EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
48
H ow to P itch EB-5
to M iddle E astern
I nvestors
Reliability of the U.S. real estate market
and knowing they don’t have to cut ties
to their homeland might help convince investors
from the Middle East.
By Abbas Hashmi
A
h, remember the good old days of immigrant
investor marketing just a couple years ago?
Back before the great Chinese retrogression,
when clients lined up to hear your pitch and not
t he ot her w ay around. A reg iona l center didn’t
need to sel l a nyone on t he mer it s of i nvest i ng
in the United States, but rather simply why they
should invest with you. Nowadays, with the focus
of entrepreneurial immig rat ion pivot ing to t he
Middle East and south Asia, things are a little more
complicated. Fewer and fewer of these clients every
year are motivated to invest in the United States
solely by the desire to build a better life for their
families.
Many of these prospects from the Middle East are
already sending their adult children to American
universities. They frequently v isit the States to
v acat ion, shop or meet w it h t hei r ow n cl ient s;
many even own a home, condo or other real estate
in the country. So why do they need a green card?
Yes, marketing to this niche of HNWIs is a totally
different beast. You now need to convince them that
obtaining a green card and investing in America
is a better option than living exclusively in their
homeland before you can even get to your service’s
value proposition.
L e t’s f a ce it, i f t he s e p e ople h ave not a l read y
invested significant wealth in the United States,
then that means they have a good reason to keep
their capital overseas. You need to find that reason
to convince them that permanent residency in the
United States is actually a useful tool to achieve
their goals. But it’s easier than it sounds. For Middle
Eastern HNWIs, those reasons always seem to come
back to hard dollars and cents. These individuals are
laser-focused on the bottom line when evaluating
an investment.