.

"It's such a small place, just three streets and eight alleys. If you take away some public houses and houses that can't be sold, there are only so many private houses. Three days should be enough. And during this time, you'll also need to recruit people. After all, such a big shop needs at least five or six people. So, you can recruit people and investigate at the same time. Maybe when you have more manpower, it won't even take three days." Mao Xiaoyu didn't bother to explain to Guo Xiaoyan and directly gave the order.

"Okay." Guo Xiaoyan felt she should give the boss face, so she agreed.

"That's all. Now let's talk about internal benefits. Since you and I are the two bosses, we don't need to pay any agency fees when we buy houses through the store. As for the staff's compensation, we still need to pay that. So I've been thinking, if we two bosses buy houses through the store, let's pay the staff 2%. After all, a house can easily cost two or three hundred thousand, or even three or four hundred thousand. Paying 2% without taking a commission from the store should be satisfactory for the staff."

Mao Xiaoyu valued this benefit highly, since she was planning to buy several houses, potentially spending millions within two months. While a single commission might not seem like much, dozens of commissions added up to a significant amount. Therefore, Mao Xiaoyu, following the company's benefit policy, directly deducted the real estate agency's commission and kept only the employee's commission.

In fact, Mao Xiaoyu really wanted to avoid giving her employees commissions, but then she thought about them. If you don't give them commissions, how will they be motivated to negotiate prices with landlords, inquire about properties, and help sign deals?

If people aren't motivated by money, who would help with this? So, Mao Xiaoyu calculated that a 2% commission would be about right. After all, for a 20 yuan house, a real estate agent would only get 400 yuan, which is actually not bad. The average salary in Shanghai is only 3000 yuan, and in other areas it's only a little over 1000 yuan. So, if someone helps her buy a few houses a month, she can actually earn quite a lot, not to mention the commission from the seller's side!

Hearing Mao Xiaoyu mention the internal benefits, Guo Xiaoyan felt something was off.

Will I buy a house?

I don't know either!

However, even if you buy a house, it seems you don't need to buy many!

Besides, my own company will waive one intermediary fee for me, so there shouldn't be any problem, right?

But how did it become some kind of internal benefit for shareholders when it came to Mao Xiaoyu?

Is Mao Xiaoyu planning to buy a lot of houses?

Even if he buys many houses, can he live in them all by himself?

Thinking about this, Guo Xiaoyan felt that this internal benefit was a bit strange, but it didn't seem to have any benefit or harm to her. Since the boss had said so, she might as well listen to him this time, since it wouldn't affect her anyway.

"Okay, then if we want to buy a house in the future, we can go through the internal benefits," Guo Xiaoyan agreed.

Hearing Guo Xiaoyan's agreement, Mao Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief. As long as you agree, there's no need to pay the agency fee later.

Mao Xiaoyu thought about it for a moment, and feeling that there were no other problems, she took out her keys from her pocket, then took out a key from the keychain and handed it to Guo Xiaoyan.

"Here's the key. If you come early tomorrow, open the door early and check if there's anything else we need. In the end, we'll pool some money together as start-up capital for the agency, and then we can buy what we need and use what we need," Mao Xiaoyu said.

Now that everything was settled, Guo Xiaoyan casually took the keys from Mao Xiaoyu and said, "I understand."

"It's getting late, we should head back. Tomorrow is a new day, and it can be considered a new collaboration for us. See you tomorrow." Mao Xiaoyu felt that they had finished talking and that it was getting late, so she prepared to go back.

And so, the two left the storefront. Mao Xiaoyu locked the door, and after they parted ways at the store entrance, Mao Xiaoyu went to the restaurant entrance to get her electric scooter before leaving.

As for Guo Xiaoyan, she was rushing back while calling Xue Guangmei, preparing to ask Xue Guangmei to come to work the next morning.