Innovate to stay relevant in the real estate industry

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): Embracing innovation is a crucial survival tip to staying relevant in the real estate industry, said the winners of the MIEA National Real Estate Awards (NREA) 2017.

Organised by the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA), the annual NREA awards gala dinner saw over 25 awards given out to real estate agents, negotiators and firms for their excellent performances in the industry.

The winner of the MIEA-EdgeProp.my Top Online Real Estate Negotiator (REN) Mohd Faizal Md Ismail of Rescom Realty, took the leap to be a full-time REN in 2014.

As a former IT support worker, Faizal told EdgeProp.my that even before he became a negotiator, he has been a property investor for quite some time.

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“The influence [to be a real estate negotiator] came from a friend who is already a full-time agent at that time. So I decided to make the jump to be a full-time negotiator too and so far, I really enjoy my job and there’s no turning back for me,” he said.

Besides thanking EdgeProp.my for the award, Faizal added that online marketing is very important to real estate practitioners nowadays as it helps to expand their reach to as many potential clients as possible.

“We as property agents need to make use of all the platforms that are available for us to reach out to our potential clients. And going online is one of them,” he added.

He also noted that the real estate industry needs more Bumiputera real estate practitioners as the Bumiputera property market remains underserved.

Meanwhile, the MIEA-EdgeProp.my Most Innovative Marketing Idea Awards went to both Knight Frank Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Cornerstone Realty. The latter is a consecutive winner for the award category.

Cornerstone Realty director of sales and marketing Wong Yau Long said the team at the firm is an innovative bunch who constantly seek out new challenges by solving the most pressing issues in the real estate market.

“Fostering ‘creativity in problem solving’ is ingrained in Cornerstone as we believe making it a visionary strategic lever for change can continuously raise the service quality and elevate the standard of our negotiators to be at the top of their game.

“Not only do we believe that innovation helps to increase efficiency but doing this also helps to develop our people to have creative confidence with self-assurance and be bold to come up with more creative ideas in increasing their productivity thus making desired changes around them,” he said.

Knight Frank Malaysia’s managing director Sarkunan Subramaniam said innovation should be in the forefront of the industry in terms of embracing technology and creative thought process.

“Thinking ahead, that’s what we are. Knight Frank has been constantly exploring new and unique approaches in developing marketing strategies. Our next milestone is to grasp proptech and use it to stay ahead,” he said.

While capital markets executive director Allan Sim shared that among the innovative marketing ideas executed by Knight Frank Malaysia was packaging a land with its commercial offerings to create an attractive investment to potential buyers.

“The idea was culminated from an angle that deviates from the conventional marketing approaches. In addition to that, the idea did not only help us to market the asset better but enabled us to enlarge our reach to a broader spectrum of potential purchasers which further strengthens the notion that the idea was innovative and effective due to the ability to speak to a larger market.

“By taking great ownership in planning the marketing strategy, we were able to show our clients that the firm provides value adding services which are tailored to address their requirements with the utmost care and support. I strongly believe we should always think out of the box which enables us to develop unique and effective marketing strategies,” he said.