Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 151

The three men enjoyed their food, drinks, and conversation.

The slightly sad mood from before disappeared as soon as they started drinking.

This was mainly because Woojin had assured Jaeyeop that everything was fine after a call with the union leader.

As a result, the three were able to laugh and chat as usual.

Woojin, feeling tipsy for the first time in a while, headed home close to midnight.

He arrived home and fell fast asleep until morning.

After such a sound sleep, he woke up early, feeling refreshed.

On his way to work, Woojin immediately began making calls to real estate agencies.

“Ah, yes. Mr. President, I’m calling about properties in Cheongdam Seonyoung.”

[Ah, yes! You’ve called the right place. What kind of property are you looking for? It’s a large complex, so we have many sizes available.]

“Yes. I’m looking for something around 33 or 29 pyeong (a Korean unit of area, roughly 96 square meters). It would be even better if it had an application for over 50 pyeong.”

[Oh…! We happen to have some 29 pyeong properties that came on the market yesterday… Unfortunately, we don’t have any properties with applications for over 50 pyeong.]

“Could you give me a price list?”

[Hmm… Well, one property is listed at the market price, and another is a bit cheaper… It has an application for 34 pyeong.]

“Including the additional contribution, what’s the total purchase price?”

[Well, the sale price is around 1.1 billion Korean Won… The additional contribution will be about 40 million, so it’ll be between 1.15 and 1.17 billion Korean Won.]

“I see.”

[With a ‘Jeonse’ (a unique Korean housing deposit system) of about 600 million, the initial investment is just over 500 million.]

“Thank you, Mr. President.”

On his way to work, Woojin called every real estate agency in Cheongdam-dong that he could find online.

He wanted to understand the market trends of Cheongdam Seonyoung.

‘Still no significantly cheap properties available.’

In the stock market, rumors about good or bad news usually change the stock price almost immediately.

Normal people hear rumors later. By then, the stock price has already changed because of the news.

But real estate was the opposite of stocks.

Because buying and selling isn’t as simple as stocks and involves large amounts of money, it takes time for news to affect prices.

When sudden bad news happens, the first week or so is when buyers and sellers start to argue about the price.

Woojin’s calls weren’t to see the immediate market changes.

“Yes, Mr. President. I’m interested in buying, but… I’ll wait a little longer until a fire sale comes up.”

[Haha, please do, Mr. CEO.]

Instead, he wanted to easily understand future market trends by staying in contact with real estate agencies.

“If you have any good properties, please let me know.”

[Of course! I’ll contact you!]

By giving his number to many real estate agencies as a potential buyer, they would automatically text him when a property became available.

This made it possible to understand market trends without much effort.

“Alright, now that I’ve prepared the way… Should I visit the association?”

After arriving at the office, Woojin called the union leader.

He planned to visit the association today, so he made an appointment.

“Yes, Mr. Union Leader. Would dinner time today be alright?”

[Let’s do that. I wanted to ask you about the design change… I wanted to see you anyway.]

“Then I’ll visit the association office by 4 o’clock.”

[Isn’t that too early for dinner?]

“I have a few things I want to ask you before dinner.”

[Hmm, then come by 4:30 at the latest. I have an appointment in the afternoon, and it might not be over by 4 o’clock.]

“Alright. Then I’ll see you then.”

After ending the call with the union leader, Woojin turned on his computer and opened an Excel file.

He organized the member sale prices for each size of Cheongdam Summit, as well as the appraised values for each type, into a table.

He analyzed in detail which property would make the most profit when bought at what price.

‘It’s an opportunity to make a lot of money in a short period. There’s no need to refuse.’

Click- click-

Woojin clicked the mouse repeatedly, his eyes fixed on the screen as if he were about to be sucked into the monitor.

After about another hour, Woojin opened the messenger and called Jintae to the CEO’s office.

“Hyung, how much money do we have available right now?”

“Hmm… What’s going on?”

“I found a short-term investment opportunity worth investing in.”

“I’d have to check with the management support team… But since the down payment from Paramount came in, we should have about 2 billion Korean Won?”

“You’re only talking about the pure balance, right?”

“That’s right. That’s after taking out about 3-400 million in operating funds.”

“Okay, I understand. Go to the management support team, get the exact data, and send it to me via messenger.”

“Alright. I will.”

Because Woojin seemed busy after a long time, Jintae also moved faster.

As soon as Woojin finished speaking, he rushed to the management support team and asked for the financial data.

But Woojin’s mind was the busiest thing right now.

‘It’s a two-month investment. I need to prepare quickly.’

Woojin finished his company work quickly, even skipping lunch, and left the office around 3:30.

He was going to the Cheongdam Seonyoung association office.

Vroom-

Woojin’s expression as he started the engine was slightly flushed. He was excited.

Kwon Soonhyun, the chairman of the Cheongdam Seonyoung Emergency Committee, had been a member of the Seonyoung Apartment Association until a year ago.

He owned a large share, with a 40-pyeong apartment and a large 180-pyeong commercial building share.

He started to oppose the development after the negotiations between the commercial district association and the apartment members failed.

The original Seonyoung Apartment reconstruction plan included the commercial district.

But the apartment association split when the commercial district members asked for money to cover business losses during construction.

The apartment association didn’t reject the commercial district members’ demands at first.

They wanted to redevelop on a larger scale, including the commercial district, so they tried to please them and work together.

“You must pay all commercial district members for 80 percent of the money they lose during the construction period.”

“Huh….”

“The commercial district’s share is also too low. You must calculate it at least 20 percent higher.”

“We’ll talk about it. But those numbers are too high. We need to make some changes.”

“And the commercial district members must also be able to receive apartments for sale in the same way.”

“That’s not possible! We don’t have enough units to sell….”

But the commercial district members didn’t change their minds, and the disagreement grew.

“This is unfair to the apartment owners.”

“The commercial district members’ businesses are at risk! Unfair, you say!”

“Won’t the apartment members who have to move for two years lose money?”

“But they will make money from the increased value of their apartments!”

“Are only the apartments being rebuilt? The commercial district will also be completely rebuilt, increasing its value.”

“Anyway! If you don’t agree to all of these conditions, the commercial district members will have to oppose the development.”

“Haa….”

So, the Apartment Association changed their plan. They decided to rebuild only the apartments. They would leave out the shops completely.

They thought it would be better to move forward quickly, even if the complex was a little smaller, rather than losing a lot of money to the commercial district members.

“We have no choice but to do this.”

“What?”

“We’ll start the business plan again. Since you oppose the development, we’ll completely remove the commercial district from the reconstruction.”

“What does that mean…!”

Because of that, the commercial district members were suddenly left out.

It happened because the commercial district members were too greedy, but they didn’t think so.

“How great would it be if everyone could do well together!”

“Selfish apartment members! We can’t let this project continue as it is!”

This is why the angry commercial district members joined with the tenants to form the Emergency Committee.

Kwon Soonhyun, a major landowner in the commercial district, stepped up to lead the committee.

He even sold his apartment share and became the chairman of the Emergency Committee.

Also, the price of Cheongdam Seonyoung, which he sold, rose by more than 30 percent because people expected the development to happen.

Kwon Soonhyun felt even more betrayed.

‘You sneaky bastards. Do you think I’ll just stand by and let this happen?’

So, Kwon Soonhyun and a few members of the Emergency Committee carefully planned to stop the project for a year.

The rumor spreading among the members was part of this plan.

“Chairman, don’t you think it’s time to move?”

Kwon Soonhyun smiled.

“I’ve gathered you all here today because of the lawsuit.”

The members of the Emergency Committee gathered in Kwon Soonhyun’s commercial building and listened to his story with excitement.

“The association must be sweating right now.”

“Of course. They’re pretending to be calm, but they’re in trouble, right?”

“That’s right. If we sue, they’ll probably try to negotiate a settlement… But we can’t agree to anything reasonable.”

“We have to get at least 2 billion Korean Won per person. It’s better to stop the project than to get less money and give up.”

“That’s right!”

While discussing the lawsuit with the excited members, Kwon Soonhyun laughed to himself.

‘Hehe, it’s too late to regret it. I want to see Kwak Hongshik’s face when the lawsuit starts….’

The day he had been waiting for was almost here. He was excited to cause trouble for the apartment members who had left them out.

“Those of you who own apartments should start selling them.”

“I guess so. The value will drop after the lawsuit.”

The members of the Emergency Committee were excited and shared their plans.

They thought they knew the future because of the lawsuit, and they had many stories to tell.

“Let’s fight to the end.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Chairman.”

“When will the complaint be filed?”

“The results will be out before the end of next week.”

“We’ll see you in court at the end of this month.”

Kwon Soonhyun smiled slyly.

“We’ll probably see our union leader that day too.”

“Hehe, I’m curious about Mr. Kwak’s expression.”

The members of the Emergency Committee smiled, imagining the large amount of money they would receive.

But they didn’t know a few things.

First, a man was walking in front of the commercial building where they were talking and laughing.

Second, the man already knew about their plan and had come to the association office to use it.

Finally, all of their plans would be ruined because of him.