My Journey From An Engineer To A Real Estate Agent Career Path

An Engineer to A Real Estate Agent Career Journey By Darren Ong

My friends often asked me why I choose to be a real estate agent as my career. They would say the income, by commission only, is uncertain, and with my qualification, I could get a fixed pay job.

Over time, they stopped asking, possibly because they know that it is the passion that drives me to do this, and it is paying off.

For all of you who are still wonder why being a realtor is my career of choice, this article is my true hard story of what truly led me from an Engineer to become a realtor.

Let me start from my childhood and the challenges that I faced, which has everything to do with where I am today.

I learned very early on that there aren’t guarantees that life is peaceful and full of good things. Instead, it’s full of challenges and obstacles for me to overcome to be a better me.

The Young Me

Since young, I wasn’t spared growing up without challenges as a kid. I had good days, and I had rough days too.

My dad was self-employed while my mum was a stay-at-home mum, taking care of my four other brothers and me. That’s right! Taking care of five boys was no joke. She was a Super Mummy!

Those days, having five boys is considered very blessed.

The good thing is that I feel very blessed because, unlike most households where the father is out at work, my dad, for the most part, had flexible work hours. This meant he has more time for us.

Whenever any of us fell sick, he could take us to the doctors, or when mum needed help, he is around with us.

Somehow I felt that my dad influences my siblings and me since young because most of us are now self-employed.

But as a child, one bad thing that was bothering me, whenever it is about to rain or a change in the weather, my legs would start to ache and feel weak. Weird thing to have for a kid, right? You’d think it only happens to the old!

Yes, that me and how I suffered when I am a child.

When I was in primary school, the biggest challenge that I face was not able to pass my examination yearly. I was so upset when I saw my results each time. I still remembered my most fearful period was always the mid-year and year-end term-end when I need to show my parent my report book. It is because it’s time to get punished or caned for my poor grades, and this lasts throughout from primary one to six.

I did so badly that I score below 100 for my PSLE! Can you imagine? I regretted that I didn’t safe-keep my PSLE result slip. If not, I would have shown it here, and you might fall off from your chair when you see the actual score.

More precisely, I score a total of 87 marks for PSLE.

But fortunately, the good thing finally happened. I was so lucky that the school gave me a rare chance to progress to secondary school without the need to retake my PSLE. But I was only able to join the Normal Technical stream.

But still, I was so joyful! I told myself I need to study extra harder than before to pass the examination each year, and I don’t want to get caned or punished anymore! I am determined to be better than before!

True enough, with determination, perseverance, and change of habit in my revision. Finally, I managed to pass my examination.

Despite scoring well in my secondary four N-Level examinations, I was not able to advance to take the O-level examination. The only path that I have was to progress to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

Without a choice, I went on to ITE. Beside self-study, I also spend time helping some of my friends with the exam preparation so that we can pass the exam and advance together.

Thank god, I managed to get into the top 5% in the ITE and a chance to progress to Polytechnic. But I choose to serve the national service first.

Two years pass in a blink of an eye, and I got myself enrolled in Polytechnic right after national service.

I was lucky to have a group of good friends in Polytechnic. We studied hard, we played hard, and we pressed on. I helped some of my friends to prepare for the exam again, and YES! I’m happy that we passed together!

I was also feeling excited that I managed to get into the TOP 10% in Polytechnic, plus a chance to progress to the university.

But I did not enroll in the university after polytechnic. Instead, I went to work as an assistant engineer in Seagate, Singapore, to save up for my university expenses.

During the time in Seagate, they are expanding their production line. Besides ensuring all the production machines are operating within the pass specification and working on the scheduled preventive maintenance, I also have the chance to learn how to set up new production machines and modify them for different products.

I much appreciate my supervisor and seniors on the unconditional sharing with me on their valuable technical knowledge while working there. It is an excellent experience working in the production line with them.

But my time working there only lasts for one and a half years, I was upset to leave. But I need to move on to enroll myself in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to further my studies.

Three years passed really fast, with some enjoyment, and some struggled in university life, and I worked a part-time job during the weekend as a sales promoter too. Fortunately, I managed to graduate with an Electrical Power Engineering degree.

Although academically, I have wasted a few years extra as compared to the usual path to complete university. I managed to achieve from a poorly scored PSLE, at 87 marks, to obtaining a degree in NTU.

I hope all parents who have read my past can motivate their children to put in their best to shorten the number of years spent to complete their studies. Do not give up on them and press on—every one blossom in a different season, at a different stage in their life.

With determination and putting in the effort, nothing is impossible! When we give our best, anything is possible!

The Adult Me

I became an Engineer in the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) after I have graduated.

It is an office hour job in regular operational hours. But occasionally, I need to work in the wee hour for scheduled downtime to upgrade or update the servers.

My job also is to make sure that the servers and services are up and running without disruption at the user end.

That’s my job as an engineer in the data center as a fresh graduate. Every day seems to be a routine, and I started to have some mixed feeling should I continue or should I look for a more challenging job.

But I would say the colleagues there are like big family members, and they were helpful. Indeed I learned a lot as a fresh graduate from them. Before I could advance to work on other in-depth projects, I made up my mind and decided to leave to challenge myself in the real estate industry as a realtor.

My engineer career lifespan after university was only one year and five months, and I am a realtor since then.

The Property Agent Life

It all happened in mid of 2010. I decided to switch my career to become a full-time real estate agent, and I was partially inspired by my brother, who is also an experienced real estate agent.

I choose to join as a full-time basis rather than a part-time agent because I feel that commitment, and to stay focused is vital to be successful.

From a fixed income to a non-fixed income career, it is indeed something that I need to overcome and challenge myself to work even harder, as I earn based on commission.

I need to learn as fast as I can on how to prospect for clients, handle client’s requests and requirements, communication, and negotiation skills are critical to close a deal successfully.

I struggled in the initial stage. I did not secure a single deal for my first five months as a realtor, and my saving starts depleting. The stress level is building up.

While struggling, instead of becoming negative minded, I started to read books and search online for topics related to real estate marketing, negotiation, and communication skills to improve myself.

Also, I am glad that there are great people, leaders, and managers around me to guide me, and finally, I managed to closed deals after the initial struggle.

The very first case that I successfully transacted was still very fresh on my mind, even though it was a decade ago.

It was a cold lead HDB buyer, buying as a divorcee together with a child. YES! As a newbie, I find it was a complicated process, as there are many rules, regulations, and procedures, especially HDB transactions, to follows to complete a case.

But shortly after, I started to sealed deals in the HDB segment in my initial years with a mixture of cold and warm leads. Three years later, in 2014, I broaden myself into the private property segment in the resale and new launch property.

I must admit that along the way, there are up and down periods and many obstacles, but each time I overcome it, I become better.

After years of learning, attending courses, and self-upgrade. Now, I am glad that I can handle cases in the various segment from HDB flat, private residential property, new launch projects, and industrial/commercial property.

As a Property Agent, We Are Considered Self-Employed. We must Be Self-Disciplined and Complete The Planned Daily Activities or Tasks!

Having been in the real estate industry since 2010, whenever my clients show a big smile on their faces after completing the case, I felt extremely happy for them. The smile on their faces is something that I cannot exchange with money, and it is this accumulated fulfillment that developed into a passion now.

It is this passion that keeps me going, as I am sure that I still can help many more clients to fulfill their real estate needs, for as long as I am still a realtor.

My priority when I served my clients is to help them with sincerity and put them before me, and I would like to thank them for the trust in me and the consistent referrals all these years.

Without them, I would not have achieved these recognitions today.

Besides brokering sales, I also feel that inspiring and motivating others to be a better person is essential to achieve greater success.

I also frequently share my knowledge and experience with team members and friends, as I feel that it will make everyone more knowledgeable, which in turn helps to bring more values to our clients.

Some may also realize that I have a little change in the way I conduct my real estate business recently.

Formally, I was with the same agency for close to a decade. I feel that its time for me to step out of my comfort zone again to challenge myself, pick up new skills, and be better so that I can bring more value to my clients and the people around me.

I finally make a move to OrangeTee & Tie in January 2020 to explore for more possibilities with Navis Group. In order to create more opportunities for Navis Group’s salesperson, the management of Navis Group decided to explore further and We are currently operating under Huttons Asia Pte Ltd since 2022.

As I am a realtor now, I am happy that I have the advantage of the flexibility to plan my time between work and personal time.

In my personal life, I am fortunate and blessed with a pair of children, a girl, and a boy.

To me, it seems like a cycle. As a self-employed now. I can plan my time according to my family or children’s needs, as my dad did in the past.

It’s getting late, I shall stop writing today, but I will come back to share the next phase of my realtor life and experiences again in the future.

I will end it here with my word to all. I will continue to share and educate more updates and valuable real estate insights with my clients and continue to share my knowledge and skill with my team.

Be it the services or advice that I provide to my clients or mentoring property agents. Importantly, everyone can accomplish what they desire, and for me, I want to achieve to become a better person than yesterday and the best real estate consultant to all.

If you need any real estate advice or have not met the right person to get advice. You may drop me a message, and we can have a friendly no-obligation discussion to see how I can help you.

If you are considering a real estate agent career or keen to explore more with Navis Living Group but have not met the right person to talk to. You may drop me a message to check out more as well.

I hope after reading my experience. I can inspire you to challenge yourself to work toward what you initially wanted to achieve but have not.

It’s 3 am now, and I shall stop here and sign off with a simple quote:

Remember! Always unlearn and relearn whenever possible to polishing yourself to be a better person in life.