I have been in this real estate industry for 11 years now. Since day one, I’ve heard rumours saying real estate agents will need a licence to operate but it did not materialise until last week. A new statutory board, Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) to regulate estate agents in Singapore comes into operations from last Friday, 22nd Oct 2010.

This aims to raise the professionalism of the real estate agency industry and to enable consumers to better safeguard their interests. CEA is in charge of  licensing conditions for estate agents, regulation on the conduct of estate agency work, mechanisms for discipline and dispute resolution, and public education.
The council immediate focus is to prepare the estate agents and salespersons to meet the higher standards of the enhanced licensing and new registration framework. To do that, there will be a code of conduct, ethics and practice for estate agents and salespersons to follow.
The council can subject errant estate agents and salespersons to disciplinary action.

 Most full time real estate agents including me welcome this move. This will raise the standard for the whole industry. I have seen many errant agents acting unprofessionally towards clients and fellow cobroke agents. After they got many complaints in one agency, they switched to another agency and continue to do what they used to do. I have even saw one agent changed his name to disguise his past records. 
With this regulation, these agents will not be able to do that because they will be registered under one body and complaints will be handled by CEA. CEA then has the power to deal with the agent with penalties such as warnings, fines, suspension or revocation.

With this setup, the numbers of real estate agents will be largely reduced as now it has a higher entry level for new agents and existing agents needs to pass a compulsory exam. I estimate it will drop to approx 20,000 agents from the initial 35,000 agents. Those that are still in the industry will mostly be the full timers and the more professional ones.

It’s been a hectic 2 weeks for me to register my agents with CEA. Now I will take a breather to enjoy my preparation for my marathon in December.

Imagine two man, Ronald and Steve are getting divorce. Ronald says,”I’ve failed in my life, I am divorcing. My life is over.” Steve says, “My life has just begun!”

It is not what happens to you that matters most. It is how you think about what happens to you. Once we change our thoughts about ‘a bad situation’, we can take advantage of it. Great opportunities usually comes disguised as misfortune and disaster.

I remember when I came back to Singapore from overseas working(for 5 years) in 2000, I was jobless and in a 6 figure debt. But I did not get depress and blames the whole world like many people do. Instead, I started my business as a real estate agent. Many think that it was not a wise move as property market was very weak then. I see it as an opportunity ton learn the ropes in a difficult condition and when the market recovers, I will be the first to enjoy the fruits of labour. I was right; now I enjoying good residual income with good quality of life. Some agents in weak property market blames buyers for not genuine and they accuses the sellers for being greedy in a up market. Some agents prefers to wait for business to comes to them whereas hungry agents go looking for business. Some agents shy away from training whereas some are ever hungry for knowledge. Some people envy the Top Producers but do nothing whereas some copy their formula. 

Our mind is like a magnet. Happy people attract other happy people. Positive thinkers attract opportunities and crooks attract crooks. Our thoughts might be invisible but they are real things; just like electricity or gravity. They obeys natural laws. For instance, when you decide to buy a certain brand of handphone, it seems that every other people around you has that same phone. No, sales has not spike up suddenly. Rather, your awareness of that particular phone has increased. Therefore, more people appear to own it.

• So let’s think positively from today onwards. You will become what you think, so think carefully.

I have just attended ERA International Business Conference 2010 @Nashville, USA to collect the most prestigious management award, Top Division in Singapore & Asia Pacific 2009. The flight took me about 28 hours (3 transits, flight delay). Upon reaching Nashville at midnight local time, the temperature was near freezing. The airline could not locate my luggage, it was misplaced during the internal transit flight. I have to endure the freezing temperature for the next 36 hours before I got back my luggage. Although it was not as ideal as it should have been, it is all worth it, especially when I recieved the award from Charlie Young, CEO & President of ERA International.

The journey to this business conference is similar to my journey in real estate. It was not all smooth sailing from the start. When I just started this business, many of my peers think that I am crazy when I told them that i will be the Top 50 Achievers in my first year of sales. To prove them wrong, I had to work 12-14 hours daily prospecting for new clients. Everyday I have to face numerous rejections. But with my perserverance, I managed to achieve my first goal. That year, I was the Top 50 Achievers in ERA. I was also the Top 3 Rookie of the Year. I continued to focus on my goal. For the next 4 years, I managed to win the ERA Top 50 Achievers.

Now that I am a Group Division Director leading over 500 agents, I am determined to help more agents to achieve their financial dreams. My No.1 agent now clocked more than $1 million per year. My Top 10 agents earned on average $350,000 per year. My ultimate goal is to groom 1000 agents earning at least $100,000 a year.

I started my division in 2006 with 30 agents clocking $1 M in sales commission. I set a big goal then; to be the No.1 division in ERA within 5 years. At the end of 2009, I have more than 500 agents clocking more than $10M in sales commission. My division just won the most prestigious awards in ERA; Top Division in Singapore & Asia Pacific. My dream has came true. I did it in 4 years.

This great achievement could not be done if not for the hard work and never say die attitude of my agents. Many of them are always hungry for success. My No.1 agent clocked more than $1.2M in sales commission in 2009(she did $1M in 2008). My Top 10 agents average more than $250k each. Some of my new rookie agents did more than $100k in their first year and I am very sure they will do even better this year. 

One of my team managers became a Division Director and I am so proud to have groomed 2 division directors now(Jason Tan & Jay Ong). They joined me 3-4 years ago as young and inexperience agents and they are now division directors leading more than 100 agents themselves. They are not only earning good sales commission but also good overiding fees.

It has been a tremendous year for me and my division. I will always remember 2009 as the year I achieved what many thought was impossible. I will continue to work hard and strive to achieve even bigger things in the future. As for now, I would like to spend some quality time with my family in the Chinese New Year period. Without the support from them, I would never achieved what I have.

GONG XI FAI CAI & have a ROARING Tiger Year….

Gary Chua Group believes in working hard and also playing hard. We celebrated 2009 X’mas at Bobby’s @Chimjes. It was a very successful event where more than 100 turnout. They were entertained by good food, wine and music the whole night. Five lucky people went home with shopping vouchers, GPS, digital camera, video camara. Go to www.realestateagentjobssingapore.com to find out more

Today, I will be sharing about the reality of being a real estate agent is that only those with commitment and proper training will benefit from great income revenue. As for the rest, they will not achieve their financial goals and drop out. Therefore, if you decide to join the real estate market, make a firm decision to succeed and you will.

It is true that real estate agents enjoy high income and flexible working hours. However, in the first two years, be prepared to work long hours as newbie agents have low product knowledge, sales skills and less referrals to work on. Sub sequentially, your familiarity with the industry and database of prospects will expand. With this, work will come in more easily and you can enjoy high income with low working hours.

The side benefit is that real estate agents will always have first hand market information and are the best position to take advantage of investing properly to earn high profits.

Are you interested in these prospects? If yes, remember to register yourself to learn more.

Now, what is required for you to succeed as a real estate agent? There are three critical elements that influence your success greatly.

Total commitment – Nothing amazing can be achieved without commitment. There is a difference between wanting to be successful and 100% committed to be successful. If you merely want, wish or hope to be successful, it will rarely happen.

Not many people succeed because only those who absolutely MUST succeed will succeed. When something is a must, you will do whatever it takes to accomplish it. It becomes your number one priority in life. You will think of it everyday, every moment. Nothing will come in its way until the goal is achieved. Nothing will come into your way until you achieve what you must have.

Clear goals – Success never happens by chance. It always starts with a clear and specific goal. It is like a roadmap, guiding you along to your destination.

Apply the right strategies – Have a sound plan and execute your plan diligently! In the case, if you are not sure, model from those who have succeeded.

With these three factors being practiced daily, you have a high chance of succeeding in the real estate agent and earning big bucks. I hope you have enjoyed these quick tips and I will be sharing more information shortly.

Interested to learn how much we can earn? I am about to reveal the average income generated here.

We usually earn $80,000 to $150,000 commission per year. The Top Achievers in the industry earn more than $1,000,000 each year.

In fact, agents enjoy multiple sources of income streams. On top the commission generated from selling, buying or renting properties, real estate agents benefit from referrals fees from banks, lawyers and interior designer firms. These fees can be quite substantial if the agent knows how to recommend these services to their clients.

Finally, agents can also earn overriding fees by recruiting new agents. The real estate manager or director approximately earns 2% to 11% of the new agents’ commission. Imagine, if you have 5 agents clocking $100,000 per annum, the recruiter can earned about $25,000($500,000 X 5%). As the team continues to grow, the higher your commission will grow in accordance.

Keen to learn more about the reality of being a real estate agent? Remember to register for these options.

As you know from my profile, I am Gary Chua, a Senior Group Divisional Director from ERA. It may look like it was effortless to reach my position but the truth is that I learned through the school of hard knocks.

In 2000, I joined the real estate industry. As a rookie, I had to learn fast to survive in this competitive industry. I invested many quality hours of work every day to make sure I do not fail. Like most new agents, I met many challenges and obstacles. Instead of feeling dejected, every time I met them head on, solve the problems one by one and learned from those mistakes.

With lots of hard work and determination, I managed to win the Top 3 rookie award in my first year. Subsequently, I have also won ERA Top 50 Achievers for 5 consecutive years, Top New Manager 2003, Top 3 Managers 2005 and was promoted to a Division Director in 2006. My division won the ERA Asia Pacific 2^nd Highest Commission Received award in 2008. Now I am leading a team of more than 500 agents and team mangers.

My vision is to share my knowledge to newbie property agents, hoping to achieve their financial dreams through real estate. I have succeeded in grooming many successful real estate agents. If you are keen to learn more about my story, you can register for the free eBook here.