http://www.theedgeproperty.com.sg/content/super-agents

Super agents
By Michael Lim, Cecilia Chow / The Edge Property | March 24, 2016 12:16 PM MYT
Tags: agentsOutperform
Four years ago when Kavin Kuah completed his national service (NS), he decided to forego his tertiary education even though he had secured a place at one of the local universities. “I would have had to take a separate loan if I went to university because my family couldn’t afford the fees,” he says. “So I decided to come out to work instead.”

Kuah figured he had only two options if he wanted to strike it rich, and quick: become a property agent or an insurance agent. As he had little interest in insurance, he decided on the former. Even then, he had to borrow the money needed to pay for the Real Estate Salesperson course. “I had just come out of NS, and I didn’t have the money,” he says.

With no contacts, no referrals and no money to print flyers or for advertisements, Kuah had no choice but to hit the pavement and knock on doors. On weekdays, he would read the news and familiarise himself with the rules and regulations on the HDB, Inland Revenue Authority and URA websites, and called their hotlines with queries. He would also phone and meet up with agents with listings in areas he intended to focus on, to find out the latest transaction and asking prices. In the evenings, he would make cold calls from seven to 10. On weekends, he would start earlier, from 10am to 10pm.

What was hardest for Kuah was seeing people his age dressed up for a night out during the weekends while he had to work. His friends would ask him to join them for drinks or go clubbing, but he had to turn them down. After a while, they stopped calling. “That was the price I had to pay in the beginning,” he recalls.

His misery was compounded on rainy, windy days, when he got drenched walking along the corridors of HDB blocks as he went from door to door. What kept him going during those moments was the reason he was doing it: “I wanted to provide for my family and have a better life.”



Last year, 104 estate agencies closed shop and 3,573 sales agents dropped out of the industry,

according to Council for Estate Agents.





‘Real-time information provider’
Armed with all the information about units for sale and their asking prices, as well as the latest transacted prices in the blocks where he was canvassing for deals, Kuah became a “real-time information provider”, he says. His hard work paid off. Within two months, he earned $20,000 to $30,000 in commissions. He then set $80,000 as his benchmark as that was the minimum required to be ranked among the top 20 agents at ERA. “I wanted to go on stage to be recognised,” he says.

http://www.theedgeproperty.com.sg/content/super-agents