Post to Facebook on 10/7/2020 2:07 AM
“My Story - Part 2”
Episode 1
In my previous career before I joined a real estate agency in Glen Waverley, I travelled to almost every suburb in Melbourne Metropolitan marketing decorated cakes each week. That was how I knew so much about Melbourne.
How I managed to get my foot in the agency was very interesting, and I did post my story some time ago in my SFC Marketing Blogs and Lessons group.
When I started in the industry, the market was on the downward slide. Despite that, I had a distinct advantage over my peers, the reason being I could speak fluent Cantonese (Guangdong Hua) and Mandarin (Potong Hua) in addition to English. There were not many Chinese migrants from mainland China then. Those who managed to migrate over were mainly from Shanghai and Beijing. Hardly any agents or agents representatives could speak a word of Mandarin, and that was an opportunity too good to be true.
A few years before 1997, the year when the British handed Hong Kong back to China, many Hong Kongers sought to migrate overseas, including Australia. They could not speak English well, and once again I could use my language skill to service them. In fact, my Cantonese was so fluent without a trace of Malaysian Chinese accent that almost all Hong Kongers thought that I came from Hong Kong.
I was always a keen learner and knowledge seeker then, and still am now. I studied the concepts of Feng Shui, and superstitious beliefs and practices of Southeast Asian and Hong Kong Chinese. Most importantly, I also brushed up my knowledge about Hong Kong history. Oh yes, I worked as fast as the Hong Hongers. Not long after, I completed my full real estate licence, while I was still working as an agents representative. My final project / thesis for my course work was about setting up a real estate agency. It was not easy to get information on market shares and other statistics, because Internet was not available yet. I did SWOT analysis of different agencies, and tried to make sense of the historical rise and fall of real estate cycles.
I was like walking "Google". Oops, Google was not around yet. I knew a lot the about the schools, bus routes, churches and the demographics of Glen Waverley and surrounding suburbs including Rowville. When the keys of a new listing landed in the office, and before it was announced and advertised, I would be the first one to jump into my car to inspect it before other fellow colleagues in the office.
During slack time, I developed my own Customer Relation Management (CRM) software, and also did a lot of analysis on movements of real estate buyers and sellers in the region
I was at a crossroad after obtaining my qualification as a Licensed Estate Agent (LEA). I found too many cowboys in the industry, and the industry was very much of a dog-eat-dog world. Owning and operating an agency was not my preference, because I held very strong principles.
At that time, I was approached to design a bilingual Accounting system for a Hong Kong printing company and subsequently to develop an application system for Food Service Management for a big contracting company.
So I decided to quit my full time real estate job, and became a freelance Vendor Advocate, helping vendors to sell the property. While I was not meeting clients and real estate agents, I spent my time on software development and programming.
I slowed down my Vendor Advocate business close to zero when I decided to spend more time on international travel. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I doubt I shall jump onto another plane or cruise ship for a long, long time to come. I may reconsider to be a Trainer or Advocate again in order to fill in time, and keep my brain working. Thank you for reading
“My Story - Part 2”
Episode 1
In my previous career before I joined a real estate agency in Glen Waverley, I travelled to almost every suburb in Melbourne Metropolitan marketing decorated cakes each week. That was how I knew so much about Melbourne.
How I managed to get my foot in the agency was very interesting, and I did post my story some time ago in my SFC Marketing Blogs and Lessons group.
When I started in the industry, the market was on the downward slide. Despite that, I had a distinct advantage over my peers, the reason being I could speak fluent Cantonese (Guangdong Hua) and Mandarin (Potong Hua) in addition to English. There were not many Chinese migrants from mainland China then. Those who managed to migrate over were mainly from Shanghai and Beijing. Hardly any agents or agents representatives could speak a word of Mandarin, and that was an opportunity too good to be true.
A few years before 1997, the year when the British handed Hong Kong back to China, many Hong Kongers sought to migrate overseas, including Australia. They could not speak English well, and once again I could use my language skill to service them. In fact, my Cantonese was so fluent without a trace of Malaysian Chinese accent that almost all Hong Kongers thought that I came from Hong Kong.
I was always a keen learner and knowledge seeker then, and still am now. I studied the concepts of Feng Shui, and superstitious beliefs and practices of Southeast Asian and Hong Kong Chinese. Most importantly, I also brushed up my knowledge about Hong Kong history. Oh yes, I worked as fast as the Hong Hongers. Not long after, I completed my full real estate licence, while I was still working as an agents representative. My final project / thesis for my course work was about setting up a real estate agency. It was not easy to get information on market shares and other statistics, because Internet was not available yet. I did SWOT analysis of different agencies, and tried to make sense of the historical rise and fall of real estate cycles.
I was like walking "Google". Oops, Google was not around yet. I knew a lot the about the schools, bus routes, churches and the demographics of Glen Waverley and surrounding suburbs including Rowville. When the keys of a new listing landed in the office, and before it was announced and advertised, I would be the first one to jump into my car to inspect it before other fellow colleagues in the office.
During slack time, I developed my own Customer Relation Management (CRM) software, and also did a lot of analysis on movements of real estate buyers and sellers in the region
I was at a crossroad after obtaining my qualification as a Licensed Estate Agent (LEA). I found too many cowboys in the industry, and the industry was very much of a dog-eat-dog world. Owning and operating an agency was not my preference, because I held very strong principles.
At that time, I was approached to design a bilingual Accounting system for a Hong Kong printing company and subsequently to develop an application system for Food Service Management for a big contracting company.
So I decided to quit my full time real estate job, and became a freelance Vendor Advocate, helping vendors to sell the property. While I was not meeting clients and real estate agents, I spent my time on software development and programming.
I slowed down my Vendor Advocate business close to zero when I decided to spend more time on international travel. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I doubt I shall jump onto another plane or cruise ship for a long, long time to come. I may reconsider to be a Trainer or Advocate again in order to fill in time, and keep my brain working. Thank you for reading
