Hearth House: Family Home Buying Schemes
Ha Qing wanted to buy a house—a modest 60-square-meter place costing a couple of million—and since she had no income of her own while her husband also earned very little, she asked him to borrow a million from his sister, Tong Yao, for the down payment.
Tong Yao dodged the request, unwilling to lend. She claimed she was looking to buy a second property herself, priced at twenty million, and simply didn’t have the cash. In truth, she had other concerns and subtly hinted that their father—Ha Qing’s father-in-law—shouldn’t lend the money to his daughter-in-law either.
Tong Yao’s hesitation was straightforward. She knew full well that her younger brother had no real prospects: he wasn’t handsome, wasn’t bright, and his low-paying job existed only because people did her a favor.
Ha Qing, on the other hand, was shrewd and skilled at looking out for herself. Tong Yao worried that once Ha Qing owned her own place and things kept improving for her, she’d eventually leave her husband behind.
Mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law sometimes play the villain, making life hard for the bride, but at root it comes down to worry—for their sons, for their brothers. At its core, it’s about protecting the interests of family. So one plays the bad cop while the other plays the good cop.
If Ha Qing hadn’t been so fixated on getting an apartment in Shanghai, why would she have married a man she looked down on? Her sister-in-law saw right through that and went to great lengths to block it. She knew that once Ha Qing got the house, her brother’s marriage would be on shaky ground—after all, the one thing he had going for him would disappear. This line of thinking resonates with many; Ha Qing wasn’t alone in her reasoning, and there are plenty of people who share her outlook.
At their core, all investments are about finding an exit. Whether you’re talking about angel rounds, VC/PE rounds, or “Alibaba/Tencent” rounds, what investors are really asking is: I’m giving you my money—how do I get out later?