When renting a shop, such a clearance merchant would choose a shop that has not been rented out or was in the transition period—and then play tricks. 

They would rent the shop for the minimum period, and then, even when the time they’ve been using it has already exceeded the agreed number of days, as long as the landlord did not find a new occupant of the shop and did not urge them to pay or move out, they would keep using the shop and stay open for a few more days. They would keep matters this way until the landlord finally took back the shop or the clearance merchant themselves had to move to another place because of the decrease in customers in the old place.

“With long-term rental, we may be able to bring the rental price down even further,” said Lin Cheng.

More than half of the shops on this street were old ones, and these shops generally didn’t move to new locations easily. 

For the other half, however, if new shops could not be innovative in the things they sold and did not have their own distinctive characteristics, it would be difficult for them to maintain long-term operations on this street. This was why these newer shops have been constantly changing occupants all the time, and the owners could only rent out such shops temporarily.

Seeing Hu Mao’s puzzled expression, Lin Cheng analyzed, “Temporary, short-term rentals generally don’t make much money. If the long-term rentals were not so unsuccessful, the landlords probably won’t bother to choose short-term rentals. So, when negotiating the contract, you can try to negotiate a lower price.”

This was also one of the reasons why Lin Cheng took a fancy to this store.

Of course, there was another consideration that Lin Cheng has not yet told Hu Mao—the store selling small appliances next door was about to go out of business.

Judging from the details of the store next door, it should have been open for about four or five years. Such stores often had average business but were relatively stable. Generally speaking, such shop owners did not pay much attention to the state of the goods on display in the store.

But when Lin Cheng was talking with the owner of the small food store earlier, he noticed that the owner of the small appliance store was carefully wiping the small appliances displayed on the shelves. It seemed that even though the shelves were already full of goods, he still took out other items from the warehouse to fill the shelves.

This showed a possibility: the shop owner did not plan to do this business anymore and now planned to sell as many of their inventory as possible, and perhaps close the business when the annual lease contract expired.

By the time Hu Mao’s store became stable, they could rent the shop next door and expand their store.

… …

The two called the shop landlord again.

However, this time it was Hu Mao who used his mobile phone to call the other party.

After receiving the call, the landlord seemed a little excited when he heard that they were interested in leasing the property for a long-term lease. He immediately put aside other matters he was busy with and rushed to the store in person to meet with Lin Cheng and the others.

They agreed to meet at a noodle restaurant on the same street.

“Are you planning to rent it for a long time?” asked the landlord.

“Yes, we are interested in renting this shop and plan to run a food selling business,” said Hu Mao.

The landlord nodded and said, “I have leased out this shop before to someone who ran a noodle shop so the place is suitable. The water and electricity are all connected. If you want to do it, you can just do some minor alterations yourself.

“This shop originally rents out for 200 yuan a day. If you want to rent it for a long time, I can give it to you at a cheaper price. 5,300 yuan a month, with a minimum rent period of half a year. Need to put up one month deposit and one month advance payment. What do you think?”

After saying that, before Lin Cheng and Hu Mao could speak, the landlord added, “This price is already very cheap for you. If you don’t believe me, you can go to other shops to ask. Even the dumpling restaurant next door is only 2 square meters larger than my shop, and it has increased to 5,500 a month last year.”

Lin Cheng and Hu Mao actually did some research before the landlord arrived. They found out that on this street, except for the shops owned by the store operators themselves, the monthly rent of most shops usually ranged from 4,000 to 6,800 yuan.

“We can sign a longer lease agreement with you, but I hope the price can be lower,” Lin Cheng said.

“This…” The landlord’s eyes moved slightly, he lowered his gaze and thought for a while, then looked at Lin Cheng again, “How long do you want to rent it?”

“Guaranteed lease for 5 years,” Lin Cheng said.

As soon as these words came out, the landlord’s expression became a little surprised. “That long?”

After being surprised, the landlord looked at Lin Cheng uncertainly and said, “I’m not sure if you can really rent it for five years. Although it’s troublesome for me to keep renting out a shop like this temporarily, to be honest, it doesn’t make much difference to me whether you rent it for one year or five years. Besides, renting it for five years at once might not be as good as signing a contract year by year.”

… …

[Why is he saying that? ] someone in the live stream channel asked in confusion.

Someone else soon answered this question: [Because prices keep rising.]

[That’s right, when talking about signing a lease contract, if it’s signed year by year, then the landlord can raise the rent every year. If it is signed for several years all at once, then it is difficult for the landlord to raise the rent. 

Of course, if the landlord wants to earn more by signing a lease contract on a year by year basis, then there is also the requirement that the store could actually be rented out all year round, every single year, and that the tenant must accept the increase in rent. ]

……

Of course Lin Cheng also thought of this.

“If you are considering the rental income in the next few years, we can stipulate in the contract that the amount at the time of signing the contract will be the basis, and then rent can be negotiated to increase by no more than 2% of the signed amount each year thereafter.”

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

[Is this still possible?]

[Theoretically, there seems to be nothing wrong with it.]

[This is agreed in advance, and it seems reasonable to increase the rent a little bit every year.]

[I don’t know if it’s reasonable or not, but I feel like the landlord seems to have been persuaded, haha.]

Serve as Contrast Team in a ‘Dad with Baby’ Show translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 89.3 — No Money
Chapter 90.1 — Bargaining
Chapter 90.2 — Bargaining
Chapter 90.3 — Bargaining