SLP Scotia’s founding partner Francis Tan opens up about leaving a cushy job and stable income to sell property, a decision which changed his life for the better.
By Romesh Navaratnarajah
The first thing 39-year-old Francis Tan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of property agency SLP Scotia, says to me when we sit down for an interview at his office is that he doesn’t feel very successful, and considers his list of career achievements pretty average. Most people, especially those fighting to survive in the current real estate downturn, would probably disagree.
While the majority of property agents usually start selling homes in their 20s, Tan was already into his 30s when he quit his comfortable civil service job to become a full-time salesperson in 2009.
The father of three children, all daughters, admits that it took him a while to decide whether to jump right in. “When you first get into real estate, you don’t expect a salary to come in so quickly. There is a cost implication because as an agent, you need to put your money into growing the business.”
He never saw it as a gamble though, and first did his homework by calculating the average cost of becoming an agent before setting aside some savings to establish and expand his business.
“I moved into property because it is an apex business. In fact, many corporations expand into real estate when they achieve profitability,” noted Tan, who describes himself as a passionate and optimistic person.
He initially joined DTZ, but later worked at Knight Frank and Savills. During his early days as a project agent, he closed almost 45 units of project sales within the span of one year.
In 2013, he became a founding partner of SLP Scotia, which has grown to become one of the top 10 largest agencies in Singapore, according to data from the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA).
Top of his game
Despite running a division of more than 100 agents as a Group Division Director, he was able to claim fifth position in personal sales amongst SLP Scotia’s 650 agents in 2014/15. Holding the concurrent appointment of CIO, he is responsible for overseeing and growing the company’s key assets and regional investments. He also heads the investment sales department, serving as a consultant to developers on en-bloc sales and land purchases from the industrial to residential sectors.
With his busy schedule, it means he sometimes has to work on weekends, but he tries to spend time with his kids on weekday mornings by driving them to school or having breakfast together. “When I get into the work groove, it becomes tough to focus on other things. Running a team that sometimes faces important problems means I can receive calls as late as 2am.”
His hard work has helped him and his family become sufficiently comfortable in life, moving from a 5-room HDB flat to a 5-storey landed house.
Of course, life isn’t all roses for Singapore’s agents, with market transactions falling significantly in the past two years.
“During the heyday of the property market, before the cooling measures were introduced, I would get around 30 calls a day from prospective buyers looking to purchase a property. Now, agents have to advertise intelligently. They must know what buyers are looking at and must use their training, real estate knowledge and charm to turn an enquiry into a sales opportunity,” said Tan.
He was fortunate to have sales mentors in the past to guide him in his career, but he believes it is important to find the right person to give valuable input and push you to do your very best. For instance, he isn’t content to just hit a certain bracket of pay, and often compares his results against the best of his peers. “There’s always someone out there better than me and I can learn from others. It serves to motivate me and encourages healthy competition in the workplace.”
If you can’t beat them, join them
He believes in the concept of cooperative competition to achieve mutually beneficial results, known in business circles as “coopetition”. “It is also about learning from the best and mixing with a positive-minded crowd.
“Every agent must have an action plan and give themselves a timeframe to succeed. Some want to become team leaders, while others want to start their own agency,” he said.
Tan always tells younger agents that in good times, all agents make money. But in difficult times, only the top agents succeed and make a lot more money than during good times.
“I realised that during good times, a project will sell by itself. In a slow market, developers and sellers tend to provide more incentives to agents. If incentives do go up, you could possibly make more money. Similarly, although there are fewer buyers, they still need to be educated on where to buy, and they are likely to offer a more generous commission.
“If you apply the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule), the top 20 percent of the industry will make 80 percent of the profits. So keep learning, attending courses and talking to people, and you will be prepared when the opportunity presents itself,” he added.
One of the ways in which Tan helps his agents is by training them to estimate the monthly loan payments for buyers. This involves looking at the loan to value (LTV) ratio for the property, how much loan they are getting, and the stages of progress payments. With this, they can estimate the monthly payment which can be deducted from CPF savings. For instance, if the monthly loan installment is $2,000, the borrower can use up to $2,000 to pay off the loan.
“Prospective buyers don’t walk into a showflat with cheques pasted on their foreheads anymore. Instead, they will ask if this is a good property to buy and if they can they afford it, as they want to feel confident about the project and their finances. So it helps to master some financial skills, as well as to know the property regulations.”
He shared that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) website is his go-to-source for property information. “I have read the whole URA Master Plan, so when I speak to buyers, I can tell them about future plans for a particular area. I cannot tell them that I don’t have this information or ask them to give me time to check on the facts.”
Fake buyers?
There are still challenges, the biggest of which is being able to take setbacks, especially when a deal doesn’t go smoothly.
He recalls a time when he was selling landed properties and encountered a group posing as interested buyers, who turned out to be “fake buyers”.
“They took me on a wild goose chase and I only realised later that these buyers were not genuine. However, in hindsight, I did do a lot of research on the good class bungalow (GCB) market, which helped me close some GCB sales later in my career.”
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