Chapter 626 - Debate on Sloth Apartments’ Model

All the safety measures that Pei Qian had taken before were working!

When he started working on the Sloth Apartments, Pei Qian had racked his brains thinking about how to dissuade tenants from renting an apartment, so that the Sloth Apartments would be kept vacant for as long as possible.

Obviously, uploading the ruthless regulations on Tengda Life App had not been enough.

Although he had certainly dissuaded some people, there would inevitably be others who were rebellious enough to come down and see exactly what the house looked like.

Every building had its designated butler who could also be in charge of sales because they had to explain the characteristics of the apartments to customers who came down.

What if those butlers were particularly good at making sales and speaking? What if they managed to bluff customers into renting an apartment on the spot?

That was very possible!

This was because most people who had come to apply to become butlers, including Song Kai, had experience working in other rental companies—which were adept at turning people into marketing machines who could lie through their teeth.

On top of that, the Sloth Apartments had high standards of decoration and had been personally designed by Liang Qingfan. Thus, customers would have an excellent first visual impression.

Middle-aged people who preferred grandeur would not like it, but a significant proportion of young people would love it.

Pei Qian was only afraid that when customers came to view the apartments, they would see the same scene that they had witnessed in the promotional video. Coupled with the butler’s sales tactics, they could recklessly decide to sign a contract on the spot.

To prevent this from happening, butler training had become an extremely important part of the process.

Thus, Pei Qian had made sure to leave Song Kai with strict instructions from the beginning: he was not to use any sales tactics if people came to view the apartments. He also could not include any subjective opinion when introducing the houses or emphasize the good points of the apartments.

Instead, when customers came, the first thing that he had to do was introduce the rigid regulations. For example, they could not move the furniture in the house, they could not buy more furniture and add more storage space, they had to have entire and long tenancies, and so on.

The butler’s lack of sales tactics would naturally serve to dissuade potential tenants further.

What’s more, Pei Qian had purposely emphasized to Song Kai not to reveal the fact that the former was living in the building as well. In fact, they could not even hint at the fact that Pei Qian was living in a Sloth Apartment.

Earlier, Pei Qian had accidentally made that mistake with regard to Fish-Catching Take-Out. He could not allow history to repeat itself.

Thus, although many people had followed the address on Tengda Life App to view apartments in the morning, no one had decided to rent an apartment yet.

Pei Qian relaxed slightly. He only wondered how the other three buildings were doing.

The building that Pei Qian was living in only had one unit per story. Rent was high to begin with, and it was to be expected that ordinary people would not be able to afford it. However, each of the apartments in the other three buildings was small. Thus, rent was priced within an acceptable range for ordinary people.

He had to keep an eye on the discussion online.

The video had gone viral yesterday, but netizens had only been allowed to see a beautiful illusion. Today, some of them had gone down to view the actual apartments. Whether yesterday’s enthusiasm could be sustained or not would determine the Sloth Apartments’ fate.

Pei Qian arrived at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. As he ate, he browsed his cell phone and checked people’s comments on the Sloth Apartments.

…

In some of Jingzhou’s local forums and chat groups, many people were already talking about the newest business under Tengda Life—the Sloth Apartments.

Before this, Sloth Apartments only had a simple page on the Tengda Life App. There were rigid regulations but no promotional video. In addition, Tengda Life App had only been updated a while ago, and so Sloth Apartments’ page had largely been neglected.

However, once the promotional video was uploaded, the project gained a lot more focus!

Until now, all of Tengda’s businesses—including Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Upwind Logistics, Deposit Fitness, and so on—had excellent reviews.

What’s more, young people had always been particularly fond of rented apartments.

Small intermediaries and sub-landlords were everywhere, approaching those people to rent their apartments. The chances of getting deceived in this industry were extremely high. In fact, it would be abnormal if one was not deceived.

Experienced people would advise others to look for larger intermediaries if they wanted to rent apartments. However, larger intermediaries had many tricks up their sleeves, and they would also bluff customers without any discussion. The only difference was that customers would not be too disadvantaged.

The so-called ‘larger intermediaries’ were really not that different from small intermediaries and sub-landlords. Young people, who were new to the industry, would probably also get deceived when looking for a house of their own.

Most people, who had two to three years of working experience, could only rent a satisfactory house because they had been deceived a lot before. They had learned from their experience and could use large amounts of time and energy to identify those scams. Finding a good house was tantamount to repairing the leakage in their roofs.

Now, the young in Jingzhou were pleasantly surprised to hear that Tengda had produced apartments!

All things aside, they could definitely trust Tengda not to be like all the other intermediaries. There would not be traps in contracts that would put customers at a severe disadvantage. There would not be salesmen who would pat their chests and make all sorts of promises and then forget customers the moment contracts were signed.

What’s more, the promotional video was so well done. Chen Lei had sung the theme song, and the house looked warm, comfortable, and minimalistic. The young people were all the more tempted.

However, after viewing the actual apartments and speaking briefly with the butler, many of them changed their minds. People online were no longer praising the apartments to no end but engaging in intense discussion.

“I went to see the houses today. They look exactly the same as the one in the promotional video, without a single change; however, the rent is terrifying! Compared to other exquisite houses in similar locations, rent is at least thirty percent higher!

“Is this the same Tengda that avoids materialism?”

“But the houses are very well-renovated.”

“Read my comment clearly. I’m talking about thirty percent higher rent than exquisite houses! Compared to badly-renovated houses, it’s at least fifty percent more expensive!”

“To sum up, there are four Sloth Apartment buildings at the moment. One has huge apartments and is located in the Dawn of Prosperous City. Let’s not talk about that—ordinary people wouldn’t be able to afford it, and the apartment is very oddly-shaped.

“One is a semi-commercial loft in Shundong Gardens, which has two floors. Yet, everyone knows about semi-commercial buildings.

“There are two more, which were featured in the promotional video, but they’re located in a deserted place. The living room with a 180-degree view of the surroundings looks amazing at first glance, but after you see it, you will worry about it being impractical to live in.”

“All the apartments are well-renovated, but they are very expensive.”

“To be fair, I went to see the apartments as well, and the Sloth Apartments were renovated to extremely high standards. Most people might not even be willing to spend that much to renovate their own houses!

“However, that’s not very obvious either. Take the furniture and electrical appliances, for example. They look to be of a higher class than those in ‘Safe House’, which are marketed by the intermediary, Home Corporation, but not that much higher.”

“That’s right. On the whole, the apartments look to be of higher class than Home Corporation’s Safe House, but it’s too minimalistic. I won’t say they’re stingy, but the merits of the decoration are not obvious to me.”

“Why isn’t anyone talking about the rigid regulations of Sloth Apartments? You can’t buy furniture; you can’t move the furniture; you have to rent long-term and take entire tenancies; and the rent is extremely high.

“How many people would be willing to rent an apartment? Even if they are, there’s only so much storage space. You wouldn’t be able to fit all of your things. Do they expect me to throw all of my sundries away?”

“Based on my many years of experience renting apartments, Sloth Apartments’ model is a pride project—it’s too unpractical! It’s expensive and inconvenient. Only literary and artistic youths would go in to take photographs.”

“I agree. At the moment, apart from the aesthetic, I can’t think of any other reason why people would torture themselves by renting that apartment. I would rather stay in Home Corporation’s Safe House.

“Although they do not look as beautiful, they’re a big brand that I can trust. Their apartments are also exquisitely renovated, but their rent is cheap. Moreover, I can arrange the furniture however I want.”

“I think that we can still trust this business because it belongs to Tengda. For all we know, there might be a deeper meaning behind those regulations. We might only find out after moving in.”

“You’re welcome to be the brave lab rat.”

“Actually, I wanted to diss it from the beginning. Don’t Tengda’s other businesses also focus on showing off instead of practicality? The lunch boxes by Fish-Catching Take-Out only have one added box, but it’s so much more expensive than ordinary lunchboxes. Deposit Fitness packages their sessions with Fish-Catching Take-Out’s fitness meals, so that each session is at least double the price of that at other gyms!”

“I agree with the above comment. I don’t know why so many people say that Tengda sells beautiful goods and services at low prices. I accept that their products are beautiful, but in what way are their prices low? Is anything on Tengda Life App cheap?

“All of those businesses spent money on showing off, right? Their take-out may be expensive, but take-out is take-out so it doesn’t matter. However, renting their apartments would cost one-third of people’s wages and thirty percent more. Who could bear it?”

“That’s true. The most important thing that a house has to be is livable. No matter how cool it looks, it can’t fill your belly.”

“I think Tengda has gone astray this time. They’re focusing too much on showing off and neglecting livability. It’s gone in the opposite direction of the market.”

“That’s why I think Home Corporation’s Safe House is better. It’s an exquisite apartment with a butler as well, but it’s thirty percent cheaper than the Sloth Apartments. Just think about it. If you spend 1.5 thousand yuan on rent each month, you could save six thousand yuan each year. You could get a new cell phone with that money!

“I think Home Corporation’s apartments are more worth it, too. As for Sloth Apartments… let’s wait and see. I’m sure Tengda will realize that customers aren’t taking up those apartments. Perhaps they would reduce the rent and change their regulations then.”

…

After eating, Pei Qian sipped his coffee and read the public’s reviews of the Sloth Apartments. Finally, he relaxed considerably.

Yes, all of my safety measures are working!

What are the netizens saying? Wait and see? Tengda would reduce the rent and change its regulations if no one rents the apartments?

Young man, you’re imagining things!

Boss Pei is calling the shots! Boss Pei could not be happier if nobody rents the apartments. Why would I reduce rent? Impossible!

Pei Qian felt a lot more at ease. This time, things were finally developing as he expected.

Strictly speaking, Sloth Apartments’ rent was not so expensive that the working class could not afford it. However, consumers ultimately decided based on relative prices compared with competitors, and not each business’s absolute price.