Growing up with little money and having to contribute to his family’s finances motivated Derrick Toh to dream big and accomplish his goals. Today, he is the CEO of a boutique real estate agency and owns many luxuries, but remains a simple guy at heart, with a desire to help the less fortunate.
By Romesh Navaratnarajah
Hard work, a positive attitude and a life motto which is “Don’t lie, don’t cheat and don’t steal” has helped Derrick Toh, the chief executive officer of property firm VSTAR Real Estate Group, achieve both business and personal success.
Although he made his first million dollars at 30 and now has five properties under his name, on top of several exotic cars, including a bright red Ferrari 458 Spider, the 41-year old is still keenly aware of the value of money, having come from a less well-off background.
Growing up, his father worked as a lab technician while his mother was a clerk, so to help with the family finances, Mr Toh took a job at a local bank, but was unhappy at work as the long hours did not translate into higher returns.
Life-changing career
In 1998, during the height of the Asian Financial Crisis, he turned his attention to real estate, joining local property agency Dennis Wee Group. He recalls that the market was so depressed at the time that a landed home worth $2 million was being sold at half the price.
Amid the challenging conditions, he emerged as the top salesperson within his first month on the job. In those early days, it wasn’t unusual for him to spend as much as four to six hours of his time trying to help an individual client, even going out of his way to provide more value in an effort to secure return customers.
For instance, he remembers how four years back, a stranger (which later turn out to be an ex-national footballer) called him on a Sunday after midnight urgently demanding to meet and discuss on possible available properties to purchase. While most agents would follow up the next day, he rushed down to meet the client and his wife from 2am till about 6:30am, lugging two suitcases of brochures and floor plans with him to show the couple.
Sure enough, his patience and hard work paid off as the client bought two resale apartments in the East area, earning him a commission in the range of $140,000.
Big deals keep coming
Over the years, Mr Toh has grown his business considerably, honing his skills at established agencies like Dennis Wee Group, Coldwell Banker, Knight Frank and Huttons.
He recounted the time when he helped a customer flip a unit at Suites at Topaz in the Potong Pasir area for around $720,000 after it was initially sold for about $500,000 and all of that was done in the same afternoon. But that deal still pales in comparison to the other transactions he’s handled, like when he assisted a big client working in a private bank to sell more than 20 properties worth over $18 million over a one-year period.
He also shared how another client bought multiple properties through him within a span of just five days. Totalling a whopping $36 million, the sales included three penthouse apartments in the Novena area, another three at Orchard area in District 9, and a luxury home in Sentosa Cove.
If you’re wondering what his total commission was, it amounted to a cool million. While he declined to reveal the identity of his super-rich client, he did say she is a very low-profile Singaporean whose company provides services to all the major hotels and hospitals in Singapore.
In 2010, Mr Toh became the number one sales producer agent at Huttons after making millions in commissions in six months – the highest achieved by an individual salesperson in that year.
A star is born
The following year, he set up VSTAR Real Estate starting with only four agents. The first project marketed by the company was Residences 88 near Kembangan MRT station. Despite launching on 7 December 2011, the same day that the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) was introduced, the team shocked the entire property industry by selling all 28 units at the project in one day.
VSTAR to date has fully sold out more than thirty full scale residential and commercial projects with a small team of professional salespersons led by Mr Toh.
Today, the company has grown to about 30 property agents, but Mr Toh shared that unlike some of the industry’s big boys, he does not want to have thousands of agents working for him.
“A small fighting force can earn money and have a bigger share per salesperson of the large pie and be more motivated compared to a large fighting force just sitting around with a small pie share or no share per salesperson,” he noted. Coming from a background of starting out as a real estate salesperson, he understands their stress and efforts, and recognises the advantages of having a more deals per agent concept as compared to a company with many agents but not having enough opportunities per agent.
In spite of his great wealth, he exudes an aura of simplicity, preferring to use an inexpensive Nokia 302 smartphone and wearing t-shirts and shorts rather than expensive clothing. He chooses instead to give back to society, donating money to the less fortunate, particularly children in need and the elderly.
Living by the mantra that “Wealth is how you behave”, Mr Toh counts “please” and “thank you” as the most important words in life. He appreciates the clients who have now become his good friends.
Wise words
He constantly reminds his agents to be sincere and polite, and put their clients first and not think about the commissions. The reason is that clients can feel if an agent’s actions are from the heart and genuine. He has gone out of his way, especially for overseas clients, by picking them up from the airport and loading their luggage into the car and attending to their extra needs free of charge.
When training agents, he will encourage and motivate them with these words when faced with negativity: “I must want it, I need to do it, I want to do it, I have to do it, and I can do it. Do not sit around and wait, go out there and find. Do something, get something. Do nothing, get nothing.”
He is always approachable and friendly and is ever ready to help his agents and share tips and knowledge with them.
He is not afraid of his salespersons learning from him as he is constantly evolving and improving himself.
During training, his methods are practical and useful in real situations. “Preach what you have actually practiced and achieved, and not preach what you have not done yourself”.
Another piece of advice that he dishes out to agents is to not deliver presentations on their iPads.
“Pass out a property brochure to the client which they can read and keep for themselves, as they are potentially buying a big ticket item,” he said. The client has to have information and the physical brochure as they are paying millions of their hard earned money for it.
He feels that agents should not be upset if a client they’ve served does not buy a property. “They will remember your good service and will come back to you at another time. And if they do purchase a property, take a percentage cut from your commission and buy them a thank you gift as appreciation.” A female client who he served for many months held back on buying a property. The pleasant surprise came after more than a year later when she called him and said she was ready to buy, and bought a property after he showed her three on the same day.
Although Mr Toh has reached a number of career milestones, he does not plan to slow down anytime soon and is keen to improve further. “You must always upgrade yourself, constantly know what is going on and learn. With property, you always have to live and breathe real estate,” he concluded.
Mr Toh has a taste for fast cars.
NAME: Derrick Toh
ACHIEVEMENTS:
– Joined the property industry in 1998 during the height of the Asian Financial Crisis and emerged as the top salesperson at Dennis Wee Group in the first month on the job.
– Helped a wealthy client who worked at a private bank to sell 20 properties worth more than $18 million over one year.
– Sold multiple properties at several high-end developments to a Singaporean over five days totalling $36 million, earning him a commission of $1 million.
– Recognised as the top sales producer agent at Huttons in 2010, making millions in commissions in just a few months.
– Set up VSTAR Real Estate Group in 2011 with just four agents. Sold all 28 units at the Residences 88 apartment building on launch day – the same day the restrictive ABSD was implemented in December 2011.
 |
|||
 |
This article was first published in the print version The PropertyGuru News & Views. Download PDF of full print issues or read more stories now! | ||