Asian Buyers: Trust, Cash Play Roles

Immigrants from Asian countries have higher median incomes than other immigrant groups and they often buy homes sooner after entering the United States than do other immigrants, according to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

In fact, in 1990 the study found that recent arrivals from Taiwan and Hong Kong became homeowners sooner than American-born whites of the same age.

These facts have definitely not escaped the managers at George Realty, a San Gabriel Valley-based realty company whose 285 agents focus on Asian buyers and boast that they have averaged about $1 million a day in transactions for the firm for six years in a row.

The agents come from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines and Egypt. They work for a most unlikely broker-owner, Tom Crosby, who is white. He recently opened an office in Rowland Heights, the center of the Asian property boom in the San Gabriel Valley, to complement his original office in Alhambra.

Crosby, 53, had been working as an agent for Herbert Hawkins Realty when he was hired as a manager at George Realty in 1988. The company was started in 1984 by George Chen, who wanted to bridge the gap between East and West by hiring Asian-speaking agents and white managers.

“He wanted to open a Chinese company in the U.S. for immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Singapore so they would be able to purchase property here with an agent who spoke their language and could interpret their culture,” Crosby said.

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In Asia, for example, there are no title companies, no escrow companies and, for that matter, no mortgages, Crosby said. “Almost everything is done in cash, with a handshake, so they learn to trust everyone at their word.”

Asian immigrants typically do not like to pay interest on loans, he said, so they usually wait to buy property until they can put a large amount of money down and then pay off the mortgage quickly.

“I had a family of sporting goods manufacturers who bought a $1.3-million home in Arcadia because their kids are going to school here,” Crosby said. “They put $400,000 down and paid off the rest of the mortgage within four months.”

Chen eventually returned to his native Taiwan, and he has since opened 40 George Realty offices there. Crosby bought out the U.S. operation in 1990 and has since benefited greatly from Chen’s work in Asia. “If a Taiwanese immigrant comes here and sees the George Realty sign and logo, it’s like me going there and seeing McDonald’s,” Crosby said.

To reach the immigrant population, George Realty advertises in Chinese-language newspapers from San Diego to Ventura, particularly in a publication called the World Journal/Chinese Daily News.

“It’s printed all in Chinese characters and it carries news from the international community,” Crosby said. “I put a full-page ad in there regularly.”

He also targets his advertising to reach the Korean and Latino markets.