IPG United's co-founder Wayne Leong traces his trajectory from retrenchment to RM1 billion in sales during 2018

How did your involvement in real estate begin?

I’m a graduate Accountant and I’ve worked as an Auditor and Accountant – until one day in 2010, my employer told me the company is shutting down and I lost my job. As the eldest son, I do not want my family to be worried about me – so I got up every morning, changed, and drove out pretending to go to work.

One night I gave a call to my college friend (Patrick Wong) to find out more about the real estate market, and the rest is history.

I started off with four years of hard work in the sub-sale market and I am now running my 5th year in new Property Projects as an Associate Director of IPG Malaysia together with my team, IPG UNITED, consisting of 8 Senior Leaders and over 200 Team Leaders, Pre-leaders & Agents.

You recently earned the title of "Professional Negotiator” at the StarProperty Real Estate Awards (SREA) in 2018. In your opinion, what do you think makes a good agent?

First of all, always think about three wins; ensure that the situation is a win-win-win amongst the buyer, owner/ developer, and the agent. We help buyers get the property they want, developers or owners to sell off their products, and we earn the commissions truthfully.

To be a good agent, we also need to have a mentor to guide us on the right mindset, attitude, and behaviour. A simple example would be to ask the right questions and listen to the buyer and discuss their needs from there. Which is why even the top sportsperson in the world still needs a coach!

Also, I always emphasise on continuous learning. Non-stop education and equipping ourselves is a very important step to upgrade our abilities and capabilities in this competitive market.

What do you think is your biggest accomplishment in your career?

In my humble view, it would be an achievement to be the Top Champion for three consecutive years in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Last year, my team at IPG UNITED had broken our company’s record at RM1.12 billion in sales for 2018. I must thank all my Senior Leaders, Team Leaders, Pre-leaders & Agents for this great accomplishment.

What is your experience of working with first-time home buyers?

A professional real estate negotiator can easily recognise a first time home buyer from our conversations. Therefore, we need to give extra care, attention, and sufficient information to guide them to a suitable product; if it’s for own stay, investments, or other purposes. Trust needs to be built and the key is communication.

What should first-time home buyers consider when buying a property?

The five main considerations are Place, Pricing, Package, Developer’s Background, and Neighbourhood.

What should new agents do to set themselves apart from competitors in the industry?

New agents should have creative mindsets and upgraded marketing tools. As I’ve mentioned, these can be achieved by learning the right tools from the right mentor.

How do you predict the real estate industry will evolve in the next few years and decades?

Real estate will evolve drastically following the vast prop-tech development. Perhaps there will be less of a human touch in the property industry, from briefing to loan applications and renovation, as there will be an increase in the usage of VR technology. But it will take a some time to get there.

What manual tasks in your day-to-day activities would you want to be automated instead?

I hope to create an internal search engine system for our agents to address queries in an instant.

Read our interviews with other agents and SREA 2018 award winners here.