They invited him to sit down, poured him tea, and two of the five staff were specially assigned to serve Zhu Pingan. For a moment, Zhu Pingan felt like a VIP customer in the bank, enjoying the super preferential services of the staff.
"Sir Zhu, what brings you to our clinic? I can't tell you anything else, but if you want to pawn or rent a property, we will make sure you are satisfied." Fang Ya, who was the first to entertain Zhu Ping'an, patted his chest and promised Zhu Ping'an.
"I'm really sorry to bother you. I think..."
Zhu Ping'an bowed to thank them, and then told them that he was planning to rent a suitable store for catering.
Considering his own financial situation, Zhu Ping'an did not plan to buy but chose to rent.
Whether in modern times or in the Ming Dynasty, buying a house is not an easy thing. Although the house prices in the Ming Dynasty are much cheaper than those in modern times, you can't buy a good shop without more than 100 taels of silver.
You should know that Hai Rui, who is still a county magistrate in the south, still has to continue to struggle for another 18 years before he can buy a house in Hainan, the 20th ring road of Beijing, when he retires at the age of 58.
So, given Zhu Ping'an's bankruptcy, he can forget about buying a shop in a good location in Beijing.
"Shop, please wait a moment, Lord Zhu." Fang Ya said as he reached out and took out a book and a fish scale map from the bookshelf beside him.
This fish-scale map was made by Fang Ya himself. It distinguished between residential and commercial houses for rent in the Xinghuamen area and marked them one by one on the map, just like the fish-scale atlas of fields made by the government.
"Master Zhu, look, all the shops for rent in the Xinghuamen area are here."
Fang Ya unfolded the fish scale map and placed it on the table, and showed Zhu Pingan the shops for rent on the map one by one.
Zhu Ping'an leaned over and looked in the direction of Fang Ya's finger, and saw that it was shown on the fish scale picture.
"Sir, look at this shop. It is located about thirty steps west of Xinghuamen. There are many businesses nearby and it is crowded with people. It is a rare and good location for a teahouse, a restaurant or a restaurant. This is a prosperous shop. It was originally a restaurant, but it was sold because the owner was transferred to the south." Fang Ya pointed to a shop on the fish scale map and said to Zhu Ping'an.
Well, it is indeed a good location, Zhu Pingan nodded. Zhu Pingan had an impression of the location of this store. It was close to the city gate, by the canal, and there was a residential area behind it. There would be no worries about traffic. It was indeed a good location for opening a restaurant.
"How much is the rent?" Zhu Pingan asked.
"Look, sir. This is our registration record for this shop. This shop has three rooms wide, with a tax of twenty-five and two steps, and a monthly rent of eighteen taels and five cents of silver. If you want to rent it, we can negotiate with the owner, and we estimate that we can get a discount of five cents of silver on the monthly rent, so the monthly rent can be eighteen taels." Fang Ya found the shop just mentioned from the register and showed Zhu Ping'an the registration information. When it came to the rent, Fang Ya gave Zhu Ping'an a very real price and gave him a discount, saying that he could help Zhu Ping'an lower the price to the landlord.
However, after this "real" and "discounted" price, the monthly rent is still as high as 18 taels of silver! The imperial capital is really expensive.
Although he had a certain tone in his heart, Zhu Pingan still felt a chill in his heart after hearing Fang Ya talk about the rent.
Of course, to be honest, the rent of shops in the capital of the Ming Dynasty was many times cheaper than it is today.
The tax for this shop is 25.2 steps, which means that the building area of the shop is 25.2 steps. The "step" here refers to the "bow step". In the Ming Dynasty, one bow step was equivalent to 2.8 square meters, and 25.2 bow steps was approximately 70 square meters.
The monthly rent for a 70-square-meter shop is 18 taels of silver, which is about 10,800 yuan in RMB.
It looks very expensive, and it is indeed very expensive, so expensive that Zhu Ping'an cannot afford it.
However, compared with modern times, this price is definitely the cheapest. If it were modern times, according to statistics from a certain agency in 2014, the average rent for a 70-square-meter shop in Beijing's shopping malls is 24 yuan per square meter per day, or 720 yuan per square meter per month. The monthly rent for a 70-square-meter shop is 50,400 yuan, which is equivalent to about 84 taels of silver.
However, even though rent in ancient times was nearly five times cheaper than it is today, Zhu Ping'an still could not afford it. This month's rent was equivalent to several months' salary for him.
"In addition, our Fang Ya's charging rule is 'three percent for the commission and two percent for the loss'. In this case, I can make the decision and reduce the price by more than half for Lord Zhu. It will be enough to charge only half of the errand fee." Fang Ya said and gave Zhu Ping'an another discount.
Fangya meant to reduce Zhu Ping'an's agency fee by more than half, charging only 0.5 points. Fangya was giving Zhu Ping'an a lot of face.
Whether it is leasing or selling, Fangya, as an intermediary, has to run around and contact both parties, which is time-consuming and laborious. It also requires going to the government office to go through the formalities, which all costs money. Fangya cannot work for nothing, so naturally it has to charge a certain fee.
The rule of the Ming Dynasty Fangya is "three percent commission and two percent loss". "Cheng" refers to the seller and the lessor. Success means that the transaction is completed, which is called success; "poor" refers to the buyer and the lessee. Poor means that you spend money on buying or renting a house, which is called loss. Three percent commission and two percent loss means that after the transaction is completed, Fangya collects a three percent agency fee from the seller and the lessor, and a two percent agency fee from the buyer and the lessee, for a total of five percent agency fee.
The agency fee for this "three for the house, two for the house" model is more expensive than the modern one.
But the preferential treatment given to Zhu Ping'an is indeed very generous.
Generally speaking, a 2% agency fee is charged to the "broken" party, but now Zhu Ping'an is only charged 0.5%, which is almost the same as Fang Ya said, only the errand fee is charged.
"Ahem, thank you very much, but I've been having cysts lately, so the rent is a little high." Zhu Ping'an coughed and said a little embarrassedly.
"Oh, then sir, what do you think of this shop? This shop is about fifty steps away from the previous one, and the area is also smaller. The tax is twenty steps and two, and the monthly rent of this shop is thirteen taels of silver." After hearing this, Fang Ya pointed to another shop to Zhu Ping'an.
This shop is more than ten square meters smaller, sixty or seventy meters further inland, and the price is five taels of silver cheaper.
However, there is still a big gap between this and Zhu Ping'an's expectations.
Finally, Fang Ya pointed out one by one, and Zhu Ping'an shook his head from time to time. Finally, the area for the store was chosen from the prime location near Xinghuamen, retreated to Sandangkou, and then retreated to Sitangkou, avoiding the prosperous areas, and finally settled in the area east of the wall of the unloading and storage area, which was known for its clutter.
Finally, we chose a shop, which was a newly registered shop. It was in a bad location, with an area of about 70 square meters, and the monthly rent was only eight taels.
Fang Ya asked Zhu Ping'an to wait for a day while he communicated with the landlord first. After the deal was finalized, he would notify Zhu Ping'an to sign the contract, go to the government office to pay taxes, etc.