Chapter 370: The Secret of Profit and Fellow Villager Zhu Min

Everything has a cycle.

San Francisco real estate is no exception. The San Francisco Bay Area just experienced a housing bubble cycle from 1991 to 1995 last year, but each cycle will bring new increases and new housing price peaks.

Housing prices in the Bay Area have gone through a recession period of about 4 years. After several years of decline, suppressed demand began to rebound and prices began to rise slowly again.

However, the price of the old office building that the agent brought Li Xiaofan and his friends to see is still relatively cheap.

The Internet boom has just begun to rise and has not yet reached its peak. The rent of commercial office buildings in the Bay Area did not reach its peak until the burst of the Internet bubble in 2000.

This old office building on the upper and lower floors of Sand Hill Road, near the Stanford Shopping Center, was once a warehouse in the 1930s and was rebuilt into an office building in the 1960s. The owner asked for an annual rent of $120,000.

This office building is located in a quiet location in a busy city. It has been idle for a while. Although it is a bit shabby inside, Li Xiaofan fell in love with it at first sight.

Next to this old office building with two floors and 1,200 square meters, there is an abandoned old warehouse with a height of eight meters and an area of ​​3,000 square meters, which is also owned by the same owner.

Li Xiaofan feels that it is very convenient to travel here. It only takes ten minutes to walk from here to Stanford Shopping Center. From this old building, it is only 2 kilometers to Stanford University next door, and you can reach Stanford campus within 30 minutes on foot.

He said to Tom, the real estate agent who accompanied him on the inspection: "Mr. Tom, please communicate with the owner. I will rent this office building as a whole for $100,000 a year, and I will be responsible for all the decoration. But I require a lease contract of at least ten years, and there is another condition. I want to rent the 3,000 square meters of abandoned old warehouse next to it. You ask the landlord to give me another price!"

"Okay, Mr. Li, I will communicate with the landlord now..."

Half an hour later, Tom told Li Xiaofan that the landlord offered $50,000 a year for the 3,000 square meters old warehouse. The landlord's annual rent for the two properties is $160,000, and all the decoration is done by Li Xiaofan.

Finally, after some bargaining, the initial price agreed upon is $150,000.

…

On the way back to downtown San Francisco, Tang Xinyi asked with some confusion:

"Dear, why do you like such a shabby place? This old house and old warehouse are shabby and old, and it will cost a lot of money to renovate. Why don't we go to downtown San Francisco to find a good place? We are not short of money now..."

"It's not that we can't afford to rent an office building in San Francisco, but mainly this place is close enough to Stanford University!"

Li Xiaofan smiled and said, "In fact, these two old buildings are high enough, and they can be designed and decorated into industrial-style LOFT office spaces. As our future entrepreneurial incubator, it will definitely be very tasteful! And this building is close to Shashan Road. In the future, we can choose full-length glass along this side of the road. The exterior and lighting will be well designed. I want to make it become A new landmark building next to Stanford University that attracts attention!"

"My idea is that the first floor can be designed as a startup coffee and startup space in the future, a meeting room for entrepreneurs to brainstorm on the second floor, and the rest of the space can be designed as startup workstations. In addition, the 3,000-square-meter old warehouse can be redesigned and renovated to become a laboratory for technology research and development in the future..."

Finally, Li Xiaofan said to Tang Xinyi: "Compared to the old RV office that Jerry used to work in when we first visited him last year, which was smelly and small, our startup space will definitely be very attractive in the future, right?"

"The problem is that Jerry and his team didn't have to spend money to work in the second-hand RV they towed last year, so the cost is low..." Tang Xinyi said.

Li Xiaofan smiled: "Our future entrepreneurial incubator will basically not charge entrepreneurs who enter the park. We will also provide them with angel investment and various other resources!"

"Then how do you make money?"

"Stupid, we must have a screening process for projects entering the incubator. In the future, among 100 projects, as long as we cultivate a future listed company, we will make back all the previous investment!"

...

At noon, when Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi and others returned to Tangyuan Chinese Restaurant for lunch, Li Xiaofan heard someone at the next table communicating in the familiar Mingzhou dialect.

The familiar accent attracted Li Xiaofan's attention.

He turned his head and saw that there were three Chinese men at the small table next to him. The one who spoke Mingzhou dialect was a middle-aged man.

"Mr. Zhu!" He blurted out.

Hearing Li Xiaofan calling him, the middle-aged man who was talking happily was stunned for a moment. He raised his head and said to Li Xiaofan: "Do you know me?"

"You are really Mr. Zhu!" Li Xiaofan simply used Mingzhou dialect.

"Yes, I'm Zhu Min, may I ask who you are?" The middle-aged man named Zhu Min felt a little curious. The strange young man in front of him spoke in Mingzhou dialect, but he didn't seem to know this young man.

In his memory, there seemed to be no such fellow villager friend. But although he didn't know him, it seemed that he had seen him somewhere before.

Li Xiaofan smiled and stood up, handed over his business card and said, "Hello, Mr. Zhu, let me introduce myself. I am your fellow Mingzhou villager Li Xiaofan, this is my business card, nice to meet you!"

Zhu Min took Li Xiaofan's business card and after seeing the words "Li Xiaofan, Executive Director of Singapore Yifan Holdings Pte. Ltd.", he patted his head and said:

"Remember, I saw Nong on TV. Nong was one of the first investors to invest in Yahoo, right? When Yahoo was listed on the Nasdaq IPO last time, I watched the reporter's interview with Nong. No. Come to think of it, Nong turns out to be a fellow from Alaming Prefecture, which really brings face to the people of Alamin Prefecture!”

"Ashamed, Mr. Zhu, you are the pride of our Mingzhou people. Your business is so successful, you are an example for me to follow!"

Zhu Min waved her hand and said: "Director Li, please be polite. Now the younger generation is to be feared. I have to learn from you!"

…

Li Xiaofan and Zhu Min couldn't stand listening to this polite conversation:

"Oh, you two, stop complimenting each other, it sounds disgusting to us! Director Li, come, sit down, let us fellow villagers have a drink together!"

Zhu Min smiled and said: "Come, Director Li, let's have a drink with some of our fellow villagers. As the saying goes, fellow villagers burst into tears when they see fellow villagers. It's really a fate to meet this famous little fellow here!"

"Okay, thank you fellows!"

After Li Xiaofan moved a chair and took a seat, Zhu Min asked curiously: "Director Li, how do you know me? I seem to have never seen you before!"

Li Xiaofan smiled and prevaricated: "Mr. Zhu, you were very famous when you were in Mingzhou. You are a celebrity. Of course we know you. You may not know an unknown person like me!"

It turned out that the middle-aged fellow Li Xiaofan met by chance was Zhu Min, later the founder of Cybernaut Investment Group and the founder of WebEx!