Fresh off the Boat is a comedy, not a documentary. 

I didn't really believe that the mother took the kids to one of her real estate listings so that they could cool off with free air conditioning.

I perceived it as a humorous way of showing how new immigrants often need to be frugal on their way to creating their own the American dream. My own father, who is not Chinese, and who arrived in Canada thirty years before the fictional character in the story, was exactly the same.