WITH a torrent of money flowing into the United States from China, some savvy real estate brokers are trying to jump in farther upstream to better position themselves to win new clients.

When the New York market dried up at the end of 2008, Sotheby’s International Realty turned its focus to Asia. The company dispatched one of its prominent brokers, Nikki Field, to travel to Asia to develop relationships with potential clients. She and her real estate partner, Kevin Brown, began making about four trips a year there, with a growing focus on mainland China.

“We wanted to get out ahead of the world’s investment flow,” Ms. Field said.

And with good reason. The explosion of wealth in China has created myriad new billionaires eager to diversify their holdings with real estate investments in the United States. Often, they are looking to give their children a plush crash pad for boarding school or college, or a place to live in when they start careers and families. Many wealthy Chinese are also looking for places to invest where they can preserve their wealth and avoid the rising inflation in major Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

No city in the United States has been a bigger beneficiary of the Chinese buying wave than New York.