SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Alvin Lim, group director and founder of one of the largest divisions in ERA Realty Network — ERA Explorer Group — is thankful that the “circuit breaker” has normalised online meetings.
“Conducting meetings via Zoom is effective. I still do that, but mostly from the office after the circuit breaker has ended,” says Lim, who can be usually found at ERA Realty’s flagship office at Mountbatten Square.
The 52-year-old organises common activities for the 37 division directors and 1,200 agents under him, such as monthly meetings and quarterly awards. He shares that during the two-month circuit breaker lockdown, he conducted around 90 meetings virtually.
Lim calls himself a “lifetime salesman”. Even as he has risen up the ranks in his 24 years in ERA, he still enjoys serving clients and assisting them to meet their needs. He says it also gives him a sense of what is happening on the ground.
“The clients that I’m serving today are those who have been working with me for 10 to 20 years,” says Lim. He recently helped a client, whom he has known for 23 years, sell and buy property in the process of relocation.
When it comes to customer service, Lim says that not being too pushy is key. “I don’t push customers to buy, but I help them by giving them my professional advice. The important thing is to understand what the customer needs,” he adds.
Lim, who consistently ranked among the top 20 agents in ERA in the first 10 years of his career, worked as an electrical engineer in a Japanese company for two years before starting out as a property agent in 1996. It was then that he realised he liked to interact with and serve people instead. He became a full branch manager in his ninth year, and started to recruit people to join his division.
Now, his primary focus is to manage and mentor his growing division, which is one of the largest in ERA. Having won ERA’s Top Advisory Group Division Director Award in 2018 and 2019, Lim is also the only one in ERA who has received both the League of Excellence and League of Honour awards.
Directors in the Explorer Group are in charge of more than 60 projects, out of a total of 170 projects that ERA is handling at the moment. The division also has more than 400 project taggers, who are attached to projects and assist the agents to sell.
As such, Lim says that agents have the benefit of tapping various areas of specialisation. Some division directors specialise in the luxury property market and Good Class Bungalow market, while others focus on HDB units and executive condominiums.
A prominent trend in the market is that HDB resale activity has gone up, says Lim. One reason for this could be that there have been more HDB and EC units reaching Minimum Occupancy Period (MOP) this year. “We see interest from upgraders as well as people who are looking to downsize from larger apartments,” says Lim.
Additionally, HDB upgraders who want to upgrade to a private property are taking the opportunity to buy during this period of time. “Developers are much more realistic in their pricing of units now. This presents a good opportunity to buy for those with the right financials,” says Lim.
He also believes that property investors are not deterred by the current pandemic. “While we see that rental prices in the central business district, like in Shenton Way, are temporarily softened because expatriates are restricted from coming in, sales of new launch properties and in the resale market are still going strong. Perhaps, investors have a long-term view,” he adds.
In the new normal, Lim continues with webinars and courses on how to sell virtually. “We have platforms through which we impart skills on social media marketing, videography, and how to leverage the platforms provided by ERA like iERA or ERA Pro,” he says.
The iERA app allows property buyers to view latest new launch projects and find an agent, while the ERA Pro app is designed for agents. The platforms enable agents to help customers on financial calculations and asset progression (the selling and buying of property assets for capital gains). “Our in-house programmers add new technical features to the apps from time to time,” says Lim.
At the same time, the Explorer Group also conducts virtual weekend open houses over Facebook Live on the weekends. On any given weekend, at least three or four properties are marketed to viewers online.
Although it seems that younger agents would have a competitive edge over older agents who may be less tech-savvy, Lim says that this is not always the case.
He explains: “Seniors have experience and network. So, I also see them guiding the younger ones. Perhaps, the industry can work better if the young offer their innovative solutions and the experienced agents teach them how to present themselves, network and serve customers professionally.”