Since I started teaching the online China Cash Buyers video course to realtors all over the world, I’ve been rewarded meeting some of the most creative and forward thinking realtors that exist. Agents thinking of the future, planning for demographic changes and thinking so far out of the box that the metaphor doesn’t even register.
Erik Coffin of Gotham Real Estate has a $250,000 a pop for a week long, private jet and Rolls Royce-chauffeured trip to across America. Groups up to 8 will also be offered consultations on plastic surgery, picking the sex of a child, wealth-management and privy to his exclusive partnerships with Cartier and many others.
This is just one example of an agency going all out to take advantage of changing trends and demographics. and it’s been my pleasure to know Erik and many other agents that both see the writing on the wall and have the foresight and confidence to move before the crowd does. One look around any major city and it’s obvious that Chinese tourists are everywhere.
I was at the RE/MAX convention in Las Vegas in 2011 with my Chinese team. We were negotiating with Dave Liniger and his international team to purchase the master franchise and roll out RE/MAX across the PRC. (an honor we eventually received but declined due to a major shift internally in Chinese real estate) Anyway, back to the convention, in the evening, we attended the RE/MAX awards ceremony and what struck me was that a large percentage of the agents receiving medals and awards were talking about Chinese buyers…. And…the light went off.
To give you some background on why this was surprising is that I had lived in China and Japan since Reagan was president back in the 80’s. So I was very out of touch of the happenings abroad. I knew China but didn’t have a clue on my home country. We sold to Chinese buyers every day at my agency in Shanghai and Chinese buyers were old hat to me. Of course, they powered our business but I never imagined they would be such a force overseas. Honestly, no one did. No one imagined investment coming out of China. At that time, “Chinese investment” meant FDI or foreign direct investment and certainly not investment from Chinese abroad. But at the moment I realized that times were a changin’ as they say.
Anyway, back to how to sell to Chinese. There are many things you need to know about finding the right buyers who have the money, intention and the timing is right to buy in your area. So don’t misunderstand me that you need to have a $250 tour of your own. The key is attracting the right Chinese buyers with a very tight budget (most agents need a way to prove this is real and to be profitable before ramping up to something larger and more risky.
But that being said, being creative, using your brain for new ways to stand out from the crowd is always a good thing. I came across this video and though that if I were an agent in Miami, this would definitely be me…but the clients would be all Chinese. (see video below for the concept) Good luck and email me with any ideas or questions, [email protected]
