Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At that price point, Li Du shook his head. Based on its market value of 300,000, the price of the house had entered the risky range. The other party would stop bidding anytime now.
He did not want to be forced to acquire a termite-infested house. He did not really care about that amount of money, but he did not want to act foolishly either.
Realizing that Li Du had stopped bidding, Abel was ecstatic. He was relieved and praised himself for his persistence. He had finally won a house that Li Du had bid for.
Some of the house-pickers, too, heaved a sigh of relief. Then someone shouted, “Hey, China dude, aren’t you very rich? Why did you back out so soon?”
Li Du looked at that man and said, “You didn’t but the house either, what are you so cocky about?”
That person was stumped. Abel stood by the man’s side and said proudly, “My buddy is asking for me. Aren’t you rich? I thought that you’ll be buying all the houses today.”
Li Du looked at him calmly and said, “I backed out to help you save some money.”
“That’s so kind of you,” Abel laughed heartily. “Buddy, I couldn’t tell. Turns out that you are such a kind-hearted person.”
Li Du said, “It’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. I did that to help you save money. That house’s market price is 300,000 dollars. I helped you to save 80,000 dollars. You can use that money to get rid of the termites and fix the house. That would take about as much. You won’t have to take a loss that way.”
Hearing that, the smile on Abel’s face froze. He said, “You’re spouting nonsense.”
Li Du fixed him with a look of surprise. “Spouting nonsense? Didn’t you guys notice? There are termites in that house. I daresay there’s a large nest in there. Go look for it. I hope that you guys can manage to find it sooner rather than later.”
Li Du sounded very certain, and that made Abel and his partner start panicking.
Just like how he had spoken to Li Du previously, Abel’s partner, Andrew, wore that same calm facade of pretense. Then he spoke up, “He’s bluffing, don’t believe his words.”
Dickens and the rest started to laugh. “Idiot, if you believe him, just wait for it.”
“You didn’t think about why none of us bid for that house? How dumb of you. Boss Li had called his bids single-handedly. Did you think about why that was the case?”
“He must not have thought about that. That is forgivable. He doesn’t know how invincible Boss Li is.”
“You should go check out what people say about Boss Li. There are treasure hunters in Los Angeles too, it should not be difficult to locate them and hear it from them.”
The auctioneer did not give them more time. The seventh house now entered the bidding. It was a house in the same district as the previous one, number E-45 in the small zone district.
The value estimate of the house was decent. Li Du felt that there would be a decent profit margin if they could take down the house within 250,000.
Akkalou bid and took down the house for 240,000 dollars.
That price was already in the risky range. Any higher and it would cut into the profits.
The meaning of profit range was that any amount within the range could guarantee a profit.
The house-pickers did not bid at the price within that range because there were risks involved in real estate. They were more cautious and looked mainly at the risk price range.
If one managed to land a house at a price within the risk range, then it meant that the investment would be risk-free. There would definitely be profits. However, exceeding that range, there would be certain risks, and the house-pickers were unwilling to face them.
Li Du was the sort who dared to take risks. To him, it was something he was prepared to deal with. After all, he knew very well the condition of each house.
Under his leadership, the treasure hunters were able to beat the house-pickers. Out of the twenty houses in the auction, they had landed fifteen!
The house-pickers had not expected such a situation. They were unprepared. Bidding for real estate was vastly different from warehouse auctioning. Preparation work was of utmost importance for this trade.
After all, the price of real estate could not be compared to the price of warehouses. The potential loss could not be that much if one decided to suddenly bid higher for a warehouse. At most, it would be an additional few thousand.
It was different for real estate. Once the bids grew higher, it could be the difference of hundreds of thousands. If there were problems with the house, the loss would be great.
Besides, the house-pickers and their partners were not huddled together. They were present in different spots. In such a situation, if they wanted to change their plans, communicating was inconvenient. After all, over the phone, the information could not be pieced up so easily together.
Just like that, Li Du and the treasure hunters were able to communicate more efficiently and land more houses.
There were five houses left and the treasure hunters gave those up. That was because the rest of the houses were villas or condominiums. The starting price was high, a few million. They did not have so much money.
They stopped bidding, but Li Du continued. The profit range for the previous houses was small and he was not too interested. Those big houses were his target.
At the same time, Wolf King Logan, who had not bid before, perked up as well. Li Du immediately knew that Logan’s target was also those higher-value houses.
There was no restrictive purchase or sell policy in Los Angeles. For some of the better-kept houses, one could just refurbish a little and then sell them off.
For example, he had bought over six houses previously. Out of them, he got the cleaning company to tidy up two. Snyder Tilav had helped him to post the listings on the internet and sent them to major real estate agencies. Very soon, there were people who expressed interest.
The two houses added up to 385,000 dollars. After tidying up, they were sold for 254,000 each. Very quickly, he had made a profit of more than one hundred thousand!
Out of the five villas, the first one was colonial-style. Such houses were more common in the eastern area. The architectural style of this building originated from the European colonial period, brought in by the British and French settlers.
The structure of the house was generally symmetrical. There were pairs of large windows on both sides of the main entrance. There were also decorative patterns on the doors and windows, and pillars and columns on each side of the door. The garden had pavilions and fountains. It was very grand and gorgeous.
Naturally, the price was also high. Such houses, even many generations later, would be capable of fetching a few millions easily.
Li Du had gotten Snyder to estimate the price of all the houses. That was because Snyder knew the specific situation of each house, so the valuation would be more accurate. The estimated value of this villa was 1.8 million!
The starting bid for the villa was not low. It started at 600,000.
There were five or six people who were interested in the villa. Like Li Du and Logan, they also had deep pockets. Hence, the bidding war was fiercer. The next bids increased by ten thousand each time.
“650,000!”
“I will fork out 750,000!”
“800,000!”
“Let’s be more decisive about this. We all know the house is worth more than eight hundred grand.”
“One million.” Li Du smiled at the house-picker who had spoken. “That’s right, we know that the house is worth more than this. Hence, let’s not waste time. Let’s move forward.”
Logan said slowly, “One million and twenty thousand!”
The house-picker who had wanted to scold Li Du for pushing the bid too high shut up immediately. Logan, too, had raised the bid by twenty thousand. If he wanted to scold Li Du, he would have to offend Logan too.
Li Du raised his hand. “One million and thirty thousand!”
Logan did not follow the bid. Neither did other house-pickers. At one million and thirty thousand, Li Du had managed to land the house at a price lower than he had expected to!
