藤兒點評：洋人也會玩「微信」了，還是必玩，其實洋人對「微信」真的有了興趣。

溫哥華的洋人玩「微信」的主要有這些：

買房者（buyers）

買房者（sellers）

持牌經紀人（licensed brokers/agents）

無牌經紀人（unlicensed brokers/agents）

房地產服務人員（service providers）

房地產開發商（builders）

房地產銷售公司（staging companies）

中間人（middlemen）

......

洋人一般的都不會中文，但是在海外華人的幫助下，迅速地學會了「微信」的玩法。下載「微信」APP，加入特定的「微信」群（WeChat Group）之後，與中國大陸各大城市的房地產掮客們串通一氣，依靠「微信」APP強大的英漢翻譯功能，連估帶猜地就把一筆筆的溫哥華的房產買賣（deal）給搞定了...

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來源：The Province 2016-04-28

Vancouver housing a hit on Chinese-language app WeChat

By Joanne Lee-Young & Chuck Chiang

Posting on WeChat

Photograph by: Vancouver Sun , Vancouver Sun

Shawn Kambo, a Vancouver real estate agent with Fair Realty, doesn’t speak or read Chinese, but a month ago he met some agents who added him to their group on WeChat, the popular Chinese-language messaging app.

And with that, Kambo was ushered into a burgeoning part of the local real estate market increasingly under scrutiny as home prices, which have increased over 40 per cent in some areas, soar out of reach for many local buyers.

Users download WeChat onto their smartphones. Like WhatsApp, which is more commonly used by English-speakers, WeChat allows people to quickly message each other. You can ping just one person or create a group of eight people to, say, plan a skiing trip and all "chat" together in a way that is much faster and more convenient than emailing. There are groups, big and small, for everything under the sun, including, in Vancouver, a growing number that discuss the latest in metro real estate.

Buyers, sellers, brokers and even service providers, from staging companies to builders, form parts of different groups, some as large as 500 people (the maximum number), to seek and flog real estate-related deals.

“I was among the first to use it so I was in contact relatively early on WeChat with many agents and real estate firms in Vancouver," Chen said. "Over the years, through WeChat, I have made a lot of relationships in the industry.

• 

• Posting on WeChat. 

“Now, it's not just Chinese people in Vancouver, but also Westerners who want to use WeChat to connect with contacts. So I have been working hard to do marketing, including teaching people how to use WeChat to reach clients. This year, I have opened about 20 sessions of classes.”

Chen estimates 70 to 80 per cent of Chinese-speaking real estate agents in the Vancouver area tap these WeChat groups on a daily basis. He estimates there are 7,000 to 8,000 users on WeChat groups related to Vancouver real estate.

In addition to sites such as Vanfun.com, the Shanghai-based site that lists and arranges tours of Vancouver residential properties and splits commission fees with local agents, there are also other sites touting Vancouver real estate, said Chen.

They include well-known property websites based in Beijing such as Soufun.com, which has an "overseas" section that highlights Vancouver and other similar sections on more general mainland Chinese web portals. “They all have local WeChat groups dedicated to real estate (in Vancouver), but not all have been as attractive to users as Vanfun and Soufun. They have less draw.”

And now, said Chen, “as people (in Vancouver) get used to using WeChat groups, some agents are using it (on their own) or sometimes, on behalf of their bosses, to reach buyers in China."

Some of these Vancouver real estate WeChat groups enforce strict rules about who may join. One started by Royal Pacific Realty agent Elizabeth Ren is known for kicking out users who are not licensed agents. Ren collects full names, contact numbers and company names before issuing each user an identification number. Prospective users must upload a business card and post a photo of themselves in order to join. 

"We just really want to keep it a group for (licensed agents). It's not just my personal preference, but the other members also want it to strictly be a professional group. We just want to keep it simple," Ren said, declining to say more about unlicensed brokers on other WeChat groups.

Some posts by licensed realtors offer leads that aren't listed on the market, making them like gold when there are more buyers than prospects. One post, headed with "I have exclusive listings, Please connect for me" had details of six properties on the West Side, South Granville and downtown ranging from a two-bedroom apartment, asking price $1.188 million, to a 4,000-square-foot home, asking $7.088 million.

It doesn't take too much sleuthing to find users who are clearly not licensed agents. Sometimes, they are middlemen with buyers who want to buy at a specific price point and location. One post flogged this opportunity: “Fast deal, 400K apartment, who wants to do this?” Another user lobbed in a quick message of “I do” to claim the chance, followed by “In what area,” which was answered with the three characters for “New Westminster.”

There are also posts in these WeChat groups such as “Who has One Pacific pre sale for assignment?” referring to the Concord Pacific development in Yaletown. Indeed, there are also Craigslist ads seeking and selling such assignment contracts, which involve the controversial practice of a new buyer paying more for a property before a deal closes.

However, as one agent — who declined to be named, but described himself as a moderate user hooked into about 20 of these Vancouver real estate WeChat groups — said, "WeChat (by comparison) is so much quicker." 

Asked to comment generally on this WeChat landscape, B.C. superintendent of real estate Carolyn Rogers said in an email: “We understand WeChat is a Chinese language app, used by many people including realtors and others who are not licensed brokers. Social media sites like WeChat are used to facilitate communication and information sharing, but they should not be used to circumvent regulatory requirements.”

Staff at the B.C. Financial Institutions Commission have said they have “a number of investigations into unlicensed activity underway at any particular time, and we cannot comment on specific investigations.”

It’s completely legal to simply share information. But if monetary deals, such as commission splitting or introduction fees, are being made by unlicensed brokers, that could be cause for concern.

 The Real Estate Council of B.C. said it is aware of the growing popularity of WeChat. "The Council's first priority is consumer protection, and if we became aware of licensees posting or exchanging information that appeared to be in contravention of the Real Estate Services Act, we would vigorously investigate," said deputy executive officer Larry Buttress in an email. 

Kambo’s WeChat group has over 400 members who use the mobile chat service to share information about potential property deals from West Vancouver to Abbotsford. He has to sift each post through the app’s translation function, which converts Chinese characters into English text, but even with this hassle he feels a sense of community in the rapid-fire marketplace of WeChat. 

"Here, you can see any listings, get on exclusive listings (that are not on the market), ask questions. It’s a more direct approach," said Kambo.

He and a small but growing set of non-Chinese speaking agents are learning to navigate WeChat, which ranks as China’s most popular mobile messaging app with over 650 million users, according to Tencent, the Shenzhen-based company that operates it.

Cash from mainland China is being used to buy property in the local real estate market by Canadian citizens, permanent and temporary residents as well as visitors and investors. Many of these buyers find WeChat one of the easiest ways to access information and start deals.

To find out more, the Vancouver Sun connected with Chen Hong on WeChat. According to agents on various Vancouver real estate WeChat groups, Chen was one of the first to use the app to promote local properties.

Chen was reached in the Chinese city of Fuzhou. In an interview using WeChat’s “hold-to-talk” function — which makes a smartphone work like a walkie-talkie — he said he started using WeChat in the Vancouver market back in 2014.