71. King of the Niche (Wishing Everyone a Happy Spring Festival!)

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ling took out his laptop and checked his email.

Zhicheng Company’s project was called Xiushui Homeland. It was located in Jiapu Town on the northwest edge of Linjiang City, not far from Lianjia Village—an area that still counted as suburban.

Small companies were always like this: lacking funds, they couldn’t compete with the big players for prime land, so they had to find another way, opting for the strategy of encircling the city from the outskirts.

Xiushui Homeland was divided into three sections: Shuiyun Pavilion, Shuiqu Pavilion, and Shuilan Pavilion. Shuiqu Pavilion and Shuilan Pavilion had already sold out, leaving only Shuiyun Pavilion still on the market.

Previously, due to a financial crisis, the company had parted ways with its original sales agency. Now that the crisis had passed, it was time to find a new partner. That was how the Wang family father and son thought of Chen Ling...

One had to admit, this was essentially Zhicheng Company offering Chen Ling a money-making opportunity on a silver platter. Partly, it was to repay a favor, but more importantly, Chen Ling now held 20% of Zhicheng’s shares—he was one of the shareholders.

That meant it was practically his own project. There was no fear he wouldn’t put in the effort!

Chen Ling felt quite pleased as he browsed the project information. After all, the hardware of Xiushui Homeland was decent; administratively, it belonged to Binhu District, which was the main city district.

There were also public kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools nearby. They weren’t top-tier, but for those buying homes in the suburbs, could they really afford to be picky?

Having schools at all was already a plus.

That was reality. Of course, there were homes with excellent conditions in every aspect—the only problem was the price.

If you couldn’t stomach the price, you’d have to lower your other requirements.

It wasn’t just true for housing, but also for cars, computers, and even partners... It was the same logic everywhere.

Chen Ling had already decided to take on the project, but out of habit, he opened the digital map to take a closer look at the area.

And then—

Damn!

Was this supposed to be a pleasant surprise?

Damn it all, what kind of surprise was this?

Chen Ling finally understood what Wang Xiaobo meant by a “surprise.”

Just two kilometers south of Xiushui Homeland, closer to the city and right next to the main road, there was another project by Binhu Group, called Binhu Grand Court, which was also about to launch.

He searched online and found that, in terms of scale, apartment layouts, and target clientele, the two projects overlapped almost completely—and Binhu Grand Court had a much better location than Xiushui Homeland.

In other words, Xiushui Homeland was about to face a direct challenge from Binhu Grand Court—or rather, be crushed by it.

After all, the Binhu brand was far more prominent than Zhicheng’s!

Without another word, he called immediately.

“Hehe~” Wang Xiaobo clearly anticipated this and answered with a forced laugh, “Mr. Chen, my good brother! Have you decided to take the project?”

“I’ll take your banana, you rascal!” Chen Ling snapped. “Are you trying to make me go head-to-head with Binhu Group?”

“Hey now,” Wang Xiaobo chuckled, “Mr. Chen, are you really comparing yourself to Binhu Group? If you’re up against them, isn’t it just a father disciplining his son, or Officer Black Cat against One-Ear?”

“I’m just worried it’ll turn into Tom and Jerry,” Chen Ling snorted. “I’ll take it, but let’s talk about the commission.”

“Um—” Wang Xiaobo hesitated for a moment. “Hold on.”

There was some background noise, and then Wang Zhicheng’s voice came through the phone, “Hello, Mr. Chen!”

As expected, the father and son had been waiting to pull him in.

“As for the commission, the industry standard is 3%. Given the circumstances, I’m willing to raise it to 5%. What do you think?”

Wang Zhicheng sounded sincere, but Chen Ling wasn’t entirely satisfied.

This project was going to be a mix of risk and opportunity. The risk, naturally, was going head-to-head with Binhu Group. If he won, all would be well, but if he lost, he’d not only forfeit any advantage he’d built up, but might not even get another glance from them in the future.

On the other hand, the opportunity was just as great. If Xiushui Homeland could achieve impressive results—especially by defeating Binhu Group directly—he’d never have to worry about finding future partners.

If you can’t beat them, join them. For businessmen, that was par for the course.

Once Binhu Group was on board, the rest of the large and small companies would naturally follow suit.

Competition between businesses often worked like this: if there was a good distributor or channel partner, and your competitors had access while you didn’t, that just wouldn’t do.

Only when everyone had access could they compete on an even playing field—unless a new contender appeared to shake things up...

But in this regard, Chen Ling was confident.

In 2008, most other agencies were still locked in fierce battles over the second-hand housing market. The old kings were fading, new ones eager to ascend, and all manner of rivals were eyeing the throne.

They had no time to concern themselves with the new housing market...

That was Chen Ling’s strategy—to carve out a niche in new-home distribution and be the first to take the plunge.

“8%. And that includes the marketing budget—you won’t need to offer further discounts,” Chen Ling told Wang Zhicheng. “That’s already a very fair deal.”

Wang Zhicheng considered this and had to agree. Normally, sales agencies charged a commission based on the transaction price—a guaranteed income regardless of conditions.

On top of that, developers sometimes had to cooperate with sales agencies to lower prices—but that was an extreme case, the so-called marketing budget.

But Chen Ling was saying the marketing budget was already included in the commission, which made it easier to accept—in effect, a 92% price guarantee.

It looked like a big discount, but it gave the developer a minimum level of security.

“No problem,” Wang Zhicheng agreed immediately.

“Good. Get the contract ready, and let’s meet tonight to finalize the details. Then we can seal the deal.”

After hanging up, Chen Ling flashed a sly smile.

Although he’d acted reluctant in front of the Wang father and son, in reality... they were the ones underestimating things.

With the stimulus from the Four Trillion Plan, projects in recent years had been selling themselves—so the one truly guaranteed to profit was himself.

But the direct competition with Binhu Group was real, and that was precisely why the Wang family lacked confidence.

Still, the real contest wasn’t about “how many units are sold,” but rather about the speed of sales and the selling price.

With this in mind, Chen Ling collected his things and headed downstairs.

“Big Sis Dou!” he called to Feng Lifang.

“Mr. Chen!” Feng Lifang came over at once.

After getting used to the company’s operations, she was becoming more and more like a proper deputy general manager.

“After meeting the daily needs of the two branches, how many agents do we still have available?” Chen Ling asked.

Feng Lifang answered without hesitation—clearly, she had the figures in her head: “The first batch of 28 agents have all finished training and are focusing on new-home sales as you arranged. The second batch of 31 is also on-site, currently collecting information on nearby developments to prepare for future second-hand business. The third batch, 30 people, are still in training...”

“Mr. Chen,” she continued, “we really need to open more branches or find new office space. With over a hundred people, if we hadn’t sent some out to the field, the two branches would be bursting at the seams.”

Chen Ling nodded. “It’ll be tough for you these next few days, but please focus on getting the second batch up to speed as soon as possible. As for the first batch, I have other plans.”

-------------------------------

[Heading out for New Year’s Eve dinner—if I make it back in time, there’ll be two regular updates; if not, I’ll make up for it tomorrow.]
[Pikachu wishes everyone a Happy New Year!]
[May you all have a wonderful Spring Festival, with happiness, health, and all your wishes fulfilled!]
[The usual New Year’s greetings are a bit old-fashioned, so let’s cut to the chase...]
[Bowing to all you dads out there!]
[Bang, bang, bang~~~]