Chinese Property Investors - the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

[PTILoveYou]

Chinese Property Investors - the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

This thread will be a series of short (and hopefully funny) stories that I come across, either in real life first hand/eye experience, or something I come across on the Chinese forums about Chinese property investors.

Some stories will be Good, ie the ones who use their money wisely and made quick success of themselves.

Some stories will be bad, oh yeah, truly bad at times, but good for those to have a laugh and not repeat it themselves!

The ugly, well these will be stuff that are either very bad, or just something dodgy that I heard about =)

Prepared to be entertained!

PS: This thread is not to mock the Chinese or being racist or anything. I am myself a Chinese, born in China, and now a New Zealand citizen (sorry the classic 'go back to your country' joke is not an option for me, as I am no longer a Chinese citizen).

[spaceman]

^ Slight side track .....are you not allowed to be a dual citizen????....srs question IDK.

Cheers
Spaceman

[PTILoveYou]

Let's start with the good.

I met a guy similar age to me in his early 30s back in 2011, while on a farm picking persimmons in Huapai somewhere.

We quickly struck a friendship, well sort off, as our parents talked and stuff.

He learnt that I was investing in property and was taught by Ron Hoy Fong, and he quickly decided to join Ron's programme as well.

One day I took my whole family to visit his newly bought home in Pine Hill Northshore Auckland, and that was probably my first time taken aback by how generous Chinese parents can be!

His home was bought for around $900k, and it was all cash, no mortgages! So as a half kiwi myself, that was not something I was used to! Oh his newly bought Audi Q5 was bought with cash too! Where did this money come from? From his dad of course.

Anyways, in the years that followed, he bought like 6-7 properties, and bought a pharmacy in Papakura or something and I'm glad he works hard and used his gifts well.

Also he's mighty nice and humble, and doesn't show off like I do (online) haha!

[PTILoveYou]

^ Slight side track .....are you not allowed to be a dual citizen????....srs question IDK.

Cheers
Spaceman

China (People's Republic of China) does not allow dual citizenship.

[PTILoveYou]

A short (bad) one from my mortgage broker:

A client of his asked him this:
" What is the interest difference between a Principal & interest and an Interest Only loan? How much interest do I save if I go with a Principal & Interest loan per year??"


My immediate reaction was to laugh and well there isn't a difference! Everyone I told this joke to laughed as well.

But on deeper thought, I think there might be a slight interest difference, since principal is being paid off slowly.

Anyways, I thought that was very funny and dumb question anyway!

[PTILoveYou]

Let's end the day with an Ugly story.

Each time I meet my mortgage broker over dinner, he always tells me that someone else in the industry, either inside the bank, or just another mortgage broker was struck off from the mortgage scheme.

The bank ones turn up to work, and then all the sudden being asked to turn over his/her keys, laptop, and stuff on the table, then go home and wait for instructions!

One of these was a mobile from a blue bank, who rumoured to have been making $300k+ per year in commission!!! OMG $300k in commission per year? I'm in the wrong industry! Anyways he reportedly went to another bigger blue bank, and stayed there for a year or two, and then buggered off to USA. Maybe he was too aggressive again, but my broker recogn he made over a million in commissions.

You might as how did the guy get in this kind of trouble?

Well mortgage fraud of course... I'm sure he was using his lending delegation to approve many dodgy loans from dodgy customers, ie the ones who have limited income, or hide debts or even forge evidence etc.

My broker told me when the guy went to the bigger blue bank, he's promise was that any loans my broker can't approve, he can approve them! And the guy rumoured to have a mantra that any loan application that come across his desk shall be approved...

Anyways, the latest gossip is that some brokers/bankers even resort to the use of Photoshop to forge fake documents....

[Purple Property]

Hi Gary,

Being so vocal and public on these forums I've always wondered a few things about you:

- Since your work colleagues can easily guess how much net worth you have by visiting these forums or visiting an APIA meeting, does that cause any awkwardness in your work environment? i.e. going out for lunch, "Gary can pay for us all, he is loaded." You mentioned being humble about being well off but being so vocal about it seems like rubbing it in a bit.

- Your managers must realise you spend half the work day on these forums. Don't they care that you don't have enough work to do? If I was a manager and realised my staff spent countless hours on online forums, I'd begin to question if I would even require them full time as an employee. Does the risk of being so vocal about it worry you that you might be made redundant because of this?

- If your goal is to retire to have more free time, but all your free time is used posting on Property Talk, what will you do with your time when you no longer need full time employment to sustain your lifestyle and fill in the time during the day? i.e. how would you fill your days, do you have hobbies, etc or is your hobby Property Talk?

- Why are you so vocal about your success rather than just flying under the radar about it? Do you feel you need to share every house purchase and net worth update with strangers on the internet to get other peoples approval or do you just enjoy sharing to show people how to do it too?

I'm not writing this as a personal criticism or anything, I've just always wondered why you are quite vocal about things and if it is the right way to go about things. Also just like to understand people and psychology behind their actions.

Congratulations on your success also.

[PTILoveYou]

Hi Gary,

Being so vocal and public on these forums I've always wondered a few things about you:

- Since your work colleagues can easily guess how much net worth you have by visiting these forums or visiting an APIA meeting, does that cause any awkwardness in your work environment? i.e. going out for lunch, "Gary can pay for us all, he is loaded." You mentioned being humble about being well off but being so vocal about it seems like rubbing it in a bit.

- Your managers must realise you spend half the work day on these forums. Don't they care that you don't have enough work to do? If I was a manager and realised my staff spent countless hours on online forums, I'd begin to question if I would even require them full time as an employee. Does the risk of being so vocal about it worry you that you might be made redundant because of this?

- If your goal is to retire to have more free time, but all your free time is used posting on Property Talk, what will you do with your time when you no longer need full time employment to sustain your lifestyle and fill in the time during the day? i.e. how would you fill your days, do you have hobbies, etc or is your hobby Property Talk?

- Why are you so vocal about your success rather than just flying under the radar about it? Do you feel you need to share every house purchase and net worth update with strangers on the internet to get other peoples approval or do you just enjoy sharing to show people how to do it too?

I'm not writing this as a personal criticism or anything, I've just always wondered why you are quite vocal about things and if it is the right way to go about things. Also just like to understand people and psychology behind their actions.

Congratulations on your success also.

- Actually not many know what I do outside of work. I think most in my team does, but they never talk property with me anyways, and since they are not into property or computer games, I don't talk to them that much outside of work. I'm an introvert by nature, so conversations that don't interest me are not my cup of tea. Oh, and since they don't have much in common with me, we don't have lunch together.

- He knows how many properties and stuff I have, but we don't talk much about that. Sometimes he asks me for property advice, but that's like twice in the past 4 years. He doesn't care what I do as long as I do my work properly.
I manage consultants who do all the work, so as long as my consultants deliver, I will have an easy time. There are times that I whip them to shape, but they know what I expect them to deliver. Most of my time is actually involved in things that have a political element in it, ie public information requests, private retaining walls, and local board issues.

- I rarely go on propertytalk or forums when I get home after work. I rather play games, or watch movies/tv series or spend time with family.

- Following Ron Hoy Fong's foot steps to become a property coach is definitely a possibly in the future. Maybe I will become a real estate agent or mortgage broker, so having a little bit of fame is useful. If I'm in the business of selling, then I need to sell myself for my customers/audience to believe me first.
Also when people know what I have achieved, they take my recommendations more seriously. A lot of people give advice and stuff online, but rarely any of them disclose what they have or what/how they achieved it. So I feel letting others know how I did it might help them learn and give them motivation to succeed too.

Thanks =)

[PTILoveYou]

One bad one I saw last week's auction at Barfoots CBD.

There was a block of 8 single bedroom units, 2996m2 land area in Ranui for auction. Huge potential of course, but it's not my favourite area plus my pockets aren't deep to buy it.

Auction starts and there was a young Asian looking lady (given her dress code I say she was Chinese), sitting with an older lady (probably her mother/relative). This lady started bidding at 1mil.

Her command of english is very poor really...

Soon, the price reached 1.5mil. During this time she made some half hearted bids that the auction kind of ignored, because we (the by-standers) could tell she's a noob. Like she calls out numbers that the auction price has already exceeded...

I remembered clearly when the price got to 1.51mil, she called out clearly 1.41mil... omg at that time the auctioneer was clearly annoyed...

The best part comes when she bid 1.55mil, then proceed to raise her arm again, which looked like she was bidding against herself... When the price got to 1.57mil, without any other bids, she raised her hand two more times... by then the auctioneer intervened and told her:" yes yes the top bid is with you lady, it's good to know you have the cash though.. "

A lot of people in the room giggled haha....

Anyways, why the hell was there no agent next to her?

[Frezzinghot]

The question I have is why does NZ have such an attraction to the Chinese community, is it really the cheap money from China that makes NZ a good place for them to invest, or a place where they really want to live. I would imagine money is not the motivating factor for them to want to live here.

FH

[Davo36]

The question I have is why does NZ have such an attraction to the Chinese community, is it really the cheap money from China that makes NZ a good place for them to invest, or a place where they really want to live. I would imagine money is not the motivating factor for them to want to live here.

FH

Non-corrupt government is one of the bigger attractions I'd say. You can bring your money here and the government can't just grab it off you and throw you into jail like they can (and do) in China.

Also of course, the environment in China is pretty stuffed and the Chinese population know this, so those who can afford it don't want their kids and themselves to be exposed to that.

[Frezzinghot]

I chinese guy I know said he got most of his money to start a business in NZ from his father in China, also he has just brought a property in West Auckland which he will develop 2 houses on the site, 800k of that money came from his father. A reply that really surprised me was that he could have access to 20mil to start buying and developing property in NZ. But he said he was taking his time to understand the market in NZ before he starts splashing his fathers money around. Wise move I thought.

FH

[PTILoveYou]

I chinese guy I know said he got most of his money to start a business in NZ from his father in China, also he has just brought a property in West Auckland which he will develop 2 houses on the site, 800k of that money came from his father. A reply that really surprised me was that he could have access to 20mil to start buying and developing property in NZ. But he said he was taking his time to understand the market in NZ before he starts splashing his fathers money around. Wise move I thought.

FH

Yup, the rich ones generally are pretty quiet and just get on with their business.

[muppet]

A question for you Gary.

How many New Zealanders can lay their hands on $20m?
Compared to
How many Chinese can lay their hands on $20m?

[PTILoveYou]

A question for you Gary.

How many New Zealanders can lay their hands on $20m?
Compared to
How many Chinese can lay their hands on $20m?

Probably same percentage in the population, ie 5% of the population

However, China has a population of 1.6 billion...