Here’s What I Learnt After Spending 2 Weeks To Earn A $300 Commission.

4 min read

I know that real estate agents sometimes get a bad rep. People think we are pushy, too salesy and love to proclaim that “everything is a good buy!” pitch.

And I don’t blame them.

This happens partly because our incomes are never assured, we adopt the mentality of always “hunting” for sales and the thought of how to pay for our next month’s bills always looms.

Unfortunately, this happens to every newbie real estate agent who didn’t condition their mindset properly – they will have to go through this struggle.

5 years ago when I first joined the industry – I went through this for awhile. That was until I reframed myself to view at every case as an opportunity to help.

Redefining My Mission and Vision

As I evolved along the years, I decided this is going to be my life career. As a Christian, sometimes I feel that taps on the shoulder that reminded me why.

I sincerely believe my knowledge and experience has empowered me to help people around me who needed my expertise.

And I like to think that God placed me in this situation to assist families to transact their biggest asset in life in a safe and smooth way.

That is why I took up and offered my help to this lady who has been looking around for an agent to help find a tenant for her vacant room.

She contacted me via a referral from a family member and asked whether I was keen to find a tenant for her.

She shared that she has talked to more than 10 agents but no one wanted to visit her to take pictures of the home.

Why? Because they probably felt it wasn’t worth their time and effort.

You see, the room rental was only $600 per month. So the commission for the agent would only be $300.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t reluctant to take up the job.

I had a million other things to do and this $300 was not really worth the trouble of doing the marketing and conducting viewings.

But I reminded myself – God sent her my way so it is now my duty to help her.

So I went over to her place in Tampines to take a look at the room.

Here are the photos I took of the room to attract tenants to view the place.

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I did some simple marketing and got a few enquiries. Over a 2 week period, I went over 3 times with 3 different potential tenants. Eventually the 3rd guy decided to take up a 1 year lease of the room.

Mission accomplished.

I was thinking that $300 should cover my petrol costs and marketing costs. LOL.

8 Months Later, I Received Another Call

The same lady called me up. This time she wanted to sell the same HDB flat and asked me to become her agent.

She added on – “Since you helped me so much previously, I also referred my sister to you. She is planning to sell her landed home soon.”

I was floored to say the least.

Eventually, I helped her sell this HDB flat and buy another flat in the northern part of Singapore.

I also represented her sister in the sale of her landed property – which was also closed a few months later.

My $600 room rental case had snowballed into an unexpected handsome commission.

From 1 tiny case, it multiplied to 2 cases.

That’s the arithmetic of being genuine and authentic – in both work and life.

This is the law of the seeds – when you plant one – it returns multi-fold.

“People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.”

Some people think its cliche but I see it every single day in my daily interactions.

People don’t absorb 100% of your words but they definitely can hear the tone and warmth of your voice.

To me, the quote is about being genuine and authentic at every step of the communication process and being a great listener.

This means asking questions with inquiry, a curious spirit and truly looking for ways to provide valuable solutions to any challenges that surface.

I might not have all the answers, but I will care enough to seek out the answer to your problem.

Customers can smell your motivation a mile away.

And if I had come with the extrinsic motivation of purely money – I would not have just lost the sale but also lost the customer for life.

Some Parting Thoughts

At the end of the day, I plan to be in this business for a long time. Decades even.

That means letting go of my ego by caring about my customer’s needs first.

And if that means I have to tell a potential customer that I might not be the best agent for them or that a competitor might be a better fit – so be it.

Either way, I know people will appreciate a refreshing, honest, and invigorating approach to solving their problems.

And who knows – this could even give me a better chance to earn their trust and their business down the road or maybe even a referral.

In the end – it matters on how deep the relationship runs.

Have questions on your property? Keen to find out what options are open to you?

Feel free to reach out to me for a no-obligation discussion.