Singapore Realtors Inc Associate District Director, Jaslin Khoo has been in the real estate industry for four years now, but some people might be surprised to know that she delayed her pivoting into this industry for quite awhile.
Stepping out of her comfort zone to chase her dreams
Jaslin didn’t take the plunge even after receiving her Real Estate Salesperson license amidst an 11-year career. “I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone because I was thinking of the challenges of making it work. I am the sole breadwinner of my family,” she shared. Everything headed for a drastic change when she suffered an injury that prevented her from being able to carry on in her previous career.
From that moment on, she decided to join the real estate industry full-time whilst finding a way to continue providing for her parents. She also expected herself not to be able to receive any form of income for the first 6 months in this new industry she is in. Thankfully, things turned out for the better for her than she initially planned out for. Even with the long hours, Jaslin found a real estate career to be a dynamic and rewarding one. She found herself learning new things all the time, and the uncapped income potential also allowed her to support her family comfortably. Being the only child, her parents have given her nothing but the best, and now it is her turn to give back.
She also discovered the joys of helping her clients make the best property decision for themselves, especially since a property purchase is likely to be the biggest purchase of one’s lifetime. These days, she specialises mainly in residential properties including HDBs, Executive Condominiums and private homes across the island. She is also broadening her skills by taking on several industrial and commercial properties and has transacted numerous since.
Overcoming challenges to achieve successes
Every career change does come with its own set of challenges. For instance, Jaslin now does a lot more research and lead generation as a real estate entrepreneur. Thankfully, with her many years of sales experience, she was able to use her strong communication skills to source for leads, interact with her clients, and close sales. She began sourcing for leads by knocking on doors, and eventually landed her first client who purchased a newly launched condo with a capital gain of $150k! It was then that she realised the importance of projecting confidence to her clients and guiding them sincerely, even though she was new to the industry.
In the beginning, she received help and advice from her fellow mentors and friends, who helped her improve her skills in handling client presentations and viewings. Jaslin considers herself to be someone who is persistent and resilient, but also authentic and genuine in her interactions with potential clients. Being honest and straightforward, while being sensitive to the client’s needs is something that is important to Jaslin. She also possesses a positive, can-do attitude and never lets a rejection throw her off from reaching her professional goals.
Eventually, success followed her hard work. Within her first year in the industry, Jaslin achieved the Champion Rookie Award in 2019. This came truly as a surprise to her as she was focused on helping her clientele and wasn’t pitting herself against fellow colleagues. Nevertheless, she found it to be confidence-boosting, especially since a real estate agent can only receive such an award once in their career, and only within their first year as a real estate agent. Other successes have since followed suit. In 2022, she received a Millionaire award, as she achieved a sales commission of more than $1.5million in a year.
Stepping up to other challenges and a change in priorities
One of the more trying periods in Jaslin’s real estate career was during the Covid-19 pandemic when she had to adapt to the sudden and rapid digitalisation of the real estate industry. The sheer importance of digital marketing during this period made her take action fast. She quickly adapted to the change and had to pick up new IT and marketing skills in order to effectively sell properties via Zoom, and utilized social media marketing in order to generate new leads and sales.
Another challenging time for her came when she won a Pegasus award but found herself unable to celebrate her win. Instead, she felt lost and aimless. Upon deeper reflection, she realised that while her professional success was to be celebrated, it came at an expense. She had sacrificed long hours to her career and neglected to spend quality time with her family. This realisation allowed her to recalibrate her priorities, and strike a healthy work-life balance allowing her to maintain a close relationship with them. This also means seeking help from her associates and her PA when she needs to prioritise her workload, and delegating her work by training co-broke agents to close deals together.
Parting words of advice
When asked to give some words of advice to younger real estate agents, Jaslin shared that younger agents must realise that there is a lot of hard work behind the razzle-dazzle of the real estate industry. What is often heard as “3 mins on stage is equivalent to 10 years of hard work” is true. Having said that, she added that finding the right mentor will help tremendously, as such a person can help you set your professional direction and give you advice. She also stressed the importance of trying new things, and not letting any successes or failures define one’s self-worth. After all, everyone’s real estate industry journey is different, so it doesn’t make sense to be comparing one’s progress with others.
For Jaslin, she remains grateful to the many people who have been with her through her own real estate journey, from her clients-turned-friends to her parents who have shaped her to become who she is today. She is also grateful to her manager, George Koh, for being extremely patient in guiding her from the beginning of her career, and to her life mentor, Connie Su, who has helped her hone her customer engagement skills. Last but not least, Jaslin would like to take this opportunity to thank her boss, Ken Low, who has been a steady presence in guiding her through her real estate career.
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