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How does your usual day look?
My daily alarm is always set for 5:45. I scroll through socials including LinkedIn and WeChat. For two weekdays a week I have personal training sessions at the gym (before COVID-19), and the other days I spend the morning prioritising tasks for the day. I am in the office by about 7:15am.
I would love to keep to a strict schedule in my day, but in this an extremely fast-paced industry, I’ve learnt to set up a general daily framework with non-negotiable tasks and adapt as the day proceeds. I like keeping to the am/pm model - I spend my mornings on the phone or at meetings for new business and buyer discussions while I am at my energy peak, I like to set inspections in the middle of the day and tasks such as reporting and negotiating works in the afternoon.
Once the day slows down, I turn on my Lo-Fi music channel of choice and ease into the evening finishing reports, submissions and feasibilities.
How did you start your career in commercial real estate?
I chose to pursue my bachelor degree in Property Economics (UTS) over Commerce, as I was wanting to specialise in a sector of the investment market. At the time I was a sales manager in retail and had just been exposed to the world of investments. Unfortunately, when I graduated in 2008 there weren’t any internship opportunities or graduate programs available due to the financial crisis. From there, I decided to take up my masters degree in Property Development Management and started work as a project marketing agent part time.
The residential market was experiencing its upswing moving past the early 2010s. Being a bilingual agent helped tremendously in my early project marketing career. With my early years in a rapidly growing market, I established myself as a team leader and managed to liaise with some very high-net-worth Asian investors who intrigued me in the world of development and commercial investment markets.
My involvement with commercial real estate all started one day when one of my team members at the project marketing agency took up an analyst position at CBRE. She gave me a call and asked me about my interest in shifting focus from project marketing into commercial agency, the team was looking for a bilingual agent. I was then introduced to Peter Vines. Some five years later, I am still working with Peter!
What do you enjoy most about being at Ray White Commercial? What makes Ray White Commercial different?
Having worked in major agencies with a focus on private clients, I’ve learned to understand how personal relationships are as important as a company’s corporate backbone. Ray White Commercial absolutely stands out when it comes to applying a personal touch to a corporate business - the business is well known to clients and buyers which helps with establishing new relationships and maintaining existing ones. I love being in an engaged environment with support from a local office to a corporate level providing us constant market-leading ideas as well as the necessary training to stay relevant in this ever-changing industry.
How do you work in with the Chinese network?
There are three aspects of the Chinese network I actively engage with; my existing network, the locally based active investors, developers and intermediaries as well as new entrants into the market.
Since the early 2000’s, Australia has become a hotspot for the Chinese market - we provide some of the most stable political framework, a unique Oceania region reachable by an overnight flight but most importantly - a quality of life that many from the Asian countries pursue. There are always people wanting to learn more about Australia and I love being there to provide them with the right knowledge and advice that I have acquired through experience.
Like absolutely everyone in the world, people are more comfortable discussing key investment and life decisions in their native language and this is where I come in to assist. I was born in Taiwan but grew up in Australia, so I have experienced both cultures and appreciate my Chinese heritage.
In my early agency years, I acted as a conduit linking Australian investment opportunities (retail, industrial, developments, etc.) to the Chinese market. I soon realised how time poor a lot of these individuals are - they are business owners across international waters, they have limited time to stay up to date with market changes here in Australia. My job is to provide them with the latest trends, changes, market intel as well insights.
I started it all by introducing local opportunities and prospects to Chinese and other Asian based buyers through translating marketing materials and running seminars in Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese). This soon led to active Chinese (locally based and offshore) investors bouncing ideas for investment off me and engaging me in acquisitions as well as divestments.
Now, I stay connected to these people, I stay relevant through constantly sharing my thoughts and market updates via WeChat posts and direct phone calls. I like to constantly stay in front of my network as well as key intermediaries such as accountants and lawyers, so they are able to keep their clients up to date with the market. Vice versa, I receive their intention to divest as well as updated requirements and mandates - where I then apply my skills as a commercial property specialist - I link these requirements to the correct opportunities.
What are your go-to property marketing methods that you present to your clients?
I love tailored marketing methods to suit the opportunities. Ideally I like to work with my team to work out the most suitable selling method. Once we decide whether the asset is best auctioned or sold via an expressions of interest campaign, we then identify the most effective marketing mediums such as online advertising and WeChat engagement to maximise the property’s exposure. However, I genuinely believe the best marketing method is to directly engage with known active buyers in the market and directly present the opportunities to them.
Tell me about a unique success story?
I have had the opportunity to introduce some of the most unique assets to the locally based Asian markets across the commercial market. These include the Ryde Motor Registry, the Drummoyne Water Reservoir, the Breakfast Point display suit, the Australian Reptile Park as well as other major Western Sydney development sites and commercial assets. However, the one that truly stood out to me was the sale of 159 Rowe Street, Eastwood.
Having been engaged by a local family, Eastwood is a neighbourhood that I myself grew up in. The property was a little retail shop in the heart of the Town Centre that I myself walk past on a weekly basis.
We advised the owners of our recommended auction campaign and ran a four week process in which we received over 200 individual enquiries via traditional marketing methods as well as WeChat advertising.
The on-site auction that took place was one of the most exciting auctions I myself have ever been a part of - we had over 150 people in attendance, it was absolutely packed, with around 50 bidders in attendance. The auction kicked off at $3,477,000 and ended up selling for over double the initial bid at $7,250,000.
You can read the press release here and watch the video here.
What’s the one thing you know now, that you wish you knew when you first started out?
Be diligent with staying relevant. Be persistent with follow-ups. These are still things that I believe I can greatly improve on and are vital to the success of anyone in the commercial property industry.
What is your outlook for the Western Sydney market over the next 12 months?
I grew up in Western Sydney. I live and work in Western Sydney and don’t envisage this to change in the future, because I genuinely believe in the endless possibilities in Western Sydney.
With the billions of dollars committed by the government in infrastructure projects to improve living standards, connectivity, employment and education, the market is exponentially growing. I think the market will continue to mature and consolidate over the next 12 months whilst the economy stabilises past the COVID-19 pandemic. Western Sydney is the heart of population growth in not only Sydney, but Australia as a whole. This will continue to provide the backbone of a strong market when Australia reopens its doors.
CONTACT
Email: victor.sheu@raywhite.com
Phone: +61 412 301 582
WeChat Account: victorsheu
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