For love and money

IN one corner of the office are trophies bearing his name: 2007 Top Rookie of the Year, 2011 Top Sales, 2012 Top Leader, 2013 Nationwide Top Leader of the Year, among others. It makes one wonder: What has this man been through to achieve all that?

Settling down to the interview at his office, Chong Chia Yew, Vivahomes Realty branch manager for Kepong, tells The Edge Property his salutary tale.

“I was a high-school dropout. Nothing to be ashamed about, because it is my past that has shaped who I am today,” Chong says in the Cantonese that perfectly conveys his meaning.   

When he was just three months old, his mother, single and living in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, decided he would be better off being brought up by his grandparents in Taiping.

“I spent my childhood in the kampung. Growing up there, I found it difficult to get along with people. I took a while to make friends,” Chong recalls.

He moved back to Kepong after primary school, relishing the freedom he had living with his single working mother.

“We were not well-to-do but I did not have to work part-time or anything like that while growing up. But to my mother’s disappointment, I was never a good student. I was kicked out of secondary school half-a-year before I could graduate because I was skipping too many classes. I don’t even have a school certificate,” says Chong.

He was urged to look for a skilled job, not being given a chance to complete his schooling. His mother had wanted him to earn a living by taking up a vocational skill.

“I chose to become a car mechanic. That was in 2000. I had a very small salary because I was just an apprentice. I did not have a plan for my future. My mother’s plan was for me to save enough money to open my own workshop one day. I guess that sort of became my plan as well.”

That goal changed during Chinese New Year’s eve in 2007. “I will never forget that day [when] my boss had given me only a half-month bonus on my meagre salary. I rushed back home to my mother, who had been waiting for my bonus to do some last minute shopping for the new year celebrations. The money was only enough for the simplest celebration,” says Chong, who could not even afford new clothes for the new year, in the Chinese tradition.

That incident impressed upon him the worth of money, especially when his mother was getting old. “Before that day, I spent whatever I earned. I never realised the need to earn enough to take care of my mother.  What I earned at that time was far from enough for both of us,” he recalls.

A meeting with an old mate

By chance, he bumped into a former schoolmate who had become a property agent not long after. “He was earning two to three times what I did. I asked myself, if my friend can earn more, why can’t I?”

That one thought — and the wish for a better life — propelled him to try his hand at being a real estate negotiator over the objections of his mother, who held on to the dream of her son having a car repair shop to call his own.

“My mother thought I should not change my career path after spending eight years as a car mechanic,” Chong remembers. “She said it was risky. However, I thought, if I did not make the change then, then when?”

On March 1, 2007, Chong started work as a real estate negotiator. It would turn out to be one of the best years for the property industry and he closed his first deal just seven days later. 

“I am thankful that it was a good market that time. It was really encouraging and pushed me to put more time, hard work and faith in this industry,” Chong says.

A wrong turn

Chong earned his first “bucket of gold” as he puts it, in less than a year of becoming a negotiator.

But just as everyone thought he would make the real estate industry his calling, he made an unexpected decision.

“I quit real estate. By then, I had enough money to open a car workshop, and I did that in early 2008. This was my mother’s dream. She had always wanted me to have my own business so I did that just to make her happy.” The workshop closed down within a year.

“I was only 27 that year, I did not have any business experience. You need spare funds to support the business, but I had quit real estate; my only income source was from the workshop,” he says now, knowingly. Not only did he lose the workshop, there was also a huge amount of debt to be paid off.

“I had no time to get depressed. I picked up real estate again by joining Vivahomes Realty and worked extra hard. This time, I had no thoughts of changing my career again. Did I ever regret spending money and time on the workshop business? Never! It was worth it because it told me once and for all where my future lies,” Chong declares.

From then on, he put in as many extra hours as he could, met up with all kinds of clients and closed as many deals as possible. “I worked from 8am to 2am almost every day, for a very long time. My record was closing 15 deals in a month.”

He cleared all his debts. He bought a new car. He became the agency’s top salesperson in 2011 and was handed the responsibility of leading the Kepong sales team. By 2012, he had bought his own house, another new car and gotten hitched.

“The real estate industry is a very fair industry. It does not give you a basic salary but it pays you based on how much you have invested in it. If you work hard, the industry will never pay you less than what you deserve,” he says.

How to help your client decide

Over the past few years, Chong has noticed some changes in the Malaysian property market. One of the most significant was buyer behaviour.

“Ten years ago, a buyer was clear about what he or she wanted to buy, and acted fast because of limited supply. Ten years later, buyers are spoiled for choice; they take their time to search. It is not that they’re not in a hurry to buy, they also do not know what to buy,” shares Chong.

He believes agents who are well prepared with wide-ranging knowledge such as on national policies, the economy, market trends, banking and some familiarity with the law are usually the ones who survive in the industry.

“Customers expect you to tell them what the best buy is now, and why. They pay us a commission for our professional services and consultancy, not to just bring them for unit viewing. Customers will appreciate it if you tell them something that they do not know, help them to find out what suits them best and identify the value buy,” offers Chong.

“Clients will come to you when the market is good. When times are bad, your professional knowledge and analytical skills can help you survive, like in the current market,” he says.

Chong foresees another challenging year for the property industry. “I believe the overall market will remain slow in 2016, but the sub-sale segment shouldn’t be impacted as much as the primary segment. From my observation, second hand property is often the first choice for many buyers for reasons of location and the short waiting time to move in.”

Chong’s team has achieved higher sales every year since 2011. He’s not letting a market slowdown stop them now.

Interested in property investments in Kepong after reading this article? Click here to check out the properties there. Loads of great food there.

This story first appeared in The Edge Property pullout on Jan 22, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday. Download The Edge Property here for free.