Guru - Property Expert?

Q.
There are many who claim to be 'GURU' of property. Are they really who they are? Or who are actually 'Property Guru or Experts'?

A.
I always pondered over this question when I heard from people who are these 'Guru' in property investment.

If you do a search on 'who is a property guru?' you will end up with the website - propertyguru. So, is the operator of propertyguru.com a 'GURU'? Or, is it just an Internet property site?

And, the interesting part of these so called 'Experts' are young! Some have some celebrity flair in them! Gifted!

So, you may say age has nothing to do with success, that is true. You have young successful people in the IT industry. For example:

1. Facebook - Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) - 32 years old
2. Twitter - Jack Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) - 40 years old
3. WhatsApp - Brian Acton (born February 24, 1972) - 44 years old & Jan Koum (born February 24, 1976) - 40 years old.

But property?

Ermmh... I am not too sure.

Lets determine what is success in property.

• Is it about having many properties?
• Is it about experience in selling and buying properties?
• Is it about familiar with various types of properties?
• Is it about building properties and selling properties?
• Or all of the above?

Really, I do not know what the definition of success in property means. If you Google 'what is success in property', you will end up with various sites which lead you to buy properties or offer tips or advice on buying or selling properties. Nothing about its definition.

Why?

Probably because it is like asking: 'what is the meaning of success?' It really means different thing to different people. To a scientist, success means winning a Nobel Prize. And, in such context, it is still may be, may be not a measurement of success - depending on his individual view to life.

So, it is a hard question to answer who is a real 'Guru' in property, or 'Property Expert'.

What do you think?

I think a Guru or Expert in Property should be:

1. A professional in the field of Property, be it buying or selling or owning properties.
2. A holding of some properties (with varieties) under his belt.
3. At least some years (best be 10 years) of being involved actively in properties.
4. For a period of at least few years (2 to 3 years) involved in some form of research in property.
5. Published or actively publishing writings on property, be it academic or layman readings.

Hence, he can be a

1. Conveyancing lawyer - like Mr Chris
2. Tax Consultant - like Mr Richard
3. Bank Mortgage Consultant - like Mr Miichael

These guys are professionally qualified, having involved in properties for years and published some numbers of academic and layman readings. The only thing I guess I am not so convinced is if they have done real research in property.

Then again, there are many so called researchers in the institution of higher learnings who hold PhDs, and published many academic findings on properties, theories in properties but never really sell or buy properties. Do you consider them as property Guru?

I don't think so.

And, do you take Registered Estate Agents (REA) or REN (Negotiators) as experts in properties?

This, I think is a tough question to answer.

The Law (VAEA Act 1981) specified that only REA and those who are registered as Valuers are licensed to transact properties in Malaysia. There are exceptions to this, that is owners, licensed auctioneers and holders of power of attorney (Section 22c(2) - go here to read 'exceptions on estate agency practice' are allowed to transact properties.

So, it may be true that an owner who is familiar with the transaction of properties can be a Guru fulfilling the first criteria - having been selling and buying properties.

And, if this owner is also an accountant (who deals with money), so he is a professional.

And, if this owner is also keen in research, therefore understands the details of property in a certain area - so he can be a Guru!

And, of course, nobody can stop him from writing up a book on his experience in property.

A person like that can be Dr Peter.

But, which is a bigger 'Guru'? Dr Peter or people like Mr Chris, Mr Miichael or Mr Richard (alphabetical order)?

Well, it really depends on how you want to qualify how many properties a person should own to be a Guru. Or how many years in biz or how many publications have the person produced. And, even that the quality can be different?

Probably to make it simple, people who are professionally qualified and fulfilling all the above criteria who owns as little as 2 properties, or 20 properties can be 'Guru'.

Does owning 2 properties make you a Guru? Or 20? Or 200? Well, obvious right?

Well, a developer would say he is the biggest 'Guru'. After all, he is the biggest seller and owner of property, he does research and he publishes his properties to sell!

He has Architects, Engineers etc under his belt! He also buys land and other asset types. He should be the biggest Guru of all!

Is he? I really don't know.

With that, I conclude my article.