Property Management

After spending as much time as they could together within her room, Joe finally said farewell to the James family. As he closed the door to the car that had been arranged to bring him back to campus, he could have sworn he was receiving a devious look from a few of the maid.

Believing it was all his imagination, he made himself busy the entire ride back. From the moment the car had begun on its journey, he was scrolling through housing listings close to campus.

To his surprise, nearly all of them were well within his budget. Although his income was currently unstable, his earnings from the first semester had allotted him more than enough funding to make it through the rest of the year as well as the entire second year.

Just as the car came to a halt in front of the Northern entrance to campus, Joe booked a viewing for the home that fit his unspoken criteria the best. After disembarking, rather than head back to his dorm, Joe made his way to the listed address.

After ten minutes of casually walking through the streets, he now stood before a relatively large home. The images attached to the listing did nothing to speak of the shear size of the property. While he was standing in awe, a rather well dressed, middle aged, man approached him from the side.

"You, boy, no loitering! A potential investor is on his way here to view the property and having a vagrant standing right outside the gate is bad for business."

With a dead expression, Joe turned to face the rude individual.

"Mr. Ager, I presume. Mt name is Joseph Merril. I believe the 'potential investor' you were referring to was in fact myself. However, if this is the attitude of the property manager then I believe it would be in my best interest to take my business and finances elsewhere."

Being address in this cold way initially caught the middle-aged man off guard. Disbelief clouded his face. This property was by no means affordable for the average person. For a kid so young to state he had the financial backing to remove it from the market stunned his thinking.

"Wait, Mr. Merril, it was presumptuous of me to associate you with the usual loiterers in the area. Before you decide to do business elsewhere, afford me the opportunity to show you the grounds."

Realizing he has potentially ruined the opportunity to remove this home from the list of properties he had been unsuccessful in selling, Mr. Ager attempted to salvage the situation. It had already been eight months since this property was added to the list, he was responsible for selling. Every other home that came after it had already been sold off as well as most of the ones that came before it.

Seeing the eager expression embedded on the property manager's face, Joe decided to follow him inside. With a simple nod of his head, Mr. Ager unlocked the gate and began to guide Joe around the grounds.

A short walk up the drive and the two were now standing at the front door. The twenty-five yards of distance from the gate to the front door was one of the things that caught Joe's attention when browsing all the listing.

Every other property was higher in cost and offered no security to the grounds. Although not essential, with everything he and his family had gone through up to this point, the extra security provided an added sense of peace to his worrying mind.

Walking through the front door, he was greeted was a grand entrance hall. On either side was a door leading off to other rooms. Two smaller walkways were positioned on either side of a marbled stairway. The gothic styled high ceiling provided a grand view of the upper portion of the stairs as well as the start of the second floor.

Off to the right was a spacious living area. With all furnishing removed, every step taken on the polished wood floors echoed throughout the room. Joe could already picture what the room would look like filled with some basic comfort furniture.

On the other side of the entrance, and through a pair of slide doors, was a massive dining room. With a large enough table, it could be possible to seat a minimum of twenty people comfortably.

Passing the stairway, Joe found himself in a kitchen large enough to run his own restaurant out of. The large island in the center would allow for multiple people to prepare ingredients as well as stage prepared dishes. All the while staying clear out the way of any person moving about doing the actual cooking.

Off the kitchen, he found a washroom where the weeks work of clothing from five people could all be taken care of at once. A closed door on the far wall would serve as a storage cupboard for a variety of cleaning items.

Moving up the grand stairway, two hallways stretched in either direction. No matter what side you chose to investigate first, it was perfectly mirrored on the other end. A total of nine rooms made up the second floor. Four on either end and a master bedroom centered on the stairs.

Feeling satisfied with the master bedroom, Joe investigates one of the other rooms. Once inside, he was met with a room nearly two thirds the size of the master. Like with the master bedroom, a full bath was attached to either room.

Feeling fully satisfied with everything he had seen, Joe decided it was time to discuss pricing with the property manager. He also decided to leverage the situation earlier in his favor. After twenty minutes of discussion, he managed to receive a twenty percent discount on the total cost.

After signing the transfer of ownership papers, Joe transferred eight hundred of his Merit Points to the account given by Mr. Alger. Despite losing out on twenty percent of his profit due to his own arrogance, the businessman was still pleased with the outcome. The eight hundred was still more than double the asking price from the original sellers.