Chapter 523 Long Island Mansion

"Sir, what do you think of this villa? The previous owner just listed it, and you are the first guest I have ever received. This is the best house in Naxi County, bar none. Only such a house is worthy of your honor." identity of."

A middle-aged Caucasian man in his forties was talking to Zhong Shi, and he subconsciously wanted to walk towards Zhong Shi when he was talking about excitement, but as soon as he took a step, he was caught by the guards around Zhong Shi. He stopped it with stern eyes. Embarrassed, he quickly looked away, but he kept saying, "This way please, I'll show you around this house."

  This is Long Island, New York. Long Island is an island in North America in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located on the east coast of North America and belongs to the state of New York. Located in the northern temperate zone, Long Island is surrounded by the sea on three sides. The island is covered with forests, with abundant rainfall and a humid climate. Due to its maritime climate, the summer is not hot, and it is considered to be one of the most livable areas in the world. This is also an area where rich people gather. Many rich Americans, including foreign rich people, have bought real estate here.

  Because it is very close to Manhattan, there are many elites in the hedge fund industry who buy real estate here, and many hedge funds directly set up their headquarters here, such as the famous Renaissance Technology. And here, together with New York and Greenwich, is known as the three capitals of hedge funds in the United States.

   At this time, it was already June of 2007. After completely smashing the Everlasting Flower Fund, Zhongshi began to make intensive arrangements. After more than half a year, all the arrangements can be regarded as the end. Only then did he have time to come to the United States again to personally inspect the changes in the real estate market.

Naturally, New York basically doesn’t have much possibility to investigate. As the capital of the world, its housing prices have always been much higher than other cities in the United States, and there are many factors that affect housing prices in super cities, not just financial people. So Zhong Shi and the others just took a quick look, asked the prices of a few mansions, and then transferred to Long Island.

  Alan Anthony is one of the ace real estate brokers in New York, specializing in luxury real estate intermediary business. Clients who have bought or sold houses from him over the years include artists, movie stars, fund managers and even politicians, and he has also woven a huge network of relationships through this, which makes him a real estate agent. It is more like a duck to water.

  On this day, he received a call. There was a wealthy customer who planned to buy a property near Long Island, and he hoped that he could introduce a good house. Of course, the so-called good houses refer to houses worth at least $500,000 or more. And in Allen's hands, there are a lot of this kind of houses, and even the luxury houses with a market price of tens of millions of dollars, he has several sets waiting to be sold.

When Allen saw this "big customer" for the first time, he felt a little regretful in his heart. He was really careless. He thought he was an Asian customer, so he took him to Nassau County, where there are many Asian groups. Although the houses here are expensive, they obviously cannot keep up with the style of this client.

   Pick-up and drop-off in three brand-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans, surrounded by more than five bodyguards, plus a suit of inconspicuous custom-made clothes, all of which showed the noble identity and status of the other party. Although he couldn't tell the age of the person in front of him, Allen could clearly see that this guy was quite young.

  Seeing a lot of people and things, Alan Anthony has long developed a pair of piercing eyes. After looking each other up and down, he has a general understanding of their wealth and status. Although he disdains this kind of ostentation, Allen knows very well that he has met a "local tyrant", but the order of visits has been arranged in advance, so even if he regrets it, it is not easy to change anything.

  Zhong Shi also felt very helpless about the ostentation put on by Land Rover. He always likes to keep a low profile. But this time when he came to the United States, he didn't know where he heard the rumors. Land Rover insisted on following him personally, and even selected some of his men with the best marksmanship to follow him. large-scale expeditions.

In addition to the team led by Zhong Shi himself, a team led by Jiang Shan went to Chicago, Maxim and several analysts went to Los Angeles, and two other teams went to Boston and Houston respectively. . These are all big cities in the United States. Although they cannot cover the whole picture of the housing credit market in the United States, they can also reflect market fluctuations to a certain extent.

   Just yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce just announced the start rate of new housing in the United States in June. The start rate of new housing in the United States in June fell by 5% compared with May, and the seasonally adjusted annual rate was about 658,000 units.

  Because new housing starts are closely related to finance, building materials, furniture, household appliances, employment and overall economic growth, this number is closely watched by the market, although it is only an indicator of the activity of the construction industry.

  In today's market, stocks including many financial institutions have fallen to varying degrees because of this number. However, some analysts pointed out that this is because the United States is about to enter summer, and the severe high temperature has caused a sharp drop in housing starts. This situation is caused by seasonality, and there is no need to worry too much about the US real estate market or even the US economy.

It's just that all of this has nothing to do with Alan Anthony. His priority now is to treat this client well, and use his professionalism and eloquence to persuade the other party to buy one or even more houses, so that his generous commission will be just around the corner. up. Allen has secretly made up his mind not to show more or stronger desire to recommend this house when introducing this house, and then use his three-inch tongue to convince the other party when the next mansion is coming .

"This house has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, which is enough for small parties. There is also a basement where some sundries can be placed. The lawn in the backyard is large enough to have a barbecue party. You can even Build another swimming pool, if you need it."

   In front of the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, Allen pointed to a large lush backyard and said. I have to say that although it has been listed for sale, the lawn here is still very well maintained, the bushes are neatly trimmed, and the grass has also been repaired. It can be seen that it has not been carefully taken care of for a long time.

A group of people have just finished visiting the interior of the room. Although it is an expensive mansion, the interior decoration is less luxurious and luxurious, and more casual and romantic: bright and pure white decoration style, walls decorated with impression paintings, a The glass curtain wall that falls to the bottom is enough to allow sunlight to fully shine into the master bedroom. Bright and spacious, warm and comfortable, this is the first impression.

   What is even more commendable is that this mansion with upper and lower floors and a combined front and back yard of more than 800 square meters is currently on sale for only US$1.4 million, which is only about ten million in Hong Kong dollars. In Hong Kong, if you want to win a mansion of such an area, it is absolutely impossible without hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

   In terms of transportation, it is also quite convenient. It is only 500 meters away from the train station, and even if you drive, you can reach downtown Manhattan within an hour. And the most important thing is that there are many Chinese here, and there are not too many obstacles in daily communication. And because it is a wealthy area, the law and order is good, and it is not as messy as nearby Flushing.

  Naturally, Zhong Shi looked down on such a house. And the biggest problem is that after the outbreak of the financial crisis, not to mention 1.4 million US dollars, even if it is cut in half, the price of 700,000 US dollars may not be paid much attention. So even though Alan Anthony was talking about the hype, Zhong Shi only kept a faint smile on his face, and only listened with two ears, without expressing opinions or asking any questions.

   On the other hand, Lu Rover, who had been by Zhong Shi's side all the time, became extremely excited after entering the room, scratching his head, looking left and right, not like a stern personal bodyguard. Several times when Allen talked about the advantages of the house, he hesitated to speak, looking very interested.

  Seeing that Zhong Shi only had a polite smile on his face, Allen felt a little bit in his heart, knowing that this house might not be in the eyes of the other party. Although Land Rover's performance is also in his eyes, he doesn't think that the bodyguard of this wealthy guest can afford a similar house, so when Land Rover is eager to try several times, he avoids his eyes in time. I don't want to spend time and energy on a little one.

"May I ask what happened to the previous owner of this house?" After listening to Alan Anthony rambling for a long time, Zhong Shi finally spoke, "I mean, do you know why he sold such a good house? If it is really as good as you say."

Hearing the doubts in Zhong Shi's words, Alan Anthony's expression was slightly embarrassed. After the blushing on his face disappeared, he returned to normal, and talked again: "Speaking of which, you really ask By the way, according to my understanding, the original owner of this house was working on Wall Street, but because of investment failure, his life suddenly fell into a predicament, and he had no choice but to sell the house."

As soon as this remark came out, Zhong Shi immediately became interested. He narrowed his eyes slightly, showing a very interested look, and then asked: "Investment failure? Wow, this is really a big problem. Frankly speaking, I have an idle fund now, and I have thought about investing it. But from what you said, the risk seems to be very high. Can you tell me what is going on? Let me avoid risks."

   "So you are interested in investment?" Allen's face suddenly showed unexpected surprise. In fact, the annual commission income of an ace broker like him can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, so financial management has naturally become inevitable. He has his own broker in Wall Street, and he is familiar with it on a daily basis, and he often deals with people in the financial circle. He seems to have become half a financial expert after going back and forth. He said to Zhong Shi unceremoniously: "Sir, if you really want to In terms of investment, I suggest that you never touch options. The owner of this room is planted on options. At the beginning, he invested all his wealth in short-term options on CDS, but the prices of those options rose instead of falling. He Not only did it fail to exercise, but it lost all of it, and it didn’t even get back any cost. It’s too miserable. Oh, by the way, maybe you don’t know what CDS is, in fact, this thing is…”

Immediately afterwards, regardless of whether the other party was interested or not, he began to explain to Zhong Shi what CDS was according to his own understanding. After talking dryly for a long time, he could barely finish the explanation. Shi said, "Do you understand?"

It turns out that in the past few months, the price fluctuations of credit default guarantees on housing mortgages have increased significantly. In this case, the original owner of this house thought it was time to invest. Invest in short options. Fortunately, he has a little financial knowledge and knows how to use options instead of buying related products directly, otherwise even the house would be confiscated by the bank now.

"Has it spread to the middle class?" Zhong Shi rubbed his smooth chin, as if he was asking himself or others, his voice was very low, and others only heard him muttering, but did not listen. Understand exactly what was said. In the next moment, he came to his senses, and said to Alan with a confused face, "You explained it carefully enough, I understand it, and I will never touch options."

Seeing the "suddenly enlightened" expression on Zhong Shi's face, Allen smiled with satisfaction and said, "Sir, let's move on to the next location. You look at this house first, and don't rush to make a decision. Give me an answer within a month."

  Zhong Shi nodded, without saying anything, followed Allen and walked outside. Lu Rover naturally followed him every step of the way, but when he stepped out of the threshold, he slowed down significantly. Zhong Shi, who had already had a panoramic view of Lu Rover's performance, smiled slightly, and said softly: "Relax, if you really want it, I will give it to you. It's just that now is not the time. As for when, you will Just know."

  Hearing Zhong Shi's words, Lu Rover's original expression of reluctance immediately disappeared without a trace. He was most convinced by Zhong Shi's words, and naturally knew that the other party must have deep meaning, so after looking back at the house, he strode out without looking back.

   Since the two were speaking in vernacular, Allen couldn't understand at all. However, after seeing the strange behavior of these two people, his heart skipped a beat, and subconsciously felt that he seemed to have missed something.

But this idea quickly disappeared in his mind, because what he was going to visit next was a standard mansion, covering several acres of land, with an invincible sea view, and even a manor-style mansion with a dedicated tennis court. Highly recommend Zhongshi's. Of course, the price is not cheap, 15 million US dollars.

   Thank you book friends who voted for their monthly votes in the past few days, such as Not Me Last Night, Wang Late Autumn Maple Leaf, Gambler Not Me, cpower, Europe 56, etc. Thank you book friend Xiao Qi for the huge reward for the miracle of civilization! I have been ill for a few days and it will be the end of the month. I am finally feeling better now. I have to reorganize my thoughts and continue to work hard. Thank you all for supporting the author and this book!

  

  

  (end of this chapter)