Fortunately, they finally picked one out, "Brother Hai, I one."
It was a single-family house with a small courtyard.
"Hmm, it looks pretty good from the outside, wait for me to go ask if the homeowner is around, and we can go in for a look," Jiang Changhai said.
Just then, an aunt came out to buy vegetables, and Jiang Changhai hurried over with a small jog, smiling as he asked, "Auntie, I saw that their door has a ’for sale’ sign. Do you know if their family is around here?"
"Oh, you’re talking about their house, yes, they’re here. The old lady works in the clinic up front, you can go there to find her if you want to buy the house," the aunt said enthusiastically.
"Thank you very much, auntie."
"Wife, wait here for me, I’ll go to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to find the owner of the house for sale."
Jiang Changhai asked Su Wanyu to sit on a clean stone and rest while he strode off to find the person.
The clinic wasn’t far, and after about ten minutes, Jiang Changhai came back with a woman in her forties.
The woman warmly introduced them, "I don’t mean to boast, but you really have good taste. Our house is the best-preserved in the area. It’s an old blue brick house that used to belong to a well-off family in the countryside before my family bought it. If it werenât for my son and daughter-in-law insisting on us moving to the city to live with them, I wouldn’t have wanted to sell it. Come on, I’ll show you inside."
The couple followed the owner into the courtyard and saw it was very tidy, with a few trees planted in the northeast corner.
"In my house, there are several rooms, enough for your whole family. Look, there’s even a special bathing room. In the wintertime, when the stove is lit, it’s nice and warm inside; you won’t catch a cold taking a bath."
Su Wanyu nodded in satisfaction. The walls were well maintained; they could move in directly without the need for renovation.
This saved trouble and quite a bit of money.
"Big sister, how much are you planning to sell this house for? I wonder if we have enough money?" Seeing Su Wanyu nod in satisfaction, Jiang Changhai knew she liked the place and started asking about the price.
"Big brother, I can tell you really want to buy it, so I’ll give you a bottom price, one thousand eight hundred. For others, I would ask for two thousand," the woman said, implying she was giving them a special deal because she was treating them like family.
Jiang Changhai responded unhurriedly, "Big sister, that’s a bit too expensive. Even three-room apartments are being sold for only five hundred yuan. I like the quiet and peaceful environment here, which is why I came to look at a single-family house. Please don’t rip us off."
Nowadays, everyone wanted the apartments provided by their work units, and private courtyards weren’t in demand.
Seeing that Jiang Changhai knew his stuff, the woman didn’t name another price but instead asked, "Well, brother, don’t rush. If you don’t think the price is right, we can discuss it. You tell me, what do you think is a fair price?"
"One thousand one hundred," Jiang Changhai cut seven hundred yuan right off the bat.
When the woman heard Jiang Changhai’s offer, her face immediately soured a bit.
"Brother, that’s really too low. Look at how big this house is. The interior, including renovations, was all newly done a few years ago when my son got married; it cost me quite a bit. The big furniture in the house, like the beds and tables, they’re all new too. I won’t take them with me; I’ll leave everything here for you. One thousand five hundred is as low as I can go," she said.
Jiang Changhai glanced at the furniture in the house, noting that it all looked quite new; leaving it would save them the trouble of buying new furniture.