Chapter 195 Dad, Let’s Buy a House
Time passed quietly, the calendar on the wall was replaced with a new one, and before I knew it, it was already 2003.
On January 13th, Baitan Middle School completed its first semester of teaching and began its winter vacation.
The weather was cold, so Fang Wei didn't run around. Most of the time he was either reviewing with Cai Ling Zhiyi and the others, playing basketball with A Sheng, or helping his parents by running between the breeding farm and the seedling greenhouse.
In October last year, the scale of mussel farming at home expanded to 500 acres, and for the first time we used mussel seedlings bred independently. At present, the growth seems to be quite good, and next year is expected to be another year of bumper harvest.
With the successful experience of seedling cultivation, the scale of seedling cultivation has been expanded. A large seedling cultivation shed was built on the island, and the output has increased accordingly. In addition to self-use, the bred mussel seedlings can also be sold to other individual breeders. This is another lucrative business channel besides breeding.
The temperature outside is only about ten degrees, but it is still quite warm in the greenhouse. Fang Wei and Fang Xianfeng are currently checking the growth of the shellfish seedlings in the seedling shed.
Currently, Fang Wei is the only company on the island that has mastered the independent seedling cultivation technology. This job is not difficult, but it is by no means simple either. It still relies on sufficient trial and error costs and experience.
Daily management includes feeding, insulation, water change, water quality adjustment, light adjustment, etc. Carefully selected adult thick-shelled clams are used as breeding clams. The amount of breeding clams used is actually very small. After all, mussels have a huge spawning capacity, and each clams can lay 20 million eggs. Under natural conditions, the survival rate is very low, but in artificial breeding greenhouses, the survival rate is quite high. It is enough to prepare a pair of broodstock for every cubic meter of water.
Now that his family has embarked on the path of mussel farming, Fang Wei has learned a lot of experience in this area on a daily basis. In addition, young people have flexible minds and learn things quickly, so he has become a semi-expert now.
"Study hard, otherwise you won't know anything when you take over."
Fang Xianfeng smiled. His life in the past two years has been much busier than when he was a fishmonger at the dock, but he also smiles more often. Looking at his family's thriving business, the old man seems to have returned to the most hardworking age of his youth.
Look at the way he walks! He has his hands behind his back like a leader!
"How can it be my turn to take over so soon? Dad, you are in your prime, shouldn't you still be the pillar of the family?"
"hey-hey……"
"Dad, what do you estimate the yield of this crop of shellfish seedlings to be?"
"Let's wait and see. According to current estimates, it should not be a big problem to supply 3,000 to 4,000 acres. It just so happens that many farmers on our island have placed orders with me. If we include our own use, we may have to expand the scale in the next phase..."
According to the next plan, after April or May this year, the Fang family will expand the scale of breeding from 500 acres to 1,000 acres in one go.
Based on the current 500-acre aquaculture scale, plus the income from selling mussel seedlings, Fang Weijia's annual income has reached more than one million yuan. In 2003, the annual income was one million yuan! Three years ago, Fang Xianfeng would not have dared to think about this! But he did not expect that because of a lottery ticket, he could get on the train of the times and enjoy the dividends of mussel farming. It was achieved without knowing it?
After all, he was born in a small rural area. Even though he is good at small business, Fang Xianfeng still lacks some vision in the big picture. Now that he has become rich, he often feels confused and uneasy. He doesn't know what to do next, and he is afraid that if he takes a wrong step, all his efforts will end up in vain.
Fortunately, he has a good son. Although his son is young, Fang Xianfeng admits that he is indeed not as good as his son in terms of vision. For example, many things such as orderly expansion of breeding scale, establishment of Pioneer Mussel Industry Development Co., Ltd., and independent breeding of shellfish seedlings were all suggestions given by Fang Wei.
The old man is not very capable, but he has one advantage, which is that he listens to advice! Perhaps I have to put a parenthesis in it - only listening can be considered as advice.
After all, apart from his own son, no one else could persuade him because of his stubborn character...
"Dad, how much liquid funds do we have at home now?"
"…Why are you asking this? What do you want to do?"
"I'll help you plan it! I'm good at math and won first prize in the city's Mathematical Olympiad. Isn't it easy for me to do accounting?"
"About a million."
Listening to his father's words, Fang Wei nodded. It was about the same as his estimate. After all, a lot of income in the past two years had been reinvested in expanding production.
The expansion of production will still continue. In April and May this year, the breeding scale will be expanded by another 500 acres. The hard cost expenditure here will be more than 300,000 yuan, including other scattered spare working capital. At least 500,000 or 600,000 yuan must be maintained and cannot be moved. However, after the batch of mussels after the Chinese New Year is on the market, the funds on hand will be loose again.
Mussels have two seedling seasons a year, and each growth cycle is about ten months. There are also two marketing seasons, which is also the most critical time for capital recovery.
Considering that the funds on hand are still sufficient and the housing prices in the city are gradually rising rapidly, Fang Wei thought about it and suggested:
"Dad, why don't we go to the city tomorrow and look at houses and shops."
"……what?"
Fang Xianfeng was stunned. They were just talking about mussels, and now they were turning a corner to go see the house. He was so shocked that he didn't even realize it.
"Looking at houses and shops? Why are we looking at them? The farms are all on the island. Are we going to move to the city?"
"Whether or not to live there is another matter. Just treat it as an investment! My family happens to have some spare money, so we can buy some houses and shops in the city as fixed assets. The rent we collect in the future will also be a stable income."
"It's unreliable. Our area is slow to develop. If you buy a house or a shop and the house price drops, you will lose a lot of money! Even if it doesn't drop, when can I get back the money just by collecting rent? I might as well expand the scale of breeding."
"Let's do it step by step. Expanding these 500 acres to 1,000 acres is already doubling the area. The larger the scale, the more things we need to consider. Even if we really get 2,000 acres in one step, do you have the experience to manage such a large scale all at once?"
"..." Fang Wei's words made sense. With the expansion to 1,000 acres, Fang Xianfeng was already a little nervous. 2,000 acres was indeed a big step...
After he had money, he naturally thought about learning financial management from others, but he didn't understand this thing. He only knew that there were risks. Buying houses and shops as an investment was still quite risky for him. The main reason was that he couldn't tell whether the housing prices would rise or fall. He grew up in the countryside and lived in a self-built house. He was indeed unfamiliar with the real estate field.
I can understand my dad's dilemma. If everyone had such an optimistic view on rising housing prices, there wouldn't be so many people beating their chests and stamping their feet because they didn't buy a house when housing prices were cheap.
I have also read the news, saying that a certain boss sold a house in Shanghai to start a business, and after working hard for many years, he finally bought back the house he sold...
This is not just a joke. In fact, many people are like this. When they look back, they realize that it is safer to buy a house than to spend the spare money on it...
Of course, the same thing has different circumstances at different times. At least at this moment, buying a house is definitely not a wrong choice.
"Where do you want to buy a house?"
"In the city, near Osmanthus Lake."
"That place on Guihua Road? Is it worth buying a house there?"
Fang Xianfeng frowned when he heard that. He thought Fang Wei wanted to buy the most central Lujiao Street section, but he didn't expect that he wanted to buy the Guihua Road section. That area is indeed being developed and the location is not remote, but it is a newly built area after all. Is it really worthwhile to buy there?
It's worth it! Of course it's worth it! Dad doesn't know, but Fang Wei knows it very well. With the development and construction of Guihua Road, it will soon become the new city center of Xuanzhu City. The focus of various industries in the city will also shift accordingly, and the housing prices will naturally rise. Compared with the average price of Guihua Road in the future, which is 20,000 or 30,000, the current housing price is only 1,800 or 2,000, which is really the same as cabbage price!
"Dad, listen to me..."
Fang Wei's analysis left Fang Xianfeng confused. The more he listened, the more bewildered he became.
Seeing that his father didn't quite understand what he said, Fang Wei changed his approach:
"Didn't Mr. Wen's family open a new hotel in the city last time? Dad, do you know where it is?"
"...Osmanthus Road?"
"Yes! Dad, what do you think made Teacher Wen's family choose to open a hotel on Guihua Road instead of Haicheng Hotel's Lujiao Street, given their huge business?"
"...!!"
Fang Xianfeng is not stupid. After Fang Wei said this, he understood it instantly!
It is definitely not luck that has allowed Wen Susu's company to grow so big. It is inseparable from the information gap that ordinary people are not aware of and the precise and long-term vision of the decision makers. Such a huge investment in opening a hotel is no joke. If they had not recognized the development potential of the Guihua Road area, they would never have opened the hotel there!
"So it was your teacher Wen who told you that. I was wondering why you suddenly urged me to buy a house. Now it seems like it's a good choice..."
"..."
Sister! I'm sorry! I'm using you as a shield again!
But Fang Wei was not wrong. For Jinhua Group, opening a hotel was just an open matter. The most important thing was to invest in real estate in these core locations. This was the foundation of Jinhua Group.
"Dad, what have you thought about? If you plan to buy a house, the sooner the better. After a while, the house price will change every day."
"…So what do you think?"
When he asked this question, Fang Xianfeng had an inexplicable illusion, as if the son in front of him was his father...
Fang Wei is taller than him now, and the boy's straight back really looks like he has taken over from his father to become the pillar of the family.
"Well, here's what I'm thinking. For houses, we can buy two in Hongfeng Community, one for our own use and one mainly for renting out. Then, for shops, we can buy three or four, on Guihua Street..."
“…Stop, stop, stop!”
Fang Xianfeng looked strange and said speechlessly, "Except for the cost of expanding the scale of breeding next year, I only have 600,000 or 700,000 yuan to use. You bought two houses and three or four shops at once. Do you think that your father, I, run a bank?"
"Dad, now is the best time to take out a loan! I've done the math for you. Even if the house is 120 square meters, the current price of the house in Hongfeng Community is 2,000. We only need to pay about 80,000 for the down payment, and pay it in installments over 30 years. The monthly payment will only be a few hundred yuan, which can easily beat inflation!"
“…A monthly mortgage payment of a few hundred dollars for a house isn’t enough?!”
"Dad, a few hundred is just a few hundred now. If you look back in ten years, you will find out how cheap it is! When you were my age, how much did grandpa make a month? How much is it worth now? It's the same principle!"
"…Is it reliable?"
"You're right to listen to me! That's what our teacher Wen said!"
"Then I'll take some time..."
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, let's go look at houses together!"
(End of this chapter)
