Every month, Ohmyhome co-founders Race and Rhonda Wong share their insights on the real estate market, PropTech, and one-stop-shop Ohmyhome.
This June, Rhonda shares how she recruits suitable property agents and trains them into becoming an Ohmyhome Super Agent.
Whether you’re buying, selling or renting, your property agent should help you make a sound decision. They should guide you through what might easily be the most expensive and emotionally charged transaction of your life.
But in a country with more than 31,000 registered real estate agents, finding the right one can sometimes be a difficult and fraught process. How do you determine if they’re a good fit for you? Or if you’ll get along over the course of your housing transaction journey?
That’s why at Ohmyhome, we’ve set high standards when choosing who represents us on the ground. We value our business, our clients and our relationships, and so seek to hire only the best people.
First, we ascertain if they are licensed and practising at any of Singapore’s freelance real estate agencies. Experience is our basic criteria, which is not customary for all companies. There are those who will hire unlicensed agents and financially support their Real Estate Salesperson (RES) courses, and some who will hire those without any prior experience.
Once we know that the agents qualify, we will assess their suitability through three rounds of interviews to determine if they have the main characteristics that make an Ohmyhome Super Agent: passion, technical knowledge and good character.
Passion
During the first round, we assess the agent’s passion for transforming the real estate industry. Do they believe, as we do, that housing transactions can be more efficient and transparent and that great service has no upper limit?
The kind of agent we are looking for is one who is genuinely interested in serving you in your housing needs, no matter the fee they may receive at the end of the day. We certainly do not want a top freelancer agent who can persuade you into a transaction that only benefits him or her.
As a tech company, we support our Super Agents with an extensive database of buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords, so they can spend less time worrying about the feasibility of the transaction and focus instead on getting you the best deal.
“Ohmyhome doesn’t aspire to have the largest sales team. Instead, we aspire to be the best sales team with the best service.”
Technical Knowledge
In the second round, we assess the extent of an agent’s technical knowledge in handling real estate matters, such as their knowledge of financial calculation and the real estate regulations. This is not because they have to be textbook smart but so we can gauge the areas in which they may need coaching. So we welcome them to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses.
As we have the best property training in the country, we’re confident in leading them to become an Ohmyhome Super Agent, one known for quality and efficiency of service.
Good Character
Lastly, we assess if they are a team player or prefer to work independently. Are they too proud to learn and unwilling to share? At Ohmyhome, our culture is all about family, and we treat our teammates as one of our own. So we are looking for agents who share the same philosophy, ethics and values.
Property agents who are visionaries, passionate, have technical knowledge about real estate matters and are of good character are rare. There’s a dearth of such individuals. This is why Ohmyhome doesn’t aspire to have the largest sales team. Instead, we aspire to be the best sales team with the best service, using technology to secure the most advantageous property transactions for our clients in the most efficient way. Because at Ohmyhome, we believe our clients deserve the best.
