Back during my first year in real estate

Are you like me, interested in stories of one’s life experiences?

If yes, you may like to take a couple of minutes to read this story of mine.

This 2,500sqft unit tells a real estate story.

Back in 2010 when I was still a rookie property agent, deals were hard to come by.

I am an introvert by nature and not the type that finds it easy to strike up conversations with strangers.

I had wondered previously if I would be suited for this career but the speaker at the real estate career fair assured that a career in real estate is suitable for introverts.

Often times, even in the company of people that I know, I may not talk that much too.

Prospecting was not easy for me. I had no sales background and I did not have a strong network to tap on.

Most of the people I knew were not into properties… or perhaps they chose to keep quiet and not tell me.

I only started receiving my first calls from strangers asking me to help them about 6 months into the business.

And among the first few calls I ever received, was one for this unit.

A prime property in Singapore district 10?

One morning, an elderly man called.

He told me that he had a property in Balmoral Road that he was looking to rent out and he asked if I would be interested to help him to secure a tenant.

Balmoral Road in prime district 10?

YES PLEASE !!!!

I tried very hard to hold back my excitement and reminded myself to reply in a calm and steady manner.

“Yes, sure. Let me take a look and see what I can do.”

With high expectations…

I rushed down to the unit as fast as I could with my point and shoot camera.

The elderly man greeted me at the door with his wife and invited me in.

That was the first time I ever set foot in a 2,500sqft private condo.

The unit was empty with just 1 small round table and 3 chairs at the dining area.

I was invited to take a seat and as I approached the table, my heart sank quickly.

Comes great disappointment…

The classified section of the newspaper was opened up and placed on the table.

It was showing the page that listed down all the properties for rent/sale.

There were many many many many many many red circles drawn on the paper.

Almost every advertisement had a circle…

It dawned on me that the elderly man was calling up EVERY AGENT in the classified ads and inviting them to go see and help market the property.

Sitting beside him was a stack of old newspapers that they had gone through.

Let’s get to work

I allowed myself to be disappointed for 3 seconds and decided to get on with what I was there for.

Since I was already there, might as well do things properly and stay positive.

Even though there might be 1,000 agents marketing the unit, but who knows right?

It would be a game of luck but maybe I could be the lucky one to close the deal.

After taking the photos, I spent a couple of minutes speaking to them to get to know them better.

The elderly man and his wife were both foreigners. They stayed overseas and came to Singapore only when a lease had ended and they needed to look for a new tenant.

And then they would call up agents one by one and circled those they had called.

I thanked them for inviting me over and left.

Time to commence the marketing.

Fairy tale ending?

When there are hundreds of property agents marketing a same unit, often times it becomes a game of luck.

Since I wrote this post, you must surely think that there was a fairy-tale ending and someone must have called and I closed the deal?

No. No one called me. ZERO.

I did receive a call eventually a couple of weeks later.

From the elderly man.

“Thank you Jack. Unit rented out.”

Ok…

I wished him and his wife well and thanked him for giving me the opportunity.

Told him that I hoped to stay in touch with him and then he gave me his email address.

I placed his email into my database and started emailing him (and other people in my database) whenever there was interesting news.

He never replied to me once over the next 2 years.

I also had no idea if he read them.

Until one day. He REPLIED.

YES, HE DID.

Two years later in 2012.

A word of thanks and …

“Hello, Jack. Thank you so much for sending me email updates over the last two years. No one has ever done this for me before. The lease at the Balmoral apartment is ending soon. Would you like to be our EXCLUSIVE agent to handle the lease for us?”

😲😲😲

To cut the long story short, I have taken care of this memorable Balmoral unit exclusively since 2012.

Till this day, this whole episode still stays close to my heart as an example of how you may not always see immediate results for the things that you do.

Even when you are doing the right things.

Sometimes, it just takes time for the seed to grow.

And you are actually just 3 feet from gold.

Have you experienced something like this before?

How long did you have to wait?

Fast forward to today

Since that first faithful encounter during my first year in real estate, I have had the good fortune to know more and be blessed by new clients who have given me their trust.

This has led to the conclusion of more sale and rental transactions in the vicinity.

In condos like Ardmore Park, Avalon, Balmoral Gate, Cairnhill Mansion (en-bloc already) & Orchard Scotts.

I thank all my clients for their trust in me.

Let’s connect

This is a reproduced post of what I first shared on facebook.

Please like or share if you feel someone can be encouraged by reading this 🙂

You are also welcome to connect with me on facebook.

Before you go, do you have time for one more interesting encounter? 😉

This is quite an unbelievable tale on trust that happened many years after this Balmoral encounter.