Tuesday, June 21, 2011
LOCAL brokers should be equipped with the right marketing skills to effectively sell condominiums in Cebu, a real estate marketing consultant said.
Salesman’s Centre head Jun Garing said there is a need for Cebu to raise the bar in promoting real estate properties, primarily condominiums, in order to avoid common pitfalls experienced by other areas like Metro Manila.
In a recent press conference, Garing told reporters that effective marketing strategies should be applied by brokers in order for the industry to avoid huge inventories of condominiums.
“Cebu, which is now one of the hottest destinations for condominium developers in the Philippines, will provide thousands of condominium units in the next couple of years, thus brokers should know the ethical and effective approaches in selling this kind of properties,” Garing said.
Salesman’s Centre-The Institute of Sales Training and Entrepreneurial Development will be holding its first real estate forum in Cebu on June 24 at the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Experts in Philippine real estate marketing will convene to talk about strategies on how to effectively sell properties to both local and foreign clients.
The whole-day event dubbed “Exsell 2011: Best Practices in Condominium Selling” is expected to draw over 300 licensed brokers.
Among the speakers are Enrique Soriano III from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business and a former chairman of the Empire East Suntrust Developers, a subsidiary of Megaworld Corp.; Efren Tan, vice-president for sales of SM Residences; Raymond Domingo, vice-president for sales and marketing of Century Properties; Alejandro Mañalac, vice-president for sales for Eton Properties; and Flor Ofrecio, sales head of DMCI Homes.
“It’s not enough that you know the selling of condominiums. It is important that a
broker should have knowledge about the project, and the culture of the buyers he or she is dealing with,” said Garing, who is also the head of marketing and sales group of Filinvest South Road Properties (SRP) Group.
He said there is a need for Cebu real estate practitioners to continually learn the best and effective practices, otherwise a glut of condo properties will be expected.
Garing said that in the last two to three years, Cebu sold 3,000 condominiums but recorded a condominium inventory valued at P100 billion.
He said it is time to educate brokers “especially that Cebu is now experiencing the lucrative condominium selling that happened in Manila in 1992-1998.”
Among the topics to be discussed in the forum is how to effectively sell condominium properties to foreign clients.
Garing said brokers should be guided properly when transacting business with foreign clients as they might raise offensive questions. “We have to understand that we come from different cultures. We might throw questions offensive to them without our knowledge,” he said.
Second home destination
In terms of training and education, Garing said there is still a need for Cebu real estate practitioners to learn from the experts to maximize the potential of Cebu as an emerging second home destination in the world.
The forum, which is open to the public, is also a venue for career opportunities for college graduates who want to get into the real estate business, Garing said.
He said the forum also hopes to eliminate sales persons who are not licensed brokers and encourage them to be registered and licensed.
He said the attendance of the seminar is equivalent to eight hours of Continuing Professional Education by the Philippine Regulatory Commission, which will be issued by the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines-Cebu.
For FREE Real Estate Consultancy, Call 032.3181589 / 0917.3236123, Samuel Lao of Realty Options.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 22, 2011.
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