Dear Diary,
I went for the roadshow and I did my best. Now I understand what real estate roadshow is all about. It is actually another way of marketing yourself, the service you offer or the products you have. It all come in a package. I think I am going to like it. Before the roadshow we have to prepare lots of brochures, phamplets and your own name cards. Staple the brochures, phamplets and your name card together and stand in the crowd and distribute them to anybody who passes by your booth. You do not need to do lots of explanations. All you need to do is to let people know of the service you can offer them. It does not matter if people take and throw your brochures. You just have to keep going because a salesperson always have to go with the principles of law of averages. Out of a hundred, one will always buy or perhaps out of fifty, one will sell.
.
.
I got three enquiries from the roadshow. Two are interested to rent while one is interested to buy. I have started my search on properties for them but I am not hoping that I will close the deals with them. You know Diary, the job scope seems easy but it is not that easy. Firstly, when you have a client but you do not have the property, surely you have to do co-broke with another agent who has the property but does not have the client. Or, you can search for a property advertised on all the medias by the owners. In that way, you do not have to co-broke with another agent. You will do direct dealings with owners. However, most of the times, other agents have already got their hands on these owners so that leaves you no choice but to work with other agents. In my case, I have the tenants but I do not have the properties, and when I have found a property with agent who are willing to co-broke with me, my tenants already found a house that suits their budgets and needs. So that is how it goes Diary, being an agent, I can see that I have to work very fast and how important it is to have properties that you can call your listings in your pockets readily.
Co-broking has been a practice among agents. Almost every agent understands this and they dicuss among themselves first on dividing the commissions before proceeding with the transaction. This morning I almost secured a rental deal when my manager advised me not to proceed with it. The thing is, I do not have the property neither do I have the tenants. The tenants are clients to agent 'A' while the property is the list of agent 'B'. Agent 'A' seeks my help in finding property for him and I managed to do so with agent's 'B' listing. Therefore, in simple layman's term, I am the middle man. You see Diary, if I had not taken the law into consideration, I would have continued with the process but I want to make real estate my career and so I back out. It is not that it is illegal but I am just playing safe.
Renting procedures in Singapore is not easy especially concerning HDB flats. Usually, many tenants who are looking for a house to rent are foreigners. Currently, we have so many Malaysians, Burmese, Philipinos and Chinese nationals. Agents have to do a check on the validity of their passports, work permits or student pass whichever is applicable to them. Since I am the middleman, I am not required to do so. However, both the other agents have to do these checks meaning, agent 'B' has to check the ownership of the house to rent and if it has gotten the approval from HDB to rent it out and agent 'A' has to check the validity of his clients immigration papers. Many agents know their responsibilities however, we still do have some unethical agents in the market. That is the reason why having to pass the CEA examination before practising as an agent is compulsory here. The government is taking steps to make real estate a professional and respectable profession.
I am trying the rental market for now Diary. It gives me the training I need. As days go by, I have gotten a number of enquiries and I have made many calls and also enquiries. Some agents are friendly while some are unfriendly. Regardless of that, I have learnt along the way. It is fun to me. I have drafted out my career path and the things I have to do. I need to make my name tag, name cards, start work with YOG, go for my CEA course, sit for exam, pass the exam, subscribe to infotools and market myself. Alright...that sounds easy doesn't it? ha ha ha...
There are so many ways you can use to market yourself. It is of course easier when you have money. You can use the power of the media to advertise yourself like most senior agents do. My manager is teaching me the simplest way to market myself without costing me a lot. He probably knows what is best for me because I seem to agree with him whenever he suggests marketing strategies to me. Start small, simple and humble and when I have generate income from it, I can take one step further.
Oh Diary, I miss my friends but I just have to hold on for now. I am starting things all over again. I have to wait. My cough is getting worse and my fever is back. Wish me a speedy recovery ok? I love you Diary. Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment