MIEA’s Christopher Chan shares 4 key strategies to adopt for a successful real estate business

1. 
   
   

   Join a residents’ association in your area of focus

   
   
   

There are many benefits of joining a residents’ association in your area of focus. You will get to know the residents in a particular neighbourhood – and making yourself visible will help people to know and remember that you are the real estate practitioner in that neighbourhood.

This also provides a rich source of information to you. As new information and updates (such as new road diversions, new developments being planned, crime statistics, etc.) would be shared to the residents. The state assemblyman/woman, local Member of Parliament (MP), and the councillor in the local council who would be in regular contact with the association would provide new updates and information concerning the neighbourhood.

You could then share this information to the residents in that area as well as to the public at large via your newsletters and flyers, thereby creating a brand for yourself in the area.

2. 
   
   

   Create value and provide solutions to your clients

   
   
   

You need to have good knowledge of the real estate industry to be able to provide sound advice to your clients. As an example, when selling a leasehold property with 40 years of lease remaining, you could offer advice to the owner to extend the lease of the property by applying to the relevant authorities. By doing this, the owner would be able to obtain a better market price for the property and the buyer would find it easier to get a loan from the bank to finance the purchase.

3. 
   
   

   Seek out other market segments

   
   
   

Most real estate practitioners focus on the residential market segment. This forms the bulk of the yearly real estate transactions in our country. You may wish to move up the value chain and explore other market segments such as commercial and industrial properties. You would need to invest some time and money to learn about these new market segments.

When marketing local projects, you could also explore the option of going beyond our shores to sell to foreigners. Working together with Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) agents could be one of the relevant state possibility as well as advertising on platforms designed for expatriates and foreigners. You would need to know the various rules and regulations governing the purchase of properties by foreigners.

4. 
   
   

   Check with the local council

   
   
   

When selling a property, it is wise to check with the Planning Department (Jabatan Perancang) at the local council on the zoning of the property. You may find a hidden gem there.

For example, the commercial land that you are selling may be able to be converted for industrial use, or you may find out that a low rise condominium could be developed on the bungalow land that you are selling, or you may find out that the house you are renting out may be used for other purposes such as an office or kindergarten. This will present new opportunities for you.