#SAVILLIAN: A day in the life: A day of Residential Sale Consultant

As a real estate consultant, no two days are ever the same. A typical schedule can change at any given minute depending on clients’ availabilities. 

On a typical day, I wake up between 6:30 AM – 7:00 AM. I start by checking my e-mails/phone messages over a cup of coffee. I work in the International Residential Sales team and most of my clients are foreigners residing overseas thus a lot of our communication is via e-mail or mobile apps (WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber).

This allows me to sort through the important ones and prioritize which tasks to attend to immediately before getting to the office. In addition, when time permits, I like to dive into reading articles online about Vietnam in general and its property market. Some websites such as reic.vn provides updates on developments, and this is a great way to keep my clients updated. 

Savills Ho Chi Minh City - Lobby

 By 8:15 AM – 8:30 AM , I am in the office, replying to those important e-mails and messages that I had sort out earlier. I like to spend a good hour or two in the morning to tend to my important messages before the day gets too busy. A quick response time is key to ensure success in this business and my clients are always my first order of business when I arrive at the office. 

 By 9:30 AM , I am ready to either get on the phone or start the site visits that are scheduled for that day. For phone calls, I pull out my excel list of prospect clients and start dialing those that I have highlighted for the day. My phone call is typically to provide a general insight on Vietnam, better understand the clients’ requirements and provide further insight on suitable developments.

On the days that I have site visits scheduled, I will usually spend between 2-4 hours with the clients to visit a number of properties. In addition, during site visits, I always advise my clients to open a local bank account even if they haven’t decided to purchase yet. Foreign clients purchasing in Vietnam are always advised to have a local bank account. In any given day, I will not schedule more than 3 client meetings to ensure I give myself enough time with each case to work efficiently.

In a given week, the number of actual physical meetings in Vietnam vary significantly depending on the months. April – October tend to be the busier periods and I can expect more foreigner clients to fly to Vietnam to visit properties.

On quieter days where I have less luck over the phone and no scheduled visits, I like to go through my database and sort in order of hot to less hot leads. This gets me motivated again and allows me to always ensure that I follow up regularly with each and everyone person on my list.

Shelley Nguyen - Senior Sale Manager, International Residential

I’ll have a lunch break, typically 1 hour starting around 12 PM. Even during lunch break, my mind is never shut off as a new lead can come at any moment. As a sales consultant, I always expect the unexpected. It could be in a coffee shop that I meet a prospect so I make sure to keep an open mind.

My phone is constantly by my side as I want to be readily available to connect with my clients if needed. The property market is so fast-paced in Vietnam, with many competitors. Opportunities for unit availabilities or new projects can come and go rather quickly so I always like to be as prepared as possible, which means that my phone never leaves my side, especially between the regular work hours of 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM. Working in property, it has become such a natural part of me to think and breath property all day long, even while eating. I find myself getting excited now at the thought of a new development, and my brain is always scanning for opportunities to match with my clients’ requirements.

In the afternoon, our team will usually gather for meetings within the team to revise strategy, update the team on our sales, seek advice from our teammates for harder cases, and discuss upcoming projects and events.

By late afternoon, I am usually wrapping up the day mostly with follow up e-mails for phone calls or site visits that happened during the day. Any paper work that needs to be done for deals closed or upcoming deals, I tend to work on once the day is about to come to an end. 

For any clients that I couldn’t reach in the morning, I like to call them at the end of the day around 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM when their days are less busy. This is also an advantage for me as the office becomes much quieter. My day at the office usually ends around 6:30 PM.

As a real estate consultant, I am most satisfied when I have made my clients happy.