Chapter 46 - Settling In (1)

Returning to the sales office, Shu Yan was invited into the backroom. A girl in a suit brought her tea and also a variety of snacks. She randomly picked one to put into her mouth before she saw the sales girl returning, walking behind a middle-aged man.

“Good afternoon, miss. Xiao Li had told me about your requests. Both of them are somewhat tricky.”

Shu Yan glanced over the name tag on the man and said, “Manager Wang. I am a person with alacrity. I don’t think my requests are too unreasonable. $4,000 per square meter and admission to City Xi grade school. If you can do those for me, I can sign the contract right now.”

Nanfu Mansion was one of the high-end districts for sale right now and it offered desirable environment and amenities, so its costs were relatively higher than others. The 60 m2 units were almost all sold, but not so much the 120 m2 ones, so the price wasn’t too much of an issue. As for the grade school entrance…

“I can accept the price. Entrance to the schools shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but schools have already started this year. They might not let your child start mid-term. How old is your child?” They have dealt with a few schools previously and City Xi was the most difficult one among all of them.

“She is 7. She was born during the first half of the year and just the right age to start grade school.” Shu Yan shook her head. “This was my main condition. That’s the reason why I want to buy here.”

There was no reason for her to pick this place if it wasn’t for her kids’ schools. It’s almost $500,000! She could have bought a home in some suburb. The price tag was lower. And, once it was demolished a few years ago, she would become an instant nouveau riche.

Manager Wang was hesitant for quite a while before he said, “Alright. Since you, too, had made your decision with such alacrity. Miss Shu, if you have any other friends who are looking, please refer them to our district.”

She could probably have dragged on some more for an even lower price, but money was much less of an issue when compared to her kids’ schooling. She’d just consider the extra money as money spent on getting them into the schools.

With regards to matters of schooling, Shu Yan requested a separate agreement to guarantee the children’s quota at the schools.

“You won’t have to worry about that. I will give you an answer tomorrow. We wouldn’t want to delay the kids’ schooling.” Manager Wang saw Shu Yan’s ID and asked, “You are not a local of City Nan?”

“Right. That is my next question. Can I move my household register to City Nan if I purchase a house here? Or that I can’t even buy if I am not a local here?” She didn’t think that limitation was in place just yet.

“Yes, you can move your household register here through buying a house, but you are responsible for the registration fees,” explained Manager Wang quickly.

“Well, naturally.” Shu Yan let out a sigh of relief. She had only briefly heard a friend of hers mentioned once that back in the 90s, one could still move one’s household register through buying a house. This rule was no longer in existence after 2000. For a while, there she was worried that this world was different. She lucked out. Otherwise, their only option was to move to some remote village location.

“Then just bring over your household register and ID. We will need to work on your deed and register. We will also need your children’s birth certificates and immunization records. They might ask for that over at the schools.” Manager Wang waited for Shu Yan to sign the contract, then together, they went to the back for the money transfer while he passionately explained everything to her.

No matter what one was purchasing, the sales people were always the most passionate when one was paying. Taking this opportunity, Shu Yan asked Manager Wang all sorts of remodeling-related questions.

This was an unfinished house so the remodeling was another big issue. She was not familiar with the City Nan during this time period. If she were to look for remodeling company by herself, she wouldn’t even know if she was taken to the cleaner.

Picture: unfinished house

Source: zhuzhai.com

“Our company has our own remodeling company. Any of our buyers who use our remodeling company will receive a 20% discount. Mainly, our remodeling company is more reliable. If you look for them on your own, they are all gorillas. You won’t be able to find them again if anything goes wrong.” Manager Yang sounded very resigned when he brought this up. Many of their customers would look for cheaper alternatives on their own but still turned to them when anything went wrong.

That was good. She didn’t care about a little bit more cost for material, as long as the quality was good. She figured she would be staying here for a very long time, so she’d like everything about it to be as perfect as possible. Now that the remodeling issue has been taking care of, she still needed to figure out a living arrangement before she could move into the house. She couldn’t stay at the hotel this entire time.