Read about the success story of Alan Toh Kian Seng, a graduate from the Building & Real Estate Management diploma course.

Alan Toh is currently a Division Director in ERA Real Estate, one of Singapore’s largest realty firms. Considering that he graduated in the year 2000, his meteoric rise, in the competitive world of real estate marketing, is indeed a remarkable achievement.

A late developer

Alan was studying in the Normal stream at Yuan Ching Secondary School. He did not do too well for his GCE ‘O” Level examination. After completing full time National Service, Alan took the GCE “O” Level examinations as a private candidate and managed to enrol into the Building & Real Estate Management diploma course in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

In Ngee Ann, with the guidance and encouragement of lecturers, Alan was motivated in his studies and did very well with a total of 1 AD, 8A’s, 13B’s and 7C’s.

Lecturers, who taught Alan before, remembered him as a quiet and reserved person, and found him to be very attentive and hardworking in class.

6-month Industrial Attachment Programme

Based on his academic results and good attitude, Alan was selected to participate in the first run of the Industrial Attachment Programme. He was attached to a property management company. His job, as a property executive, was to liaise with residents of the condominium on complaints and to attend Council meetings. He was offered the same position after he graduated, but Alan’s vision was to be more than a Property Manager.

His career path in ERA

After graduation, Alan attended ERA recruitment seminars and was hooked on the bright career prospects. He started his career with ERA as a Marketing Executive in April 2000. With no sales experience, the first 6 months was really tough on him. He had to go “door knocking” in Tampines and Choa Chu Kang area, four times a week. His efforts paid off soon as he was able to close 5 deals in 3 days!

List of achievements

He topped the charts for the ERA Top 50 Achievers Award since 2002. He was also one of the ERA Asia Pacific Elite winners in 2004. He won the 1st runner-up ERA Top Manger Award in 2004 and culminated with the prestigious ERA Top Manager Award in 2005. He was also member of ERA Gold Club in 2004 and Platinum Club in 2005.

Team management

After working so hard for individual sales achievement, Alan started on team management in 2003. He built up a team of property agents and was promoted to Division Director in early 2006.

And thanks to ...

Alan credits his success in his present career to his Diploma in Building & Real Estate Management. This qualification enabled him to be issued a House Agents Licence without having to attend course and to sit for examination. Alan has not forgotten about his alma mater. In July 2006, he took time off his busy work schedule to deliver a lecture to the Real Estate Business (REB) students in the module of Agency Practices & Real Estate Marketing. He spoke on the job scope of a marketer, the marketing of professional services, the matching of properties with the needs of purchasers, the securing of property listing, and project marketing for real estate developers.