Grooming younger agents paying off at ERA
Singapore
THE move to groom young agents at ERA Realty looks to be paying off - its top sales people are all aged under 40.
Last year, the average age of the best five performing agents was 36, and their average income was S$3.12 million.
Ranking No. 1 in terms of income is Kavin Kuah, aged 33, who completed 432 transactions. He is followed by Nicole Fan, 35, with 84 transactions, and Sofian Roslan, 39, with 253 transactions last year.
ERA's chief executive Jack Chua, referring to Mr Kuah, noted that he is also the top producer in Singapore.
If you think he is a flash in the pan, think again.
Marcus Chu, ERA Singapore's chief operating officer, said: "Kavin has been our top producer for the past six consecutive years."
He works mainly in the public resale market. The HDB resale market completed 24,748 transactions last year, an increase of 4.4 per cent from the 23,714 units in the previous year.
Mr Chu, who noted that the meticulous Mr Kuah does all his own paperwork, added: "He does a lot of HDB resale deals, works very hard; you call him early morning at 7 am, he's already working."
As for Ms Fan, most of her clients are private home buyers, whose purchases make for much bigger deals, said Mr Chu.
ERA has close to 8,000 agents in Singapore, second only to PropNex's 9,200 plus. Of the 8,000, a dozen make more than S$1 million a year.
In February last year, the company, in its quest to embrace a multi-generational workforce, launched YoungERA, an initiative for ERA agents under 35 to come together to promote professionalism and knowledge among the company's younger real-estate sales crew.
YoungERA holds regular workshops, team-building activities and other fun engagement sessions.
The company hired its first Gen Z agent this year, a woman aged 21, said Mr Chu. Gen Z refers to those born in the new millenium.
Mr Chu said the "young are the future" though they require training to "teach them the right values".
The younger agents tend to use social media in their marketing materials; "sometimes they are flashy and loud", he said, to the point of being over the top.
"We need to teach them how to talk to clients," he said, adding that they should also tell the truth - that success does not come so easily.
ERA has been investing in real-estate technology. These include RealtyWatch by ERA, a transaction monitoring platform offering 24/7 updates on the latest neighbourhood property deals.
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