How to sell property to Chinese buyers

Now that the US has passed the peak of the number of cases coronavirus,  real estate agents are getting back into action and trying to close deals.  A potentially large (and wealthy) group of buyers are Chinese but how can you sell real estate to these Chinese buyers.  They are 12 to 16 hours flight away from America, speak a different language and the time zone difference is a major headache.  So what to do in order to sell that USD 10mm property to one of those Chinese buyers?

There are 5 major ways in order to sell your property to these Chinese buyers:

Gain understanding of schools and universities in your area

What is the main reason that Chinese are buying real estate in America? It is all related to education.  99% of Chinese parents (who are wealthy) are looking to send their child(ren) overseas to study.  Some of those parents send their child abroad at the young age of 6 years old while the majority of the Chinese students are between 20 and 25 years old when they arrive in the US for their college degree.

For the last 10 years, Chinese students have been the largest group of foreign students arriving in the US every year.  In 2019,, about 400,000 new Chinese students arrived in the US.

Why is this important? It is important because most of these students have parents who prefer much rather to buy a house or condo for their child than renting a place.

As such, a real estate agent can greatly benefit to familiarize himself or herself with all the top schools in his/her area.  This way, the agent can answer all the questions from the parents , secure a good relationship, and sell a property to these Chinese buyers.

Build contacts with local organizations that focus on China

In order to win potential leads, it is important to build relationships with key organizations based in your city . Often, there are American-Chinese business organizations which have the mandate to facilitate the business transactions between US and China.  It would be a good avenue for an agent to start making connections. Becoming an active member of those organizations (and adding value by providing knowledge/skills) could be reciprocated by giving your name to some potential buyers based in China.

Build contacts with organizations based in China

While building contacts with an organization in your local city will be relatively easy, creating relationships with organizations based in China would be more effective in order to sell your listings to Chinese buyers.  Organizations based in China would be dealing with Chinese on a daily basis and could create a more efficient way for an agent to sell real estate to Chinese.

Using WeChat to market your listings to Chinese

Another important step in being able to sell real estate to Chinese is the use of WeChat.  WeChat is the most widely used app in China so every real estate agent who is looking to find Chinese buyers should consider using this app.  There is much more information about WeChat on the following post. 

Understand the cultural differences between American and Chinese citizens

Throughout all your interactions with Chinese contacts, it will be important to understand the differences between American and Chinese culture.  If you are looking to sell that property to a Chinese, it is very important to truly understand how the Chinese think and act. You can find all the details here.