100 days as Probationary Estate Agent

Q.
What do you say about the profession after 100 days as PEA?

A.
30th Jan, 2018 I got serious about doing the training in Estate Agency. At that moment of time, it was an urgency that I have been sitting around jobless for a month!

I started on the 16 Feb, 2018. Now, it has passed 3 months and more than 100 days so I am writing up this article as a report card. May be it would be useful for those who choose to pursue this career and join me in this industry!

In the first month of the job, I took it very easy as I did not have any leads. Truly, I was not desperate for listings. In my mind, I just wanted to learn slowly, learning the rope to be a better 'landlord'. I am used to the usual posting in Mudah.my. For years we have organised letting of our properties all by ourselves. If there is phone call, I would attend to it. Some stories I heard was to call up those telephone numbers in the banners when you bump into them in housing estates. Try to persuade them to give you listing... Or, even do co-broking (co-agency).

I told myself: if I were to do what others (years of experience) are doing, I will not do better than them! Why rush into it? I need to craft out my niche. So, I started to do short postings in FB. Now, I am still doing it - http://facebook.com/thomassimys/.

Quite luckily, I got some Doctor friends who wanted to rent out their apartments/condos. In this, I learned a lot about the process of letting and how payment are collected into client's account of firm. Thanks to my Doctor friends! Hence, I learned the professional process of engaging a tenant and maintaining professionalism in the screening process.

Towards middle of Feb, we got an appointment with Ibraco Berhad - a renowned developer in Kuching - to act as their agent in all their sales. So, I was lucky to get start with project marketing which is part of the requirement for my Test of Professional Competence (TPC) 2 years down the line. We started the agency work in End March, with the launching of NOVA72 @ NORTHBANK on the 31st Mar - 1st Apr, 2018.

Some weeks later, the developer took up sales gallery at the newly opened shopping complex - Aeon Mall. We rotate with another agency to stand duty at this venue and attended to public to promote the projects.

As of today, I have managed to sell 3 units of properties by this developer. Meantime, I rented out 4 units of properties. Below are summaries of what I learned.

1. Sequence of events in engaging a prospective tenant is important. This is contract law.
2. Using client's account as a service of estate agency.
3. Do and Don't in tenancy. Stamping and taking meter readings, handling over of vacant possession.
4. Engaging with bank officers for prompt communication between all stakeholders.
5. Open house and launches as crowd handling is crucial, invitation and advertisement.

As a conclusion, estate agency business is somewhat challenged by the below conditions:

1. Cost - most people cannot afford premium properties. Hence, successful closing is hard.
2. Ultra short interaction between agent and prospects. Prospect only buy one property in a lifetime. This means an old agent/negotiator or newbie doesn't differ much unless specific knowledge is asked by the prospect*.
3. Confidentiality as prospects would not review income level to strangers. Thus, trust is scarce.
4. Urgency is rare. Most people are not in urgent need of investing or owning a property.
5. Technical data - most people do not know about interpreting data/past trends or future trends.
6. Differentiation is rare. One agent does NOT differ from another. So, all the same la!

In the 3 months I have been in the field, I see the good demand for property in Kuching and that is a piece of good news at least. Young population is really taking the housing supply to the next level. The cost of property is also alarmingly high. Most local salaried man in Kuching cannot afford a house more than RM400,000. Average income per household is RM5k, so annual income of RM60k. This times 3 is RM180k - affordable home by Bank Negara Malaysia standard.

On the other hand, there are some very well to do people in Kuching who could buy property beyond millions. Despite being rare, this segment of the market is served by senior RENs and agency bosses, including the developer themselves.

As a whole, this industry is a growing industry and it is now more professionally run than years before. People do appreciate the knowledge and significance of property investment thus, a career in estate agency practice has a bright future in Kuching.

*This ultra short interaction posts another topic of discussion which I will write later.