In life, nothing is greater than death, and clothing, food, shelter, and transportation accompany us throughout our days. The seven daily necessities are firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.
With everything settled and money in hand, I can now try more things in this life and get to know the world better. A colorful life is about to begin.
After breakfast, I hopped on my beat-up electric scooter and sped off to the nearby real estate agency. At this time, housing prices in Luzhou haven’t skyrocketed yet—they’re quite stable. Last year, they went up by a few hundred yuan per square meter, hovering around 5,600 yuan.
After searching around, I finally found one agency. Its storefront was pretty ordinary, even a bit shabby—nothing like the later era when agencies were everywhere, practically every ten steps apart.
“Hey, buddy, any properties for sale around here?” Zhou You asked proactively, since no one was paying him any attention.
At the moment, there was only one person in the agency—a young sales guy—staring at a computer, busy with something. Back then, people didn’t have the habit of fiddling with their phones all the time.
Phones from this era were called smartphones, but they lacked many features. There weren’t many apps or fun games; desktops and laptops still ruled.
“What kind of place are you looking to rent, and what size?” the agent asked casually without looking up.
Zhou You didn’t mind. After all, at his age, buying a house was basically out of the question. But he emphasized again, “I want to buy a second-hand house, one that’s already renovated, preferably fully furnished, ready to move in!”
The young sales guy finally stood up. “Sorry, bro, I’m the only one here. I was just handling something—my bad for keeping you waiting. My last name is Li, just call me Xiao Li. And you, bro, what’s your surname?”
“No need for formalities, my surname is Zhou. Please recommend some suitable properties for me.”
“Bro Zhou, do you have any requirements for distance? There are a few properties nearby—mainly Jiulongyuan, Xinyuan Community, and Yili Yangfang across the street. Do any of these fit your needs?”
“Jiulongyuan and Yili Yangfang are too close to the railway tracks, so I’ll pass. Just look for houses in Xinyuan Community, preferably on the second or third floor. Can we view them today?”
“Sure thing, bro. I’ve got a few listings on hand right now. Want me to take you to see them?”
The two of them rode their little scooters toward Xinyuan Community.
Why did Zhou You want to buy a house in this community? Mainly because he was familiar with it, and it was very close to the school.
In his past life, he had lived in this community for a while. He wouldn’t say he was deeply attached to it, but it was full of memories.
Back then, he had just graduated and didn’t have much money, so he rented a place here with a friend. Graduation was when you felt the strongest connection to your school—after all, you’d been studying there all along. The surrounding area was full of places to eat, drink, and have fun, which felt naturally familiar. On weekends when he had nothing to do, he could stroll around the campus and reminisce about his lost youth. But as work got busier, he visited the school less and less.
“Bro, Xinyuan Community is all low-rise buildings with no elevators. The main layouts are 110, 130, and 160 square meters—all with north-south ventilation and high usable area. They’re great for young people, and climbing stairs is good exercise,” the agent explained as they walked.
“I’m taking you to see a 130-square-meter unit now. The owner’s kid works in Shanghai and needs to sell this place to scrape together a down payment. Think about Shanghai’s housing prices—23,000 yuan per square meter. Who can afford that? Tsk tsk,” the agent lamented.
Zhou You stayed silent. Yeah, no matter the era, housing was a huge investment. But at least now you could still reach for it if you jumped. In the future, it would be utterly hopeless—you just couldn’t afford it, so whatever.
The house was on the third floor, a good level. In low-rise buildings, there was an old saying: “Gold on the third, silver on the fourth.” The third and fourth floors were the best, whether for lighting, ventilation, or going up and down stairs. The place had been renovated before, originally intended as a wedding home for the owner’s kid. But the kid had big ambitions and didn’t want it, so now it was hard to sell since it was already renovated.
Some might ask, isn’t a renovated house a good thing?
Actually, a newly renovated house is tough to sell because most buyers are looking for a place to get married—the so-called “rigid demand.” They want to buy a house and decorate it to their own taste.
Besides, if it’s already renovated, how do you price it? If it’s too expensive, I don’t want it; if it’s too cheap, the owner won’t agree. So it’s been sitting until now.
Zhou You took a look. The renovation was decent, and it came fully equipped with a fridge, air conditioner, washing machine, and TV.
“How long has this place been renovated?”
“Over a year. Since it’s already done, the owner didn’t want to rent it out, so it’s been empty. If you like this one, you can move in anytime. Just swap out a few household items.”
Zhou You inspected it carefully. After all, he’d be living here for a while. It would be a few years before the nearby Rose Garden was built, and then he could buy a large flat there or maybe a villa—that would be perfect.
The house had three bedrooms, two living rooms, and one bathroom. Unlike later times, where a place this big would definitely have two bathrooms, having two bathrooms was indeed more comfortable, especially in the morning when there wasn’t a rush. Otherwise, with more people, even using the toilet became a hassle.
He walked through every room and even found a study. Zhou You was quite pleased with that. How many people still set up a study these days? Wasn’t it a waste of space? You barely had enough room to live in, let alone store books.
Though he was satisfied inside, Zhou You still wanted to see a few more places—just in case there was something better.
That said, agents back then were way better than the ones in later years. There was much less trickery and deceit. Later on, agents had so many tricks up their sleeves that you couldn’t guard against them.
First, there were fake listings—using cheap or bargain houses to lure people in. When you got interested and contacted them, they’d set a viewing time. Once they met you, they’d say that house was too popular and just got sold, but they had a few similar ones to show you, wasting your time to close a deal.
Second, the order of viewings was also a tactic. They’d first show you a mediocre house, then a worse one, creating a psychological letdown, and finally take you to the “good” house they wanted you to buy, making it stand out and spark your interest. Don’t underestimate this simple “mediocre-bad-good” sequence—it was key to boosting closing rates.
Third, they’d pocket the price difference. A common trick was to lower the seller’s expectations, pushing them to drop the price, while raising the buyer’s expectations, nudging them to offer more. By exploiting the information gap, if both sides wanted a quick deal, the agent could pocket some “hard-earned money” or “tea money.”
I won’t go on. Agents kept inventing more and more tricks. Ordinary people who hadn’t dealt with them were completely in the dark, easily falling for scams without realizing it. By the time you found out, it was endless back-and-forth, draining your time and energy. All because the stakes were too high—just the commission, usually around 3% of the house price. Think about later times, when even a basic house started at 2 million yuan. No wonder agents in Beijing and Shanghai were always fighting.