Special Feature

PLB Realty: Top Landed Transactors 2 years in a row

October 12, 2023 4:30 PM SGT

Join our Telegram channel and follow our Facebook for the latest update.

Selling your landed home should not be done hastily. Positioning your home with home tours and an expert team can enhance the speed and elevate the value of your home.

This is where PLB Realty’s Landed Unit comes in. The team, which comprises 24 realtors, focuses on marketing, buying and selling landed property listings. The team itself receives extensive training from PLB Realty’s co-founder and CEO Melvin Lim, who is, himself, a familiar face to many. Melvin was the main presenter of the 2,069 home tour and educational videos put up by the agency over the last five years.

“Our realtors are experienced in handling landed home transactions, which require more attention to detail, such as each home’s individual properties,” says the PLB Realty team. “Furthermore, every landed property is different and there is no single way to market it.”

Team A of PLB Realty's Landed Unit. L-R: Gabriel Ding, Beatrice Lim, Jay Chen, Christina Tan, John Lin, Jesley Lim, Kee Seng Huat and Bryan Koh.

Becoming a key player

Established in 2020, the team was formed with the view that homes, especially landed homes can be marketed in a better way. “We wanted to be one of the key players to market the limited number of landed homes in Singapore,” adds the PLB Realty team. After all, in land-scarce Singapore, only 4% of the country’s residential real estate is made up of landed homes, which translates to around 73,000 units.

“In terms of marketing, our core philosophy is to showcase the maximum potential of each home – whether it’s an HDB flat or a condominium unit. This is even more so for selling landed property. Priced at a higher quantum in general, it is imperative to show the home’s entire features, what potential buyers can do with the space, and more,” it continues.

Adding value

In addition to the collective team mastery, each consultant is equipped with frameworks a networks of experts and analytical tech tools to help them further add value to their clients.

“With every home we market, we work with several experts who can help us better identify any issues and questions a potential buyer may have,” says the team. “For instance, before starting our marketing, we take the time to get to know the property better.”

“Part of our seller’s consultation package is visiting the landed home with a building surveyor who will take us through the entire home and walk us through the home’s finer details such as the materials, potential renovation works where the buyer may add rooms, tear down rooms, remodel potential spaces and so on,” says the team.

Team B of PLB Realty's Landed Unit. L-R: Alan Koh, Felicia Cai, Gavin Chan, George Peng, Caline Leong, Charline Wong and Eunice Lam.

“The expert will then generate a report for us, which enables our consultant to have all the information at hand. This also potentially covers most of the queries potential buyers may have,” it continues. “This is especially for older houses where there are a lot of things that can’t be seen with the naked eye – such as asbestos on the ceilings – but are still crucial information to the buyer and seller.”

The PLB method – Landed Home Tours for Sellers

The secret ingredient within the realtors’ toolkit is the technological advances that PLB Realty provides.

Known for its informative videos, the team at PLB Realty – including its Landed Unit – takes great pride in ensuring all its listings are well-presented.

Beyond the beautifully styled home and engaging camerawork, each video includes salient information such as the location of the property as well as its surrounding features and landmarks such as popular schools, food centres, modes of public transport and more.

Each video also includes the type of property (whether it’s a terrace, corner terrace, semi-detached or bungalow), the size of the plot, shape, as well as other pertinent measurements and features.

Each house is designed into four main categories, which were curated by the PLB Realty team. Category One houses refer to homes that are meant to be torn down and rebuilt. Category Two houses are about 30 to 40 years old where additions and alterations (A&As) can be done. Category Three houses are those that are relatively new at 10 to 15 years old and only light renovation works are needed. Finally, Category Four houses are brand-new homes from boutique developers.

“The different categories make it easier for our clients to get clearer on their decision-making process and price comparison. For instance, if we’re serving a buyer who is interested in a particular landed property, we will be able to do a quick price comparison and work out the actual costs depending on the category the property is in,” says the team.

Team C of PLB Realty's Landed Unit. L-R: Jeremy Yong, Wirdayu Binte Safie, Wayne Tang, Shawn Tay, Kevin Lim, Patricia Kong and Mikaela-Joy Aw.

Also within each video are the size and price comparisons to similar properties in other districts or properties within the neighbourhood, as well as renovation and design suggestions.

Using motion graphics to showcase their analysis

The team’s work with visual effects is one that they’re proud of, and rightfully so.

“These graphics have allowed us to showcase each property based on any potential buyer’s wants and needs. Sometimes, it helps us save time as well. Unlike physical staging processes where we are limited to one design at a time, inserting this technology allows us to work out five different designs, which helps us cater to a wider audience,” says the team.

“This is particularly useful for buyers looking to reimagine the space such as old units. For empty plots, we can show the plot’s full potential by rendering a house in 3D. With this, we are also able to introduce several possibilities in terms of the design of the overall house or each individual room,” it adds. “Depending on the complexity of it, we are also able to mock up designs that make use of the specific materials that a particular developer uses for a Category Four home.”

The effects also provide accurate measurements that are rendered to scale, making each and every video a virtual showroom that’s open 24/7.

PLB Realty's team of designers working on their videos. Photo: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore

“These videos ensure that every buyer who comes to view the house in person is genuine. After all, they’ve already had a first look at the property through our videos and have most likely made sure that it’s suitable for their needs. We don’t want to waste anyone’s time by coordinating a viewer for the wrong target buyer,” says the team. “We also solve and provide creative solutions to any potential obstacles in our home tour video, so as to maintain full transparency with all buyers.”

PLB’s Landed MOAT analysis – providing more value to Landed Buyers

Finally, we have PLB’s proprietary MOAT analysis, which comes in very handy whenever buyers want to better understand the capital aspects of the property that they’re about to purchase.

“Our Landed MOAT analysis is a 21-point method that assesses and evaluates every Landed property using data derived from various sources including the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and OneMap,” says the team. “It’s an unbiased way of showing the pros and cons of each property, as all the information presented is based on the data we’ve collected.” It is also based on our years of experience on what to avoid when hunting a landed home in the market so that our buyers avoid buying a home that might pose difficulties to exit in future

The analysis ranks a property or several properties against things like the volume effect, quantum effect, MRT effect and rental demand among other things.

The MOAT analysis, which was further refined to include more factors, helps every potential buyer understand their exit audience 3,5,8 years down the road and the potential possible selling price of their property and upside appreciation estimation on a safe benchmark level.

“When we represent a landed home seller to pitch a property to any buyer, we don’t just end our relationship there, which is what many realtors are doing. Instead, we take it a step further by showing them who their potential future buyers are, should they choose to sell their property at a later time,” says the team.

Educating consumers

Apart from providing its realtors with the necessary tools, PLB Realty is keen to educate its consumers as well.

One of the agency’s initiatives is free webinars as well as educational videos. Topics range from maximising profits for one’s landed property to future market trends. The series of PLB webinars, which began in March, saw over 1,000 signups from interested homeowners.

Another key initiative is the agency’s annual landed convention. The first one, which took place in May, was a full-day affair that had back-to-back panel talks and fireside chats with architects, builders and developers. Some of PLB’s satisfied clients were also present to provide their first-hand experience.

“The landed convention wasn’t just for attendees to see our listings, but it was also a chance for us to share with the public in terms of the choices they had. It also allowed us to bring more exposure to the landed developers we’ve been working with,” says the team.

As at Sept 30, PLB Realty’s YouTube channel has featured over 125 landed home tours. The agency’s website has over 70 landed listings, which is quite a feat for a newly-minted agency.

“The numbers reflect the kind of trust that landed sellers – whether they’re individual sellers or boutique developers – have for PLB Realty,” says the team. “Winning the EPEA is also a testament to the work that we’ve done. Being one of the top six transactors in the landed category for two years in a row since we began this unit has been a huge affirmation for us. We are constantly looking at adding value to our customers and we hope to introduce more initiatives moving forward."