Chapter 141 Tree Sloth Apartment

After seeing the situation on-site, Pei Qian had Xiao Sun take Liang Qingfan back to the hotel to rest, while he returned to his office at Shenhua Vista.

So far, Pei Qian had secured multiple layers of insurance for Tree Sloth Apartments.

The apartment layouts seemed flashy, but were actually quite impractical.

To prevent them from appealing to the nouveau riche, he had deliberately chosen a minimalist style for the decor, avoiding the ostentatious "garden villa" style.

Moreover, this model of buying apartments and then renting them out, whether they could be rented out or not, was impossible to recoup costs within a few or even dozens of cycles.

A set of apartments with soft furnishings cost 3.5 million, and if the monthly rent was set at 8,000 or even 9,000, even if there were always tenants, it would take three to four hundred months to earn back the money after deducting cleaning and other expenses.

In Pei Qian's memory, the rent-to-sale ratio of houses in China had always been terrible. The reason why many people were keen on buying houses was mainly because they valued the associated household registration, school district, and other benefits, as well as the future appreciation potential of the house.

Of course, the house itself was a store of value, even appreciating, but as long as Pei Qian didn't sell it, the value of the house itself could never be realized.

For Pei Qian, the appreciation potential of the house was a negative factor, but no matter how much the house appreciated, the system would still calculate it as 10% of the fixed assets during settlement. As long as he wasn't greedy and kept the total amount of fixed assets below half of the system's initial funds, it wouldn't have much of an impact.

Therefore, whether the Tree Sloth Apartments project succeeded or failed, was popular or not, it was very cost-effective for Pei Qian.

Of course, it was best if it wasn't popular, so that he could lose at least a few hundred thousand yuan more in rent each month.

But these weren’t enough for Pei Qian. He had to use more ways to dissuade his target users, those young people who liked petty bourgeoisie sentiment.

The method was simple: raise the price, raise it drastically!

The current rent for such a house, based on the reasonable price in the Jingzhou rental market, was about 6,000 yuan, suitable for 4 to 6 people to share, at a little over 1,000 per person.

This price was slightly higher than the rent for other houses on the market, but considering that it was a finely decorated house with complete furniture and appliances, the price was very reasonable.

If the price was really set at 6,000 yuan a month, there would definitely be people in such a big city as Jingzhou who would come to rent it.

However, the system restricted the price from exceeding a reasonable level too much. If he wanted to raise the price, he had to provide services of approximately equal value—regardless of whether the customer needed them or not.

Therefore, Pei Qian decided to provide additional services for this house!

Cleaning: Mandatory cleaning services were provided for all houses in Tree Sloth Apartments. You could refuse it, but I would still charge you.

Hire a certain number of cleaners to do a small cleaning every three days and a large cleaning every seven days, completely matching hotel services.

Housekeeper: Each building was equipped with a house manager to handle all kinds of problems at any time. At the same time, they would have to grasp all the tenants' information, refuse entry to unidentified personnel, and strive to protect the tenants' rights and interests.

If there was a problem with the house, the housekeeper could directly use the funds of Tree Sloth Apartments to carry out repairs. President Pei would be very happy.

Regular upgrades: The rooms would be upgraded every once in a while, such as updating the latest smart devices, providing tenants with the latest game equipment, and purchasing new games and memberships for various video websites.

Of course, these things belonged to Tree Sloth Apartments, and tenants had no right to take them away.

After adding these, Pei Qian tried to inquire about the system again, and finally set the rent for this house at 9,000 yuan a month!

The house had five bedrooms, but the space in one of the bedrooms was relatively small and not suitable for living in, so Pei Qian planned to arrange it as a study.

In this way, the house actually had four bedrooms.

Based on 30 days per month, the daily rent for each room had reached about 80 yuan. Although it was still cheaper than most mid-to-high-end hotels in Jingzhou, it had already crushed 99% of the rental houses in Jingzhou.

Looking at it this way, if the house could be rented for short-term stays, it would still have a certain cost performance.

Therefore, Pei Qian had one last trick.

No co-renting, no short-term renting!

The house had to be rented as a whole, and the information of each tenant and visitor had to be registered with the housekeeper.

The rent could be paid monthly without a deposit, but there were only two options for the lease contract: half a year or a year, and you had to live for the full term.

If you wanted to check out within the term, you could do so without deducting any money, and the remaining rent would be refunded, but the customer could not stay in any house under Tree Sloth Apartments again within a year.

In this way, people who wanted to use Tree Sloth Apartments as a hotel should also be discouraged.

According to the current wage level in Jingzhou, those who could afford to rent Tree Sloth Apartments should be rich people.

But rich people could afford to buy their own houses, so why would they want to rent?

As for the average office worker, I'm afraid only employees of Tengda could afford to rent it.

But Tengda employees wanted to rent a house in Tree Sloth Apartments and still pay? No way.

Pei Qian's consideration was that Tree Sloth Apartments would initially refuse Tengda employees from moving in. After Pei Qian verified that Tree Sloth Apartments really couldn't make money, he would build on a large scale and then arrange for Tengda employees to move in, using employee benefits to offset the rent.

In this way, he would get double the happiness!

Of course, the system required that only a small portion of the houses in Tree Sloth Apartments could be used as employee dormitories. This was probably to ensure that the project had the possibility of making a profit and that the nature of the project would not change.

But as long as Pei Qian built enough Tree Sloth Apartments, he could always accommodate all the employees.

At that time, a small portion would be used as employee dormitories, and most of them would not be rented out and would remain vacant. Wouldn't that lose money like crazy?

Finally, Pei Qian had to find a person in charge for Tree Sloth Apartments.

Previously, the persons in charge of new projects were transferred from other departments. This time, Pei Qian decided to change his thinking slightly.

Letting Liang Qingfan, this architect, be responsible for Tree Sloth Apartments seemed like a good choice?

Of course, he was still an employee of Gaoling Design Company, but Pei Qian firmly believed that as long as the hoe was wielded well, no corner could not be dug.

Letting a young architect be responsible for the management of the apartment, wouldn't that be very unprofessional?

Of course, whether or not to poach him would have to be carefully considered.

If the script of Tree Sloth Apartments developed completely according to Pei Qian's imagination, Liang Qingfan did everything according to Pei Qian's requirements, and did not show any management or marketing skills, then Pei Qian could consider poaching him.

…

…

April 14, Thursday.

Entrusted Gym.

The coaches were either sitting or standing in the rest area, looking a little at a loss.

There were a total of 20 coaches, 14 male coaches and 6 female coaches, all of whom Guo Licheng had carefully assessed and selected before officially hiring.

The fitness circle in Jingzhou was not very big. Guo Licheng also knew some friends. After introducing each other, Guo Licheng explained the salary and benefits of the entrusted gym, and the people were immediately recruited.

Guo Licheng also strictly followed what President Pei said and screened them. He was looking for coaches with excellent professional qualities, who were honest people who didn't like to talk too much, just like himself.

"Guo Ye, do we really not need to hand out flyers or something?" a sweet-looking female coach with a curvy figure asked.

This female coach was called Li Yaling. What you saw now was just the surface. If you took off her jacket, you would see her high biceps and four clearly visible abdominal muscles, which vividly explained what it meant to say, "You might die if I punch you." [See this chapter's comments]

The other coaches also stared at Guo Licheng, waiting for him to make a decision.

Guo Licheng nodded: "The boss said that we don't have to do anything, just wait for customers to come to our door."

Li Yaling sighed softly: "Can you believe what the boss says?"

"Which gym in China doesn't use the routine of handing out flyers and selling cards and classes?"

"Everyone has done this before. Although they are reluctant, that's just how work is."

"I think no matter what the boss says, we still have to actively look for work."

Guo Licheng hesitated slightly, but soon he became firm in his conviction: "No, President Pei seems to be different from other bosses."

Li Yaling was a little helpless: "Bosses just look different. Some are strict, some are easy-going, and some seem to be very easy to talk to, but in reality they are all the same. They all want their employees to work actively."

"We don't need to sell cards here, and the salary is so much higher than other gyms. It's not appropriate for us to just wait like this."

Guo Licheng still shook his head: "Even if we attract customers with flyers, so what? Think carefully about our gym's membership system."

"You must come a certain number of times per week, and you also have to sell fitness meals together."

"How many customers who are attracted by flyers will accept such harsh conditions?"

Li Yaling was speechless for a moment: "Then... then what should we do?"

Guo Licheng looked around at everyone and said, "If you can't figure out what the boss is thinking, then just do what the boss says."

"President Pei must have his own ideas. We are not good at marketing in the first place, so don't interfere."

"In short, don't think too much. If President Pei blames us, I will bear the consequences alone."

"There are no customers now, so everyone should warm up. These are all very good equipment, so don't waste them."

"Remember to come and try the fitness meals later."

There were no customers in the gym, and the coaches had nothing to do, so they simply dispersed to warm up.

These fitness equipment were all newly purchased. They were not the most expensive, but they were all top global commercial fitness equipment brands, durable, stylish, and combined with modern ergonomics.

Currently, only a very few high-end hotel gyms in Jingzhou were equipped with them, and they were generally not available.

Guo Licheng also ordered uniforms for all the coaches. The bright yellow color was very eye-catching.

At the same time, a dedicated person from nearby Moyu Takeaway was responsible for delivering fitness meals to the gym on a regular basis, but since there were no customers in the gym yet, they would only deliver fitness meals for the coaches.

The Food Lab had not yet been prepared, and the fitness meals were the first version made by the chefs of Mofu Takeaway. They had reduced oil and salt, but there was still a lot of room for improvement.

Guo Licheng planned to let the coaches try them out in the next two days and give any opinions they might have so that they could be improved slowly.

At noon, the delivery guy from Mofu Takeaway arrived.

Guo Licheng and the other coaches set up the health meals in the rest area, waiting for everyone to eat together.

The original gym rest area was not very big, and it was basically used for selling cards and classes.

Now, in order to meet the dining needs of customers, Guo Licheng slightly expanded the scope of the rest area during the re-planning and purchased some additional high-end tables and chairs to ensure that customers could take turns eating here.

Guo Licheng was just about to call the other coaches who were exercising to eat when he saw a familiar figure push the door open.

President Pei was here!

Guo Licheng hurried to greet him.

After Pei Qian entered the door, he first looked around.

Some coaches were preparing to eat, and some were exercising with the equipment themselves. There was not a single customer in the entire store, and the coaches did not run outside to hand out flyers.

Hmm...

What a satisfying scene!