Hello Forum!

I am a 33 year old overseas real estate professional (marketing sector) from the UK who is hoping to relocate to Shanghai in the next few weeks and I need some guidance from people who have already made the leap.

I have never visited China before and I guess many people will say that I should go and check it out first. Well that's not really my style and I tend just to move to where I want to be and sort out everything when I get there.

Being as my experience so far has mainly be confined to Europe and really wanted to reach out to you guys and get the inside track. I have sent out several CV's to real estate agents over there already and had some positive feedback.

Mostly people want to see you when you are one the ground there before they really get into anything with you. I guess this is because they get many people who are just thinking about making the move contacting them, but then they get cold feet and back out.

What do you think my honest chances are of picking up work within the first month without having any Mandarin?

I would be more than willing to venture outside my real estate comfort zone to facilitate this. Don't really mind what I do initially, would be really happy if i could get a gig just helping Chinese business men practice 'corporate' English.

What do you think I would be looking at cost wise to short term, reasonable accommodation per week/month?

I would really glad to hear from anyone about almost anything relevant to my ramblings above.

Thanking you all in advance for any help you can be to me.

Warm regards,

Marcus.

Marcus, you can get apartments (small & not so nice) for 2000 RMB/month. If you can live on Chinese street food they you have to add another 200 RMB/week for food & water.

Real estate agents in Shanghai always look for native foreign speakers (English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, etc). Did they give you any feedback about salary, assistance with visa, etc? A friend of mine worked for 2 real estate agencies here in Shanghai but left after a very short time since the salary was so poor and they didn't even pay him!

If you work for one of these real estate agencies you do not need to be able to speak Chinese (but it doesn't hurt, of course, if you start learning Chinese).

It is different here and it might take some time to be effective in a real estate job. In my mind, one of the functions of a relocation agent is not only showing the property, but acting as a cushion between the newbie foreigner and the landlord/property management. You might be good at talking to the prospective tenants, but what about dealing with Chinese landlords, taxi drivers, building management people.. you would need to drag a city guide around with you.. which might be a possibility. I would say you do not have to be fluent, but you need some elementary exposure.

If you want to stay here awhile, high on your list should be getting into some chinese classes and at least get to the taxi talk level.

Teaching english is probably the single best landing job that does not require chinese and pays reasonably. You can give yourself some time to scope out the market and the companies. Helps if you can pick up a TESL certification.

Thanks for your feedback guys.

I wouldn't really be looking to do front-line sales in real estate anyway. I am much more marketing orientated, so ideally I would be looking for a firm that is looking to target overseas investment.

What about initial accommodation, could anyone recommend a reasonably priced serviced apartment in a good area? Maybe for the first 2 to 4 weeks while I get my bearings.

Cheers,

Marcus.

I would reccomend the Green Tree Inn on the corner of Wuding and Xikang lu. Brand new budget motel for 250rmb a night. Although there are a heap of cheap hotels (2 star style) for well under 200. They will do the trick for a couple of weeks until you get sorted.

If you don't find a job in Marketing straight away and fancy teaching English to earn a bit of cash to pay your way, these two web links are a good place to start looking:
http://shanghai.asiaxpat.com/careers/vi ... =22&city=9
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/Article1103550.phtml

I would maybe give yourself more than 1 month to find a Marketing position. You may be lucky, but 3-6 months may be more realistic. A possible strategy would be to sign up to a Uni such as Jiao Tong http://www.sie.sjtu.edu.cn/page/en-page/long_term.asp and look for a job while learning some basic Chinese. (The more Chinese you know the better, in terms of both looking for a job and also enjoying life in China). The beauty of this is that you can get a six month student visa. Having said that it is not a problem to extend your tourist visa with a number of agencies that exist in SH who can give you a business visa which will allow you to stay for 6-12 months. For apartments you can check real estate part of this site as well as http://shanghai.asiaxpat.com/property/ and www.emoo.net to name but a few:)

Have a good one!

Not to ick your wow but why the hell does someone move somewhere they've never been, without a job and without the ability to read or speak the language? Any one of those changes is enough to overwhelm someone ...

twinpointe wrote:Not to ick your wow but why the hell does someone move somewhere they've never been, without a job and without the ability to read or speak the language? Any one of those changes is enough to overwhelm someone ...

Hiding from MI-5

Well I am not quite hiding from the MI-5 (although it would technically be MI-6 overseas!).

As for moving somewhere without going first, well this will be forth time I have gone to a country and stayed to work. I love the challenge of it and after being stuck in the same place (Spain) for the last 7 years I am really in need of a new adventure.

The worse case scenario is that I get to experience a whole new way of life for several months. I had managed to find a shared apartment in Pu Dong with a couple of other ex-pats that is well within my budget, plus already been contacted by a couple of big real estate firms after posting my CV online.

So far, so good. Now all I need to do is find some tickets to the Formula 1 and I am a happy bunny.

PS. I hope you are all safe from the Typhoon. My best wishes to you all.