Day 4 Apartment hunting

Alright, we saw only to units. One was in a lane between our current apartment and our gym. It was located at the end of a series of lanes. To the very end of a very slippery brick lane. Slippery because of all the grims and tree saps and all.... Humidity, no sun, heat, you get the picture. We entered from the back door. As expected, pretty much a bloody crap kitchen with no one service it for over 70 years. As we moved from room to room and from floor to floor, same conditions. Crap. How can people live like that for over 60 years in the same place. And the bathrooms, I just didn't want to get into it. The rooms were huge and square. This place is 4-story high, 5 bedrooms with 2 dens, a roof top garden and a front lawn. All enclosed. Very private; the ceiling was high, about 3.5 meters (on each floor). Need to use imagination to make the whole place "civilized" and "modernized". Well, I wasn't prepare to pay RMB11 Millions for such a large place that will require entire gutting from top to bottom. The hardwood floor was immaculate though. Worth saving. The rest, I care less. By my estimation, if I were to renovate the entire thing, it would have cost another RMB1 Million. Not worth my while. Money sinks in that I cannot get back out.

The second and the last unit, it was not far from the realtor's office. It was in one of those European lane off the main street. But the viewing unit was the corner one facing the main street. It used to be a 2 story house except, as always, divided by the commie during the revolution. The unit was spacious and everything was of original construction. The only newly added was a kitchen and a bathroom. The door way linking the kitchen and the bedroom, yes, that is the only way, had a width of a anorexic model. Yes! No joke. I barely fitted with my arms tugged as tight to my body as possible. It was asking for RMB5 Millions. One living room, one bedroom. The unit was rented by a pair of Germans; they left. The stairway leaving up to this unit was never maintained probably since it was built. And the wiring of the fuse boxes were exposed, dusty and of 50's vintage. Pass....

We went back to the realtor's office and guess who was there to greet us. The sale manager from the last place we visited yesterday; that expensive Singaporean development. Coincident? I thought not. He just talked for over an hour non stop. Bill, he talked nonstop without even taking a breath! Beats you there. Ha ha. The guy explained how detail the developer was; even personally went to a different province to pick trees for the development; and hired a tree grower to stay on for 1/2 year to look after the trees. And of course, the philosophy of owning a place.... Showed us all the numbers. I didn't like being ganged up; but this seemed to be how the Chinese work. I left eventually giving some excuse. Then, headed out to a coffee shop with the realtor and her manager. They want to know our directions. Which I understood as we didn't provide any feedback but just looking. After 4 days, should know our requirements. So we just made clear our choices: the Singaporean development or the ground floor apartment with a huge garden. We listed all our questions for the pair to response. And we are heading back to the Singaporean development to check on the layout again equipping with our measurements. Just to see if all the major pieces fit. At RMB55,000 per sq meters, we want to be sure if we decide to buy. But across the street, a new development to take ownership this September at RMB33,000 per sq meters. Initial offering is not even closed. Umm.... people stop buying.

The old apartment, the realtor's manager warned us about buying it; restrictions of what we could do, not owning the entire 3 story can post problem with people moving in and out, the weird layout that the neighour's kitchen opens to the apartment's bathroom. I saw those problems before; also just found out, I couldn't even move a tree without someone's approval because the entire xiao qu is declared as a protected zone. Also, I cannot break an exterior wall down and extend out as much as I could. So, the entire space could post more problem than I want to deal with. If that neighbour agrees to swap space with me, who pays for the renovation and the cost of swapping? And then of course, someone would have bound to complain about pipe blocking, drainage problem AFTER the renovation. Wife still gung-ho on this property. Me, No. For RMB 5.8 million, totally out of line for a piece of trash so to speak.