CHINA TOPIX

11/24/2024 08:21:08 am

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Planning to Buy, Sell, Rent a Property? Use China-based App WeChat

China Job seekers scan Wechat QR code

(Photo : Getty Images)

Today, selling, renting and buying a property can be only a tap away. Just the thought of transacting multi-million valued properties via social media seems mind blowing, however, in China, this unconventional idea has been made possible thanks to the messaging app WeChat.

Due to the Chinese government ban on other networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, WeChat has been transformed as an avenue for US-based real estate agents to transact business with Chinese citizens.

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Leader Journal reports that according to the National Realtors Association, the Chinese community is the largest buyer of US real estate to safely invest and expand their assets.

So how does the entire process actually work? The long flight from China to US is one of the reasons for the invention of WeChat-based real estate business negotiations. The app basically becomes the means for communication and negotiation between both parties via video and photo exchanges.

The agent gives the prospective buyer a virtual tours of the property. If the buyer agrees to make a purchase, a legal representative seals the deal on the broker's end. Then the new owners will receive an electronic version of the contract. Payment is still made in cash though.

"I'll put up a floor plan and say that a new property is good on the blog and the location is great. Then people will say 'I'm interested' and buy. It's really something else," real estate agent Emma Hao said. Meanwhile, another real estate agent Jing Wang revealed "I would pay $100 a month to use WeChat. It would be much harder to be introduced and reach Chinese clients because many of the social websites, like Facebook, are blocked in China - that's a lot of time and money."

With its prime purpose as a voice-messaging app with location services, WeChat was launched in 2011 by Tencent, an Internet and gaming company. It has become a one-stop shop for watching movies, hailing a cab, sharing photos and videos, shopping clothes, playing games and, reportedly, offering and financing personal loans.

Xiaofeng Wang, Forrester Research analyst in Beijing, wrote: "WeChat has become essential to consumers' daily lives... Marketers the world over must take account of WeChat, which has become so ubiquitous that it has changed Chinese consumers' mobile behaviors in profound ways. "

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