Respected Realtor, Leader and Investor
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From Law to Real Estate
Upon graduating with an LL.B. (Hon) from the well-respected University of London in 1995, Helen started her legal career in litigation with the ex-District Judge, the late Mr. Lee Cheong Hoh at Messrs Cheong Hoh & Associates. She was in full time practice through 2001 before she decided to call it quits to focus on her family.
During her 6 year stint as a lawyer, Helen watched the real estate market closely. She has also dabbled into real estate investments on the side. During this period, the Asian financial crisis in 1998, the SARS crisis in 2003, and the eventual rise and fall in Singapore’s real estate market during the global financial crisis in 2008 piqued her interest even more.
So Helen finally decided to put her experience, knowledge and passion into play. She threw caution to the wind and plunged into the real estate industry as a real estate salesperson. The year 2010 ticked all the right boxes for a perfect storm - as Singapore’s economy was rebounding from the global financial crisis after the infamous Lehman Brothers’ collapse and with China rising as the new power-house in the global economy sets the scene for a unprecedented recovery in the real estate market in Asia on huge monetary and fiscal support.
With the right mixture of sincerity and a little gumption, Helen soon emerged as one of the top performers in the real estate industry. After joining PropNex in 2016, she scaled her real estate career to a greater height - she leads a successful team of realtors on top of providing her value-added service to her clients.
The Turning Point
Meeting Robert Kiyosaki was pivotal in her success today
As fate would have it, Helen chanced upon Robert Kiyosaki and attended his course in Carolina, USA, in 1995. At that time Kiyosaki was not famous yet. His first book was “If You Want to be Rich and Happy, Don’t go to School”. That book title tugs on Helen’s heartstrings as she has always felt that our educational system has a huge gap in preparing students for the real world.
Robert Kiyosaki today is a household name. He is the author of the finance bestseller, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and many others. Meeting him in person back in 1995 plays an immense role in the success Helen enjoys today. Kiyosaki totally turned Helen’s mindset on financial management around and many of his teachings forms the fundamentals upon which Helen builds her wealth portfolio of today.
Building Positive Cashflow through Real Estate
Putting what she learnt into practice, Helen used debt as a leverage to grow wealth.
“I cannot use debt to buy businesses. It is also impossible to use debt to buy stocks. However, you can take a loan to buy properties! Anywhere in the world! That’s why I love real estate.”
Helen’s first investment was a studio apartment in an old estate. This was purchased in the mid 1990s. This investment yielded a sizeable return for her as it went through an enbloc exercise.
Thereafter, Helen prudently grew her investment, some generating positive cash flow while others were sold immediately upon T.O.P. for a neat profit.
Over the years, her real estate investments have included Central Green, Clarence Lane, Mt Sophia Apartments, Sturdee Residence, Waterbay and Normanton Park.
“Do you work for money or have money work for you?” - Robert Kiyosaki
Providing Practical Solutions
Helen believes there is no ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ solution. For each client, Helen customises solution for her clients based on their unique set of circumstances.
For homebuyers, Helen studies the needs of the family, such as the family size, the location of the schools, the place of work and the accessibility to amenities. Take her most recent home buyer as an example, there are 2 wheelchair bound individuals in the family. Helen found them a property just door step to an LRT station, covered walkway to the mall and a open rooftop garden on the same level as their home. This rooftop garden is a god-sent in the light of the recent lockdowns during the pandemic. The cherry on top of this property purchase is, the buyer did not have to touch his savings to fund the monthly instalments.
For her most recent commercial property investors, Helen managed to pool resources through her network of real estate agents and found several under-valued shophouses within a short span of 3 months. This was done with urgency and careful planning to ensure that the particular investor was able to obtain full loan for each of the investment property. This is particularly useful in the light of the recent tightening of the Total-Debt-Servicing-Ratio (TDSR) by the authorities.
In recent years, she has been active in helping her residential clients acquire purchases in new launch developments like Avenue South Residence, Marina One Residence, Nouvel 18 Normanton Park, Nyon, Amber Park, One Pearl Hill, Landmark and Treasures at Tampines. While on the commercial property scene, she has helped businesses and investors purchase choice shophouses and prestigious overseas real estate like Menara Bangkok Bank in Malaysia and Ritz Carlton Residence K.L. Some of her premium corporate clients includes Ascendas REITs, CapitaLand, Mapletree REITs and Far East Organisation.
Awards & Achievements
Over the years, Helen has shown consistent effort and results in her individual sales performance. She has earned numerous achievement awards from PropNex. Besides individual performance, she has also been presented with the Top Division Director award and Top Manager Award, cementing her leadership and management capabilities.
With her clients’ and team members’ best interest at heart, Helen continues to pursue the best for them.
The Delicated and Committed Leader
Besides managing her clients’ property portfolio, Helen leads a team of agent, collectively known as the Helen Tay Division. The team consists of full and part-time realtors who have achieved their individual breakthroughs through Helen’s guidance and training.
The teammates thrive on one-on-one sessions with Helen. Engaging in honest and open communication, she identifies the realtor’s mental block and weaknesses, thereafter, addressing these in a direct and surgical manner. Through setting clear goals and expectation, Helen encourages both personal and professional growth in each teammate. She believes that no one can be a public success if he is a private failure. Personal growth is an essential building block for a successful career and a thriving team.
Helen Tan Division has achieved more than 60 achievements and performance awards, completed about 900 transactions and earned more than $20 million in commissions. This is an amazing feat by any measure and they continue to pursue greater heights.
For new project sales launches, Helen has been appointed the Project-In-Charge, who oversees the performance and training of the PropNex realtors marketing the specific project. Recently, she managed the Nyon sales launch, where she achieved one of the top sales. The key to her success is to provide in-depth training to the Core Team and Taggers of the project. Part of the training involves onsite study, where agents are introduced to the key unique selling points of the project and the best angles to market the property.
Given that part of her specialty is Commercial and Industrial properties, Helen spearheads the PropNex Commercial and Industrial team together with one other leader. She also hosts live talks and commercial property workshops online and open to the public. Besides general Commercial and Industrial trainings, Helen covers 2 niche, often overlooked but important areas - Shophouses and Legal Documentation.
Training is one of Helen’s passion, as she believes that by imparting knowledge and skills and sharing experiences, every individual improves and sequentially enable them to move forward as a whole. Training is also an arena where you identify your blind spots, where one’s weakness is complemented with another’s strength thereby propelling the industry to a whole new level.
“The synergy of many individuals coming together for a common good can never be overestimated.”
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
"Miracles we do everyday, the impossible just takes a little longer"
Going Digital
As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted economies globally and businesses across the board, Helen adapted quickly to the dynamic situation by going digital. The pandemic was the chrysalis for change.
Social medias and digital platforms provided for a new way to stay connected with one another efficiently and safely. Helen took the initiatives to provide advice and guidance by using Facebook live and Zoom meeting rooms as the primary channels to connect with both the clients and her teammates. Soon they caught on with this new normal swiftly and everyone benefitted. The beauty of digital platform is that sharing and training sessions conducted over Zoom may be recorded for future reference and reviews for training purposes as well.
A Leader who Treasures her Team
From the onset of her team formation, Helen has ensured that every team member receives her undivided attention and focus. Other than improving sales and individual growth, Helen believes that connecting with her teammates is critical in leadership development.
Sure enough, within Helen Tay Division are several emerging team leaders and managers in their own rights. These include Steven Lin & Associates, Jason Wong & Associates as well as Goh Rennie & Associates. Steven Lin is also instrumental in the development of the calculators in the signature “PA App” owned by PropNex whilst Goh Rennie is one key facilitator in the trademark “Sales Boot Camp” run by Power Negotiators.
Exploring the World
Inspired by her father since her childhood days, Helen grew up to be an avid traveller, especially off the beaten track destinations. Some of the exotic locations she has travelled to include Namibia, Poland and Russia. The highlight of her travels was a backpack trip across 15 countries in Europe and Scandinavia, where she encountered many different people and divergent cultures first hand.
With the current COIVD-19 situation restricting her annual travel plans, she has pivoted to being a domestic tourist, where she explores our various amenities and attractions.
“Faith does not makes things easy, it makes them possible!”
