A Bumpy Ride
When I closed my first deal, my agency boss said something which cuts me deep. He announced to the whole team that we could not rely only on friends and relatives in this business. Those who depend on others will not last long in the industry. He said there are only two groups of people: those we know; and those we don't know.

I was the top producer that month so I felt he was taking a dig at me. He seemed to be putting down my achievements. Since then, I began to work tirelessly getting to know 'those we don't know' as it is a bigger demographic and I wanted them to know me and my services.

One of my first few transactions nearly derailed my career. There was an indecisive young couple who came to purchase a three-room flat I was selling. After they had put down the deposit, the seller promptly went on to buy another flat. Soon after, the couple dropped the bombshell. They wanted to abort the transaction! My seller threatened to sue the buyers and I was caught in the middle. Accusations started flying around and the young couple threatened to sue me. I was devastated. After several rounds at the lawyer's office, the couple bought the flat grudgingly. Even while giving me my commission, they made sarcastic remarks, saying I would not be able to enjoy the money. I was deeply hurt.

Today, I think they have actually profited by going ahead with the decision as their property has now appreciated. But after the experience, I became more aware of the many sides of this business and that it isn't as easy as it looks.

In another incident, a seller called me, insisting I meet him immediately at a nearby coffee shop. He turned up with a lady whom I assumed was his wife since they appeared intimate. When I wanted to go ahead with the proceedings, he said we had to meet his wife in his flat in Toa Payoh. That got me confused, but being ever professional, I made arrangements to meet him and his wife there.

In the flat, while going through the paperwork, a man turned up shouting and gesticulating violently. He was so filled with rage he looked ready to kill someone. It was the brother of the client's wife. In the commotion, my client had slipped away, leaving me there with the violent man. Fortunately, I managed to leave unharmed. It turned out my client was having an affair with the woman whom I first met in the coffee shop; she was his sister-in-law, the wife of the furious man. It was all too much for me. I felt the seller was not trustworthy and had questionable morals, so I chose not to market the property. 

Hang On 
Someone once paged me to tell me he had received my flyer in his letterbox. I was puzzled as I had not been prospecting in that area for a long time. What was even more puzzling was that I had stopped advertising my pager number for half a year. Later, when I met up with the owners, they told me my flyer had been stuck to the back of their mailbox. They hadn't bothered to remove it all this while. However, when they decided to sell their flat, they thought, hey, since this flyer has been hanging onto the mailbox for half a year, why not call this agent? In the end, I went on to sell their flat, help them purchase a new one and they even referred me to other people. This goes to show it is worthwhile to just 'hang on', and I mean, literally.

Stand Out and Deliver
One of the challenges in this industry is to stand out from the crowd so that you get picked to do the job. Out there, there are many experienced agents with much bigger marketing budgets for aggressive campaigns of flyer distribution and advertisements. To survive, agents must constantly think of ways and means to acquire new clients.

Once, I was "late" in penetrating some almost matured HDB flats. Actually, I was there three months before the flats were ready to be sold, but I found out other agents were already ahead of me with their aggressive prospecting campaigns.

In that area, many of the homeowners were frustrated with agents constantly knocking on their doors, slipping flyers under their doors; and add to that the many flyers already filling their mailboxes. To become a realtor of choice in that area, I had to beat those agents with a different method.

Mobilising my agents, we decided on an early morning marketing campaign. The idea was simple. Most agents prospect in the evening and I wanted to break convention and prospect in the morning instead.

To stand out, we prepared goodie bags containing cookies, packets of tissue and sachets of coffee powder. We also slipped in name cards and flyers. It was an experiment but one worth trying. I wanted to prevent people from throwing away my flyers, but mostly, I wanted to do something to make them remember me.

We went there at six in the morning. At first, the residents thought we were strange. But after warming up to us, it became easier to break the ice and talk to them. We followed up on this by knocking on doors at night and managed to secure several properties to sell.    next page