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Photo: OrangeTee
In the past decade or so, more people have inclinations to move out of their HDB flats and into private condominiums. As a result, people were encouraged to sell their HDB flats, and invest that money into as many properties as possible, to be cashed in later or for passive income down the line. Property, many believe, is the ticket to huge returns.
This link between big money and property extends to property agents as well. We have 36,000 people in this workforce, and every one of them is boasting — whether in real life or on social media — about all the record high prices they’ve sold a house for or how many million dollar deal they just closed.
This is one of the most dominant narratives about real estate: that it is people’s ticket to big money, especially for the property agents who make a cut from the sales.
Such a narrative makes me apprehensive — I think we need a more responsible one. At OrangeTee, I hope to reinject humanity into the business by inspiring community, collaboration, and culture, because the existing narrative and the way we conduct business now doesn’t benefit anyone.
Keeping up with the times
Firstly, the narrative we have now is not very tasteful. I’ve been to universities to give talks, and I realised that the students there gravitate toward consultancies, developers, and even government agencies, but not too many look toward real estate agencies. Agencies are perceived as rather uncouth and a bit crass, so not many students look at them as a respectable trade life.
Secondly, times have changed. Today, the individual agent faces a lot of challenges — business costs have gone up, which include the cost of fuel, and marketing. Regulation has also imposed limitations on business. And although the number of deals and transactions have fallen, perplexingly, the number of real estate agents is increasing.
Maintaining the perception that agents earn a lot despite these changes is counterproductive. It discourages those who see real estate as a conduit for positive impact from entering real estate agencies. Furthermore, potential clients will also believe that agents are overcharging them, when in fact, today’s costs are very high. This makes it harder for agents to make a living.
Beyond jobs into a calling
I hope to be the counter narrative in this industry, and to be more responsible. In the process, we can help draw more like-minded people into our work. This shift is particularly relevant in Singapore, where first-world privilege allows today’s generation to pursue meaningful careers and jobs.
And while I agree that money is important, we’re also at the stage of development where people have the leeway to choose, and think about finding purpose, impact, and expanding their sphere of influence.
That’s why many students gravitate towards being property developers; as developers, they can build buildings and have a hand in shaping people’s environment. For me, that’s a better narrative. And instead of looking at real estate agents as materialistic, I view their work as a property advisor. So this would appeal to students who see the importance of helping others find a roof and shelter, or to those who want to help their clients make well-informed decisions about their property investments and have a game plan for their life.
From generalists
This new approach is more than just flowery words. The market has changed, and so must our field. In our business, as one of the top five agencies in Singapore, we tend to watch each other very closely, looking for best practices, and copying each other. Therefore, culturally, we do not evolve.
However, the market has changed significantly. One way is that the customer is now more empowered due to increased data accessibility with the internet. This means that the traditional value of the agent has been diminished, so the role of the agent must adapt.
That’s why I started Luxe — agents under Luxe will be able to provide high net worth individuals with services tailored to the luxury real estate sector. These agents will be given training and opportunities to attend events with industry experts, financial analysts, and wealth specialists to expand our agents’ expertise.
This is the first movement within OrangeTee to kickstart segment specialisation. Instead of having a collective of generalists, the agency will be well-endowed with specialists. So a client who is looking for a luxury property will be able to find an agent with a specialised skill set to help them execute that purchase well.
This shift is crucial because, in the past, most agents would do the same thing — for example, all agents under our employ would sell new property launches. Now, such a general strategy won’t work anymore. It is important to have both breadth and depth.
Furthermore, change is incumbent especially with the volume of property listings decreasing. In the past, we managed to sell 12,000 to 15,000 units a year — we did 6,000 last year. Today, we’re not even sure we can meet that same quantity. Since the volume itself is slowing, it doesn’t make sense for everybody to do the same thing.
To a hub of specialists
For us to implement specialisation, our agents have to collaborate and play to their strengths. To facilitate this, we have a platform at OrangeTee called Property Agent Review (PAR).
PAR is a platform of authenticated agent reviews done by clients. These reviews cannot be made by anyone except clients, meaning that agents cannot ask their peers to buff up their ratings. Only after a deal has closed, will our company reach out to the client with a link for feedback.
With this platform, agents can strategically refer clients to others in the company. Take an agent who specialises in HDB flats for instance. If a friend of theirs hopes to sell a Good Class bungalow and reaches out to them, the agent can use PAR to refer the friend to another agent with experience handling similar sized properties in close locations.
In this way, agents can play to their strengths, the client is happy at a job well done, and we can keep the business within OrangeTee.
Crucial culture
And as much as we try to leverage technology to enable this collaboration, the culture of the company plays an important role too. As mentioned earlier, we are a people-centric business. Instead of agents being overly ambitious and exceeding their skill level, it’s important they come from companies that distribute deals fairly. This way, agents won’t feel pressured to excessively guard each deal that comes their way.
Otherwise, I can have PAR and a multitude of other systems in place, but if the attitude and mindset to share and collaborate isn’t present, these systems will just be white elephants.
Working to change the narrative of real estate also contributes back to OrangeTee. We hope to be the agency with a genuine interest and intent for good in this space, that isn’t just in real estate for the economics of it.
And likewise, we want to attract people who share the same values as us too.
Layers of meaning
This is the reason why we had a new tagline this year: find your place.
This tagline determines the direction that we want to go, which is to bring the human side of the business back into the essence of what we do.
‘Find your place’ has a very literal meaning of what we do as a real estate agency — helping our clients to find their place. But at a deeper level, it is about embracing diversity and encouraging and lifting others up to help everybody find their place in society.
This might be helping others find a home, a job, or even to find a philosophical and bigger meaning to life. It’s our purpose, and we should always be there to help people find that place. It’s not all about investments and money, but really the meaningful work that we do.
To build a sustainable business, the right narrative and culture have to be in place, because we ultimately want to be an attraction point. By fostering an environment where values and purpose are at the forefront, we create a brand that resonates on a deeper level.
In this way, people will come to the agency because they want to be associated with the type of brand that the agency has, instead of coming over for purely materialistic intentions. The company speaks to them.
To me, that wins a lot more loyalty than anything else. It’s a long term vision, to be honest. Not everybody has the patience for it, but I always believe in setting up the fundamentals and the foundations right for longevity.
To be perfectly candid
When I came into the company last year, I’ll be very honest, it wasn’t in a good shape. Our numbers have been declining for a few consecutive years.
This year, we have noticed that our numbers have started to stabilise and even started to look like an upward trajectory. This shows me that people are believing in this new narrative and sticking around.
Now I hope for us to develop beyond loyalty, and have agents who are advocates. These would be people who want to go out there and promote the company. To achieve this, we need more than just employees who stay; we need advocates who actively champion our cause.
Of their own volition, I hope our employees will go around and tell people that, if they want to do serious and responsible real estate work, that OrangeTee is a good company to join.
The only reason our numbers can grow is because of advocacy. Loyalty is valuable, but it is not enough — it just makes people stick around. Advocacy makes people rise to the occasion and bring more people into this movement, so that we can all do greater things together.
We want to be the responsible ones in the industry, the one that says that being an agent isn’t all about closing a lot of deals, making a lot of money, or driving a fancy car. It’s a celebration of life — and a house is part of a celebration of life.
Whether that is helping people find their dream home, assisting a divorcing couple with disposal of their assets, or closing a deal that can help someone live comfortably, contributing to others finding their place is meaningful work. In this way, we reinject humanity back into real estate, and can make real estate a more pleasant industry for agents and clients alike.
