Yifei Lin is the ultimate real estate agent and yet nothing like any other real estate agent you will ever meet.
Born in Shenyang, Liaoning People’s Republic of China, Yifei’s (pronounced EEE-Fay) first introduction to real estate came at a young age, his mother is a successful Chief Financial Officer for one of China’s largest residential and commercial development firms, Yinji Group (Stock 000511). Not yet aware that his career would also be in real estate, Yifei studied Industrial Automation at the Shenyang University of Technology and moved to Canada in 2001 to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering at Seneca College.
Having fallen in love with Canada while attending Seneca College, Yifei and his wife Simone decided to make St Catharines home. Yifei quickly saw a place of opportunity in the local business arena, he noticed that there were no restaurants that served sushi. Over the next 10 years, Yifei would opened and managed Niagara’s top two sushi restaurants and is credited with bringing real sushi to Niagara.
It was during this time that Yifei bought his first home and soon after his first commercial property, a few years later he purchased his first residential investment property. Instead of these successes and purchases being a happy and exciting time, Yifei was discovering numerous hurdles. He was not being offered guidance and insight into purchasing property in Canada and his local market. No one explained what a home inspector was, as a result Yifei was unable to catch the asbestos in a property prior to purchasing it. Another time, no one offered advice on the role zoning plays with commercial properties, or even how to find out what the property is zoned for. Yifei found that no one seemed to be concerned with what he was buying - but agents were happy to sell him properties and purchase properties on his behalf. He felt that no one was worrying about his financial well being.
It was through these experiences and by learning through ‘trial by fire’ that Yifei decided there needed to be a service that offered assistance to someone wanting to invest in the Niagara Region, yet had no context of the local market, local customs and local process. It was then Yifei decided to become a real estate agent. Yifei’s goal was to create a real estate service that would walk a person through each step of the real estate purchasing, investment and selling process to ensure the individual and their investment were well taken care of. This full service approach to customer service and client satisfaction would operate as Team Yifei.
In less than 3 years, Yifei has become Niagara’s #1 Chinese Realtor, he is his Brokerage’s #1 Agent and among the top 10 agents in the entire Niagara Region. On top of the success Yifei HAS achieved he has also reached his personal goals of creating a full service real estate team offering over 12 services to assist his clients with every step of the buying and selling process.
Throughout his exciting entrepreneurial career and the exciting successes along the way Yifei continues to be one of the kindest and most humble individuals you will meet. He prides himself on maintaining his three most important values: trust, respect and dedication at the core of everything he does. Yifei’s goal is to help his clients, so that they, their families and their investments are well taken care of. The one thing you can be sure of when working with Yifei is that you will always be treated as though you are a member of his family and for that reason, you will always be treated like gold.
When away from the fast paced world of real estate, you will find Yifei with his wife Simone and his children, Cathy and Horatio.