Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 520: Winning Bid at Public Auction—Onbid (1) - Part 1

After getting off the phone with Jae-Sik Moon, Gun-Ho couldn't dispel the thought of the rental real property on Onbid. He made a call to Jae-Sik again.

"Jae-Sik, I just wanted to ask you if the rental property that you are keeping an eye on is the one that my brother-in-law was talking about."

"That's the one. In order to make sure that I was looking at the same property, I asked your brother-in-law about the property number. It's the same property with the same number. Also, that's the only rental real property in Siheung City, that is on Onbid right now."

"It's a 1,000 pyung large land. Don't you think 60 million won is excessive for that size?"

"60 million won? Their price is not 60 million won. It's 6 million won!"

"Are you sure? Because my brother-in-law said they are asking 60 million won."

"Haha. He got it wrong. Their starting bidding price is 6 million won, not 60 million won. It's a very normal mistake that is often made by people who haven't often worked with numbers. He just misread the number. I did that too at the beginning of my work."

"Hmmm, really?"

"Think about it. If the 60 million won is their price, that means that they are asking 5 million won per month to lease that property. That doesn't make any sense. It's not like they have a structure or anything like that on the property. It's just a vacant land with no restriction on its use. 6 million won sounds perfectly right. So, I offered them 6.15 million won. The bid closing date is until 2 days and 5 hours on Onbid. We will know the result after two days."

"Hey, if that place is that cheap like 6 million won for a year, do they have public water and electricity services on the property?"

"You said that your brother-in-law visited the site already. Didn't he make sure it has everything he needs?"

"You know what? I think you will need to visit the property and check everything again. If there are no public water and electricity available in the property, we can't have a bathroom either. We are not looking for a parking lot where we just store our trucks. We want an office there too."

"Okay. You are right. Their price is too nicely low to have them all. I will check out the property."

In the afternoon, Gun-Ho received a call from Jae-Sik Moon. He was calling him after he visited the land in Siheung City.

"It's just a plain land with no restriction on its use. There is a cemented road to access the land. The land is vacant and looks like it hasn't been used for a long while. A lot of weeds are growing there. I don't think we can have an office there."

"Why did my brother-in-law say it would be a perfect place for the business then?"

"Well, you can place one or two container offices there along with a portable toilet."

"What about electricity?"

"You will need to bring the service into the land on your own. There is a utility pole nearby, so it looks possible."

"What about water then?"

"You will have to work on that on your own as well, like digging for underground water or something."

"Hmmm."

"So, it seems like we have two options under the current situation."

"What are those?"

"Well, option 1 is that we give up that property assuming to lose the 10% of our offer price that we paid for a bid deposit, and we find another place with an existing office. Or…"

"Or?"

"There is a small building next to the land that we made a bid on. It was used as a daycare center, and it's now vacant. It is currently on the market for rent. We can lease both the land and the formal daycare center. Since we need space for the trucks, we need that land. For an office, we can use that small building."

"How small is that daycare center? Is it a two story building?"

"No, it's a one story building. I already talked with its owner. According to the owner, the building is 60 pyung large, and he is willing to lease it to us for 600,000 won per month."

"That building should have electricity and water already with bathrooms."

"Of course, they have everything for an office use. It even has a kitchen."

"Okay then. Make a lease contract for the daycare center building. It's not a simple work to bring the public water and electricity services to the site. We don't want to go through that process."

"Why don't you visit the daycare center yourself, President Goo? You should probably see the land on Onbid anyway."

"Can we raise our offer price for the land on Onbid now? I think we need to get that land. If we offer a higher price, we will have a better chance to get it."

"That's not possible now. Onbid doesn't allow bidders to change their bids after they made one. I read online that once you place your offer on Onbid, you can't take it back or alter it."

"You can't change anything after you make your offer? Haha. It sounds like the rule in playing Go-Stop (Korean card game)."

The next day, Gun-Ho was supposed to go to GH Building in Sinsa Town to work, but he instead, went to Siheung City to check out the land that was on the public auction market via Onbid.

The land was indeed filled with weeds which were all fully grown up.

"This land could be well used for farming with a vinyl greenhouse. It's a shame that no one is using it. I'm still wondering what my brother-in-law was thinking when he chose this land to make a bid on. This is an unused vacant land. I don't know what he was thinking."

Gun-Ho looked at the daycare center. Fortunately, the daycare center was on the adjacent land from the land that Gun-Ho made a bid on. It still has a banner saying that they were accepting new children. It seemed that they closed the business a long time ago. The banner looked pretty old.

"It seems that this town doesn't have a high population. I'm not sure if this is a good location for a daycare center. But this building looks like it was designed and built for a daycare center from the beginning considering all the structure and colors and stuff."

Gun-Ho was thinking if he should call his sister and tell her about renting an old daycare center for an office use, and then he decided that he would do so later.

"I want to get the result from Onbid first. I can tell her then."

Gun-Ho had lunch with Chan-Ho Eum at a restaurant in Siheung City around Murwang Reservoir before leaving the city.

Gun-Ho went to his office to work in the GH Building in Gangnam District.

"Mr. Director Kang, can we talk?"

"Sure, sir."

Director Kang followed Gun-Ho to his office carrying a notebook.

"If an office space becomes available on the 17th floor where GH Media is located, and on the 18th floor where our office is, and on the 19th floor, please let me know."

"Yes, sir."

"If any office leases expire on those three floors, do not take a new tenant."

"Do you have a special plan to use those three floors?"

"I was thinking of using the offices on those floors for GH Mobile or Dyeon Korea once they are successfully registered with KOSDAQ. Those companies will need an office in Seoul City anyway."

"Okay, sir. If that happens, we will collect the rent from GH Mobile or Dyeon Korea."

"That's right. But you don't have to force the currently occupying tenants to vacate their offices though."

"Understood, sir."

"We have a water tank on the 19th floor. Because of the water tank, we have a space to rent on one side only. Is it available right now?"

"No, sir. The space on the 19th floor is not an office space to rent, but it has been used by the insurance company on the 6th floor as their auditorium. They provide their insurance training to their workers and new hires there. When there is no training, it's dead quiet, but during their training period, it's really noisy on that floor."

"Hmm, I see."

"After we open the art gallery in the basement level and the book cafe on the rooftop floor, it became easier for us to collect our rents. Even after we raised the rent by 3% last time, our current tenants are paying their rents without a problem."

"Hmm, really?"

"Maybe because it was the first time raising the rent in a long while like two years."

"Please raise the pay for our workers by 3% starting next month, including the cleaning crew."

"Wow! Thank you so much, sir."