Ravi Chandran
ERA Singapore invests additional $4 million renewal packages to help 7,300 real estate salespersons beat Covid-19 woes
- Over S$18.3 million has been disbursed so far to help ERA real estate salespersons tide through challenging times in the form of commission and management fee advances, loyalty growth dividends, skills development training and subsidies of business costs.
- Ground-breaking Commission Advancement initiative, through partnership with LytePay and Rapyd, allows real estate salespersons (RES) to withdraw instant yet-to-be-paid commission via any ATM in the world that accepts Mastercard.
On 20 August, ERA Singapore said that it will continue to help 7,300 of its teammates by investing another S$4 million to support their business costs for the coming year. Together with the S$18.3 million disbursed previously, ERA’s S$22.3 million stimulus is intended to fully support its network of property agents while strengthening its organisation in this unprecedented time.
Announced during its virtual ERA Q3’20 Career Advancement Day, the S$4 million additional cash relief is targeted at a long-term sustainable business plan, helping its salespersons to tide through this tough period. This extended support accentuates ERA’s corporate culture of love and its focus on human capital — one that is heavily vested on recruitment and retention.
The newly announced S$4 million renewal packages will benefit 7,300 teammates and be divested in the following areas:
- S$2.1 million in 2021’s Renewal Registration & Application Fees
- S$1.3 million in 2020 Conference Fees
- Approximately S$600,000 in 2020 Professional Competency CPD Courses
Previously, ERA has invested:
- S$10.7 million in Commission Advance Scheme
- S$1.8 million in Loyalty Growth Dividends
- S$2.8 million in skills development annually
- S$2 million worth of ERA points
- S$1 million in community building initiatives
Business Wallet to Withdraw Cash from Mastercard global network of ATM
ERA also unveiled a game-changing initiative which allows RES to advance yet-to-be-paid commissions instantly from any ATM in the world that accepts Mastercard. This is especially important during the current climate in case they need funds for emergency situations. Usually, RES have to wait three to six months after a deal’s closure to receive their commission pay-out due to the transaction closing time or batched processing by property developers.
This first-ever business wallet, exclusively for ERA real estate salespersons for now, is made possible through the partnership with LytePay, a Singapore-based financial solutions provider, and Rapyd, a global Fintech-as-a-Service company. This function will enable each RES to better plan their finances and assist them in alleviating any financial burdens that is incurred during this time.
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“We’re always looking to help our teammates navigate the fast-changing Covid-19 landscape. Improving their cash flow will go a long way in alleviating the ongoing burden of running their own business. Real estate salespersons usually re-invest up to 25% of their income back on business expenses, such as marketing or promotional costs. We hope to empower our teammates to create more sales, capture opportunities faster and serve their clients better,” said Mr Jack Chua, Chief Executive Officer of ERA Singapore.
“By using artificial intelligence, data science and fintech, we want to help all property agents make more money and live better lives. We’re grateful for the opportunity to innovate with ERA these past two years to make this a reality,” said Dennis Goh, Co-founder of LytePay.
Latest Proptech Tools to Stay Ahead of Crisis
Standing at the forefront of technology advancement, ERA continues to seek conception of new tools and renewal of existing tools to empower its salespersons. Their latest update includes:
– New Launch Collection via iERA mobile application
The digital new launch collection feature aims to help ERA salesperson to offer customised professional advices to clients instantly based on their preferences and conditions. With this new feature, salesperson will be able to present a summary page of the recommended projects via an auto-generated custom domain link based on the clients’ housing requirements and selection criteria. The summary provides a dearth of information which include lowest price & psf unit available with floor plan, highest possible floor unit, largest possible size unit, promotion units from developers (starbuy) and recommended good deal units (spotlight).
Dynamic Dialogue: Defying Limitations – Covid-19 Stories
During the ERA Q3’20 Career Advancement Day, Dynamic Dialogues were held concurrently in three main languages — English, Chinese, and Malay — with a focus on “Defying Limitations – Covid-19 Stories” where top-achieving panellists shared their success journey in overcoming hurdles and finding success in the past three months despite the uncertain climate the world is in now.
Over 400 ERA teammates have showed great resilience in the past quarter and have clocked in notable achievements made from April to June 2020. These include:
– Division Director Appointments & Promotions
– Top Leader Awards Presentation
– Top 350 Awards Presentation
– Top Project Division Director Appointments
– Top Project Category Awards Presentation
– Top 10 Divisions in Project Sales
– Top Category Awards Presentation
“We have focused heavily on technology adaptations and innovations this year to ensure our teammates stay ahead of the competition in these uncertain times. At ERA, it is straightforward: Together as OneERA, we can achieve greater things,” Chua added.
Mr Paul Ho, chief mortgage officer at iCompareLoan, said, “it is good that ERA Singapore has set aside this huge assistance package for its real estate salespersons. But property agents cannot remain stagnant and not upskill themselves. They must learn to make use of proptech to be an all rounder, for that is what the post Covid-19 customer expects.”
“One very important tool real estate salespersons should not ignore is the iCompareLoan.com’s Home Loan Report,” added Mr Ho.
Agents can make use of this user-friendly technology to augment their services. The Home Loan Report tool is a Singapore’s first one-of-a-kind analysis platform that provides latest updates of detailed loan packages and helps property agents, financial advisors and mortgage brokers to analyse home loan packages for their clients and give unbiased home loan / commercial loan analysis for their property buyers and home owners.
