General Tso’s 8th Floor Walk-Up: Rotisserie Realtors in China

Shenzhen- Real Estate Roast Chicken

Walking by real estate offices in China might make you wonder.  Wonder what? Now that’s the important question.  The men are usually outside dun’ing, that is, squatting, at the edge of a step, in addition to smoking and texting, often at the same time.  The women are usually yapping by the door or sitting inside (separated barely a foot/~⅓ meter from each other), always in undersized jackets, aloof but somehow ready to provide customers with an unsound plastic cup of tepid water.  If you muster the courage to walk into one of the bountiful outlets, you’ll…rarely spot another customer.  At least that was my experience, wading through about thirty in Shenzhen, seeing another customer in just one place (probably there with the same “gutsy” reason I started to have-almost free water).  My former (Australian) boss wanted to sign a lease, so after all of those thirty office and site visits, watching agents literally push, prod and cajole the landlord into getting it done, we…got it done.   To sum it all up– don’t fret about the whole real estate process, since your local agent wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Yet someone, somewhere over in China, the land of MFCs, Leveaus jeans, 8-11 convenience stores, and Teabucks whipped up an original idea…somehow.  On the rare occasion one of these realty storefronts had clients, negotiations and dubious seating arrangements might render the customer feeling a bit knackered.  Might coffee help in this situation?  Maybe, but they don’t offer take-out cups.  How about a steamed bun?  Nope, that just sounds gross.  Rotisserie chicken?  Bingo.