news

on september 5, 2024, in a residential area near shenmei road in pudong, simba knocked on the door of the house of the person being executed. his slap on the iron door made a dull sound, and he said, "listen, everyone inside, i have heard what you are saying."

simba is the online name that wei cheng, a professional house cleaner, gave himself, which was taken from the name of the protagonist in the movie "the lion king". he often imagines himself as a lion, especially when he meets a deadbeat for the first time, "i must make him feel that i am a lion and he is a sheep, so that he will be kind to you and beg for your kindness."

the profession of professional house cleaners was born with the emergence of judicial auction houses. before the judicial auction, the court will force the judicial auction house to be vacated. in actual operation, the deadbeats use various means to resist the execution, resulting in the house being bought but not being able to live in. some judicial auction houses will indicate that they are occupied, or even "the court is not responsible for vacating the house." professional house cleaners make a living by driving out these occupants.

monitoring data from real estate data company guoxinda shows that the number of foreclosed properties nationwide increased by 68.74% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2024. along with the surge in the number of foreclosed properties, simba's number of fans has also soared, with nearly 800,000 on douyin alone.

simba was ultimately unable to knock on the door that day. inside lived a mother and son who had mortgaged their house to a bank three years ago. after the default, the bank found simba and was willing to transfer the debt at a low price.

the reason why the bank is willing to sell the property is that the son has a mental illness and the mother is disabled. even through judicial auction, it is difficult to enforce the judgment. for creditors, if the elderly, minors, disabled people, and mentally ill people occupy the house, they may "never be able to live in it for the rest of their lives."

but for simba, being rejected is not necessarily a bad thing. the more uncooperative the person being executed is, the more difficult it will be to deal with him, and the higher the profit will be for him.

monitoring data from real estate data company guoxinda shows that the number of foreclosed properties listed nationwide in the first eight months of 2024 increased by 68.74% year-on-year.

whoever strikes first loses.

simba is 39 years old this year and grew up in hongzhen old street. in shanghai, the name "hongzhen old street" is used to stabilize the place, and many fierce gangsters have been born there.

he told the southern weekend reporter that everyone living here is poor. "either their parents are illiterate or they are drug addicts and thieves. most of them are from the bottom of society."

his family was at the bottom of the list in hongzhen old street. "my father was a rag collector, and my mother was a laid-off textile worker." in simba's childhood memories, his father was always ridiculed and said to be "mentally ill."

"the person who brought me into this business was the one who deceived me." simba said that he entered the house cleaning business in order to collect his debts.

around 2008, not long after the relocation of hongzhen old street, the family's relocation money was swindled away by a big brother in the name of investment. in order to ask the big brother for money, simba organized a debt collection team, "it costs money to collect debts by myself, why not make this business."

he set up stalls in front of the court and the stock exchange, with a roll-up banner that said debt collection and house clearance. at the time, house clearance business was the fastest way to make money, and the competition was fierce. he told a southern weekend reporter that he had cleared houses for people for free, as long as the other party wrote a good review for him in a forum.

this industry underwent a huge change in 2018. that year, a three-year campaign to crack down on organized crime and eliminate evil began, and a large number of people who collected debts and cleared houses were thrown into prison.

simba claimed that he had kept his bottom line, "if i had participated in loan scams, i would have been in jail now." his colleagues who were cleaning out the house with him were involved in a case - the occupant hanged himself in the room, and all those who participated in the cleaning out the house were sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of provoking disturbances.

"if i go to clear the house, i believe he won't commit suicide." he believes that what makes him different from others is that before taking over an order, he will read the verdict and understand the situation on the spot. "many people only look at the money, but i have to be selective about the case. if it is really a routine loan, i will not take it." this is not only a moral issue, but also a matter of protecting yourself.

during a due diligence visit, he discovered that both the couple had cancer. in order to pay for their treatment, they fell into a loan scam and lost their house. "i left 200 yuan and left."

simba admitted that many of his methods in the process of clearing the house were indeed despicable. "i poured water on people in the winter, sprayed them with water guns in the summer, and set up a mourning hall in the house to scare people at night." he was also arrested by the police and imprisoned. "but i can't get into big trouble. i have been in prison many times, but in the end i was not prosecuted."

the only time he was sentenced was for a fight with a gangster. "we had a fight over money, and he refused to accept a settlement. in the end, i was sentenced to seven months, and he was also sentenced to seven months. however, he was a very extreme person. after being arrested in the detention center, he bit the finger of a police officer, so he was sentenced to an extra four months."

yang qi is simba's partner. he claims to be a graduate of tongji university with a degree in architecture. he also used to work in a well-known real estate company. he started buying foreclosed properties with simba three years ago.

he told the southern weekend reporter that many people think that clearing a room means beating up the other party, but on the contrary, it means racking your brains to get the other party to beat you up, and "whoever strikes first loses."

according to his recollection, the most difficult debt he had ever experienced was when a deadbeat converted an occupied house into a community chess and card room, and pre-sold the lease to people in the community at a low price. "it was made similar to futures, which meant that the interests of the entire community were tied to this house."

at that time, there were people in the chess and card room 24 hours a day, and the room was not cleared for a long time. the real turning point came when a female owner of the room could not help but slap simba. "after that slap, we almost cheered, and were all asking if it was captured. "when they heard that it was captured, they all breathed a sigh of relief and secretly rejoiced, "now we have a handle."

rather than "coercion", house eviction is more of a "bribe". often the person who evicts the house has to find a way out for the deadbeat, give him a resettlement fee, apply for low-rent housing for him, and help his children with household registration. these are all commonly used tactics.

in order to get the other party to move out, "i rack my brains to give them advice, save you the money that should be saved, help you apply for resettlement fees, where to live in the future, and how to ensure that your children's schooling is not affected after renting a house." yang qi said that there is a lot of work to be done. as long as the other party is a normal person, we will discuss with him and see what conditions are willing to make him move out. "as long as you respect me a little, we will definitely provide attentive service."

they once dealt with a debt claim. the old man used to be a laborer who carried heavy bags. 20 years ago, in order to help his good friend borrow money, he transferred his house to the other party. the other party defaulted after mortgaging the loan.

after the house was auctioned off, in order to resist execution, the old man stayed at home every day and raised a large number of stray dogs and cats, making the house stink. "the dead bodies of cats and garbage were left in the house. he lived like an animal."

after his death, the house will be returned to the creditors, but his later years will be of no quality. "on the surface, he has kept the house, but in fact, he is trapped in it."

after taking over the debt, they found low-rent housing for the elderly and gave them a resettlement fee. "which one do you think has a higher quality of life?"

a new situation now is that a large number of housing preservation agencies have emerged, teaching people how to avoid judicial auctions. simba has carefully studied these strategies, "they are the same few tricks that are used over and over again. i can say responsibly that none of them are really effective." instead, they are new ways to cut leeks. "the first step is to charge 599 yuan to join the group, and then cut a wave of leeks. the second step is to formulate a housing preservation plan, teach you to make some fake rentals, and then cut a wave of legal service fees. his real purpose is in the third step. after you make a fake rental, others dare not bid, but he dares to bid, and then he will come to pick up your house."

simba is negotiating with the occupiers. photo provided by the interviewee

don't be greedy, be quick

starting from 2018, the threshold for clearing a house has become higher. "in the past, the owner had to write a power of attorney to clear the house, and if the boss bought the house, he could send his subordinates to clear the house. after the crackdown on gangsters and evil, the property owners themselves must clear the house."

in 2019, simba met his first benefactor in life, who provided him with the first start-up capital for his business. at that time, the cheapest foreclosed houses were occupied houses, and most people did not dare to bid for them. "if they could not be sold at the first auction, they would be sold at 20% or 30% off at the next auction." after these houses were cleared, they had great room for appreciation.

however, this type of property also faces a structural dilemma. "the people who are capable of clearing out the houses must be ruffians and scoundrels, but ruffians and scoundrels have no money, and no one is willing to give them money."

this client had commissioned him to clear a house and knew him well. "he gave me several million yuan without even a note and used my name to buy and occupy the house." simba did not abscond with the money. "the accounts were kept very clearly, there was no overnight account, and the money was definitely divided before 24:00 on the same day."

after gaining credibility, simba formed a real estate speculation team around him. the person who worked with him the most was yang qi, and the two were known as the "golden partners."

yang qi wore a pair of round-frame glasses and his eyes revealed a shrewd look. he claimed to be an expert in the shanghai real estate market and had worked for wanda, powerlong real estate, etc. "i'm not bragging, just pick a community within the outer ring road of shanghai, and i can tell you the approximate housing prices, school districts and transportation facilities around this community."

the two have bought and sold dozens of houses together. when they first started working together, they would renovate the houses and sell them, hoping to increase the premium. but after house prices began to fall, the logic of the entire business changed fundamentally, and time is now more important than premium.

simba concluded, "i could run slower before, but now i have to run faster. what i fear most is that after i buy the house at this price, the price will fall below my transaction price over time."

they bought a house at a price of 1.1 million yuan, but someone offered it for 1.3 million yuan. they did not sell it, but spent 100,000 yuan and three months renovating it. the final transaction price was 1.2 million yuan.

under shanghai's limited home purchase policy, each person has a limited number of housing quotas. if you linger or are greedy, you will lose a lot of opportunity costs. "don't linger. what i earn is the premium per unit time. many people worry about selling this house and not knowing where to buy the next one, but i don't worry about that. i may not make much money, but i won't lose."

recently, simba is moving upstream and trying to collect debts directly from banks, "this is a bigger market." in the past few years of judicial auction house transactions, simba can clearly feel that the number of judicial auction houses is related to the monthly transaction volume of second-hand houses. "the transaction volume of second-hand houses has increased, and the number of judicial auction houses has also increased, accounting for about 1% to 2% of second-hand houses. but if the second-hand housing market is unpopular, the number of judicial auction houses will also decrease."

several bank employees told southern weekend reporters that although there are no explicit regulations, there is "a certain tacit understanding" between banks and courts on the speed of listing foreclosed properties.

in this regard, liu xiaochun, deputy director of the shanghai new finance research institute, analyzed to the southern weekend reporter that foreclosed properties are low-priced in the regional second-hand housing market, "during the stage of rising real estate prices, the impact on housing prices is not significant. but when housing prices go down, once foreclosed properties fail to be sold and are discounted, it will lead to a drop in the price of the entire foreclosed property, ultimately affecting housing prices in the entire region and putting pressure on prices in the entire region."

simba feels that the current judicial auction business has become a race against housing prices. if the houses are cleared quickly and sold quickly, there may be a profit, otherwise there is a risk of loss.

the wind is coming

after simba became an internet celebrity, he felt the changes in the people around him, "i have a relative who is a leader in a company. to be honest, he used to look down on us, but now he invites me to dinner every few days."

simba took out his mobile phone to show the southern weekend reporter his new company, "it's over 1,000 square meters, and the decoration alone cost more than 2 million yuan." jiang lei is the major shareholder and main investor of the new company. he has been engaged in the disposal of non-performing assets since the 1990s.

according to him, there are two main ways for banks to dispose of non-performing assets: one is through judicial auction, and the other is to package them and sell them to non-performing asset disposal companies at a low price.

the new situation at present is that judicial auctions have become a reservoir. "there are too many disputes for banks to handle. it is impossible to rely solely on the law. we need the power of the public to join in." in addition, if they are packaged and sold to non-performing asset disposal companies, the price is only 30% to 40% off, and banks cannot afford it. "if they give us 30% to 80% off, banks can still afford it."

private capital is not allowed to enter the primary market for debt, and banks can only split it into small retail orders. "there are only one or two households in a package. our advantage is not only that we have a certain amount of funds, but also flexible disposal plans."

jiang lei believes that private capital like his will have a bonus period in the next few years, and "the non-performing rate of operating loans will explode next year." he plans to ambush in advance and "plans to recruit 100 lawyers next year."

however, liu xiaochun, deputy director of the shanghai new finance research institute, told southern weekend that the current risks of operating loans are still within a controllable range. "the non-performing loan rates of some commercial banks may increase, but the non-performing loan rate of operating loans in the state-owned banks is still very small." private capital entering the debt field also faces the risk of "debt evasion." there have been precedents before - banks sold debt claims to private companies at a discount, and then the debtors repurchased the debts at a low price, ultimately escaping the situation and the banks were the ones who suffered.

in jiang lei's plan, simba was the key figure connecting the entire upstream and downstream. in order to attract him to join, he was given 9% of the shares, without having to invest capital, but with technology.

in the past, the disposal of non-performing assets was a closed small circle, but simba’s douyin account can become a traffic platform, “those with money can buy assets, and those without money can contribute and learn our disposal courses.”

yao ankang is the second largest shareholder and founder of the company. it was he who introduced simba to jiang lei. he had never been involved in the disposal of non-performing assets before. his main business was manufacturing supporting equipment for car factories. he once "drew design drawings on iron sheets for ten years."

he has a full beard and stands out in the crowd. "wherever the car companies open factories, our supporting products should follow. when we went to iran, a colleague went to the bank to withdraw money and a revolver was pointed at his head and he almost died. after that, i grew a beard so that when i arrived at the local area, i could just change my clothes and pretend to be a local."

in the past 20 years, he has experienced great changes in the automotive industry and is also looking for new opportunities. the opportunity to discover the non-performing asset industry came when a foreclosed house in his community was auctioned in 2023. "the auction price was only 20 million for a 40 million property." this incident made him suddenly realize that "the era of debt dividends is coming."

to this end, he began to delve deeper into the industry and accidentally saw simba’s video. he felt that if he had a team, "his abilities could be amplified with leverage."

"the development speed in the past three months has far exceeded expectations." simba's assistant opened the douyin background and said, "you can see dozens of private messages every day." most of them are creditors, and there are even judges from other places asking for help.

the bosses told simba, "the company is equipped with a legal team, an asset analysis team, a photography team, an auction company team, and we will also set up an mcn agency company. we want to train more simbas in the future."

the small office is already overcrowded. "people come to consult every day," the assistant sometimes has to stand while working, and the few chairs are given to the guests.

southern weekend reporter luo huanhuan

editor: gu ce